I'm going to be seemingly in the wrong place for what I'm talking about until part of the way through- so just trust me, I'll tie it all into craftiness.  

For our anniversary, my partner got me these beautiful rollerblades.  He did so because I have always raved to him how much I've loved the brief periods in my life where I got to use rollerblades but I've never had them longterm except for when I was a kid, and as a kid I was a little afraid to use them all that much because I saw people get pretty scraped up when doing any sort of skating (board, roller, or otherwise) and thanks to some pretty nifty instincts my brain told me that self preservation was better than cool tricks that could leave me in road-rash pulp.  

That being said, the last year I've been thinking about how happy I would feel while rollerblading when I managed to get my hands on a pair, and started thinking it's time to get back on the blades.  

Which leads me to confronting something that I think many people have a hard time with.  Being utterly and unmistakably terrible at something.  Not just a little terrible, but laughably bad at something when you are working out the newness.  Because being a beginner tends to mean that it's not going to be pretty for the first little while.  Being a beginner means feeling foolish sometimes and working hard only to get slightly better results as time goes on.  

It's tough, but it's usually worth it, right?  Because why else would a person repeatedly make mistakes, subject themselves to bouts of frustration, or put themselves through the trouble at all.

Why else would I risk some nice and solid pieces of my person?  It's because I think rollerblading is fun, and even if I feel clumsy and foolish practicing now, one day I won't be awful at it. 

Hopefully.... 

That's where this ties into crafting.  

Beginner projects tend to look like, well, beginner projects.  Working that hard for something, going through all those little fussy steps to figure out how it works, only to have something hideous and/or mediocre for the outcome feels defeating at times.  Because who wants to spend all the time and frustration, only to find it didn't turn out very well?  

The answer is I do, and you might be better off if you do too.  

Being terrible is fantastic, because you suddenly have endless room for progress, and all you have to do is put in the effort.  Every moment you spend swearing at the (insert your favourite salty swear here) thing, you become better at that thing and better at life.  Life is about being REALLY awful at things until you're good.  

Look at infants, when they start walking they look like the most intoxicated, disjointed, and clumsy creatures that the world has seen, but soon enough they figure it out and turn into beings that don't even think about how to walk.  

When I first tried to hula hoop with my feet, I ended up slinging that hoop back at my face so fast and hard that I split my lip clean open, and it took WEEKS to heal, not to mention I had countless near misses where I nearly destroyed various items that had the misfortune of being in the same room as me.  Now I can hula hoop with my feet, while reading a book or typing up one of these blogs without even thinking about it.  

Yes, it's aggravating, and no I don't expect anyone to deeply enjoy working hard to not have things work out, but it takes time.

Often in these blog posts, especially in my first couple of months, I tried to avoid admitting when I messed up, because I was embarrassed.  Subconsciously I felt like if I didn't do it right and beautifully the first time, I would be somehow lesser because of it.  I would feel like I was less deserving of having a crafting blog and less suitable to be doing any of this in the first place.  I was wrong in my opinion, and now challenge myself to tell you all about some of my mistakes, especially if I feel like it can be beneficial.  That being said, I still get frustrated when I'm not as good at this as I think I should be.

When that happens, I do one of three things.

1:  I talk to my family, friends, or partner- they're all used to projects making me into a deranged lunatic and have gotten good at talking me down from going wild with some scissors and/or a rotary blade.   

2: I go onto the Facebook group page of the crafters I grew up around, and read about their woes and triumphs over projects, because they are inspiring enough individuals to post both, to be comforted by their fellow crafters and also to remind the rest of us that even some of the most extraordinary crafters make mistakes.

3:  I watch something funny, because if I'm having a hard time laughing at myself for getting so worked up, laughing at something else can be a good starting point.  It puts a little more good in my world (and mood) and helps me remind myself that I can't take myself so seriously.

I knew I was becoming a great crafter when I wasn't ripping out my projects because they were "wrong" but because I told myself I could do better the next time, and I believed it.

Stay sweet, stay crafty, and stay tuned.