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Want to talk about your hobbies and how it sucks all the reading time and money out of your life?

As a starter, outside of reading, I:

. play guitar
. play piano
. paint, draw, journal (without writing much)
. steward a Little Free Library
. Lego

All the allowance money I can save goes into the guitar and trying to keep the library fresh. Currently expecting delivery of a new effects pedal for my guitar.

I am currently sitting on pins and needles waiting for my Julia Analog Chorus/Vibrato pedal to show up.

Not enough time, not enough money...

- reading
- gaming
- bulletjournaling (and cardmaking but its been a while)

- gaming
- Journaling
- Researching whatever interests me at the time (currently organizing my "virtual travel" project)
- occasional little crafty projects & doing random shit in Photoshop
- listening to music
- binge-watching tv shows
- spending too much time on Reddit

- gaming: but I go through phases where I game a lot for a couple of weeks and then lose interest in it for months.
- crafting: haven't scrapbooked in a while, but I like making cards (mostly birthday and Christmas cards) and 3D paper projects with my plotter (mostly for making decorations for the shop window)
- watercolouring: I've treated myself to some proper artist's quality paints, brushes and paper and now I'm afraid to use them
- cycling: only when the weather is good
- watching tv series and films
- listening to podcasts: which can easily be combined with crafting, painting and cycling

I also listen to music and bingewatch netflix, and spend way too much time on twitch/youtube, but that stuff is pretty much free, so I didn't list it xD

What's a hobby!?!

In all seriousness though - I don't really have any beyond, reading, listening to music, and tv. If I were a talented lass (and my folks did end my lessons after two years), I would play the heck out of piano and drums.

I knit, quilt, crochet and watch Netflix (and now Acorn). I'm actually in the process of downsizing my hobbies so that I can read more. Scrapbooking is already gone. Knitting is limited to socks at the moment. I'll make more sweaters as I lose weight. Currently, I am finishing 3 afghans and then setting crochet aside (for awhile) because everybody has enough afghans. I CAN listen to audiobooks when doing needlecraft, but not TV watching.

Seriously, my primary hobby is reading.

Secondary is gaming but I'd rather read.

I am actually very active!

I belong to a running club that meets on Monday, Wednesday and Saturdays. I Play Volleyball for a League on Fridays. Tuesdays and Thursdays I go to the Gym for Strength training, and Sundays we take the family and dogs hiking or walking . I listen to a lot of Audio while doing these.

Music theory. I can't get enough music theory these days. All that stuff I should have done thirty-five years ago. It is all starting to make sense. Why did no one tell me this stuff? Why?

I was at the kitchen table writing out the circle of fifths and the order of sharps and flats and then the chords of the scales and then sitting at the piano with my guitar and playing a chord on one and then the other and it was all just so cool.

vi - ii - I - V
vi - IV - I - V

Just totally makes sense now. Try and play a D chord against Am and C and F and it is crap, but Dm works. Ridiculous. I am totally geeking out with this stuff.

I have no idea what you're talking about, but it sounds cool :D

Anyone (still) playing Pokemon Go!?

I've started playing Banished again yesterday. For some reason I like city/world building games when house sitting in summer. Usually I play Children of the Nile. Yesterday I was trying to decide whether to buy Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 on GOG.com when I saw Banished in my library.

I might play it for a couple of days or it might be weeks, we'll see. I'm enjoying the slow pace.

Oh hey! I started playing Banished again too, about a week and a half ago! Took a break from that at the end of last week to have my Birthday Gaming Weekend. My gaming partner bought Wolfenstein: Youngblood for both of us and we played co-op. We still have a couple of quests to wrap up but we're almost done with it. A lot of people are hating on it but we've had a lot of fun. :)

When I start up Steam I see Banished right there in the recently played games and I'm going to enjoy getting back to it again.

Aside from gaming, I binge-watched the first 8 seasons of The Walking Dead on Netflix, then started in on the first 4 seasons of Fear the Walking Dead on Hulu. Only have about half a season left on that.

Also been journaling daily. Haven't missed a day since June 16th.

Right when I get back into the game and Avast has a borked update. It has happened before, that Avast blocks Banished from being started. I probably could add an exception somewhere, but it's just easier to turn off Avast when I'm playing.

I loved Wolfenstein, but playing first person games makes me nauseous and gives me a terrible headache. I think it has something to do with my eyes, I have astigmatism; when I'm not wearing glasses or contact I don't have any problems, but it's just not practical to play games with your nose almost touching the screen. So city builders it is for me (and Zelda, I love Breath of the Wild).

