Thinking Craftily...or is that Craftily Thinking...

I suppose I always knew this, but I have recently been reminded, by certain unnamed family members,  that there are two kinds of people in the world, the Crafty and the Uncrafty.  I must confess that I fall into the former group.   I sew, I paint, I knit, I crochet, I...well, you get the idea.   I'm still working with crafts that I've been doing since I was a kid, and I'm not afraid to try new crafts that I've always wanted to do or only recently discovered.  Some crafts stay in my repertoire, others are cast aside after a while, usually because they are profoundly boring or just beyond my willingness to endure.  But for someone who's not innately crafty like Jess, who started this site, becoming crafty or even attempting something crafty can be quite intimidating.  The tools are often medieval in appearance, the materials are overwhelming in their variety, the options are endless, and the cost? ...That ball of yarn costs how much???   But still, there's this little spark inside you that says it's time to get over the fear, to ask yourself: How bad can it really be?  How untalented is too untalented?  Where can I hide my project when company comes?

The foregoing notwithstanding, I said I was crafty - I didn't say I was talented.  Skillful in crafts I've done for a lifetime, maybe.  Talented, no.  Probably the most important thing I have discovered  from a crafty lifetime is that it's just as much fun to make something...er...ugly, as it is to make something beautiful.    This is a hard concept to sell, as I discovered over the weekend.  My friend Amber and her family had come up from Tuscany for a visit, and as she and I walked through the streets of my ancient city, I was telling her about the difference between being project-oriented (more interested in the finished product), or process-oriented (more interested in the procedures and the actual "doing" part).  As I was extolling the virtues of the "doing" part, she looked at me with abject horror and said, "But I want to be proud of what I make!"

Of course it's nice to be proud of the project you've put time and money into and even those of us interested in the process like to have something we love at the end of our labors, but if your goal is to open an Etsy store with your first projects, I'm here to tell you that ain't happening.  All crafts have a learning curve.  Some have a steeper curve than others, but that shouldn't stop you from trying your hand at something just for the hell of it.

On these pages, we're going to embark on a journey of discovery.  Finding that perfect something that will satisfy the inner creative spirit that you may not even know exists.  Along the way, you may see pictures of my beautiful city and maybe learn a little Italian.  I may even introduce you to one or two of the Lost Girls of Italy.  Native English speakers from around the world who live in Italy and have their own special take on crafts.  A presto.... ("so long")

Crafting with Words

The first friend I made in the DC area, when I moved here a few months ago, is a very crafty person.  I am happy to say that my uncraftiness does not seem to impact my magnetism for people who have both talent and skill.  Perhaps I'm just drawn to women who remind me of my mother (who you will be hearing from on here quite soon), as they seem to be drawn to me.  One of the things both women have pointed out to me recently is that even if the things I knit are misshapen, my cookies are always hard as rocks and painting (house or canvas) is certainly not my thing, I am a crafter of words.  A beginner blogger I may be, but I have been writing almost as long as I have been reading (yes, that really is a picture of me to the left).

The trouble is this:  If you do not keep doing that craft you love to do, you are going to lose a little bit of the skill you've acquired.  It's like a muscle that atrophies due to lack of exercise.  I have not, in the past decade or so, ever once not felt like a writer, but I know there was a time when that talent was thriving and the words just poured on out.  How could I not want that back?

I feel I am better at editing my work now, but even with two weeks of constant posting under my belt (since I thought five sites at once was a great idea), I still feel like a have a long way to go.  Instead of despairing over things I've lost - becoming convinced they can never be recovered, I have kept writing in the hopes that my perseverance will pay off.  But it isn't the only thing I can do to move forward.

