Can I really just say how much I hate the "DIY" trend? Can it please just go somewhere and die quietly already?


Now, please don't get me wrong, I love handmade and homemade. Most days I prefer anything I cook to stuff I can buy. I make my own knock-off art because I'm both cheap and frequently on the shady side of broke (thanks! student loans). I'd much rather someone bake me a cake or make me something as a gift than buy me some overpriced, impersonal, made-in-some-developing-country-by-undernourished-non-shade-grown-orphans item.

What I really loathe is how these people who are advocating and selling the whole DIY business are actually fucking wickedly-talented artisans masquerading as normal people. Seriously, nothing DIY looks that photogenic when done by impatient imperfect people such as myself. These people with their beautiful self-custom-restored homes and uniquely-perfect, hand-stamped-hand-cut Christmas greeting cards are giving me an inadequacy complex that rivals the worst of my teenage "I-wish-I-had-the-self-discipline-to-be-anorexic" moments.

What I'd really like is, in the future, if these uber-DIYers would be legally required to put disclaimers on their websites and photos. Perhaps something like: "Caution. Do not attempt to actually follow the DIY instructions contained herein if you are a mere mortal. Failure to heed this warning may result immense personal harm in the form of crushing feelings of inadequacy, overwhelming resentment of your own personal limitations and seething, soul-sucking hatred directed at poor random innocent bloggers with talent."