Leather pendants DIY and thoughts on social media

I’ve been having an unusual feeling of not wanting to be connected to technology as much as I do. It is not something I’m trying to be “better” at, you know, being “in the moment” and not be wired to Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest on an hourly basis.

My mind has been rejecting checking my social sites. Seriously, it feels strange. I love being on my phone, especially when I’m waiting in line, or at a doctor’s appointment waiting room, or waiting for my kids to get out of school… Ha, a lot of waiting these days.

So what is the relationship between my social media withdrawal and making cool leather pendants? Spending less time online and having the couple of hours it took to make these babies ;)

My leather pendants involve a few leather shapes I cut at my local Ben Franklin’s craft store die cut center, plus two more materials. Take a peek at my tutorial below ;)

Leather pendants DIY Tutorial

1. First, I cut a few shapes out of thin leather, chose an apple, cherries, horse and lips die cuts. How can you create your leather shapes? You can visit a Ben Franklin’s die cut center (list of Ben Franklins nationwide), or you can invest in die cutting machines such as this one.
2. Second, I added glue to the “inside” of one of my shapes.
3. Third, I placed an “eye” pin in between my leather shapes and glue them together to keep the pin in place.

 

 

 

 

So going back to my social media thoughts, have you ever felt this way? Last weekend was my second weekend not connecting to FB at all and being disconnected Friday afternoon through Sunday. It feels fine. I don’t feel better, but I do feel a “weight” lifted off.

Now, as a blogger, you kind of feel that you have to be online a lot. Updating your IG account, commenting on the blogs you follow, sharing my posts on FB and Twitter.

So this “feeling” of not wanting to be connected most of the day is not great for blogging. But WHO determines how much “active” presence we should exercise every day? What if I go counter culture and instead of being connected a lot but instead I connect once a day. My page views will probably go down, and the whole point of blogging is to have readers and build an audience. What are your thoughts on this?

You might ask, what have been doing when I’m not on my phone every time I have a gap of down time? I’m just there. Standing in line, people watching. Another thing I’m doing is coloring a book with the coolest gel pens. But the most important thing I’m doing while not being on my phone is making meaningful connections with people I know or people I ran into at the grocery store or the Y (YMCA) where I work out.

In a nutshell, I’m freeing up my time to spend less time checking my FB account (mainly) and more time doing things in “real” life. Why? I’m tired of feeling tired at the end of the day. I think being “on” online depletes my energy. Instead, I’ve been reading more (real books with paper, no Kindles) talking to my kids more, instead of “reacting” when they are doing something they shouldn’t be doing. I’ve been reaching out to friends and planning coffee dates.

How are you doing? Does being online makes you feel energized you or does it does the opposite? Like me these days? Is this a way you could free up time to make more DIYs? I’d love to read your comments below ;)