Granny square happiness!

One day I decided to learn how to make a granny square. Well, I should say relearn, because I made a Christmas granny square throw for my great-grandma when I was about 10 years old. She displayed it on her living room hassock every December, and her praise for my work made me feel so special.

Fast forward 30 years, and here I am, getting back to my crafty roots. After a few months of following patterns and watching online tutorials, I decided to design my own granny square bag. I started with this:

Inspired, I grabbed some complementary colors and got to work!

Before I knew it, I had all of these. I had to find a way to put them together, so I threaded my neutral-colored yarn into an embroidery needle and used what I hoped was a basting stitch to turn a pile of little squares into the front of a bag.

With the front and back sewn together, I realized that I needed some sides. What to do? I finally went with a double crochet to make two long panels.

Then I attached the sides...

And realized I needed a bottom! Quickly I double crocheted a brown bottom and sewed it in! I discovered that creating a three-dimensional bag requires a fair amount of geometry, a weak subject for me. But somehow I managed, and the math worked!

Wow! A little more work, and I ended up with this:

I also made straps with long strips of double crochet panels much like the side panels. I encountered some problems with these, so I won't be sharing the final pics here.

There it is. My first design! I am thrilled beyond belief! My first success so inspired me that I have been designing and creating every day. I never realized how much joy and calm there is in crocheting and making something new.

Finding Joy Every Day

I was sitting in my doctor's office yesterday, waiting for my appointment. Without a 3G signal I was bored, and my eyes wandered to a magazine on the counter. I think it was Good Housekeeping, a publication I would not normally read. But I needed something to do, so I scanned the articles. A short piece about finding joy caught my eye. I am all about being positive and looking at the bright side these days, so this looked like a worthy read.

The author talked about looking for reasons to be grateful each day. By doing this, we bring ourselves closer to finding joy in our daily lives. It sounds so simple, but it isn't. How often do you find yourself focusing on what you don't have or what isn't going well? I know how easy it is to get bogged down in the negative stuff because I spent years letting that drag me down. At the risk of sounding like a Pollyanna, I am determined to turn that thinking around. In case you hadn't noticed, that is the point of this blog.

This fits perfectly with my Facebook friends' November obsession: a daily countdown of things for which they are thankful. Although I rarely jump on the bandwagon, I decided to give it a try. So here are the things for which I am most grateful today:

1) My partner and best friend, Jesse

2) My beautiful daughter, Genevieve

3) The opportunity to freelance with a fantastic company called Lion Tutors. (I get to create study materials for Penn State business undergrads. It is like taking refresher courses in Management and Marketing every semester, and I even get paid!)

4) My growing Initials, Inc. business, which gives me the opportunity to earn money while selling purses and bags (one of my obsessions) while meeting wonderful women and getting to know this great town of State College, PA.

5) The opportunity to redesign this blog and my website and learn more about web design and coding.

6) A wonderful home office where I can create, connect, and earn a living surrounded by things I love. This precious space allows me to blog, research, and live my dream every day!

And with all these inspiring thoughts in my head, I am about to embark on a blog design course so I can make this little blog a true reflection of my style, my vision, and my personality.

Stay tuned for more about my home-based business and how it is enabling me to build a better life for me and my daughter!

The unifying theme in my life is happiness

For weeks I have been pondering whether to start a new blog to tie together my work and personal interests. Being an eclectic person with interests all over the place, I was unable to find a unifying theme. This morning, while enjoying my coffee and listening to Radio Paradise, I hit on an idea that just seemed to encapsulate my mood over the past few months - Happiness.

Yeah, I know it's corny. Extremely corny. But that is ok, because it is true. Everything I do today - my freelance work as a content creator with Lion Tutors, selling personalized purses and bags as an Independent Consultant, and experimenting with photography - is tied to, and contributes to, my happiness. The people I see every day - especially my precious daughter and my beautiful partner in crime, Jesse, are the reasons for my happiness. And this over-the-top sense of being HAPPY motivates me to work, love, live, and create in this crazy world.

So it is settled. I christen this blog Enjoying the Happy. And herein you will find nifty tips and tricks to harness your own happy. Because why should I have all the fun? How is that for corny? I think it works.