How I'm dealing with all this anxiety

 I've been putting off writing because of too much stress and depression. I mean how can someone who feels so much empathy for others not want to hide in a closet and only come out a few times a day? Oh right, I also have trouble with claustrophobia.

The DH isn't helping with all the doom scrolling. I now tell him to keep it all to himself, I just can't take it, the news is hard enough to watch, I really don't need more.

I know I'm not the only one feeling this way, most of the world is. Between the war in Ukraine and the people in this country who seem to be backing Russia I'm ready to become completely agoraphobia again.It's always an internal war with my brain and it can be horribly cruel to the rest of me.

More and more I'm turning to  embroidery and art classes to get thru all this hard stuff. My brain won't settle down enough for reading a book but following some's video or printed directions draws me in. I've also been watching some old movies. Today was 'Bell, Book, and Candle' and 'The Boy With Green Hair'. If you get a chance you should watch them. I found them on a digital station, MoviesTV.

I thought I'd share a few of my favorite links:

1. For embroidery - Creative Stitchery

2. For art - Every Tuesday Jenny Manno has a new you tube video.

Here's a link to some free classes at sketchbook-revival-2022 They will be starting on March 21 till April 18.

Another free class is Melanie River's Medicine Circle Retreat. It's starting March 25 and goes for a week.

Take care of yourselves and let's pray for peace everywhere.

I Love Johanna Basford! and Angela Kennedy! and drawing! and embroidery! Really!

 I really do love Johanna. She's so kind to share talent by doing free videos and giving away drawing to color. I found her last year in the spring and spent time getting back to easy drawing. It's kind of doodling and I find it soooo relaxing.  The Inky Wonderlands book is great but I can't make myself draw in it so instead I've been drawing my own versions of the pages. I'm not much for coloring but I will get to her videos on that skill too.

The 2 drawings of the girls are from Angela Kennedy. I LOVE her work, too. She has Facebook groups for drawing along with her and these are from the 100 days of hair group.

I'm also working on drawing flowers so I got that book, too. I just want to do simple ones not realistic so I skip the last 1 or 2 steps shown for each flower. 

Oh, and I did return the big drawing set and didn't bother to get anything else. After looking thru all my various pencils and erasers I found I just didn't need more right now. It's so easy to want to buy tons of supplies when I start a new hobby.

I'm still doing a bit of embroidery, just quick projects. Creative stitchery has free monthly ones I'm doing. I glue each month to pretty scrapbook paper, and frame it in a shadow box that I add small treasures I've collected that go with the embroidery. I change it each month. I'm finishing July right now with the sailboat. I should get a pic up here, sorry. Got behind with the drawing instead of stitching. Here's the link to her blog: Creative Stitchery

 Jennifer has free flowers in pots at her site. Again I'm not religious but her quick embroideries are fun to do. https://www.elefantz.com/

I recently found these sites, too for embroidery and more:

flamingotoes       Great name, huh?

https://stitchfloral.blogspot.com    beautiful flowers!!

If you're not the pretty flower type there are lot's of other free embroideries, too. Or why not write out words, trace on fabric, and embroider those?  How about "I could be social or I could embroider"? or "If you can't be kind, be quiet"? or "Don't believe everything you think"? or maybe more Jenny Lawson type quotes might be your thing.

There are tons more but I'm off to gather up my supplies and do some stitching :) 

BTW, if you want something to keep your mind busy so you don't stress and cause yourself anxiety, try embroidery, just stay with the simple stuff like I do. I tried cross stitch but kept losing track of where I was on the pattern so I keep away from that. The ones where it's all embroidering on the lines with back stitch and outline stitch are fun for me. Oh, and French knots, and lazy daisy stitches. I love to do those.  And yeah, I went overboard and bought lot's of floss from different companies. It's hard to rein in my hobby shopping :)