Dance Bag

I am happy to say that I think my bag creations are progressively looking more and more professional. By that I mean it's higher quality and people are surprised when I say that I made it. However, though this bag is better quality than most of my other handmade bags, it didn't cost me a thing. That's right, I didn't have to buy any thing to finish it.

I made the body of the bag out of some old curtains, it's a heavish weight and I'm planning to make a few totes out of it as well for birthday presents(all of my friends have birthdays in July and August so I'm wracking my brain to figure out what to make them all).

The zipper was one of the billion zippers that a relative gave us a long time ago.

Zig zag patches just for fun.

Now, the rings are actually bangles that I thrifted a long time ago. I very excited about that idea because I couldn't find anything that would work, I even looked at Joann's for some but I couldn't find any. I also wasn't sure if the bracelets would hold up okay, but so far they've held two books, character shoes, and lots of other dance clothes and did fine.

Shown here is some needle lace I was experimenting with a while ago, I only did it one one side.

Please tell me what you think!

Hope you're all have a wonderful week.

~Clara

When you come to the edge of all the light you know,

and are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown,

faith is knowing one of two things will happen: there will be something solid to stand on,

or you will be taught to fly.
~Barbara J. Winter

(photos by me)

Days, Days, just thought I'd show you some random photos that show what's made up my summer so far. Mostly, when I'm not working on school (I'm, ahem, rather behind so I'm going to be doing school all summer), I've been taking pictures and picking flowers.
I've also been doing a little bit of watercolor/art journaling. I just love working on crafts and such outside.

At my cousin's on memorial day weekend, I got board and was messing around. I do love how dark the trees look there, I like to imagine it's the Black Forest.

One thing our yard never fails to produce is rhubarb! This is not actually jam, it's a sauce my mom's been making a lot which isn't as sweet as typical jam. We go through it fast so it keeps fine just in the fridge. I could probably post the recipe if any one's interested.

Just some pretty pictures I took with the roses my parents gave me after the show.

I hope you all are having wonderful summers (or whatever your having now) and beautiful day dreams. I appreciate you all!

Love,

Clara

Look at this wonderful dress that's being given away at Grosgrain. Thought I'd share it, (and hope to win).

Here's the link:
http://http//grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com/2009/05/shabby-apple-marseilles-dress-guest.html

Love, Clara

flower pressing

A few days ago I was outside enjoying the sunshine and I realized it was a perfect day for pressing flowers... so I went into my room and searched for my flower press (which I never did find) and my basket (which I did find), for as you know, both are necessary for pressing flowers.

Once my basket was found, I quickly ran back outside and collected flowers of all kinds, many of which I don't know there names (I must work on that!).

I do know lilies of the valley, aren't they amazing? And they smell like heaven.

The collection grew and grew...

and grew and grew.

Until I was sure I had enough, since my flower press evaded me, I decided to use my old journals instead, and I think they worked very well indeed!

So I layed out the flowers...

and closed each book...

and now I wait until they're done.

I hope you've all had a wonderful summer so far!

Love,

Clara