My Clever Crafty Friends

Lately I've complained about Minnesotans, specifically their high-and-mighty lefty moral ways but that really only tells half the story. I really love Minnesotans sometimes too. I think people are absolutely fantastic here sometimes.

Last night was the belated Christmas present exchange party amongst my group of friends. This annual event goes like this: Everyone brings gifts and they're put in a big pile and nobody knows what's inside. Then we play a sort of game where everyone gets to open a gift or steal one from someone else and it's lots of fun. In past years, before I was living in MN again, they exchanged second-hand gifts from their homes. This year Emily proposed instead that everyone make something that costs under $10.

What was so fantastic was the creativity and quality of the handmade gifts. Everyone in this group is so crafty. They all love to create stuff with their hands and do it so well. (Despite generally having so-called "intellectual" professions - lots of teachers, lawyers, computer tech, playwrights, musicians). There was homemade Portuguese spirits made from Pineapple (similar to Italian limoncello) in a neat cork-topped glass decanter. Emily made little Japanese crocheted amigurumi dolls, including ones that resembled the people who couldn't make it to the gift exchange (amazing! so-cool...), there was a homemade handbag in a cool citrus green fabric (this is what I got to take home!), there was a beautiful black and white photograph of an event that my friends had all participated in, there was a big glass jar of plums marinated in rum, there was a picture frame made out of leftover cedar wood from a handmade cedar canoe that one girl had built earlier this year. I made a set of glass coasters, and each one featured a photo of a truly astounding hideous interior decor from the 1970s (the images were from a book called Interior Desecrations: Hideous Homes from the Horrible '70s" - it cracks me up.)

I just love to see all this creativity and talent. I think we grew up in a culture where there are so many commercial, mass-produced items bearing down on us and we are the first generation, at least in the US, to return to the pleasure and meaningful substance of hand-made creation. I mean, my friends do this all the time, not just for Christmas. All year long they knit each other mittens, make each other mead or flavored rums, cook dinners and cakes and truffles for each other, just for fun. I think living in Minnesota is advantageous too, because people here actually still have a pretty decent amount of free time, compared to life in bigger cities that I've lived in where people work such long hours and barely have time to cook dinner in the evening before going to bed.


Below: an example of Japanese amigurumi dolls similar to what Emily crocheted (and a new idea perhaps? It could battle with her crocheted squid.)







And this 1970s room is similar to the ones that I featured in my coaster set. How's that for a conversation-starter over drinks?: