They are indeed, but I still love to look and lust over the selections, haha~ Everything I make is acrylic, cotton, or a blend of the two, for the most part. Much cheaper, and the care for them is super easy. (Because nothing says "this gift will never be used" like "hand wash only.") Everything I've had that was fancier than basic cotton or acrylic was either a gift or a thrift/bargain shop find. I haven't been the physical Michael's store since I moved, but from the last time I compared their stock with Joann online, they're not worth the visit (or the slightly longer drive). My local Joann is great, though! They have a fantastic selection of yarn, and their prices are usually lower than anywhere else, and they have regular sales. Hobby Lobby always seems to be much further out from me than Michael's or Joann, weirdly enough, so I rarely go there. (Plus we have a general rule against giving our money to certain establishments, and Hobby Lobby unfortunately made that list a while back.) The clearance shelves at Joann and Michael's, though, boy are those a dangerous place for me to wander. Fifty cents? A dollar? Not sure what I'll use these for, but I'm not passing up this deal! I am at least good at passing up notion items, though, like stitch markers and hooks and needles in sizes and types I already own. Everything else, not so much.

Oh, I'd probably be grabbing the origami paper, too. I have a weakness for nicely patterned paper, and LOVE origami. I usually make do with old phonebook pages or miscellaneous saved scrap paper, but flowers and little birds look so nice with proper paper.

Too true! And there are so many complaints about it being scratchy or not soft enough (especially the cheap Red Heart Super Saver), when all you need to do to fix that is let your yarn soak with some hair conditioner or fabric softener. Though you don't even need to do that these days with all the soft acrylics out there. Even Red Heart has a soft version now (and boy is it ever soft, feels like my favorite Caron yarns).

I'm pretty good about not losing hooks, I kept the sleeves they came in and keep all of them there when they're not being used, and keep all my supplies in my dedicated yarn bags so I'm less likely to lose them. As for stitch markers, I never got into using the ones they sell in stores, I bought a bunch of bobby pins for, like, two dollars and I use those as my stitch markers, they're very convenient (and very cheap to replace if I DO happen to misplace all thirty or so of them). I have a little tin that used to have mints in it with a sliding lid, and I keep all the bobby pins in it, handy to keep my cats from stealing them mid-project. Though if I found wooden or steel hooks in the clearance aisle, I'd probably be snatching those up in a heartbeat. As much as I love my cheap aluminum hooks, steel is much more durable and less likely to bend and break with my high stitch tension, I wish they made the larger hook sizes in steel, too. And then for the wooden hooks, I just really want to own some of them, see how they feel for working, if they can handle my tension, but they're so expensive I can't justify buying them unless they're on clearance. I learned the difference, and my preferences, between hooks when I got really serious about crocheting. I can't stand inline hooks, they feel wrong in my hand and I always seem to be splitting yarn with them, but I don't have those problems with tapered throat hooks. One of my university friends swore by inline hooks, though, and refused to use tapered throat. My best guess is that the way I hold my hook and yarn just isn't suited to the shape of most inline hooks, maybe if I searched hard enough I could find an inline that works for me, but I'm too settled in with my Boye hooks at this point to bother.

I read a lot of random crafting blogs and pick up interesting tips and tricks like the conditioner from them. If it's something that'll save me money or time in the long run, it's worth reading about and learning, which leads to quite the collection of random craft-related information kicking around in my brain and browser bookmarks.

I lose leftover yarn from other projects far more often than I lose hooks. I don't have a very good organizational or storage system for my yarn, so I just have balls and skeins tucked in bags and boxes all over the place, which can make finding a specific color I'm SURE I still have somewhere a chore. Yarn is cheaper to replace, though, and I can always find a use for lost yarn when it turns back up, but hooks that I like and that put up with my abuse are sometimes hard to find, and I generally don't have much use for two hooks of the same diameter, so I'm more particular about keeping track of them. It's also sort of a leftover instinct from when I was a kid and had one whole hook to my name. Losing my only hook meant losing the entire craft, so I was obsessive about making sure I knew where it was.

