Adjusting. Again.

Last year at this time we had just finished moving bedrooms around, and we were getting ready to paint the downstairs. This year, I have no lofty redecorating plans. I'd like to get the computer room painted, and perhaps make it a dual purpose room; craft room/computer room.

When we moved rooms around last year, I lost my downstairs craft room because our bedroom isn't big enough for dressers and a bed. My craft room got moved to upstairs, but it is not terribly easy or convenient for me. I'm taking my time deciding, though, because the room is really small. If I don't plan it just right, it won't work at all.

Speaking of crafts, even though I wasn't posting on my blog, that doesn't mean my creativity was languishing completely. A couple of friends and I started getting together (mostly) weekly to craft. No, we didn't make plastic spoon Christmas trees, but we did scour Pinterest for other ideas. I made a cute garland for the divider between my living room and dining room, a couple of ornament wreaths (one was a Festivus gift), a picture frame wreath, a snowman hat, a hurricane centerpiece, a Christmas valance for my kitchen window, and a garland for my kitchen window.

I had forgotten how much I enjoyed taking a collection of items and fashioning them into something original. Well, to be fair, original in the sense that I made it, but inspired by someone or something else.

I also bought and painted ornaments for my kids. Every year since my kids were born, I've bought them ornaments for Christmas. This way, when they are on their own, they will have a good start for their own trees. Some years, I only buy one, some years, multiples. I figure by the time my kids are really on their own, they should each have about 40 or 50 ornaments.

It's peculiar; our craft nights usually started around 7:00, and I found that if I was using a new technique, I had a really hard time making that craft. If it was a technique that I've done before, I could do it without a hitch. A good example was the ornament wreath. I basically glued plastic ornaments to a Styrofoam form. I finished it, but I didn't really like it. As fate would have it, the original fell to its death, so I ended up making a new one. I did it in the daytime, and my head was much clearer about my method. Compare that to the ease of making the picture frame wreath which was basically gluing floral sprays onto the wreath; something I'd done many times before.

It was even more obvious when we decided to make a St. Patrick's Day wreath. I'm not a fan of the deco mesh wreaths, or I wasn't. I liked this particular one, though. I took my wreath apart twice before finally just leaving it alone the third time. I finished it, but it's not exactly how I wanted it to look. My head and hands just couldn't seem to play nicely together. My head was telling my hands what to do, but my hands just did their own thing.

Still, I look ahead, and I'm looking forward to trying new things. We're starting to gather ideas for Easter decorations. I normally don't decorate for Easter, but I've got some ideas I want to try. Maybe I won't try new techniques at night, though.