Colorful wool felt balls have captured my imagination and dominated my Pinterest feed for several months. Those fuzzy shapes with muted hues just look happy! And the idea of felting wool, poking and poking at it ’til you get the desired shape, seems like it would be satisfying. On more than one occasion, I’ve filled an online shopping cart with all the components necessary to make my own, but have yet to click purchase. While I was deeply enamored with the idea of these fun little orbs, I didn’t have a specific project in mind, just a desire to experiment, and that’s not enough of a reason to invest in a new hobby (at least not yet).

Still, the colors called to me, so I compromised and bought a small bag of pre-made wool felt balls to help take the edge off of my yearning. Too pretty to relegate to a drawer or closet, I dumped the lot of them in a glass candy dish on my coffee table; my own little bowlful of potential.

That’s takeaway #1: pretty craft components should be on display.

I keep all kinds of crafty fodder in jars on a shelf in my living room – Scrabble tiles, old keys, broken jewelry, wooden spools – alongside some of my most frequently used tools. I find real beauty in my curated collection of obtainium and I like to think having them within eyesight, even if it’s just my peripheral vision, keeps me pondering their potential.

Takeaway #2: having this bowlful of potential literally at my fingertips has gotten these felted balls out of my head and into my hands.

This weekend, I skewered several using metal wires as “stems” and tucked them in a bottle of buttons – my own little upcycled bouquet. Now I’m envisioning attaching them to bare branches for a fall floral arrangement and stringing them on baker’s twine for Christmas garland.

Takeaway #3: surround myself with things that bring me joy.