Yes, yes I am. I dabble in so many handicrafts. Sewing, knitting, crochet, origami, cross-stitch. I was really into beadwork for a while when I was younger, but that can get a bit chaotic when you have cats that want to be involved in everything you do. My library has a section just for craft and hobby books, it is a very dangerous place for me to visit. I've seen some cute ways to use origami for decoration! Like stringing butterflies or flowers at various heights around a hoop to make a mobile, or mounting them on fabric for framed art. If you could fold them small enough and give them a good veneer, there are a lot of origami pieces that would mount well on jewelry, I think. It is a lot easier to find useful ways to keep crochet, though, and it's far more versatile. That's a big part of why crochet is my main craft these days. Though I am guilty of being an indoor gardener, too. I've chosen most of my plants for food use, and they should all produce more seed in the end, so I shouldn't have to worry about buying anything unless I decide to expand my collection. (Which is a real risk, it takes as much willpower to keep myself from buying more pots as it takes to keep from buying pretty yarn. The dangers of being a hobbyist, I suppose, haha.)

I do a lot of jumping in head first with minimal reading or instruction, but then if I end up liking whatever it is a lot, I will seek out information like it's water in a desert.

If I could afford to get proper storage for my yarn, I probably wouldn't lose it as much. I dream of one day having a little shelving unit or some clear bins or a drawer unit to store my yarn so I can tell what I have and where it is at a glance. I lost an entire bag full of yarn when I moved a while back (I think someone thought it was trash and accidentally threw it out), so my collection was unwillingly downsized, but I still have a hard time finding specific yarns because I have so many balls packed into all of my craft bags, plus the renegade skeins hanging out in other places. Usually when I find myself overwhelmed with spare "ends" balls, I end up tracking down a pattern I can turn into a "scrap" project to use them up, because I'm bad at letting things go, too.

My last place had a lot of good natural light, nice pseudo-bay windows where all of my plants could overwinter, and a little balcony that I'd move them out to once the danger of frost had passed. But the place I moved to doesn't get much sunlight through the windows, and it gets so cold on the window ledges that the plants I brought with me died off from the cold. I got a nice plant light for Christmas, though, so now I'm set for gardening again! Everything I've planted is coming up nicely so far, though I had to replant something recently because my cats decided to eat the sprouts from a single pot. (Wasn't even the mint I was EXPECTING them to try to eat.)

Crochet has been my main thing for about a decade now, too. I'm still always getting into other things, though, especially anything that I happen to have materials laying around that I can use for it. I have a lot of fabric scraps that I salvaged from old clothes to use for various sewing endeavors. I mostly sew by hand, though. I'm forever doing patchwork on my beau's jeans because they wear out near the inner seams so fast, and I do a lot of mending on secondhand clothes, or items discounted for some small defect or other. Basically, if I can fix it or turn it into something else, I will. I do have a sewing machine, though I need to do some maintenance on it before it'll be of any use. It's an ancient vintage machine, the sort that weighs a ton but has a boxy base and a cover that latches on with a handle on it like they thought people would carry these heavy monstrosities around to sewing circle meetings. Once I get around to cleaning and oiling it, though, it should still be perfectly serviceable. I do a lot of baking, too! I originally picked it up for stress management (I did a LOT of stress baking in 2020), but now I stick with it because it's so much cheaper to make my own baked goods than to buy them. Plus I always get exactly what I want instead of having to visit the bakery and pray there's something good. I still have all sorts of bits and bobs from other hobbies floating around in my crafting stuff, too. Luckily most of it can still be put to use in crochet projects as embellishments or embroidered features on plushies or whatever.

