Getting my Craft On

I have a guest post up today at Natural Parents Network as part of their Blog Carnival on Family Creations.  I haven’t been doing as much craft or creative work as I’d like lately – it’s easy to blame my lack of supplies and housing chaos, but then I remember that I brought an empty scrapbook and some grand intentions and I wonder what happened.  I guess my creativity has been focused on picking paint colors for the new house. In any case, I spent some time weaving through a family history of handicraft.  Here’s a snip – go read the rest of the post at Natural Parents Network.

My father used to sew, too – on the industrial Singer sewing machine he got from HIS father, who repaired them, oiling and tuning the machinery. When my dad was ready to part with it, I claimed it as my own, and he drove it down to me – three hours – and showed me how to tighten the leather belt, how to oil it. That machine sat in my workroom, unused once I upgraded to a shiny multi-function machine. I couldn’t part with it for years, though we finally sold it in preparation for this move. Instead of the machine, I am holding onto the memory of my father and my son, heads together, giving the machine its final tune-up before passing it along to a new home.