blog envy
i love reading blogs, really i do. i love reading blogs that are packed with beautiful, skillful, inspirational projects presented in an attractive, professional way, really i do. i don’t long for the days when every homepage was hand coded, with attendant blinking text and pictures that looked as though they’d been taken underwater, really i don’t. but lately i find reading all the beautiful, skilfull, inspirational, attractive, professional blogs can be as dispiriting as encouraging.
i find myself thinking, well i could take pictures that looked that good if i had a £2000 camera or a studio setup or a climate where the sun shone more than 2 weeks a year. i could make fabulous quilts if i had a stash the size of a planet, a dedicated sewing room and a fancy sewing machine. i could build a wonderful stash if i had access to quilting shop on every corner and a yarn shop on every other instead of having to double the price of everything with shipping. i envy all these talented bloggers their time, space and money.
we have one quilting shop and no (really, not one) yarn shops in a city with a population of over 300,000. the choice of fabrics in the uk - even online - is very limited and mostly dreary and/or extortionately priced. we seem to have lost any make it yourself culture we may have had in the past, so the raw materials just aren’t available. this is changing in the yarn world i think, but only at prices that exclude the vast majority. to buy internationally adds not only shipping but often customs and duty fees too. i chose to give up work when M was born and while we’re by no means badly off we have limited means and live in a 2-up 2-down. all my crafting is done on the kitchen table/sofa, my materials are crammed under beds and chairs and into any spare space i can find.
the one luxury i have gained through all of this is time, although not as much as you might think. having M at home full time up until september meant that my crafting was still squeezed in after bedtime, although i was able to get some of the household chores out of the way while she was around, giving me that evening free time. since she started nursery school i have 3 afternoon sessions of 2 1/4 hours to call my own. and now i’m close to handing over the voluntary paperwork that often occupied this spot i feel i have a huge horizon opening before me 
and after all this whinging i do remember to count my blessings. i don’t believe for a minute that the glossy surface of a blog reflects the whole of the blogger’s life, and i wouldn’t swap my life for anyone’s. as a family we’ve benefited greatly from my choice to stay at home in many areas. it gave me the impetus to start this whole crafting gig in the first place, and i like to think that necessity is the mother of invention. there is a certain kind of identikit style that stalks the craft blogland, a unifying aesthetic, the same fabrics pop up over and again, the original ideas are adopted/adapted by many and quickly lose their impact.
which is why i’m drawn back more and more to blogs like shannon’s that plough their own furrow and inspire through force of originality and determination rather than purchasing power. i was sad to see the end of thriftcraft as the one thing i have in abundance nearby is charity shops and i welcome inspiration for repurposing materials that are available, affordable and unique. although given the huge following that hillary lang (deservedly) has i guess rashes of similar if not identical thrifted projects were likely to spring up across the globe too. can’t win i guess 
can anyone suggest any good thrifting blogs or blogs-of-limited-means-but-unlimited-aspirations that i may have missed?
posted: January 10th, 2007 under blogs.
comments: 5
comments
comment from Biscuitbear
time: 10/1/2007, 12:02 pm
I know what you mean. I’m suffering from blog envy myself. Actually I’ve been on LJ for several years, but the beautiful crafts blogs are what made me want to spend less time making doll clothes and more time crafting, and made me begin a new blog on Typepad. I’ve only been doing it for a week or so and trying to post something interesting every day, but it’s getting hard to keep up already. I can’t post photos of the house as it’s a big mess, as I work outside full time and house cleaning is never a priority. Some of the houses in those beautiful blogs are so pretty I want to plunge inside!
I live in a small town and I don’t have great access to supplies, so I make the most of my rare visits to Paris or Lyon, and I shop on the net. But mostly I wish I had more time!
comment from crumpet
time: 10/1/2007, 1:23 pm
Mine’s a blog-of-limited-means, and, I hope, unlimited aspirations. http://www.crumpart.net/blog
It’s also in desperate need of a facelift, but unfortunately I have to attend to my job first…
comment from manda
time: 10/1/2007, 11:28 pm
I am of very limited means indeed, with a £70 camera and no decent light. Bella is at home full time and I have a super cheap sewing machine. We do have a quilt shop in Leeds but it’s abysmal and super expensive. I buy all of my fabric online - even with shipping (which is usually only around £5) it is still half the price of fabric over here. I struggle every day to create something. The only thing I do have is a dedicated room to work in - but I share it with the spare bed and a ton of other stuff. I do love it though. Of course I’m not sure that I’m particularly inspirational or aspirational!
When I started blogging I was overwhelmed by what I thought it took to have the sort of blog that I wanted, but it doesn’t take nearly as much as you would think.
If you want info on the online shops that I use drop my a line and I’ll email you the info. Buying online has opened up my quilting world and it is super cheap.
comment from Alex
time: 15/1/2007, 12:48 pm
Hi Soph,
I will not try to make anybody believe I would suffer under bad crafting conditions here in Japan, it’s a paradise, everybody knows. It’s easy for me to say “Buy local” but I really mean it. I would so much like to have some Lamb’s Pride or German self striping sock yarn, or from time to time American prints (of which some are sold in Japan, too, but really not that much), but I stick to supplies I get here because I think what makes the things interesting or beautiful is what you put into them.
I recycle a lot. It is so satisfying when things transform into new beings and are with you for some more time… And embroidery, applique and stamping are ways to make interesting or funny things with solid fabrics.
And when I am buying fabrics it’s mostly very small amounts, 30-50cm of a fabric. Lots of my nice herringbone wool fabrics come from the bargain counter (£0.43 for two pieces of 20×30cm at Yuzawaya, popular fabric store in Japan). Only on few occasions I am using those very popular fabrics - I like to have them in my stash but I find it rather boring to actually make something with them.
If it is of any consolation: No light or space at my place, too.
But I have a tripod and a good camera and know my way around the mess when taking pictures 
comment from Sarah
time: 4/2/2007, 6:38 pm
I feel your pain about the fabric - where is all the good stuff here? It is possible to make florals without them looking like something the 1760s threw up! - and light. I love Scotland, but I seriously wish I had some US sunshine!
Have you been to Kitty-Craft? http://www.kitty-craft.com/ You need to nab the good things quickly but they have some lovely stuff. It’s relatively expensive once you realise they’re selling in quarter yards, but such wonderful fabrics that I treated myself!
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