Long-winded Projects

After several weeks and many serious burns from my dollar store hot glue gun (I figured out why it was only a dollar), I have finally completed my book page-flower wreath.

When I first saw this craft online at Under the Table and Dreaming, I thought, "Wow! I have got to make one of those.  It looks so easy."  While not any one part of this craft project was particularly complicated or hard, it took forever.

While endlessly cutting swirls out of book pages (I used Anne Lamott's "Hard Laughter" and Rick Riordan's "Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief"), I realized that this project had become a metaphor for my time in college.

I started both very excited and ambitious, thinking it would be fun and easy to do.  While not wrong about the easy part, I was very wrong about the fun part.  Sure, it started out fun.  I even had a few drinks and listened to a lot of good music while working.  I eventually started to look for any sort of distraction I could find while working.  This caused me to slow down my work and dragged the whole process on.  Finally, disgusted that everything had taken so long, I was determined to just finish.  I powered through to the end.  At last, I was left with something to be proud of: a college degree/wreath.

(Hanging from black and shimmery, sheer scroll ribbon)

(Close- up detail)