Before college, I would always find the Pinterest Expectations vs. Pinterest Realities memes to be the funniest post to the internet because I did not think crafting something that looked so simple would be so difficult. But once I began crafting simple crafts for my sorority and friends, I realized I was becoming the Pinterest realities rather than being the Pinterest expectations. Painting canvas are nearly impossible and the tedious tasks were just plain silly to put myself through. However, I continued to keep trying to craft, even though my skill of craftiness has not improved throughout my years and plethora of canvas, coolers, mason jars, picture frames and whatever else I decided could be a cute idea that turned into an utter disaster, but for some reason I continue to put myself in those situations (or crafts if you will) with the dreams of becoming the greatest crafter to live, but in reality I keep repeating the cycle of crafting by a not so crafty individual.
1. Hopefulness
Scrolling through my Pinterest feed or walking around a store with cute canvases (that cost $25 but can be made for $10), you start to grab ideas of where it would go, how it would be done, who it would go to, etc. And then, with in a matter of minutes, you continue to pursue the project with gathering the materials for it and stenciling it out on random sheets of paper, followed by drawing it onto the canvas thinking it looks almost exact to the original. All of this done under the mind set of, “Alright. This is the craft that will move me from novel crafter to Picasso crafter.”
2. Enjoyment
Painting on the base coat to whatever surface I decided to craft is the so incredibly soothing and takes little to no artistic ability… I mean you are painting a solid color and just making sure it is painting on smoothly; spoiler alert: not that hard. While this is the easiest and most relaxing part, it is the most deceiving part because while you are painting a single color in a simple design, you begin to think about how enjoyable the process is and how relaxing it is while you start to doubt why you hate crafting to begin with and why you ever doubted your crafting ability.
3. Stressed Out
The realization of the nitty-gritty detail has surfaced as you are trying to paint the triangular tribal pattern at the same time of the realization that you can not craft for the life of you hits. The enjoyment begins to fade as you start to stencil on crooked chevron patterns or oval polka dots and realize you can not erase them without messing up the base coat paint. Snacks start becoming a must-have while painting because there is no other way to cope with the reality of not being crafty.
4. Frustration
You start cursing this pattern and who decided it needed to become a crafting trend. You contemplate the amount of time wasted making this stinking project, debate starting completely over and then start to pray for a solution that would fix the three-year old artwork. Unfortunately, it is too late for you to give up in hopes that something amazing will rise from it but in reality, there is just no way to fix the project.
5. Relief
You decide to continue on and just finish the project to get it out of sight and out of mind. Crying due to a healthy mix of stress and frustration over a misplacement on a quote you stroke the last glob of paint on to the canvas and call it good. Despite the frustration, sweat and tears, you finish the craft, hand it off and hope that you never have to craft again. Well or until you decide that the next project on Pinterest seems simple enough for your little crafting ability.
