the process

The feeling you get when you complete something is great. What I am starting to realize and slowly learning to appreciate, is the power of the PROCESS. I have always been excited as I begin to work on something, the envisioning and dreaming comes natural. The final product at the end is the reward, right?

So...What about the "in between?" This is where it often gets messy. I don't normally like a mess :) What I do like about the mess in the process of creating is that I have confidence in it... What I mean, is I have seen over and over how what I thought would work, didn't. I have also been forced, due to my own mistake, to go to plan B. It almost always leads me to a different end result. I have learned to like the excitement of NOT knowing how it will all end, but trusting I will love it. Now, if I could just apply the same principle to life.

Pink

I made this pink trashbag (yes,trashbag) wreath to celebrate and announce the birth of a sweet baby girl we now call Selah Pearl. I found pink trashbags at the Dollar Store, cut them into strips and tied them to a large metal ring. It was easy, and cheap. The center is made of covered chipboard tied to the metal ring. The letters, ribbons, flowers, and brad are from my private stash of scrapbook goodies. I love how it turned out! Who knew they made pink trashbags?

Repurpose it all I say!

When I see something, I am usually figuring out what it could be, rather than seeing it for what it is. I found this old rusty matchstick holder you would find beside an old fireplace and I knew it would be great to hold my pencils while looking pretty at the same time! I wish I had a before photo to show how with vision and spray paint, almost anything can be transformed.

Finding Your Purpose

Have you figured it out yet? What is it you were MADE to do? You know it when you find it. It energizes you and leaves you full. It's not that whatever it is, isn't hard or doesn't require work. It just makes you feel more alive, more like yourself.

Creating is mine. There is a need to make something. It doesn't have to be big or time consuming, but there is a pull, a craving almost... to alter, rearrange, beautify, or fabricate something. It can be inspired by something I see, or triggered by a song I hear. Sometimes it is someone, or a situation on my mind that sparks my imagination.

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

John Eldredge, Wild at Heart

Welcome!

It all started with buttons. I kept finding them everywhere. What a waste to throw them away I kept saying to myself, surely I can find something useful to do with them (I am sure this is how hoarders are born.) Cut to me leisurely flipping through design magazines and the audible gasp when I saw them. I wish I could remember the magazine so I could give them credit, but all I can remember is the adrenaline rush and the sprint to the nearest craft store. It was like a insane NEED to create!

On the page of that magazine, in the background, not even the focus of the shot....was a vase of buttons attached somehow to wire? I found some floral wire, borrowed my mother's wire clippers, and the rest, as they say, is history. I love the pop of color. I love to find new containers to put them in, the endless number of button & color combinations and I really love that no matter how brown my thumb is, I won't kill these flowers.