Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Hobbies

I've never really been what I would consider a hobbyist.  Sure, when I was younger, I painted die-cast figures of D&D characters.  (I still have a couple around here somewhere.)  I also did the whole hook rug thing for a while and paint by numbers sets.  Those were hobbies.  I did them for a while because they were interesting, and once they weren't interesting anymore, I let them go.

I'd also consider my brief frenetic dance with genealogy this past spring as a hobby.  I got all the way back to the 1500s and it only took me a month of constant digging.  It was a wild ride, but it's pretty much done.

If you've been here a while, you probably already know about my crocheting.  I attack that in fits and spurts.  In the five or so years I've been at this, I've made 6 blankets, with the 7th about 80% done.  It's not hard and the monotony of back and forth, back and forth suits me.  (Umm, if you know anything about crocheting, I only know how to do single chain, so back and forth is about as exciting as it gets.)

I've also gotten more serious about my longtime love affair with photography.  I got my first camera when I was like 12 and over the years I've taken some awesome shots with whatever device I had available.  Last year, the Hubs got me an awesome Nikon for my birthday.  This Christmas, he got me memory chips so I can take pics to my heart's content, as well as frames so I can showcase my work.

Those are my hobbies.  The writing?  Well, I've heard people compare writing to a hobby.  Let me go on record as saying anything that takes this much time, effort, heart-wrenching and hair pulling without anything solid to show for it ain't no hobby.  Cuz if it was a hobby, I'd stop.

Thinking about it now, that's probably why I've never follow through with my former art classes.  If I'm going to do that, I'm going to do it all the way.  Just like writing.

What about you?  Do you have any hobbies you do now or that you did in the past?  Do we have any hobbies in common?

And just in case you were wondering how the photography is going, here's an artsy shot I took a couple days ago and then tweaked with Microsoft Office Picture Manager...


I call it Teens in Winter.  Something about using black and white in this case just turned me on.

3 comments:

  1. Like you, hobbies have come and gone. I keep going back to the writing (and because I'm not as focused on it anymore, it's moved back into the realm of hobbydom).

    Great pic - and fabulous gifts from your hubby.

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  2. Did rug hooking in high school.

    Crochet on & off (blankets are easy, but boring. I like doilies, but have no need for them).

    Have a photography DEGREE, but lost interest when it turned digital (even though I love the quickness of it - I miss the developing & printing).

    Was heavy into genealogy until I hit a dead end (and lost Family Tree Maker when our computer crashed - not happy).

    So yeah, hobbies can end. Most of the time I want the end product and don't necessarily care for the process.

    Writing is different. I love all aspects of it. It's a job, but one I enjoy. I doubt I'll ever stop. And since I started writing? My hobbies STOPPED. Guess they weren't really "hobbies" afterall.

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  3. I had hobbies, and then I had children. I made jewelry, but quickly discovered that small crawling humans will happily eat (and possibly choke on) shiny beads, so that got packed away. Someday I might bring it out again, but right now, all my free time is spent with writing. It's more rewarding to me than a new pair of chandelier earrings, lol.

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