I don’t craft.

This is a statement I make often in my mama-circles.  See, I hang out with this insanely creative people:  people who herb garden and texturize walls and bake  whole-grain fresh-sprouted bread and have houses that have matching walls & furniture and sew teeny tiny doll dresses and make caterpillar blankets - and that’s just my own Mama.  I remember as a child loving Vacation Bible School but getting a knot in my stomach when the dreaded Craft Time approached.  True, we were only working with glue and popsicle sticks, but still:  oh the pressure of having the idealistic picture in my head and then looking at the realistic glob of soggy wood.

I can be crafty in my own way.  I’ve been known to make a mean mix tape (oh tapes, how I miss thee).  As a barista I had a nice system of helping folks discern what drink they *neeeeeeeded*.  And I worked on the yearbook and newspaper staff.  I was even the editor and designed a majority of layouts - pictures, words, titles, all sorts of good stuff.  One of the best parts about Yearbook was the camera - the Canon Rebel that I got to abscound with on the merest whim and the free film I could swipe and then drop off for “free” development at the Photo Company.

Alas, I have no more “free” development, so pictures stay on the Hubby’s harddrive.  And the closest I get to the Rebel is flipping through the Target ads, sighing, and then moving on to see the diaper deals of the week (score!).  We have a nice little digital camera, but again with the idealistic/realistic frustration.  I line up pictures that are gorgeous on the screen, but then the flash makes everything washed out, or if it doesn’t flash, then it’s all a big blur.  Or the best, when the button doesn’t depress or the focus won’t latch on, and then the great shot’s gone in a blink of an eye (or lack of click of the camera).

At least I’m not my mom who had to watch my father with his manual camera - no auto focus - lots of clicks and rotations and more adjustments, and then I was off in a flash.

The other day it was going to be hot.  Which meant that the boys would need to be in the house for the majority of the day.  Which meant that we’d all be climbing the walls.  So, first thing in the morning, I took them out in the backyard to work out some energy.  And you know what?  The lighting’s pretty decent out there that early!  So I finally have a few shots that the color seems bright, the lines are crisp, and the moment seems well captured.  And I have a little more desire that I might be able to craft on, unless someone has a boom box and some audio tapes they want to send my way. . .

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