The pandemic has given rise to several addictions in my family and, I suspect, other families as well. Happily, our addictions tend not to involve alcohol or drugs—but there may be a little over-eating by some.
Most notably for me and my daughter is “crafting” during our incarceration. I finished making and packaging Christmas 2021 gifts sometime this past July. Last week the USPS increased its seasonal rates as well as warned that Xmas deliveries would be a mess. So, days before the deadline, I mailed seventy-eight small and not so small packages. Friends have been texting and emailing their distress over getting a package with instructions (on the front): Do Not Open B4 Christmas—or Hanukkah, if that is the appropriate holiday.
For the past several months, I have been making gift tags and magnets, lots of gift tags and magnets. I probably decorated a dozen or more fancy storage boxes and two dozen small tin containers. Pre- arthritis, I would have been doing needlepoint or weaving, former obsessions that are no longer possible.
Now, thanks to a quick visit to the Biltmore Village in Asheville, NC, I am making fabric bead necklaces. I sit in front of the TV stitching and stuffing silk beads. I sit at the visitor-screening desk at the health department and stitch silk beads. I leave dinner gatherings with family early so that I can stitch and stuff silk beads.
I don’t sell anything.
My daughter’s addiction has been motivated by an online craft lady. She started with decoupage gift tags, but moved on to holiday decorations—4th of July and now Halloween. So much Halloween. She gets withdrawal if she passes a family dollar store and can’t stop in to see what crafting materials they have in stock. (I used to react that way to passing a Marshalls or HomeGoods, but the pandemic ended my shopping addiction.)
She doesn’t sell anything.
Storage is becoming a problem, but we are emotionally healthy and surviving the new pandemic world order. My daughter is waiting for the day when she can rent a storage unit—I’m waiting for the day when I can travel overseas. Until then, we craft.
Carole J. Garrison 