Do It Yourself

While possibly misconstrued as sass, this phrase resonates in me as something I desperately want to apply to my own life.  I'm a huge fan of up-cycling, refurbishing, making something awesome out of whatever's on hand, or building something you need yourself.  All I lack is the opportunity.

I read these blogs and see these websites about people who do amazing things with seemingly simple tools, and I think... I could do that!  There's just really no room or need in my life at the moment.  I can't tell you how much I want kids so I can create things (items of clothing, amigurumi, chalkboard-painted walls, toys, etc) for them and join in their fun.

I want to learn how to fix stuff in my home, how to wield power tools for the greater good.  I'd love to have a garden for herbs and veggies, as well as some fruit trees.  It would be incredible to go outside and gather my own eggs, honey, and milk.  And I can't gush enough about something I find incredible and am starting to work for-- a zero-waste home.

Something I adore about Perry is that he shares this dream with me- a sustainable lifestyle.  But right now, that's not really in the cards.  We're barely starting out.  He's still in school, and we live in the middle of Houston in a rented house.  A tiny rented house, with no room for any crafty ideas that might fling themselves at me.  I have to shove them into a folder for the future.  And while I could knit or crochet to my heart's content, this is HOUSTON for cripes' sake.  Hot and humid with little to no need for thick, warm scarves or hats or gloves or sweaters... You get the idea.

So I think I should find an outlet.  Make a hundred hats and donate them to cancer patients or the homeless shelter?  Stock up now on all the baby clothes I could ever want?  I'd love to make some money off of it, since yarn isn't free, but I'm a little afraid of trying something like that.  I'm worried there won't be a need, or that I wouldn't be able to keep up if there were.  Also, I would really like to be able to afford more quality yarns, which are pricier, but better for the environment (not to mention better quality).

I've discovered a new desire recently-- hand-spinning and hand-dyeing my own yarn.  I'm not going to get started on that topic here, but let's just say it would be very cool to be able to do that.  For the moment, I'm going to content myself with watching 101 Dalmations with Perry and an almost-new-mother Nora (seriously, hours away!).