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

[The Farmers' Daughter]

I have a number of other hobbies, Aikido and music held my interest for many years. Then there is this.
I did a second degree in my thirties through The Open University and became very interested in affordable environmentally friendly housing, particularly for single people.
As society changes, in the UK at least, there are more people choosing to live outside the nuclear family model that has dominated housing design since the sixties. Also given the increase in the post retirement population, many of whome find the conventional two story, three bedroom house with a postage stamp garden unmanageable and unfordable, I became interested in alternative dwelling design and I produced a few designs more as a hobby than anything else which make better use of the available land and have less environmental impact.
A few of these designs were built in the UK with some modifications.
The price of land in the UK and the inflexibility of the building regulations meant I was unable to build one of these designs for myself.

Here in Catalonia building regulations are somewhat different and I was eventually able to build one of my designs which I now live in.
The basis of all the designs are the earth bermed construction (three walls and the roof covered in earth)
While such designs are slightly more common now, they still tend to be high tech and more expensive than conventional builds. The design I live in is low tech (gravity fed water, partial solar heat hot water system, wood burning stove and standard electricity supply. You have to pay to go off grid here!
Some local builders and I built the shell. If I had been a few years younger I might have done this myself. Once the shell was built I did all the woodwork (roof, handbuilt windows, door, and all the interior)
Anyway, I won’t bore you with further details. I thought some might like to see what I built. It would make a great chicken coop.

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Wow! Absolutely brilliant!
I was contemplating a rammed earth home for quite a while. Get a huge duck and fish pond and a house all in one bang!

 

[The Farmers' Daughter]

View attachment 1583457 View attachment 1583452 Aside from poultry something I have just recently gotten into is rug Hooking. It uses wool strips hooked through a burlap or linen backing. It is an old practice from when if you wanted a rug you had to make one. It has evolved into an art form. I am just a beginner having only one project completed. The pumpkin mat is the one I am working on now that shows the loops on the linen backing with the hook laying there. The Santa is my completed project, I hooked him flat then used a piece of wool as a backing and stuffed him. His beard is alpaca wool.

I enjoy it because it allows a creative outlet that doesn’t have to be perfect. I don’t have the talent for painting but I have lots of ideas for rugs.

Wow! Way better than the kits I did in the 70s! I may just have to do some research on this...

 

[The Farmers' Daughter]

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.
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This was my first time attempting macaroons. They turned out fairly well.
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These were for the local high school basketball team. They were made to look like their jerseys
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Vanilla tarts with chocolate covered strawberries
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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.
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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.

Those all look they came from a shop!

 

[The Farmers' Daughter]

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.
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Stunning!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

A daylight bulb is one that emits a color spectrum similar to actual daylight. Most of them are in the color temperature range of 4000k to 5000k and will give your images a more natural look.

This is another advantage of using an actual camera vs a phone camera. The Rebel should allow you to set the white balance. If you use the flash with the Rebel, it will automatically set the color temperature to match the flash also giving you a more natural color look to your images.

Of course if you shoot in Raw vs jpeg and use a good photo editing program, you can fix the color temp in editing.

Good luck.

ok thanks for all the explaining!

 

[The Farmers' Daughter]

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.

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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.
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That book is a fantastic and practical creation! You should sell those!

 

[The Farmers' Daughter]

Yeah, another one Michelle

Nice presents! Does a little light or candle go inside the cottage?

Yup. A lightbulb. The snowmen are actually candle holders (there's another one and a pair of santas). I just need to find tapers small enough to fit them. I feel a trip to Michael's coming in my near future! Yippee!

 

[N F C]

Yup. A lightbulb. The snowmen are actually candle holders (there's another one and a pair of santas). I just need to find tapers small enough to fit them. I feel a trip to Michael's coming in my near future! Yippee!

I like going to Michael's but usually end up so overwhelmed by all the possibilities that I walk out with nothing.

 

[The Farmers' Daughter]

I like going to Michael's but usually end up so overwhelmed by all the possibilities that I walk out with nothing.

Me too. Usually I just head straight to what I want and then back out again. I already have too many unfinished projects. I don't need more!

 

[alexa009]

One hobby that I devote a lot of my time to is photography.