Shit into shoepolish

I decided I wanted to revisit some old hobbies. Amongst them was polymer clay, when I was young I played with it. When I was in school I sculpted but not with polymer clay. Frankly I prefer all the air drying clays and layers of pains. I don't know if they are easier or just easier for me. I'm going to persevere but what I've made thus far isn't so hot. A nice layer of gloss paint seems to improve it greatly. In some ways I find it hard to do simple crafts involving sculpting because I'm too nit picky from school. My first project was a clay apple. The instructions did not mention a layer of gloss paint, it did not mention using a stiff brush to give texture but I can see from the photos and a diserning eye that the image they show uses both. I'm bad at following instructions but tried my darndest and so my apple does not look like the picture. I don't follow instructions well and perhaps thats my problem. And the stuff I've tried making all have stems and are on pins to make charms, why would these be beginning projects. The stem on wire is not so easy. Also because they are selling a book then act like you can start out making charms, realistically you should start just trying to make objects before you get findings or wire involved. Perhaps I should go that route and find a child with barbies to hook up with foods etc.
I also bought a toaster for the hobby and a tile that doesn't fit in the damn toaster and a toaster with no temperatures so I bought an oven thermometer. Frankly its probably not the best toaster for this although with the door partially ajar I got the right temperature, and why was the door ajar, cause the tile was too big. I can get a smaller tile but this is what i have now. Remind me never to get into wood working. I'd measure once and cut 15 times, buy a new piece of wood and end up hot glueing it all together.