Necessity is the Mother of Invention, Right?

So I've always liked "crafts."  I find them fun and entertaining.  But I never made time for them.  Perhaps if I ever would have found that one perfect-for-me craft or hobby, I would have focused more time and energy on it.  But I'm the type that gets bored doing the same thing all the time.  I find something new and fun and run with it--sometimes to faulty extremes--just to get bored and ready to move on to something else.  However, I do like to go back to it once I'm bored with the next few whims.  So I guess I'm more of a rotational-interest type of person.  But again, I just never took much time for any of these whims, anyway.

Then children happened.  A wonderful thing, but life-altering to say the least.  Especially when they end up allergic to everything.  Ok, not really everything, but close enough.  It started out with my oldest being allergic to soaps, detergents, dryer sheets, sunscreens, etc.  So I found the most awesome soap-making book (more on that in a future post) and started making my own.  It turned out fun and rewarding, not to mention giving me the most luxurious soap I'd ever tried!  So that's how that whim got started.  Here are a few of the soaps I've made:

Then, around the time baby number 5 came along--my third girl--I stumbled across the cutest hair clippies in the world, but at a not-so-cute price.  So I decided to make my own, which also led to woven headbands, etc.  So that's how that whim started.   Here is some of my girls' stash:

I've always enjoyed sewing, but I had never gotten much into sewing clothes.  I just did more sewing projects.  However, that baby number 5 I was just talking about had an anaphylactic reaction at 8 months old from being in the same room with two balloons (no, she never touched them).  Latex allergy turned my world upside-down.  How many little girl clothes have no elastic, no spandex, no latex-containing appliqués, etc?  Not many.  So now I'm sewing clothes and loving it.  So that's that whim.  Here are some skirts I made for the girls, using 100% cotton fabric and latex-free elastic.  That way, as my youngest grows into them, she'll be able to wear her older sisters' skirts, too!  (All of my crafts are always latex-free.)

So this blog isn't about sewing, or clippy-making, or soapmaking, or any other kind of making whim I happen upon.  It'll be about the crafting in general, I guess.  Because once you HAVE to do it, and especially once you enjoy doing it, you finally do make the time.