Big project ahoy!

Like everyone who develops an addiction to small sparkly things, I have lots of mis-matched odds and sods lying around. I had a bit of a conscience-be-damned splurge last year and I've not quite used everything I bought at that time (read 'most of it remains untouched...'). I have therefore created Craft Commandment Number 1:

"Thou shalt not start a new project unless it makes a dent in the stockpile of random stuff in the cupboard."

I made this decision following the discovery of 12 vintage Swarovski 12mm volcano rivolis at the bottom of a box in said cupboard that I had completely forgotten I owned. Coincidentally, this was on a day where I had scoured Etsy, ebay etc. for about 3 hours trying to find vintage volcano Swarovski pieces becasue I quite fancied buying some for a future project. Oops.....

Put simply, I have far too much stuff but I'm too much of a hoarder for a de-stash sale. (Craft mantra number 1: "I bought it because I liked it so I'll keep it.") When you have too much, you forget what you have and so buy more. Voila, a vicious circle. I plan to pick some random stock item for each project then design around it. I currently have my eye on some heliotrope and tanzanite rivolis - I might even embark upon the first big bead embroidery....