What it’s like making handmade gifts. Expressed in gifs

First of all:

Oh, wow! I’m so excited! It’s everything they love! Hahahaha, and it’s meaningful and beautiful! Score for Santa!

And then you buy the supplies:

Thinking, “Oh, yeah, I’ve got this. I’m the baddest.”

And you’re usually like, “I used to do this all the time, and I remember it being easy (snort!!)”

That or, “Yeah, I watched that tutorial/ saw a photo on Pinterest/ read about it online….how hard could it be?” (COUGH).

So then you get started.

“La la la, no big deal, hahaha.”

This is all so easy and fun!!11!

UNTIL YOU HIT A WALL.

Today my project was embroidery. I’ve been embroidering since I was a little girl…and I love picking out colors and doodling out sketches. I was embroidering out a saying…and I hit a specific stitch-count and I was like, “HOW IS THERE STILL MORE TO DO? CAN I GIVE UP NOW?”

But, you can’t give up, because it’s almost Christmas and you have a deadline…so you need to keep going…no matter how hard.

And you play all these internal mind games with yourself, “Only five more minutes, and you’ll be done.” “Thirty more stitches starting…NOW!” “COME ON, what are you waiting for?”

Stitch after stitch after stitch. Step after step after step.

Until…finally…

You’re done.

Happy dance.

EXCEPT.

THERE’S AN ERROR.

Maybe you missed a spot of paint or placed something in inside-out or…my favorite…spelled something wrong.

Spelling errors are my specialty. I can spell things correctly in real-life all day, every day, but, for some reason, when my mind is focused on kerning and spacing and serifs and the like…letters go missing.

And that’s what happened to me today.

Cue pulling out of stitches…stitches I forced myself to put in anyway.

And more work. More forced work.

And then: light at the end of the tunnel. And the end of the tunnel approaches and…you’re OUT OF THE TUNNEL.

And your work is gorgeous and you know it.

Girl, you fabulous.

The art looks great, the love is apparent…and they’re sure to like it!

Aw yiss. Merry Christmas, ya’ll.

Now go ‘head and take a bow. Or something.

Oh, and did you want to see what I made?

Hand-embroidered hand towels with the (translated) Polish saying: “Not my circus; not my monkeys.” (I.e. “Not my problem”). For a coworker, a saying we tease with back and forth.

I’d take a bow…but I have about ten million more things I still need to make.

Muah! :-*

Until later, skaters!