Merry Mushroom
And a little bit on the wild fire nature of ideas, and how I let disappointment stop me from having an internet presense for too long.
I am a bit obsessed with mushrooms. All the way back, since the very beginning of my memories, I can find mushrooms. I think it began with playing in the forest with my brothers and cousins growing up. We lived in south eastern Oklahoma, and my grandpa had 20 acres back then. On the back of the property, there was a small wooded area. Along with another property we were allowed to roam across the road. But we loved my grandpa’s land the most. My cousin and I called it the fairy woods. We would spend as much time as we could pretending to have tea parties on the moss carpets, finding mushrooms, playing in a little babbling brook. It is the very basis for my fondest memories. I even named my oldest daughter after those days. In school, I could be found drawing mushrooms. I was even called a hippie once. By a teacher actually. People would make jokes about psychedelic's and though I knew what they meant, I had never had a magic mushroom in my life. Still haven’t, and I still hear those jokes. It’s okay. People don’t understand, and that’s okay. Mushrooms are beautiful and magical all on their own, no matter if they have magic properties. I adore them to their mycelium. I have hundreds of mushroom pictures in my photos account, and it will only grow in number.
Look at these adorable little gnomes.
There really weren’t very many joys back when I was a kid. We lived in poverty, and my family was a rough bunch. Hatfield's and McCoy's had nothing on my family because they weren’t real to me. My family was real, and they really shot at each other with guns. I fixated on things to get by I suppose. Mushrooms was one of those things. That and mermaids. But this post is about mushrooms.
I can’t recall anyone who had Merry Mushroom decor, but I became obsessed with it in my adult life. I had a set of three Merry Mushroom canisters, complete with the lids that I scored at a thrift store for $2 total. I was so happy, I brought them home and delighted over them with my family. I had most of the set for a small time, until it met with disaster at the hands of my daughter. She wanted to play frisbee with the lids. Instead of getting upset about them breaking, I decided I would eventually get my hands on more. The years went by, and the Merry Mushroom popularity exploded. Now, that set is anywhere between $200 to $400 dollars, depending on the day. I just don’t have $200 to $400 I want to spend on them. But one day, I will find more.
Here are the remnants of what I have left of my Merry Mushroom canisters.
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Back in February of last year, I came up with an idea to design a crochet purse. It took me like fire, consuming my every waking thoughts. I crochet it while my husband played basketball with his friends. I crochet while my children discovered the new delights of spring. I worked on it during family outings and going to the park. But for some reason, I stalled on completing it eventually, because I didn’t know how I wanted to finish the flap on top. While I was sitting and waiting for inspiration to strike, the internet flooded with merry mushroom crochet purses. I was disheartened. I had even written up a tutorial as I was going along, and had plans to submit my design to a crochet magazine. I didn’t know how to feel. I knew there had been no Merry Mushroom purses on pinterest, I had checked. I knew no one had “stolen” my idea. That’s just the nature of ideas. They grow like wildfires, and anyone can get caught up in them, as long as they think the same way. I had planned on starting a blog, and I let the idea die. I thought I must not have anything unique to offer the world. Obviously, that didn’t last. It has been over a year since I wrote up an entire tutorial to post on my blog that I never started. Yet, here I am today, actually writing substack posts. Here is the finished project of my original design. I have since changed it up, but I think I like the original the best.
I think the moral of my story for the day, not that it needs one, is that good things can’t be allowed to die because of doubt. I doubted myself, and I suffered for it for over a year. I constantly thought about the work I did writing up my first tutorial. I know I will never ignore my intuition again. I’ll never sit on something that I know I need to do.
The purse needed to be shared. I did eventually share the purse with some friends, and actually sold the original one. I am very proud of the work I did. It hasn’t gone to waste. I still have all the pictures and can still post here. So that’s what I’m doing today.
I also want to share with y’all some other crochet designs I came up with. Here is a hat I ended up giving to my son.
I had intended on stitching moss all over the hat, but I didn’t like how that looked. I may still do that one day.
The hat itself was designed by Yarnutopia. I highly recommend her tutorial video. I’ve already made two of these types of hats, and this is my go to design. The added mushroms were my own design.
Here is a pair of earrings I designed myself after the success of the Merry Mushroom purse. They are simple to make, but not exactly easy. I may make a tutorial for them if anyone is interested.
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That wraps up today’s post I think. I think I’ll do another post sharing the original tutorial I made for the merry mushroom purse.
Thank you for being here with me!
Great writing, also super cute photos 👌🏽