Stamps and Shears.

Buyers remorse and how to deal with it.

I have made two  purchases lately that have left me feeling kind of winded at the till and have  wondering why I do this to myself. I did what I always do when things weigh heavily on my mind and that is to discuss the issue with my voice of reason, in this case it was my best friend ,Valentine. We came to the conclusion that each person has their own ideal about  where and what they spend their money on.

For example, hubby dearest moans and whinges whenever it comes to buying food for the house and yet the last time I Spring cleaned the wardrobe I counted forty tee-shirts.Note, I said tee-shirts and not including polo's, long sleeve or football jerseys, just plain tee-shirts. I also have a friend who will eat out every night and yet when it comes to buying simple items like shampoo, she will really cause a stink. Funny as it is I think each person has a limit on some things but not others. What is my poison of choice? Simple, craft supplies! I can spend R100 on a set of acrylic stamps and have blown large amounts on scrap booking paper and yet when it comes to the wardrobe I could not be bothered. I have never been a 'label' person and couldn't care less if my shirts came from the bargain bin or discount shop.

Just for the record, I am not condemning anyone for where or how they choose to spend their money , I am merely pondering the difference between peoples preferences. Now to address my purchases that keep me up at night wondering how I could be so frivilous.

Case one is a set of acrylic stamps. I have been eying them for ages and have always picked them up in the craft store and put them back down. They have been in the craft store for ages due to the fact that most sane people cannot shell out that much for so little. For my foreign friends I will try to explain that R100 in South Africa could be dinner for four ( eating in that is), a new pair of shoes or even buying lunch at work for a week. On the plus side, the stamp set that I bought is interchangeable and when played around with, you get about 40 different combination's so in a way that is practical.... almost.

The stamps in question

The second case is the case of the pinking shears. I have been on the lookout for ages or these shears and yesterday I found a pair that I still feel guilty about buying. They are wonderful scissors  and are a sort of multi-tasker when you think that you can use them for paper work as well as for material or felt. I love them to bits, although I have not had the chance to use them yet...... they just look so darn cute in my sewing kit. For R135 I knew I was not going to find them again and they are really durable so I will get a lot of use out of them.

So, how do I overcome the looming buyers remorse? Well the only thing I can think of is to get as much out of these things as I can. I have organized two swaps via swap-bot where we stamp 10 images on cards and send them to our partners and since we each have two partners then I should receive 40 images in return for both swaps combined. For those of you who are not on the bot I suppose a crafty meet up with some friends could do and then you just stamp as many images with your friends stamps.
As for the scissors, well I will have to get back to you on that one as I have not even given them a test drive yet.

so while I go stamp my little heart out and work on my third Mimi Kirchener doll with the shears, i bid you farewell and till next time... Ciao!