No worries, I get it! I have to make a real effort sometimes to ration out time so I can everything I want into a day. ^^; You're moving right along with the hearts, go you! Dried flowers DEFINITELY work for a still life. If they work for painting, I see no reason they won't be just as good in photography. I don't actually have much experience with hydrangeas, but I know lots of flowers keep for ages dried if stored properly (I have personal experience with roses in particular, and various wildflowers like chicory), so I can only presume hydrangeas would be the same.

Most of my craft storage is repurposed or was gifted. A candy tin for my knitting needles and various notions, I have a bunch of assorted craft supplies (paintbrushes, xacto knife, ribbons, fabric paint, etc.) in what's technically a hardware caddy, a big tote bag (pretty sure it was meant for picnicking or hiking, it has an insulated portion at the bottom) filled with yarn, with some semi-abandoned WIPs in the bottom, at least two other bags stuffed with yarn, a few boxes and bags of yarn and salvaged fabric, I even have a bag with leather in it floating around here somewhere, and I have some old past-their-prime items squirreled away in a suitcase for repurposing or using to patch up other clothes. It's a little absurd how much I've managed to accumulate, honestly, because I DO make an effort to only buy what I know I'll use. Then again, everyone knows I'm a crafter, so I get a lot of stuff just... passed on to me from others, or given as gifts, and it all adds up so quickly.

I am so glad I'm not the only one with plant-pilfering cats! Mine had a big thing for marjoram when I was growing it (it's in the mint family, so not entirely unexpected), and wholesale devoured a mature rosemary plant the only time I tried growing that. Cilantro seems to be their current reigning favorite of everything I have growing now, it had just started growing its true leaves and looking like actual cilantro when they pulled it up and ate the whole thing. What I replanted has sprouted and is about two or so inches tall already, hopefully they get to reach maturity this time. I think my plant light is a brand called Monios-L, that's what the label on them says, at any rate. Swore I still had the papers for it, but couldn't track them down, probably in a drawer somewhere. ^^; My beau's mum got it for me, and she uses the same brand in her plant room. I've had great success with it so far, all my plants seem to like it, and my mint, which had been affected by the cold in my windows and was mostly dead, has bounced back and is growing beautifully.

Oh gosh, yes. Secondhand bookshops are especially dangerous. I walk into a thrift shop to look for one or two specific things and then I find the books and suddenly I have an armload of books to try to find space for. Thankfully my library is within walking distance, so I'm there all the time instead of in book shops these days, but they have a sale shelf there, so even the library can be a book acquisition hazard. It also doesn't help that my mom is such an enabler with books, a friend or family member will give her a bunch of books and I get her rejects, or she'll have been to her library where they frequently run a deal on their retired books where you can get a whole bag full for just a few dollars, and half the stuff she finds winds up with me.

Ooh, wow! I don't know many people with these old machines, but the covers really are SO handy, especially when you have pets. And these old beasts always seem to be really reliable, just have to maintenance them every once in a while. I had a modern Singer when I was a kid, and it was nice, but I like my vintage machine without all the frills better, I think. I guess I'm just simple like that.

My "craft tin" was a special spring chocolate collection in a cute purple tin (a souvenir brought back to me from a chocolate shop in Vegas), it's like six by eight by two inches, I think? Big enough for my knitting needles, not quite big enough for my Tunisian crochet hook. Ah, a tool chest WOULD be super handy for storing craft stuff, I'd never even thought of using one. They're so big and heavy, though, I don't think I'd have enough room in my place even if I found one for a good price. We ditched a lot of big furniture when we moved, too, so I get how that goes. Yeah, I keep saying I'll turn some of the old clothes I have hoarded into tote bags or something, but the only thing I've actually used any of them for is patching up holes in other clothes that still have life left in them (my beau wears holes into pants like it's a job, I swear). XD

Of course! Always happy to help a fellow growing enthusiast~ There are definitely plants that are toxic or indigestible for cats, but most herbs are generally safe. Especially anything in the mint family, since they're all related to catnip. The downside of that being, of course, that it's hard to keep a cat that likes eating catnip from eating those plants. There's also some sort of grass meant to be grown for cats; it probably has a real name but we've always just called it "cat grass." My mom used to (try) to grow it for a Siamese cat we had when I was younger, but that cat was so crazy for it that she'd eat it before it even really had a chance to grow. As for veggies, I'm not one hundred percent on most of them, but I know tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplants are all bad for animals since they're in the nightshade family. I'd also wager my pepper plant would be one they'd throw up, though I don't think it's toxic or anything. And anything with oily or waxy leaves would probably wind up being a mess I'd have to clean if they got into it.

