A Finished Project and some encouragement...

I'm feeling very pleased with myself at the moment because I have finished the bag I was making for my niece for her 15th birthday. Here is a picture of the finished product. I'm so pleased with the final result and the best thing of all is that she loves it. I did find it a bit of a challenge and it felt like I was unpicking more than I was sewing, but I got there in the end. The funny thing is that when I was packing away the pattern pieces and instructions I happened to glance at the part of the instructions that I couldn't seem to grasp when all of a sudden it clicked! It made complete sense and I couldn't see why I didn't fathom it out in the first place - so typical of me. Never mind, I'll know for next time. Taya has already used it and what she said she loves most about it is that it is unique which is so true about making things. I feel so blessed to be given the gift of creativity and doing things with my hands. I was reading a little devotional the other day on creativity which I thought I would share with you:

'Creativity is a God-given ability to take something ordinary and make it into something special. It is an openness to doing old things in new ways and a willingness to adapt other people's good ideas to suit our personal needs. Creativity is an ability we all possess, although many of us keep it hidden in the deep corners of our lives. The creative spirit is part of our heritage as children of the One who created all things, and nurturing our creativity is part of our responsibility as stewards of God's good gifts'. I hope this is as much of an encouragement to you as it was to me. I especially liked the part about adapting other people's good ideas to suit our personal needs as I'm always starting off with a pattern and then changing it around so much that it doesn't look much like what I originally started with but the finished result is always just so 'me'.

Winter has kicked in at last and it is very cold and wet. It may be winter but my garden has come to life. It is a very good all-year-round garden with flowers popping up all year but I think it takes a bit of beating the camellia flowers. This one is my favourite. Isn't it stunning! It is so big and the amazing thing is that it will stay standing up in the vase all week. I've got another camellia that I pick but the flowers drop off after the first day in the vase and they are only teeny weeny flowers compared to this one. I've got it sitting on the table in front of our stereo at work and you can just see the pretty little primula flowers in the background. They also last all week in the vase.

With the cold weather I've decided that I need a scarf or two so I bought a couple of really neat patterns on Etsy. I bought some wool yesterday and as it is bucketing down with rain today it is the perfect day to be knitting. I think it will be pretty and it feels so soft and snuggly. The wool is called Moda Vera - Chantilly. It says it's 70% acrylic and 30% milk protein which sounded weird to me but my husband says that milk protein is called casein and it's used in all sorts of things. Maybe that's what makes it feel so soft. Here is what I've knitted so far...

I shall leave you now and continue with my knitting. I hope that you manage to find some time for creativity this weekend.

Corrina