11 of 40 – Kitting Up

I don’t drool over shoes and handbags.  I don’t have a passion for the latest gadgets.  I don’t search for the latest ‘must-have’ fashion accessories.

But drop me in a craft shop – any type of craft shop – and I want to pet the fabric, run my fingers through the beads, play with the samples.  It doesn’t matter what the craft is, I revel in the colours, the shiny-ness, the blank canvas of opportunity saying “come and play.”

I want to try all the crafts, have a go at paper parchment crafts, knit a ruffle scarf, do something with the fabric jelly rolls.  The colours, the textures, the patterns all call out to me. 

And then my mind goes into overdrive and I think about how I could mix it up a bit: how could I do parchment craft with a gothic twist instead of being all pastel cutesy? (as seen in http://www.etsy.com/shop/immortalvisions)  
Would it be possible to knit beads into the scarf?  Or, seeing as the scarves are apparently so easy to make but so amazing to look at, could I set up a little stall to sell them?  As for the fabric jelly rolls, there are books, classes, online tutorials…so MANY things I could do with them. And so many colours to dazzle the eye.

And then I sigh, pet them one last time and put them back.  I have so much going on in my life, when would I have time to do it? To take on another project?  I have a double cupboard full of crafting materials that I never sit down with.  If I want to do something creative, then I should get on with something I already own rather than adding to the clutter.

Besides which, have you seen the price of those kits?  The actual material they contain is so little in comparison to the packaging and marketing. I am sure I could put together the items for a fraction of the price; and have more to play with and a bigger choice.

Except I never do.  There is always something else to spend my money on, my time on. Something more important, more essential.  More worthy.  More dull.  So I leave the colours and the opportunities behind until the next time I find myself in a craft shop; to repeat the whole cycle again.

But this time it is different. This time I am Trying a New Thing.  I am Trying ‘Buying a kit just for me, of a craft that is completely new and I have rather fancied the look of but never did find all the bits to do it myself.’

And then making time to actually do it.  It would have been so easy to have bought the kit and then just left it on the side, making me feel guilty about not doing it having spent money on it; and guilty for thinking of carving time out for me to do it.  (What is it with ‘mum-guilt’ anyway? Does it arrive with the placenta?!)

Number 11 of 40 was all of the above, all wrapped up in the activity of doing marbling for the first time.  With the companionship of my son. 
We had a lovely time, and he was really happy we spent time together just the two of us because it was Mother’s Day.  Our efforts are now drying on the top of the fridge.