Brooke, you missed it and we missed you!
I gave my first talk. Well, I take that back. I spoke at a baptism once, but not a 10 minute talk!
I feel so happy and empowered. I got to speak about the importance of handmade and repurposed items.
What a spiritual and beautiful experience to study Elder Uchtdorfs talk on creativity.
It was a great night and I am on a spiritual high. Here is the talk . My aunt Kay wanted to read it and she is in Idaho, so here ya go!
What do you think of when you think of handmade crafts?
Grandmas afgan? knitted sweaters? needlepoint?
Well I am going to talk to you tonight about how handmade crafts don't have to
be your grandmas crafts, and if they are...how you can modernize and make them your own by
either using items from your own home, or your local thrift store.
With the economy in the state it is in, I encourage each of us to make even just one handmade item this holiday season.
If you look at the great display to my ______, you will see items that have been handmade by you.
There is no doubt that we have great talent among the sisters in our ward.
Before I get too much into the mechanics of handmade, I'd like to go back to Elder Uchtdorfs message about "creating".
The Work of Creation
The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before.
Everyone can create. You don’t need money, position, or influence in order to create something of substance or beauty.
Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment. We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty—and I am not talking about the process of cleaning the rooms of your teenage children.
You might say, “I’m not the creative type. When I sing, I’m always half a tone above or below the note. I cannot draw a line without a ruler. And the only practical use for my homemade bread is as a paperweight or as a doorstop.”
If that is how you feel, think again, and remember that you are spirit daughters of the most creative Being in the universe. Isn’t it remarkable to think that your very spirits are fashioned by an endlessly creative and eternally compassionate God? Think about it—your spirit body is a masterpiece, created with a beauty, function, and capacity beyond imagination.
But to what end were we created? We were created with the express purpose and potential of experiencing a fulness of joy.4 Our birthright—and the purpose of our great voyage on this earth—is to seek and experience eternal happiness. One of the ways we find this is by creating things.
If you are a mother, you participate with God in His work of creation—not only by providing physical bodies for your children but also by teaching and nurturing them. If you are not a mother now, the creative talents you develop will prepare you for that day, in this life or the next.
You may think you don’t have talents, but that is a false assumption, for we all have talents and gifts, every one of us.5 The bounds of creativity extend far beyond the limits of a canvas or a sheet of paper and do not require a brush, a pen, or the keys of a piano. Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before—colorful gardens, harmonious homes, family memories, flowing laughter.
What you create doesn’t have to be perfect. So what if the eggs are greasy or the toast is burned? Don’t let fear of failure discourage you. Don’t let the voice of critics paralyze you—whether that voice comes from the outside or the inside.
If you still feel incapable of creating, start small. Try to see how many smiles you can create, write a letter of appreciation, learn a new skill, identify a space and beautify " end quote.
In our premortal existence, we were part of the great creation. It is in our souls to create.
You can imagine my excitement when I first heard this! Being so creative minded, there are many times when I felt selfish for wanting to craft instead of more productive things. I felt like he was speaking directly to me, and he was.....to each of us.
Being a part of this great organization called The Relief Society, means that we are a part of this great "creating" universe. We are handmade nations, biggest and greatest supporters! Our society has been making things by hand since the beginning of our churchs organization. We make things together for charities, ill members, scouts, our bishopric, etc. ALL the TIME! We have learned sewing, writing, card making, and the list goes on and on. All these crafts are for the purpose of enriching someone else's lives. In turn, enriching ourselves.
Remember when you were little, the joy of giving your mother or father something YOu created? Not something bought from a store, but something you made with your own hands. The excitement when the person receiving the gift would say "oh, you made this? It's wonderful". It's easy to run to Target in a pinch and buy something. I still do it, but I want you all to think of how it feels for the person receiving it to get something that you made . You are giving something irreplaceable, unique, one of a kind!
It's like cooking, cooking with love tastes so much better right? When I am making something for someone, I am thinking of that person, or prospective people that I want to give it to. The gift isn't just the item itself, it's my time, my love. I know that my gift will always be fondly looked upon. That I am building a relationship with that person. Everything handmade has a story behind it. How many of you have something made from a grandmother, greatgrandmother or another person? Those people will move on in life and wont be with us forever, but their items will. You can pass their heirlooms on to future generations and those generations will have a story and piece of that person forever.
What better way to share Christs love than by the small sacrifice of taking time to create for someone else.
I'd like to share this poem with you:
With these hands I make you something I hold dear,
in hopes you will feel the love for you that's so sincere.
These hands may not make the works of art that I may dream,
but there is love and timeless thought within each stitch and seam.
I hope you take this item that I crafted just for you,
and know that your always in my heart through and through....
Most of you know that I have been organizing and running an Craft Bazaar for the past few years. I even opened a store this past year, although that was short lived.
I am passionate about handmade items. Recycling, creating, reusing and repurposing. I truly feel that this is what my heavenly father wants for me to do in this lifetime and I feel so honored to talk with you all about it tonight.
Times are hard right now. There is no better time than now to be thinking of ways to save money, especially with the Christmas season quickly approaching.
I have brought a number of my own books about crafting. You are welcome to borrow them.
I grew up in a very creative family. Grandma painted, sewed, wrote poetry, quilted, canned, cooked, gardened etc. So did all my aunts, cousins, and even an uncle.
Because of this, I can't ever stick with one craft. This has been a blessing and a curse at the same time.
The curse-I have several several SEVERAL baskets of materials, tools, odds and ends etc. AKA. Projects never finished.
The Blessings- I have learned several several SEVERAL crafts and can share some with you tonight.
Reducing our carbon footprint is a must. We teach our scouts this, but we really need to be teaching everyone in our congregation.
Recycling and repurposing is really in trend right now. Saving items that would otherwise be thrown out is a must in this ever growing commercial world we live in.
You can visit your local thrift store or closet and come up with some great ideas.
Take this sock monkey for instance, it is what it is.....it's made from socks.
What about this old sweater? How about a skirt for a toddler? A flower brooch? A stuffed animal? Mittens?
An old board game? A purse, a picture frame
Book pages? A cute wallet, passport cover. Brooch? Book mobile
Or even an old cabinet from a thrift store? Now a cute vintage book shelf.
What about old missing puzzle pieces? Now a cute refridgerator magnet.
Take nothing and make it into something! Stumped on what to do? There are some great sites online to help you out.
Etsy is the handmade craft mecca of the world. Hundreds of thousands of crafters from all over the world sell their unique handmade items through this site.
I like to visit to get ideas. There are also incredible do it yourself blogs that give you step by step instructions. I have a list printed out, if anyone would like this.
There are ways to not only make your items look professional, but package your items to look professional as well.
We have a fun, quick, easy, project to share with you tonight. There are many variations of this project.
I hope that as we use our hands tonight to craft and visit we will be ever aware of the love of Christ that we can share by these small
tokens we create.
I'd like to bear my testimony of the importance of thoughtfulness. Thoughtfulness portrayed through creating by hand.
Of the amazing example of Christ and our fellow sisters that show this every day.
Mae is quite the actress. Tonight she kept pretending she was dead. Too funny. All she has been talking about lately is her "girls school" that she goes to. I have never had a child so ready for school. I stayed at home and taught preschool to my little ones. They never wanted to be apart from me. Mae? She's oh so ready. 
