Ended Official BYC Mini Contest - "WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY?"

[The Golden Egg5]

One of my favorite hobbies is baking. I love to make cupcakes in particular, but I also love making brownies, pastries, bread, cookies, and basically anything else. Every chance I get, I am in the kitchen trying new recipes or decorating something. I hope to one day possibly have my own bakery. As of right now, it’s just something I like to do in my free time, but hopefully someday it will become more.

Here are pictures of a few of my baked goods.

This was my first time attempting macaroons. They turned out fairly well.

These were for the local high school basketball team. They were made to look like their jerseys

Vanilla tarts with chocolate covered strawberries

What I lovingly call “crack cookies” I make them every year around Christmas, and they are always a hit. They are flaky, crispy cookies filled with dulce de leche, and coated in powdered sugar.

Twix cupcakes. They were vanilla cake with cream cheese frosting and crushed Twix on top. They were also filled with caramel and they had caramel and chocolate drizzled on top.

 

[The Golden Egg5]

Another one of my favorite hobbies is photography. I love to snap pictures of anything and everything. I use my iPhone, and my mom has Nikon D7100 that I borrow to go take pictures. I love taking pictures of animals, landscapes, flowers, and any other part of nature. I am not planning on photography becoming my profession in the future, but I love taking beautiful pictures to be able to look back at them and remember the moments and beauty.

 

[fur-mum]

Everyone on here is so talented!! I am blown away

 

[feathermaid]

I like drawing. I’m definitely an amateur, because I can only draw with reference, but my goal is that one day I’ll be able to think of something in my head and put it on the page

Your art is really cute! Drawing without a reference depends on what kind of art you want to produce. Even the most famous and talented artists use references. The key is actually drawing what you SEE, not what you KNOW. A good way to practice is to turn your reference picture up side down and draw it. The lines may not make sense, but it will make you pay attention to what you're actually looking at. Another way is to divide your reference pic into a grid, only draw what you see in one square at a time, then put them together for a really interesting mosaic effect. There are so many other ways, but I won't go into all that here... keep up your good work!

I really should be doing art more regularly, I sometimes go months without doing a thing nowadays. Not exactly good for getting better.

Well, it can be difficult to find the time to draw regularly. I don't think letting a few months go by is a big deal... I've even been known to not draw anything for years at a time! It happens. I don't think drawing all the time is necessary unless it's your job... to me, my best improvement comes when I focus on something new for a certain amount of time, then take a break (unless I'm really inspired and get obsessed). Maybe you haven't found your favorite medium yet. As much as I love drawing, I love crafty stuff just as much and find myself constantly pulled in different directions. Sometimes I only get to do housework.

OK, I know there's plenty of chicken enablers here... but I'd like to offer you some encouragement and try to enable your drawing hobby even further. How about next year (that will give us both time to prepare) we can try the Inktober or Huevember challenge together and invite any others who want to join?! I know I won't be able to do both... I never even finished the 2nd one. There aren't any prizes or winners, only a personal sense of satisfaction.

Looking at other people's work can be very inspirational, I discovered all kinds of artists with all different skill levels on instagram. Posting a few pictures led to some artist interactions, which led to the drawing challenge thing. I haven't been there in a while-- BYC takes up all my time now! You can check out what it's all about:
Inktober Official Site
Inktober art on instagram
Huevember art on instagram

Never in a million years did I think I would get comfortable using ink, but there's just something about trying to meet a challenge and drawing something every single day that makes it fun to step outside my comfort zone (but I don't think anyone could maintain that indefinitely). After all, you don't have to create masterpieces, no pressure with just sketches.
(gosh, sorry this post was so ridiculously long )

 

[feathermaid]

I hope you’ll all indulge me for sharing one of Katie’s masterpieces.
...
I knew instantly exactly what it was, and fridge my hiney....that painting is framed and hanging in my living room! She had no postcard or photo for reference. At 4 years old she painted this from memory.

I don't mind indulging at all!! Children have the greatest eyes of all, and getting a glimpse of the world through their perspective is such a wonderful treat. I would never tire of it! Beautiful little painting!

