Secret Project The First

One of the secret projects I talked about earlier this week has been gifted, so now I can post some finished pix. Remember this?
 
It now looks like this -
 
Back in January, a guild member issued a challenge for us to end - or greatly reduce - our use of styrofoam cups at our monthly meetings. Her idea, borrowed from a years-old issue of Handwoven, was for each of us to bring a cup to the next meeting, wrapped in a brown paper bag.
 
Everyone who brought a cup would pick a bag, take it home and make a mug tote - using the mug they chose as inspiration - and bring both the mug and the finished bag to the May meeting, where it would be returned to its original owner. 

This is the mug from the bag I picked. Muted colors, large flowers, elegant. But . . . . . 
 
THIS is the paper it was wrapped in. 
 
Bright, eye-popping color, showing a hidden sense of fun. 

So my finished bag was muted, with pretty flowers and elegant touches - like the decorative stitching on the handles and the pretty glass beads on the tie closures - and . . .  
bright, eye-popping color on the inside, visible only to those willing to look a little deeper. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out - and hope the recipient (who wasn't at the meeting and hasn't seen this yet) is just as pleased.

p.s. Everything but the beads and the ribbons for the ties came from my stash. Seemed appropriate, given the initial 'reduce and reuse' challenge.