How to NOT DIY

As many of you know, I am a Do-It-Yourselfer. Let me rephrase that; I try to be a Do-It-Yourselfer. I am one of those who scour the internet searching for sites labeled, "DIY," "Penny-Pinching," "Make your own...," etc. It has actually become a nasty habit. Allow me to explain;

DIYs are awesome. There are many great things which accompany a DIY task.

1. Sense of accomplishment.

2. Bragging rights.

3. Money saved.

4. Creative muscles stretched.

5. And on and on...

But my bad habit is DIY--to the extreme! As many of my family members have experienced my "Homemade Christmas," they could tell you that maybe buying a nice bar of soap would have been better than me spending weeks and weeks curing my own homemade soaps. After buying all the ingredients (glycerin, dye, lavender petals, scented oils), that came out to one expensive bar of soap! After that sudsy Christmas, my soap making days were over. "Wow, two bars of soap. It makes me wish I had bought you another sweater..."



My latest adventure is labeled, "Reversible Disaster."



It is my Mother-in-Law's birthday. Stressing over what to give, I went to Don for help.

......

No help.


Being the practical and thrift savvy woman that I am, I came up with a reversible tablecloth for the holidays.

Perfect!

Find 2 scraps of festive fabric, twist it through my magic sewing machine, and viola! A much-needed tablecloth. Easy. Cheap. Practical. And most importantly, a DIY! (my favorite thing!)


That was my thinking, anyway.


$40 and 18+ hours later, I realized that I am not as cool as I thought I was. :)


I was having a hard time with the fabric bunching together. I was worried that it would look all frumpy and wrinkled on the table, so I came up with a brilliant idea.


Get ready, here it comes...


Make tucks and swoops in the tablecloth so the wrinkles would look on purpose! Haha! Genius! At this point, I am thinking to myself, "Look at me! I am fabulous! I should start my own craft blog!"


And after working on this splendid tablecloth (swoops and all) for the past 3 nights... it still just looks wrinkly.
:/


I can just imagine Vicki opening her gift. She might say something like, "Oh Kelly, how pretty. It's a... bedsheet? Curtains? Patio furniture cover?" And I will say, "No, no, no. It's a shabby-chic tablecloth, worth it's weight in gold." I can call it shabby-chic. Things like that are supposed to be wrinkly and homemade-looking. :P


Happy Birthday, Vicki. I love you.