Hobbies?

[JustSkipIt]

I am curious what other hobbies people have besides TV, Movies, Buffy, fan fic, chatting, etc. – which is not to say that I’m not interested in those hobbies. What else do you do? I write (of course), workout and am trying to learn a lot more about doing that well, play with my son, and crochet.

I learned to crochet around Christmas 2005 and honestly, I really love it. I cross-stitched for years and my wife has crocheted since she was a child. She taught me so that I could help make presents (cool little hats with tails) for the other toddlers we knew. Since then, I’ve been making baby blankets and hats. I find it very relaxing and fun. Here are a few of the things I have made (I am doing these as links because they load slow as images)

A blanket for a friend's baby (born 01/15/2007)

A blanket for another friend's baby (born 10/2006)

A blanket for a baby due in April.

I haven't decided who this one is for because everyone I know is having a boy and I made this pink but I like it.

Hats I sent to Caps to the Capitol

I'll post more as I have them. How about you? Please share.

[Pinocchio1940]

I collect animated toys that were created in 1985 - or at least than began 1985. My collection started with a birthday gift of one of the characters and it grew.

These toys started with Teddy Ruxpin, a bear-like creature (Creature was phrased because in the stories he's called an Illiop - not a bear) that used specially coded cassettes that animated his eyes and mouth in sync as he told a story. Books were included with the cassettes to follow along as the story was told.

Later, WOW (Worlds of Wonder) released Grubby, Teddy's octopede friend to connect to Teddy to interact with Teddy and the reader. Grubby used a "animation cord" to use the same signals from the cassettes that Teddy used.

After the success of Teddy Ruxpin and Grubby, Worlds of Wonder released a animated version of Mother Goose. However, as discovered when I first bought her - She doesn't tell nursery rhymes, she tells fairy tales. It wasn't until a year later, when Hector was released in 1987 - that she tells nursery rhymes, assisting him.

That said, her retelling of the featured fairy tales, including Rumpelsiltskin, The Frog Prince and several others, is quite marvelous. While telling the tale, she interacts with the story's characters.

Worlds of Wonder created many different characters, and my hobby has expanded to include *all of them*. Unforunately, Worlds of Wonder had a sad ending. The company could not afford to make the toys, and eventually filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

[tazraven]

I'm sort of a mediaphile. I like to download music and movies. I've got a good bit of stuff on my computer. I also like video games. I love technology, so I use it as much as possible. I also love reading, mostly fiction books. My favorite authors are Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Paul Zindel, Douglas Adams, and some others I can't think of at the moment.

[Maca]

I do scapbooking, at the moment I have 5 on the go each of the children have one each then there's a family one and a school one. I also make and sell cards. I play the cornet and guitar and am learning to play the mandolin. I am also the Rainbows leader which involves doing lots of different crafts and games with the kids.

[Leaf]

This is a fun thread.
I bake. Pies are my favorite. Next comes bread. After that it's all good.
I also do a lot of yoga, and have just started learning to play guitar.

[Alcy]

Hmm, I often wonder if the question to ask is what don't I do, and if I don't do it then I would probably like to do it! Not having enough time is a big factor.

Firstly, I'm a sports nut, I'll join in anything that's going (except swimming, I hate it) but especially snowboarding, running, soccer, hiking and tennis.
I paint, watercolours are my favourite medium but recently my partner and I have taken to doing giant acrylics together - our favourite subects are Japanese inspired manga.
I read a lot, about two books a week, I go through phases in interest but sci-fi/fantasy and military history are constants.
Animals, mostly our dogs but Sarah (partner) is a tropical fish expert so I get roped into helping out with tank design etc when she's setting up a new tank.
PS2 - Im only allowed to play it on Saturdays (household rule!) but I still love it! Mostly shoot-em up and strategy games like Star Wars Battlefront and Age of Empires, Command and Conquer but Im not adverse to playing a little Tomb Raider.
And movies, movies and more movies. I love to watch them and know everything there is to know about them. I'm a keen surfer of movie websites and pride myself on being the first to tell my friends and workmates about upcoming movies and tidbits. I usually buy a DVD every week.

[Smilis]

I collect Donald Duck magazines or whatever it's called. I have all the magazine (in Swedish) from the first one released 1948 up until 1995 I believe. And, I'm still collecting. Ok, so they are not the originals, it's a collection of the magazines put in different year books but still...

When I was a kid I got my first Nancy Drew story so I have all those books as well and now I'm trying to find the first edition to all of them. I just have a couple left.

Otherwise my main hobbies are computers and games. I love a good night of gaming and just playing aroung with the computers I have. I usually end up being the one reparing or assembling computers to my friends and co workers. I guess this means I'm a really big geek!

