Bored?

If you are bored, here is a list of things to keep you occupied 

(Some borrowed from a previous blog post)

1- Hand shadow show! Make up a story line and act it out with your fingers once it’s dark. I found it’s lots of fun to try and make different things. You can google hand shadows and see if you can find some lessons on how to make elaborate hand shadows. I want blogging details!

2- Drawing. Draw pictures of anything in the room. If you suck at drawing, you can make stick figure cartoons. I’ll see if I can find some of mine and post them for you all to giggle over. I want pictures! 

3. Origami- The beautiful art of paper folding! You can make ornaments for your tree or make a million teeny paper swans to bury yourself under while you’re sitting there bored out of your skull.

4. Macramé and Hemp bracelets- Look up patterns for hemp jewelry and friendship bracelets. Start knotting your way to beautiful items (you can sell these on Etsy for a small profit if you’re really bored. The USPS will come straight to your door to pick up packages.)

5. Crochet or knit- IMO, crochet is a lot easier overall. If you don’t know how to crochet or knit, there are tutorials online and books that come with a kit that can teach you. Crochet and knit is fun, gives you something to occupy your time and you’ll have plenty of scarves, hats and other things to give away as presents! 

6. Write short stories, write a novel or a children’s book (complete with illustrations)- What could be more fun than a barrel of monkeys? Writing a book! You can write short stories, write a novel or write a children’s book (complete with pictures!) and when you are through, you can cruise on over to Lulu.com, create your book and put it on the market. 

7. Create a picture book on Lulu.com

• Go through those thousands of photos you have stored on your computer and make them the best by using Google Picasa to edit your pictures. You can add text, crop, adjust the brightness/ contrast, get rid of red eye and million more things! I love Picasa!
  
• Once you have a nice collection of photos, sort them by category, event, person… whatever.
  
• Go to Lulu.com and create a picture book. You can sell them, keep them private, make them as gifts for friends and family, etc… You can also make calendars!

8. Video blog your boring time. Getting bored yet? Well, video blog about it! Sometimes I love to watch video blogs because you can see the facial expressions. 

9. Help with meals- One thing I loved doing while I was healing from surgeries and I wasn’t allowed to do anything, was to help fix food. I would sit in my chair and my husband or kids would bring the food items to me to help make. Sandwiches, cookies, etc. You can help make a lot of things while sitting in your recliner. My favorite to make was stuffed shells. I could make the cheese filling, add it to the already cooked shells, layer it in the pan and get it all ready to bake, all while sitting down! PS, cover yourself with towels. It’s a lot easier to clean up that way.

10. Play sock basketball!- Have someone set a basket across the room after you’ve folded all the socks you can find.

To fold… Lay sock flat and roll up from the toe. Then tuck the whole thing into the opening by wrapping the opening around the ball. 

Now start throwing! 1 point if it bounces off anything before landing in the basket. 2 points if it just flies right in like you know what your doing LOL. 

11. Card games- Solitaire, pyramid, Kings corners… there are so many games you can play by yourself. Fluxx, Phase 10… There are so many more you can play with family and friends. Have everyone make a snack, make drinks and have a card playing night.

12. Journal your time with index cards- For each day you get one index card. The cards can be the small 3X5 cards or any bigger size that you want. Make sure they are lined.

1. On the blank side: Draw, paint, glue items on, tape on a favorite picture you found, write one word that defines the day, put down your favorite quote. Be creative! This side is to visually show everyone how your day went.
2. On the lined side: This is your journal. I like to do something simple like- “Today this made me happy”, “I was sad when…”, “5 things I did today”, “If I remember nothing else about today, I really want to remember…”, “My pet peeve for today”… the options are endless. You can use more than one or you can just do a little bit of journaling your day.
3. Keep the cards in a cute decorated box (another “sittin’ on my bum” activity!) Or you can put them in a 3-ring notebook in page protectors so you can flip through them when you are bored. 

13. Fill out your cards for the year! Talk about getting ahead of yourself! Get out your calendar for this year, fill in birthdays and Anniversaries in your calendar for next year, label all the major holidays… Now, have someone buy all the cards for next year (or make them!) and get them all ready. You can store them in shoe boxes by month or by holiday (or both). Now you are WAY ahead of yourself!

14. Critique my blog. Send me a constructive email on how to make my blog better! Tell me what you want to see on here and how I can make it better!


Now, if you are reading this list and you’ve thought of something to add… send me comment or email me. I'll add it to the list. If you want, I'll credit you with the idea too!