One of my favorite hobbies is baking. I love to make cupcakes in particular, but I also love making brownies, pastries, bread, cookies, and basically anything else. Every chance I get, I am in the kitchen trying new recipes or decorating something. I hope to one day possibly have my own bakery. As of right now, it’s just something I like to do in my free time, but hopefully someday it will become more.

Holy Deliciousness!! I want to come to your house! All of those goodies look amazing, like they came right from the bakery, almost too pretty to eat. And your photography is stunning!

 

[PouleChick]

Wow wow wow! It has just taken me 2 days to read through this thread!!! There is so much amazing talent out there!

Most of my life seems to be taken up with 'mum' stuff and renovating our old French barns (does that count as a hobby ). I really got into crochet which led to relearning knitting and then I bought a spinning wheel and learnt to spin! I haven't had the time / energy to do the spinning or knitting for years now (hope to one day - maybe when the house is done and the kids leave home ) but I'm still crocheting!

I worked on this blanket all through my 3rd pregnancy which was pretty high risk and we weren't sure if we would make it! I now have a lovely little boy so all was good but at the time it was almost like a hope blanket made with love and hope for my baby boy.

Current blanket I'm working on - 6 squares done 18 to go

I started to get addicted to making soap

Your soap is just amazing

Board gaming!

Wow - just blown away - I have never seen that many games in my life even in a shop

Photography
I'm not very good, but I have fun.

I beg to disagree - very good

I now make and sell LF, bantam and even turkey sized saddles

They are lovely!

She hid them instead until we could do this. We even made 2 pillows to go with it.

That is a great idea - always had it in my head to do it with the kids favorite tshirts.

I also make really good French macarons

I'm impressed the only time I tried was a total failure!!

I love taking photos!

They are super!

but my first passion in life was drawing

Wow!

I thought some might like to see what I built. It would make a great chicken coop.

Love it!

@Blooie your stories and pictures are inspirational

Look forward to seeing more!!

 

[feathermaid]

Another favorite hobby I wish I had more time for is sewing. I'm still learning is how use a sewing machine (have only the most basic model that exists). I do a lot of repairing and adjustments to clothing like adding pleats or tucks, shortening sleeves, and even some refashioning by cutting apart and combining 2 or more outdated tops to make one better one. I also love to make fun stuff out of felt or fleece... mostly hand stitching those. I think what started the whole thing was making a baby mobile, then it progressed to toys, blankets & potholders. I don't have pics of everything, but here's a few examples.




My greatest accomplishment took about a year to finish. It's a sensory quiet book, made to keep little ones "quietly" busy by building motor and thinking skills. Each page has a different activity: squeeze a bead through a snail maze, button flowers, laundry clothespins, magnetic sock matching, farm finger puppets, planting/harvesting a garden, a treasure map with lock and key, sand castle building, a mermaid with hair to braid and sea creatures to snap on and off... you get the idea. Most pages include a pocket of some sort to tuck away little pieces when not in use. It's not perfect it's something I hope to pass down to my grandkids.

 

[feathermaid]

@PouleChick I totally know what you mean about taking so long reading through this thread. It's not one to just skim over, I've been studying and admiring everyone's pictures and stories. It's really inspirational!

I worked on this blanket all through my 3rd pregnancy which was pretty high risk and we weren't sure if we would make it! I now have a lovely little boy so all was good but at the time it was almost like a hope blanket made with love and hope for my baby boy.

This is one of the prettiest blanket's I've ever seen! And such a lovely story to go with it. Makes my heart happy

 

[PouleChick]

My other entry is sewing - I got back into it (used to sew as a teenager) around the same time I started to crochet. Done lots of project bags, purses, clothes for the little ones etc. Here are a few of them:

 

[PouleChick]

@PouleChick I totally know what you mean about taking so long reading through this thread. It's not one to just skim over, I've been studying and admiring everyone's pictures and stories. It's really inspirational!

This is one of the prettiest blanket's I've ever seen! And such a lovely story to go with it. Makes my heart happy

Awwww thank you - we call it his 'Mummy love blanket' - he loves it! Totally doing the same with this thread!

My greatest accomplishment took about a year to finish. It's a sensory quiet book

Love this you've done an amazing job - it was on my list to do one of these for Remy but he is nearly 4 now so a bit late! Maybe I'll have more time / energy when I start having grandkids