Genealogy: I got into Genealogy several years ago, first with a skinny fill-in-the-blank book my mom got me and then later on with a much nicer thicker green book. I intend to someday get my own copy of that wonderful hardcover book and fill it with details about my husband and children. Anyway, I had so much fun filling in what I already knew about my family line {Dad's side being more interesting to me than mom's; I mean, I have two full blood Native American relatives on that side!}. Then my enjoyment increased when, at Thanksgiving each year, I'd bring my little book and go over it with my Aunt. She helped fill in more information {now, all those family stories I get hints of will have to be captured and penned down}. My grandpa got a little involved, one of my uncles told us about someone he met who has the exact same name he does so he is probably a distant relative. And my other uncle brought a treasure-trove of old pictures of my Dad and his siblings as children, a few of my grandmother's journals, birth announcements and other assorted items of interest. After the big meal, while my cousins and siblings played games, my Aunt, uncles, parents, sister and I gathered around and went through the treasure. My Dad had a blast going through it and brought home a lot of pictures. Now that I'm married, I want to investigate my husband's very interesting bloodline. It's a mystery begging to be solved!
Books: Whether it's reading them, writing them, researching them or collecting them, books are a very important part of my life. They've been intertwined with my story since I was ten; a more intimate relationship was introduced when I started to write my own books at the age of thirteen. I naturally picked up the collecting part early on; my parents collect books but they collect the boring nonfiction ones. I started collecting novels; first the classics like Austen, Alcott and Doyle, then onto newer favorites. I have The Blinding of the Blade series, the Fairy Tales Retold series by Regina Domain, and for awhile I had almost the whole Left Behind series but I left it behind when I got married because the two books ticked me off. The next series I intend to collect are Ranger's Apprentice and my own copy of The Chronicles of Narnia. Also, maybe all of Tolkien's Middle Earth works. Hmm, I might need a bigger bookshelf. Anyway, I love books! I just can't collect any right now due to, well, not having any money to spend. At least I can get some free via review programs and from the library so I can still read as many as I want! I currently have four or five Agatha Christie novels checked out from the library. They kinda all came in at once. *cough cough* As far as writing them goes, I've written four or five with two or three in the works. Several are supposed to be getting edited and self-published right now, but my muse left me. Again. But I do have a new project in mind; I just have to reinstall MicroSoft Office on my laptop. How hard can that be? Right? Maybe?Word Games: Mainly Scrabble. Yes, I know; technically not a hobby. But it's something I enjoy and am pretty good at. Plus, we don't have any puzzles right now.
Journaling: I do this all the time. As if writing books and long letters weren't enough. *winks and rolls eyes* I've kept a journal since I was about, maybe, twelve. Something like that. Anyway, I write in it everyday {mostly} and have, at this point in time, sixteen journals, all but one completely filled with my daily jabberings. I write about all kinds of stuff. I've also, in the past, tried to keep a journal of what I eat everyday {I can only manage that for a month before I get bored}, nature journals {which I might get back into}, idea/dream journals that usually end up incorporated into my daily journal, a prayer journal that gets written in during stressful or bored parts of my life, and a poetry journal thing. Most of my poems are now written in that big notebook that was originally for school and/or on scraps of paper I usually end up losing somewhere. I tried to keep a planner thing but that failed miserably.
Botany: Kinda an odd hobby, but it works for what I want to do. I love nature; I love taking walks, hikes and stomping around in the woods. I also love studying nature. I taught a botany course to my siblings one winter and I had so much fun doing that! Now, I want to study trees, learn more about them, and incorporate other things like frogs, lizards, certain bugs {Note: all spiders must be smashed, squished and killed on sight!}, and animals. My husband is a bird watcher {you should try riding in the car with him while he's driving and bird watching - so scary}, and I've been intrigued by certain birds for years, so I'd like to take up bird watching with him while we're out stomping around in the woods trying not to get lost. Plus, that way, we can argue - I mean, talk about birds better. *smiles sweetly* So, I might be tempted to create a nature journal to write in periodically for all this. Funny how everything boils down to words, paper, ink pens and writing with me, doesn't it?
Flowers: And gardening. I love flowers! Looking at them, picking them, planting them, picking them, staring at them at the stores, picking them, begging my husband to get me some, picking them, drying them, picking them, creating stuff with them, picking them, drawing them, picking them, and arranging them. Also studying and picking them. Flowers are some of my favorite things. My sister and I have been intrigued by the old Language of Flowers - though she has bypassed me in that interest by compiling a book which I intend to purchase from her so I won't have to keep Googling everything. Also, it's so much fun to pick out lots of flower seeds, plant and take care of them, and then see which ones actually take root and grow into beautiful gems for me to pick. Some flowers last much better as cut-flowers than others; some dry better then others. It's so much fun to experiment with them. Everytime my husband buys me flowers, I end up drying them. Our house will someday be full of children, dogs, books and dried flowers everywhere. I'll probably incorporate my love of flowers into the above-mentioned nature journal. Just to keep things simple and in one place.
Letters: I love writing letters - really long letters. That's how I met most of my friends, via pen-paling. We still keep in touch that way, along with email, Facebook and infrequent phone calls. I also enjoy sending letters to relatives. And then there's greeting cards. I seem to collect them {I need to keep my absolute favorites, and I do by giving them to my husband, cause he wouldn't dare throw them away, even if they do ramble on about how dreamy his eyes are}. Cards, pretty paper, envelopes and journals are my weaknesses; my shopping wishlist is full of them! I used to make cards for my family for their birthdays, Christmas, Easter, etc. But after one Christmas season when we decided to make all the cards instead of buying them, I got so burned out on the whole handmade card thing that, well, I'm more comfortable buying really pretty cards from the thrift store. Btw, my favorite card company is Papyrus; I buy their cards for my husband whenever there's a special occasion that needs a gorgeous card. He loved his Valentine's Day card.
Miscellaneous: Other hobbies that caught my eye included decoupage {though I'm kinda stumped about how I'd go about that one right now for multiple reasons}, music collecting, movie collecting {I used to be up on all the new releases, who's in what, etc.}, ice skating, studying the Victorian Era {my idea, since it fits so comfortably with my study of Egypt that got postponed}, getting my husband to teach me fencing {scary thought}, building my Electra costume, Renaissance reenactments {my husband would have too much fun with that}, clay jewelry making, dog breeding {except you have to have dogs to do that and I'm still stuck on that one}, collecting candles {beats making them}, drawing {I'm terrible at it}, world building for my own lovely stories though I might get bogged down with that one, and doing the dishes. I actually forgot what the last one was; dishes isn't a hobby. *winks* If I didn't use knitting as a way to make my brain shut down, I might take that up; and if I had more patience, I would love to take up sewing. Then I could rival my sister and make myself lovely dresses! One of the things I do want to do, however, is learn to cook more things. My mom got me this lovely bridal cookbook for my birthday so I really want to try some of the recipes in it, besides the ones I already know {which are very limited}. I especially want to try baking more cookies; I have Chocolate Chip down to perfection {just triple the batch, add lots of butter and chocolate then you're golden}.So, anyway, just though I'd share all that with you. Catch ya later!
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