Friday 16 November 2012

Why I am a useless Crafter's Apprentice

Good morning ladies! In a future twist to the hit-by-a-lorry story, though perhaps unrelated, I broke down on my way home from work last night.  The steering went completely, it took all my weight on the wheel to turn it enough to pull over.  The dashboard was lit up like a Christmas tree BUT, that annoying high-pitched whine it'd been making had stopped.  That's got to be a good thing, right?   OK, so perhaps not!  Mr CA played my knight in shining armour and was able to get the car to the garage, albeit quite slowly.  He informed me when we got there that the car was overheating and smelt of burning!  Great...  Meanwhile I had fun driving his partner's car.  I managed to stall every few feet as he has a spring in his gear level (like most normal cars I believe), mine doesn't, never has had since I've owned it and so putting it in first is just a push upwards, on a "normal" car a push upwards puts you in 3rd...  Let's just say I'm glad the car's owner wasn't there to witness it!

Anyway, on with the post.  I just had a birthday.  Most of my family buy from my Amazon wish list (what an amazing invention that is!) so I get a lot of "craft stuff".  This year was no exception.  My wonderful parents bought me a Dremel 3000!  By "parents" I do of course mean that mum instructed dad to buy it and dad said "what the bleeding 'ell is it?"  I don't think I'm going to get a chance to play with it until the craft fair is done, but I'll certainly be showing you the results!

I also got a lot of books.  Crafty books:

Spellbound Festive Beading - full of wonderful
                                             Christmas decorations to bead
          (courtesy of amazon.co.uk)
The Art of Bead Embroidery - luscious eye candy
         (courtesy of amazon.co.uk)

Embroidered Jewellery - more eye candy and tons of ideas
         (courtesy of amazon.co.uk)

Patterns in Polymer - this book is amazing!  I had no idea you
                                             could do so much with polymer clay
         (courtesy of amazon.co.uk)

The Beaded Edge 2 - I've already read this from cover to
                                             cover... expect to see lots of beaded edges soon...
      (courtesy of amazon.co.uk)

Mod Podge Rocks! - some fun ideas
       (courtesy of amazon.co.uk)

I also got a present in the form of a craft kit.

(courtesy of amazon.co.uk)

and this is where the useless Crafter's Apprentice bit comes in.  You see I want to try everything, and I mean everything.  So I collect stuff.  The one thing I don't collect, can't buy and won't be getting for Christmas is time, so a lot of this stuff stays on the shelf, or in its box.  Want to see?
(courtesy of amazon.co.uk) First up there is an enamelling kit - please excuse the formatting, Blogger is being an arse...


Then there's Little Beaded Boxes.  I bought the book, but never had Delicas which you need to make them.  I've finally bought the Delicas, wonder how long it will be before I get round to making something...

(courtesy of amazon.co.uk)

Drawn Thread has been on my shelf for a while...

(courtesy of amazon.co.uk)

Lucet - The NEW designI bought this lucet at a Craft Fair...  it looked so much fun.
(courtesy of the lucet.co.uk)

At that same fair I bought a punch needle kit.  I took it away with me a few times and took it on holiday this summer.  No, I haven't opened the packet! 

My lovely friend Cuckoo sent me her sharp crochet hook for making crochet edgings.  Did that happen?  Erm.... no.  But maybe I could team it up with the Beaded Edge book!

I haven't finished!

         (courtesy of amazon.co.uk)                       This book looks fascinating... so why haven't I tried any of the
                                                projects??



         (courtesy of amazon.co.uk)                               This one has crochet techniques galore, and yet it lives
                                                        on my dining room table... waiting.

I could go on, but I'm feeling such a failure right now I think I'll stop there!  If you are interested in seeing my shockingly long Craft book inventory, go here!

14 comments:

Chrissy said...

Wow you have SO MANY books and kits. I love the idea of the lace making kit, as it is something I've always fancied having a go at but didn't really want to invest in a load of new equipment if I didn't like it. I'm really not suprised you don't get round to a lot of new craft, because time is so limited and if you have favourite crafts, you will always return to them. I just knit, sew and crochet, and I NEVER have enough time, just for those three crafts, so I don't know about adding any more to the list!

Anyway, happy belated birthday!

Marilyn said...

At least you cant say you have nothing to do or you are bored with doing the same thing all the time. Maybe one day ..........

Marilyn said...

Oh, and I nearly forgot. Happy birthday. Hope you had a lovely day, and enjoyed checking out all the lovely Amazon gifts.
Enjoy your weekend.

Allie said...

And yet, you're still one of the most prolific crafters I know, and you try so many new things - not to worry girl, you're well set up for retirement!

JoJo said...

Great birthday haul!!!! I covet that enameling kit! Sorry about your car though; what a bummer!

Samantha said...

We've already discussed this I'm sure.

Crafting = Hoarding :D

Anonymous said...

Wendy! I missed your birthday AND your accident! I am so sorry. By the way you should tell your insurance company anyway even if you decide not to claim because they will track that SOB down to claim on HIS even if he didn't stop (I'd have called the police to get a crime number but hey ho, what's happened has happened). I have been onvolved in 3 accidents in the space of 14 months including a guy who tried to run from me so I am quite the expert now if you need any advice.

Chris Dodsley @made by ChrissieD said...

I'm glad you're home okay, I was thinking about you after I got your message about the breakdown! That's one amazing set of birthday pressies, how fantastic :)

Nancy Lee said...

Life is a buffet -- you should try everything. Except for accidents and breaking down. Do that as little as possible. Also, make sure you get some really serious safety goggles before using that Dremel, and a good tabletop vice (not that kind of vice...) Stop laughing.
I have had more cutting disks break off at high speeds...you want your eyes protected and your project secured with your hands safely at a bit of a distance.
Yeah, that's me, the voice of doom!
Hugs!

Fiona said...

Hope your car fixes up soon.... we are so dependant on them... and happy birthday.. what a great selection ... methinks you might be doing a bit of perusing this weekend?
Hugz

DebbieCPhillips said...

You are fortunate to have so many choices. But if you want to, maybe you could take one of the projects you put off and have lots of supplies for to a nursing home or children's home and do a project with a small group there and all learn together. If you pick your people right one of the people at the nursing home may know how to do what you want to learn.

Sheila said...

A belated birthday wish to you, have some awesome things. I have not seen the ornament book, looks very interesting. Will have to check it out. I'm like you i love to try different things and just not enough time.

Sandra :) said...

You have many interests and lots of fun craft supplies and books - to me that sounds like a recipe for lots of fun! It could be worse - you could be out doing things you shouldn't be doing *ahem* :D I think most of us have far more supplies than we'll get around to using - pass some on when you lose interest and call it a RAK :)

Anonymous said...

Hi Wendy, thanks for offering to leave a comment on my 'experiment' of blogger v wordpress (and how return comments arrive, if ever) a while ago, I did reply but am guessing they sadly don't get auto emailed on, as I had hoped they would :( Sorry to hear about your car trouble, I have to drive a manual car next weekend after only driving auto for 10 years...it will be interesting! I agree with one of the above comments - crafting = hoarding, but you get through an amazing number of crafts so I think all your books are justified. Bethx