Crafting with Others

I am one exhausted introvert this morning.

I spent four hours last night in the company of crafters and scrapbookers. It is always a good time that leads me to doing all sorts of creative things, but it is also tiring. I engaged in small talk conversation with a couple of other people last evening. The craft store owner seems to be an extravert, so she stops by everyone's table to comment on what we were doing. She complimented my coloring last evening. I find that particular type of interaction to be a bit fake, but it tickled my funny bone.

I only lasted four hours, but I am heading back in about an hour to do some more stuff. I have the innards of several books ready to be put into currently nonexistent covers. I will take some floss and my bookbinding kit and the pieces that I need to make books for the signatures I put together.

I looked for some inspiration for themes for the signatures that I put together, but I didn't find any. I will search a bit more here at home. I have plenty of things, so I don't really need anything else, but I feel the compulsion to spend money on more craft stuff. I am trying to figure out what I need to bring with me this morning. One more hour...

Getting out into the world is good for me. I know that, but I am really looking forward to not leaving my home for a little bit starting next weekend. Friends keep offering to celebrate my retirement with me, and that is very kind, but it is not what I want right now. I want to be able to relax and be alone for a little bit. That is difficult for others to understand, I guess, but I am not ready to engage in any sort of celebration right now. I just want to sleep. This is partially my SAD depression mood at the moment, and partially my need to be quiet for a bit before heading back into the world of human interaction. I will try to be better at getting out into the world of interaction when I have finished my hibernation period.

This is a personality aspect that I have been criticized for my entire life. It is not something I chose; it is something that is hard wired into my brain and my body. I have always been someone who has to be quiet and alone for a bit to navigate the world of talking to other people for periods of time. I do not enjoy chit-chat, and I do not like being forced to network with people who I do not know well, but the only way to get to know others is to go where people are. It is a difficult situation to be in.

My crafting weekends are times where I go out of my comfort zone to be around people with similar interests. We tend to be pretty quiet most of the time. Several people come with other people, and their conversations are what fills the atmosphere. There are plenty of solo crafters like me, so we are able to sit together and do our things. There is a woman who was at the first crop weekend who expressed interest in the book I was making. I sat at her table. She remembered me and looked at the signature that I was filling with pictures from my holiday trip last winter. She seems interested in how I make books. She makes amazing paper dolls with great coloring. This time around, she is putting together swatch cards for projects that she will be doing in a bit at a scrapbooking event in Springfield (I could check out more events now that my time will be my own). Most of the other people around me were working on scrapbook pages. It is interesting to see what people put together, and I wish we had a bit of show and tell time during these crops, but we don't... at least, not yet. Perhaps at the next one.

I think that it is time to get going. I need to move things from one set of boxes to another and add the boxes that I need for today. I also want to get some food to snack on during the day. I am tired, but I am interested in what will happen during this day. I also need to start some laundry and find my cardboard pieces for use in my books. Things to do before I go see people.

Time to be a people person. See you tomorrow...