Some Thoughts on Hobbies
On Saturday, Steven and I went to a ward activity, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner". We had signed up for it a couple weeks in advance, so about 45 minutes before the activity was to begin we received a phone call to tell us at who's house we would be going to dinner. We brought our side dish (Steven made rolls) and showed up, to the surprise of our hosts, who provided the main dish, but knew only how many people to expect at their home, not who would be showing up. After dinner, all the participants gathered at the bishop's home for dessert.
At the bishop's home, I admired several beautiful cross stitched pictures on the wall, which the bishop's wife had made for each of her six children. When asked if I did cross stitch, I replied that I had when I was a teenager, but hadn't done much lately. It has probably been ten years since I have done any, and I've passed my collection of embroidery threads to Hannah. Besides that, the projects that I did do are sitting in boxes, wrinkled and stained, not framed and exhibited with pride in my home.
Why don't I cross stitch anymore? Is it because I can't afford all the materials - the patterns, the fabric, the thread? Is it because I couldn't afford/didn't care enough to frame the projects I already had? Is it because I didn't really like the projects I had done enough to display them?
When I was in college, I enjoyed a painting class, and in the first couple years of my marriage I created more paintings, but I don't think I've opened a tube of oil paint since I moved to Colorado. At first, I said I didn't paint because it was too hard with little kids around, but my little kids have grown and are all in school now, and I have over six hours a day that I could spend painting, and I haven't pulled out paints once. None of my paintings are on display anyway, even the ones that I liked.
I think my quilting projects were mostly put aside because I can't afford to have my last quilt professionally quilted and I haven't gotten brave enough to quilt it myself. And with recent financial difficulties, I didn't want to spend the money on fabric to start anything new. I love my quilts, and the children use them on their beds.
What do I do these days? Lately I've been doing a lot of knitting. I have spent money on a skein of yarn from time to time so I could crochet or knit something. I wear a knitted hat when I take the kids to school on cold mornings. John wears mittens and a scarf I knitted for him. I use several of the things that I've knitted, and so I feel justified in buying supplies to make more.
I draw pictures in Photoshop. Since the program is paid for, it costs me almost nothing. Unlike real paints, it makes no mess. Pictures I like are displayed on my desktop as well as on my blog.
Occasionally I'll sketch something with a pencil. It doesn't cost me anything. I rarely keep my drawings, and they are never good enough to frame, but I enjoy doing them. Sometimes they are ideas for things I'd like to draw in Photoshop. Sometimes they are just doodles, for the sake of doodling. Maybe I'm just reminding myself that there is artistic talent in my hands somewhere so when I'm ready to paint with real paint again, my hands will remember how to do it.
At the bishop's home, I admired several beautiful cross stitched pictures on the wall, which the bishop's wife had made for each of her six children. When asked if I did cross stitch, I replied that I had when I was a teenager, but hadn't done much lately. It has probably been ten years since I have done any, and I've passed my collection of embroidery threads to Hannah. Besides that, the projects that I did do are sitting in boxes, wrinkled and stained, not framed and exhibited with pride in my home.
Why don't I cross stitch anymore? Is it because I can't afford all the materials - the patterns, the fabric, the thread? Is it because I couldn't afford/didn't care enough to frame the projects I already had? Is it because I didn't really like the projects I had done enough to display them?
When I was in college, I enjoyed a painting class, and in the first couple years of my marriage I created more paintings, but I don't think I've opened a tube of oil paint since I moved to Colorado. At first, I said I didn't paint because it was too hard with little kids around, but my little kids have grown and are all in school now, and I have over six hours a day that I could spend painting, and I haven't pulled out paints once. None of my paintings are on display anyway, even the ones that I liked.
I think my quilting projects were mostly put aside because I can't afford to have my last quilt professionally quilted and I haven't gotten brave enough to quilt it myself. And with recent financial difficulties, I didn't want to spend the money on fabric to start anything new. I love my quilts, and the children use them on their beds.
What do I do these days? Lately I've been doing a lot of knitting. I have spent money on a skein of yarn from time to time so I could crochet or knit something. I wear a knitted hat when I take the kids to school on cold mornings. John wears mittens and a scarf I knitted for him. I use several of the things that I've knitted, and so I feel justified in buying supplies to make more.
I draw pictures in Photoshop. Since the program is paid for, it costs me almost nothing. Unlike real paints, it makes no mess. Pictures I like are displayed on my desktop as well as on my blog. Occasionally I'll sketch something with a pencil. It doesn't cost me anything. I rarely keep my drawings, and they are never good enough to frame, but I enjoy doing them. Sometimes they are ideas for things I'd like to draw in Photoshop. Sometimes they are just doodles, for the sake of doodling. Maybe I'm just reminding myself that there is artistic talent in my hands somewhere so when I'm ready to paint with real paint again, my hands will remember how to do it.
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