New Year: Hobbies Update

New year new me...? Guys I don't where the time goes but if I'm being honest I have a whole drafts list of unpublished blog posts just waiting to be written and published. Part of me is worried that no one really cares what I have to say and sometimes I worry that I should have more balls than to feel that way but here we are. I also don't know how many disclaimer pages, or property infringement pages I am suppose to have on a blog with very little readership and whether or not my thoughts are individual enough to warrant them.. (-if you know a good lawyer who can help me with that let me know lol-)

Anyway, I have been MIA a lot lately making me feel like this project has made me look entirely flaky when anyone who knows me in real life knows that I am not usually that way.. if I say I am going to be somewhere I usually am. I apologize and I am working on that.

Over the last year I have had a lot going on and some projects that have kept my interest. I started making greeting cards for birthdays and holidays so that way I don't have to buy them anymore and I have really enjoyed my time creatively. I even have all my cards made this year up until August so I will probably do a big push this summer to finish them through the end of the year. Otherwise a lot of my creative hobbies have been on the back burner as I have learned that my creative side flourishes in mess but my house being a chaotic disaster just really grates at my anxiety. I would be better if I had a space for my creativity to be on full display but usually I have to get everything out just to put it away a few hours later which really kills my vibe. Someday maybe I'll have a whole workshop for my projects to create with. But, for now I live in base housing and although the space I have is beautiful I just don't have space in excess.

I have been itching to get back to learning and trying to create perfumes, and fragrances... Maybe that's the project I'll explode onto my kitchen table next. I have all the supplies just no where to experiment.

ANOTHER of my reoccurring hobbies has been homemade Vanilla Extract.. I have been giving it away to friends and family as Christmas gifts the last few years and even though I know they don't all think its as cool as I hoped they would, I enjoy making it.. I thought about seeing what licenses I would need to start selling vanilla out of my house but stalled on that after realizing what I would have to charge.. I worry that people wouldn't pay for it as it seems really expensive. So I started experimenting with orange to see if I could also make orange extract - its still stewing so we will see in a few months. Extract making takes patience as true vanilla extract has to sit for a year.

Last fall I learned how to cross stitch and I made a few projects that I gave as gifts and they were well received although after that I took a break and haven't picked it up since.. even though I want to.. I just haven't done it yet.

Lately, I have been spending a lot of time with books. In January I got a wild hair to catalog all my collections on the Libib App.. as it turns out I have something like 385 books in my collection. Part of an ongoing endeavor to someday own my own library, which the internet has informed me is at least 1000 books. Soo I'll get there someday... but again, I currently don't have the room to go on a book buying spree as I am currently overflowing the two bookcases that I do own.

Some of my friends will be sad to read that I haven't put a paint brush to canvas in more than six months, I was working on a 3D flower painting that, at some point, got put in the closet and was not brought out to be finished.. I will get there, I just had some crazy anxiety and a lot going on for a bit and I needed to clean the clutter in the house while I was decorating for the holidays and until I could manage again. Guys... My Christmas tree is still up.. its been up since November. I wasn't even going to decorate this year.

Last summer, (although not creative per say) I joined a bible study with my friend. I was much needed and I have really enjoyed my time with the women that I have met there. They have all been so kind to me and have all taught me so much, not just about the Lord but also about female friendships and community too. They have been helping me keep it together through this extremely snowy NY winter.

So all in all I am still doing the occasional creative thing here and there, being couped up hasn't really helped my creative juices flow... but I've been reading a lot and even though my Christmas tree has been up for four months I am hoping that it comes down soon, but until that happens and the snow melts I think I am just going to keep drinking hot tea and shoveling my driveway every other day... Wish me luck.