I’d like to say that I have been working like a beaver in my craft room, but to be honest, (and I rarely am,) my arthritis has been in a bad flare, and I haven’t felt like doing much of anything.  I have been reading a lot, a series much like the Jack Reacher series…This one is the Peter Ash series, and I’m really enjoying it.  I’ve also been working on diamond paintings, trying to make sure I finish all of the art I currently have, before the next round of mail comes in.  One of my viewers kindly gave me a gift card to Amazon, and I used it toward a magnifying lamp that you position over diamond paintings.  The magnification is throwing me off my game, but the light is tremendous.  I have a light pad under my work, but that only illuminates under the project, so you can see where the diamonds are placed.  It puts the diamonds themselves into a shaded area, so it’s hard to see if they are upside down or right side up, and this lamp does a great job of illuminating them, so I no longer have trouble seeing them well.  Here’s the lamp I got.  I looked at a lot of magnifying lamps, and two things about this one were great selling points…The first is the plug..I don’t want a battery operated lamp, nor do I want a lamp that I have to attach to other technology…This one came with a plug, and that was what I wanted.  Also, most of the lamps only came with a clamp, and I wasn’t sure if a clamp would ultimately get in my way.  I wanted to have a lamp that I could position anywhere I wanted it, and if it only has a clamp, that limits where it can be placed.  Also, I use a dining room table for diamond art, and it has a really thick lip, and I know the clamp wouldn’t be large enough to accommodate the lip, again, making the clamp useless.  So far I really like it.  I tried the magnification, and at first, thought I’d really like it, but I have a hard time figuring out where my hand is in relation to the painting.  That probably doesn’t make sense, but when you think about your hand being magnified and the painting being magnified, your movements are also magnified…therein lies the issue.  Every movement I make, feels awkward and huge.  You have to try one of these to see what I mean.  And maybe it’s just me…It’s entirely possible that it is.

I’m definitely going back into the craft room tomorrow and producing something.  I need to make the travel journals I’ve been talking about forever, and I have trivets from the Dollar Tree that I’d like to cover in fabric, and lastly, I’m thinking of doing a series of Christmas cards called Christmas Cards during Corona…Is that a horrible idea?  I know that a lot of people make Christmas cards early, and I always make mine super late, so maybe this is a way for me to actually make Christmas cards that might inspire others to make theirs.     But I’m probably too late with this idea, as our county/state is looking to open up next week….and I’m happy that they are, but not sure how it will work. Here’s why..  I went to the grocery store with Rich two days ago and there were so many people not wearing masks, or not wearing them over their nose and mouth, and I was so disgusted.  When it’s mandatory to wear a mask, can’t people just do it?  I heard today that a person was shot and killed for telling someone they couldn’t go into a Dollar Tree without a mask….Is this what we’ve come to?

I think I’ve turned into a crazy old person, as I couldn’t just walk by the people not wearing masks, or wearing them improperly.   Instead, I said things like “Your mask needs to cover your nose and mouth,” or “You need a mask.”  And it wasn’t like I muttered it under my breath…I made sure the people heard me.  I was prepared for them to say something sarcastic back, but they didn’t.

I had a Zoom call with my college girlfriends and told them what I’d said, and they both said they wished they were that brave.  I don’t know if I’m brave or stupid.  I just can’t understand why people won’t follow this directive.  Do they think it’s beneath them, or that they don’t have symptoms so clearly they don’t need to wear a mask?  Whatever the answer is, it’s not good enough…We all need to be diligent if we want to get rid of this virus and get our country running again.  And, most importantly, we need to work together to do this.  This isn’t the time to be bucking the system…it’s time to pitch in and try to make a difference.

I bought a Corona stamp set and will be making some cards to give to seniors in local nursing homes..  They can’t have any visitors.  Can you imagine how lonely they must be?  Maybe if we all do something small, it can be the difference to get us through this with our sanity, and our health, intact.

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