Fun With Arts and Crafts!

I don't know why, but for some reason, I just have the urge to make things right now. I'm seduced by yarns and fabrics, needles and hooks. My mecca is Hobby Lobby.

It must be the Mormon in me. We're big about being crafty. Go to any Sunday meeting and you will see at least five women knitting while listening to the lesson. The Relief Society is a powerhouse, teeming with women who can do just about anything from making a wedding cake consisting only of jello, or fashioning an extravagant pageant outfit using only a needle, some thread, and toilet paper.

Eat it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without. That's our motto!

I'm not the most craftiest person in our church membership. I can only cross-stitch, scrapbook, crochet, make cream cheese mints, make toothbrush rugs, sew some simple patterns (my main thing is scrubs), photography, and make strawberry jam. Clearly, I am not in the upper echelons of R.S. crafters, but I'm happy with my meager talents.

Like I said, as of late, I'm been in a crafting sort of mood. I am just finishing up a baby blanket for Peanut. I would have liked to have had it done by the time she was born, but I am horrible procrastinator when it comes to crafts, which might be another reason why I was never entrusted with Homemaking/Enrichment meetings.

A friend of mine found out today that I know how to crochet. A talent about me he wasn't aware of, he mused. Would I mind making him a blanket? Oh sure...I have a pattern I can use that I can crank out a blanket in the matter of two weeks using a hook the size of a hotdog.

Me: What colors would you like?
Friend: I like KU...why not those colors?
Me: (I can't stand KU) Why not a nice patriotic colored blanket?
Friend: No...red, white and yellow will do nicely.
Me: How big do you want it?
Friend: Dunno...I like 'em big!
Me: (ignoring the obvious because I'm in craft mode!) Do you want a blanket you can use as a throw, or do you want something that will cover your bed?
Friend: I dunno. I guess something big enough to throw my woman down on and have my way with her.
Me: (inward groan) So a throw blanket it is!

I am constantly reminded how strange my friends are...

So, not only do I have to make a blanket out of, urp, KU colors, I will be reminded that this blanket will have X-rated purposes as I work on it. Oh well, I suppose it could be worse...but I don't know how. He could have asked me to fashion a blanket in the pattern of a penis...but I already said I don't know how to knit.

I also bought a ton of fabric on the clearance table to start on a toothbrush rug for my kitchen. Kant's Mom, who is the guru of crafts in my book, (In the echelons of R.S. Crafters...she's top tier...but I digress.) taught me how to make these neat little things when I was in Atlanta. I'm very excited about it. People make these and sell them of obscene amounts of money. I'm making mine for the cost of clearance table fabric.

How sad is it that I am excited about making a rug?!? I guess I have to have something to get excited about, the Royals certainly are not doing me any favors this season.