Sometimes you spend an entire day trying to find a way to make a certain thing. You start with wire. Your first attempts end up on the floor and half a morning has gone by. You have an idea of how it might work, if only you could find that thing you've had for years, but don't know which box it is in.
Thank goodness you never throw anything useful away! Nylon lace is a nono, but interesting bits and bobs are uncovered; you find the rules to your game of Nine Men's Morris you thought you'd lost. A whole box of antique handmade lace is explored - but is sacred. Not for cutting. 
Nothing useful in here today...
Not even in the glorious treasure chest that is the bottom layer of my workbasket.
Ah, here is a dusty basket with long abandoned temari balls...maybe there is something lurking in here...
Possibly a solution - 
But no; after another experiment gone wrong, it's hard to feel that the day has not been wasted, except to find out what doesn't work! 