Surround me with glue and paper and pom-poms and I’m in my element.
Instinct sets in, creative juices flow, and all is right with the world.
Surround me with veggies, knives, and a cutting board, and well . . .
let’s just say there is no “instinct” and certainly no creative juices. To my
credit though, when I have enough focused, uninterrupted time and a good recipe,
I can create a pretty decent meal. Did
you see the key words? “Focused, uninterrupted time.” HA! You see, I have three
fabulous kiddos and every night at dinner prep time at least one of them seems
to have a total mommy-I-need-you-this-moment-or-my-life-is-over meltdown. This
becomes the hour when there’s “nothing to do.” They’ve done everything, played
with everything, and oddly they are never excited by my suggestion that they
could always clean their rooms.
On a recent night, while I was determined to have a “real” meal of roasted
chicken and potatoes, it was my 7-year-old who couldn’t find anything to do.
Dragging herself into the kitchen, she flopped into a chair and declared that
there was NOTHING to do because everyone was on vacation except us! Knowing what
was coming, I darted into my office to see if there was anything new that might
hold her attention. And that’s when I grabbed String Art.
Now, I’ll be honest, I assumed String Art would be pretty hard. I
imagined that the next hour would involve me bopping back and forth between her
and the chicken as she declared every two minutes that she needed help, and
we’d end up eating burned chicken at midnight. But hey, it was better than
listening to the “I’m bored” speech. I figured we’d give it a try.
OMG. Best. Kit. Ever.
The designs were SO cute. She wanted to do all of them. The instructions
were so simple. I literally helped for about five minutes before the “Mom, I’ve
got this” comment. So I stepped back into the kitchen. I kept peeking over at
her but she was totally engrossed. Each step was laid out in such an accessible
way. There were so many designs to choose from and she loved picking them out.
She completed every step herself, from tracing to placing the pins. The special
tool included with the kit took all the frustrating parts out by making each
pin exactly the same height. As I glanced at her occasionally over the chicken,
I noticed a really cool art piece forming under her hands. I have to say it
really looked great!
