Can you spend hours in craft and art supply stores too? Combing the aisles evokes some sort of excitement like an addict getting their fix. I think it is because I am an addict….I admit it, I am addicted to everything crafty. I see a pack of fineliners that I must have, after all I may need those colors for that project I may undertake someday. I know, I need to get out more if that is what is exciting in my life. It seems like every couple of weeks, I come across a craft that I absolutely have to try.
Are you like me?
You see a zentangle or a mandala or maybe some calligraphy and you think to yourself, I have to try it so you spend hours, even days researching the best supplies, searching on pinterest, watching every youtube video that you can find until you have researched it to death. I know your type…if you had never heard of zentangle or a mandala until this moment, your googling it right now aren’t you!! I buy all of the best supplies and my new supplies sit in their packaging staring back at me with great anticipation on when they may get used. My excitement to use them is high and I have my project all planned out but then I snap back to reality. I can’t draw or paint and I haven’t used cursive since school (which is forever ago) and even an art project that is abstract doesn’t work for me because I need everything to be exact. Exact and abstract don’t exactly get along very well. If a project requires any sort of measuring, forget it, I have no idea how to read a measuring tape and if it requires a straight line drawn with a ruler well….somehow my lines still turn out crooked. So the time comes to actually do the craft and I tear open the packaging and hmmmm….my excitement fades pretty quickly and I don’t actually even really want to do it. I think I am just addicted to the supplies, the planning and the thought of having a hobby that I am really great at but, I never really get to the actual doing part of the hobby. Deep down inside, I know that if I actually chose a hobby and dedicated some serious time to it, I would probably be pretty good at it but I seem to keep on with my never ending search for a new hobby.
Perhaps it is because I don’t have a dedicated space when I get in the crafty mood. I have my supplies here, there and everywhere. They are in my office, some are packed away in Rubbermaid containers in my basement and I am even using an old dresser to store my gift wrapping supplies. If I am really lucky and I need a gluestick or some pencil crayons, I may find a dried out gluestick under my son’s bed and a couple of pencil crayons that have had the life sharpened out of them.
Anytime I want to work on a project, I have to drag everything out, carry Rubbermaid containers upstairs, then search my office for the tape and then it was at least another hour to find a pair of scissors – seriously where do scissors disappear too? I manage to find a pair of scissors in my son’s room (big surprise) and the blades seem to be stuck together. I ask him about it and apparently, he thought that cutting up pieces of bubblegum would be a good idea. I manage to find another pair…you know the ones. The plastic ones that are duller than a dinner at Aunt Martha’s on a Friday night, the ones that they give you in grade school so that the teacher can be sure that you won’t injure yourself. Those will do I tell myself. By this point, I am not really feeling crafty but I persevere, determined to create a masterpiece. Scrapbooking is one of those hobbies that I have managed to stick with. I sit at the table and I unpack all of my scrapbooking paper…admiring how many beautiful sheets of paper I have (I have a LOT of paper). I continue on the page where I left off several months ago, trying to remember what sort of layout I was working on. I try several new layouts using different papers and pictures. I settle on a layout and I try to cut out a design but the f$#%^g scissors are so dull that they just crease the paper. Meanwhile, my cat has seemed to plunk himself across my papers gingerly batting around the ribbon and papers; his masterful paper hunting skills have managed to fling my papers all over the table…and where did the buttons go that I had chosen? My other cat is playing hockey with them on the floor and now I can only find 2 of the 5 that I need. By this time, I am very annoyed, I pack up all of my stuff, carry it back downstairs and literally, I have created nothing. Maybe that is why I am just addicted to the supplies because, I can never relax and get to the doing part of the craft without it causing great anxiety. I start dreaming of a craft room….after all, I do have an extra bedroom that is doing nothing. A blank canvas to create the craft room I had always wanted. Doubt creeps in…would I actually do any crafts once I had a dedicated space? A space where everything was organized and I could actually have sharp scissors. Of course I will be crafting all of the time, I tell myself.
Stay tuned to see if my craft room comes to life and if I actually do any crafting. Do you have a craft supply addiction? What is your favorite hobby and if you have a craft room, I would love to see pictures of it 🙂