Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated

While being able to put a name to a problem or host of problems that have been haunting you for an extended period of time (in this case, I refer to my recent... well, semi-recent, ADHD diagnosis) can be a huge step forward, just having that label is far from the entirety of the solution.  Big surprise, right?  Ok, so that might sound a bit obvious, but sometimes knowing something and fully understanding what that knowledge means for you in your own life can be drastically different things.

I have a history heavily peppered throughout with big plans for large, amazing projects and endeavors, most of which ever moved much further than initial planning stages.  Amongst the wreckage have been a couple of blogs on which I posted not much more than an initial introduction and a post or maybe two.  While knowing that this tendency was most likely related to my attention issues was enlightening, actually figuring out a way to guide myself back to those projects and follow through on them and actually have something come out of them beyond mere ideas is proving to be proving to be more of a challenge.  I have big plans for this blog, numerous posts that at the moment live only in my head until I actually put fingers to keyboard to share them with you.  The difference between now and the past is that I have a greater resolve and a growing set of coping techniques to assist me in keeping up with that plan.  To that end, I do hope that you good readers out there (all three of you, at the moment, hello ^_^) will stick with me through the occasional unplanned hiatus that comes from my attention being taken up by other projects.  In this last case it was my first successful attendance of an anime convention with a table in their Artist Alley, a post about which will be coming in the next few days, complete with lots and lots of photos, so stay tuned.

And to keep you engaged and hopefully coming back for more, I open up the comments to any and all suggestions for topics that you would be interested in seeing.  Ideas for tutorials that you would like to see are especially encouraged as I have a million ideas on that front but no clear on where to start off.

And now for something completely different.

You know that feeling when you're coming down with something, you feel off and less than well, but you haven't yet identified what bug it is that you're struggling against?  I had been stuck in that limbo of an unidentified problem in regards to ADHD for years; longer than I care to think about, really.  I'm most aware of it from about high school onward up until my recent diagnosis last year just before the holidays, but even looking back earlier to my grade school years I can see evidence of it as well.  

Being able to put a name to the problem was definitely not a cure all solution, not by any means, but it was a very empowering and freeing moment for me.  I no longer have to look back on the struggles of getting up and ready to go on time, forcing myself to concentrate on school work in or out of the classroom my inability to meet certain deadlines or my trouble in allowing other people to finish speaking before replying as a fault that was solely my own.  I wasn't simply lazy or rude or just defiant for the sake of going against the grain.  These were things that were facilitated by my ADHD that I was unaware of how to work around instead of against.  As corny as the saying may be, knowledge is power.  Now that I've been armed with a diagnosis, I can use that knowledge to build up a system that works for me.  

It had been my initial intention for this blog to be exclusively a crafting blog (primarily sewing, obviously) but it would be nearly impossible to talk about my crafting without mentioning my struggles with depression and ADHD.  I've been working on setting up a system of keeping organized and on track.  It's a process that takes a lot of trying one thing to see if it works and then, if it doesn't, either tweaking to work better or discarding it and trying something different.

Do you ever go to do one thing and find yourself picking up a half dozen more projects along the way?  This is a problem that I run into quite often.  Last week I was taking photos for a post and noticed that the frame and glass of the painting I was photographing needed a good cleaning.  Then while I had the dusting supplies out I decided that I needed to do the dusting and reorganizing of the bookshelves in the living room.  Right now!  I finished about two thirds of the shelves that day before getting back on track with the things I was meant to be working on and only just finished the dusting and reorganization project yesterday.

Our 'homework' for my Attention Deficit group this week is to share the things that we do in our lives to keep organized and I've decided to do a similarly themed series this week on the blog.  Whether you have ADHD or not, I hope that you find something useful within my system.  If you adopt something into your own routine or if you are inspired by it and it sparks a method of your own invention, I would love to hear about it!

My first Etsy listing!

Oh wow, hitting that publish button was frightening and exciting!  I just put up a lovely messenger bag,  plaid with a brown suede flap and lined with this adorable black and white bird silhouette fabric.  I almost wish that I could keep it for myself!

More to follow very soon, including crocheted doll berets and some really cool pageboy hats upcycled from old suit jackets.

Giving in to your inner child

It was suggested to me to get some shower crayons so that I could keep track of stray thoughts that come to me while taking a shower.  Mike and I have been having a lot of fun with them.  Sometimes, you just need to give in and be a kid for a little bit.

To Grandma's House We Go

My mom and Grandma caught in a laugh.

Once a month I take a day to drive down and spend some quality time with my maternal grandma, Caroline.  The winter visits always feel far too short since I have to leave earlier due to the weather and the fact that it gets dark so much earlier, but we always have a blast.  Last Wednesday I drove down, we had a nice lunch together and caught up before spending the afternoon looking through old family photographs and talking about painting.

Grandma is an amazing artist.  Her preferred medium is watercolors and I'm constantly blown away by the things that she can do with them.

This is one (among many) of my favorite of her paintings that hangs in our living room.  The photo doesn't even begin to do it justice.

As is usually the case after a day at Grandma's, I was already looking forward to the next visit by the time I was in the car driving home.

About Me

Who am I?  You sure ask the tricky questions, don't you?

That's me!

Like all people, I'm an odd amalgamation of all of the things that have happened to and influenced me throughout my life.  I'm 28 year old woman with a history degree that is currently doing nothing more than sitting around collecting dust save for when I sneak it out to lend a hand in the archives at the History Museum at the Castle in Appleton (sometimes known as the Houdini Museum.)  I'm fat and I'm sassy and I'm damn hilarious.  I'm a seamstress by trade and a costumer at heart with a particular fondness for the Victorian era and the 1940s and 50s.  I am a geek of many different colors - science fiction and fantasy; roleplaying games; anime and cosplay and lolita style, oh my; and so much more!  I collect dolls, particularly Asian Ball Jointed Dolls, each one of which is a representation of one of my role play characters as well as being models for many of my sewing endeavors.  I live on and off with my good buddy depression and was recently diagnosed as having ADHD which goes a long way in explaining a lot of things about my youth and I'm finally getting to the point where I feel like I have the both of them under control thanks to a combination of medication, coaching and mindful meditation.  I also live with my hubby - Mike, and our two cats - Tony and Monkey.

First Post

Welcome to my blog.  I hope to fill it with post about me - Anne Hemstock, a curious and confounding mixture of crafty, geeky goodness.  I intend for my main focus to be on crafting, sewing in particular, but I suspect that other topics will creep in over time: my doll collecting, my adult ADHD diagnosis and struggles, history of various sorts, my newly growing interest in journaling, and who knows what else along the way.  It will definitely be an adventure.  I'm hoping that it will be an interesting and fun one.