Among the last born of Generation X, I can’t help but feel nostalgic for the 80s. Things were simpler, the world was still small, pop culture was fresh and exciting, technology was new and precious enough that we didn’t revolve around it.
One day I discovered how to recapture what the 80s felt like. How to create moments where I could travel through time.
I listen to Synthwave music because it feels like the 80s, but it’s not the songs we’ve heard so many times they’re almost cliché. It makes me feel like what it did to hear those classic 80s songs for the first time.
And then I take out an activity that was created at the time. Something a person in the 80s could also have had. Done in the way they would have done it. A puzzle, a craft, a project with materials from the period.
I watch TV shows we watched back then. And buy (sometimes tacky) things for my home that we liked back then. Sometimes I even find things that smell like my memories.
Sight and sound and motion. When put together, it’s like being there. Or then.
Join me as I explore crafts, projects, styles, and more from the 70s and 80s – all the things I need to realize my time travel dreams and make the past new again.
About me
I’m Lindsay Crain, and I’ve always had an innate need to create. Though my creations have taken many forms over the years. As a child I always wanted to draw, but lacked the ideas. I learned a few crafts, but rarely finished anything. I discovered acting. I earned a degree in theatre where I created characters and told stories on stage and film, and I learned to build sets and props and more.
I spent many years as a hobby photographer, dabbled in painting and web design and song recording.
I wrote the first drafts of a dozen books, and enjoyed a decade of teaching art to preschoolers.
But now, I’ve returned to some of my earliest endeavors: crafting. Now that I’m older and I know how to finish things. Unlike other creative endeavors, crafting doesn’t rely on others to hire you, it doesn’t demand that you always come up with new ideas, and it doesn’t even always require years of experience to build enough skill to complete something worth loving. And you don’t even have to leave the house.
I like to try crafts of all kinds, and it’s always exciting to discover a forgotten craft from the past.