Craftiness

I am an engineer. I am a good engineer, because my mind acts like an engineer's mind. It thrives on rules and order. Things that are spelled out in black and white: 2 + 2 = 4, and it always will, no exceptions. There is no need for creativity in my world. Thank goodness.

Because, I am not creative. My younger sister is a fabulous artist. I freely admit that any creative genes that might have been destined for me got stored up and lavished upon her instead. I'm serious - there is not a hint of creativity in me. I can't make up a tune or even harmonize without music, I shudder at the thought of having to cook without a detailed recipe, and I can't draw anything that is even remotely recognizable - not even a straight line.

So, now what do I have? A daughter that loves to color, draw, and make "crafts." I'm not going to claim she's the next Michelangelo...she's probably just average as far as artistic talent goes. But, that would make her a whole lot more creative than I am. She's always begging us to make something with her. Elizabeth is not picky right now, but I know her naivete will not last forever. For now, she actually thinks I can draw. Sure, sometimes she has to ask me what I am drawing, but if I tell her, she actually will buy it. Boy, is she going to be disappointed soon.

Fortunately, a friend of mine told me about this website:

http://www.dltk-kids.com/

It has an abundant amount of crafts to do with kids. And, they're so easy! Save an old toilet paper roll (which we seem to have plenty of at our house), print out a template, and ta-da! It's a craft!

This morning, I decided to take pictures of some of the numerous crafts we've made lately, mostly courtesy of that site, but I discovered that David cleaned house yesterday, and most of them have...um....magically disappeared. But, here are a few of the "crafts" we've made:



You can see our "collage," which is truly a stroke of genius for the "non-crafty" parent. You just let the kid flip through an old magazine, tell you what pictures they want to cut out, then glue them on the paper. Elizabeth absolutely loves to make these. Of course, most of hers seem to focus on pictures of babies and food.

There's also a "house" that David made with her a while back. Cutting and pasting...again encompassing Elizabeth's 2 main requirements for a "craft." And, you can see the toilet paper roll Kitty that I helped Elizabeth make this morning.

So, as you can see, so far, we're able to keep up with Elizabeth's creative demand. But, I'm afraid my days of her seeing me as the "craft guru" are numbered. Check out this picture she colored yesterday:



If you look closely, you'll notice that she actually colored everything the appropriate color and managed to stay roughly within the lines. I'm afraid this is proof that Elizabeth's artistic ability is about to surpass mine...