String Art Made Me a Better Cook!

by Rachele Harmuth—a salesperson by trade, a crafter by choice, and a somewhat acceptable cook by necessity. 
 

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!