"Oh, We Can Make That"!

Need a baby gift? I wouldn’t dream of BUYING something. Bookshelf? That’s easy to figure out. As kids, the famous words of my mother when we would see a cute skirt or dress were, “Oh, we can make that.” It’s true. We could. Well, SHE could. She made a lot of our clothes growing up, which was great! No one else wore what we did. We were individuals. Eventually, our response became, “Yeah, but we never will.” It wasn’t that she wouldn’t or couldn’t it was just that the list of things to make was becoming really long. My husband of 23 years once said that one of the things he loves about me is that I think I can do anything. He’s right. I can do anything. Or at least I can figure out HOW to do anything. And I don't blame just my mother for this, I blame both of my parents.My father was a contractor. The homes he built in Napa, California, where I grew up, are still in excellent condition today, some 40+ years later. A cousin just recently moved into one of his homes and noted what great condition it still is in. Standing strong and with no cracks from numerous California earthquakes over the years. “They just don’t build them like that anymore”, she said. From years of observing my father, I suppose, my sisters and I have developed the idea that we can build things. All three of us have pulled out power tools and built something, but what’s most interesting is that we think we can do it in the first place. We can visualize how it all goes together. We understand the pieces and how they fit together. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stood in a home décor shop with my mom and/or sisters and visually deconstructed a home accessory. All you need is the idea and the right components. Putting it all together is the easy part. Actually getting to the project is what’s hard.