How it All Started

Welcome to tashcrafts.blogspot.com. Hopefully you will find this blog both entertaining and helpful as I hope to not only talk about some of the things going on in my life, but to also present some of my photography, short stories, and crafts. I love to write and I love to craft. I struggled for a while trying to decide what I would blog about—crafts or my short stories or travel or photography. After putting it off for so long, I decided I should just start blogging and incorporate all of the above—hence the title of my blog "Natasha's Craftings." Maybe one day, if this blog appears to be unsuccessful, I will stick to one of these topics that I am passionate about, but for now I just want to write. I want to write about what's going on in my life—my struggles, my triumphs, and the lessons I'm learning each day. But another part of my life is crafting. I love to craft! I love to help others craft and brainstorm ideas of their own. I love to instill the joy of crafting to others! And I love to learn new crafts. I just recently learned how to crochet a hat. It was both difficult and frustrating at first, but after determining to stick with it, I successfully crocheted a hat and it was very gratifying! 

As you can see from the picture, I'm pretty excited about my accomplishment. :) My husband Aaron has been wanting me to crochet him a hit for about a year now so I finally decided—currently being unemployed and having a lot of time on my hands—to do something useful with my time that would give me another skill and make Aaron proud! I haven't crocheted him a hat yet. I wanted to try this out first to make sure I could do it. My next project will be to buy some yarn in the color he would want and start making him a hat.




As apart of my first blog post, I not only wanted to talk about what I plan to write about on this blog but I also wanted to help you, the reader, get to know a little bit about me. Don't worry, I'm not planning to share my whole life's story. I'm sure that would just bore most of you to tears and you would quickly leave this page and find something much more interesting to read. I do, however, want to tell you about my summer and the crazy chain of events that led me to where I am now. 

My husband and I attended the University of Oklahoma. I received a bachelor's in journalism in 2011 and my husband and I married a year later. After we got married, my husband and I moved to Moore, Oklahoma. I was working in west Oklahoma City and he was working in Norman so it just made sense that we should live in Moore to cut down on my commute to work every day. 

We loved living in Moore. We lived in such a fun area! There were new shops opening up all the time and we were right down the street from the Moore Warren Theater. My husband and I love movies and we especially loved going to the Warren Theater—one of the places I miss quite a bit being in Texas now. 

It's kind of difficult to find the words to describe what happened in May of this year. The tornado that hit Moore devastated this city. I don't think I will ever forget it. Fortunately, my husband and all of my friends were okay. Sometimes I still lay awake at night thinking about that day and wishing I had reacted differently to different situations. I had been driving home when the tornado hit and my friend called me to tell me to get off the highway and find shelter. I did as she said and watched the news on my phone as the tornado went over the intersection next to where we live. After finding out Aaron was okay, I got in my car and headed for our apartment to meet him there and see if anything was left standing. Of course there was so much traffic and most of the roads were blocked so I had no way of getting through. I remember parking in a day care parking lot, getting out of my car, and trying to walk the rest of the way. They weren't letting anyone through. I stood at that intersection listening to the sirens, the helicopters, and the people wailing and crying near me and I just stood there in shock. I so wish I would have reached over to hug those people, to pray with them, to tell them it was going to be okay, but instead I stood there in shock. I pray for those people now though. Almost every night I think of them and remember to pray for them. Pray that they found their loved ones, pray that God would comfort them if anyone they knew was lost, pray that He would help them find new homes or rebuild what was lost. You never know how you will react in these types of situations, but I pray that next time I would be a comfort to those around me and that I wouldn't give into the shock. 

About five hours later, I was finally able to make it to Norman to be with Aaron. The traffic was so bad and the destruction so intense that it took me that long to find a route that would get me to Aaron. I dealt with some anger with God in that car ride—angry for what He had let happen, angry for all of the pain that the people were feeling, and angry about all of the destruction. But then I calmed down and gained some fresh perspective on the whole situation. Instead of being angry at all that had happened, I was amazed at how many lives were saved. If you go back and look over all of the destruction, all of the houses and buildings that were flattened, it is amazing that anyone survived that, but so many people did. I then began to thank God for it. I started thanking him for saving me and Aaron, for saving our friends, for saving so many people, and I continued to pray for those who had lost loved ones. I prayed that God would bring them peace. 

To conclude a little bit of the outcome for us in this situation, our apartment was still standing and everything in it was fine. Our van was destroyed but fortunately it wasn't working anyway so it wasn't that much of a loss for us. We couldn't get back to our apartment for several days because there were downed power lines everywhere and it wasn't safe to get through so we stayed at a friend's house for a couple of days. When we got back to our apartment and then left again to escape the next terrible storm that came through and then came back again, we were told that our apartment was uninhabitable because of all of the damage done to it. Luckily, we had gone to Dallas a few days before that for an interview and we were able to find an apartment we could move into immediately. So after a crazy couple of weeks, we packed up everything and made our way to Dallas. 

Now we are here. And though I haven't found a job yet, I reflect on everything we went through in those couple of weeks and I'm grateful for God's help and love and comfort. I don't understand why I don't have a job yet, but I'm grateful for God's provision. I'm grateful for my husband, for my family, for my friends, for the wonderful new church we found here, for my husband's job, for the time right now where I can craft and write and give glory to God for all that He has done. Ultimately, this is why I write. I write to give Him the glory; I craft to make little sweet treasures that might be a blessing to my friends or family; I take pictures to savor the moments I have each and everyday because I don't know what day will be my last, but in the midst of it all I know God is good and He loves us and wants good things for us. 

I hope you enjoyed this post. This has been something I have been processing for the past couple of months and I hope it is an encouragement to you and a reminder to live each day to its fullest and to remember those who are struck by tragedy and to pray. No matter how far away or how close from my friends and family I am, I take comfort in knowing that I can still pray for them.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."

Jeremiah 29:11-13