Dreams of a diary.

For the longest time I had this vision in my head of covering a diary with ribbon and I never saw it through because I thought that it might just be one of those things that seem like a great idea in your head but not so in practice. Yesterday I heard of two deaths and was thinking about what I would like to leave behind when my time comes and since I do not have any children, I decided that I would like to be remembered as a person who always loved to create and try new things and decided that this was as good a time as any to try something which I had only day-dreamed about. I sat down today with oodles of ribbon, a little blank A5 journal and some double sided tape. This is what I came up with (please do not pay any heed to the work table)

Diary from the back

side view.

I cannot believe that I had never tried this before and even though it took quite a while to weave all the ribbon into something decent and a bit of a tedious job, the result in itself made it very worthwhile. The only thing that I would have done differently was to add a ribbon on either side to tie it closed but I will do this on my next attempt. I am thinking of offering a tutorial the next time I decide to make one of these, so that will be something to look out for.

The second project which I have been working on was a cute little box for my embroidery stash. Lynn B's offers a great free tutorial with excellent photo's and all credit is due to her for this stunning little 'stasher'. I followed the tutorial, pic for pic and was very happy with my box. I had never tried making something like this before but it was really easy to make and I was so surprised by how great it looks that I actually made another. The first box was not completely smooth sailing and all I can say is thank goodness for ribbon and glue, which hides many a number of sins. This was my first attempt:

Finally, I found a great project to use my little geisha cross stitch on.

side view of the box

Inside of the box.

I must say that my second box was much better and I was able to avoid most of the mistakes I experienced with the first box. Unfortunately the second box was only a few hours old when it was given away to a friend who fell in love with it and I never even took a pic before I passed it on. I used plain pink for the inner box and a pink with white polka dots for the outer cover and lined it with felt and it was really neat and a bit simpler than the first. I will definitely be making another and was thinking of making some with African 'shwe shwe' material for a nice ethnic spin.

* Lynn B if you are reading this , I hope I have done you proud and not made too many faux pa's. 

I hope you have been inspired to tackle a challenge that you have been contemplating or something which you have doubted will look right in practice, because I too did not think that I would be able to make either of the top 2 projects look half presentable and when push came to shove, I surprised myself and regret not trying it a long time ago. So, While I go get creative by making another box I will take the time to bid you adeaux  and till next time...Chow!