Crafting with Design Sponge

When it rains in Atlanta the city seems to stop, especially when it starts raining during rush hour traffic. Our already busy highways become even busier with people trying to race home and get out of the rain. I'm not sure why Atlanta gets so crazy when rain rolls through. Maybe it's because we've been programmed to withstand heat better than water, or maybe it's because the rain tends to bring colder weather . Whatever the reason, I guess I've become a true Atlantian because I, for one, tend to shift into the same "rain" mode as every other person here does. Get me home. Give me some comfy clothes. Pray there is a good movie on TV (perhaps Dirty Dancing?) and I'm ready for a night on the couch to weather the storm.

Last night I ended up making an exception to my norm. Grace Bonney from Design Sponge was at West Elm hosting a crafting / book signing event. Our good friend and blogging confidant, Molly, asked me to attend. I wasn't so sure about the crafting segment of the night, but thought it would be a fun opportunity to meet Grace and catch up with Molly.

Upon arriving, we saw there were several tables set up and each seat had 2 napkins, some paint, foam brushes, xacto knives and stencils. I wasn't sure what I was picturing when I heard this was a crafting event. I thought maybe we'd doodle something on a piece of paper, have a few drinks and call it a night, but this was actually down and dirty crafting.

Grace arrived shortly after Molly and I had sat down and began the instructions. We were going to make some kind of monogrammed napkin with the stencils and paint. It took her a few minutes to run through the directions, which seemed easy enough, but when we turned to our napkins and looked at our crafting tools, we had no idea what we were doing. Everything had gone in one ear and out the other. Apparently we weren't the only ones feeling the same way. Our whole table was staring blankly at each other, holding our xacto knives mid-air and asking each other what we to do. It would have been smart to to actually open the Design Sponge book and read how to create our monograms, but instead we opted for the classic high-school-test-move where you look at the next table to see what they are doing. Finally, Grace came over and explained to us step-by-step how to start our project and eventually we all got the hang of it. After stressing about the design we wanted to create, the cutting of our stencil, and what color paint we wanted to use, Molly and I ended up w/ somewhat successful finished products.

Yes, I chose a golden retriever stencil. I tried really hard to make it look like our boxer, Harley, but that just took too much time, so I took the easy road instead. 

Here are some quick shots during the crafting time:

The stencils for the project 

  My mad cutting skills

  

Quote from Molly "I wish Jen were here to do this for us." I concurred.

My finished dog. 

 

After the crafting portion ended, I had the chance to meet Grace and have her sign my book.

Grace was uber-nice to meet and we even discussed our Savannah weddings. (I'm such a dork). All in all it was a good night, even though it was rainy and cold. I guess sometimes it's worth it to actually get out of the house when it's raining.

~LGT