Sunday, January 23, 2011

Pep Talks

Anyone else out there have to give themselves a pep talk when crafting? I do. Tonight, the mantra I kept repeating to myself was "I am not hopeless."

(Full disclosure, I started out saying to myself, "I am not retarded," but even just saying that in my head made me feel pretty unkind - especially when probably many mentally handicapped people would have no difficulty doing what I was struggling so so hard to do tonight.)

Anyway, after I edited myself, I just kept repeating "I am not hopeless, I am not hopeless..." as I tried desperately to create this flower , created by Tanya of Trey and Lucy. If you take a look at it, see her very well-illustrated tutorial, and even watch her video tutorial, you will know why the mantra was necessary. I mean, this does not look hard. Many, many people seem to be pulling it off no problem. And here's me, unwinding and starting my rose over and over again.

Well, this story has a happy ending, because after hours (Yes, that's literal. Hours.) of going "half twist... half twist... what the heck am I doing wrong?!?!?!" I finally caught on and created this masterpiece:


In case you didn't quite catch that, here it is from another angle:


Oh, you'd like to continue admiring its hard-won beauty? Ok, here's another shot:


Still not enough for you? Ok, one more:


Sigh. I'm not hopeless.