With My Own Two Hands

So I started weaving my basket this weekend. I bought reed online a couple weeks ago and it arrived Friday. So Saturday I dyed my reed and then yesterday afternoon I started weaving my basket. It's still in the early stages but starting to take shape. I think I am really going to love this one. It's a big basket, probably 15 inches or bigger in diameter and just as tall. I am using walnut, navy and a golden wheat colored reed. I will alternate the different colors on the handle and belly of the basket. I'll post pictures when I am done.

I've realized that the older I get, the more I like making things with my hands. Cooking, gardening, jewelry, baskets, refinishing things, photography... I just like turning nothing into something. I've never really thought of myself as creative or artistic, but I suppose some of those things are art in their own little way.

I like the thought of making baskets though. I like the thought of making something that might be kept for years and years. I like the thought of my kids having a beautiful basket in their home that they can tell their kids, "Grandma made that."

Some days I think I make a better old lady than I do a young mother. I think I'll quit my job and grow a huge garden of vegetables, a yard full of flowers and spend the rest of my days taking pictures, making jewelry, weaving baskets and sleeping late.

OK, I know. But it's nice to dream...