Winter Days

The last couple of days have been very cold. Frigid temps and blustery winds make bundling up to go outside a necessity!

We keep a big "tub" of winter items. With four kids, it's hard to keep track of hats, gloves and scarves. Someone is always losing one or the other so when we run across items, they get tossed into the tub, where hopefully they'll meet back up with their mate eventually.

I was helping my kids dig through the tote this morning to find enough warm clothes to block the chill of the wind.
It was so nice to dig through the tote and see a variety of pieces I've crocheted/knitted myself and things given to us by family, who also handmade the items, lying in the tote. It gives me a definite sense of accomplishment and joy to see that I'm creating things that are useful and will keep my family warm. This brings me back to one of my "goals" for this year.

Create things that have a purpose and are useful.

I love handmade things!! 

I believe that every person should create something. Something that is beautiful to them. It doesn't have to please others, and it doesn't have to be practical or useful, as long as you are creating, you are making something beautiful. Even if it just turns out to be a beautiful mess :)

 I have tried many many crafts. A variety of all sorts. And I find one of my greatest joys is in creating items that have a purpose. So that is going to be one of the things I continue to work on this year. We will see if I can manage to stay on track for my goal or if I veer off into creating things simply because they make me happy. Socks are a big goal of mine. I do have patterns for both crocheted and knitted socks, along with a sock loom. We'll see if I can master any of them to create warm and toasty socks!

Where do your creating goals take you? What are some of your favorite things to create?

What is Normal Anyway?

The holidays are over and the New Year has passed. That means life gets back to normal. But what is normal anyway?

In my life, normal has a very WIDE variety of meanings with each days definition of normal being some variation of the day before, all building together to be a jumble and compilation of "normal days" that make up my life.
It's hard to explain without sounding crazy, which I believe all my days have a touch of crazy mixed in there too.

The last few days have been slowly passing and have produced a lot of tears. Not so abnormal as one might think. At least not for me.

See, I struggle with anxiety and depression. I was first diagnosed when I was 14. This diagnosis also included ADD. For most of my life, I have been able to fight (and some days I had to fight a lot harder than others) to stay on top of my "issues". A little over a year ago, I took a major nosedive. Nothing made sense. Having been going to therapy for over a year now and working on how to look at things differently, I think I see how things all get built up in my mind and I still work on it continually. But some days, life gets the best of me and I spend the day sleeping, crying and really just a shell, just trying to get through the day. I can sometimes "feel" these days coming and head them off at the pass. Other days, I'm taken by surprise and have no idea why I can't function. But listening to yourself, learning about yourself, through reflection and journaling, helps a lot.

I've been absent from my blog just days after starting it and this is my explanation. It might not make sense, if you've never experienced any of what I've described. And even if you've experienced, it might be different for you. We're all different, in many different ways and that's one thing I like about learning about other people.

Besides, maybe I needed to tie it all in with creativity, which is what this blog is really supposed to be about. Some days my weakest days are my strongest creative days. Haven't there been many a famous person that suffered from depression or addictions that was an amazing writer or artist? I can't compare myself to the likes of them but I can feel a connection to them.

And connecting to someone is sometimes what saves us from ourselves.

...until my next "normal" post....

...A Tattered Sparrow...