blooming inspiration

The hyacinth bulb on my desk has started to bloom purple flowers. It's so cute how my coworker, Karoline, stops by my desk each morning to see how it has progressed.

I think it's a pretty good thing that it's a self sufficient type of plant. Is that safe to say? I mean, my husband is more of a green thumb than I am and I definitely did not inherit my mother's ability to keep flourishing gardens and plants. So I hope I don't ruin this plant. Seriously. I kind of have been known to do not-so-well with small living things like aloe plants and goldfish. Let's keep our fingers crossed that this flower makes it under my care!

On to crafting. Something that I haven't been doing much of lately, I admit. Which is foolish considering I have a show coming up the first weekend in May that I need to build an inventory for!

I have a ton of fabric that is just being stored in my crafting room for someday. Someday when I've sharpened my sewing skills. Someday when I have a giganomous table that I can spread yards of fabric onto and not have to clean it up within the same day. Someday when I learn to have the patience to work with better attention to detail and pattern instructions.

In the meantime, I like to make attempts at smaller projects here and there. The other day, I saw this cute clutch pattern on Kelly's blog so I decided to try my hand at it. I used part of her instructions (loved the clever idea of using elastic for a fastener) and part of these instructions (to help me remember how to properly sew the lining and outer parts together and then flip them inside out correctly) to create these two little bags:

Yes, I realize that's a lot of pictures to show two purses (p.s. click on the photo to enlarge it) but I wanted to demonstrate how they look open, closed, and the inside lining. I also really liked how Kelly used a piece of felt (any color - it doesn't show through) to make it thicker and just thick enough so it didn't weigh down the clutch. Anyway, I love how it turned out and used the one with the small green patch on the outside (that was to cover up a minor mistake - see, me being impatient again!) when I went to the Buckners gig on Thursday night. It was the perfect alternative to a bulky purse or handbag when I just wanted to carry my driver's license, one credit card, some cash, lipgloss, and a small digital camera. Thanks for the inspiration, Kelly!

Speaking of patience (or the lack of), I snapped this photo of a funny sign at the Irish pub on Thursday night. Can I get an amen?!