My crafty coming-out

I can't draw.

I took piano lessons for 11 years and I still can't manage to play with two hands unless I make up the left-hand part myself.

And I'm pretty sure a career in bomb-diffusing is NOT in my future.

Hand-eye coordination? I don't have it. In spades.

So it makes no sense that I would be a crafter, because most crafty activities (knitting, crocheting, carving, jewelry-making, etc.) require some part of your brain to connect with your hands. And as my childhood piano teacher will tell you, that just ain't in the cards (sorry, Jan).

And yet, I have this:


An entire closetful of tried and mostly-succeeded-in but nearly-always-abandoned crafting efforts.

See that sewing machine in there? A gift from my lovely mother-in-law. Never been used. Don't know how to work it. There's a whole bagful of beading supplies, slightly used. 500 skeins of yarn, because I can't pass a yarn display without buying some, but I also can't manage to finish a project before I either get busy and don't have time to finish it or get distracted and just move on to something else.

Because I have the attention span of a gnat.

This vacation, I was determined to finish something.

I have two current projects. The first is a knitted blanket for my niece's new baby brother (although not my nephew). When my niece was born, I made her this blanket:

Which quickly became her must-have-or-won't-sleep-a-wink-GIMME-BLANKET blanket:

Her mama asked if I'd make one just like it, in blues, for her new baby boy. Here's what I have so far:

Considering it took me at least six months to make the first one, I think I'm doing pretty well so far. But there's no way I'm finishing it in the next week and a half because...I don't want to spend my entire vacation knitting.

I was, however, determined to finish project #2.

A few months, back, I spotted a lonely denim jacket on a clearance rack at the mall. Marked down to $5. Five dollars?! Is it made of asbestos? Why the disdain for this lovely specimen. Upon closer inspection, I saw the problem:

Rhinestone buttons. HUGE, gawdy, sparkly, no-need-for-lightbulbs-cuz-we-got-these-here rhinestones. In every place you'd put a button and in some places you just shouldn't. Perfect for boot-scootin'. Not so perfect for Ms. WP.

But: five dollars.

So I plunked down Mr. Lincoln and started scouring craft stores for appropriate substitutes. And you know what I discovered? Craft stores A) charge too much for buttons and B) have a really crappy selection. Plan B: I went to Goodwill, found an old jacket with some cute, wooden buttons, paid three dollars for it, cut off the buttons and, voila!

The new jacket didn't have quite enough buttons for the transplant, so I foraged in my own tiny button collection and added these to the pockets:

I think it came out super-cute!

And, more importantly, it's done. :)

How cute is this?

Since I'm feeling barfy (and, therefore, uninspired to blog) today, I'll instead direct you to the blog of one of my friends/cousins, 65 Roses for Marcia.

She made her own marshmallows this week, and I think that is really cool. I mean, how cute is this?

She even added crushed candy canes and dipped some in chocolate.

Once I can keep down something other than saltines and 7-Up, I'm totally going to try to make these.

Adventures in DIY

So I'm minorly obsessed with doing things myself. I just find it enormously satisfying if I can make or do something myself instead of paying someone or buying something to do it for me.

Oh, and I'm really cheap. Did I mention that?

A few weeks ago, my husband and I were talking about something he'd read re: all the harmful chemicals in toothpaste. This isn't exactly breaking news; it does say right on the tube to call Poison Control if you ingest more than a pea-sized amount (ever notice they squirt on, like, five times that amount in toothpaste commercials? Eek.).

But it made me start thinking: Surely someone's figured out a way to make something at home that will do the job just as well. Maybe it won't taste the same as Crest, or have those fun Aquafresh stripes, but at least work just as well? Yes?

So I hopped on Ye Olde Inter-web, and...wow. Not only are people doing this, a LOT of people are doing this. And there are gajillions of different "recipes" out there.

So, about a week ago, I tried it.

Per one of the recipes I found, I combined equal parts baking soda and hydrogen peroxide with a little water, and mixed it up into a paste. Easy.

Then the recipes said to mix in a flavoring of your choice. I scoured my cupboards and decided to try vanilla and peppermint extract (I wisely left the balsamic vinegar alone), and mixed up separate batches of each.

Then, I sample-brushed.

OK, vanilla? NOT good. The only way I can describe it is the evil, nasty cousin of a cookie. It was terrible. NOT recommended.

The mint? Not bad! It certainly wasn't as minty as, say, Colgate or Crest. And, somewhat disappointingly, there wasn't the fun toothpaste foam you typically get while you're brushing your teeth. But? My teeth felt REALLY clean. And making toothpaste like this vs. buying it at $3-4 a pop SPEAKS to the inner cheapie in me.

The only problems for my maiden voyage:

1. The hydrogen peroxide left sort of a chemical-y aftertaste.
2. Storage. I mixed up this batch in a tiny bowl, and it dried out overnight. If I was going to make it this way, I'd have to mix up a tiny single serving every time I brushed.

So, lessons learned:

1. I'm bagging the hydrogen peroxide next time and just going with baking soda and some sort of minty extract (peppermint worked great, and I'm thinking of trying wintergreen, too).
2. I bought a couple of tiny Gladware-type containers in which to store the next batch; they should keep the paste from drying up.
3. I'm definitely going to do this again! It's super cheap and better for me, too.

(I also make my own exfoliant, but I'll write about that some other time.)

As a tie-in, my friend and family member 65 Roses for Marcia recently had a GREAT post, talking about all kinds of great home cleaning products you can make yourself, including homemade laundry detergent (which I've always wanted, but have been too chicken, to try). If you're interested in this type of thing, check it out.

Any ideas for my next project? Anything you make at home that most people usually buy from a store? Please share. :)