Safe at home, stay at home, self-quarantine. These are common words we hear every day, hour, minute of our lives. Scary words, scary time. Since we are all in the same predicament, I have come up with some ideas to help you get out of the doldrum of boredom.

These ideas are not just fiber related. Things I have come up with while thoroughly looking around my apartment. Some may sound crazy, but when you think about it, a little more organization never really hurts you. These will keep your mind off of the news, and onto a more tranquil life.

Music. Who doesn’t like listening to music. You don’t need a stereo or boombox anymore. Look at your cable network, mine is Spectrum, it has music channels on it. Scroll up from and you will see Music Choice channels based on genre like Classical, Party Favorites, Jazz, just to name a few. Or you can take your phone and Bluetooth speaker, hook them up and you have music from your phone.

Puzzles, Games, Legos. Whether, jigsaw, crossword, scrambled words. Puzzles can bring families together to create time well spent. Grab a jigsaw puzzle you find interesting likes these, clear your table and get working on it. Before you know, several hours have passed. My husband and I like to test ourselves with crossword puzzles. I work the across clues, he the down clues and see who can answer more clues.

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While we stay at home and feel safe at home, here are a few crafty ideas that will not only create fun items but you may even clear out those remnants that have been sitting around.

Scrappy Blanket. Comfort is what we need these days and nothing says comfort more than a blanket, afghan, or lap throw. The idea here is to use up remnant balls of stash yarn. You know those balls of yarn that are not enough for a project. Knit or crochet a few rows, or until that ball runs out, change to the next color and so on. Random choice of colors. Just go with the flow and have fun. When done, you can curl up, and relax with your pet.

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Placemats, washcloths, coasters. Solids, stripes, mix & match colors. The possibilities are endless. You choose the yarn and play with it. Many patterns and ideas are out on the web. Try Pinterest for inspiration. But be careful, before you know it, many hours can slip by… but isn’t that a good thing?

Inventory Your Yarn Stash. While you are safe at home, do you really know how much yarn you have? How many skeins/hanks/balls of a particular color, brand you own? Now is a great time to work through some angst and sort through those bags, bins and bundles and organize your stash. Don’t forget to turn up the music for some background sounds.

A friend and fellow knitting guild member showed me her massive list of yarn. I went home and wanted to see how much yarn I really have. My list has categories that include yarn brand, color, weight, quantity of skeins, yardage, location of purchase.

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This is just one page of my list. It took me 2 days to inventory my yarn. Amd now every time I pull yarn off the shelf and use it, it is either deleted from my stash or if a portion is used. It is then weighed and inventory adjusted.

Try a new craft. Last year I started sewing after 20 years. My hands get quite sore from knitting and crocheting and I needed something crafty to do. I used to make clothes while working at a fabric store when I first moved to So Cal back in 1983. I pulled out my old Sears Kenmore sewing machine. Guess what? It no longer works, so last fall, I purchased a new machine.

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That machine worked great for clothes, now for my 2020 project: Pillowcases, flannel pillowcases. Using 2 different fabrics, pillowcases can be sewn quickly. Remember as a kid, you would go to a friend’s house for a sleepover and you brought your own pillow. That is where this project came from.

Each one unique, a fun project for friends, family. My family were the first to get personalized pillowcases. I chose fabrics that I thought were reflected who they are.  I am always looking for new projects, keeps the mind focused.

Limit the social networking. While we hunker down safe at home, we need a little social networking, i.e. facebook, Instagram, twitter. But how much is too much? When you look at what is posted, if you find that more and more posts are all about the pandemic, that can cause anxiety and stress. Lighten the load. Don’t hang out on the site for too long.

For me, I check-in in the morning, read some posts, and comments on my page and change my background picture. I play a game or 2 and when I feel my time is spent, I leave the site and work on something else. Currently my wallpaper has plumeria flowers on it.

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I love flowers, recently I asked my friends to send me pictures of their flower gardens. I choose a different flower to post to my page. This makes me feel good. No bad news, all flowers.

Most importantly, turn off the news. I found that after watching many hours a day of the same, horrifying news, I became withdrawn, depressed, angry. I had enough of the news.

As I went outside, I sat on the stairs and let the sun soak into my head, neck and face. It felt good, so I pruned my geraniums of dead flowers and brown leaves, very calming and meditative.Sun and flowers are good combination for calm.

I stay safe from my neighbors and enjoyed the warmth I got from the sun, that natural vitamin D. I started to feel better, my attitude more upbeat. A little bit of sun every day makes you feel better, get outside and enjoy it for yourself.

I stopped watching hours of the news, now I only watch about 15 to 30 minutes a day. I take time for myself, my husband and my cats.

Now what are you going to do to feel better mentally?