Crafts Provide A Necessary BALANCE In Life
***March is National “Craft” month, and I want to remind you of how “crafting” is so very good for us. Crafts are a modern day remedy for stress. When times are tough, the tough start quilting, cross stitching, woodworking and more!
A large number of pressured people are turning to crafts not only to express creativity but to work of anxieties. Crafts fit wonderfully into their stressed-out schedules and budgets.
Craft work can provide a necessary balance in life. With crafts you can feel the pride of accomplishment as you finish a project, see the sparkle in the eyes of a special person that you have made an item for, and perhaps are able to make a few extra dollars with your crafts when friends, co-workers and relatives as you to make your special items for them.
***Speaking of crafts, is your collection of sewing and craft magazines and newsletters getting so high the stack is starting to slip and slide and getting out of control? One of our readers who suffers from the same problem came up with this clever idea:
The only reason to save an article, picture or clipping from a magazine or newsletter is so you can quickly find it again when you need it, and the only way to do that is to have your collection in some order.
If you have only a few newsletters and magazines you can keep them in a chronological order, and use what I call an “annotated table of contents” to help you find articles. Annotating is a way to personalize the contents page by adding notes about what’s of most interest to you. You can even tape a sheet of paper to the inside front cover and make your own index of interesting items.
If you’re willing to tear up your magazines and save only the “good stuff”, you can really save space and time. Get into the habit of reading magazines with pen and scissors in hand. Underline and make margin notes as you read; years later, you won’t have to reread the entire article to figure out why you saved it. Clip worthy items promptly so you don’t have to read through the whole magazine twice.
Now sort your pile of clipped, annotated articles according to categories that you’ll think to look in when you need them later. For example, filing a book review by subject instead of by title may be the most logical. When you decide on a category, write it in an upper corner. Labeling makes it faster to refile in the future.