Let’s Talk About Crafts, Baby.

I haven’t always been crafty and I am certainly not artistic. I went through a scary amount of failed crafts before I found one that I was actually good at. (I have a cupboard full of failed crafts, I call it where craft supplies go to die.) I just like having a hobby and I get so much satisfaction when I make something that I am proud of.

Growing up I wanted to be a fashion designer, I would buy sketchbooks every time I went to my local craft store and fill them up with horribly written poetry and future dream prom dresses (including one that I had Justin Timberlake as my date.) These sketches were pretty much triangles with a stick figure legs and heads. Which leads me to my second failed craft…sewing. I got a C- on my pillow project for my middle school’s Home Economics class, you would think that would lead me to the assumption that I am no good at it, but I tried again many years later when my fiance bought me a sewing machine for Christmas. I was so excited to use it! I looked up easy projects on pinterest, and decided on a beer sock, because that is totally practical, right? When I finally sat down to use it the needle broke and just about blinded me, so I was scarred for life and decided to give up on that as well. Fast forward a couple years and I decided that I wanted to give candle making a shot. Now this one, I was pretty “okay” at. I made these little soy candles in vintage tea cups and it was like it was straight off of pinterest! But then, I went to light said candles and a number of them literally exploded, so there goes another failed craft!

It should be noted that I don’t like to read tutorials, I tend to just get the materials, and go with it. I am a visual learner, and sometimes that works in my favor, but most times it does not. A couple months ago I was browsing the interwebs aimlessly and I came across this tutorial on making bangle bracelets out of wire. They looked so easy so I went and got the materials and after about an hour I gave up, and thought to myself, “maybe I can make rings out of this?” So I tore apart my apartment looking for a marker, or anything that I could use as a ring mandrel… I happened upon a potato masher which ended up making a perfect size 6 ring! I started making them like crazy, and gave them away to friends and family. And that my friends, is where Mary & Alice was born! Making these rings is seriously so fun, and haven’t been this happy in a long time!

(I have since upgraded to a real mandrel, I swear.)

Enough about me, are you crafty? What sort of crafts do you make, and what do you make?