There are times when I would love nothing more than to fall fast asleep when my head hits the pillow at night, but it seems like my mind has a different objective.
I have tried a variety of different things, reading a book, watching TV, counting backward from 300 by 3's, but some nights it doesn't seem to matter what I try.
The other night instead of counting backwards or something as exciting as counting sheep, I thought I would see how many different crafts I could think of.
I remember coming up with over 30 and thinking that was a lot, but the next morning I started doing some research on how many different ones I could find and needless to say, I had missed a few.
I suppose I should explain what crafts I am talking about, it's not the boats, ships or any type of vessel known as a craft and it's not crafty people such as devious ones or ones skilled in trickery, although the majority that enjoy doing it are definitely skilled, it's the art in making decorative or practical objects by hand that I'm referring to.
There must be thousands when you start thinking of all the different mediums that are available such as fabric, wood, metal, leather, rocks, glass, clay and paper to just mention a few.
Let's take for example one of my favorite mediums wood.
There is painting on wood, wood burning, wood turning, wood carving, chip carving, chain saw carving all the way up to cabinet making.
Some of the wood crafting hobbies can be on the expensive side when you start pricing out some handy tools that you may want, like band saw, scroll saw, table saw and belt sander just to mention a few and then there are the more affordable ones like the wood burning and carving to get into.
Another common medium is fabrics.
You can weave, embroider, spin, knit, felt or crochet for a few options or take a t-shirt and jeans and decorate them with thread, beads or a combination of a lot of different items and turn them into a craft project.
Quilting, Needle point, Patchwork, String Art, Tapestry and Tatting are a few more that are in the fabric area.
Some may say that working with yarn and thread should not be in with the fabric medium but in most cases you need to start with fabric so for that reason I am classifying them all together.
For crafts involving paper there is origami, embossing, decoupage, card making, collage and scrap booking just to mention a few.
There is even teabag folding, I will have to do a little more research to find out more about that one because it sounds quite interesting.
I wonder if the paper airplanes that I would fold and try flying back when I was a kid in school would classify.
I'm sure my teacher wouldn't think so.
Glass is another interesting medium, from stained glass, glass blowing, fused glass, glass etching and broken glass that is recovered from the bottoms of the ocean, river or lake is beach or sea glass as it's also know.
Who would have guess that broken bottles from the bottom of the sea could be used to make beautiful jewelry or used as decoupage to adorn a mirror for example.
The list can go on and on.
I haven't even touched on the mediums using metal, rocks or a combination of one or more mediums used together.
There is basket weaving, toy making, floral, doll making and so many more.
Crafting has been around for centuries and enjoyed by all walks of life, from the very wealthy to the not so fortunate people who do it out of necessity like making a quilt to help keep them warm at night.
It is also enjoyed by all ages.
I'm sure we have all received or seen a child's first project hanging on Mom's or Grandma refrigerator or had a child watching and learning from their parents as they worked on one of their projects.
No matter what your interest is or your age, I'm sure you can find a hobby that you will truly enjoy.
Nothing is better than to give a gift that you have made with your own two hands.