/Smilis

[JustSkipIt]

Here's another blanket I made that I'm giving to a co-worker tomorrow. I don't know if you can tell that it's a pretty light green with a shiny thread running through it. I was unimpressed with it until the very end and now I really love it. I made a little cap too and matched the border on the blanket a little bit but I think the cap looks a little like the friend on Dobie Gillis's hat.

[Emms]

That's gorgeous, debra. You're very talented.

I learned to crochet from my grandmother when I was 9 years old, but have only ever been able to make doilies... I guess that's because it was what she loved to crochet.

xoxo
Emms

[Foomatic]

That's cool that you crochet, Debra, your blankets look great! I picked up knitting a few years ago. I've made a bunch of hats mostly, but I did knit a sweater with skulls on it for a friend of mine as a Christmas present. It took 2 months, and I was bummed because not once have I seen him wear it. :(

My two main hobbies would be video editing, mostly fan vids, because when I get work that actually pays I am bored to tears, and boxing. I started making fan vids shortly after discovering the kittenboard, and have a bunch of W/T vids I've posted. If you're so inclined, you can find streaming versions (similar to YouTube.com) here or at my website here. I only have a few streaming right now, the bulk of my vids are at the latter site.

[dlline]

I also do a little knitting, but my ADD gets in the way of finishing things. So my house is full of UFOs (unfinished objects). I like to sew also, but I have the same problem.

The thing I love the most, however, is cooking. I used to own a small cafe in the back of a health food store, so I learned to make a killer pot of soup and lots of different kinds of salads and sandwiches. The cooking I enjoy the most is the beautifully presented romantic dinner for two. A nice piece of sliced tenderloin over a bed of lightly dressed spring greens and a pretty little souffle dish of gorgonzola scalloped potatoes. Or some variation of that. I love to prepare holiday meals; the more the merrier. At Christmas, my mom will spend $65 on a chunk of prime rib for the gang, and lets me cook it. Toss in some roasted butternut squash and blanched green beans sauteed in onions and bacon, and dinner is served. It's really fun to work with high class ingredients. I tend to leave the baking to my partner, just because I love to watch her knead a loaf of bread. But I digress.

I tend to cook more mundane things for the kids (11,13,15). If I try to slip something different past them, they act like I'm trying to poison them.

[mangled_monkey]

I collect a few different things, as well as knitting and vidmaking.

So far I collect tv shows on dvd, dvds, Superman comics, and the one that I've never met anyone else who collects.... Bouncy Balls.

I have rather large collection of Bouncy Balls, that I've been collecting since I was around 7 or 8. I collect the cheap ones out of the quarter machines that used to be dime machines. I started collecting back when they were still dime machines. If anyone can remember that far...

[Belli Bear]

OMG! OMG! OMG! I COLLECT BOUNCY BALLS TOO!!!!!!! !!!! I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE! *stops yelling* sorry! !

when i walk past one of the machines i HAVE to buy one, and if i dont have enough money on me i HAVE to go back there within a week with the right amount just to get one iiiits an obsession i completely understand..

i dont know how many i have though because they're all strewn around my house like bouncy and overly dangerous floor decorations

-bell

[mangled_monkey]

Belli, are you serious?!??!????

That's just like me!!!

OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!!!!!

Yeah, I squealed for a good couple of minutes before I even hit reply.

I always DID sense something about you... maybe its coincidence, maybe fate... but we are destined to be the chosen two. The chosen two to give bouncy balls a proper home!!!
...on our floors.

Cause the floor IS where they feel most at home... I mean, then you kick them and they bounce! Doing what they were BORN to do!!!

[umgaynow]

I paint...I don't know if that's a hobby, the whole art as a need-to-do-it thing though...also make hand-painted canes/walking sticks...tie-dyes (those are real tie-dyes of mine in the avatar, gotta love photoshop programs)...I also love to cook and especially bake (which I did professionally for a while) but I guess since it is now an avocation as opposed to a vocation it counts as a hobby, yes?...huge reader, but wheat else can a single dyke do in the winter...um, does sarcasm count as a hobby?

[FoxInTheSnow]

i love to crochet too! i also love to cook, read, and take the telescope out. i'm just now getting into photography, but mostly only with the telescope.

[JustSkipIt]

Belli & Mangled... I saw one of those machines the other day and thought of y'all. I'm excited to hear about everyone's hobbies. I mailed out two blankets/hats today to friends/relatives who are having babies.

This blanket is for my cousin and his wife who are expecting their first baby (a girl) in the next week or so. I made a little hat to go with it.

This blanket & bonnet are for my oldest friend (of course an ex-girlfriend from 19 years ago) and her wife who are expecting a boy in April. It was the first time that I've made a bonnet and I enjojyed it. It wasn't as hard as I expected.

I'm actually finishing up the panels for my son's afghan but I still need to piece it together.

