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What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it? ~December 6th writing prompt

My first thought was how easy this prompt was. So easy I almost wasn’t gonna to bother.

I thought about the most recent thing I “made” made –  physically producing an object other people can touch and admire. That was in March of this year and here it is…

A wee personalised bag for my niece’s 3rd birthday (she likes it, really. She was just busy watching some show on TV while I tried to take her photo).

I agonised over the fabrics (I know they’re quirky!) – the bright cotton body of the bag, plus yellow and white felt for the letters with pink wool to sew them on, after painstakingly cutting them out. And hey – I created it without a pattern. Okay – not quite true, I made a pattern out of newspaper. But dudes, that pattern came from my BRAIN (also, possibly based on a few other bags I have lying around).

The impulse to make it was actually because I was pretty broke and didn’t have a lot of money to spend on a store-bought gift. But my hope is that she’ll use for a few more precious years to come – until she turns into a tween and discards it for Bratz dolls or whatever.

Full disclosure: I’m not much of a sewer so it was quite an heroic effort to visualise and create it. Had fun doing it though…

But what else do I make? I remember at a certain phase in my life I’d tell myself I wasn’t very creative and wished I was. So much low-self-esteem bullshit though! That, or just a really narrow definition of “creative”, perhaps.

But make = create and creation is a process, right?

So the things I make include: food; yoga sequences for the classes I teach; paragraphs and blog posts; graphics; photos; and ideas…

I also like to think that I make/create love, broadcasting it out there like so many radio waves on the air. And maybe that old lady on the train looking sad and tense will run headlong into one of those love-waves. Maybe it’ll make her day and she doesn’t even know it? Maybe if we all did this little bit of creating every day – sharing some love and affection for those around us…. well, maybe we’d collectively create a change in the environment?

Just call it one of my little off-the-mat yoga practices, if you will.

What I’d really like to (physically) make next is something I consider to be sorta frivolous: curtains for my bedroom. I have this enormous window and roller blinds to keep it private. But in the morning, I open those blinds to let in the day and while I’ve got a wonderfully gaudy string of prayer flags threaded across the center (thanks @CK!), I’d really like to filter the northern-facing light that floods my window with a touch more day-time privacy.

They don’t even have to be real curtains – perhaps something sheer and colourful that partially obstructs the light but not completely. Something gauzy with bright hues of glory. Like that. Yeah, just like that!

Even though I’ve been living in my apartment for the last two years (something of a record for this gyspy girl), I’ve not bothered. My excuses are that I won’t be here forever and so it’s a waste of money, not to mention how much I’d probably have to spend given the size of the windows.

But… maybe I will. Next year. 😉

~Svasti