Monday, April 19, 2010

Learn something new everyday

Alright time to get nerdy! Did you know that crafting reduces anxiety?

  • "Patients with mood disorders often 'live inside their heads'. Participating in a craft can help patients 'move' forward."
Often people who are in hospitals, recovering or in therapy benefit from craft "therapy". I, myself have anxiety from time to time (which is normal for most people!). When I craft on a consistent basis and have an outlet for "my brain"; I seem to be more relaxed. My brain is "moving forward" because you are spending time making something, either just for you, someone you care about, or just for fun and it takes your mind off your worries.

  • "Robert Reiner, Ph.D., a New York University psychologist and the study’s author, the findings prove what crafters already know: Crafts de-stress. “The act of performing a craft is incompatible with worry, anger, obsession, and anxiety,” he says. “Crafts make you concentrate and focus on the here and now and distract you from everyday pressures and problems. They’re stress-busters in the same way that meditation, deep breathing, visual imagery, and watching fish are.”

I guess I already knew this, but to know scientifically that my crafting is a form of therapy and it actually works is awesome! However, like I have said before with graduate school coming to a close in about 4 weeks (classes anyways) I have ZERO time for crafts.

The last straw, hurdle, jump whatever you want to call it= super stressed/anxious, overwhelmed, overworked, studying like crazy, with little time to eat, sleep or finish my work..... let alone craft.

Counting the days_____39______ until I can offically call "time" my own again!!!

After May 29th watch out world, Snail Bait will be back in action and I may even start a new blog about my career in SLP---which is sure to involve a lot of creativity! :)

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Easter Goodies

My mom and I made 94 cake balls today for Easer. Click here to learn: How To Make Cake Balls We used a recipe that was similar, we used chocolate to coat and added decorations! Suprisingly easy to make, the coating part was a bit tricky but decorating was fun! We saw some very creative cake balls while searching the internet! Some made into lolli-cake balls for weddings and showers. Some made into animals with fondant. Fun to get creative!

Not exactly Peter Cottontail! Looks like a box of chocolates!

Chocolate Cake Balls-regular chocolate (white drizzle) and peanut butter chocolate (sprinkles)

White Chocolate Cake Balls-Funfetti Cake with Sprinkles! They taste just as good as they look!