Martha called...

Lately I have been feeling crafty.

I am in a frantic hunt for a sewing machine too...any suggestions??

I get together with a few friends every week for what we call Project Day. We each bring something to one of our homes that we are working on and we work. Sometimes we sew, knit, scrapbook, whatever the project we happen to be working on. Not only does it carve out time for us to get something besides laundry done, we have fun too.

One of the women I work with is the YW president in our ward. She was saying how there has been an effort to get away from CRAFTS in YW and in Relief Society and there has been for quite a while. The conversation continued with us agreeing that often times teaching a craft also teaches a skill. We decided that it was crafting with a purpose. Everything I do I could define as CRAFTY. From my peg board organizing system above my computer, to the bows I glue together for Olivia's hair.

I CRAFT sometimes out of necessity to get what I want when I can't/won't buy it.

But sometimes I CRAFT because I like it.

I spent the rest of week pondering the word CRAFT.

We say it like it is a bad word. We call each other "crafty" and "Martha" and not always is this meant endearingly, although it is the real name of Big Fat Kitty. We think of CRAFTS as being badly spray painted necklaces of macaroni our kids bring home from first grade. We think of crayon green Christmas wreaths and Santa's made out of cotton balls hung on our refrigerators. We think of macrame plant hangers and bright yellow flowers glued to a Styrofoam ball in our grandmothers' houses and cringe.

These are the images of CRAFTS.

But in my mind it is different. I got to thinking about what it is I like about doing crafts and other domestic things. And another word came to my mind.

EDIFY.

I love this word. It is a word that describes the feeling when something speaks to my soul. It is a word I became aware of as a youth in a lesson/fireside/or talk where the speaker was guiding us to choose music that edified our spirits.

But as I was cutting fabric with a rotary cutter on a self healing mat I realized that I was feeling edified.

What? I was doing crafts? How is that edifying?

I don't know. But I recognized my soul was singing as I lined up the selection of fabrics to the 10 and a half mark on my cutting mat and sliced through the fibers. I relished in the textures. I drank up the colors and devoured the patterns of each piece I cut.

(Ethan has this same soul singing quality too. In his note thanking the owner of our local quilt store for helping his class with their quilt, Ethan told her that he loved her shop; especially the Jelly Rolls. And he wasn't talking pastries either)!

So my thoughts went back to the earlier conversation of steering our women's activities away from crafts and the bad connotations "crafts" seem to invite. And I realized that teaching "crafts" teaches us important skills and may introduce us into something we truly love. I recognize that it does not have to be everything we do or teach. I recognize that it may not appeal to everyone. But what I include in CRAFTS may reach a broad spectrum.

Sewing, furniture refinishing, gluing, cutting, spackling, crackling, painting, knitting, pottery, ceramics, weaving, quilting, arranging, hammering, sawing, hanging, tying, drawing, decorating (cakes or other things), scrapping, tacking, imagining, welding, glass blowing, beading, bending, taping, scraping, matching, tiling, vinyling, decoupaging, HTML-ing. Whatever your thing is...

Embrace your inner Martha!