K.I.S.S.

K.I.S.S.: Keep It Simple Stupid. I first saw this phrase in school. I think it was school. I’m pretty sure it was school because I remember it written on a blackboard. Or was that on T.V.? Maybe on school on T.V.? Wait, was it at Eastland Academy? Was I in class with Blair, Joe, Natalie and Tootie? OK, my heads spinning a bit — I’ll have to sort that out later.

But just the other day, one of the staffers schooled me on the beauty of simplicity (A concept I struggle with — can you say “Circus Party”?).

To mix it up a bit, two of the staffers attended a morning summer camp run by our town. Upon pick-up after the first day, our expert in pink, sparkles and little big-eyed animals, runs to me beaming.

“Look at this,” she gasps as she thrusts a piece of plastic mesh with plastic lacing running through it. “It’s a bookmark! This is the coolest craft I’ve ever done!” (I wince — I’m so easily forgotten)

“Wow, that is super great!” I say convincingly. (Really? The coolest? What about my card weaving project? How quickly we forget “Put Your Cards On The Table Week”.)

Later in the day, our lovely staffer has her friend over and shows her the bookmark. (Ok, here we go. I hope the lovely staffer doesn’t get her feelings hurt…) “WOW, that is sooooo cool! Can I make one?” The two run off to create with some extra pieces of plastic lacing the camp sent home.

Huh, well what do you know. Something so simple can provide so much bliss. That is definitely a lesson learned. Although, I should have known this brilliant bookmark — a monument to simplicity — is the result of many summers of fine tuning. Plastic Lacing, or what we called “Gimp”, is a Summer Camp staple. I myself remember working the Gimp at Camp Arrowhead back in the day.

So,if you can’t beat em — join em. This is our bookmark bounty from the craft store and it ran us $7.

We worked a few bookmarks ourselves and it is a great activity to do while you shoot the breeze. I got the 411 on the camp:

• The head counselor just got engaged
• The best person to push you on the tire swing is a third grader
• The girl with all the woven key chains is not a good listener
• The boys and girls bathrooms are kind of hard to tell part (There is more to that story)

Man, I miss Camp! I think this would be a great craft for a little girls birthday party. Or you could put together a craft kit to give as a favor.

Letting K.I.S.S. be my guide, I will stop here. There is really nothing else to say about this newly discovered craft — it is simply perfect.

Now if you will excuse me, I’m going to go look up Natalie and Tootie on Facebook and catch up on old times.