The Fickle Hobbyist

Archive for the ‘introduction’ Category

Hi,

Let me introduce myself.  I am Tami, otherwise known as “Autumn’s Mom”.  During her childhood years, that was a name that I was pinned with, and I have to confess, it didn’t bother me a bit.  Being “Autumn’s Mom” is one of my greatest achievements to this day.  These days, however, I am known by another name, one equally endearing; “Joci and Abby’s Grandma”.  Or, on occasion, I am referred to as “MingMing” by the girls.  Jocelyn gave me that name while we were vacationing in Mexico, and it has sort of stuck.  It helps to differentiate between the grandmas.  There is Grandma Tex, Grandma JJ, Grandma Vivie, and Grandma MingMing.  But for all intents and purposes, I suppose I will be referred to as “Autumn’s Mom” in this blog.  (little does she know I made her author name GrandmaMingMing.  lol)

Autumn asked me to be a contributor to her blog, and at first, I was terrified, because I don’t consider myself a writer, nor do I consider myself much of a crafter or a hobbyist.  I was told, “Mom, just write about something that you are doing each week”.  So, I guess this will encourage me to look for something each week that I find the least bit interesting.  We’ll see how that goes.  It may just force me to try something new, so that I have something to blog about!!

I am excited to see what my daughter has in store for this blog.  She is always in the middle of trying something new, always has been, anything that she is able to create.  So join us for an adventure.  You might just find something worth trying yourself.

- Autumn’s Mom

My mom is an excellend cook and baker, so I have asked her to contribute a lot of the recipes she prepares.  She’s been eating mostly vegan for over 2 years and has a lot of recipe ideas that lean that way, but if you’re not into that, you can always use the recipes as a jumping off point and use the “real” ingredients where she uses substitutions.  If you aren’t vegan I would totally suggest trying some of the recipes just because I bet you’d like them!  (trust me, I know people are scared!  lol)  Many times people are very pleasantly surprised when they actually put these foods in their mouths.  Be adventurous!!

-Autumn

Let me introduce myself.  I am Autumn and I am 28.  I’m married with two kids and live in the Houston area, but I was born and raised in Washington state.  I grew up as an only child, which I think has a lot to do with my creativity.  Having had to rely frequently on my own ingenuity to entertain myself, I found myself immersed in crafts quite often.  I spent countless hours engrossed in projects that would take me days to finish.  In fact, I can still recall a 3D diorama I made at age 6 of an elephant family and their house.  (complete with furniture and everything)  I remember the feeling of satisfaction and pride when I finally finished it and showed it to my mom, who then proceeded to drag family and friends into my room to see it.  She was always so proud of my artistic pursuits.

I think the fact that she enjoyed my creative endeavors also helped to foster a love of all things handmade.  She always provided me with all the tools I needed to develop my creativity; like my favorite Christmas present at the age of 4.  I awoke on Christmas morning to find a wooden desk chock full of Hello Kitty stationary, pens, pencils, crayons, scissors, and probably everything sold in that section of the Sanrio store.  I still consider that gift my favorite gift given to me as a child.  It was the place I wrote my first book, which lies hidden away in my baby book with illustrations and phrases such as “I fod a snail” (I found a snail)  “Mom is woshing cloths” and “My frend Sean”.

For me, art, in all its forms, was instrumental in building my self esteem.  It may seem silly to some, but crafts helped me to hone my problem solving skills.  Say you’ve got a popcicle stick, a feather, a cotton puff, and some glue.  Some people would look at that and walk away not seeing the potential.  But for me, I could take that pile of garbage and make something out of it.  It proved to me, in a way, that no problem was unsolvable.  I’ve got an incurable case of “I can do that!”  With enough creativity I could use what I had at my disposal an make it work to accomplish whatever goal I had in mind, and that gave me confidence.   

Now that I am a mother of two, I encourage my girls to be creative any chance I can get.  Thankfully art and the love of it comes easily to most children.  Ask my girls at any time during the day “What do you want to do?” and inevitably they will say “CRAFTS!”  Sure, they can be messy (damn you, moon sand!) but I think what they take away from it is so valuable, that I am willing to deal with the mayhem (and frustrations) that accompany the activities.  If I can give my girls the confidence to know that they can tackle a problem head on and come out the other end having accomplished their goals, then I’ll consider my work done.

Sometimes I meet people who say “Oh, you’re so crafty!  I wish I had just an ounce of your creativity.” and I tell them “I bet you are too!  It’s so easy to do the things I do.”  And I guess it’s comments like that from people that led me to start this blog.  I’d love for more people to try new things.  If you think you’re not creative, push that thought out of your mind!!  Thinking like that is not allowed.  Get the tools, sit down, and just do it!  I swear, with most things, you can’t mess it up TOO badly, and if you do, so what?  Toss it out and try something else.  Is it really the end of the world?  Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I’d say!  So delve in head first and experiment with new interests.  I promise you, while I may look crafty on the outside, there have been plenty of times I’d tried things that didn’t work out the way I had hoped.  And you know what?  No biggie.  You just learn from it… and you don’t show those projects to other people. 

Will you join me and try something new?  I bet you’ll be surprised with yourself.

-Autumn

Hello Blogosphere!  Hang in there while I get things all set up.  I’ll be back in a few days with a bunch of new stuff.    See you then!

-Autumn