Is it still crafting if they are necessary items?

I wondered this today.  Because for the last two days I've been hard at work at my sewing machine, making things.  But they are things that are for us to use when we travel.  Totally practical items.  So does it still count as crafting?  I've actually enjoyed myself.  Everything worked out the way it was supposed to, the very first time even.  It worked out so well that I added extra stuff on and made a couple extra just because I could.  If you read my previous crafting post, you know that crafting and I are not on the best of terms.  So since everything went really well I want to say that I was crafting, but I think deep down I feel like it is cheating to call it that.  So I'll tell y'all what I made and you can tell me if you think I can get away with it!

First off:  Shoe bags!  Don't scoff!  We have an awesome tote with a lid now that all our shoes will fit in.  This means that I don't have to worry about packing shoes in the suitcases with clean clothes and wondering how much room I need to leave and hoping that I get everyone's shoes in.  So I'm excited about having one bag that all our shoes fit in that I can just tell the girls to look in the shoe bag to find whatever shoe they're looking for instead of having them rummage through 4 suitcases.  The downside is that our nicer shoes get thrown in with the tennis shoes and flip flops.  Not the best idea, especially for Hubby's expensive shoes that we spend a lot of money on so he'll have something nice to wear with his suits that will last more than 3 months.

 My solution is the shoe bags I found on Pinterest.  Each bag will fit at least one pair of shoes, even though it doesn't look like it.  Trust me, I tried 3 different bags because they all look too small.  But they fit.  These were super easy to make because you just use Fat Quarters, no cutting involved.  I was smart this time and broke out my ironing board to iron down the edges I was sewing instead of pinning them.  Hmm, wish I had figured out that little trick a couple of years ago.  Sometimes teaching yourself something, like sewing, just doesn't pay off!

I made a total of 7, just because they were going so well.  I made a couple for my Mom and then one for the girls' shoes as well.  I'll discuss the decals in a sec.

The other items I've been working on are toothbrush and toothpaste holders for each of us to have for traveling.  I have to buy new toothbrush covers almost every time we travel because I just can't stand re-using the ones we had, even after they've been washed.  It was just too gross for me.  I saw these toothbrush carries a while ago on Pinterest as well, but with school going on I didn't have a chance to actually make them.  The last couple of times we've traveled I have rolled all our toothbrushes up in a washcloth, which helped with the gross factor a little bit, but since the girls were not willing to take the time to re-roll the brushes once they brushed their teeth it ended up being just a bunch of toothbrushes in a wet ziplock.  So gross! 

So I was super excited to make these.  And they turned out very well too, if I say so myself! 

So much cuter in the hand of a 3 yr old!

 I was so proud of myself I even went looking for some iron-on decals to put our initials on them.  Partly because I thought it would be fun, but mostly because I didn't want to have to ever hear the question, "Which ones mine?" from any of the girls.  Did they all get different colors?  Absolutely.  Would that help stop the question?  Nope!  Anyway, I about abandoned the idea when I saw that most of the decals were running between $5 and $10.  I would write their names in Sharpie before I spent that much.  But then I was in the clearance section and found these cute little pink camo decals for $1.  That is what I was looking for!  Too bad for Hubby that he doesn't get a decal, but I'm pretty sure he can figure out which one is his without asking.  As an added bonus, there were enough letters to put on the girls' shoe bag.  Major win at Hobby Lobby! 

So what do you think?  I think anything that includes sewing, ribbon, and iron-on decals ought to be considered crafting!  So look at me!  I can craft without crying!  Big step here people!  Big step!

I can be crafty!

***I apologize for the length of this post.  I thought I had moved on from the trauma this caused me, but once I started I realized I'm still scarred.  

I would not consider myself to be a crafty person.  I like the idea of crafting, just not the actual process.  I like getting everything organized and sorted out and lists made of what all I am going to need.  Because I'm a list person.  But I really dislike the clean-up.  Even if it is just me, having to get everything cleaned up when I'm tired and grouchy after doing the craft is a pain.  Not to mention the fact that I have never once had a craft go according the plan.  Ever. 

