This week, New Zealand went into COVID-19 lockdown/quarantine/shelter-in-place/stay-at-home, joining what seems to be almost the whole world hunkered down, staying home.

And even though there aren’t quite words for the difficult parts of all of this, for those hardest hit, nor enough gratitude for the people who are putting themselves at risk to help those effected, there also seems to be an element of hopeful stewardship in this untraveled stay-at-home ground.

No school, no work, no where to go- it seems like the perfect time to dust off the projects and creations that are usually too time or energy intensive (or just high on the ‘I can’t be bothered scale) to attempt? (Honestly, SO many of my all-time favorite projects have been pretty labor intensive, but not very difficult or supply heavy.) Maybe these would be great to try in the next month (or longer?) as we all stay home-

Dye Easter eggs

There aren’t Easter egg dye kits here in NZ, but I have food coloring on hand, as well as onion skins, extra tumeric, and tons of avocado pits if we wanted to attempt natural egg dye. We could also try no-dye Easter eggs this year?

Create floral arrangements

This one might take some some green-thumbed friends and neighbors (or, like us, an empty field next to your house with tons of wildflowers in it?), but what a fantastic skill to work on. Just think of all the ways DIY flower arranging could be put to good use after corona-lockdown is over…

Make an ‘antique’ bread board

This one only works if you have both wood and a saw on hand that you can use… But if you do, seriously, look at how gorgeous these 10-minute bread boards are?

Break out the paints

I love to paint just as much as the kids do, for sure. And there are so many great learn-to-paint tutorials on the internet, using both acrylic paints and watercolors. Must. Try. Asap.

Make a pile of reusable totes (and fabric gift bags)

Every december (and whenever we are heading out the door to a birthday party), and also on random grocery/errand runs (NZ is plastic-bag-less), I think to myself, “I should sit down and make a pile of pretty fabric market totes. And also fabric gift bags.” Here’s my chance.

Print out some pictures

And make home decor! Look how gorgeous these rows of pics are!

Master the grazing platter

Ok, so this might either make too much of a dent in our flour supply (or require online grocery orders of seriously-not-that-essential items like a whole pile of brunch pastries), but I have LOVED seeing all of the creative ways grazing platters and tables are being used at parties. Grazing-platter-master is a worthy aspiration for sure.

DIY felt flower garland

I keep wondering why oh why didn’t I bring my original felt flower garland with me to New Zealand (both Pi and I keep saying we wish we’d brought it with us!)? The real question is whether I should use the pile of felt I *did* bring to NZ to make another? If you have a bunch of felt on hand, this DIY felt flower garland is a no brainer- definitely a good labor-intensive, supply-light project.

Tackle that souvenir project

Since the only kind of travel currently is the ‘virtual’ variety, pay homage to a favorite trip by making a one-of-a-kind souvenir! We need to sift through our favorite postcards and hang some up… And I also love the idea of embroidering a favorite destination (this embroidery-goals couple has a course to learn how!)

Get better at hand lettering

Pi wants to try this with me. And who couldn’t use beautiful hand writing? Here’s a great primer on creative lettering and another one here (and youtube is a treasure trove of tutorials!).

And even though I truly excel at making to-do lists that far exceed anything I could hope to achieve, I have pared down to a ‘maybe? hopefully? list” (seen above) and a “but seriously” to-do/to-make list (below)-

My realistic quarantine to-do list-

1- Find a go-to buttermilk biscuit recipe (biscuits and gravy is totally not a thing here- that needs to be remedied). We are starting with our old favorite, then moving on to Alton Brown’s recipe and then the Magnolia Bakery recipe – if you have a tried and true favorite biscuit recipe, will you let me know?

2- Work on our Frozen 2 Halloween costumes. This is a truly ridiculous project to start in March, but Bohden has his heart on being “Fancy Olaf” for Halloween this year and has assigned the rest of us Frozen 2 Halloween costumes as well. Also, I think I have most of the costume-making supplies on hand?

3- Collect pampas grass from the field next to our house. Maybe make a wreath or try dye-ing it? It’s so weird that most of the world is entering spring-and-summer while we are wandering rapidly towards fall-and-winter.

4- Attempt *some* of the Harry Potter projects/recipes from Burke and Pi’s extensive and elaborate HP research (they’ve made a Hogwarts Homeschool plan that is totally legit). It’ll delight them to no end to work on a Harry Potter project or two. I also keep thinking it’d be fun to make little HP themed gifts for their Easter baskets too… Hmmm….

5- Learn how to make meat pies. We live in New Zealand. This is a skill we should master.

6- Make homemade Reese’s eggs for the kid’s Easter baskets. This is entirely utilitarian (no such things as Reese’s eggs here- tragic!). If I were in the states, I would just buy these though. They’re considered ‘essential’ right?

Crossing my fingers we come to the end of this lockdown with a whole pile of completed projects (the prime minister of NZ has said to expect to be home for at least a month, so perhaps I’ll surprise myself and get to all of BOTH LISTS?)! Any fun projects on your lists (either your maybe-hopefully list or your but-seriously-actually list), friends?