Quarantine Time

It's safe to say I have officially failed at blogging! But let's be real, Corona happened, is that a valid excuse? I think it is. Being a librarian, we were shut down during the Ohio quarantine back in March. When it first happened I said "We won't be closed longer than a few days". Then the days turned into weeks, "No way we'll be closed a month" and the month went by, then another, and another. I was baffled! I started off quarantine strong with lots of projects and goals in mind. I completed major ones fast, almost too fast for the amount of time I unknowingly had on my hands. I thought I'd share some of the projects I have done during this very weird time to get me back on the blogging ball.

My first order of business with oodles of time off, was to get home projects done! You know, the things you keep thinking about needing to do but don't do them, yea those. With owning a home there is always something to get done and I could've gotten more done but I definitely fizzled out my house-reno flame at some point! I finallyyyy fixed our 1980's basement bar and loved how it turned out. We're not big drinkers but wanted to get this done as a selling point for whenever that happens. We also had a company rip out our old deck and put in a patio! What a mess that project was, but so happy it's done and we love hanging out in our backyard now! After the patio was done we also added taller fencing around the patio to get our privacy back. I also did random other projects like painting the stairwell and hallway but that's boring stuff. 

Being a librarian and being away from our community, we were asked to start filming ourselves doing book recommendations, kindergarten help, maker activities etc. I jumped on the maker train and started creating a variety of hands-on activities mostly for kids but can also be done by any age. Here are some of what I created (in order from left to right - fairy hut, "less mess" finger painting, paper mountainscape, and a scrap fabric octopus!). You can find some of the instructional videos at https://www.youtube.com/user/cuyahogalibrary. 

Another category that took up some of my time was wedding planning. That's right, I'm a #coronabride! We're getting married still on our original date in October, but what that looks like right now I really have no idea. We are still waiting to hear of any changes and as we all know, that happens daily. So, I kept myself busy with wedding projects. The very first weekend I was off I finalized my hand-drawn wedding invites and printed them all so they were ready to go (hopefully I still get to use them!). I created my own bouquet and love it more than anything. It's made from book pages, my papaw's old flannels, and includes fake antlers and even my great-grandmother's old broach. I also put together my bridesmaid's bouquets, and the mother/grandmother corsages (Amazon has a great arm band for this!).  I have more to do but taking a break for the time being!

Lastly, I continued with my art projects, I'm always doing something! I tried getting ahead with my dictionary pages but didn't do as many as I'd hope. I created a hand-drawn card set for a couple of friends and loved packaging them up even more. I also worked on a couple of commissioned pieces for father's day and sketched a cemetery angel just because. 

It looks like I stayed busy during quarantine but I feel like I should've and could've done more. Although I am back to work, things are quiet and calm during this unusual time. Now that I am back settled into my new-old routine I'll be getting back to doing more projects and sharing my processes with you!

​Stay happy, healthy, and safe!