Sunday, April 6, 2014

The Return of Mother ...

 Hello There Lovely Internet People!  Wow, its been a while since I last wandered over here hasn't it?  Sorry about that.  Mother has been going through some extremely intense anti-socialness lately and I figured it was probably best for everyone if she kept her big mouth shut until she got past all of that shit.  Not sure if I am completely past it yet, but for the most part it has subsided to a manageable level, I think.

I am still working towards making more videos for YouTube, but I am afraid they will probably be almost as random as these Blog Posts have been.  Right now I am really leaning towards making more artsy craftsy type videos rather than the political and social rants, mostly because I just don't want to deal with stupid people on YouTube.  I don't have the patience for it.  I might do a few more of the picture compilation type rants like the first two videos that I made, but they are more work than I really want to put into this, so they won't happen very often.

Okay, so what was Mother doing while she was hiding away from the world?  Well, I mentioned last Fall that I had come to the realization that, after making 50 freaking quilts for my family and friends, I don't particularly like quilting.  I mean, I do like parts of it, but the actual quilting thing, that I could definitely live without.  So I set off in search of a new hobby, one that would allow me to combine all of my other hobbies into a single all consuming obsession.  And I found it!  Its called Mixed Media Art, and I swear whoever came up with the concept must have had lived inside my head at some point.  Of course, even though this is a hobby that technically combines all of my other hobbies into it, it turns out that there are a whole host of supplies required that I did not already have.  To be honest, I had most of it, but there were several new tools and supplies that I found I just could not live without.  Surprise!  Hahahahahahaha.  Not.

Over the last several weeks I have tried my hand at book making (that was a semi-failed attempt), box making (still in progress, but looking promising), hat making (that was a major success if I do say so myself - see the pictures below), flower making (more fun than I really should be allowed to have), hand carving "rubber" stamps (using both pink erasers and actual stamp carving materials), bowl making and basket weaving (extremely fun but very messy, at least the way I did it was very messy), along with painting and mono printing dozens upon dozens of papers and several stilted attempts at Art Journaling (which is turning out to be the most difficult thing I have ever attempted, even though it is supposed to be among the easiest), as well as spending a few hundred hours trying to figure out the software for my Cricut machine (which I still have not conquered). So, yeah, I have been keeping kinda busy.   

And whilst doing all of that creative type stuff I have been compulsively binging on YouTube videos.  I have pretty much given up on Facebook, all it does is piss me off.  I try to post something on Mother's page almost everyday, but I have really lost my enthusiasm for it.  Even Twitter got old really fast, still not sure why, but I just didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I should have.  But being a home-bound agoraphobic with no social support system of my own I kinda need some sort of connection with the outside world, no matter how far removed it might be.  YouTube seems to be filling that need for me now, and it is doing a far better job than Facebook or Twitter ever did.  I have learned more stuff about more things in the last three months on YouTube than I ever knew I didn't know.  And since learning is what I love most, YouTube has become my new home.  I haven't found nearly as many channels to follow over there as I had Facebook Pages to follow (300 YouTube channels compared to 5,000+ Facebook Pages), but I do get to see everything that every channel posts as soon as they post it!  And I can go back in time and see every single video they have posted since the day they joined YouTube.  Nothing is hidden, or lost in time, I get to choose whether I want to watch what someone posts or not, nobody makes that decision for me on YouTube.  That is a very nice change of pace.                        

I think I told you all that I moved my creative work space into our little "Bonus Room" just before I took my hiatus from the outside world, and now, after several reorganizational attempts I finally have a workable space where I can get to most of the things I need to get to without hurting myself too severely in the process, and still have at least a small workspace left in which to create stuff.  And this morning I managed to set up my web cam so that it looks directly down onto my work space so I can start filming stuff, just as soon as I decide to quit freaking out about the whole idea of filming stuff.  

I am sure I have told you all before that I am not a people person.  I don't have very many friends, I don't speak to most of my family, and as much as I Love everybody, I really don't like people very much most of the time.  I don't like to join groups, have never been part of club, and generally just keep to myself most of the time.  It is safer that way.  And honestly, it is more fun, I enjoy my own company immensely.  But, (there is always a "but" isn't there?) I do feel very isolated most of the time, and occasionally even a little bit lonely.  Having the Facebook Pages, and this Blog, have opened up a new window on life for me and I do kinda enjoy the view (most of the time).  I am never going to be a hyper-friendly, outgoing, community oriented type person, that's just not me, but I would like to expand my horizons a little, and maybe even make a few more new friends.  Okay, the truth is I probably just want somebody to share my joy in my creations with that can appreciate it.  Its a little disheartening to spend a hundred hours on some art project only to have my husband say "That's very nice Dear" as he barely glances at it.  He tries to be supportive, but he just doesn't get excited about it, like, ever.  I am freakin' excited, and I want somebody to share that excitement with me, and since I don't have anybody else in my real life world to share it with, all I am left with is strangers on the internet.  You all might as well make yourselves useful.

I am not sure how much Blogging I will be doing in the near future, if I can get my ass in gear on YouTube I will probably switch over to Vlogging at some point.  Writing these posts is getting harder and harder for me, I have already been at this one for over 4 hours!  I just don't have that kind of time to spend typing, I need to make stuff!  Of course I am probably going to have to spend some time on editing videos, but I don't plan on making any major productions or anything, so hopefully that will be minimal.   

Well, wish me luck, and maybe even let me know if you would have any interest in watching artsy craftsy type videos if I made them.  Maybe if I knew somebody wanted to see them I might get around to getting them made a little sooner.  Its worth a shot anyway.  Until next time ...