Because Nothing's Perfect

Let me set things straight. I love crafts. I love the thought of making something beautiful and unique with your own two hands. I love interior design and DIY projects. Needless to say, I am hopelessly and dangerously obsessed with Pinterest.

And in my head, I am a fabulous crafter. But usually only in my head. Once I actually start to make something, I begin to doubt my fanciful abilities.

It's not that everything I make turns out absolutely horrible; my projects just never turn out quite...right. There always seems to be some sort of glitch in each and every one of my projects. A speed bump, if you will. Something that makes my creation look slightly different from the example on the computer screen or the vision in my head.

For example, last summer, I worked as a grade leader at a Vacation Bible School hosted by my church. When it's time for crafts, the grade leaders are supposed to help their kids make the craft, which is explained and modeled by the craft leaders. Simple, right? As only I can do, I instructed my table of kids to construct their coin purses in the way I thought we were supposed to do it. And of course, my kids' coin purses turned out to be completely unique. Figures.

Yet, I don't give up. I plug on. I try and try again.

So, here I share with you my crafting attempt at making a Mickey Mouse necklace.

My family just returned from a vacation to Walt Disney World, and we had been planning this vacation for months! As we prepared to leave, I ran across this craft idea on Pinterest.

Pinterest then took me to the blog, A Creative Princess, which provided a full-fledged tutorial. Surely, surely, I could do this.

So, with high hopes of making a darling necklace for Olivia to wear in Disney World, I headed to Michaels. I bought red leather cord, red jewelry wire, and some silver star beads. My dad already had the right size washers in his toolbox.

Me being me, I certainly couldn't follow the directions completely. Of course not. I had to "improvise." Although, I loved the look of the paper cutouts attached to the washers, I didn't have the tools to cut paper like that, and there was no way I was going to buy it, as I planned on this being a low-cost project. I decided I would paint the washers instead.

I gave all three washers two coats of black paint and later added white polka dots for a little something extra. I used tacky glue to attach the washers to each other, and once all of that was dry, I proceeded to wrap the jewelry wire around the washers.

Speed bump ahead!

I'm sure a truly crafty person would have seen this little issue looming in the distance, but not me! Not a chance.When I started to wrap the wire around the washer, the wire began to chip off the paint. I had a minor freak-out, but I pressed on, deciding I would fix it later.

After I finished wrapping the wire, I needed to touch-up the paint since I had scratched off a good portion of it in the process. Once my touch-ups had dried, the necklace almost looked as good as it had after my first paint job. Almost. If you look close enough, it's pretty easy to see my mistakes, but what's done is done.

I know just like me you're hoping that this is the end to my crafting trials, but alas, we still have to add the cord and the bead on. And this is when I realized that the cord I bought was too thick for the beads I bought. Naturally. So, at this point, I was getting frustrated, and I ditched the beads altogether. Let's just say I'm thankful I was making this for a 7-year-old and not for myself. Little Olivia is happy with just about anything. Bless her heart.

Here's the finished product.

Olivia modeling her necklace as we headed to Disney World

So, the moral of the story is, do what you love, even if you're not the greatest at it. And if you're challenged when it comes to executing crafts (like myself), just think of it as your own little element of pizazz. Well, at least that's what makes me feel better.

May 3-4

I was pretty busy yesterday, so I didn't get a chance to post yesterday's picture. But I definitely made sure to take it!

The subject for May 3 was "something I wore today." I chose to feature a piece of jewelry that I wore. I own three rings that are really special to me, and I'm almost always wearing one of them. Yesterday, I wore the ring that my Grandma Elsie gave me for my 13th birthday. There is one jewel mounted in the ring. It's cut in the shape of a heart, and apparently, it is my birthstone.

My birthstone is a rather funny thing. You see, my birthstone changes colors. I have various pieces of jewelry featuring my birthstone, but they're all different colors. Ice blue, turquoise, purplish-blue, just plain blue. I should really look into this. Does the stone just come in different colors or are some people seriously confused? I don't know.

Anyway, this ring is special to me because it was from my Grandma Elsie. She passed away when I was just 16, so everything I have that reminds me of her is especially precious to me. Grandma's present was sweet and elegant and sort of a coming-of-age present for me. I felt so important, so grown-up when I received that ring. I still wear it with pride, and every time I look at it, I think of Grandma.

I miss her. I wish she was here to see me today. I wish she was here to see that little girl all grown-up.

May 4: Fun!

I had a lot of fun today, so it was rather difficult trying to narrow it down to one picture. Probably the best thing I did was just take it easy. I finished up my semester yesterday, and it felt so good to do nothing. No responsibilities. Nowhere to be. Just time to relax.

My mom and I spent the morning perusing Michael's and Hobby Lobby, one of our favorite things to do together. We picked up some super cute decorations for my sister's after-grad party, and I found all of the supplies I need to make my Mother's Day present. I thought about putting a picture on here of the items I bought (as it was very fun to decide on which things to buy), but then I decided I better not if I want to keep it a surprise to my mom. You never know when she'll drop in on my blog! ;) Maybe I'll post pictures of the finished product.

In the afternoon, I spent my time planning and dreaming about our family's next Walt Disney World vacation. If you know me, you know how I love Disney. In fact, one of my friends once told me that if Walt Disney World was a man, I would marry him. To that I replied, "Of course!" If there was a man with that much creativity and attention to detail wrapped up inside of him, I would nab him for sure. ;)

When thinking about Disney World, I usually like to watch Disney tour DVDs, check out the Disney website, read the Disney Parks Blog, or watch those good, old classic Disney movies (which we still have on VHS, I might add). Today, I spent my time reading our numerous issues of the Disney magazine "Celebrations."

This magazine is phenomenal! If you are a fellow Disney-lover, do yourself a favor and get a subscription to this magazine. It is well-worth the price. The articles and photography are top-notch. It's a dream of mine to one day write an article for this magazine.

So, I read through our most current issue and two of the back issues that we have collected. It was so much fun! I learned some new things that I hadn't picked up on during my first reading. I read about the elaborate construction of Spaceship Earth at Epcot (affectionately known as "the Ball" to many fans), the detailed art of The Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom, and the ingenious development of Finding Nemo: The Musical, also found at Animal Kingdom, along with numerous other tidbits of valuable Disney knowledge. Definitely my idea of fun!

People may think I'm crazy for loving Disney so much at my age, but I say Disney is not just for kids, it's for the kids at heart.