I'm a Crafter....

It gives me a sense of accomplishment at the end of an otherwise uncontrolled day to make a small amount of progress on a craft project. I stitch because it's meditative, it keeps my hands busy while watching television, and most of all it personalizes my home. I tend to give away ninety percent of the things I make, but lately I'm making an effort to keep some of my handiwork. Even though I'm single and so far childless, I'd like to have something to pass along some day, and I'd like to feel like my house is a home.

Some examples of my work: here's a baby gift made for my friend's twins a couple years ago. I only photographed half of the set that I made.























This is how I decorated for the holidays last year, at my old apartment. I made the towel that's hung over the back of the chair, and a runner that was placed on my coffee table.This is the Thanksgiving runner that I just finished this week. I backed it with felt to cover the workmanship behind.













Here's the detail:













The biggest project I ever made was to turn the logo of our old family business into cross stitch. Luckily the logo is a monotone red. The hard part was the curviture of the soda bottle it's printed on. I took a digital photo of the bottle against a white cardboard, then printed it on specially sized graph paper, and went from that. Here's the finished product that I completed and framed in 2003:

What zen-like hobbies do you practice? Leave me a comment below!