Can We Talk 2

Fall Is For Crafting

         What is it about autumn that makes us think of crafts and homemade things? Craft fairs, magazines, store displays all tell us to be creative and make things for ourselves. I usually succumb to the allure of arts and crafts and home baking, too. At least the fake leaves and cattails and autumn plants don't irritate my hay fever.


         I've been to several stores for sundry craft supplies, including fall color flowers. I have never had a skill for flower arranging, but that never stopped me. Now I have some fall purple things (they look like fall, not spring or summer) in a new planter on the bookcase. I have leaf garlands around the fireplace and gall figurines on the mantle. It's too early for goblins or turkeys, so fake "natural" things will do.

         We had a large basket filled with cookbooks. The children and adults here have mishandled the overburdened basket so that the handle and edges are broken. I had hoped to twist the long pieces back together and glue them in place, but they can't be matched properly. So I pressed them together and wrapped with tape for thickness and strength. Then I took some wide olive green webbed ribbon and coiled it tightly around the patched up handle. It looks okay, but it's going to be used for some other purpose with less weight. I need more ribbon to hot glue over the edges. I hate to throw the basket away. It will be used in autumn only from now on.          

         I have some Christmas crafts to make with the kids. I need to get rid of craft tools and kits I know I won't use. Like candle making molds. Latch hook rugs (I tried, it hurts your hands too much). I spent the evening looking at new magazines at crafts I know I won't do, like giant spiders to put on the outside of the house, or weirdly carved pumpkins. I just want to drop everything and get out the sewing machine and the fabric scraps and make useless things.

         While I'm being creative, I have this urge to make pumpkin bread, zucchini bread, and cinnamon cookies, and soup. If it weren't so late at night, I'd go grab some apple cider and spice it up. Yes, fall is in the air.