Oh, cheesy old novels are so FUN. I especially like old pulp/mail order Gothic novels, they're so bad they're practically comedic gold. I am also bad at giving up books, I'm a serious bibliophile, I hoard books like dragons hoard gold. I've gotten a bit better over the years, where I can actually bear to part with mediocre books and books I hated after I read them, but there are still so many books I love and can't bear to give up. And when I find books at a price that's hard to pass up, I always seem to acquire dozens at a time regardless of the fact that my bookshelf is literally sagging under the weight of my currently displayed collection and has literally no room for extra books. Like the year a library I frequented had a huge influx of donations for their yearly book sale and they literally gave away books for free at the end of it because they couldn't store all that was left... I think I ended up taking something like half a dozen boxes of books home. (Even under my mother's ultimatum of "you have to carry them all and figure out where to put them;" like, that's all you want? Done and done, who needs closet space!) And while I don't think I've ever acquired books just for nice binding (though a book I already own and like with pretty binding is a different story), I HAVE gone out of my way to pick up damaged books to later repair or rebind. So long as it isn't unreadable, I'm more than happy to give a book in poor shape a new home.

I can definitely see how a tool chest would be perfect for beading and jewelry! I could see myself using it for embroidery stuff, too. Evenweave, aida, and plastic canvas arranged in a drawer or two, thread in another, seed beads and other embellishments... There are so many ways I can imagine to use it.

If I had my way, I'd drag home plenty of houseplants from the grocery store, too. XD I've managed to exercise restraint so far since I have so many seeds and pots already. I don't think I've seen an African violet sold anywhere in ages. I remember having one when I was just a child, it was probably the first plant I had where I was the sole caretaker of it. Strange to think they've gone out style, they make such lovely flowers and they're easy to care for.

When the price to me is "free," I'm not very discerning in my book acquisitions, so I've ended up with a LOT of rejects that I end up donating to charity shops. Even when I AM more discerning, I still wind up with a lot of stuff that I read once and while it may not be a bad book, it's also not good enough for me to sacrifice precious shelf space for it, so into the donation pile it goes. And yeah, that makes sense! With how people seem to be about copyright these days, I would want to use something in the public domain, too, if I were going to try to turn a profit on it. I'm not sure if anyone could really PROVE the use of the material, and maybe it would be changed enough to fall outside copyright purview and within fair use, but I'd be hesitant to take that risk all the same.

Yeah, I think my mom wished she had gone with a stricter ultimatum in the end; where books are involved, I am VERY motivated to do whatever it takes if it means I can bring them home. And I rarely used my closet back then, so it didn't feel like much of a sacrifice to me. Of course, even without closet space, I still would have found somewhere for them, I'm sure. Sacrifice some walking space in my room and stack them up against a wall or something. Yes, I have quite the collection of notebooks! One for baking recipes (I previously used index cards for this, but after they went missing in a move, I decided a notebook would be harder to lose), one for craft notes, one I keep at my computer for various notes, one where I write down quotes I like from books I'm reading, and there's two or three floating around with tabletop game notes and original character ideas, plus various sketchbooks. My beau contributes to the collection, too; he keeps a book for recipes and a couple for game notes. How we manage to keep track of them all is a mystery. I haven't done any proper binding projects yet, mostly just repairs, but I have a copy of Stephen King's It that I have plans for eventually since I acquired it with only half the cover. I LOVE looking at all the creative ways people have bound books, though, there are some truly stunning and lovely works out there.

