Stitching felt tiaras

My favourite thing to do is sit and stitch running stitch through felt. It is satisfying and soothing. If I am feeling blue and I need a pick me up, this is one of my go to things to do. Of course, I need a plan of what to make. And it helps if it is already cut out. And I have the right colour cottons. And have the concentration skills to sit and do it. Basically, I need everything to line up and it's a great thing to distract me from blueness...

The sense of achievement once I have stitched the pieces together to create a thing is really something though. I like to turn it over and study my stitch length and make sure I have done a good job. My house probably looks like a cyclone has just gone through. And I may not have decided what to make for dinner and it's past six o'clock. But if I have spent time stitching, I am doing okay. 

It's not just felt tiaras that make me feel like this, though these were fun to make. Matching colours for the tiara and the flowers and hearts out of my felt collection is a great way to pass time too. Felt is one of my happy places.

So a lot has been going on...

...and I have been absent. I am determined to find my life again so I am trying to blog again. Blogging was a good thing for me when I was here a long time ago.

Since I've been gone, we were involved in a campaign to get a life saving drug added to the PBS in Australia. It was to benefit a small percentage of people with Cystic Fibrosis. People with the right gene type. Amelia is one of these people. After over 2 years of campaigning with some awesome people in the Cystic Fibrosis community in Australia, WE GOT IT!

Amelia started on Kalydeco almost a year ago to the day. We had hoped it would cut her medication intake dramatically. This hasn't happened but it has made a huge impact on her health. And we are confident that her health will continue to improve while using Kalydeco and as new therapy's and drug's become available.

A lot of other life has been happening too. Regular stuff. Good stuff and bad stuff. Probably the most notable of all the stuff or perhaps the thing that has clouded every other thing that has been happening in our family's life is depression. Mine to be exact.

I didn't want to come here to blog because it felt like that is all that was going on. Billowing dark clouds of depression. And a few clouds of anxiety thrown in for good measure. I have struggled for quite a few years now but the last 2 have been the most challenging. The plastic smiles only go so far.

I have dragged myself through so many days. And I have tried my best to keep the depression from everyone I know. I have let a few people know. There is a stinging stigma with mental illness though. I don't know whether to make it known or not. And as much as the hashtagging of ending the stigma may be shared on social media, when it is your own walk, it's harder to be honest. That's how I have felt anyway.

So for better or worse, I am saying it here. I have depression. Sometimes things are okay. Sometimes they are not. I have piles of emotional baggage that I am dragging around and I am done hiding from it.

Here is my plan. Mid-Craft Crisis will continue as that. I will talk mid craft and crisis. I would much rather talk about my crafting attempts than depression. This is always going to be a crafty blog but I am also going to start talking about real stuff. Not fake. Because I have less energy for fake than I ever have. And maybe I can turn this hideous depression journey into something useful.

I have been quietly making and creating while in my time away from here so I want to get back to taking pictures of pretty things and sharing my makings. So to get started, here is a bunch of pin cushions I made recently for a market stall I was involved in. That can be another post. 

And until I get back again, be kind to yourself. I am trying to learn that.