Hometalk HQ: What is your fondest childhood DIY memory?

Thank you for posting this video. It brought back many memories for myself working around the house and bonding with my family. One of my favorite memories for me is bonding with my sons, Shlomo and Menachem as we refinished bookcases and floors during the summer break.

Love,

Dad

What a great topic. Fondest memory... sitting at my Momma's feet as she sewed our clothes. She would hand us scraps of fabric, which we would glue to shoe boxes (Barbie closets in our minds). Of course this was on rainy days otherwise we 8 kids were outside and out of her hair.

I truly believe this is where my love of crafting and being creative came from straight from my Momma's hands and into mine.

My mother bought various wax fruit, and we spent hours covering them with tiny straight pins, a bead, and sequins to match the colors of the fruits. She had them in a bowl on the coffee table for years. Now I wonder what happened to them, as we made them nearly 60 years ago. My favorite keepsake is a set of reindeer and sleigh that my dad made from beer cans. Each deer was cut from one can and shaped by bending, spray painted gold, with a tiny Jingle bell tied around the neck.

When I was small, probably about age 9-10, my father and I built a birdhouse together. I am now almost 45 and he still has that bird house. It has survived thru 2 moves out of state and back again, and a few years ago it got a new roof. It still harkens birds to a comfy place to live and it still bears the house numbers of the home we lived in so long ago.

My mom taught me to sew at an early age, and one of the things I am proudest of is when I "created" muppet knock off puppets for me and my younger brother. I think I was around 10 years old. I knew then that sewing skills would come in very handy. Thanks Mom!

I have an "oldest memory" - I was 3 or 4 and it was Christmastime, mom had put the baby to bed (my brother), and she was trying to bake cookies. My dad was outside in the garage doing who know what. Well somehow I ended up in my favorite bright blue furry jacket in the garage with dad. He gave me a piece of scrap wood and taught me how to pound nails into the wood. I have no idea how long I was out there but it seemed forever and that I pouned hundreds of nails (in reality probably a dozen or so), and took it in to show mom. She admired it appropriately and put me to bed. I heard later on my mom had a fit! How could you give a kid a hammer and nails! Years later a family joke, but as a young mother most likely horrifying at that moment in time. Dad did a good job, I know how to pound nails and still have all my fingers. (He was also a GC which is why he thought it was ok.) 🤔

More a funny story than a warm fuzzy one. My mom wanted the bathroom redone and had my dad and 8 Yr old brother to do the demolition. Lots of crashing and banging as they went at the ceramic tile with hammers. Upon clean-up my father discovers a huge hole in the toilet and asks my brother, "Did you knock a hole in that toilet? Why didnt you tell me that!" Brother responds, "I didn't think you really wanted to know about it!"

My mom bought a bag of walnuts in the shell. We opened them carefully, ate the nuts of course, and glued a piece of yarn about 18 inches long into the nut and glued the whole thing shut. Then we painted them silver and gold. They were beautiful to our young eyes.....so we hung them in our archway for Christmas. We used them for many years but they finally just fell apart.

I grew up on a farm where we had a variety of out buildings. When a building wasn't being used, I would commandeer it as a playhouse. I had a brooder house and a variety of corn cribs, a milk house and a grainery or two available at given times. I would move a mess of stuff into those buildings and make them little homes. My favorite was the brooder house. After we quit raising chickens it often was stuffed full of straw or hay. When the supply would run low, I would use the bales for seating and cover them with old curtains or fabrics my Mom would give me. I have recreated this Brooder house on the acreage where my husband and I live, and it is a lot more modern than the one back then. It has running water and pine wood floors and lighting, heating and a/c. Old memories updated for my 64 year old comfort! ahhhhh... life is so good!