Crafting as Pain Management? Sign me up!

I've gotten several people asking if I'm doing ok, since the blog is being neglected a bit and I'm not quite my usual bubbly self. While I can't say the last few weeks have been super-awesome happy fun time, I'm actually doing pretty well at the moment. I had a few situations come up that would have been annoying on their own, but when they all happened together turned out to be downright difficult to get through.

For example, the weather has been yo-yoing back and forth between 80s and 20s. I'm not exaggerating- it will literally be 83 one afternoon, and 27 the next night. Weather changes make my fibromyalgia grumble, and the more dramatic the change, the more intense the symptoms. I also ran into some problems with one of my daily medications, which led to me being out of it for several days. That made the fibro grumble too, as did coming down with a general crud. Cold, flu... something. It's been loads of fun.

So now the fibro is in full flare, meaning I'm very limited in what I can do and how much energy I've got. It's improving lots now, but it's been hard to be upbeat the last few weeks. However, I'm thrilled because I've found several new things that help manage the fibro pain.

I've shown you some of the drawings I've done lately. However, I've also found some other things to distract myself from the icky fibro bits. If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen some of these. If so, you'll see 'em again. :D

I've been making barrettes. I'm using snap clips, which seem to work nicely in my hair and are easy for me to find. I found several tutorials that showed people covering them with various materials, and one night when our power had gone out I decided to figure out how I was going to accomplish it. Turns out it's easy, even though I didn't save any of those tutorials!

I made my own simple pattern and have been experimenting with various ways of fastening the covers. I've made several types of barrettes: embroidered felt, zipper roses, and cute skully barrettes on ruffles or felt circles. I'm in love with the skullies. They've made me giggle, and I have several more skully patches to use for various designs.

I'm imagining more skully barrettes, skullies with tiny pink bows, skullies on big bows... I absolutely love skulls, and these are the perfect size! I'm thinking I'm going to wind up with an enormous pile of barrettes if they don't sell on Etsy.

That's right- you too could own a Layniefingers original! *giggles* I haven't decided on prices yet, but I've had several friends tell me I HAVE to sell these, since they're so darned cute. We'll see, right?

Till next time!

Snap clip image from Thaicraft.com.

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