May Flowers

Not a typical post regarding crafts or upcycling, but let's roll.

One Saturday, I ended up with my Lady Mother choosing plants. She loves gardening. I am not very enthusiastic about gardening, but it is growing in me somehow.

So we were choosing plants, and I could not help but notice all the beauty surrounding me. Lots of flowers that I do not know their names yet, but that would not get in the way of appreciating their beauty.

They say that "April showers bring May flowers". And I know I am such a procrastinator since it's June now, but it might be my Cantabrigian nature of doing things in June and call them May (back in Cambridge, we would have a week of Grand Balls and Garden parties called "May Week" right in June!). 

Hope you like these pictures!

I almost left the following one out since at first I thought it was so blurry, but on a second look I really liked it! If it was a painting, it would look as if the artist decided to use a wet brush and smudge the edges a little bit. 

Sometimes stars fall and become flowers. Purple stars.
 

Vivid colors - I am glad I opted for playing with my camera instead of checking my Instagram feed.
 

Sunset's here.
 

Small is Beautiful

First post. Hello and welcome to my new blog!

I will start by mentioning why I decided to start with this blog.  For a while now, I have been posting my pictures on my social media, both for crafts and desserts that I created, and people had been asking for the recipes and stuff. As a background, I'd have to say that I have been born in such a gifted family for crafts and decorations. My Lady Mother and most of my aunties have a knack for making crafts and designing, but so far in my early years I had not inherited it. I was the academically bright one, but not the good one for manual stuff. Guess it's the typical preconception many people would have regarding being a geek: you can solve very difficult equations or design your own biorefinery, but you are not able to make a easy craft.

Then I started my master degree in Engineering for Sustainable Development. In one of my classes, I learned about this book from Schumacher named "Small is Beautiful", which is more related with economics and focused towards Development Engineering; however, some of its contents can be applied towards other areas. For example, Schumacher mentions that there is no single answer when it comes to size: "it is therefore necessary to insist on the virtues of smallness". And one of the virtues of smallness is considering waste: it is better to have small amount of waste and attempt to re-purpose and recycle what we have, instead of throw it away after the first use.

When we talk about sustainability, sometimes we tend to focus too much into fossil fuels, water management, carbon emissions, etc without looking around ourselves and realizing how, in the small scale, we can make a change in our ways. And it is not solely by taking our own reusable bags to the grocery store, it means to fight against our own prejudice sometimes, to stop throwing away a banana because "it's brown and mushy" or sneering at someone who reuses a large yogurt container to store other perishable items. It might sound silly, but in the long run, small changes might mean something for the greater good.

I started studying my master with the intention to be a driver of change. But unfortunately, often we miss the point that even in our daily life we can be drivers of change with the small things. That is why I am starting this blog, to talk about how by doing small stuff we can avoid wasting resources.

That is also why I have pushed myself not to fall into the easy way of doing things. The added advantage of this pursuit is that it has helped me to get in touch with my creative and artistic side, the one brainy individuals like me are told not to have been born with a lot of, and be able to do nice stuff for the people around myself.

Let's take for example the gift box for Baby Kayla. I had already bought a beautiful gift bag for her present, but I saw many beautiful designs for baby gift wrapping, and then I had some leftover music sheets (which I did it to personalize the gift wrapping for her music-loving parents!) and an office staples empty box to be thrown to the rubbish bin, so voila! Then I found this beautiful design of a gift box flower made with coffee filters, and there you go.

The baby shape designs are no rocket science. Just think of a basic baby shape and there you go! 

For the card I used some left hot coffee cardboard protectors and an old business card.

I did this once around two months ago. I have been such a procrastinator in posting this since - I just realized - Baby Kayla is one month old today!

I guess the easier thing is to go to the store and buy something. But what if you have an idea, available materials, and enough time to do some crafts (which is something we all have, regardless if we just call it "Netflix series binging time" - not judging here, been there and done that!) why not to give it a try?

My motivation is to go beyond what you are told you cannot do. I grew up in a family where my mother and all my aunts were gifted at making crafts; something it seemed I did not have the knack for it.

Hope you liked this design! And thanks for visiting! Will be posting more ideas and recipes soon.