Because I didn't have enough hobbies I've found a new one; diamond painting. Which is like painting by numbers, without the smelly oil paint. You have a canvas with an image on it, it's divided into tiny sections, each for one square or round faceted bit of plastic (the diamond), each section has a symbol which corresponds with a colour.

I'm now working on my first project, which is with round "drills", 30 by 40 centimeters, with over 15000 drills.

You feel like your doing something creative, but you don't have to think about it much, just which symbol corresponds with the colour you're currently working with.

Bianca wrote: "Because I didn't have enough hobbies I've found a new one; diamond painting. Which is like painting by numbers, without the smelly oil paint. You have a canvas with an image on it, it's divided int..."

I had actually looked at that and wondered if i should give it a go!

DoodlePanda wrote: "I had actually looked at that and wondered if i should give it a go! ."

It's fun. Each painting should come with the basic tools you need; a stylus for picking up the diamonds, a tray, some wax to use as sticky material on your pen and, if you have a kit with square diamonds, a pair of tweezers. Having a lighting/tracing pad is a bonus, it makes the symbols on the canvas easier to see, especially when it's darker. The only thing that I would advice you to get is small zip lock bags for sorting your diamonds. Usually they give you a couple with the kit, but usually not enough for all your colours.

I might have gotten a couple... found some cheap ones just to try :D
Also might have bought a couple of cross stitch kits, been wanting to get back into that for a while. Used to do it years back.

HomeInMyShoes wrote: "Anyone (still) playing Pokemon Go!?"

I'm just starting, mostly because my sister and her guy are doing it. Just got a smartphone (1st one) last Saturday. I keep forgetting to check for pokemon stuff, so will try again tomorrow.

Another hobby I have is as a volunteer for Find-a-Grave.com. Had to set that aside after I fell last year, but still hoping to photo a bunch of grave photo requests this weekend or next. This is an extension of my genealogy hobby.

DoodlePanda wrote: "I might have gotten a couple... found some cheap ones just to try :D
Also might have bought a couple of cross stitch kits, been wanting to get back into that for a while. Used to do it years back."

I'm still working on some Theresa Wentzler projects. I can still see well enough to cross-stitch, but I may have to do smaller projects some day. Ok. probably won't happen, but I will run out of wall space for completed projects.

I'm almost finished with my second diamond painting, of Nefertiti, just a week and a half at most. So today I kitted up my next DP project, spoons with spices, my biggest one yet (60x40cm). I'm itching to order more, especially some smaller ones for in between projects. But I'm trying to wait until November 11, when it's Single's Day on AliExpress, with great discounts (right now there are no discounts). I've already put aside money to splurge on a bunch of paintings and some other stuff.

As if I haven't got enough hobbies I have discovered cross stitching. At least it's something I can do whilst watching TV at night. I've almost finished my first kit, a succulent. And I've got two more kit from the same series waiting. After that I'm going to buy and download a project off Etsy and buy my own fabric and floss.

Cross stitch sounds relaxing! And there are some great patterns on Etsy.

I've dusted off the ukulele, and also bought another ukulele. LOL I've been playing every day since June 2nd, I think. I'm still journaling and such, though I've now moved into a B6 Tomoe River notebook for regular journaling, and a Franklin Covey Classic planner for other things. (I have three binders, I move between them when the mood strikes. My favorite is a dusty rose pink one. I'm not normally a pink person but I really like it.)

Still gaming, of course.

I watch a ton of TV these days, but I usually watch it on my right-hand monitor while I'm working, gaming, uke-ing or doing other things.

I should get back into my creative hobbies. The four to six weeks I haven't been doing much of that. Even if I know it helps me wind down, lower my stress and anxiety levels.

I have been playing Animal Crossing daily. My sister also has the game and we exchange diy recipes and items with each other.

I have been watching tv, but I'm feeling a bit adrift and can't seem to settle into one thing.

The cross stitch kits I got were very colour blocky, so relatively easy. I hope to finish the first one tomorrow. I plan to keep doing relatively small project, that I can easily do in bed. I tried diamond painting in bed, but for a diamond painting to be clear it has to be a bigger size for most images. While it is possible to do it in bed, it's a bit of a bother, especially when you want to get up to go to the toilet or get a snack. One thing that's also good about cross stitching is that I snack less, since I don't want to make my project dirty.

I also got the game Bananagrams recently (quicker version of Scrabble) and you can play that on your own. I try to play at least one game a night, I really enjoy it. It's something different than Scrabble or Rummykub on my tablet.

