Are you sitting down?

Because this is the post wherein I document the fact that I actually did something "crafty". All by myself. To actually give away and be scrutinized by someone.

I used a needle and thread. I sewed. And measured. And snipped and glued and wrapped.

I know, I know. It is shocking. But I warned you all about this several months ago. :)

It was quite an adventurous project. Because while I enjoy cute things, I cannot create them myself. I buy cute things, I don't make them. I really don't feel like I have a crafty, artistic bone in my body. And I'm not just being down on myself or overly modest. I can admit that I do have talents.

I'm a pretty decent cook.

I can be a little bit musical.

I can shake my booty at Zumba. ;)

I have a freakishly good photographic memory and can call up random names and phone numbers and people's "favorites" on demand.

I'm a very fast reader, a good speller, and good at word games.

Those are my talents. Not sewing, decorating, crafting, designing.

Nevertheless, necessity forced my hand as Christmas drew near. Money was tight and there was going to be no buying. I had Eric's sister, Julie, in our "sibling gift drawing" for Christmas. For a while I was completely at a loss about what to do for her. But then one day in a brilliant flash of inspiration, the idea came into my head: make headbands and hair accessories. I vaguely remembered things I'd seen and read about crafty people upcycling old clothes and scrap fabric. And I knew Julie had really been wanting headbands and cute hair things. After an excited ransacking of our closets, several hours spent researching online "how to" tutorials, and a few more hours spent psyching myself up, I dived in. I spent the better part of a month working on it all and despite a few nasty hot blue gun burns and many pricked fingers, on Christmas Eve I had a nice box chock full of beautiful hair decorations to deliver.

I have to tell you the whole process was pretty thrilling - even for one who does not "craft", like me! Upcycling is insanely addicting. There is nothing like seeing something previously labeled as "old" or "ruined" or "unwanted" and then turning it into something new and cute. The majority of the hairpieces were made from old shirts, blankets, and scrap fabric! I'm telling you it was the coolest transformation process! It also got quite addicting keeping an eye out for things around the house that I could steal to use in my project. :) It was a nice feeling to clear out our closets a little. And it was all done for pennies on the dollar.

Here is my work area the day that I started. I had to take a picture because I could hardly believe it.

I have my years teaching colorguard to thank for the fact that I even owned fabric scissors and a fabric marker (and some scrap flag fabric to boot!). :)

I got a bunch of ugly headbands from the dollar store and wrapped them in cute ribbon I already had.

This was when I was about halfway done. I didn't get a picture of all of them that I ended up making, but you can get an idea.

Some close-ups - all headbands with the exception of the top right, which is a pin for a cardigan, etc.)

My craftiness also extended to some earrings that I made out of an old necklace we inherited from my great grandma after she passed away. We used it as a dress-up for Elena, but it broke. I didn't want to just throw it away, since the beads were so cute. And then one day I had the idea to make earrings for my the ladies in our family as a way to have a little piece of my great grandma to remember.

So, there you go. If you're still reading, it means you haven't passed out from the shock of it all. Good job. :)