I grew up in a house that valued crafting. I remember that our dining room table transformed into an arts center more often than a place we came together to eat. As a kid, our home was also one that found household items to reuse in creating our masterpieces – not because it was cool to be green at the time but because my parents just didn’t have the money to buy art supplies. Cardboard became canvases, toilet paper rolls became the bodies of dolls, paper bags became the skin of our paper mâché creatures. Crafting didn’t just take place at our home. On the weekends it transformed into an even larger social occasion – crafts and snacks at grandma’s house.

My mother is one of 10 children – five girls, five boys, born in that order. So I grew up on Saturdays with my two dozen cousins and four aunts at grandma’s dining room table making the most magnificent recycled art. These memories came back to me this weekend because of this great story I read in the Bitter Southerner by Dana Hazels Seith called “The Ties that Bind” and as I continue the tradition of creating art at my dining room table.

Although I don’t have the company of my family on Saturday mornings at my dinner table, I still crank up the music, go through my recycled garbage can and see what I can bring back to life. Even though I have the loot to buy the art supplies now, I think my mom had it right all along – use what you got and see what you get.

I’d love to see what others are crafting at their dining room tables, so show and tell please! In the meantime, check out some of these amazing dining rooms on coldwellbanker.com.

Main photo credit via Flicker user Vintage Cabin