As for doing crafts with the girls, kill me now!  I wish I was the type of Mom who loved to do crafts with my children.  My girls certainly like doing them.  But I can not stand doing it with them.  Not only do they make a huge mess, regardless of what it is we are actually making, they very rarely do it correctly.  Imagine that, a child not being able to flawlessly execute a craft that I myself can not seem to make look right.  And even though my head knows this, my oh-so-carefully-kept-under-control control freak nature is driven absolutely nuts when my 8 year old does not evenly space the jewels she is gluing to the paper.  Now, before you think I'm a completely awful person, I have never taken a project away from my child to do it for them because theirs doesn't look right.  But I secretly want to. And it makes me twitch that I can't.  So you will rarely see me sitting down to craft. 

Despite all this, for some inexplicable reason, I decided that I would make a large majority of the Christmas gifts to give out to family this year.  I blame Pinterest and my friend B for guilting me into joining.  She knows who she is.  Most of them turned out OK.  None of them turned out as planned.  And I have already instructed Hubby to remind me of everything I went through to make all this stuff next year if I should happen to temporarily lose my sanity again.  Here are a few of the things I made.

Cinnamon applesauce ornaments.  They're kind of cute, they smell really good.  Baby Girl #3 was able to help me with them.  However, once done I wondered if they had any true functionality.  The thought was to have them for several years to help the house smell good.  I gave several away to different people and I still have quite a few.  If they still smell good next year it will have been worth it.

Multi-colored crayons.  Made for Baby Girl #4 and the two cousins that are close to her age.  You basically melt down several pieces of different crayons.  Turned out OK.  Uglier than I thought.  This is probably due to the fact that I was so desperate to not have to peel the paper off 100 crayons that I recruited Baby Girls #1 and #2 to do it for me.  They apparently decided that all the gray, black and brown ones should be done first.  They were probably conspiring against me because I won't do any crafts with them.

Cute, right?  WORST CRAFT EVER!!!!!!!  It seemed like the simplest craft.  Cut some cord and some old t-shirts up, braid them together and then glue a magnet on each end.  I was even going to have #1 and #2 help with this one.  Only to discover #2 doesn't know how to braid.  News to me!  #1 has known for a while and #3 just recently taught herself as well.  I just assumed #2 had taught herself as well.  That was not the case.  Also, the lady whose blog I read on how to do this simply stated, "Glue a magnet on the end with tacky glue".  Did she mention that tacky glue takes forever to dry?  Or that if you try to put it down after 30 minutes thinking it is dry enough that the magnet will fall off because it is not, in fact, dry at all?  Did she mention that the magnets themselves are a real pain to find in a craft store, or that the size of the magnet matters?  Did she mention that if you try to order magnets online because you can not find the right size in 5 different stores that they might not be strong enough to actually hold the ends of a bracelet together?  Or that if you try to switch to a hot glue gun because you have wasted hours of your life and only finished one stupid bracelet that it will not work if you already put tacky glue on the bracelet?  In case you have missed the sarcastic tone, no, she did not mention any of that.  I could go on with several more things that went wrong.  Suffice it to say, I made several of the bracelets for my girls and their friends.  I don't know if any of them can be worn.  And I don't really care at all.  If I never see those bracelets again I'll be fine with that.

This was my favorite.  It didn't turn out as planned either, but at this point I didn't care at all.  I made one for my Mom and made one for myself at the same time.  I really liked it and it's a little awkward to ask someone to make something for you. In case you're wondering, my Mom and I both have a tendency to snort when we start laughing really hard.  I love it when my Mom does it, it makes everyone else laugh even harder.  It's not so cute when I do it, but I'm usually laughing too hard at that point to care what other people think about my laugh.

That's all the pictures I have.  I made some other things--sugar scrubs that turned out OK, rice bags that you can heat up, bath crayons for the little girls that are basically colored soap, some seek and find bags.  I don't know how much everyone will use what I made for them.  At this point I just hope they lie to me and tell me they use it all the time.  Until next December when they admit that it has just sat in their home not being used so that I can quell any desire to make anything for anyone.  EVER AGAIN!