Cricut - Boston Moms Blog

A friend recently invited me to go to a New Kids on the Block concert with her. Though I wasn’t a huge fan of the group in their heyday, I’ve grown fond of their concerts now because it’s the largest gathering of women my age I can find. (“Do you remember Caboodles and clear telephones with multicolored gears?” “Oh my gosh, yes!”)

I met her on Canal Street before the concert. As she walked up to me, she proudly presented me with my very own New Kids T-shirt. It looked different and so much better than the ones hawkers were selling on the street. “This is awesome!” I exclaimed. “Where did you get these?”

“I made them last night!” she said.

She then went on to tell me all about the magic of her Cricut. Within minutes, I went from wanting to listen to Joey McIntyre to wanting to go to a craft store, buy a Cricut, Silhouette, or one of their competitors, and become a fellow #CricutMom.

I’ve now spent the last month researching these machines, which connect to your computer or tablet and allow you to print designs and lettering on a variety of materials, including iron-ons for fabric. With the Cricut, you can make labels for your Rubbermaid containers, decals for your tumblers, and banners for your child’s birthday that all look like you paid good money for them at Target.

Just like seeing the New Kids in concert brought back childhood nostalgia, so did the idea of making my own T-shirts with one of these Cricuts. One of my favorite hobbies as an ’80s child was puff painting T-shirts for every occasion.

But, in the biggest display of self-control I may have ever exhibited, I have not purchased one.

What?!

The things I could make! The gift-giving I could do! The labels I could stick to anything and everything!

I have restrained myself. When my friend mentioned the best way to buy one might be via Facebook Marketplace because people use them once and then want to ditch them, it raised a red flag. I thought about the dusty glue gun in my dining room drawer, the crochet needles I abandoned a decade ago, and the quilt squares I tried to make out of my college T-shirts. The list of craft hobbies I have started and abandoned over my 37 years is way longer than I would like. I approached all of them with the same excitement I have for the Cricut, but when I actually practiced them, it faded fast.

The more I thought about it, I realized that the only craft hobby I ever kept up was calligraphy and hand-lettering, which I’ve done since second grade.

Maybe that’s all I have the capacity for?

Still, I would love to join the ranks of the #CricutMoms, if only to bring back those feelings of making puff paint T-shirts. But the thought of buying a $250 machine that I might use once or twice and then never use again has brought that dream to a halt. Until I can convince myself that I will use one enough to not let it gather dust, I’ll support moms who run side hustles with their Cricut when I need a custom onesie or coffee mug. It is mildly disappointing to not to be among their ranks, but I’ll just tell myself I’m lifting other women up while not adding to my list of failed crafts. It’s a win-win.


Kat Cornetta
Kat grew up in Rochester, NY, and attended college in Ithaca and Binghamton, NY. She moved to Boston to earn a graduate degree in educational administration. In addition to her career in education, Kat has a part-time freelance sportswriting career covering women’s college hockey, gymnastics, and figure skating. She contributed to the Boston Herald for a decade before moving over to the Boston Globe, where she wrote their first-ever weekly women’s college hockey notebook. Her long-term career goal is to write a book. An Ipswich resident, Kat is a mother to two sons (born in 2016 and 2018) and owns a cat named after legendary Buffalo Bills head coach Marv Levy. After having her sons in 2016 and 2018, Kat is attempting to balance a full-time job in education with her writing dream and motherhood. She loves coffee, cats and 1990s NFL quarterbacks. She dislikes chewing gum, high shelves and baby pajamas that snap instead of zipper. You can read her work at sportsgirlkat.com