Artful Gifts

Good morning!............Sitting here having my coffee and deep in thought about what it means to live a more "artful" life".

  I want to do and create things from a much deeper place. I'm REALLY not a writer so sometimes it's difficult for me to find the words to express what I'm feeling. You would think that being an artist would just naturally mean I could communicate in a written way, but for me , it just doesn't work that way. I'm working on it however so hopefully my blog posts will improve with time.

  I picked out a pretty little gift for a friend. I searched high and low in my studio for a beautiful way to present this gift to her. A store bought, commercial, run of the mill package wasn't going to work so I really wanted to make this gift special. I wanted to create a unique meaningful gift.

  I have been trying to sew a little lately. Now remember, sewing is a foreign activity to me. I have a hard time just threading my machine! So gathering up all my reserve, I sat down at my little machine and started to make a tiny gift bag to hold my friends treasure. Using some pretty Japanese fabric that I have been hoarding for some time now, I carefully cut out a piece, ran it through my machine and voila!, I had actually made something! (can you hear the trumpets blaring!), and I didn't break my sewing machine either!

 Yay!............Go Me!!

I took some unbleached muslin fabric and using a french text stamp, stamped the words onto the muslin. I then attached that to the little bag and added a vintage button. I completed the bag by attaching a handmade tag and there it was. I love it and I think my friend really loved it too.

I think handmade, artfelt gifts speak volumes to the people we care about. I am going to continue to "gift" this way from now on. This is just one small step in living a more "artful" life". Paying closer attention to those we care about and taking extra steps to show how we feel. I enjoyed creating this gift and I enjoyed using my sewing machine. I think I will make some pretty pillows for my nest. I saw these pillows at one of my favorite stores, Anthropologie 

 Now, granted, I don't think my pillows will turn out looking as good as these but I am going to try to make something similar. I think I will start out with just a plain ole square , simple pillow. I just need to go pick out some pretty fabric in my favorite Bohemian style. I will let you know how it goes!