Taking a Break From Craftiness: Store Bought is Good Enough!

IMG_8296It’s not that I’m not crafty. I am, or at least I like to think I am. Granted, not all of my projects turn out to be Pinterest-worthy (I’m looking at you, Sesame Street cake pops!) But I enjoy the process of making something, and sometimes, it actually turns out how I envision it.

But along comes the holiday season, when crafts are at their peak, any desire I have to pull out glitter or flour or glue completely disappears. It’s all just so overwhelming.

I remember one year I bought a bunch of Christmas-themed stamps, along with cards and glue dots and all of the various accouterments that accompany a great hand-crafted holiday missive. And many years later (this was of course pre-kids – a card without a photo now seems unthinkable!) those stamps and cards remain as clean and unused as the day they were purchased. Maybe I like buying craft supplies more than actually using them.

This year’s crafty casualty was the ornament wreath. Well, at first it was going to be a giant K festooned with multicolored glittery ornaments, lovingly hung from our front door. I bought all the ornaments (thank you, Target dollar spot) and then started hunting for the letter on which they would be glued. But I could only find small ones. I needed a big one.

cookiesBut I didn’t give up. I kept looking, and I kept striking out. Then I decided I would just find some kind of wreath shape instead, but I couldn’t find one of those either. And then I considered that my only option might be, I don’t know, cutting a K from cardboard? And my plans fell apart, and now those ornaments are on my tree instead. That’s alright, I like them there better anyway.

Of course, baking is always fun, right? A few years back I decided I was going to buckle down and bake three or four different things, fill decorative canisters with them, and give them to neighbors and teachers. And I did! But the homemade chocolate sandwich cookies that I spend hours on? Not as good as Oreos. That kind of took the wind out of my sails, frankly, and that was the last year I went on a baking spree.

And with the boys’ birthday being at the beginning of December, I really try to wait until after that to go into full-on Christmas mode. So my holiday season ends up being only three weeks long, which doesn’t help with the stress.

This year, I’ve started a new job and am now working from home. I have no excuse not to bake up a storm and decorate every surface of my house, right? Wrong. I am letting go and making a new holiday tradition for our house. Store bought everything!

Do you like crafting at the holidays?

Pam Kocke
My name is Pam, and I live in Algiers Point with my husband George and my identical triplets Linus, Oliver, and Miles. I work from home as a Happiness Engineer for Automattic. I enjoy reading and photography and sewing (and blogging!)

4 COMMENTS

  1. LOL. I have so many ‘bits’ and good intentions squirreled away for that elusive home-made _____! This Christmas, I compromised by shopping on Etsy – still homemade, just not by me 🙂

  2. I want to enjoy crafting. And sometimes I do. Other times, it causes so much unnecessary stress that I find myself wishing I would have just bought whatever it is I’m trying to make!

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