Crafts & Crap

Chris does crafting. Actually, she only makes cards; birthday, Christmas and the like, but she does it off and on and loves the creative bit. This means that each Sunday afternoon we're treated to a couple of hours of specialist sellavision with overweight women talking about various types of crafting and flogging stuff to the overheated viewers. The bulk of the items available are related to card making and rubber stamping. Rubber stamping? Yes, rubber stamping. It seems to involve stamping pictures or designs on a bit of card and colouring them in. Indispensable if you've got various types of invitation to make or things like that, but where's the skill? Kids with John Bull outfits used to do that and soon got bored. Want wedding invitations? Gerrem printed for God's sake!


Anyway, what I wanted to mention is the huge volume of sales that go through just of bits of card and tools and whatever, They must sell thousands of pounds worth of the stuff just while the programme is on air, not to mention continuing sales after the show. There must be a fortune to be made at this game. Now I admit that all this means nothing to me. If I want a card I go to Clinton's and buy one and I don't think I'll ever want to do anything with a rubber stamp, but even I've noticed that all this stuff looks the same. Chris has a modest store of the stuff; certainly no more that about half a metric tonne, but some people (and here I really mean women) must have aircraft hangars full of card and glues and decoupage kits and little stick on bits and bobs. They're killing the planet!

Hey, I actually received a comment to a post which I find amazing because I didn't really think people actually read this other than saddos like me who actually give a toss who else likes Tom Waits or has read Tristram Shandy. It's all quite flattering really that someone should take the time to post a comment. It won't go to m
y head and I'm pretty sure I'm not in the running for a Pulitzer, but it was a surprise. However, it does bring with it responsibility.

Should I reply to the comment? Will this guy think I'm being ignorant if I don't respond? Does he even want me to respond? I commented on another person's blog entry a few weeks ago and she replied, but I didn't carry on the conversation. Maybe I should have? I think I was probably happier when I thought nobody read these or that they did, but couldn't be bothered to comment. Imagine if everybody who read the postings commented . . . what would be the right thing to do?

My mate Frank replies to comments, but they're either questions or observations about his figures. That's pretty straight forward, but I don't actually produce anything; I just bash away at the keyboard when the mood takes me. Maybe in future I'll have to do this sort of thing regularly to keep up with the comments left by my readers?

I'm conscious that I might be going over the top here since I've only got evidence of one actual reader, or at least one who's bothered to comment, but you never know. My mate Woody Allen would have the same dilemma. I don't actually know Woody Allen, nor have I ever met him, but I've seen all his films and read a compilation of his writings, so I feel I do.

Hmmmmm . . . .

Anyway, I've been cracking on with some of Frank's leads so I thought I'd show you an example. It's a grenadier from the Prussian 41st regiment in the 7 Year's War. He needs lining in and a bit of touching up, but the figures are easy to paint and perfectly proportioned. Unfortunately Frank has mega sized units, so this is a long job.





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