The first thing I plan to do is to fit myself into my own schedule.  For me, being a blogger entails quite a bit of research.  I have books on blogging, I read blogs on blogging, I have several blogs in my Google Reader that I try to keep up with, I have friends and readers who have input and requests (responding to and brainstorming with them is actually my favorite part of all of this) and when I'm not sitting at my computer, I'm out trying new things, learning new places and taking more photographs than I will ever know what to do with.  Because my camera isn't exactly high tech, I also spend a lot of time editing photos (cropping, lightening, deleting) and putting the site name on the photo itself before uploading it to an online album and only then can I finally figure out where I'm going to use it on which of the five sites.  When I take a break to eat or watch TV, I have magazines to read and those, then, give me more ideas for research and, of course, for things I need to add to one of my site's aStores.  Those of you who know me, know that I love to shop, so when I see something I can't have that I think is amazing, it goes into those stores in the hopes that you'll enjoy it, too.  Last, but not least, I have to write my posts.  Inserting links and pictures is actually the quickest part (not to mention it's a lot of fun).  The writing and editing portion is absolutely the hardest part for me right now.  And that is why I need to, as I said before, make time for myself.  Really, for my own sanity.  Or what is left of it.

So how does one do that, exactly?

With all the writing, researching and editing madness, you might think there is no way that brain downtime would involve more writing.  But more writing is exactly what I need - but I need it to be for a different purpose: (1) I need a way of learning from other writers, (2) I need a sort of lightweight workshop to work through the crap that every type of artist inevitably has to create in order to get to their true inspiration, and (3) I need to remind myself not only why I do what I do but all the wonderful things it does for me.


Learning from Others  

Whether it's a Craigslist posting for likeminded individuals or a group you find on MeetUp.org, getting together with other people who do what you do (especially if your art is not what you do for a living, or if you work from home) is very important both for perspective and because it gives you a break from yourself.  As a blogger, I spend a lot of time by myself, writing and reading things out loud.  I even laugh out loud at things I say/write because there's no one else here to do it.  Well, okay, it's really more about establishing a voice.  In any case, I may not get lonely, but I might go a little cuckoo if I don't get out of my own head once in a while.  I have wonderful people in my life to talk to about the LostGirls sites, but sometimes it's hard for me to talk about anything else.  So I went on MeetUp.org this week and I found a group of writers in my area.  Our weekly tasks are to submit our writing and help edit everyone else's.  Wish me luck, next Saturday will be my first meeting with them.



For the Lightweights  

It's not so much that the workshop I chose is for lightweights, it's just that I'm choosing to do it from a book, instead of actually going somewhere and participating with a large group of people.  My stepmother gave me The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron in 1999.  I have started (but never finished) this book more times than I can count and I may not finish it this time, either.  But every time I need exercises to do or just a reminder that I'm being melodramatic when I throw myself on the ground and say my writing is hopeless, I crack the spine on this book and come to my senses.  I have also found that every time I mention this book, there always seems to be someone around who is either familiar with it or, as I found during my first month with it back in '99, is actively using this book.  You may notice, as well, that it isn't The Writer's Way.  Although there are a ton of writing exercises, The Artist's Way is a book for anyone, even people who feel like they haven't an ounce of creativity in their souls.



Things I'm Grateful For  

When I pulled The Artist's Way off my bookshelf this morning, I noticed my old Gratitude journal out of the corner of my eye.  My very empty Gratitude journal, that is.  I'm fairly certain I bought it just for the cuteness (knowing the premise, you can really write out your gratitude in a Mead notebook from WalMart just as easily), but since I already have one, I decided to make it a point to write down something I'm grateful for every night, before I go to bed.  The Artist's Way will sit on top of my laptop (so I force myself to write before diving into my day) and the Gratitude journal will sit on the table next to my bed so that I can remind myself, how good my life really is and how happy I am to be living it, every night.  Who knows, maybe I'll even sleep better because of it.

Maybe none of these things will make my writing better, but I do believe that the combination of methods and my strong will to keep doing what I love will result in some kind of improvement.  Next challenge, crochet?

Do you have a method or technique that helps you keep doin' what you do?  Throw us a bone by leaving a comment on this post.

Pinterest – For Good or For Evil

My mother is more plugged in to social media than I am.

