Vermilion Red Bag!

Vermilion - such a lovely word and such a gorgeous colour! This vintage vermilion red binca work in black and white has been given new life as a lined and pocketed bag with a matching detachable flower pin!

When I found it, the piece of work was complete, but appeared to have never been used. The stitches are so even and beautiful!

 

The bag is lined with thrifted cotton print and the pocket inside is highlighted with a  vintage lace motif!
I feel particularly noble when I am able to find and reuse vintage craft that was never used in the first place!

It will be going into the Freshly Found shop soon!

Ravishing, Raging, Raucous Red....

I share an office with my husband.  His business is based here at home, although he spends a lot of time out of the office. I do quite a bit of admin for him and so the most exciting bit about my to-do list today is the colour red of these files that I have to fill!

Although our businesses are so different, we both enjoy the overlap! My husband is a very busy person, always on the go and I enjoy being part of his buzz!  He is the number 1 fan of Freshly Found and my creative talent and so it works well.
But, I am procrastinating....  the books!

How Many Lightbulbs...?

Tim Fishlock needed 1243 to make this !

 

What Watt? is a humorous and clever memorial to the incandescent light bulb.

 This group of retirees is lit by a single low energy light source!

Can cap!

The FIFA World Cup Soccer is big news.  Our whole country is gearing up to this huge event.  Even school holidays have been lengthened so that transport systems are freed up to cater for supporters.

We are becoming quite patriotic and doing our bit too - we bought this recycled Coke can cap from a stall at the I Heart Market in Durban! [The I Heart Market opens again on the 6th Feb with a circus theme this time round!]

I love the ingenuity.  Trash made into a treasure!

1800 pages to go...

I have recently upgraded my Flickr to a Pro Account.  This means that I have been able to tell how many hits my pictures have.  Surprisingly, by far the biggest attraction, in fact 6 times more popular than the next most viewed pic is this one of the folded books I made a while ago!

 I have been folding some more books - Some engineering manuals actually!  I love how these boring [to me anyhow] books have taken on new life.

The best about this manual was that it was dedicated to the author's wife!  Who says engineers are not tenderhearted romantics?

The next one I am busy on is a 2484 page manual!  I have got to page 684  so far.

I try to work on these books when something else is on the go - like chatting to family members or 'watching' TV, or even just thinking! The repetitive nature of the work can be quite soothing if I am in the mood for it!

Story of a Batik Bag

I love to take something and make it into something else.  Finding material that is past it's usefulness and then giving it a whole new life - gives me a thrill!  My friends know this about me and often pass on previously beautiful stuff to see what I want to do with it!

A couple of months ago, a friend gave me a batik she had done as a school art project.  I put it away.  I often don't know what these gifts will become at the time!
Burdastyle have a free pattern service - which is also copyright free! Amazing!  I came across this bag pattern and decided it would work well with a stash of Ghanaian batik fabric I have been given.  But I wanted to do a trial run first.
My friend's school project came to mind!  It transformed beautifully into this bag, and I was delighted to wrap it up and give it back to her! It has become her beach bag!

Posing with the Inca Lillies [Alstroemerias] from my garden proves that it would make a good market bag too!
PS - The pattern and instructions can be downloaded from BurdaStyle and printed out onto A4 sheets.  Stickytaping the bits together is easy as the joins are well marked. Fun to see the pattern appearing!

PPS - I am busy with the Ghanaian batch, and will let you know when they are ready!

Offcut Typography!

My daughter and mom arrive home today from a 2 week trip to Italy! Yesterday I picked some flowers from the garden for my daughter's room.

 Last night I was trimming some files for my husband.  I looked at all the colourful cardboard off-cuts, and I knew they had to become the Welcome sign!

 

Spontaneous creative expression - it really is my favourite!  I am off to the airport to pick them up!

Roses, Pine Bark, Water Tanks and Aunt Erma

The great thing about going away, especially to a lovely quiet place, is to have the time to smell the roses, or at least notice how beautiful they are!

....and to see how gorgeously textured the bark on the pine tree is, and what a delightfully vibrant pattern the pine needles make on the ground, and just how picturesque the water tank at the back of the house is - with it's lovely horizontal lines, and appreciate the vintage furniture in the cottage...
It is also a lovely time to reflect and plan for the year ahead.  Aunt Erma's Cope Book by Erma Bombeck was on hand on the cottage bookshelf with this advice:

Back from the Beautiful Berg!

The new year is well and truly under way! We had a wonderful break in the Drakensberg.  We did some fairly serious hiking.

 

I so enjoyed taking my camera along and capturing the mountains, and other interesting views.  This rustic stile caught my attention. I wasn't too sure if stile was the right spelling for it - but the Oxford Dictionary confirmed -an arrangement of steps set into a fence or wall that allows people to climb over.

I had some mountain stream time to play with the shutter speed on my camera, capturing the water drops falling

 or blurring them into a white mist! 

Stacked

We are starting the year by going away to the Drakensberg! I am looking forward to a beautiful break.  Before we go, I want to show you what's adding to my joy...   

The thought of coming home again to my freshly tidied linen cupboards! A good way to start the year!

All those soothing horizontal lines of neatly stacked and labeled linen, broken only by the gentle fluffy towel coils!

I'll be back in a week- blogging and Freshly Finding in earnest again!

Creativity for Dummies

I was asked to write an article for our latest church magazine, Culture, on Creativity. 

It gave me an opportunity to express my beliefs about the creative nature of each one of us!  I thought I would share the article with you:

Creativity for Dummies

Living creatively is not an option – it is a necessity for a full and meaningful life.   In Genesis1:26-27, God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature… God created human beings; he created them godlike, Reflecting God's nature. [The Message]

That means that each one of us is made in the image of God the Creator.  We are creative because the Creator made us like Him! He said so – himself!

In being creative we give rise to something new or create something where there was nothing before - relationship, hope, encouragement, plans, food, direction, music, humour, praise, destiny, art, faith, .

Some off the most creative people are those who use their mouths to speak encouragement and life! Others may use their hands to help and fix, or their minds to think of a clever solution.  Leaders can create direction and purpose for an aimless group of people.  Simple creative acts like picking a flower or buying a chocolate, or creating a clean room where there was untidiness before or smiling broadly or waving heartily - these are all ways of creating abundance where there was lack before.

Tough Challenges are fertile soil for creative living – Necessity is the mother of invention.

God may be standing on the sidelines of a difficult life-game you are playing at the moment, shouting encouragement to see the opportunity for creative expression and growth. 

As we face the future, let us hold on to God, look back at heroes from the past who did what had never been done before, and look forward to living brave innovative and creative lives. 

Take 1 area today where you can use your God-given creative ability to give rise to something that was not there before!

Ready for 2010!

I've had a lovely refreshing few days break after a busy Christmas time with family and friends.

 

We did not go away, but spent time catching up, tidying up, planning, talking, thinking and painting!  Very satisfying!
We also had some family pics taken by local friend and up-and-coming photographer Graham of HP Photography!

Neither of the above gorgeous creatures are members of my family - they are just some of my favorites from Graham's Flickr!

But this is my son...!