I love a good laugh. Especially when it comes from an unlikely source – a crafting book!
Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People, by Amy Sedaris, takes a look at the reasons why people craft and shares with readers some truly bizarre and quirky crafting ideas, most of which won’t cost you a dime. Some crafts will leave your belly sore with laughter. Others will leave you scratching your head wondering “Who thought of this?”.
Just who is Amy Sedaris? For those of you who are not familiar with her she is an actress, author and comedian. She played the character Jerri Blake on Comedy Central’s series Strangers with Candy. She has also appeared on shows like The Middle, Sex and the City, My Name is Earl, Sesame Street and Just Shoot Me to name a few. Amy has also appeared on many talk shows including David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Kimmel. Personally I know Amy from the movie Elf (she played the secretary) and Maid in Manhattan with Jennifer Lopez (she played Natasha Richardson’s best friend).
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first started to read through this book. The last thing I expected was to find myself laughing hysterically at it. I certainly didn’t expect instructions on how to make a rug out of sandpaper and crayons. LOL!
The book starts out with Amy saying that it has been said that “ugly people craft and attractive people have sex“. LOL! Right there you know that this is going to be an interesting book.
The first chapter, The Whose and Whats of Crafting, explores what is crafting, who crafts and other craft related topics. I love the part called How Are We Using Our Crafts? It says people use crafts for camper decorations, old people presents, chew toys, dust collectors and as evidence that we don’t spend all our time doing absolutely nothing. I can relate to the “dust collectors” part. I have plenty of those around my home.
Some of the crafts mentioned in the book (most with photos too) include…
– A lamp decorated with colored hair swatches.
– Make candles out of drum sticks (the kind you play with, not the kind you eat – ha ha).
– Indian corn made out of pom poms (actually its a cute idea and would make a great decoration).
– A craft fire made out of toilet paper rolls and tissue paper (this one is cute too!).
– Use bottle caps, wood and some nails to make a shoe scraper.
I could go on an on about the crafts. There must be well over a hundred of them. In between Amy gives you some recipes too, like how to make Poor Man’s Toffee with a can of unopened condensed milk. I’ll have to try this one.
Some crafts are actually rather ingenious and I can see myself trying them. Other crafts I think I’ll leave in the book, like how to make a condom out of a sandwich bag or a faux beard out of hair you’ve saved from your hair brush for the past six months. Um…EWWW!!!
Amy even gives you craft ideas you can do based upon some quirks you might have like crafting when angry or crafting with an OCD. LOL!
What out for the chapter called Safety Meeting. If features images of crafting “accidents”. Even though they are all fake they are still pretty gross.
The only “con” I can think of is that some of the crafts don’t have directions, just a photo, so you have to “guess” at how they were made. Some are easy enough to figure out but I did see a few that I wish I had the instructions for.
Simple Times: Crafting for Poor People is going to have a spot on my crafting shelf in my bookcase. I know I’ll refer back to the book again and again over the years whenever I am looking for a gag gift, fun craft for the kids (there are even crafts great for school projects!) or when I just feel like being crafty for the heck of it.
The book is available at most book retail locations.
Amy Sedaris has published other funny books. Now that I’ve read this book I’m looking forward to reading more books that she’s written.
To learn more about the book and Amy please visit www.AmySedarisRocks.com. I’m not sure if that is an official site or not but it sure does look that way to me.
Kimberly
*I received a free sample copy in order to do this review. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own.