Browsing through Amazon
I got Crafty Girl: Fun and Games: Things to Make and Do
I still haven’t put any of their ideas to work, but I’ve read through both of them and I love many of the ideas there – they are not things I would have thought of on my own (but then again, I’m not very “crafty”). My favorite idea, from the fun & games book, is to make your own board game. You make connected squares in a large piece of cardboard or poster paper and write funny instructions on each of them. For example, if you land on square 6, you have to wear a shower cup until you roll a 2. Or if you land in square 10, you have to wear socks on your hands until someone else rolls a 5. Other cool ideas is to make your own rocks and hide little things inside them and to fortune tell with tea leaves.
The slumber party book gives you several “theme” ideas. It’s geared to girls a little bit older than Mika (who is 7), but she loved the idea of having a “fashion” slumber party that will include the suggested games/crafts. We’ll be scheduling one soon.
In all, I’m quite happy with the books and I’m thinking of getting more 🙂
Author: marga (Page 57 of 158)
It’s been a couple of years since Camila stopped wearing diapers, and even longer since I used her changing table. Still, I never got around to getting rid of it (though I did remove the changing platform from the top) and I have finally found a use for it: as my craft-kit cabinet. Well, I also keep the science kits I’ve gotten for the kids there. As you can see, it’s pretty full – which hopefully will deter me from buying more 🙂
For the last couple of weeks, we’ve had a pigeon nesting on one of the pipes coming down from our roof. She sits there for most of the day, so I assume she’s incubating some eggs. Once in a while she flies away and we see her with another pigeon (her mate?). The kids are enthralled, we can’t wait for the baby birds to be born – I hope we see them.
If you follow my blog, instead of just coming here looking for some info on thalidomide or on Che Guevara’s death (the two most popular searches that lead to my site), you will have noticed that lately, I’ve been sort of obsessed with buying my children more and more craft kits. I have justified this to myself as my wanting to find things that I can do with the children that I would enjoy as well. But I’ve noticed that while I eagerly await the packages to come and I’m excited as I open them, I’m much less eager to start using them. I tell myself that I need to have the room, or the house, clean for me to feel OK doing something other than cleaning or working (or looking for more craft kits online!), but in reality, doing these crafts is not that much fun. Camila always wants to do everything by herself, and loses interest when she can’t – and Mika will go into grumpy mode if she’s not perfect at what she does. So why do I continue looking for more kits?
Well, Slate, the online magazine, has the answer. It appears (and I’d have to read the article again to get all the facts/science right) that when we are seeking something, whatever it is, the dopamine system on our brain is stimulated – we are flooded with dopamine. Apparently all that dopamine makes us feel very good, so good that people take drugs like cocaine and amphetamines to stimulate the system. The dopamine itself makes us feel eager and purposeful. So what’s not to love?
Well, apparently (and I’m a good example of that), this system has no mechanism to make us feel satiated, the more we do it, the more we want to do it – and moreover, the smaller and more umpredictable the “rewards” are, the more the system is stimulated, making us want more and seek more. With these mechanics, it’s no wonder that we are so addicted to google, facebook and twitter (Salon has a very good article on a twitter addiction) – which provide us with the feeling of the chase by entering a search term or pressing “reload” in our browser. In my case, of course, I’m addicted to searching for craft kits at Amazon
My addiction for craft kits is not, as you can expect, my only one. I’m also into posting and re-loading a food bulletin board and into looking for recipes for my epicurious or allrecipes for a recipe that uses some specific ingredient that’s on sale or I have at home. I spend an awfully large amount of time doing all three 🙁
At least, now, I understand it – what I need to do now is to find ways to stimulate my dopamine system which are useful to me or others.
Recent Comments