The Hazards of Being Crafty….

I’ve been doing some crafting here lately.  I picked up 2 old hymnals from an estate sale this past weekend for just 75 cents each, and even though something in me cringed when I started tearing them apart, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.  I’ve made a wreath, some Christmas ornaments, some flowers, and I have a plan to make some paper feathers too.  I’ll show you all about that tomorrow, but today I have to tell you about a little known pitfall of this much crafting, that you may want to be aware of should you find yourself on a crafting binge too.

I was unloading the dishwasher just a couple of mornings ago, and since I have small children, we’re still in the sippy cup phase.  Typically I unload the sippy cup parts and leave them on the counter until I finish unloading everything else and can go back to them to reassemble all the parts.  When I was unloading, I dropped a couple of the straws onto the floor and raced to grab them before my 5-second-rule time limit expired.  I finished unloading everything to the tune of “Mommy…juice, juice…cuppy…cuppy” over and over again.  I hurried to get my littlest one a cup of juice.  The cup I selected has a real fault though.  Something happens when you screw the lid on and the pressure inside forces some liquid up the straw every time, causing an overflow.  “I’ll solve this,” I thought to myself.  “I’ll just sip some of the juice off the top while I screw the lid on.”

And that’s just what I set out to do.

Something is wrong though….in my haste to get all of this done, I must have inserted the bottom portion of the straw incorrectly because no liquid would come out.  I remove the lid and push the straw up farther into the mouthpiece…then another sip.  This time I take a good long pull to make sure it’s working.  My cheeks suck inward and nothing comes out.  So I remove the lid again…certain that I’ve just pushed the straw too far up this time.  I pull the straw back out partways and again…suck on the straw really hard to make sure it’s working properly this time….

Nothing.

“Screw this,” I think to myself…I’ll just use this other straw.  Somehow I ended up with an extra at the end of my assembly process anyhow.  I put that straw in and Voila…drinking just fine.  I sip the top amount off of the straw and hand it to my little guy.

“What in the heck is wrong with that straw though?!”  Maybe something clogged it while it was in the dishwasher.  I pick up the straw to inspect it only to immediately see my problem is not the straw….

it’s that the “straw” is….

a gluestick!!!

Yes ladies and gentlemen….a little known hazard of crafting in your kitchen….the gluestick is mistaken for a sippy cup straw.  Now that you know this, you can be aware when you are crafting.  Maybe this should be a label on the package of gluesticks when you buy them.  “Buyer Beware:  Gluesticks are not intended for liquid consumption.”  You know those ridiculous warnings happen because someone has done the stupid thing and then tried to sue the company for it.  Well not to worry hot glue stick company out there…no law suit here.  Just a little wiser…and a little more aware of the many hazards of being crafty.