So I was having a conversation with a lady not too long ago about how we were tired of all of the old, mismatched furniture in our houses and we were too poor to do anything about it. I say something along the lines of, “I would really love to just have an unlimited budget to redesign everything just the way I want it. “ (I mean who doesn’t want an unlimited budget?) She replies with, “Oh really? Not me! I would never dream of buying anything because I could do such a better job refurbishing the things I have and then all of my pieces would be perfectly unique!”
Whoa. Thems fightin’ words.
Me: “oh yeah, that would be really cool! I would love to look into refurbishing some of my tables so that they all match at least, and it would probably be really cheap, too!”
Friend: “Yeah but it is a lot of hard work and you aren’t the type of person to do those kinds of things. No offense, but you don’t really seem crafty like me, I mean I know what I am doing because I do these things all the time! Trust me, there is more to refinishing furniture than pinning pictures on Pinterest, you know?”
Ahem. Excuse me? And so……the war begins.
First off, I just want to point out that if the sentence begins with, “No Offense,” the statement is definitely meant to be offensive. Don’t flower it up by saying, “no offense.” Just own it.
Second…I AM TOO CRAFTY! and now I have to prove it. Besides my little crafty items that I sell on Etsy. HMMMPH! I will show you!
In fact, I was so perturbed by the conversation I decided it was time for drastic measures. To prove I was crafty. Because apparently, these days, to be a good mom/wife/woman/whatever you have to get crafty. Or just because you have to prove a point.
So, I pull out the big guns and drag every un-matching piece of furniture out to the back of the house and lay out my tarp and tools. One kitchen table, two dining table benches, one extra bench, one side table, one large coffee table, and one dresser. Ok, I might be over ambitious, but when I am proving a point I have to go all out. Really it is just a personality flaw I have.
Now, I have done plenty of painting, but adding in sanding and trimming and the whole process of dissembling and reassembling furniture is far outside my normal area of creative expertise- just as my friend had stated- but by golly, I got every dang piece completed! Now I might have carpel tunnel in my hands and tendonitis in my arms, my back might be killing me (#bigboobproblems, post coming soon), my chubby legs might be super stiff, and I might be covered in oil stain because I forgot my turpentine, but I proved my point, no matter how excessively.
And even better, she just went out and bought new furniture. Who is crafty now?! Ha! Of course, in all of this there are some lessons to be learned.
- if you want to take on a project, take a little at a time so you don’t feel like dying when you are finished.
- When proving a point, it doesn’t always need to be so drastic.
- Crafting is COMPETITIVE. It is just a bunch of people trying to outdo eachother. In this case…I definitely win (fist pump!)
- If you want to be crafty, YOU CAN BE CRAFTY. don’t listen to your snotty, crafty-wanna-be friends who tell you that you can’t. If you want to do it, then you pick a project, do your research, and get it done! You can do it!