Yesterday I met up with Lia and Erin (the women behind fabulous crafty blog Yay!DIY) at Dylan Murphy’s for some beers and blog-talk, and we got to discussing the relevance of crafting in the urban sphere. There’s about a zillion “crafty” blogs out there, but the vast majority of them seem to be geared towards people with endless reserves of time, money…and space. If you don’t have a basement already packed to the rafters with everything you’d need for crafting, most projects can seem like too much of a hassle to take on.
Take this step stool that Kendrick’s dad made for him when he was a little boy. I would love to learn how to make these – what an amazing gift idea! – but how, exactly, would I go about doing this? When you live in an urban area, crafting presents logistical problems: you probably just don’t have the physical space to store the supplies you’d need to do anything particularly involved. I don’t have room to store buttons…let alone, you know, woodworking machinery. I think we have a saw lying around somewhere, but given my track record I’m not going anywhere near the thing.
For me, the kinds of DIY projects that make sense are relatively small-scale, not too time-intensive, and practical (I don’t need more tchotchkes cluttering up my already-cluttered apartment). Here’s an idea from Yay!DIY that I’d love to take for a test-run: DIY Floral Headbands (for less than $5!):
Everything you need – an inexpensive plastic headband, some silk ribbon, and a silk flower to match – can be purchased in a quick trip to Michael’s, and the entire thing takes only about ten minutes to assemble (go HERE for the step-by-step). Maybe not “practical,” exactly…but it sure is pretty.
