New Toy

Last weekend was my birthday. We had a lovely day; James and the kids made breakfast, we took a picnic to the beach and met up with the cousins and later in the afternoon friends of ours watched the kids, so James and I could go out for a meal. It's so nice when a birthday falls on the weekend and you can actually feel like it's your birthday for the whole day.

I had debated back and forth, with myself, as to what I wanted as my gift this year. These days there are always photography related items on my wish list, but recently my sewing machine has been having more and more problems and the last time I tried to use it, it would not feed fabric through at all and I ended up having to borrow a friends'. It is not something I use on a daily basis, but the more I thought about it, I realized that without it I felt hampered and restricted. I love the whole creative process, whether it be my photography or sewing projects here and there, I need to have the freedom to follow inspiration in different directions.

My life revolves around looking after children, who I love dearly and I would not have it any other way, cooking, attempting (poorly, most of the time) to keep house and for too long I neglected my creative side. This last year or so I have acknowledged my need to do things that are for me and that I enjoy and can do for a reason other than that they are purely needed or necessary. I was created to be creative, in the image of a creator.

Well my new toy arrived on Thursday and I love it! It seems so advanced compared to my previous, very basic but adequate, machine. I am excited to try out some new features, although there will be a lot of reading and learning before then, I am sure.

I set to work right away, though, on a project I had had in mind for a friend for a while. I had already been out and purchased the fabrics I needed and found a pattern, which I adapted. This was my first attempt at making a bag, and although it was not perfect and I know there will be things I change a bit if I make another, I was actually pretty pleased with how it turned out.

The fabric had flowers embroidered on it already, I did
not do that :)

Fully lined in a coordinating fabric, with a couple of pockets.
I think if there is a round two, I will add more pockets.

I am so glad that even when we are grown-ups, we can still get to have toys to 'play' with.