Review: The Butterfly Mobile

(I know, I said I'd find a clever title for these reviews, but all I have right now is "Review:".  Sorry!)

So, in the interest of being nice to independent crafty artisan shop people, I won't be naming names in this review.  Let's just say that I bought a kit to make a really cool-looking butterfly mobile for Eleanor (and myself!) at a local vendor of handmade goods.  The prefab ones were $60, but for $20, I could get a kit to make it myself!  Wow!  I couldn't resist!  Of course I could do it; I'm crafty, too!  I bought it.  She said that it was easy and it came with instructions.

Now, let me tell you a little about my life.  I don't have any consecutive hours in a row to do anything, at least not during the day.  At night, my consecutive hours after baby goes to bed are spent on important things like eating and sleeping.  So, I'd appreciate it if do-it-yourself kits were actually easy and not a total time suck.  I figured I was buying a "kit", so most of the work would be done already.  As I said, I have limited time in my life.  Usually I eschew kits of any kind because I prefer to be creative myself, but my life is different now -- time spent on creativity is for the most part a thing of the past.  In fact, the only reason I have time to write this blog post is because A. is sick and not working and can watch E. in the other room since she woke up from what would have been a nap when the doorbell rang from our neighbor dropping off our dog since we don't need them to take care of her anymore because we gave up on our Thanksgiving trip to join family in Houston because of one disaster after another.  BUT I DIGRESS.

So the mobile.  I let it sit off to the side for a couple weeks, because I just didn't get to it.  Finally I had some time when my parents were here, so I opened the box and peered in to see how to make it.  Well, to my utter dismay, the box contained a million and one pieces of mobile in such a state as can only be described as "here are your raw materials to make the whole stupid thing yourself."  I read the instructions: I would have to poke holes in the butterflies myself (all 165 of them), string beads and butterflies on these tiny pieces of fishing line, tie knots by eyeballing every 3 inches along the strings, determine how long to hang the strings, and basically do the entire project from scratch.

Plus, I would need a glue gun, and need to sew.  There were no "tools" listed at the beginning of the instructions!  Luckily I have a glue gun, and a needle and thread.  But not everyone would!  The instructions were convoluted and not useful for someone who, oh, is not the artist herself. Obviously this girl has no experience in designing for the user!!!!!!

So what did I do?  Well, at first I closed the box and thought, "oh my god, I will never make this and I want to return it and I will just pay to get the premade one."  I actually think this is a marketing ploy on the part of the artist: she makes the kits impossible, so people come back and pay her more to get a finished one.  BUT, joking aside (and I'm not even really joking), I refuse to do this.  Anyway, the box sat there for a while longer until I decided to sit down and attempt it.  Maybe it wasn't so bad.

It was.  First, I just want to say how stupid it was of her to suggest using a sewing needle to poke all the butterflies.  This would injure anyone attempting it, so I'm glad I started out using a pushpin instead.  Just say "use a pushpin", lady!

Second, not everyone knows what a square knot is.  I had to double-check with my dad that it is indeed just a normal "shoelace" knot, aka the only knot I know how to make after all those years of sailing are a thing of the past and I don't know if I'll ever "put the rabbit around the tree and through the burrow" and all that business with tying up your boat to the cleat or whatever, even though I'd love to because I love sailing, but like I said, life is different now.  Anyway.  My dad showed me that there is even a right and wrong way to tie a double-knot.  I never knew there was a difference!

As I knew it would be, tying that tiny micro-filament line was a pain in the butt.  Also, you can't untie it.  So once you knot it, you're done.  No room for mistakes.  I really wish that she had pre-marked on the strings WHERE the knots were supposed to go.  I managed to string up one line of butterflies, having to double-tie all my knots (double the frustration!) because one was not enough to keep the butterflies in place.

So after finishing this one string, I got that deep-down intuitive feeling that this project will be a frustrating waste of my life.  There are 32 more strings to go, then there's attaching them to the upper hoop thing, then doing some gluing and sewing to the hanging ribbon.  This project is going to take 101 snippets of my time, and I think I'd rather use those snippets to write blog posts, or drink tea, or work on MY creative initiatives, not just assembling someone else's.

The conundrum is that I have the enticing image of the finished mobile in my mind, and I WANT IT!  I also don't like giving up.  Winners never quit, and quitters never win, after all.  But my time is precious and I KNOW that I will be pissed off the entire time I'm making this.  But maybe this is the perfect challenge for me to work on character-building and letting go and honing my patience.  But will I just be annoyed every time I look at the finished mobile?  This is a distinct possibility!  Will I even finish at all, or will the half-done thing sit there and haunt me as yet another failure?

So what do you think?  Do I complete the project, or give up and give the kit away/throw it out?

In any event, I've learned to get all the details before purchasing any kit.