"Please come back soon, the window is always open" ~ Code Name Verity

I collect crafts and hobbies the same way someone might collect stamps. I don't know why. I do know I never start anything without the intention to finish it, and I also never start anything that I don't enjoy. I just find there are a lot of crafts out there I do enjoy.

Can I be blamed for this?

This all gets worse when I am a stressed bundle of nerves. But at the same time, being in the state of that much coiled up nerves means I get a lot of back projects done. So..............

Lately I have been an especial stressed bundle - so what did I do?

First, I put together a new desk. Then I put together a new bed frame, and somehow managed to get my box spring and mattress on it without any help. (For those who are reading this and wondering why this is a big deal, let me add here that I am a short girl who is about five one. And I have a double bed. Let me enjoy this victory without any judgement.)

After this was done I almost tore my house apart because my snake, Indiana, escaped her cage and I wanted to find her before the mom's dog or Jenni or Rosie ate her. There were just a lot of animals who would have loved to eat Indy, okay?

She showed back up about three weeks later, sticking her head out of a bookcase and giving me a heart attack when I saw her head leveled up with my eye. I think she got cold and hungry so decided to come out of hiding, but since I put her back in her cage she has acted very pleased over her little stunt. I don't know why I am surprised. If I ever have a normal pet...I will be worried.

That was just a side story.

After Indy's return I lost the urgency to tear up my house. So I got back to the task of crafting.

Still a coiled bundle of nerves, I finished a cloak which has been giving me grief for a year now. It did not turn out at all how I had envisioned, but did not fail as I feared it would during the final months of working on it.

Almost to the day after I finished the cloak, we were hit with a heat wave. My apartment is really nice, but it does have a flaw. There is only one air conditioner and it is in my bedroom. Which is well and good at night, seeing as I like my room cooler when I am sleeping. However, none of the cool air really reaches the rest of the house, therefore the living room is often competing against the oven for which can be hotter. Now, logically, I could move my doll house to the living room to work on during the non heat wave months - or I can do exactly what I did, and spend a week holed up in my bedroom gluing and giving myself splinters as if it is going out of style. The end result is a nearly completed doll house, after many, many years of slowly working on it. I still need to paint and decorate the inside, but it is satisfying to see the frame nearly completed.

Rosie believes I have put so much time and effort into the doll house for her. She loves her new hide out, and is displeased any time I chase her out of it. Kittens.

I am now feeling motivated though, and have also been told I need to keep busy during the coming struggles. Therefore, I plan to pull out my Civil War dress and finish work on that and complete a few other sewing projects. I have also picked up cross stitching once more and, when I must focus on something but still need to keep my hands busy I knit at a speed which any old lady would be proud of.

To top all that off, I am also going to get back into leather work and make myself a pair of Cherokee moccasins - Cherokee because I have Cherokee blood in me so it is fitting.

After all, sometimes crafting like it is going out of style is the most therapeutic thing of all.