The Cricut Has Been Released From Captivity

The Cricut Has Been Released From Captivity

🌼 Date: Friday, August 14, 2026

⚡ Energy: Crafty confidence unlocked

💖 Status: Cricut unboxed, plastic removed, intimidation reduced

😉 Outlook: The door has been cracked open

Today my Mary came over to visit.

And she showed me how to use my Cricut.

Yes.

The Cricut.

The one that has been sitting in the box since May.

Still wrapped in plastic.

Waiting patiently for me to stop acting like it was a bomb squad situation instead of a crafting machine.

I do not know why I have been so intimidated by it.

I can create a website.

I can publish a blog.

I have written over 200 posts about cancer, boobs, chemo, radiation, reconstruction, hormone shots, grief, rage, recovery, protein, eye drops, and whatever fresh hell my body decided to introduce that day.

For goodness sake, I train people how to operate giant 40-foot machines.

Granted, those machines are school buses.

But still.

Machines are what I do.

I teach people how to check mirrors, manage air brakes, maneuver through neighborhoods, read traffic, handle students, avoid curbs, and not turn a yellow bus into a rolling lawsuit.

But this little crafting machine?

Apparently, that was the one that made me nervous.

Make it make sense.

I have watched YouTube videos.

I have explored the internet.

I have stared at tutorials.

I have looked at the box.

I have thought about opening the box.

I have then decided the box could continue living its best unopened life for one more day.

For months.

But sometimes, YouTube is not enough.

Sometimes I need an actual human sitting next to me saying:

“Click this.”

“Now do this.”

“No, you did not break it.”

“Yes, that is right.”

“No, the machine is not judging you.”

That is where Mary comes in.

My Mary.

She came over and showed me hands-on how to use it.

And once she actually walked me through it, I realized it was not nearly as scary as I had made it in my head.

Which is rude.

Because I had created an entire intimidation storyline around this thing.

A full Cricut villain arc.

And it turns out, it was just sitting there like:

“Ma’am, I cut vinyl. Please calm down.”

And guess what?

We actually made something.

A big yellow school bus.

Of course we did.

Because apparently even when I am trying to craft my way into a new era, the school bus still finds me.

But this time, I was not driving it.

I was not training anyone on it.

I was not worrying about schedules, routes, complaints, paperwork, radios, mirrors, or whether someone was going to say, “Can you just…”

Nope.

This time, the bus was cute.

Flat.

Yellow.

Crafty.

And completely under my control.

I am not going to say I am a professional.

Let’s not get carried away.

I am not opening a Cricut empire by Monday.

Probably.

But the door has been cracked open.

And that is how it starts.

One little project.

One tiny win.

One “oh wait, I can do this” moment.

And honestly, I needed that.

After everything cancer has made me feel like I cannot do, it felt good to learn something new.

It felt good to not be a patient.

Not be the one with the appointments.

Not be the one with the weird side effect.

Not be the one waiting for results, calls, schedules, or medical instructions.

Just Tina.

Sitting with Mary.

Learning how to use a machine.

Making a yellow school bus.

Laughing at myself because I let a craft cutter intimidate me for three months.

There is something healing about that too.

Not in a deep medical way.

Not in a “this cured my trauma” way.

But in a small, normal, human way.

The kind where you remember you are still capable of learning.

Still capable of creating.

Still capable of making something with your hands.

Still capable of being excited about possibilities.

Because now my brain is already thinking.

Shirts.

Decals.

Signs.

Blog stuff.

Mrs. Worldwide.

One Badass Day at a Time.

Maybe even a few snarky cancer-recovery creations that should probably come with a warning label.

The Cricut has officially been released from captivity.

The plastic is off.

The fear has been reduced.

The first project has been made.

And Tiny Tina may have just unlocked a new crafting side quest.

Mary showed me the door.

I cracked it open.

Now we will see what kind of trouble I can make with vinyl.

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💗 Tina –
One Badass Day at a Time