Thursday 17 December 2015

Crap Craft Wednesday


Yes, I know it's Thursday.

So let me begin... My little bundle of joy is now 21 months old and he has been and continues to be a hurricane like force that sweeps through our lives.  The last couple of years have been incredibly tough.  Soul destroying hard work and a house that constantly resembles a play centre following a busy afternoon.  I have had to adjust all over again to being on call 24 hours a day, many disrupted night's sleep, and the complete and utter lack of any meaningful time with either my hubs or on my own.  Solo time is so important to me.  I'm a certified INFP on the Myers Briggs Type Indicator  I love being on my own.  I spent far too much time with my thoughts, even when in company,  I find time restraints incredibly stressful and I'm disorganised to the point of chaotic.  

This perhaps explains my extremely erratic blogging pattern over the last 2 years.  I just haven't had any time and what little time I get is spent trying to claw back the housework, make sure the kids have enough clean clothes, and... sleeping, to be honest.  

However, since around midsummer I have found a pattern developing.  I no longer go to work on a Wednesday but Master L still goes to a childminder (who happens to be a very close family friend) on this day.  Miss 8 is in school which means that Wednesday has become my day. My day.  The one day  I look forward to every week.  It is sacrosanct and all the fun things I want to do are saved for that day.  In reality, once it comes around, I am either too tired that I end up sleeping through it or I am so overwhelmed with possibilities that my brain overloads... and I end up sleeping.

All this by way of getting to the point, which is that on the days that I do manage to get things done, I have a fine old time.  Last week I decided I would finally go through my vintage children's book collection and single out those books that are very old and tatty and make something out of them.


There are hundreds of ideas on what to do with old books on Pinterest but one of the simplest things I've found is to make gift tags.  You just cut them up, hole punch them and stick a pretty ribbon or piece of twine through them.  Simple.  If you spend a good couple of hours on this you end up with a collection like this one.



Aren't they simply wonderful?

I like to be creative and nothing gives me greater pleasure than to make my own objects of simplicity and prettiness and look at them adoringly afterwards.  However what I possess in enthusiasm and intent is ebbed by the aforementioned time restraints, not to mention my discernible lack of talent.  But the great thing about these is that it doesn't matter.  Anyone can sit and cut out shapes.  I have a guillotine but I didn't even bother using it.  What's more, anyone who has an interest in crafts would already have the basic items needed to make these.


The thing is I'm kind of out of control now.  I have enjoyed making these so much that I do it whenever I have a chance.  It will probably take me forever to use them all so I've taken to sticking one in Ebay parcels containing sold items along with a thank you stamp or a sticker on it.


Purchased very reasonably from Ebay


I can't stress enough how rudimentary my craft skills are, hence the rather crass title of this post. For the foreseeable future, I have christened my Wednesdays 'Crap Craft Wednesdays' and I have a list of all the creative tasks I want to undertake in the forthcoming weeks and months.  Hopefully I can continue to put this precious me-time to good use and worry just that little bit less about everything else. 

Yay


8 comments:

  1. I seriously love your creations. You could definitely sell those gift tags, I haven't seen anything like them and I can't imagine they'd be many vintage loving people who wouldn't snap a packet of them up.
    I hear what you're saying about the crafting. I've no idea how stressful having two small children and a job must be but it really is a wonderful way of switching off and concentrating on something else than grim reality and you get to achieve something, too. xxx

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  2. I have zero craft skills, but I think I could make those - they're great!
    Having young kids is hard, hard work, and carving out a little time for yourself is a sanity saver so well done for using your Wednesdays for something productive and enjoyable. xxx

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  3. I can barely believe your little guy is nearly two. What happened? Your Wednesdays sound heavenly and your tags are inspiring! Enjoy those kips, guilt-free. xxx

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  4. Hardly "crap crafting" - I look forward to more of these!

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  5. Haha, whilst the results are not crap at all, I talk about my own 'skills' in exactly the same way. I have a disintegrating kids' book with pony picures where a lot of it has been scribbled on, so this kind of project will be perfect for it, I was awaiting inspiration.

    Also relate a lot to what you said about needing time alone (I believe I am an 'outgoing introvert) and struggling with the conflicting demands of housework/kids/freelance work meant that I neglected my blog for a shameful age. I was using that bit of 'free me' time to get fitter (and thin) at the gym, but missed my writing time and the blogging community a lot so am trying to claw back some time for it.
    So I've been hunting everyone down, you are (were) Lucy Nation and I claim my five pounds!

    x

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  6. Love them. I've got a heap of vintage books I was thinking of getting rid of but this is a great way to use them. Did you stick the images onto card?

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  7. I ended up trying some out. I probably should have let the glue dry a bit more, but I was excited to cut them. I can feel an addiction coming up. I've got a lot of pages I've now ripped out of books. https://www.flickr.com/photos/jodeswa75/24973005130/in/dateposted-public/

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