Alternative Hobbies

[direstraits]

I was just thinking - how many of you actually take up some new form of hobby just to break the monotony of your daily grind once in a while? Do you ever think at some point in your lives that life's too routine, and finding a new hobby in a field that isn't normally in your area of interest may be just the thing you need?

My latest fad hobby is... baking. I just bought myself a couple of baking recipe books and a mixer (with the revolving stand). The thought of making my own gourmet cheese cake is all of a sudden very interesting to me.

Soon I'll want to trade baking recipes here!

What about you guys?

ds

 

[blue cat]

Wow. I am impressed with ANYone who cooks, bakes or generally knows how to function in a kitchen I'm lucky I married a man who cooks

My passion -besides reading - is running. LOVE it. Great stress reliever.
I recently started to do rubber stamping - making cards, etc. So far I really like it. It's creative and I love sending my friends the cards I made.

 

[abecedarian]

I've starting playing around with gluebooks and other strange journaling methods. And, in a real stretch for me, I've started drawing a bit. Nothing major, just sketching stuff in a composition book. Once in awhile I go on a bread baking binge, which makes my family very glad

 

[direstraits]

I've done this once before, and that was when I bought a guitar on a whim and learnt to play with it myself. As with all fads it's a little cooled off for a while, but I'm back trying to get into the groove again. It's tough - I've found out something about myself in the process: I cannot sing and play the guitar at the same time. Apparently my brain, unlike most women's [evades a thrown hairdresser], is not multitasking-capable.

But baking seems a little easier, and a lot more delicious. Not to mention a very effective ice-breaker in the office. And I've got to make more use of that oven beneath my kitchen hob.

Whoa... bluecat, we're both lucky to have spouses who cook.

ds

 

[ruby]

my passion apart from books is swimming i go at least twice a week,it keeps me fit and is a really good way to excercise

 

[direstraits]

No, no, ruby, not passion. Something out of your passion zone. Something you'd not normally do. Have you ever done something (as a New Year's resolution maybe) to just pick up something so new and different just as an escape from it all...

You know. Like crocodile hunting or learning Mandarin (at which point you can teach me).

ds

 

[direstraits]

Darn those baking equipment and utensils are expensive! Those cakes had better be good!

ds

 

[ruby]

No, no, ruby, not passion. Something out of your passion zone. Something you'd not normally do. Have you ever done something (as a New Year's resolution maybe) to just pick up something so new and different just as an escape from it all...

You know. Like crocodile hunting or learning Mandarin (at which point you can teach me).

ds

Oh DS sorry i never read your thread correctly
My brain aint working that good today

 

[abecedarian]

Darn those baking equipment and utensils are expensive! Those cakes had better be good!

ds

Ha! Imagine all those foremothers churning out meal after meal over open pit hearths! Woodstoves were a monumental evolutionary leap. Whenever a loaf of my bread comes out more suitable for life as a doorstop, I marvel at the skill of those countless women who did so much with so little.

 

[steffee]

Yes, I am always finding new hobbies and getting bored of them after a few days/weeks/months. I hate that about myself too, how I can never stick to anything.

But I have tried tons of things that were not 'me', things I'd never even considered before, like paintballing (ouch, never again) and different sports. I used to play hockey with a club, and I have tons of trampolining certificates, but I always go back to running, which is brilliant. And for four years I did kickboxing until I had a family, and am thinking of going back to it, or trying out a new martial art... jujitsu sounds about the best.

I go through fads of drawing and scrapbooking and stuff, and am always buying new materials that I get bored of, but it's fun to do once in a while.

There's so many clubs and societies at uni, too, you can basically try anything that catches your eye, it's amazing!

 

[abecedarian]

I almost forgot a biggie! Since high school, I've been a semi-avid bird watcher. Just yesterday, dh and I were priviledged to watch a woodpecker defy gravity, as he beat his face vigorously against a dead tree. It sounded like someone pounding nails.

