I will begin this post by saying I have a beautiful, recently remodeled, bathroom. Well, recently remodeled if you consider one year ago as recent... But alas, the walls are blank, and the pretty glass shelves (I just had to have) don't have anything pretty on them.
Perusing the local dollar store one day, I came across these tall cylindrical vases. Then, on the same aisle I found some pretty glass rocks in the same shade of blue as my bathroom. Perfect! An idea was born! I placed the rocks in the vases and put some fat stubby candles on top and Presto! I had 3 very cheap looking impractical candles I would never light. So, I put the whole shebang aside for several months. . . until I saw a bag of potpourri in the right shades of blue on a clearance shelf! Yes! Exactly what I needed! Another idea was born! So proud and intrigued of this crafty idea I came up with, I got out the camera and started contriving a tute for my blog. I figured the whole world would be so impressed with my crafty prowess (narcissistic, me?).
After seeing the results, I am less than impressed. "What was I thinking? I can't use this for a tute," I thought. But, it was a funny experience and perhaps a journey through craftiness that others could relate to, so I made this little anti-tutorial. I hope you can relate to my good-ideas-gone-wrong.
So this is where I started. Total investment so far: $5. As I said, I had originally thought to add candles, but had some technical and aesthetic difficulties. Technically, the candles wouldn't sit straight on the uneven rock surface. Aesthetically, it looked crappy. I wasn't ever going to light the candles anyway. So I nixed the candle idea.
The potpourri I found on clearance.
Potpourri is made up of the strangest things.
These blue-ish giant seed pod things were so ugly. My daughter (4 yrs) wouldn't touch 'em. I don't blame her. They looked kind of moldy.
I had high hopes that once I got those vases on the shelf in the bathroom, they would magically look chic and beachy and totally awesome. . . well, they didn't.
The moral of this story: The road to bad crafting is paved with good intentions.
Thanks for reading!
p.s. In case you were wondering, yes, they are still in my bathroom. ;-) But if you like them, I'd be happy to mail them to you! Honestly!
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such a great idea, I have some vases from the $ store..
ReplyDeleteI'm inviting you to join our linking party every Wednesday at
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Thanks for the comment and invite Maggie!
ReplyDeleteThat was funny. And those kind of things happen to me all the time. I start something with the greatest intentions and the result is horrific.
ReplyDeleteCarina, glad you found this situation funny! This happens more often than I would like to admit....
ReplyDeleteRikka J.
I like the idea of posting crafting failures. It adds such much and makes crafting feel safer because all these people you admire have good and bad results rather than comparing your mixed results to their best. Thank you for the post.
ReplyDeleteAs a critique, I think the mix is where the problem is. The shiny stones don't work with the potpourri. I think you were on the right track with the sorting.
An idea that might improve these is to unmix them. Put the glass in one vase, I think the browns should go together and the blue potpourri together in the last vase. The white shell could go with either of that two and I am undecided if the dark blue potpourri should go with the brown (similar texture) or the blue (similar color). You might leave the white shell out if it doesn't work. Maybe with the glass. I think sea glass might work better with the shells for a beach feeling. You will have the similarity shape with the three vases and the difference of color/texture with each vase. The repeat of the similarity within each vase should help it work. I would love to know if this idea works out of if it is in the same ballpark as your original idea.
Oooo that would be a neat idea. Craft bloggers post their projects that didn't work out so well and have other people offer suggestions on ways to make them better, why it went wrong, and/or fixes. That would be a fascinating site. Redos would be fabulous and so educational. It would really illustrate how to change the way of thinking about crafting problems to find solutions.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! You should host a "Where did I go wrong" or a "Help me fix this" event. We can always benefit from an outsider's eye.
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