I've never owned a succulent! I'm too afraid of my cats chowing down on them and getting sick. Kind of a shame, I love the way they look, cute little spiky friends. I'd love to have a cactus, too, but I really don't relish the thought of pulling spines from my cats every day because they can never seem to learn their lesson with things like that.

I try to stay on top of copyright basics, and I have a little more detailed knowledge where "fannish" work is involved (fanart, tributes, parodies, etc.), but there's just SO MUCH legislation around intellectual property, plus the constantly evolving nature of that body of law, it's nigh on impossible to keep up with even a single specific subset. And Disney is an IP bane, I swear. Like, they'll never be satisfied until they own everything for the term of forever, it feels like. And they're so out of touch with the real world, too, like the time they pitched a hissy fit about all the memes of Grogu from The Mandalorian floating around on the internet. And all because they control what was being used. Like a kid with a giant box of toys that thinks that no one can play with anything that's the same as what's in their toybox, it's really dumb.

I still have a bunch of staff packed from my last move, mostly books since at best I have shelf space for a third of them (the book side of my shelf is literally packed full). I tend to keep lots of things packed away until I actually want to use them, though. Spare bedding, my heap of scarves, any bags that I'm not using regularly, game cartridges and VHS cassettes, tabletop games. Thankfully we have a lot of closet space. I am really bad about saving recipes on my phone and forgetting to put them in my recipe book. Then I'll be trying to find one to use and think about writing them down, but promptly forget about it again. XD Mostly only recipes from borrowed books or magazines that I'm sure I'll lose end up in the notebook. The only recipe I think I've managed to actually get down from the internet is a muffin recipe that I alter for all occasions and which sees a LOT of use. And then my actual cookbooks that I've bought, I have notes scribbled on any recipe I use regularly that requires any sort of tweaking. I suspect anyone else trying to use them would be confused because I tend to just write down a list of ingredients with no notes on what they're supposed to be for. I'm probably the worst recipe writer when it's my own creation, I write recipes like some of the recipes my mom has from great aunts and great grandmothers and the like, just ingredients, occasionally a label for what it makes, the end, good luck. Makes sense to me, but everyone else is rather like "what sort of devilry is this" unless they're an experienced baker. XD

Oh, yay, I'm not the only one using borders to hide little flaws like that! I'm pretty sure half the time no one would REALLY notice it if I left it alone, but I can see it and it will bother me until I find a way to "fix" it. Yes! Those are words to live by, I swear! Like, patterns are great and all, but I seldom use any pattern as is. I either feel like it needs more "spice," or don't like the way a certain part works up, or there's a more efficient way to do a specific thing; there always seems to be room for improvement somewhere for me.

Aw, I hate it when that happens, mislabeling on plants! Like when stores put out plants that they claim to be "mini," and what they really mean is "small pot, plant will grow to normal size." (Potted roses seem to be frequent offenders with this.) Hobbyist gardeners just have to live and learn from experience, I guess, especially with mystery plants not from a garden center.

Oh, that is weird that the political climate would affect the decision like that! I'll take the wins where we can get them, though. I don't think I've ever run up on a copyright-centric blog. A lot of my knowledge is just from articles and references used for those articles. Most of my "fannish" knowledge base comes directly from the Organization for Transformative Works. Which can be a lot to comb through, but since they're actively involved in advocating for the legal rights of fanart, parody, fanfiction, etc. I find it to be a decent resource.

Your system sounds like it would make perfect sense to me! At the very least, far more helpful than my "here's a list of ingredients and an oven temperature, good luck." Almost no one other than me has to use my recipes, though, so if I can cut out a bunch of writing because the method can be logically inferred by the item to be made, I will do it every time. I suppose that's probably how the inherited family recipes came to be how they are, too, so maybe I just come by it naturally. Or maybe everyone in my family invested enough to write down a recipe was also like "I'm the only one that uses it, let's skip the extraneous stuff." XD