A Walk Down Memory Lane

For some reason, I was awake for several hours last night in the middle of the night, and I found myself reminiscing about my childhood and all the crafting that used to go on at home. My mom got divorced when I was about 3, and so I was raised by my mother and grandmother. My mom was extremely creative, and for years she always seemed to be trying one new craft after another. (I have to be careful here - my mom is still alive and well, but she doesn't craft at all any more, which is why I will be using the past tense in this post.) Looking back, now that I am an adult and working full time, I really don't know how she did it.

In the 1960s, when I was a child and we were living in NJ, I remember my mom sewing. I'm sure she and my grandmother knitted and crocheted, but I don't remember that as clearly. I do remember all the homemade clothes she made for me at the start of every school year. At the time, I didn't always appreciate all those homemade clothes, but looking back I still fondly remember the mother/daughter outfits she sewed for us. When I was old enough to get my first Barbie doll, my mom made all her outfits too, using a lot of scraps. So at one point in my childhood, we had mother/daughter/Barbie doll matching outfits!

In 1972, we moved to California, and that's when I remember the crafting starting in earnest. This might be because there was an amazing craft store just down the street from us called The Tall Mouse. I met a woman from southern CA up at the Knit and Crochet Show in July, and she told me that not only is The Tall Mouse still in business, they have grown to 3 or 4 stores in various locations. I was very pleased to hear that! Anyway, in the 1970s, I remember my mom doing quilling, decoupage, macrame, needlepoint and embroidery, latch hook rugs, and painting ceramic figures. Then in the 1980s, she moved on to flower arranging, china painting, and quilting. By the 1990s, she had added basket weaving to her repetoire. Along the way, we also used molds to make candies, and she did some cake decorating. And of course, she never stopped sewing, knitting and crocheting until she retired and gave it all up.

I should add that my mom worked full time as a nurse for a group of general practioners, and she was the breadwinner for the household. So she was on her feet all day, and then she would come home at night and just craft up a storm. Then, at the holidays, the crafting would go into high gear. She didn't always make Christmas gifts, but she loved to decorate the house and make new decorations each year. I still remember the year we decorated the Christmas tree in red balls and plaid bows. It looked great, but we discovered that I couldn't tie a bow with a piece of ribbon to save my life! Then there was the year that she wanted all the presents wrapped in the same gold metallic paper with a knitted rosebud in place of a bow. That was a struggle, getting all those rosebuds made! And then there were the Christmas trees that we would make by folding each page of either the TV Guide or the Reader's Digest in a particular way and then spray painting the entire thing. Amazingly enough, none of those survived!

Somehow, I only inherited the knitting and crocheting genes. I did do some needlepoint and counted cross stitch when I was younger. I even still have some of my counted cross stitch pieces that we had framed along the way. But to this day I don't sew, nor have I tried my hand at most of the other crafts Mom was good at. I seem to prefer to concentrate on the knitting and crocheting and do those 2 things to the best of my ability. However, all this reminiscing is making me feel like I should branch out a little and try a few other crafts. I'll have to keep thinking about that.

Have a great weekend!