Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better

“Ooooh, look at this –it’s so cute! $35? No way man, I can totally make that.  Just get a little hot glue, a wreath form and some garland with a few grapevine twigs. Oh yeah.  I can TOTALLY make this”. 

Welcome to craft fair season with my family.  We have this affliction where we think anything that we see, we can make better.  And cheaper.  And when I say family, I mean ALL of my family – Mom, Dad, Sister, Oma, Opa, Aunts, Uncles. It doesn’t include just crafts, it is food too.  For the life of me, I CANNOT follow a recipe exactly.  I have to make it better, it’s like an unspoken challenge I have given myself. I always have to add something else – whether it is pumpkin and chocolate chips in a boxed brownie mix (nothing better than the combination of pumpkin and chocolate!) or pinto beans, green chiles, chicken broth and 25 spices to last night’s unsuspecting 5-ingredient recipe.

We suffer this affliction all year long, but it is especially acute during the holiday season.  Every year, my mom, sister and I go to the Smoky High School Holiday Craft Show.  Gymnasiums and hallways and cafeterias full of people’s handcrafted wares.  We find items that we like and motion and whisper to each other about how we feel we could improve upon it.  (Note – Whispering is key here because you don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings…remember, they are doing it ‘better’ than someone else).  Now, do we actually go home and recreate everything that we see?  Not at all.  But do we get fantastic ideas and get INSPIRED?  You bet your sweet butt we do!

Better in this sense merely means different. Different is why we live in such a diverse, amazing world.  Better is all around us.  As soon as we are born we start to take everything we see in the world around us, we mush it all together and we make it better, we make it different.  We make it our own unique, individual person. 

Here is my challenge to you – get the bug and ‘Do It Better’.  GET INSPIRED. Pick out a simple recipe and add to it – Make It Better.  Find a picture of a Thanksgiving centerpiece and tweak it – Make It Better.  See a Christmas wreath at the store and then go to the craft shop – get your own wreath ingredients and Make It Better.  Life is full of inspiration wherever you look – MAKE IT BETTER.

** I would LOVE for you to share with me how you Make it Better