Bi is for Beauty

I love how inspiration can be found in the least expected places.  On a rather ordinary walk around my block, I spotted a crushed Green Tea can. You know the one? The crisp, minty shade of green, covered in gorgeous cherry blossom branches? Well, I saw it, drooled a bit over its beauty. And, quite oddly for me, walked on by…back to my homestead.  But days later, I was kicking myself over that choice.  I went back to retrieve it but alas, it was gone. 

Believe it or not, that can haunted me. Not in an evil way, but still, I couldn't get it out of my mind.  Now, I guess most people might just go to the store and buy said can full of green tea...But...i knew I wouldn't drink it, loaded with high fructose corn syrup as it was. And I just didn't want to spend money on that, even if (or perhaps especially if) it was to simply pour down the drain.  So i did what any eco-friendly, slightly-neurotic person would do: I visited my local recycling center.  And, joy of joys, they had one in the giant dumpster full of so many less-attractive cans.  The kind, eco-friendly, slightly-neurotic gentleman (yes, we can recognize our own type a mile away) working there lent me one of those long-armed thing-a-ma-jiggies that any pirate would envy and I fished it on out!!  I sit looking at its loveliness at this very moment.

Anyhoo.....that can inspired me. And will continue to, I believe.  I may in fact run it over with my car one day to recreate the full effect of its initial impact on my psyche. We shall see...

The bag you see before you is the marvelous end-result of my inspiration.  I carefully crafted the branches from a skirt I was given but knew I would never wear (sorry, Mom... :/).  And used the scrubs from my prior, all-too-long stint as a medical coder/biller to create the delicate blossoms.  (I can not think of a more noble use) They also went into making the four (yes, four!) pockets found on this bag - one cannot have too many pockets.

The sole exterior pocket bears the Kanji symbol for beauty, Bi (pronounced bee). You can learn more about Kanji here: http://www.declan-software.com/japanese/what_is_kanji.htm#kanji

I love, love, love this bag and thoroughly enjoyed its creation, from inception to completion. Having resisted the temptation to keep it for myself, I'll be delighted for it to find a happy home on the shoulder of a fellow lover of all things beautiful. Yours, perhaps?