Thursday 15 January 2009

Giving up, giving in, give away


Yay!! My 50th post and I'm doing my first giveaway! I hope lots of people enter, from wherever you are in the world! I don't know what I'll be giving away yet - I'll try to tailor it to whoever wins. Something vintage, something crafty, something I've made, something for inspiration, who knows? I'll explain what I want you do in a minute

First, I have to tell you that I'm thinking of giving up glue. (Yes, I know you're thinking about glue-sniffing now.) No, the reason is, that I started to make assemblages last year (as in the photos above and below), relying very heavily on the old superglue. However, I am a complete klutz with glue. I only have to look at some superglue and my fingers are welded together. I would squeeze out about a millimetre of glue, and then somehow I had it on every finger of both hands! I honestly don't know how it happens, but I always get in a total mess. To protect my hands, I got some of those disposable latex gloves to use when glueing. The fingers of the gloves would get glued together, so I could no longer hold the thing I was making, and I would rapidly take the gloves off and be back to square one!

It's not any better with other types of glue, either. I managed to spill a whole bottle of PVA glue over my desk and the floor recently. I also tried glue dots, but ended up leaning my elbow on a whole sheet of micro-dots. Sigh! I just can't help it. Really you can only trust me with a very small Pritt stick. Even then, I can usually manage to get it in my hair. D'oh!

Mr Kitsch can't understand why I'm not more 'careful' (I'm trying! I'm trying!). He is so neat and tidy with things like this. All those childhood years of glueing together small plastic planes from Airfix kits have given him glue skills that I can only admire with awe. If I need something mended with glue, I go to him and he does a perfect job. Unfortunately, I can't expect him to be on hand while I'm trying to make something creative, just in case I need something glued.
By the light of the moon
I made this collage box for the art trail I did last October, but I haven't really made anything quite like this since then. I think it's my fear of glue putting me off. So I'm giving in and I'm going to try assembling things without glue. Parts of this assemblage were wired together, and in the past I've used sewing and embroidery. So I hope this is the way to go.

So anyway, for the giveaway, I'd like you to leave a comment and let me know if there's anything that you just can't do, like me with the glue. I'll pick a name out of a hat at the end of next week, and send you something lovely (and not too weird - I know not everyone shares my taste!). So please leave a comment by next Friday 23rd January.

11 comments:

BusyLizzie said...

Hiya, I am REALLY BAD at following a recipe. No matter how hard I try I usually mess it up even if I follow it to the word!
I have learnt to cook by "experiment"... haha. It usually turns out OK?
This might be the reason why Mr W does most of the cooking in this house???

Becksini said...

Where to start:
I can't drink, I don't mean I pour tea down myself I mean the booze.. just turns me into a crying gibbering wreck and for a mathematician I am suprisingly bad at mental arithmatic.. don't know my times tables and always get stressed out when the bill gets passed to me to divvy up (maybe because I'm the sober one).
k

What-I-Found said...

I can't cook either. I mean really. I try...I clip things from newspapers and think..."I can do that"...but I can't. It will taste ok ( note the small letters) but it will never look right. And my whole family agrees. They love me, but they will say it right out loud, She can't cook. Pathetic really.

But it might help you to know that nail polish remover will get super glue off of stuff. I buy the pads and then scrub at the glue till it's gone.

Renee said...

Ooooh - I love giveaways! I can't use my sewing machine. I like to consider myself a super crafty person. I attempted once and am almost afraid to attempt again.

I bought a really cool machine a few years ago. I tried it out - had a hard time threading the darn thing. Ran a few stitches. And now it just sits on my desk, covered.

I always tell myself to take it out, but it's almost like I have a block against it. This way, I know I won't fail if I just leave it covered. BLAH!

Country Cottage Chic said...

I can't eat with my knife & fork the right way around so I use cutlery in the opposite hands from everyone else & that means a fish knife is basically useless to me! And I'm not even left handed!

A Thrifty Mrs said...

I can't do anything with glue either.
But my big down fall is the fact that I can't ride a bike. I can't sit on it, I can't make it go forward, backward, sideways anything!

Oh and I can't use my brand new sewing machine. I've spent two weeks trying to get it to do what I want it to do. Now it sits in the spare room mocking me everytime I go in there. Pah!

Eileen said...

OMG I've just noticed that one of your readers can't ride a bike. I thought I was alone in that disability. Everyone tells me not to worry...it will all come back to me and once you've ridden a bike as a child you'll do it automatically. Can I share a secret? I couldn't ride a bike as a child. My parents bought me a brand new one and I dutifully cleaned it almost daily, but because we had a very steep hill outside our house and a sufficiently long drive to be able to "scoot" without actually needing to peddle, no one ever learned my secret until later in life. I promised I'd learn before I was 40, then changed it to 50. Now I'm 62 and realise there are some things in life you don't have to be able to do!

Melvyn said...

Love your stuff, especially the stunning little house, so I'd love to be included in the giveaway competition.

Confession: I made the Cutty Sark, The Santa Maria and The Golden hind - well that's what Airfix said they were. My results looked more like Pirates Of The Carribean. But Mechano was much more satifying - no glue!

So give up the glue if you really want but don't give up the kitch and the craft - and the photos.

julie said...

This could turn into a therapy group, but I have to put my hands up and confess, My name is Julie, and I can't ride a bike either. Never did as a kid, can't now. DH was amazed/disgusted when he found out. Have managed not to tell DS yet as was pregnant and have DD since he's been into bikes, but I can see I'll have to borrow his outgrown stabilisers before too long!!

Teena Vallerine said...

Well, this is all very exciting! I have thoroughly enjoyed reading everyone's 'I can'ts'. I was raised around a grandfather who always shouted 'there's no such word as can't!'. I can vividly remember thinking with absolute clarity 'oh yes there is!' But you never would say it! Oh no. And now, when I hear people say 'I can't' its the first phrase that pops into my head 'there's no such word as can't oh yes there is' HA! Well, I can't open new boxes of technology. No matter how much i have begged to be given a thing, I am never the first one to open the box. My digital camera waited over a year until hubby finally conceeded and got it out and switched it on for me. And it's not jsut that sort of technology. The shiny new kenwood chef went the same way. Even the new dishwasher! You see, I have it bad. I never want to be the first one to use it and break it before it even started! It's an absolute conviction that something dreadful will happen as I unpack it, let alone switch on the power! Thankfully hubby has finally realised this and will sort me out. I''m still waiting for him to plug in my lovely graphics tablet from Christmas but I'm hopeful that will happen before Easter! t.xx (gosh don't I waffle on! I can't leave short comments should have been it! xx)

Cowboys and Custard Mercantile said...

Hi Elaine

I am finally back in blogland after a bit of computer celibacy..
Hope I am not too late for your giveaway..
I too share your glue dilemma.. I managed to get third degree burns from my glue gun.. stick my skirt to the chair .. whilst I was wearing it.. and always get in a terrible mess with the old araldite.. came close to sticking poor Pickles cat to the kitchen table this week!
I am also a real klutz at cutting.. can't cut for toffee and managed to cut up my dress whilst wearing it and the rug underneath whilst trimming some paper on the floor once.. even managed to guillotine my skirt once..
Hope all is well with you.. I will catch up with emails very soon.. loads of belated emails to wade through now my computer has been mended.
Michele xxx