The Spirit of Making

When you live in the suburbs, you're close to about everything your consumer-driven heart could want. Before I moved to our country home, I lived in between two major shopping centers. I could turn right OR left out of my apartment complex and be at Target in five minutes. With everything within reach, or at least close enough to be shipped to us in two business days, I think we've lost the ability to make or to even think about making stuff for ourselves. Yet, I feel that with a more country-esque environment comes a spirit of making.

This spirit of making afflicted my husband back when our country home was just a twinkle in our eye. He's a computer engineer, so his brain is always thinking of cool things to make/build/crush Windows. When he asked me a few years ago if I wanted to go to a Maker Faire in San Francisco, I agreed without really knowing what I was getting  myself into. Turns out it was a super cool two-day event where people show off the stuff they make. Yes, there were women with quilts and other crafts, but it was predominantly neat (Chill out. Quilting is neat too.) projects like a robot giraffe and a bike the draws as you pedal. There were soldering (pronounced sod-dering) stations that taught kids (and perhaps twenty-something ladies who dated engineers) to solder and make cool electronic kits. Adam Savage from Mythbusters spoke on the main stage. Overall, it was just a neat event that encouraged everybody to deconstruct and reconstruct the world around them, to know how things work, and to make. 

Who knew molten lead could be so fun?

Adam Savage is a righteous dude.

The spirit of making stayed with us after San Fran, and lucky for us, Kansas City has held its own Maker Faire twice already. Now that we're in our own home, and free to use power tools at all times of the night, my husband and I have set forth making that which we could have bought from the store or internet but preferred to try on our own.

Project #1- The Cat Tree

We got out a wooden ladder to replace a light bulb in our living room in our apartment one day. The ladder is now and has been a (semi) permanent fixture in all my living rooms. Why? My cat LOVES it. She races up and down the rungs, sharpens her nails on it, and sits on the "This is NOT a step" section while watching birds out the window. As you may imagine, I'm not too stoked about a ladder in the main area of our house, so my husband agreed that we needed a cat tower. When we looked at the ones at big chain pet stores, we weren't excited about the designs or the prices, so my husband decided to build one himself. Not only was it cheaper (if you don't count all the tools he bought to create it), but it had all the elements that our cat, Dharma, would love: a ladder, a hammock, and plenty of looky-outy places. Behold the awesome cat tree:

Note the ladder right next to it. We're slowly weaning her off it.

Dharma tries out her hammock. My husband  made that too!

Project #2- The Necklace Holder

I joined Pinterest around the time we moved. It has been an excellent resource for cool country-inspired crafts. One of the things I saw and liked was a necklace holder made out of a scrap of wood and door handles. I found some beautiful (and well priced!) handles at World Market. With the help of a drill (and my husband), I had a cool necklace holder in minutes. 

Follow me on Pinterest by clicking on the link on the right hand side of this page. You may enjoy my board "Country Home."

There are still a lot of projects we have up our sleeves. My next project (c/o Pinterest) will be to turn a mason jar into a soap dispenser. I'll let you know how that turns out!

SPEAKING OF MAKING Bike MS is less than two weeks away! I made my goal (thanks to some lovely people), but I'm trying to help my dad make his. He's only $45 from his goal, so if you have a few dollars to throw his way, he and I would certainly appreciate it. Donate here!