One Unspectacular Quirk

Jenn tagged me, so here goes. I've done this one before, but I tried to come up with six new things that are unusual or different. It was a little tough since I'm so completely normal. . . snicker.

Probably the weirdest thing I do is something that I've admitted to almost no one before this. My husband knows and at this point he just laughs when I get started--or tries to convince me not to start in the first place.

I make people handmade gifts and then never give them to the intended recipient. This probably first started around six years ago when I cross-stitched a gift for my friends who were moving into their first apartment as married people. It was a Geisha-esque woman (my friend loved Asian stuff) wearing a Kimono is colors to match their bathroom. I bought a shadow box to put it in and everything. I then proceeded to lug it along for three different moves and finally gave it away to Goodwill when the couple in question got divorced.

I made a watercolor when some other friends got married. I researched all the locations related to their wedding and created a full-colored map with sketches of the church, reception hall, etc. I've still got it in a box somewhere and they're expecting their second child next month.

Then, another friend got married and, of course, I felt the need to create something. I became entranced with the fiber art of the very famous Susan Shie and decided to make a journal quilt of my own. It's nothing like Susan's, but I created an art quilt based on the wedding--I painted and journaled and hand-quilted for quite awhile. It's got the verses from their services, the lyrics from teh songs they danced to, quotes about love, and my thoughts about the couple. The binding isn't completely finished, but I'm not sure if I'm going to bother--I mean, it's not like I'm actually going to give it to them, right?

I never even noticed that I do this until I started working on a gift for a one-year-old this week. As I sat there working on it I knew I'd end up at Target buying something brightly colored and plastic.

This is the thing: when you make something you put your sweat and love into it. It will break your heart if the recipient doesn't "get" it. So, I guess I spare myself the heartache and just keep these little projects to myself.

Well, I wrote an entire post on one quirk. I guess I'll do five more tomorrow.