Happy Monday! And happy start to the second half of 2019! Can you believe it? Time for my monthly hobby update!
I’m not gonna lie, this month has been hard. For emotional reasons with the anxiety around my dad’s surgery mid-month and his ongoing hospital recovery everyday since. Didn’t have a lot of leftover time for hobbies after working all day during the week and hospital visits at night. Free time went to day to day personal and home upkeep and sleep #exhausted. So this will probably be a quick post…maybe, lol…
Reading…I read. So that’s a win, right? I finished Planting Dandelions by Kyran Pittman early in June, but didn’t jump into Michelle Obama’s book until maybe a week or two ago. I didn’t finish it…yet. I did finished part one though!
One of the items on my 40 x 40 bucket list (if you missed it, you can read it HERE) to read 12 books a year (with the intention of reading one per month) but since that was a self-imposed, arbitrary specification I will invoke the right to modify it! If I read 12 books per year, I consider it a success! If I finish Becoming early enough in July I’ll move on to the next book, which I think might be Liz Gilbert’s new one, City of Girls. We’ll see! Not gonna beat myself up about it, do that with too many other things already!
Photography… only my random iPhone pix that happen to be quite beautiful from time to time, without even trying. Usually of my plants (the ones that aren’t dying (see gardening update below), namely my pepper plants!)
Cooking… no go on the cooking front, and I’m okay with that. Have been eating dinners with my mom every night before heading to the hospital. And I would hardly call lunch prep cooking. But no worries from this chef, ha!
Gardening… basically this crazy summer weather (massive drenching thunderstorms for a week straight, then essentially a heatwave–though maybe not technically, not sure–the next) has basically destroyed my garden, almost entirely. There are a few plants that have survived the apocolypse. I did weed as needed, and worked a little more on some finishing touches to get it camera ready (for the long promised and long put off post about my outdoor space updates), but dead flowers aren’t very photogenic so will have to possibly put my gloves back on and replace some of the sad stuff.
Jewelry Making… well, on June 1 I went to the craft store and was completely overwhelmed at all of the options. And the price tags. So I just went home, nothing in hand. I took the next week to get inspiration for what I wanted to create (read: scrolled Pinterest and made a secret board). And then I bought the supplies I needed. And they are just sitting in a bag on the table ever since. So yea. Didn’t really happen this month. But I do want to reattempt, maybe this month, maybe not. We’ll see. No pressure, this is supposed to be fun!
This month I wanted to rekindle my relationship with painting! It’s been a long time since I set up a canvas and picked up a paintbrush. I used to do watercolor and oil paints, so I want to try both again this month. And actually, I also want to try the paint pouring technique as well. I’ve been semi-obsessively watching YouTube videos while I eat breakfast or on the weekends when I have my first cup of coffee. It’s quite amazing and mesmerizing if you’ve never seen it in action. It does look QUITE messy though, so I already don’t want to put the effort in for the sheer fact of the cleanup that will ultimately be required lol… but we’ll see what the month brings and if I get my energy back up as I hope I will! Will report back next month!
Have you tried any new hobbies of late?
Many thanks and much love,
laf
Photo by Emily Hopper from Pexels