I love art. I have always loved art and started taking classes when I was 10 years old. The classes were a Christmas gift from my parents - I was given classes, some canvases, brushes, and acrylics and off I went. What an amazing gift - it sent me on a path that would influence the rest of my life. Incredible. I don't know if my parents like, knew that it would impact my life so greatly, or if it was a shot in the dark and I was in that weird in-between stage where I was outgrowing toys, but still wasn't a teenager.
But art isn't all that I love. It really is funny how many things that I WANT to do. I always joke that I want to do ALL.THE.THINGS.
Not like, cleaning, or cooking, or a job that pays money. So maybe I want to do ALL.THE.HOBBIES. I have a hobby problem.
Fiber Things
I knit. I love knitting - it is so relaxing and therapeutic to just create. For the most part, I only knit for me, so I'm not trying to impress anyone or sell anything. And I make hats. So many hats. You would think I lived someplace that snowed. Or even became reasonably cold. But nope. Look at that pumpkin hat on that cute kid! Fantastic.
I travel with a buddy for knitting, and we hang out and drink and knit and buy and squoosh the yarn.
I embroider. That one is new. I did cross stitch when I was younger, but now I'm doing hand embroidery. I think that is because as travel friendly as knitting is (no batteries! no charging!) it could still be bulky. Embroidery less so. But more fiddly.
Crocheting was in there for a while before I moved to knitting. But I found that having both my hands moving was more engaging. Go figure.
Fabric Things
I love to sew, but I'm pretty bad at it, so I enjoy the first few hours, and then there's a lot of swearing. The machine is put away until Halloween or a school event. I loved sewing for my littles - it went fast and I was usually able to finish before I got really angry.
I made my colonial day dress for a school event, as well as my hat. The only functioning adult garment I've made. It ain't pretty, but it's functional.
There was a chunk of time when I made felt flowers and ribbon clips. The felt and ribbon remain, the tiny baby girl that wore them has definitely not. (We're now in a Hot Topic vibe). Some of it made it onto the hat - I always wanted to learn millinery. Is that weird? Just more things to learn how to do.
Paper Things
I started scrapbooking when my nephew was born. I made tons of spreads of my niece and nephew. Not so much for my own kids. Scrapbooking led to teaching there for a bit, as I taught scrapbooking classes. Then that moved into planners with so so many stickers. Which led to bullet journal planning, which is currently a little more tenable.
I spent some time decorating my kids' lunch bags. That was weird. I knew they would be thrown away, yet, drew on them anyways.
Honestly though . . . I like to do a LOT of stuff. I spent some time painting murals in kids rooms and pediatricians offices. And I did theater makeup in college, which was really fun. I wanted to do costume design and millinery, but there was never enough time. It does feel like there's never enough time. All of those "have to's" get in the way of the "want to's".
Is anyone else like me? All I want to do is retire so I can do all of the "want to's" - I am at SABLE for yarn (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy) so I will never have to ever purchase yarn. EVER. It is currently my retirement plan.
I'd love to hear what everyone else does. Not that I'm in the market for hobbies or anything, but . . . I kind of always in the market for hobbies. So shoot me a message, let me know what my next thing should be.
But not gardening. I have a black thumb and I'm too pale to be outside before sunset.