The first time my mom sent me an invitation to join Pinterest, I scoffed at the idea.  I told myself that the last thing I needed was another way to waste time online, which is why I was no longer paying much interest to my Facebook account.  But curiosity got the best of me about a month later and I dug around my inbox until I found the invite email.  My plan was to avoid the option of requesting an invite, as I don’t know a single person who has successfully joined that way, whereas an invite from a friend instantly gets you access. 

Unfortunately, my fears were all legitimate:  My first three weeks as a Pinterest user were spent repinning like a madwoman day and night.  I couldn’t pull myself away from it and I felt like I had to get to the end of the recommended pins page or I’d have to start all over again.  Luckily, I snapped out of my OCD moment long enough to reevaluate and took a really big step back. 

I promised myself that I would not use Pinterest for evil. 

I set some ground rules to keep the obsessive pinning at bay:

1. Check your pins.  I’m sure I haven’t been careful enough with this, but I’m trying to get in the habit of clicking the pin through to the website to make sure the link works.  I don’t want to be passing on something corrupted or spammy to anyone else.
2. Use ‘em or lose ‘em.  I try not to repin anything that I won’t either use later or really want to look at (pinboards acting as visual collections).  If it’s not going to be useful, that’s what the like button is for.
3. Monthly review ‘n remove.  I try to go through my pins at least once a month to remove any that aren’t working or I don’t care about anymore.  This will not hurt anyone else’s repins, don’t worry.
4. Monthly review ‘n choose.  I go through and find at least a few pins to apply to my life somehow.  The first time I did this kind of review, I made lemon honey (which I still use - I’ve already gone through three jars of it).  Most recently I used a pin on how to correctly prune basil, something I hadn't even thought to look up before. 
5. Beware the spam.  I recently searched for pins having to do with weight loss and ended up with a page full of pins that all had the same advertisement for a weight-loss program in the text field.  After months of pinning, I had to go back and make sure none of my old pins were spam because I hadn't thought to check.  

Using my pinning powers for good.

Since becoming a more responsible pinner, I rarely find myself sitting in front of the computer for long hours with nothing to show for it.  I know, I know, you were hoping I would say the obsessive pinning was a thing of the past, but let’s face it – Pinterest, even when being used for good, is probably going to suck up at least some of your time.   You'll have to decide if it's worth it to you.  It can be a really fun site and a fun way to share things you like with people you know (as well as complete strangers).  If nothing else, keep in mind that you can join, try it out and then run -screaming- away from it, if it's not going to be a healthy habit for you.


Make sure you read the Pinterest Terms of Service and Pin Etiquette, whether you've just decided to get your pin on or already pinning to your heart's content.

We, the Uncrafty

Not everyone has a natural talent for crafts or grew up around someone who had the time or patience to teach them.  There are also those of us who just weren’t interested when we were younger.  And, when we finally got interested, thought it was too late to learn.  In a world where it seems like everyone knows how to knit, I feel a little silly asking what the heck a “purl” is or how to tell the difference between Lamb’s wool, Merino and Shetland.  Learning a new craft/skill can be quite intimidating. 

I like to think of us as the Uncrafty of the world.  My brother, unfortunately, likes to refer to it as being “craftarded.”  Either way, there is nothing wrong with not being a master of all craftdom and it’s never too late to try something new.  Thanks to Pinterest, you can even try a few things on your own before deciding which craft you really want to learn.  After that, it’s just a question of finding a beginner’s class or a friend or family member willing to take you under their wing.  Although I’ve met some pretty snotty crafters, I’ve found that there are more people willing and excited to share what they’ve learned than not.  And there are some great sites that even tell you what not to craft (see embedded link for my favorite example).

Since this site is largely for beginners, we are going to start off with easy and inexpensive ways to make things.  Although many people think of crocheting, sewing, pottery and the like as standard crafts, for the purposes of this site, if nowhere else, cooking and baking (at least) will be included.

As one of the Uncrafty, I wanted to create a platform for discussion, as well as a place for people learning a new craft to get advice.  Fortunately, I was able to convince a few crafty ladies to provide content for the site and participate in discussions.  If you have questions or want to help us with the craft-madness that will undoubtedly ensue, please contact us at DCLostGirl@gmail.com.