A Wreath of Knowledge and Friendship

I have often wished that I had been born with a rather more practical brain rather than a creative one. That it would have been possible for me to go to university and study to become a doctor, without looking at the hospital gowns, thinking what could be done to make them more fashionable. Or to have been a lawyer and memorize all the facts and fight for the rights of those that can't, but again, those gowns and oh the possibilities. I quietly envy those that can.

But I have had to accept that I am me and in doing so have learned to embrace my creative brain. I really need to make things, to shape things, to renovate things and to craft things. Not a day goes past where I haven't felt a need to express myself. The ones that do are often challenging and frustrating, like a runner who cannot run. Hence the copious amounts of baked goods I concentrate on from time to time. Relatively quick, fun to decorate, good to eat. Except that a rabbit shaped biscuit is not going to get the jobs done. A rabbit shaped biscuit cannot go to work and help someone. Rabbit shaped biscuits look pretty but eat too many and....  It feels quite self indulgent to spend a day on myself, lost in my thoughts, paint brush in hand. My husband goes to work and works very hard and I feel guilty that I am not contributing finanically. Which is partly why the list of things I'd like to make gets ever longer, as I do not allow myself the time to start something that can take hours to finish.

I find it much easier to allow myself to make such projects if they are for other people. Hence why I am so excited about this beautiful wreath. I first saw the idea on Pinterest many moons ago and thought I would like to try making one myself. It got added to the pile of 'must do's when everyone is away and all the washing is done' in my brain, alongside the revamped dining room table and used pallet coffee table. That is till couple of weeks ago. A friend posted on Facebook about paying it forward and a promise to send a gift to the first five people who commented on her status. I commented and in turn reposted. Five people wrote on my status and here I am two weeks later having completed gift number one.

I took a wreath from the local art shop, a copy of Sophie's World, whose pages were ever so slightly aged and a hot glue gun. Blogger By Stephanie Lynn, the creator of the original I saw on Pinterest, wrapped her wreath in pages from the book. This is in case there were gaps in the flowers and once done, away I went. I modified the instructions slightly and used a page per flower, tearing the page from the book, folding it in half and cutting a circle. Then I spiraled the circle and started building a flower from the centre of the spiral outwards.

The wreath took a long time and is the result of several dedicated evenings on my own while my husband was traveling, so if you want to try yourself prepare to give it some quality time. In fact, I used the entire copy of Sophie's World and had to move on to Kerouac to finish the wreath, read what you will into that literary combination.

Now, my wreath may not win the nobel prize nor predict the weather for February, but I am very pleased with it. It will soon be with it's new owner here in Copenhagen. Our pages may not be aged just yet, but the story we created went full circle and it is my gift to her in recognition of all the hours we spent together and the invaluable knowledge I gained from doing so.