allbingo | NATIONAL CRAFTING MONTH MEET AND GREET

Welcome! Here is our space to squee about the current theme and tell others a bit about our crafting interests.

Below are the thematic questions for this months fest. Fill in as much or as little of it as you wish, depending on your interests as they relate to National Crafting Month.

My Name (how I wish to be known):
Type(s) of Crafting that I’ve tried:
I consider myself a Beginner, Intermediate, Master, or Other:
Crafting I’ve loved and/or loathed:
Project I’m particularly proud of:
Something I learned the hard way:
Something I haven't done yet, but I'd like to try:
Biggest crafting frustration(s):
Something else I'd like to share:

Feel free to copy this Meet and Greet into your blog as well as filling it out here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I really like your diamond art Robin card - that turned out fantastic! Also, here here! on the expense of crafting. When did making it yourself turn into a luxury, and buying it cheap from the bigbox store the more economical option!?

>> When did making it yourself turn into a luxury, and buying it cheap from the bigbox store the more economical option!? <<

When automation and economy of scale made it cheap to produce sort-of-okay things, and later, as companies outsourced manufacture to places with cheap labor.

Another factor is stagnating or falling wages while cost of living skyrockets, certain things like food and housing rise even faster, and new demands like internet and paid TV get added to monthly bills. The result is people trying to do more with less, so they often can't afford to buy what they want or need.

However, folks with a homestead or even just a yard may be able to produce some of their own craft materials. If you're into flower arranging, you can grow your own. If you want to grow dye plants, it's no harder than gardening anything else. If you want to tie flies, you can fit chickens in a small space and use their feathers. Willows and dogwoods can be small bushes and make great craft materials for wreaths, basketmaking, etc.

Thank you :)
I'm in agreement; making something or even baking something, is now far more expensive than buying something.

While that can be true, it isn't always. Some things are way cheaper to make than to buy. Other things are more trouble than it's worth to make. People spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on fancy cakes, but if you're good at that, you can just make your own. It also matters how much you're making. If you're going to use up the whole bag of flour, sugar, etc. baking cookies then each one will probably be a lot cheaper than if you bought them. But if you only make one batch, then it's more expensive.

There are other considerations too.

* Can you even find the thing to buy it? Much of what I make isn't actually available for sale, partly because my tastes differ from the Standard American Diet and partly because I like to devise my own recipes. I had to start making my own sloppy joe sandwich filling because it became impossible to find a canned version that wasn't lightly flavored high-fructose corn syrup. :P My version consists of a grocery bag of assorted produce cooked down in a crockpot with ground meat added.

* Can you make something as good as or better than the storebought version? I'm not going to bother making madras lentils because we can buy great ones in packets. But no restaurant has come close to my partner's lentil dal or my ginger ice cream.

NATIONAL CRAFTING MONTH MEET AND GREET

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