Craft Day

My mom was born and raised in Texas. Marriage took her Back Home, where my siblings and I were born. And in a funny twist, BB and I ended up in Texas 7 years ago now. One thing this means for us is that our immediate family is very far away. The other thing it means? All of mom's family still live here, within about three hours of our home.

At Christmas, we were able to catch up with my aunts, uncles, and cousins at a family gathering. My sweet cousin M ended up inviting the girls and me back up for a craft day at her house. When I mentioned that I HEART Valentine's Day, it was decided that we'd try to make our visit coincide with that holiday.

Leaving The Destroyer Dimple Wimple back at the ranch ('cause it would've been torture to keep her from having her way in the craft room), the Big Five and I went road trippin' to the country, arriving after dark on a Friday night.

M was a super hostess, serving my small army and me tacos at 8pm, then a big breakfast the next morning! Her house is a whimsical blend of eclectic and antique styles. So fun!

Oh, and I've decided that a good name for me would be The Non-Crafter. I do not craft. I will give my kids piles of supplies to do so, and freedom to make messes, but I'm not crafty. However, given that we were making Valentine's crafts, and that M had such a wonderful, organized set up in her crafting room, and that she had such awesome, sparkly, lacy, heart-y supplies - I was on board!

Without further ado, photos of the fun....

There's M, getting the girls started on their crafts. There was no plan - just create and have fun was the order of the day!

EG, LC, and MK were just beginning to formulate their plans, having scoped out all the beautiful possibilities...

AH, yikes! The Militant Crafter?!

Watch the table...though we made efforts along the way to keep it tidy, it gradually deteriorated into a Valentine's bomb gone off in M's craft room!

M made this sweet, glitter encrusted heart. And look at that pretty lace! She gave us free rein with her fun supplies.

I'd call CA our Rapid Fire Crafter. This may or may not have been her train of thought: Peel it off stick it on. Cut it out glue it on. Where's some more supplies so I can glue glue glue. More glue is better. Large pools of glue are best. Stickers more stickers where are some more stickers 'cause I used up this page already...Eventually, we had to, ahem, redirect CA's creative efforts for fear that she might deplete the supplies appreciably.

LC was making a whole-page sized decoration, with layers of paper, lace, a glittery heart...

Yes, indeed!

I produced a total of two projects. This was the first, halfway finished.

EG spent a very long time creating a Valentine-y bedroom scene, with meticulously cut out furniture pieces and decorations...she has a great eye for perspective and scale.

MK and the (very) loaded glue gun. For her, hot glue was the way to go for all her adhesive needs...

I'm telling you, M has everything crafty. This is LC showing off one of her works after playing with M's paper punch. The girls punched. A lot. Punching must be super fun.

M is the eldest of three sisters. Above is her next-youngest sister, N, who worked with us most of the day. She calls herself a Reluctant Crafter. She kindly diverted my supply-consuming four year old by settling down on the floor with crayons and coloring books. So sweet.

Didn't I tell you the table was going to disintegrate into chaos? And we weren't done yet.

This was my second little project. It took me a really long time to finish it, and in the end, when it was time to go, I told the girls repeatedly, Don't start any new projects. We need to get ready to head out. But I kept working on my multil-layered random Valentine fun. In the end, everyone helped me find those finishing touches it needed, like the rhinestone bling on the flower cut outs and that fabulous cameo on the left side, both from M's stash of buttons and baubles.

Many thanks to my wonderful cousin. What a welcome and happy break from our everyday routine. We had such a fun escape. It was good mother-daughter time and a priceless chance for the girls to get to know M. I also loved that, because of all the family photos she has around the house, my girls got some little lessons in family history from M. I enjoyed some great conversation with both of my cousins as well.

I hate it that none of our group shots came out nicely. I'd have to do some major photo shopping and head-switching to produce a photo in which each of us looks like ourselves. Too bad!

But what a special memory we all made together. Thanks be to God.