Lightening Online

Some time back I was contacted in regards to participating in this Round the World Envelope Race. Two teams of bloggers, pitted against one another in a race to see who can get their envelope around the world first!!!

Sounded like fun.

So I said yes.

And was assigned to Team Power Tac.

The purpose of this challenge? To help raise the profile of the humble, almost forgotten envelope.

Now, you know how much I LOVE to get real, live touchable mail!!! So, real live touchable mail from another country was REALLY exciting.

And the envelope - so thick and sturdy!!! I didn’t know they knew how to make “real” envelopes anymore.

Here is a photograph of some of the envelope contents:

It came to me from a lovely blogger in the US and I’ve now sent it on to Simone in Italy.

It’s quite exciting seeing the flags from various countries accumulate as the envelope circulates around the world. As you can see, I added some Aussie ones, as well as a few other little bits and pieces related to my blog and the envelopes visit here in rural Australia.

Don’t forget that in honour of the Great Round the World Envelope Race, I’m offering to send mail to any of my readers (and yes, you can be anywhere in the world). Simply enter your postal details on the form in this post.

Make sure you have a look around the Pushing The Envelope Blog. You get involved in your own envelope challenge, and of course, follow updates on the Great Envelope Race.

Go Team Power Tac!!!!

I’m a Perfectionist. There! I’ve said it!

You know, for a long time I thought there was NO WAY I was a Perfectionist. After all, I never did ANYTHING perfectly. So how could I be a perfectionist? I guess I kind of missed the point there for a while.

Recently a few of you pointed out this tendency toward perfection when I moaned about the disaster my tea cosy turned out to be. And you were right. I wanted it to be perfect. I missed the point. If my swap partner wanted a “perfect” tea cosy they could have simply gone looking for something mass produced in the shops.

After all, we can find all kinds of perfect items in stores can’t we? Racks of jumpers all cut in the exact same shape. Mass produced tablecloths and prints for the wall, right down to almost identical looking pieces of fruit and vegetables.

I guess somewhere in our striving for perfection, we lost something.

Uniqueness.

Well, Cate now has herself a totally unique tea cosy and one with it’s very own history even before it’s first use (as one of you kindly pointed out to me).

Up until now, my craft of choice has been counted cross-stitch. Over time I’ve had a number of comments as to how I can be bothered. I didn’t really understand why people thought is was hard to do.

In my mind, it was the perfect craft for someone like me who is unable to stitch 2 stitches the same. It certainly satisfies the perfectionist within as every single stitch is a nice even identical size.

I’d been contemplated giving some hand-stitching a go. Seeing Rhonda Jeans creations was certainly putting a yearning in my heart to be able to do something like that. In fact, I’ve been wanting to stitch this pattern for some time now:

It’s exactly the type of thing I’d like to hang on a wall in my home. But of course, I procrastinated on that. Partly because I wasn’t sure where to start with it but mostly because I didn’t think I could stitch “good enough” to satisfy myself.

So it was interesting when Marita sent me this:

I felt excited and challenged all at once. In my hands I had all that I needed to actually give this type of stitching a go. I could no longer procrastinate on the grounds that I didn’t know *how* to do a stitchery. It came with instructions. In fact, it came with EVERYTHING I needed to get started.

So I pulled it all out and began.

My stitches were uneven.

My lines wobbly.

I looked at what I had done.

It looked just right.

It kind of hit me that it was MEANT to look uneven and a little wobbly. ANY machine can make a perfectly stitched picture.

What a machine can’t do is instil thoughts and emotions into a creation. A hand-stitched item will always be unique. You’ll never find 2 the same. Just as you’ll never find 2 finger prints the same.

As I stitched, the colour of my threads made the bleak and empty looking sketch come to life. It hit me that stitching could be the adult equivalent to colouring in!!!! Remember how cool it was to colour in as a kid??? Okay, remember last week when you were colouring in? It’s like that only way cooler!!!!

Into each stitch went the kindness of human touch, the caring of a human heart and the joy of seeing a creation emerge.

Much more than simply stitching, I felt myself grow and learn as I spent time with this creation. I began to really understand how essential colour is when it comes to beauty. How life without colour is rather lifeless. And how life that is uniform and perfect can be rather dull and boring and well, lacking in humanity.

I guess that’s what I mean when I say there is beauty in imperfection. It’s a truer reflection of our own humanity. The fact that our failings bring colour to our life just as much as our successes.

Well, I’m still a perfectionist. But I am TRYING to see the beauty in imperfection.

Oh, and the finished stitchery I promised you I’d show you…..

Oh yes, the perfectionist in me noticed that I should have ironed it before I took the photo!

Now I just need to decide how I want to finish this. I’d like to hang it in my kitchen as part of my Christmas decorating so need to work out whether to frame it or what would be best.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.

Just in case you get the impression that I’m always frugal - I’m not! Today I went to my very first Stampin’ Up party. I was like a kid in a lolly shop. LOL. You see, I’m a Stationery and Craft supplies addict. I’d like to say it’s a great hobby to have. The problem is that most of the time I buy the stuff and don’t get around to USING it!!!! Of course, today I decided that all that is going to change so of course it was a good investment to spend $130. In actual fact there was around $500 of stuff I would have *liked* to buy so I could even say I was frugal and SAVED $370!!! LOLOL.

I have discovered a new use for my children too. If I overbuy on craft supplies and don’t use them - I can always let the kids loose on them and feel like I still got my money’s worth.

Now I’m sitting here at the computer sorting through about 20 back issues of a craft magazine I subscribed to about a year ago. The magazines come apart and need to be sorted into the folder they send you so that you have all the categories nicely collated together in sections. Every 4 weeks 2 new magazines arrive and get shoved into the cupboard, still in their plastic packet. A couple of months ago a new folder arrived!!! I couldn’t work that out - I hadn’t filled the first folder yet. Well I didn’t realise quite how many unopened packets of the magazine I had sitting in the cupboard. LOL. To make the deal even sweeter, you get sent FREE stuff if you subscribe. Plus of course the *free* craft supplies included with each issue. And all for a grand total of $13.90 a month (well 4 weeks actually but close enough). Which I actually think isn’t too bad really. I now have $166.80 worth of unopened magazines sitting in my cupboard. BARGAIN!!! LOL.

In my defense, I haven’t been all that well. So I am hoping that I will get around to making use of my investment before too much longer. At least today I got inspired to at least open the packets and start sorting out what I do have. So there you have it - my secret is out. I’m a Stationery and Craft Supplies Addict!!!

I will just add that I don’t really think that being frugal means spending as little money as possible. In fact, it’s what I love so much about the whole idea of frugality - it’s about not wasting money so that you have some left over for the fun stuff. And if I actually get around to making some cards and gifts - think of all the money I’ll *save*!!!! LOL.