My winnings...thanks to Bari J!!

A few weeks ago, Bari J was hosting a contest on her blog in honor of her 101th post. I do love contests, so I thought I'd enter...but then promptly forgot about it. So, when she e-mailed me to tell me that I was the winner of one of her beautiful bags, I was stunned and surprised.Lucky for me, the bag arrived today, and is even more stunning than it looked in the picture on her blog (see above)! It's sitting in my office behind my desk and I've now had 3 people come in here just to see what it is, and another person who seem to be waiting for me to leave so they can steal it. ;)

If you haven't seen Bari J's work before, I definitely suggest you check it out. Each of her bags (from make-up bags and clutches, to hobo bags and totes) has such a stylish and fresh look that can be dressed up or down. I also love the "design your own bag" feature on her website, www.barijonline.com, which allows you to pick your style of bag and your fabric to create a perfectly customized bag to suit anybody's tastes. Go take a look for yourself, I think you'll like what you see!

Bohemian Dream Bag

Since my co-worker taught me how to knit back in January, I've been knitting like a maniac! I had purchased some novelty yarn on sale last year and tried to crochet with it but found that I didn't really like the way it looked. It then sat in a drawer for months while I tried to figure out what to do with it. Finally I decided it would be a fun yarn to make into a bag. I've made small bags and clutches before but never something like this! I tried searching around for a pattern that would work and ended up modifying a couple of different patterns to make something that worked. I then let it sit for a couple of weeks while I got together the motivation to line it!

I am really quite proud of the end result and especially love the colors. Although I think I'm probably going to end up listing this in my Etsy store (after I line the handles - thanks to a helpful hint from someone in the Craftster forums) I have several skeins of this yarn left in a couple of different colors so I'll probably end up making one for myself!