 

[Poppy1]

I took up spinning (wool that is ) several years ago and got really hooked. Started from scratch, washed, combed and dyed the wool. Even tried natural dying with various leaves, berries etc. Then I knitted it up into peculiar garments and foisted them onto unsuspecting friends and relatives. My brother was off to China and Tibet at one stage, so I knitted him a hat adorned with llamas (I may have mentioned I'm a bit geographically challenged) It wasn't till much later that he gently told me that llamas came from Sth America NOT the Himalayas.
My latest passion, which is probably a little peculiar for a late/middled aged woman, is Rap and hip-hop music. I blame it on my sons who always insist on listening to their radio station when driving in the car with me. Well, much to their embarrassment it has rubbed off on me and now I bop along to my favorite rap artists (whilst ignoring their hisses of sit still Mum, everyone is looking at you).

 

[direstraits]

Hey, I thought llamas were found in Tibet too.

Spinning wool sounds cool. Did you have to harvest them off sheep too? Now that would really be out there. (out there, geddit?)

[My puns are still bad, but getting there.]

ds

 

[abecedarian]

Hey, I thought llamas were found in Tibet too.

Spinning wool sounds cool. Did you have to harvest them off sheep too? Now that would really be out there. (out there, geddit?)

[My puns are still bad, but getting there.]

ds

There are people around here raising llamas, and some who use them as guard animals for the sheep flocks.

 

[Poppy1]

Hey, I thought llamas were found in Tibet too.

Spinning wool sounds cool. Did you have to harvest them off sheep too? Now that would really be out there. (out there, geddit?)

[My puns are still bad, but getting there.]

ds

I like puns too AND Dire Straits - did you name yourself after the band?
Actually we did harvest the wool - we call it shearing, I had a small flock of coloured sheep.
We have llamas in NZ too abc(is it OK to call you that? I keep spelling your name wrong. In fact I think of you as abracadabra, which is probably quite appropriate considering how fast you think up song titles And what mother wouldn't like to be able to say abracadabra now and then) I think they are raised here mainly for their wool. Did not realise they would guard the sheep - that's very interesting.
I'm interested in birds too. Because we live in the country, we have a wide variety. I like trying to identify them by their song.

 

[abecedarian]

I like puns too AND Dire Straits - did you name yourself after the band?
Actually we did harvest the wool - we call it shearing, I had a small flock of coloured sheep.
We have llamas in NZ too abc(is it OK to call you that? I keep spelling your name wrong. In fact I think of you as abracadabra, which is probably quite appropriate considering how fast you think up song titles And what mother wouldn't like to be able to say abracadabra now and then) I think they are raised here mainly for their wool. Did not realise they would guard the sheep - that's very interesting.
I'm interested in birds too. Because we live in the country, we have a wide variety. I like trying to identify them by their song.

ABC works..I've been called much worse I have two magical phrases I use a lot around here-"poof!" and "hocus pocus, chickenbones choke us." The first is in response to the request of 'starving' kids who say, "make me a sanwich(or toast)" and the latter is a quote from a clown we met and interviewed 13 years ago..I just always liked it better than abracadabra.
What the sheep owners do, is keep one llama that lives with their flock. Two or more llamas would only care about eachother, but the single thinks of the sheep flock as 'family'.

 

[SFG75]

Crossword puzzles are my alternative hobby. The popular culture ones get me all the time.

 

[Miss Shelf]

A couple of months ago I decided to learn macrame. I discovered my hand-eye coordination isn't what it used to be, which wasn't anything to brag about, plus I had no earthly idea what to do with it if I ever mastered it-wall hangings and plant hangers aren't my kind of decor.

 

[blue cat]

Crossword puzzles are my alternative hobby. The popular culture ones get me all the time.

Those can get so addictive. Some friends at work get together and work on one during our lunch break. It's so tempting to Google for the answers

 

[steffee]

Crossword puzzles are my alternative hobby. The popular culture ones get me all the time.

I can't do crossword puzzles at all. Even really simple clues throw me, unless it is something specific like "The author of Lolita (8, 7)" then I have a teeny chance, other than that I'm stuffed.