In June 2012, I wrote a blog titled “In the Trash Heap for HR“.

The blog highlighted a trip I took around my neighbourhood, looking for craft supplies in the garbage of my neighbours. In this blog I wrote about finding an old wooden drawer and wrote about my plans to turn it into a jewelry box.

That was a great project. I worked with my stepfather on it, at our family cottage in Wisconsin. Our cottage is great because my stepfather is a tinkerer in his own right, and he has all sorts of tools needed to make things like extra trim pieces, glue and vice grips. He helped me sand it down, paint it, and add some doodads to it. I had found this awesome knob at a Worldmarket in South Carolina on a business trip, and some old looking contact paper while at an end-of-season sale at Michaels. There are two pieces–one that hangs on the wall and the other on my dresser. It looks very similar to something I saw in the craft ideas section of a Midwest Living magazine. I love it!

This year I plan on making two more jewelry boxes while at the cottage. I don’t actually need more jewelry boxes, but I have friends who might want one. The drawers came from our bathroom renovation last Fall, and I picked up some free paint from a sampler coupon at Lowes this Spring. I’m sure my stepfather has some hooks I can use out in the garage. One thing that is important to me in crafts is generally I try not too spend much money–in fact, being thrifty is part of the thrill of doing them. (And my technical skills at crafts are not that great, so I don’t feel like anything is lost if a craft project is a disaster).

I mention my projects to say this–if you’re in HR, sometimes you need a diversion from HR. I really like to do crafts because they require a brief focus and you have an accomplishment when you are finished.

Wellness is a subject that Human Resources professes to know a lot about and we HR folk create programs to improve wellness in the workplace. I just want to remind you all, as we get into the summer season, to find some things to do that will improve your own wellness. It doesn’t have to be doing a craft, but it does have to be something that makes you happy.