Feeling Crafty

My mom is passionate about crafts. She has worked on crafts her entire life. She knits, crochets, paints, sews … she can basically do everything and if she doesn’t know how to do it, she will learn it and master it. (It’s true, mom!) She loves it, she lives for it and she’s really good at it.

She has participated in craft shows for years and has entered items in our local county fair for decades. She has won ribbons, awards and sold so many different crafts over the years, it’s amazing.

She’s had a little trouble getting back into crafts, (life, really), since dad died earlier this year. She’s had trouble finding motivation for doing anything since dad died. It’s brought her life, and countless others’ lives, to a screeching halt. What do you do when one moment you have someone so important to your life here one day and gone the next?

It paralyzes you.

I like crafts; I do not love crafts. I’m not into them as much as my mom, but I have fun with them. I love to cross stitch, scrapbook, (I made journals for years – I’m not doing them anymore, I got bored – they were so time consuming! I’m cheating now. I bought a ready-made journal for 2024 so I can jot things down, daily journal, etc), and paint-by-numbers. (Because I am not talented enough to paint free style – I need direction!).

And then, I discovered diamond painting.

I remember stumbling across a video on YouTube one day about diamond painting, (how did that even happen!? – It’s not like I typed in diamond painting in the search bar – or anything to do with painting, quite frankly), and my mouth dropped.

This was a thing?!

I had no idea. So. I do what I always do, I jumped down a rabbit hole and looked for diamond painting kits on Amazon. And OF COURSE, they had tons. And OF COURSE, I bought tons and started obsessively sticking beads to canvas. It’s the most mindless, brain-dead activity you can think of. No disrespect to diamond painters but let’s be real – you pick up a bead and you press it onto the corresponding pattern on the canvas. Badda-bing-badda-boom, instant “painting”.

I like to “work” on my “paintings”, (I’m sorry, but I can’t really bring myself to call it painting, it’s sticking beads to canvas), at the dining room table, after work, put my earbuds in and listen to podcasts while I stick beads to canvas. I’ve gotten quite a few completed, actually. I have a diamond painting portfolio half full of paintings now.

So, to help my mom out, to try and distract her from dad, and because I wanted to spend more time with her, I suggested our Saturday get togethers. We take turns going to each other’s houses every Saturday. We go to lunch first, come back, make some coffee and sit down with a treat and watch two episodes of Survivor, (I’m hooked! We’re on Season 5), and then we craft together.

She works on her NUMEROUS projects and I “paint.”

Mom had a craft show in October and one earlier this month and I helped her set up, tear down, and hung out with her during the shows. This last craft show, I got bit. By the craft bug. I think it would be fun to put some of my “paintings” in the shows and see what happens. I don’t really recall seeing any other booths with diamond paintings, (which – there may be a good reason for that, no one wants them, ha!), I’m building quite the inventory and … why not?

So, I went to Temu, (another recent obsession – have you TRIED Temu??) and bought a punch of Fall/Halloween/Christmas kits along with keychains, Christmas ornaments, and coasters, all diamond painting kits. I think it would be really fun to put a small Christmas tree up with nothing but with ugly Christmas sweater ornaments. And who knows, maybe I’ll try my hand at another type of craft this year, as long as it doesn’t try my patience and I can do a decent job of it.

We’re also trying to talk my sister into making some macramé items as well. She’s been getting into the craft, she’s really good at it and it seems to be making a comeback. Mom bought that really cute macramé Christmas tree you see at the top of this post at the December craft show.

It would be a really fun thing for all three of us girls to do together.

So, let me ask you this – do you like craft shows? Do you go to craft shows? What sorts of crafts do you look for at craft shows?

Do you do any crafts yourself? If so, what sorts of crafts do you do?

And finally – do you have any suggestions on a type of craft I should try next?