Thursday, February 14, 2008

Arts, Crafts, Valentines, Baseball

Dawn was talking the other day about not being crafty, and I could only nod in agreement. In fact, my lack of arts and crafts acumen was the subject of one of my first blog posts ever. And my position still stands: drawing, painting, clay, painting on clay, origami, beading, all that stuff: bores me to tears. Except for making Valentines.

Making Valentines is big in our house. The dining room table is covered with newspaper and supplies for at least a week (must clean that up--tomorrow). We have a shoebox of Valentine supplies and every year we augment it to replace what was used up the year before: stickers, doily hearts, foil hearts, red cardboard hearts, stamps and stamp pads, glue sticks, some old Valentine's napkins which we've just about used up. M and E have always brought homemade Valentines to school, though it's sometimes a travail (I feel that I've blogged the travail: ah yes, here we go) (this year I was pleased to see that three other kids in E's class--girls, of course--made their Valentines too, and she was really quite cheerful, self-motivated, and creative about the process).

We all make family Valentines, and because S always works in the evening, we give each other Valentines when we wake up in the morning (these days E is creating episodes of a TV show, E's Excellent Experts, on the Macbook, and she filmed Episode Four this morning, the Valentine's episode, where she gave out Valentine awards, in envelopes, a la the Grammies--S won Fastest Valentine Making, I believe I won Most Creative, and M won Best, which came with three pieces of chocolate gelt and a dollar).

And, you know, I get into it. I like cutting out hearts and choosing stamps and arranging stickers. I like writing little notes. OK, so I only made four Valentines, but they were pretty good: a tiny one for S, and another all in white, and an inside-out one for M, and a pretty one for E. So what is it about the Valentines that suddenly makes the arts and crafts bearable? I think maybe it's that the effort is so contained. The materials are there, and you don't need to think too much, you just need to arrange them. Limits: when it comes to art, I like clear limits and activities that demand no skill but cutting and pasting. Actually, I kind of like making collages too. So there you have it: the uncreative nature of my sole creative facility.

As for baseball, I don't quite have a post's worth of material, but I will say two things:

1) Spring training!!

2) It seems quite clear that Roger Clemens is lying, which just kind of boggles my mind, though it shouldn't--see Marion Jones--but the gall, chutzpah, etc. is just remarkable, though, then again, that's the nature of Roger Clemens, who seems determined to give everyone--except a pathetic collection of congresspeople--ever more reasons to despise him.

2 comments:

jackie said...

My girls' teacher this year decreed that each kid would get a randomly drawn name, and that each kid had to MAKE a Valentine for that kid, and that kid only. While my girls did grumble about not getting to give all their friends cards at school, they did love making the Valentines.

Unknown said...

You can make all the Valentines you want...have at it.

As for Spring Training - YEAH!!!!