Monday, March 15, 2010

Be Proud to be DIY

As many of you probably do, I subscribe to a number of blogs and they span a great deal of different interests but many times they do relate to each other even if it is not about crafting. That happened today with Get Rich Slowly, a personal finance blog that I read from time to time. The article today is Made by Hand: In Praise of Amateurs. It is a personal tribute not only to handmade, DIY and being self-sustainable but to the author's dad who did many projects and inventions over the years before his rather young passing. It is amazing how much he did in his short lifetime.

J.D. Roth, the author, also gives us a sneak peak at the upcoming book Made by Hand by Mark Fraunfelder the editor of Make magazine. Evidently it is not a do-it-yourself instruction book but a look at someone who loves to do what DIYers love to do. I came from a family of DIY types. We always had a huge garden, we canned and froze all kinds of produce, my mom taught me to sew and crochet, my brother was a wood carver and cabinet maker but not professionally and we never ate out which at the time I thought was tragic.

I really liked this article because it brought back my own memories but also the change I've felt in the last few years about being able to be more self-sustainable. I'm even taking a computer course so I can do my own maintenance and it has inspired me to one day to try to build my own computer. I recently learned how to knit and have had great praise for the scarves I've given away.

Do you do crafts as part of being able to DIY? Do you find yourself wanting to DIY other areas like constructing your own lamp or building a patio?

1 comment:

Amanda said...

I love DIY and I try to DIY anything I can. I do it for 2 reasons though - I always think I can do something if I take the time to learn & I always want to save the money :)

We are a DIY family too. I think its important!

Hugs, Amanda (amandalee on swap-bot)