PERHAPS IN TIME

Monday, May 21, 2012

A JOURNEY WITH FLOWERS

GREETINGS FROM SOUTH AFRICA!
Caryl here...

I have always been fascinated by those "magical" things called 'flowers' - their unique colours, design and shapes. Flowers have made their presence known throughout my life - during times of grief, celebration as well as joy. How wonderful it is to answer a doorbell and sign for a special floral surprise, and wrack one's mind as to who on earth has sent such a glorious gift.
To me, flowers always speak of deep emotion.

Like in a colouring-in book, these simple creations sometimes serve to simply fill in the blank spaces of my life, and at other times they take more prominence. The invigorating fragrance of blooming Jasmine and Sweet-peas, at the beginning of Spring, has always held significance. Simply put, I cannot imagine our world without flowers.

Having said that, I have always wanted to do a flower arranging course, but somehow this has evaded me. A while ago, however, my hubby presented me with a voucher for an 'Introduction into Flower arranging' afternoon workshop. I was delighted. It has been long overdue. Last Saturday, I went to redeem the voucher.

The course itself was held at the Broadachres Shopping Centre, in Fourways, Johannesburg. The little flower company - Corollation Flowers - is run by Jill Manson and her partner. Their training room was airy and comfortable and adorned with the creations of other, more advanced students. I joined the small class of four beginner students for the afternoon. The three hours we spent together were most enjoyable indeed!

(Above: Jill Manson, Corollation Flowers)

Jill began by sharing her own personal journey with flowers. She is passionate about her subject and obviously uniquely gifted in her vocation. Flowers to her is a "calling". Having been revitalised with inspiration, we then embarked on the actual activity for the afternoon - to make our own personally designed hand bouquet in a Classical Colour mix. Most of us were tentative at first, but soon the blooms were 'speaking' for themselves.

All-in-all, it was a wonderful, worthwhile experience and in the end, I proudly presented my own beautiful bouquet to my family.
"Impressed" can not adequately describe their reaction.

If you are interested in doing such a course, I would strongly recommend Corollation Flowers. Jill, Nikki and Tracy are all extremely welcoming and friendly. You will leave there feeling inspired and refreshed.

Check out their website

HERE

Sending lotsaluv and ...
May you be blessed with the magic called 'flowers'!

Friday, May 18, 2012

A MAGAZINE STAND - created from recycled plastic bags!

GREETINGS FROM SOUTH AFRICA!

Caryl here...

I've had such fun in the past couple of days making this magazine holder/stand so I had to share it on this blog. You see, a couple of weeks ago, I was introduced to a fabulous internet site:

PININTEREST

For a creative person like me, the site is simply heaven! I immediately started my own board, which you can view by clicking

HERE

Whilst browsing through the thousands of wonderful images, I picked up the idea of using plastic bags as the raw material for crochet yarn. What a fabulous concept - especially where recycling is becoming such a buzz-word. It certainly got my brain churning, so I decided to give it a try.

What to you think of my efforts?

I'm pretty proud of the end result and my magazines are now stored comfortably on the shelf near my bed.

It really isn't that difficult to make, but unfortunately I simply shaped it out of my head, so there is no accompanying pattern. I suppose one can use any crochet pattern to construct absolutely anything...so give it a go. My 'shape-as-you-go' project was most enjoyable.

Today, however, I'd like to share the method of cutting up those plastic shopping bags to make up the yarn, so here goes: