Chirped by Cass and Tina
Oh February! Even though it had an extra day this year, it still seemed to fly by. The weather didn’t help, being very mild, warm and wet here in PA – hurrying us along towards spring. Our shortest month did, however, yield some efficient days of crafting, blogging and catching up. We squeezed a lot in! Here are our top ten favorites from this productive month…
Favorite Books
February’s choices for both book clubs had mixed reviews from our members. Cass’s book club read Keeping Lucy by T. Greenwood. It describes a mother in the ’70s trying to save her daughter (born with Downs Syndrome) from a cruel institution and manipulative in-laws. The novel is based loosely on a 1971 exposé of horrific care inside a Massachusetts “school for the feeble-minded”. A guest speaker came to talk about her adult son, who has severe autism. The writing was good, the discussion interesting. Some of us were dubious about how quickly Lucy adapted and rebounded from her first two neglected years. But hey, kids are resilient, right? Continue reading
I’m guessing most crafty people love a good cause into which they can pour their creative energies. When you’re passionate about creating stuff, you start to run out of places to display your masterpieces around your own home. And there are only so many hats and scarves that you can reasonably knit for your extended family (or Blog Dog)! That’s why, when a non-profit or community organization issues a public request for handmade items, they tend to get an enthusiastic (and sometimes overwhelming) response, at least once word really gets out there. There are lots of organizations that could use the help of a hoard of crafters. Here are just a few that our own craft groups have set our sights on…
The 
Ah, free time… It can be a blessing – or a curse. That dreaded weekly meeting that got cancelled on an already over-scheduled day? Woohoo! Jackpot! But that hour frittered away perusing clickbait about Spite Houses and 50 Things to Throw Away Right Now? Mostly guilt and self-loathing because you should have been working on your blog post – er, wait, maybe that’s just me… The point is, if you find yourself with more free time than you actually feel good about, no matter what life or schedule change it might have hatched from, find something useful and satisfying to do with it. That can make all the difference in how you feel about