As I sit here trying to write about my mom I am finding it very difficult because my mind keeps wondering back and forth between all of the wonderful things my mother has done and all the inspiration she has given me. She has crafted all of her life and has passed that crafting bug to me. She also raised four kids. I always knew I wanted to be a mom just like her, making Halloween costumes, cooking dinner, and helping out at the school. When I talk about the women in our family I call us by my mothers maiden name because we have a long heritage of women that are not only strong in crafting talent but also strong in character. Ever since I can remember my mother and grandmother have always thought of others before themselves. We have antiques, hand made items, and a set of values that have been handed down through generations.
As a little girl I remember my mother always having a casserole dish ready for anyone who needed it. If someone was sick or just had a baby she was in the kitchen preparing a dinner for them. She spent hours at her sewing machine to make sure I had a new dress for Easter Sunday and then got four kids ready for church on Easter Sunday. She was always taking care of things behind the scenes and sacrificing her own time to make sure that everyone else was having fun and had everything that they needed. I never heard her complain.
If there was something we couldn't find that we wanted or needed we made it ourselves. I think my mother has tried her hand at just about every craft you can think of. From flower arrangements to painting to sewing she she could do it all, and if she didn't know how to do something she taught herself. Two of her constant crafts were sewing and painting. She made all of my Easter dresses, and Halloween costumes. My favorite was the little dutch girl costume that my mother made using a skirt that she had made for herself when she was young. She made home decorations that included pillows, curtains, and table clothes. She also did tole painting, and painted countless wooden figures, signs, and ornaments that decorated our home.
The dining room table was where she worked while the rest of us watched TV or played outside. The table would be completely covered with fabric and patterns or wood signs and paint. My father helped cut out wooden pieces for her to paint and photographed all of the finished pieces. My favorite were the watermelons that he cut out of a fallen tree with a chain saw in the back yard (yeah my dad is pretty crafty too).
(The backdrop for the photos is a quilt that my mother made and the quilt that was used to cover the table at the craft show was made by her grandmother.)
She sold her painted items at the Christmas craft show at our school. At times the craft show was boring and I would run around the school trying to find something to do but mostly I would sit next to my mom and take in all of the other crafts. We were frequent craft show patrons but we went more to be inspired than to buy. When we moved away from our small town in Colorado there were no craft shows for her to take her things to so her tole painting faded away a bit. With four kids all having their own activities there was less time for crafting. But between working at my brothers school and diving us around, there was still time to be creative. Home decorating became the new trend and together we watched every home decorating and home makeover show on TV. We never missed an episode of Trading Spaces.
Now that us kids are all grown my mother has more time for herself and her crafting and she still uses it to provide for others and make them happy. The first thing she took up when my littlest brother went off to college was jewelry making. She made bookmarks for gifts and a necklace for my aunt. Then my aunt got her into making Santa figurines out of empty wine bottles and she started recycling all the empty bottles that she could find. Finally she started sewing again. At the request of my sister in law she made baby bibs that wouldn't soak through onto my nephews clothes and then a stylish custom laptop sleeve.
Now we are helping out each other in our crafting endeavors. My mother told me that there were websites dedicated to selling crafts and I investigated and decided to go with Etsy. After setting up my shop my father said "That's great. Now get your mom to do it." I told my mom how easy it was and how you don't have to know what you are doing and now she has her own fabulous Etsy shop, Sj Studio. She sells her recycled wine bottle Santas, baby bibs and changing pads, tote bags, and custom laptop sleeves.
Happy Mother's Day
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