Friday, January 1, 2016

New Year hobby plans

At this time of year, people often make resolutions. These are decisions they are supposed to commit to in the coming year. In my case, I make decisions about what to change in my life when necessary, regardless of the date. So I'm not making any resolutions, but this seems like a good time to think about my plans in various areas of life.

Recently I have felt the need to introduce more creative, non-verbal hobbies into my life. I spend my days with words. My work as a translator and editor involves using language, and my creative writing (including this blog) uses a similar type of mental energy. Reading has always been my favourite pastime.

But I have come to realize that sometimes I want to do something that addresses a more visual part of my brain. I wanted something to do with my hands in the evenings, while listening to podcasts or music, something other than playing with my phone, something that would result in a real decorative item that would show how I have been using my time.

In the past few months I have followed a popular trend (unusual for me, I know!) and I'm enjoying colouring books. I bought a few books and now have enough to last me several months or years. I also bought a good set of 72 coloured pencils, which provides more variety than the standard 24 pencil sets.


I am also planning to start working on various cross-stitch projects. I haven't done cross-stitch since my teenage years. I was very impressed by the cross-stitch designs I saw at a folklore museum in Crete a few years ago, and by the cross-stitch a few of my friends are doing. My grandmother gave me a cross-stitch kit over a year ago, and I haven't started it yet. I want to do some easier projects before I start that project, so I have bought the necessary supplies, and also found a book of cat-related designs that has been on my bookcase for years.


I also want to continue collecting sea glass, and I still have to decide what to do with the pieces I have found.





 I hope this year will be full of creative satisfaction!

1 comment:

Ariadne said...

So nice to see you doing crafts and getting satisfaction out of them. Two are now common to both of us cross stitch and sea glass. As for colouring I really love it too and help my pupils a lot when they have something to colour!Happy New Year!AriadnefromGreece!