First of all, let’s dispel the notion that you should be creating something or learning a new skill during this extra time at home. I hope we all know by now that is nonsense. This isn’t a normal break in activity and many of us are busier than ever. This post is merely intended as a resource of craft ideas to do at home for people who find themselves with some time on their hands, or who need a creative outlet.
Paint with Timree
Wendy and I have been longtime fans of Timree Gold, a local artist with the cutest art studio around. Surely you’ve all see paint night locations popping up around the country – we’re here to tell you that they all pale in comparison to Timree. If you’ve followed us for even a minute, you’ve seen the products of our time in Timree’s studio. Her technique makes you feel like an artist, even if you don’t think of yourself as a person with artistic ability.
While we usually paint in studio with Timree, she has pivoted to offering online classes. You have the option to sign up to receive one, two, or three classes per week where you can paint via live stream, or watch the recording later. Classes are available for both adults and children, although I often think the kids classes are some of the most fun to paint! (Of course you can invite your kids to paint with you, too.)
If you want to test a class out before signing up, she has offered two free classes available to anyone! Choose either the lemonade or a thank you to our healthcare workers.
Learn to Crochet
My crafty past is littered with many failed attempts at learning to crochet. (I have also learned to knit at one point, but found that I didn’t enjoy it at all.) It was suggested to me that I should learn to granny square and I can just keep adding yarn and increasing the size of my project.
It took more than one video tutorial for me to get the hang of it. I had to switch from the tutorial for beginners to the one for ABSOLUTE beginners and that did the trick. Now I can just sit in front of the TV and crochet to my heart’s content. I’m currently out of the yarn I need for this project as I was just using what we had on hand and didn’t expect to need enough yarn for an entire blanket.
While I wait for the yarn to continue my blanket to arrive, I’m working on other smaller crochet projects with the scraps of yarn we have around the house. I think I might try to make a mini octopus next!
Embroidery and Cross Stitch Kits
Recently the lovely people at LoveCrafts reached out and offered to send me a kit to complete a project. Little did we all know that this sort of crafting would become exactly the escape and distraction I would need!
I received the Flower Garland kit which doesn’t appear to be available anymore, but you can see all of the kits they have available for beginners and this LOVE kit would be super cute.
Since my attention span is not at it’s best these days (hilariously my word of the year for 2020 was focus) I love that I can do this project in small increments and still feel like I’ve reached a point of completion when I get to the end of a thread. I’ve never embroidered anything before and I find this project totally manageable.
So! These are three things that are bringing us joy, giving us purpose and making life a little prettier these days. We share our progress of our projects on Instagram and would love to see what you’re working on!
