Thursday, May 3, 2012

It's All Part of the Dance



I saw this quote today and it made me stop in my tracks. I mean seriously, I've had some big project flops over the years. One of my son's favorite phrases right now is "Epic fail!" and I laugh every time it runs through my head when a project isn't going as planned.

Blogs can be deceiving, can't they? I mean, how many times do we really post the failures. I've got lots. Like these two from Christmas that never saw the light of day on Blue Velvet Chair ('til now).





They look okay in these photos, don't they? But guess what? They were epic fails. The black and copper paint that I squirted into the clear xmas bulbs totally separated the next day and what I ended up with were these wierd clear bulbs with spots and speckles of paint inside. Hideous. Needless to say, they were never gifted as intended. And those pinecones...they look cute enough in this picture. I wanted to try a paint dip like I'd seen on Martha Stewart's page - but when I got all of these dipped and looked at them the next day, they just looked like pinecones that had been dropped in paint and not at all like the high-design images in my head.

Epic fail.

But what I know for sure is that I would never swoon over my "yes, I did it!" projects if I never stumbled. I literally giggle inside every time I glance over at my rolled magazine page mirror on the wall - or each time I graze my fingers across the button mirror when walking by. And in those moments I feel nothing but joy.

And for that, I'm willing to fail every now and then.

Until next time...
Mike

6 comments:

  1. Let's face it Mike, we are all human aren't we! We all have both successes and failures. But it is so nice to see someone come out and admit this! The sign of a person content in her own skin. Thank you so much for sharing with us.

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  2. I totally understand! We made beautiful bookmarks the other day but realized after a while that if you put them around your neck you could easily be strangled by them. Not so smart to have a blog with crafts for children ...

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  3. Perhaps Martha's didn't look any better in real life....some things just photograph well! Epic fail, LOVE that!

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  4. In the performing arts we say that "there are no mistakes on stage." With experience you learn to include anything that happens, including whopper mistakes, into the moment. Like the time I was singing a Mozart opera which had been based on "the games people play," and an opening dart move landed in the arm of my leading man, rather than the dart board.....

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  5. I kind of paints did you use in the clear glass ornaments??? I've made these in the past and I've found that you have to squirt acrylic paints in them and not use the glass paints.

    Have you ever thought that what you think is a failure is really a win. Sometimes things don't turn out the way we want to. The ornaments you made might be a failure to you. But to someone else they might have been a thing of beauty. Me, I would have put some glue and glitter in them. I would have proudly given them out to friends, family, teachers and neighbors.

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I'm listening! And responding - so let's create some buzz together for recycled and repurposed arts and crafts.

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