I am finishing up several art projects - an embroidery piece for a family member, another french knot zen piece, and two collages. The excitement can almost be incapacitating. I get so excited about something and it completely consumes me. It's tough to slow down.
I don't get down very often, but when I do it's usually because I don't have an art project I'm involved in. If I keep one going at all times, even a small mindless one, I can usually keep the blues away.
But this can be exhausting too. So I have a list of ways to relax and recharge. When I'm tired or too excited to focus, this is my go-to list of ways to relax and recharge:
* Walking the dogs. Over the last month or so we have been working on becoming friends with a cat that lives nearby. A few weeks ago Robert and I saw the cat and did our usual, "hey kitty kitty" while the dogs went very still. Well, we were quite surprised when the cat didn't run away. This is usually what happens. Instead, the cat came to us! Well, not all the way of course. So over the past couple weeks we have been walking by the cat's home and if we see him we encourage him to come say hi. He gets a little closer each time. On one of our recent walks he came all the way! The dogs were very good. They were positively vibrating with excitement but did not lurch, creep, or lick.
* The dogs and I also enjoy sitting on the porch. We will sit out there in any weather. We mostly enjoy watching people come and go. Sometimes we fall asleep!
* I started teaching myself the ukulele when the pandemic started. I didn't start learning because of the pandemic. It was a total coincidence! On the day before my library shut down, a ukulele I had checked out from the library came in the courier for me. My library has ukuleles for checkout! Well, after learning to play for over a year, I can officially say I know about ten or so songs for storytime (when storytimes start up again). The ukulele has also become a huge stress reliever for me, which is crazy because the first few months of playing were so incredibly frustrating. Now, whenever I need a little downtime and I don't have enough time for a walk, I pick up the ukulele and I almost always feel calmer after playing.
* Cleaning out my current paper tub. Rather than immediately putting away leftover papers, I store them in my journal tub. Whatever I don't use for journaling gets sorted and put away whenever the tub gets full or I need a little color therapy.
* Going to a favorite shop. This was my latest haul from Fabric Recycles:
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