Happy New Year 2023 – I Really Thought I Had Craft Fatigue!

Happy New Year

When I first started this post just before Christmas I really thought I was suffering from the most humungous dose of craft fatigue. I hadn’t crafted for at least six weeks and I didn’t think I’d missed it all that much either.  I will admit to overdosing on Christmas crafting throughout 2022, most of my projects made in bulk, thinking that I might have a festive craft stall at sometime in the year (but in the end I didn’t!!!) and in turn, it did take away some of the pleasure in the making. I know I could have tried a bit harder in looking for a table, but then in September I had a flare up of osteoarthritis in my knee that took the wind out of my sails physically and confidence wise. 

I now realise it had been creeping up on me for years now, especially since I moved to Evesham where I walk everywhere because the buses just don’t go where I need to, so I’ve been clocking up the miles thinking I was simply getting slower  and more achy with age.  However after an x-ray, diagnosis and a steroid injection a month ago (which seems to have done the trick), I  am back on track, a couple of stones lighter and moving a lot better.

Christmas was lovely, a little different again from past years (traditions have changed since Covid), but tired from the run up, I was sure I’d start 2023 bereft of any ideas and enthusiasm to craft, even though I didn’t have an excuse especially after I was able to spend a wonderful, long weekend at the end of November with Marc, who showered me with boxes full of fabulous things after he bought almost all of the contents of a ladies craft room after she sadly died ……

I came back with enough cello bags (something I always seem to run out of) to sink a battleship, dies (I am loving the Brenda Walton 3D Christmas Tree in particular), inks, interesting material swatches, papers, embroidery hoops, you name it, all very interesting things.

Then from his own collection Marc gave me all these papier mache houses, plus a pile of small and large wooden decoration kits from Hobbycraft, all begging for festive embellishment, which I’m pretty sure he’ll get back after a little fiddle fart, ready for next Christmas.

On top of all that, when I was in a more crafty frame of mind I treated myself to a whole box of MDF shrines and wooden dolls in various shapes and sizes from https://www.calicocraftparts.co.uk/shrine-kits.html. I can’t believe I simply put them away as soon as they arrived, so I really don’t have no excuse do I?

I just need to get back to making one thing at a time, whether it takes a couple of minutes or an hour or so, simply for the fun of it, for the next few months at least with no pressure. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to begin by completing some of the projects I have started but never finished, as per the first few pictures.

For the next little while, I am going to continue to post on a Monday and a Tuesday if I’m tickled by something, have a particularly good charity shop find or I have a guest crafter or two, but this might not be every single Tuesday while I try to start to build up my schedule of posts again.

I hope see you, hopefully, tomorrow for a quick catch up of a few things I've found in the crafty sales that helped get my creative juices flowing again   …….. happy days!