My Mom and I have kind of a bad habit. We tend to think we can make anything. Granted, Mom actually CAN make pretty much everything...I cannot. Most importantly, neither one of us has the time to make all the things we think we can and want to make. I have tried all kinds of crafty pursuits in my lifetime: knitting (thanks to Karly's Nanna), mosaics (yeah, that was too messy), hand painting glass (you can only have so many in your house), sewing (had issues with threading the machine), cross stitching (when I was in elementary school with a slight revival in college), needle point (I think I made some pink dice), beading (you can only have so much beaded jewelery and my loom broke)...the list could go on. I think the reason I have stuck with my current hobby of scrapbooking was because there is a relatively low entry cost and hardly any learning curve. Its not hard to glue a picture to some patterned paper. Its not like knitting where you leave it for a few months and you forget how to cast on or sewing where you just can't get those seams right the first few (hundred) times.

Anyhoo...I was reading about Natalie Chanin's new book Alabama Stitch and her new company Alabama Chanin in this month's Southern Living and thought I'd check out her blog (now included in links to the left). You may remember Natalie from Project Alabama - clothes made largely from recycled tee shirts and such that were sewed by hand in North Alabama. They were the toast of NYC for a while and still sold at Barneys and the like. The blog and website were so inspiring! Granted, we probably don't see eye to eye on all of our politics, as I'd bet she skews a little farther to the left than I do. I do actually have some tree hugging instincts within, but that is a whole nother blog post. I ran accross directions (on the website not the blog) for "reverse applique" that they use on alot of their tee shirts (which are sold at Burgdorfs and cost some crazy amount of money). I looked at the directions and thought, "I could TOTALLY do this". Because I have LOADS of free time between raising two kids, the Event, scrapping, keeping house, etc. etc. etc. I could just whip out a few of these reverse appliqued tee shirts, open me an etsy shop and make a million! Heck, I'd settle for making a cute one for myself and/or Campbell.

It does sound like something I could actually do. Unfortunately, another thing that is imperative for any craft I take up is that is has to be quick. I don't have alot of patience to 1. learn how to master something and 2. complete something. Hence, the love of scrapbooking which is easy to learn and quick to complete. Maybe I'll start with a baby tee.... I bet it would help if I went to the Alabama Chanin flagship store when it opens. I think its in Florence or something. Anyone up for a road trip???