^I love Bananagrams. It is one of those games we take camping. Speaking of which we went camping last week and the town close to the provincial park has more than half a floor of an old building just of puzzles. Bought one for mom and one for me and the kids and one for me.

My hobby time is mainly guitar and then puzzles.

I love puzzles, but I don't have the space to keep one out. Diamond painting can also be big, but I can store them either in my portfolio or, if they're really big, hang them on a pants hanger in my closet. So when I'm not working on them they are out of the way and safe from curious and playful cats.

I finished my first cross stitch last night. Tomorrow I'll start the next one. I had hoped to start tonight, but the hair dye I used today took almost an hour to rinse out of my hair and my lower back and next are not happy. So I'm not going to bend over a piece of cloth tonight.

Yeah, it's been do we want to eat at the table or have a puzzle out around here so I bought a folding craft table for the basement to put along one wall this year. Moved a floor lamp over and it is a great spot.

I'm happy to say that I'm still playing my uke(s) daily (I own a couple more than I had last time I updated), though I did have to take a couple days off not long ago due to my thumb having some sort of injury. It's been like 4 or 5 weeks and it's still not right, but I have a brace for it and I can still play (and type) while wearing it. I've had to lay off the barre chords for a while though.

Started a spreadsheet for my own version of the Great American Songbook. Not all of my choices technically qualify (for ex, mine goes past 1960 and includes a few songs that aren't considered standards) but it's been a lot of fun tracking down the origins of some of my favorites. My original plan was one song per year from the 20s-60s but I have some "cluster years" where it's too hard to choose just one song so I may have to revise that somehow. Like, how do I choose between "Begin the Beguine" and "Cheek to Cheek" for 1935? I can't. LOL

I just started it the other day so there's still a lot of empty spaces to fill in. I don't plan to learn to play / sing ALL of them but I'll definitely be increasing my repertoire with some of them.

Also, I bought a Tascam DP-006, which is like the digital version of one of those little 4-track cassette recorders. Just got it in the past week so I haven't done much with it yet beyond testing it.

After two easy cross stitch kits, all colour blocks, I've started a pattern I bought from Etsy. It's a bee and my sister loved it, so she's getting it after I finish. I'm debating whether to save it and give it to her as an extra Christmas present or give it to her when I finish it. Although it isn't a colour block pattern it isn't confetti either (so far).

I like to stitch at night, whilst watching TV, the draw back is that I can't watch anything too complicated or something that isn't in Dutch or English and need to read the subtitles for.

I loaded the pattern in an app and that works a lot easier than working off a paper pattern.

It's been a busy couple of weeks, but I did manage to get a couple of diamond painting sessions in. Things should start to quiet down and hopefully I can work on my current painting more often.

Bianca wrote: "I like to stitch at night, whilst watching TV, the draw back is that I can't watch anything too complicated or something that isn't in Dutch or English and need to read the subtitles for."

I've been thinking of picking up embroidery for those times. And I figure if the embroidery doesn't work out, I can use the floss to make friendship bracelets like I did over 30 years ago. :D

I have the same issue with subtitles. I'd love to watch more stuff with subtitles but I have trouble just watching without doing something else and having to read the screen makes that hard.

Christa wrote: "Bianca wrote: "I've been thinking of picking up embroidery for those times. And I figure if the embroidery doesn't work out, I can use the floss to make friendship bracelets like I did over 30 years ago. :D

I have the same issue with subtitles. I'd love to watch more stuff with subtitles but I have trouble just watching without doing something else and having to read the screen makes that hard.
"

I'm enjoying cross stitch, not sure how I would do with regular embroidery.

I'm like you, I have to do something when watching TV. My Netflix list of subtitles things is long, because of that. I think that I could follow something German reasonably well, it's fairly close to Dutch and I had two years of German classes in school. Mind you, I did have four years of French, did exams in it even, but I bluffed my way through. I wouldn't be able to follow it without subtitles.

I think I am going to try something subtitled when cross stitching, I might just be able to follow it. But tonight I'm first going to catch up with the new season of The Great Brititsh Bake Off.

It's November. Planner season. I've decided to move back into a traveler's notebook setup for the upcoming year. Which I'm starting Dec 1st. Screw 2020, I'm getting out early. LOL I declare this year almost over.

So yeah, been setting up the planner and getting that ready. Piles of stickers and washi tape and stamps and ink pads, trying to sort it all out. I ordered a new TN cover from Etsy, it's all pretty and sparkly.

Haven't been gaming much at all.

Been relaxing with the livecams on Explore.org. The other day I saw an eagle catch a fish while I was watching some bears in a river.

