Social Media is the new Argos catalogue

The magic portal to a fairytale world where all dreams come true...

I grew up in the era of the Argos catalogue, that weighty tome of cheap, glossy paper, stuffed with tantalising pictures of all manner of toys and gadgets to enhance the life of a British tween in the 1980s. Every autumn meticulously poring over the pages, circling the relevant letters for things I’d like to find under the tree on Christmas Day, stuff that would surely transform my 13-year-old life and make me the envy of all my friends.

Of course, I never received any of it. The best I could hope for was to save my pocket money and any Christmas bonuses from aunts and perhaps upgrade my tape player or buy a new hairdryer later in the New Year. How did I live?

The biggest mystery of Argos was how they managed to stuff all the stock into the small space behind the counter, behind the wall at the back of the shop. Perhaps beyond that corner where staff disappeared to fetch your stuff, there was a magic portal to a Narnia of electronic goods and plastic toys? It was even more exciting if your prized cardboard box appeared on the conveyor, shoved through the heavy plastic curtain by disembodied hands from another world.

But every day now, it’s all there in front of us, on our telephones of all places. Bizarre! Worse, we probably know the people who have these things or live those lives! They’re not just vacantly smiling models in catalogues, these are real people, our friends. And, there’s photographic evidence of all the stuff they have, things they’re doing, their exotic holidays. It’s all there and it’s all real! Too right I want some of that too, thank you very much.

Completely crackers

And don’t get me started on things like crackers. Why? It IS completely crackers that for one lunchtime, once a year, we’re encouraged to spend £15 on six tubes of cardboard, some tissue paper to wear on our head, the world’s lamest Dad jokes, and more junk to go straight in the recycling bin. Why? Sorry, rant over!

Once upon a time,

Gina Ferrari

used to have an excellent tutorial to make your own exquisite sparkly ones:

I’ll leave it to you to try and twist Gina’s arm to teach you how to make them, but I think I can guess the answer!

Overthinking is a blessing and a curse

Talking of seasonal holidays, after a lifetime’s devotion, I weaned myself off a certain well-known brand of chocolate egg (that’ll be appearing on supermarket shelves before December is out, you mark my words) by envisioning the cheap, waxy chocolate as…well, wax. I wouldn’t eat a candle, so…?? Certainly did the trick for me, and apologies if that’s one of your favourites. There are alternatives.

But once you start doing this: thinking through what things are actually made of or where they come from, it makes for a very unsettling experience doing almost anything. Buying stuff not in some way made of plastic, containing plastic, or wrapped in plastic - as well as nigh on impossible, it’s very inconvenient. Some things just ‘are’. Like Lego, the best toy ever invented. And how else was I to make my (plastic!) Croc jibbitz if not for a bag of plastic backs from the other side of the world?

this is where the stash of nonsense bits and pieces comes into its own

I confess: I’m a hypocrite

I make silly things like jibbitz. I buy notebooks with crisp, new paper pages, and plastic pens and paints. I use glossy polyester threads and I’m quite partial to a hummus chip made from chickpeas that’ve been processed to a pulp in a factory, sprinkled with oil and baked then put into a foil-lined plastic bag. I bemoan the lack of Kentish apples in the supermarket despite living a stone’s throw from the ‘Garden of England’ while merrily grabbing a box of American cranberries for the freezer (my version of seasonal preparation) and a pack of two avocados from Peru. Gah.

Let’s all move to a convent

As I said last time, it’s endless, isn’t it? There’s always more. How do we draw the line, without going too far in the opposite direction and giving it all up to live as monks (or nuns)?

I’d love to be able to grow my own vegetables, weave my own flax and make my own clothes on an acoustic sewing machine, but quite frankly even if I had the time, I don’t have enough garden or space for a loom. And quite frankly, I want to spend the time on other things.

Talking of doing other things…

Apparently, this week I wanted to reorganise my bookshelves. This is despite following my own Advent challenge of small, contained tasks, and doing this was NOT on the agenda (yet 😉).

We’re four days on from when I dumped this lot on my desk, and I’ve stalled. But I think it proves the point: I don’t NEED any more! And when will I read them all?

Same with all the other things in my studio. I have plenty. I’m awash with resources, not to mention all the ideas I have for what to do with it all. Many are even started! There’s a shock!

And I’m not alone: if you’re following along with the challenge, perhaps you’ve discovered all sorts of glorious treasure on your travels, too?! People have already sent me pics of forgotten samples and snippets they’ve uncovered, things definitely worthy of salvage and completion.

I am finding the Advent Adventure really inspiring. My desk is mostly clear, which it definitely wasn't a week ago, I have gotten rid of lots of very old threads and some needle felting kits that I will never make, along with elastic that was bought when we were making face masks, and numerous other bits along the way. And of course, other stuff is now back where it belongs.

And I am already feeling more relaxed in the room that, honestly, was so cluttered that I was finding myself avoiding going in there...So, thank you for this daily nudge to get on top of all the stuff.

Sarah

“No threads but I have a pot of pencils on my desk, used every day that are always getting added to as I do different things. So they have had a good sort, been sharpened, some returned to the boxes they came from and while doing that I found a bundle of tinted charcoal ones that have been added to play with later. I'm suffering from the short and dark days of winter so having someone give me a nudge every morning is getting me energised, not just in my own space. I could make a list but it wouldn't work half as well as a friendly face telling me to get on and do stuff! Thanks, Izzy”

Diana

"Done, but a very long way still to go. I'll send you some photos 😂”

Carole

If you’d like to join in, you still can - and you can catch up on previous days, too. Each day has a different prompt: something to do in a short space of time, and you get to choose what that is for you! I also lead by example, although don’t look at my desk right now…

Something that isn’t made of plastic

Here’s a little something to listen to, while you do your mini sort-out or other seasonal preparations. It was recommended to me this week, and I’m so glad - it’s a fascinating listen, and so warm-hearted.

I’ve been listening along while making pink fluffy pom-poms for our choir’s Christmas tree. Last year, someone gave us (the ‘tree’ committee, aka me, Jo and Jan) a ball of sparkly acrylic (plastic!) yarn, thinking we could use it like tinsel. No. It was still in the box when we started this year’s planning, so I brought it home to decide what to do with it - which turned out to be pom-poms. Good in theory, absolutely rotten idea in practice! We’ll be picking bits of pink fluff out of all the carpets in the house for evermore…it travels.

Our finished tree with our ‘brand’ colour of shocking pink (how could I not join this choir) listing to starboard to prevent it launching itself down into the nave. If you’re in Uckfield, we’re singing at noon on Saturday 🎶

Until next time,