January and February in the American Northeast/Mid-Atlantic can be challenging in terms of our emotional health. It’s COLD, with snow – which is lovely when it first falls but then gets DIRTY from all the salt and traffic, and the dirty snow hangs around for weeks, making the cold, gray, days even MORE depressing. In addition, the post-holiday letdown is in full swing as many of us reconfigure our budgets after the shopping sprees of the recent gifting season.

This year, Punxsutawney Phil came along and predicted SIX MORE WEEKS OF WINTER, and if you listened closely, you could hear the collective groan emerge from households across the region.

Aside from moving to some place with more sunshine and warmer temperatures, the options we have are limited, and mostly involve either hibernation (not recommended for reasons of our mental health) or coping strategies.

• at times like this I have to remind myself that I moved back to this area after living in San Diego, California for almost 6 years,… (yeah – I know).

I opted for coping strategies, and fiber arts are central to those strategies. I knit, crochet, sew, and browse free patterns, as well as those oh-so-tempting pattern de-stashing sites on social media where I have found a number which now reside in my stash.

Lucky for me, I have a sidekick in my fiber therapy approach – my sister. We often find ourselves crafting, in our individual homes, while on the phone, sharing crafty chitchat, photos of our project’s progress, and more. We live several hours apart, so the phone is the only option when she’s not in town, making this a wonderful tonic for the Winter doldrums.

I became the very lucky recipient of one of her latest makes, using fabric that we found at a local quilt shop a few weeks ago. She found a pattern for the mini tote pictured at the top of this blog post, and we selected the fabric to be used.

As happens in busy lives, I had forgotten our acquisition, so when she sent me the photos below, it was a happy moment (double bonus that she made me BOTH a blue and a purple one). She fastened the clip on each in a slightly different placement, so we were testing to see which place made the most sense (we decided that the top placement was most useful and efficient).

One of the most important skills we can learn in life is how to look for, and recognize, the little islands of joy around us. They don’t solve major life problems, and they can’t fix the weather or remove our responsibility to shovel snow. They do, however, bring a little sunshine into our lives on cold and gray Winter days. Often, that’s all we need to get through.

Winter will pass, and Spring will emerge. The days are already getting longer, and the COLDEST temperatures seem to be in the past, although there’s a joke around here about Fake Spring that is quite accurate!

In between taking care of ourselves, we can also reach out with a small, heartfelt gift to share a little joy, or just let someone know they’re special enough to receive a gift that we made, just for them.

I can think of no better option for chasing the Winter doldrums away than to craft – with loving intention – for ourselves and for others.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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