Chit Chat: Finding a New Hobby

A few weeks ago, I shared with you all that I wanted this to be the year I do more. I want to try more things this year and find new favorite things. I want to find more interests and develop at least one new hobby. When I'm not working or out with friends I find myself doing more of the same old things. What are your hobbies or favorite things to do? My current hobbies are reading, writing/blogging, baking, watching old movies, and hosting small get-togethers with my friends. So, when I'm not busy I am usually doing one of these things. This year though, I would like to try some new activities and new hobbies. Maybe by the end of the year I will have a new interest to add to my favorite things to do.

In January, Tracy and I decided to attend an art class at a school nearby. It seems this class is going to meet monthly and you pay each month if you want to attend. For $20 you can attend and they provide all of the materials needed to complete the project for the evening. Neither of us have had good experiences with art in the past. Tracy is still traumatized by the C she received in art class in elementary school. It's the only C she has ever received! As for me, I still remember my past art teacher making fun of my clay horse. We both wish we had more talent when it came to art.

Due to our past failures in art, I'm still not even sure why we decided to take this art class but we did and I am so glad. We have made two decent paintings each so far doing far better than I thought possible for us. It has been a lot of fun though. Meeting on a Friday evening for a couple of hours to paint is kind of like a stress reliever. It's relaxing to take a blank canvas and create something. I'm not all that worried about creating a perfect work of art but it's nice that I have surpassed my expectations. I honestly thought it would not go well at all. And who knows, with some more practice maybe we will even be good at it? Are you very talented when it comes to art?


via: 1

Bookworm: Reading List

It by Alexa Chung
Refinery29: Style Stalking by Piera Gelardi and Christene Barberich
The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday
I Was Here by Gayle Forman
Yes Please by Amy Poehler
It Starts With Food by Melissa Hartwig and Dallas Hartwig
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (current book club pick)
Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson
I'll Drink to That by Betty Halbreich and Rebecca Paley
Over the last four or five months I have greatly increased the amount of books I have been reading. Starting a book club with Jessica and several friends was a great idea. I have always loved reading but several years ago it greatly tampered off because I never made time for it. When the idea of starting a book club came to me I immediately thought that at least I would be reading one book a month but it has rubbed off and now I finish several books each month. For our February book club meeting our friend choose this book but I hope to also work my way through the other books above in the next couple months. What are you currently reading?

Chit Chat: Free Time

In most instances I think I am a very generous person but one thing I am truly selfish with is my free time. I have always been one of those people who has a lot on their plate and someone who is constantly juggling to keep up with everything going on in life. This has likely been what has lead me to feeling the constant urge to be productive. Free time is hard for me to come by and when I do have an opportunity for a little free time I have to make a conscious effort to not focus on marking tasks off my to-do list and to ignore the feeling that because I am taking the time to do something fun or to relax that I am getting behind.

It took me a long time to accept that I have to be selfish with my free time. Time is precious and very limited. Once I stepped back and realized that all of my time was getting eat up with by other people, work, commuting, errands, and obligations and I acknowledged that we have so little time that we actually get to spend doing exactly what we want I accepted that being selfish with my free time was not only totally acceptable it was the most beneficial thing for my well-being.

It is important that we spend those few hours that are truly our own doing what we want, not what we think we are supposed to be doing or what others think we are supposed to. Now I only ever give up free time very begrudgingly. Focusing on things I enjoy helps me feel like I am a much more balanced person. Sometimes I choose to spend my feel time by getting tickets to a play or the ballet, or by meeting friends for shopping and dinner, or sometimes (maybe more often than not) I choose to spend it alone at home watching a favorite movie, baking a new recipe, or reading a good book (I discussed alone time here). Free time should be a time to recharge and that is exactly how I intend to always choose to spend mine.

