Monday, September 01, 2008

Of Broken China; Broken Dreams


With my super-duper sleuthing skills, I have recently discovered that school starts in just a few hours. Which naturally reminds the uber-observant among us that summer break is pretty much gone; along with any good intentions that may have gone along with it.

Sloshing past my yard sale find bistro table this severely thunder-stormy afternoon, I was reminded that yet another summer has passed by without that broken china mosaic having been created by yours truely. In 2006, it was going to be a stepping stone. And in 2007; a birdbath. In 2008, I purchased a bistro table at a yard sale for $5.00 that I thought would make a perfect canvas for this budding collage artist. I envisioned this fun, colourful collection of salvaged broken china bits creating a new picture and serving as a funky table top. Resting atop that virtual visual feast, I saw margueritas, hot coffees, zucchini loaf.......Now, I see that as it's snowing in Calgary and pouring in Winnipeg. Is another calendar year going to go by without my mosaic getting done?

And what about my fused plastic bag plans?!

So, it got me thinking. Anybody else have some bitter nearing-the-end-of-summer regrets? Any projects you promised yourself all harsh winter long, that this would be the summer you got your crafting goals met?

Lay your head on my shoulder. Tell me your sad, sad tale of supplies and good intentions gathering dust while we fear they may soon be gathering snow. Maybe with a support group of sorts, we could propel one another into goals accomplished.

Whaddya say?
You never know..... There might be some zucchini bread and coffee in it for you!

9 comments:

tanya said...

My husband has proclaimed me the queen of unfinished projects...I have all the fabric and notions for the "quiet book" I planned for first Luke, now Toby, also the fabric for the valance in the nursery for my firstborn which is useless now that my youngest is outgrowing his crib...I have concrete for garden stones...I can't forget the all natural lotions and soaps which I bought a recipe book and supplies for...copper piping to make a garden trellis...the list goes on and on...and yes, I have broken china and tiles for my own mosaic masterpiece which was to cover the buffet in the dining room since we moved in, which was August of 2000. And how can I forget all those craft project I see people selling for some insanely high price when I have figured out how it's made (and I know I can do it), so I buy one or two of the supplies and then it is forgotten until "later". Not to mention the things that get broken, that the pack-rat in me stubbornly refuses to part with, "I know I can fix it...later". My husband can't say too much, he's excellent at woodworking and finishes what he starts, except for the apothecary cabinet he promised to build me on our first wedding anniversary. It's my only ammunition, but I use it often. No Joyce, you are certainly not alone.

Anonymous said...

For years my crafts didn't get past the dreaming stage, never mind actually going out to purchase anything.......but as of a few months ago I started crafting again!!!! I can't tell you what it's done for this broken soul!

Having said that, I cleaned out my walk in closet last week and found many stitching projects from years gone by, 'almost' finished. And I know there are a bunch of old sweaters in my basement that were being turned into mittens for a garland I wanted to hang.....Who knows? Maybe this winter??
LL

Roo said...

1. the back hedge. it was supose to be trimmed 3 summers ago. you can imagine what it looks like now.

2. windows. needed to be replaced the year we moved in (4 1/2 years ago)

3. weeding. every year it gets worse and worse. in that i mean you cannot tell where the weeds begin or the flowers start. i am thinking the answer might be to torch it the whole flower bed and forget my floral ambitions.

i'm sure there is more but this is all i came up with on the fly....

Romeo Morningwood said...

I was planning to build a Ziggurat in the backyard after I discovered that a certain Professor Gordon figured out that "brick and stone weigh about 2,000 kg per cubic metre and the crushing strength of these materials is better than 40 megapascals.

Elementary arithmetic shows that a tower with parallel walls could have been built to a height of 2 kilometres before the bricks at the bottom were crushed or by making the walls taper towards the top they could be built to a height where I would run short of oxygen (then I'd be a Ziggernaut!)before the brick walls crushed beneath their own dead weight."

But I checked and the zoning won't allow it...stupid dumbhead bylaws.

Anonymous said...

I have plans for fused plastic bags, too! My mom tried it and it worked great, until right at the end when she forgot what she was doing and fused the whole thing shut.

Ummmm - I have gazillions of craft supplies, but I didn't really intend to do anything with them - I just hoard and collect and create the odd napkin ring or felt mouse.

I had really good intentions of ending the summer with less fabric than I started it with and that hasn't gone so well either.

And then there's the t-shirts I got at Value Village for making the fabulous designs in Generaton T. I'm sure I'll still get to those...

Melodie Ramos said...

I think the fusing plastic bags looks really interesting.

I started crocheting my plastic bags into bags last year in an attempt to get rid of all the bags cluttering our closets.

Beware: I am now not only saving bags of particular colours, but my friends are saving them for me too. This is bad.

But I can say that I did finish my first bag this summer, a year after
I started it. (Much better progress compared to the scarf I knitted for my husband that took 6 years to complete!)

Judy said...

It's my craft room.

(hold me)

I gave myself A YEAR to get it set up and nicely organized.

(hold me tighter)

Years fly by faster than they used to.

(get the tissues)

And now I've read about fusing plastic bags.

(sob!)

I just can't do it all, so I don't do anything.

(do you have any health care professionals on your speed dial?)

Maybe NEXT year?

(please, offer me hope and a bit of chocolate)

Anonymous said...

Okay...I overlooked the "women are teachable " part the first time ...but ohmy goodness it got me this morning...do our husbands know this I wonder.Laughed deeply.

Anonymous said...

K that plastic bag fuser lady has the same iron and ironing board as mine. Wacky. Such a neato idea. I think I'll make some fused plastic bibs!!