[tarawhipped]

I used to cross stitch all the time, and have decided to take it up again in an effort to curb my smoking. I hate using patterns, though, so I've taken a cue from Subversive Stitch and am designing my own using my handy-dandy books of borders and fonts. I'm making a little "Cubicle Sweet Cubicle" sign for my um, cubicle, as a passive aggressive protest against losing my office.

I'll have more fun making ones for my wife, since she can get away with having ones that say "Do It Yourself, Fuckers" and "I Don't Have Time For You Or Your Latest Problem."

-Cam

[urnofosiris]

My current hobby is researching my family tree, it is like trying to solve an endless jigsaw puzzle (another old hobby of mine).

[JustSkipIt]

Well,
After months of picking it up and putting it down and re-doing 4 of the 7 strips because I changed hook sizes in the middle and then running out of the rainbow yarn 1/2 round from finishing and taking 2.5 days to find another skein, it's done.

You can see the size: Queen Size bed.

Asher's Afghan

View #2

[dlline]

Nice work, Deb.

Well done.

[Willowtree252]

I collect rocks , stones, gems, crystals and things. I got a new one today from France I am so happy it was special I would love to get them from all over the world

[gorn]

It's been too long since I picked up my guitar ...

[summer fairy]

I go to kickboxing, I LOVE it, I vent any neggative feelings I have on the punchbags, all I have to do is imagine who I am punching, my Sensei says I am a natural. I go for my next belt in June, hopfully!

I read and collect loads of books, I enjoy my books a great deal and enjoy getting lost in the writers world, BIG Harry Potter fan!

I also collect cd's and music of almost any kind, I am usually always listening to some kind of music. I have loads of cd's!

I also collect dvd's, I use to collect tapes but not anymore. I am getting quite a collection now.

I enjoy walking and often go to nice spots to walk Sazki with my friends.

I use to be into cross country and have been meaning to start up with that again, I use to be really good at it, would not try now though, I have not train'd for cross-country's in a long time. maybe next January/Febuary, which is when the next cross counrty season starts again.

[JustSkipIt]

I just finished a blanket and two hats for a friend's new baby. The baby was born two weeks ago which was 4.5 weeks early. He's fine and was a good weight but now the blanket is late of course...

Big picture

More detailed picture

[Emms]

Wow, that is really beautiful, Debra!

Right now my hobbie is making bookmarks for the buisness my sister and I have started. They're hand painted.

[writerfreak]

Hobbies, wow, I have a lot. I play guitar, drums, and piano. Sometimes even in public with Broken Sympathy (my best friends little brothers band). I read, I write. I cook, which is relatively knew considering I've never been the best cook. I surf the net. And the best one, I do it all the time so I kinda consider it a hobby, texting Rachel. Oh, and I'm not sure if it qualifies but I look for a new cell phone like everyday. Not because I need one but because I get tired of the ones I have really fast.

writerfreak

[littlewicca]

I love painting, and drawing, is one of my favs things to do.

I also like to play guitar, but im not very good

I love reading, a lot of books. I love movies, and chating with my friends.

I like to write too, i like a lot and i have not to much time for all that stuff lol

I will try to scan something to show here

[VMarie]

Hobbies...

Collecting CDs and DVDs
Singing in my church's choir
Playing the flute (getting back into it after 15+ years)
Collecting action figures / toys (Simpsons, Family Guy, WWE, TNA, Buffy - on occasion, South Park)
Trying new coffees and teas
Trying foreign and microbrewed beers

[Artemis]

Ooh, hobbies - I hadn't noticed this thread before.

Nowadays I don't do much besides write (and not as much of that as I'd like - somehow the words don't seem to come as easily as they once did, but I manage). I collect action figures, but that's more just to be surrounded by pretty stuff while I'm writing.

A few years ago I was very much into Warhammer 40,000 - not so much playing, but painting armies and writing stories about them, which were my first serious fanfic. They're still online at my old site Artemis (which is where I got the name from, incidentally) - I cringe a bit to read them now, though I still think The Rose is kind of cool, albeit unfinished - only two of the three 'books' are done. I keep wanting to finish it, but there's so many fanfics I want to write - most of the time Willow and Tara win the mental debate over what gets written next.

I had two main armies, good and evil. The first were the Furies:


And the second were the Lost Souls:


And for a closer look, here is a single Fury space marine (that's about an inch tall), the last miniature I painted, a couple of years ago - I took the chance to tweak the colours a bit, adding the bone trim to the shoulder armour instead of black. If I'd continued painting I'd have eventually repainted all the others to match, but I was losing interest by then - partly lack of local opponents, partly I'd already painted all the troop types I was interested in painting and didn't feel like buying more just to have more (those things ain't cheap). The game was evolving too, becoming more slanted towards larger forces, and other types of army I wasn't interested in - combined with the cost, it was just easier to let it go than try to keep up.