So where did that old cracked pot end up? I wish I could tell you otherwise. I wish I could tell you that that simple yet loveable teapot was saved from a useless demise by insisting it be earmarked for my next craft project.

So far I have turned –

• the leg of my favourite pair of non-lettgoable jeans into a yoga mat carrier
• my wonderfully useful hand-knitted winter-survival heating-money-saver of a mammoth jumper (only recently shrunk in the wash) into a
• luxurious cat blanket for our Charlie
• another shrunken (also hand-knitted) marmalade-coloured mohair jumper into a Cheshire Cat embroidered tea cosy
• ummm….
  water into wine (okay, made that one up)

This teapot could have been great. It could have been smashed with a hammer – gently and carefully soas not to splinter and expose its white ceramicky insides – its parts carefully collected and sorted into colours, shapes, edge pieces. All lined up and ready for action.

A naturally-occurring occasional table would have been found. Maybe in a charity shop. One that was recycled perhaps, made out of palettes, chipboard, or other unloved woodstuffs.

This table top would have been lovingly, generously plied with glue. A stage set for the mosaic placing. Once dried, the grooves would be grouted. The colour would be something contrasting with the teapot’s creaminess. A darker colour similar to the table’s warm browns.

imaginary teapot table superimposed over real natural handcrafted slice-of-tree-trunk table. Visit furnish.co.uk for more actual table on which this collage is based.
My re-generated new lease-of-life teapot table.
Original table adapted from http://www.furnish.co.uk’s handcrafted Egw table.
See sourced table image pinned here as well: http://pinterest.com/pin/83598136805949999/

This was been my quirky wishful let’s-keep-it dream. Create a beautiful new table from an old teapot so that it wouldn’t end up dumped, forgotten, and piling up another landfill. Allow that teapot to carry on in a new guise. Bring joy to someone else – preferably me. I do need a new side table.

Knowing full well I wouldn’t get around to doing this quickly enough, and that family members would have been asked to live carefully around an unfinished delicately laid-out bulky project with its crocks, newspaper mat, and gluey bits – was a tall ask.

My husband offered to remove the cracked teapot from [his] view in my office window. No, it didn’t offend me – my window cill inhabited by a teapot. It was the request to dump it that did though.

Couldn’t I Freecycle it? Someone out there surely, is making a whacky art project for their degree and need their 999th teapot to complete the piece… Surely.

My teapot now lies previously-loved, unwanted, ditched. In a Gloucester tip, with seagulls cawing overhead like a horror scene from The Birds.

But I do have peace. Of mind. I let something go. My to-do list is slimmer, smilier 🙂
Grateful for this decision. All in spite of myself, in spite of my “best intentions”.

Creative dreamings can get in the way of living a real life sometimes.

Get shedding! If you need inspiration and ideas for how to give your junk a new lease of life (or like!) or make your own things to sell…

Try these guys:
Freecycle – one person’s junk is another Person’s treasure
ReLIKE – where children’s clothes get a new lease of like.
Etsy – beautifully crafted vintage homemade wares