simply-crafting

Well today was the first day of school for the children.  Can you say Yay!    Now don’t get me wrong, I do love my children to death but man, I get nothing accomplished when their home.  They have been home for about 10 weeks and my crafting and other chores have kind of gone by the wayside.  Now with them both in school I can get back at it again.   But first I need to get my groove back.

Well today was a pretty good day.  I got started on a lot of the housework that I’ve been putting off and was able to get a lot of computer work done as well.  Now tonight I have plans to start cleaning and reorganizing my craft room.  With this done I will be able to sneak in there every once and a while and possibly get some crafting done.

So hopefully soon you will see some posts on different crafts I have accomplished with pictures as well.  Like I said, I really do love the children, but thank goodness for the school year.

I always feel bad when I sit back and think about my crafting endeavours for the past week. Because lately I haven’t been able to do very much crafting at all. I have so many projects on the go and not enough time to finish them all. But hopefully this is all going to change.

On Tuesday both kids will be headed back to school so that will leave me more time to get things done which includes crafting. I have really slacked off this summer and I can’t wait to get back into a routine again. So after the kids go back to school I’m going to set up a routine and follow it. Hopefully when I’m back on a regular schedule I will get everything done that needs to be done around here which will free up some time for all my crafting jobs.

One of my favorite places to shop for craft supplies would be at our local dollar store.  I usually go in there once a month and spend about $40 all on craft supplies.  With everything in there being a dollar I usually come out with quite a few supplies.  This is where I buy all my thread for quilting, all my yarn for knitting and a lot of my beading supplies as well.

I haven’t made my monthly trip to the dollar store in a couple of months.  The main reason for this is because with the children home I haven’t been doing a lot of crafting so I haven’t been running out of a lot of supplies.  But with the kids headed back to school next week, I can see my crafting hobby picking up which means that my monthly trip to the dollar store will be back on as well.

So this question is going out to all  you crafters out there.  Where do you purchase your supplies?  And do you make craft supply purchases on a regular basis?

Because I’ve had two little people underfoot all summer, not a whole lot of crafting has gotten done.  But this will soon change in about a week’s time.  In a week’s time my two youngest children will be headed back to school which will mean that I will have a lot more time to devote to my crafts and my crafting business.

I plan on making quite a few cross stitched pieces, some plastic canvas sets, more jewelry and I also plan to finish up a couple of quilts as well.  This way when the Christmas craft fairs start, I will have quite a lot of different types of crafts to sell at them.  Hopefully I am able to stick to my plans and get quite a bit accomplished before the beginning of December.  If not, then anything I make this fall will have to be put away for the Christmas season next year.

Wish me luck!

Many of you may not be aware of this, but the only other thing that I enjoy more than crafting would be camping.  At the first of the summer my husband and I purchased a 2008 camper trailer and have gone camping at every opportunity that we get.  This is one of the reasons why I haven’t been able to get very much crafting done this summer.  Between having the kids underfoot all summer and gone most weekends, I haven’t found my time to work on my crafting projects.

But this weekend that is going to change.  Last weekend when we were camping and taking a stroll around the campsite I seen several ladies sitting outside knitting.   I thought this was an amazing thing.  So I am planning on taking my knitting with me when we go camping this weekend.

Last February I started a knitted afghan for my daughter and I still haven’t completed it yet.  So I figured I could take my knitting with me and while the kids are playing I could get some knitting in.  If this works out this weekend, then I plan to do this every time we go camping.  I don’t think I could ever take my beadwork with me, but you never know.

Because I am such an avid crafter myself, one of my dreams in life is for my daughter to follow in my footsteps. I would love to show her how to create things and then sit back and watch as she finds her own unique way. Unfortunately, I don’t think that is going to happen. On Sunday she will be turning 10 and has shown no interest in the crafting field. The only craft that she likes to do is scrapbooking. I have tried to teach her other crafts, but she doesn’t seem to have the patience for it. Maybe when she gets a little older, I will try again.

My youngest son, who will soon be 8, has shown a lot of interest in crafting. He likes to knit, rug hook and work with beads. Yes, I know he’s a little boy, but he enjoys doing it. And he’s actually pretty good at it too. So maybe I did get my “little crafter”. Just not the one I expected.

When I was eight years old my aunt, who I was living with at the time decided it was high time she taught me how to knit. I’m pretty sure that’s when the crafting bug hit me. Since then, not only have I continued on with my knitting, but I now also do scrapbooking, plastic canvas, sewing, quilting, and making home made jewelry.

When I try to talk to other people about crafting, I normally get a very blank look. This is why I am wondering if crafting has become a lost art. There are not a lot of craft stores in our area and trying to find crafting magazines around here is like pulling teeth.

I would really like to teach my children how to do some of the crafts that I do. But I honestly have to wonder if it would be a huge waste of my time. So here’s my question to all you people. Is crafting becoming a lost art or am I just not meeting the people who do participate in this form of art?