Covid19 - Crafting, hobbies, hibernation and well being.......

[Cathie19]

A community member@Sandra126  started a thread called, “Another Positive Post”, where many hosts were listing their plans across these quieter, uncertain times, regarding maintenance etc on their STR/ LTR home stay spaces. 

We diverted a bit and @Lizzie  thought a craft thread might be useful. So here is the creative start of one!

Let’s make ourselves “that community” that can work, create and care for one another, across the globe, during this global village crisis. We’ve seen many videos on Facebook and Twitter and other such forums. We’ve seen good and bad behaviours....

This is about changing how we might react to Covid19 during shutdowns and self - isolation periods. 

History: (You can skip this bit)

I remember when my children were young and we took them to playgroups, as I didn’t work full time when they were little.

In the early 80s, in Adelaide South Australia, I regularly attended a community hall on a Thursday morning - where you could learn a craft or hobby,  have some socialisation and adult company. There was a free crèche for the kids... WOW you might say! The numbers were limited per activity table or group. But there was all forms of needlework, knitting, crocheting, calligraphy, painting porcelain: you name it, it happened.

The entry fee was a gold coin donation ($1 or $2), which covered the hall electricity and the cuppa and biscuit you tended to eat with it. As people grew closer, they might even dunk it! Now that’s a safe and comfortable feeling, when you dunk your bikky in public!!!!

So here I am, in a different time,  living in the tropics. KNITTING supplies good to go!

Knitting is not high on our “to do” list here, unless the air conditioner is maybe turned down low... so you are not uncomfortable with the wool on your lap. Hahaha...

=====

So here is a CAT wrap, I made all my children in the 80s. Nowadays, we have shoulder head travel cushions for air travel, available everywhere, but these are a tactile toy, as well.  They could be made to be door draught stoppers, or keep the body minimal for a scarf. It’s about just “doing” and staying positive. Not dwelling and getting melancholy about the things we cannot control or change. 

My kids all had a different one, which was their car pillows as we travelled around parts of Australia.  There wasn’t much available back then......

They became camping buddies, when toy space was limited. Also that extra length for the car pillow,  could be used as an “annoyer”, when trying to distract their siblings in the car, in the next seat. When you would hear a parent voice in the front seat, sing out : “Stay in your own space, back in your cubicle. We’ll be stopping soon.......”

These original cats were made for a family holiday - road trip style. For that’s how we did it back then, because air fares were unattainable, a pipe dream for an average Australian family of five.

One got lost out the back of the camper or car, between Julia Creek and Charters Towers in Queensland. The youngest child was so devastated I had to knit another! 

The ginger one in the main image (completed), was made in the late 80s. It belongs to my eldest daughter, she’s now 36 and one of her children now cuddles it. That’s a lot of cuddles over 30 years! . 

So here I am....decades later, with acrylic wools chosen, all different for four grandchildren. If I survive, I’ll have to make a fifth for the newest addition.

So please give us some ideas, as we head back to some basics for our well being. 

[Sandra126]

[Sandra126]

p2

[Cathie19]

These are beautiful @Sandra126 ! Absolutely stunning! 

[Sandra126]

p3

[Sandra126]

here you go, @Cathie19 

[Huma0]

@Cathie19  Lol, did you mean Easter wreath rather than Easter death? I do love that old autocorrect. It has led me to ask guests if they knew what time they were going to be arrested, rather than what time they would be arriving. I also sent a work related message saying I would make sure hostages were included in my video. It was meant to say hashtags...

Anyway, thank you for your kind words and positivity. I have not managed to be productive yet due to all the stress, but I am determined I will get there and it does so help to be supported and listened to here in the community. Friends and family can never really understand hosting dilemmas in the same way as other hosts.

I am sorry I have been absent for so long. I haven’t just reappeared to complain about COVID-19 cancellation policies. It’s just been impossible with my schedule until now, but soon I shall have all the time in the world for crafting and contributing!

[Cathie19]

Yes @Huma0 . I came back to the page just five minutes ago, and nearly fainted! 

I need ME some of @Sandra126 ’s chocolate to keep me on the straight and narrow.  

( As I bow low and profusely, whilst not making eye contact with you....... overwhelmed with embarrassment.....)

(Though secretly I say to myself: Thank God it’s to @Huma0 , and not a guest on the Message board! Phew.....)

[Huma0]

@Cathie19 Please don’t apologise! It made me laugh and there hasn’t been much laughter lately, so thank you! 🤣

[Cathie19]

Well I was very concerned about a death nell at this current time! 

[But I remember in the 80s, seeing an elderly lady leaving the nursing home dining room, who was permanently blind in one eye. As she toddled out of the room, she hooked arms with another lovely lady, who had had a recent eye operation, and as a consequence, was wearing a patch on one eye.

As she connected arms, she said, “let me help you along, I’m use to this...” 

But  as I looked closer, and the nurse looked closer, we both smiled looked back at both of them, and absolutely did our best not to laugh out loud.

You see, what we saw was the best of human kindness and the sadness and the comedy, all in one.

So why were we trying not to laugh?

They were linked on the wrong arms, so it was literally a visual example of the blind, leading the blind.......  ]

Human nature is a fickle, funny and fragile thing.  X

[Sarah977]

@Cathie19  Some of Sandra's chocolate would be great, but have you ever just considered turning off predictive text? :-))

[Cathie19]

I thought I had! 

[Stephanie]

Reminds me that my niece calls me Auntie Death... sure she means well @Cathie19 @Huma0 

[Cathie19]

Kids and their sounds.

My granddaughter when very little, use to call  her very much loved Aunty Verity, Dirty Dirty! So yes, they do mean well.... x

[Cathie19]

This @Huma0 , @Sandra126 , @Stephanie  & @Helen427 .

Garry and I were to travel for six weeks, from 19th April. Doing stopovers till we arrived in Portugal, to walk the Portuguese Camino through into Spain. I can only feel pain for everyone.

I actually had everything good to go.

Two drawers ( 1 each)  in the spare room had all our hiking gear, thermal leggings, carabiners, meds and first aid for three months if we had problems, etc.

I could take photos of those  sad and deflated item sin those drawers. but I won’t. They can stay there to remind me the journey will go on.....

But currently, instead, I will begin a Camino of a different sort.

I had my soft notebook ready to place in my day pack, but I pulled it out of the drawer this morning.

It could be stashed aside till we make that walk one day, but I think to be honest, we are now on an even bigger life journey.   So here it is... almost frightened to start, adding the pen onto the white paper. For now I will commit to journal some days, dates, fears, poetry, accomplishments and gratitudes along the way. 

This mindfulness, just might help me reduce anxiety and stress. I have had an adult child just diagnosed with an illness, who has had a first surgery, but will need other treatments and more surgery. I was to be here to help her family. Now WHO says we should not be having contact with young one as I’m in my early 60s, yet I work in a high school, which is still open, for now!

So many a frustration, but  I think with caution, we will prevail and provide the reassuring hugs for now, that those children and grandchildren need. ..... Luckily, our state borders are closing, so Love and Kindness are more important then ever.

I feel some historical journaling may be important for future family members, to understand this time. Or it may just get a burning as I drink a fine wine at the end of all this....

🙂

But till then, as they say on this current and altered pathway of ours: Buen Camino.

[Sandra126]

Yes @Cathie19 , do a journal.  It will help. For me, reading about it and thinking about how to draw it is so much better that just taking it into my head, with nowhere for it to go.