Just the Beginning

I've decided to jump on the blog band wagon, but hopefully I have a reason for doing so! I often times search through Pinterest, loving all of the creative, crafty stuff that people have created for their homes. But the downfall is that even when you click on the pin to view the original post, the instructions (if there are any) are pretty vague. They seem to be written for people by people who have been crafting and sewing for years. I have plenty of friends who do not know how to sew (I usually gasp and ask why not), and they aren't able to create some of the beautiful items found online because they don't know how! Or maybe they have a basic understanding of a sewing machine, but the directions are aimed at medium to advanced sewers.

My crafting and sewing capabilities are nowhere near expert or advanced. Oftentimes my attempts at duplicating something beautiful end up pretty disastrous. And while I can't teach you how to sew (my projects require a basic knowledge of how to use a sewing machine) or what exact materials to use (I'll tell you what I use), I hope to help at least one person understand how I was able to get from start to finish and help her to create something beautiful!

I'm sure I'll be pretty sporadic at this to start with, but I already have some ideas in my head. Unfortunately some of the ideas I have are for projects I've already completed...I thankfully know lots of crafty women who may be able to help me out with explanations and ideas. My three most influential and inspirational people include:

1) My mom, JoAnn - She taught me how to sew and I am always in awe of her handiwork and clean projects. Her medium is most definitely cloth - she is a beast behind her sewing machine! And her knitting skills are fantastic, too!

2) My cousin and best friend, Laura - She always creates the cutest cards and projects, pushing me to be more creative and thoughtful in my use of my materials. Her craft room looks like a picture from a Hobby Lobby magazine - she has every pin, post, bracket, paper, card stock, sticker, cutter, ribbon, glitter, stamp...it's quite impressive!

3) My unborn daughter, "Makana" (which means "gift" in Hawaiian) - While we've been hanging out for 7 months so far, I have yet to meet her face-to-face and I'm incredibly excited to share her with my husband, Matt, and the world. She is most active at night starting about 9:00 or so, and Matt and I have decided that is her "daddy time." I spend the entire day feeling her kick and flutter around - which my husband kindly refers to as "bogarting the baby" - and I love watching Matty lay his hand over my belly, talk to our daughter, and smile with delight when she starts pushing against his hand. She always seems to kick the hardest at this time of night, too, so I know she knows it's time to play with her dad. Anyways, enough mushy stuff...Why is this unborn creature of the lagoon an inspiration? She's allowing me to create things that I would never have thought about or wished to create before I got pregnant. It's a whole different mindset, and I've been having a blast making and repurposing items for her nursery. This little girl is going to have the most decked out room in the house! She better like pink, that's all I'm saying!

So I leave you with that for now and hope to keep you coming back for more with different ideas and thoughts! (I'll keep thinking of some sort of nifty sign-off phrase...)

Sarah