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Martha Stewart Syndrome........
Feb. 24th, 2010 07:02 pmI find Martha Stewart insideously seductive. Dunno if any of you remember the American Express commercials she did 15 to 20 years ago. The series showed her doing uber-crafts with cut up credit cards, like tiling her pool to look like Venus on the Halfshell. I thought, "who the hell is this woman?", but at the time I'd seen neither her show nor her magazine. Then one day I was home sick with a cold & saw her in action. She was making tarnish proof sleeves to give as a wedding gift along with a couple of place settings of silverware. I watched rapt thinking, "cool idea". Then it hit me; if you can afford the give the silver, you pretty much can afford the pre-made sleeves to put it in.
I really enjoy working with my hands to create stuff, which is why MS is so seductive. Neither of my parents were particularly affected, but then they were both working full-time from the time I was fairly young. It skipped a generation.
All four of my grandparents worked with their hands. On mom's side, both grandma and grandpa were in the needle trades, he a tailor, she a seamstress. My father's mother was a butcher. Picture a 4'10" dynamo with a cleaver in one hand and a major case of attitude; you didn't screw with grandma. It was a guarantee to come out on the short end of the stick. Pop's father trained both as a butcher and a tailor. Throughout his life he went back and forth, sometimes sewing, sometimes butchering. I was 6 or 7 the first time he sat me down behind his sewing machine. It's not a major deal to fix a seam, hem something, let something out or take something in. Given my unusual dimensions (5'8" with a 26" inseam), it's a skill that's stood me in good stead. I have yet to meet a pair of pants off the rack that I can wear without shortening.
I knit, at times crochet, and even know how to weave (now there's a surprise), but my druthers are not to purchase the yarn. Instead I get the fiber, and make the yarn for the project in question. There's something extremely soothing, very Zen, about spinning. Now honestly, how many people do you know start a sweater by selecting the sheep?
Over the years, it's rubbed off on my husband, who has the correlate condition, Bob Vila syndrome. It appears the man went to law school, to learn to build decks. Talk to anyone who's been to our house. We have multiple levels of decking, effectively changing our place into a giant treehouse. He's built, re-constructed or repaired every single one of them. His mark is everywhere on our property.
Last night I put vanilla up to soak. Yeah, I'm making my own vanilla. I made 1 1/2 liters early last year, and I've used about a 1/3 of that. I was at the organic grocery last week and they were closing out a 1/4 lb. bag of whole vanilla beans for next to nothing. Life gives you vanilla beans, you make extract. I've got 3 liters put aside now. It should be ready to use by mid summer. I still have enough beans to make another couple of bottles.
I really enjoy working with my hands to create stuff, which is why MS is so seductive. Neither of my parents were particularly affected, but then they were both working full-time from the time I was fairly young. It skipped a generation.
All four of my grandparents worked with their hands. On mom's side, both grandma and grandpa were in the needle trades, he a tailor, she a seamstress. My father's mother was a butcher. Picture a 4'10" dynamo with a cleaver in one hand and a major case of attitude; you didn't screw with grandma. It was a guarantee to come out on the short end of the stick. Pop's father trained both as a butcher and a tailor. Throughout his life he went back and forth, sometimes sewing, sometimes butchering. I was 6 or 7 the first time he sat me down behind his sewing machine. It's not a major deal to fix a seam, hem something, let something out or take something in. Given my unusual dimensions (5'8" with a 26" inseam), it's a skill that's stood me in good stead. I have yet to meet a pair of pants off the rack that I can wear without shortening.
I knit, at times crochet, and even know how to weave (now there's a surprise), but my druthers are not to purchase the yarn. Instead I get the fiber, and make the yarn for the project in question. There's something extremely soothing, very Zen, about spinning. Now honestly, how many people do you know start a sweater by selecting the sheep?
Over the years, it's rubbed off on my husband, who has the correlate condition, Bob Vila syndrome. It appears the man went to law school, to learn to build decks. Talk to anyone who's been to our house. We have multiple levels of decking, effectively changing our place into a giant treehouse. He's built, re-constructed or repaired every single one of them. His mark is everywhere on our property.
Last night I put vanilla up to soak. Yeah, I'm making my own vanilla. I made 1 1/2 liters early last year, and I've used about a 1/3 of that. I was at the organic grocery last week and they were closing out a 1/4 lb. bag of whole vanilla beans for next to nothing. Life gives you vanilla beans, you make extract. I've got 3 liters put aside now. It should be ready to use by mid summer. I still have enough beans to make another couple of bottles.
