Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Amber's Craft a Week Blog Turns 9! A Celebration Featuring the Teeny Tiny Seashell

     It's hard to believe I've been blogging here for nearly a decade.  I started this blog because I wanted to start a blog of some sort, and when I racked my brain for topic ideas, crafting came to mind.  While it has not been a roaring success in terms of traffic, and I've not made a single cent off of it, it has pushed me to be a better crafter, and I like to think some of you are getting enjoyment and/or inspiration from it.
     I've been doing crafty things since I was a kid, but it wasn't like I was crafting regularly before I started this blog.  I would make something here or there, but when I was looking for ideas for my inaugural blog post, I had a hard time finding a craft to use.  I ultimately settled on my Seashell Centerpiece.
     Having to post a craft every week pushed me to craft more, and the more crafts I made, the stronger a crafter I became.  When I first started my blog, I probably wouldn't have considered DIYing my wedding dress or painting intricate nail art designs or making plushies of horror movie characters (e.g., Freddy and Nancy from A Nightmare on Elm Street), but these are all projects I have attempted with reasonable success for this blog.  I am so glad that I started blogging, because I would not have the crafting chops I do today otherwise.
     For the ninth anniversary post, I want to return to my blog's roots, in a way.  When I made that seashell centerpiece which I featured in the first post, I also made a second craft.  It's that second craft I bring to you today, not so much for its craftiness as for a fun story about a teeny tiny seashell.

The Story of the Teeny Tiny Seashell


The teeny tiny seashell in its now secure display case.

     When I go to the beach, I look for seashells.  I love tiny things and I have a decent eye for picking out seashells that are not much bigger than a grain of sand.  As a kid, I would find these seashells and try to bring them home, hoping to collect them, only to lose them somewhere along the way.
     In 2011, not long before I started this blog, I worked at Upward Bound as a physics instructor.  As part of my job, I went on a camping trip to Lamoine State Park.  While on this trip, I collected some seashells, including one very tiny one.  Somehow I managed to get it home without losing it.
     I had this seashell in a little sandwich bag and I left it on the kitchen table.  Brian saw what looked like an empty sandwich bag and threw it in the trash.  By the time I noticed that my seashell was missing, Brian had already brought the trash to the dumpster.  I was pretty bummed that I had managed to bring my seashell home, only to lose it to the dumpster.
     Brian dug through the dumpster and eventually found the sandwich bag with my teeny tiny seashell.  It was clear I needed to put it in a different container, so I took a little clear plastic container and lined it with some scrap fabric, then placed my shell inside.  I believe I made this container at the same time I made my seashell centerpiece.  I can't recall now for sure one way or the other, but it's possible that the need to rehome my teeny seashell is what pushed me to make the seashell centerpiece that I wrote about in my first blog post.
     The saga of the teeny tiny seashell does not end there, though.  The container I was using for the tiny seashell has a lid that comes off easily.  Brian made the mistake of picking it up by the lid, and out fell the seashell.  He spent an hour scanning the floor for it before he finally found it.  That's why the container is now taped shut.

     Anyway, I thought this was a cute story related at least a little to both crafting and the start of my blog.  I hope you enjoyed it.  Here's to many more years of crafts and fun crafting stories.

No comments:

Post a Comment