In the past week I've picked up making jewelry again. For me that's beaded bracelets, earrings and necklaces. I started by making several chains for face masks. In the store I like to take off my mask in between customers or when speaking on the phone. I don't like to stuff the mask in a pocket and if I leave it on the table there's a scrabble when a customer enters the store. With a mask I can just let it dangle. Added bonus is that since the chains are long I can use up my seed beads.

I've also made several new bracelets. I now want to make ombre seed bead bracelets. So I'll need to make lists of which ones (colours, types of colours) I need for ordering.

I'll also need a new storage solution for my bracelets (and soon necklaces), I'm running out of storage space for them.

Bianca wrote: "I'll also need a new storage solution for my bracelets (and soon necklaces), I'm running out of storage space for them."

Craft storage has always been a problem for me. I try so hard to stay organized but I usually fail. I did buy a thing that's meant to be a cosmetic organizer and I'm using that for my journaling supplies. It has three drawers and a thing on the top that's for brush storage that works great for pens and markers So that's working out, at least.

I didn't stick with the traveler's notebook set up I mentioned in my last post. I switched to doing a sort of hybrid bullet / regular journaling thing in a single notebook.

Aside from that... I'm mostly watching tv and playing Minecraft.

At the moment the storage of jewelry making materials isn't a problem, although I will need to see if I can fit in another box with tic tac containers for my seed beads soon. It's the finished project, mainly my bracelets that have become a problem.

I've got a big stand and it's getting full. I found a storage solution, which has 80 pockets and has a clothing hanger type of hook. I want to hang it on the inside of my closet door. It will also fit my necklaces for now. When I run out of space I can get another one.

Little vent:
I've got some nice ideas for making long, dangly earrings. But I don't wear any other earrings than small rings at the moment. Anything bigger and they get in the way of putting on and taking off my facemask.

My house is ground zero of some sort of craft/hobby explosion.

Our home is like some sort of ground zero of a ceaft/hobby thermo nuclear meltdown.

HomeInMyShoes wrote: "Our home is like some sort of ground zero of a ceaft/hobby thermo nuclear meltdown."

Lol, that's recognizable. My drawing/watercoloring, jewelry making/beading, diamond painting and cross stitch supplies are fairly contained. My paper crafting stuff is everywhere.

I've had a kit subscription for years and ended up with a bunch of paper(stock), washi tapes, ephemera, etc that I don't like. I really should sort through my stash and give the stuff I don't like/want to my aunt. She can either keep it for when her grandkids come over, give it to my cousins for their kids or donate it to a school or something so kids can have fun with it.

It would also help if I cleaned out two of my closets. I would have a lot of space for storage then. I just can't put myself to doing it.

I discovered a new game: Dorfromantik. Which is both relaxing and addictive. I would call it the cousin of board game Carcassonne, but for only one player.

It's the reason I plan on taking my laptop with me on vacation next weekend, instead of my Nintendo Switch. The current weather prediction is still not very good, so I have something to spend some time on (besides reading, of course).

For those of us who like (cozy) games they might want to check out Tiny Glade. Where you can build your own house/castle/village. It's got a storybook/fantasy style. It's a sandbox game, so no budget to keep track of.

It's so relaxing. My sister is now considering buying a laptop that can run it, she's got an older Macbook Air. For me it's the ideal game to play during stormy days (like yesterday), with a hot mug of tea, or hot chocolate mild, and a nice snack.

I saw that it was just released - I've had it wishlisted since it was announced, I think. I was hesitating because I've been trying to play the many, many games I already own. But your review plus this screenshot on Steam may have sealed the deal for me:

You know how Steam has the "more like this" on the store page? I wish it had that in my games library too, but featuring just other games I own. I have so many games but I don't always know what I want to play, and sometimes I'm like "this is okay... I want something like this but not exactly this" and would like to instantly see what else I own that might fit the bill.

I wish it was also available on the Switch, then I would have taken that with me on vacation next week. Since that isn't the case I'll bring my cross stitch project with me to have something to do in the evenings. I can catch up on some podcasts that way.

I have too many games unplayed, too. I couple on my laptop and a bunch on my Switch.

Bianca wrote: "For those of us who like (cozy) games they might want to check out Tiny Glade. Where you can build your own house/castle/village. It's got a storybook/fantasy style. It's a sandbox game, so no budg..."

Nice. I was at the toy store yesterday with the kids, and did you know there was Animal Crossing Lego? I had to buy the cheap cell-o bag set so I had at least one character in my minifigure collection.