Explaining "Fun-employment"

Last night my husband and I went to a holiday block party in our new neighbourhood. Neither one of us are very social so it was really a rough time. It didn't help that most of the other neighbours have lived in the area for many, many years and, apparently, aren't used to meeting new people.

The hardest part about the night was the inevitable "so what do you do?"portion.

I hate this question. Even when I had a "normal" full-time job this question was rough. Categorizing yourself with one word ("I'm a engineer/teacher/manager/ect") is never enough and throwing out your job description("I design production processes for the manufacture of turbine blades", "I substutute teach in X school district in the preK through grade 3 classrooms", "I direct and manage a small nonprofit focused on adult literacy education and advocacy") is usually weird and way too detailed.





But now that I DON'T have a job, "so what do you do" gives me a panic attack.

Smiling blankly and saying "I only just moved here" has worked for me so far, but now I've been here for a little over a month and, unfortunately, that's not going to cut it anymore. I need a succinct, dinner party appropriate answer to explain a novel's worth of information. Yay.

Proposed and consequently rejected answers:
I currently am not working. - This makes me sound lazy.
I am unempoloyed. - Again, makes me sound lazy and makes it sound like I am actively searching for a job (which I am not).
I'm a stay-at-home mom. - This would lead to follow up questions about my children... which I technically do not have.(Let it be known, the cat in my lap disagrees)
I'm a housewife. - This makes me sound uneducated. I have an engineering degree!!
I'm taking a break right now. - Nobody knows how to respond to this one so they tend to just give me a weird, sad smile and wander away.

The problem is that I don't really HAVE an answer for what I'm doing right now, other than generally not holding down a full time job.

Recently, I have been struggling with severe anxiety and chronic depression. Brain chemical imbalance, activate!! So the thought of trying to find a job and consequently go to it everyday is terrifying and horrible. Besides, the last few jobs I had exasperated the situation severely which hasn't helped my wanting to go ahead and find a new one.

Which means that right now I am staying at home, keeping house, walking the dog exorbitant amounts, and making things. I'm currently working on several quilts, trying to illustrate a children's book, and doing some paintings I am selling to a friend.

So I suppose I could say "I'm an artist".