How do you spend your free time? Do you have any good tips on how to maximize the amount of free time you receive?

via: 1

Chit Chat

Reading is one of my favorite things to do. Even as a child I loved reading. Our parents always read to us as kids at bedtime. We would always snuggle together on mom and dad's bed and listen to the story. Afterwards we would go to our own beds to go to sleep. At school we had the AR Reading program where each book was worth so many points and after reading it you took a short quiz on the computer to obtain points. All through school I always had the highest amount of points each year. Yeah, I am a geek.
It is just so easy to get lost in a good book. I always have a stack of books by my bed that I want to read and even though I have that stack I will still buy new books! Tracy complains when I am reading because I won't talk to her or do anything else until I finish the book. I love books that I can just loose track of time with. That I can spend hours reading and then look up and wonder where all the time went. I love books that make me laugh out loud and books that leave me in anguish until I can find the time to keep reading to see what will happen next. You know the kind of books I am talking about, right? The kind that leave you wanting more once you have finished the very last page. What are your favorite books? Have you read any books that you think everyone should read? Give me recommendations please.
Here are a few of my thoughts on books:




via: 1, 2, 3, 4

Photography

One of my favorite things to do is to take photos. I love to take pictures of everything from family and friends to my pet cat to just random things that I find pretty or interesting.


By no means am I that skilled at photography, although I did take a photography class in high school. I learned how to develop my own film and everything, which I do not do now. It is so much easier to just hook my digital camera up to my printer and select the photos that I want to print than it is to develop my own film.


I really wish I were more creative when it came to taking pictures. Some people just see something and they are like WOW that will make a great picture and it turns out AMAZING. One thing that I want to do is to make sure I take my camera everywhere. Several times lately I have been out and thought man I would love to take a pic of that, but can't because I left my camera at home. At the moment my camera is a little temperamental, so I need to save up for a new one.


I love taking photos, because I love to use them when I scrapbook. The more photo options I have the better I feel about the quality of my scrapbooks.

Do you enjoy photography? of scrapbooking?

Star

Via: WeHeartIt

An Open Book

Reading a good book is one of my favorite things to do. I can sit for hours and just read and relax, especially if it's an interesting book I will just keep reading to find out what is going to happen next. Today, I had to take my Grandma to a doctor's appointment and we where there for four hours, seriously. I had a new book in my purse so I killed the time by reading it. It was almost a disappointment when she came out ready to go (even though it had been four hours), because I only had around 40 pages left! Now, I am still in suspense as to what the ending is! I will definitely have to finish it before bed tonight.
Since reading is a passion of mine I love to shop for new books to read. Sometimes I shop online for used books, but I would much rather go to a bookstore. Just like I can spend hours at a time reading, I can spend hours in a bookstore just browsing the books and taking my time to decide which books I would like to buy now and which ones I will hold off on. I almost always buy a mystery or too, they are my favorites. I like to try to figure out who committed the crime before the heroine/hero solves it to see if my suspicions were correct.

So why don't you crack open a good book and relax?
Star

Colors of Scrapbooking

One hobby that brings me happiness is scrapbooking and with spring just starting there will be a lot of pretty animals and flowers to take pictures of. I love taking pictures of friends, family, and pretty things and using them to make scrapbooks. Scrapbooking is an immensely enjoyable activity to do by myself or with my friends.
There are so many cute and colorful scrapbooking supplies out there that sometimes it is hard to decide which items I should buy now and which I should buy later. I like to start by buying my paper first that way I have my color scheme for any scrapbook or occasion already chosen. Normally I go with greens and blues, because green is my favorite color, or with bright, warm colors. Then I buy embellishments and decorations that will compliment the paper. I recently bought the following paper from Michaels.
I recently bought the paper shown above and some other paper in the same set from Michael’s for the new scrapbook I am going to start soon. One embellishment that I believe enhances the beauty of any page is Prima flowers. The bright colors of the flowers below add cheerfulness to any page.

Keep dreaming,
Star
via: Michaels