How are the additional hobbies going?

I had decided to start these new(ish) hobbies last year, but it was at the start of this year that I properly set everything up to make it easier for me to do them consistently.  Including putting together a little tracker in my diary for most of them so that I could tick off when I did them.  It's only been a couple of months but this is how they're going so far.

Skateboarding - this is still taking a little while to get myself into actually doing it and that's probably because it's something I have to do in front of other people which always makes me uncomfortable.  There's also quite a big possibility of me hurting myself, which I always worry about as it could affect my ability to do my job.  However, if I want to learn this skill I do need to get over that, especially as I could also hurt myself just tripping on a pavement.  I usually wait until my husband is off on the same day as me so we can do it together, but that has led to there being very few times available to do it so I've stopped doing that and now just go out on my own on Saturday mornings, with my bike helmet on regardless of how it looks.  I do feel that I am beginning to get the feel of it a little bit more.

Flute practice - I've been managing to practice this around once a week.  Obviously more often would be better and as I get more into the swing of it I'll probably try practicing on the weekends as well.  It's really just finding the time to fit everything in.  It is beginning to come back to me, but it's still frustrating to not be able to play how I used to.  I'm going to give myself until the end of this year to see if I want to keep going or not.  At least I can now string a song a long, even if it's not particularly well.

Drawing - again I have managed to get this in about once a week.  At the moment I'm just practicing drawing the shapes that become animals from a book I brought on how to draw Kawaii animals.  However, I do want to start being able to do this on my own and I think I might need to look a little more into the reasons behind each shape that then becomes a being.  I also want to look a little more into how to actually draw the human shape if this is going to lead to where I hope it will, so I'll need to find something on that as well.  Again, I'm giving myself until the end of the year to see how this goes and after that, I'll decide if I want to keep going.

Board games - we actually haven't really done this that often.  In fact, it had gotten to the end of January and we'd only actually played some games once.  So we decided we needed to make an actual effort and place the games in an area that was right in front of us, and now we are playing board games once a week as planned.

Reading - this is another thing that had already started to fall to the wayside before the end of January even came around.  I realised that it was partly because I wasn't making time for it like I should have been, but also partly because I hadn't given myself the variety of things I usually like to have when I'm reading.  So I've added a non-fiction book into the mix and the wildlife magazines I keep forgetting about and this has made things a lot more appealing.  I might not be getting through as many individual books but I am getting the variety that I like and, in the long run, it'll actually lead to more books being read than before.

I am hoping that having a tracker I can keep ticking will lead to a number of these hobbies becoming habits.  Unfortunately, it wasn't working particularly well to begin with, but now that I've made the rule that I'm not allowed to miss any of these two times in a row that has made all the difference in making me keep up with what I want to do.  It may seem a little bit weird to do this with hobbies, but if I don't make time for them it's very likely that I'll never do any of them.  There are a lot of hobbies I would like to try and do and if I keep on not doing any of them I'll always wondering about them and my abilities.  This way I can keep trying new things, seeing if they are something I can take to, and then making a decision to keep doing them or not.  At least this way I'll actually know.

Crafting 2024

Despite a number of other hobbies I want to focus on this year I am planning on carrying on with the crafting, especially some of the sewing projects I have on my list.  However, I'm not going to set any specific goals for myself this time.  Instead, I'm going to just work my way through my list, with no time scale planned, and see where I end up at the end of the year.  This is partly because of the previously mentioned other hobbies, but it's also because I don't want crafting to become a chore.  

Here is a list of the projects I'm hoping to work my way through over the next few years (though obviously there are many more on top of that):

• Quilling Christmas cards
• Finish knitting the Maggie Jumper
• Sew the Field of Fucks cross-stitch
• Crochet a crop top with leftover yarn
• Re-knit the Icelandic jumper in a larger size
• Knit matching mittens to my hat
• Sew a left-over fabric top
• Sew the Welcome to Erebort cross-stitch
• Sew a Grogu fabric top
• Sew the cropped trousers
• Crochet a long-sleeved top
• Sew the cut embroidered dress
• Sew an apron
• Knit the Underwing mitts
• Knit another vintage cardigan in simpler yarn
• Start crocheting a leftover yarn blanket
• Start sewing a leftover fabric quilt

It's quite a long list and there's no way I'll get them all completed by the end of the year or even the end of two years.  There are also a lot of sewing projects on this list, which means that this year will be a year of sewing, whereas last year was more about knitting.  It'll be good to get back into sewing as I feel like I have lost a little bit of skill on that front.  And that's it really.  This isn't a particularly long post, but then it didn't need to be.  I'll keep you updated on what I get done as the year progresses.

Goals 2024

The goals this year are going to be pretty much the same as last year, mainly as our long-term goals haven't changed.  There are a few ones that I've added at the end, but I will put less effort into those ones.  It's not that they are not important, it's just that we are trying to concentrate on our finances first so that we have more freedom to do other things in the future.  This is what we'll be working on this year.

Financial Freedom.

• Saving another third of our four-month emergency fund - we did really well last year with saving up for this, but that was partly helped by the money I got to keep after doing my taxes as a self-employed person.  However, I'm not self-employed anymore, but hopefully just means that I can put aside that additional money straight away with each wage I get.   So that'll be £2500 into savings in 2024.
• Sinking funds - we need to save up for Christmas again and this will be one of the priorities at the start of the year.  It works out at about £73 a month to get us back to where we can have a financially stress-free Christmas, but I'm hoping we can put more in at the beginning to get us there quicker.  We also want to start saving for a holiday abroad, something a bit bigger than what we've been doing before.  It possibly won't be this year, but hopefully next.  We're still working on where we want to go and what we would like to do, but once we've worked that out can calculate how much we'll need to save and start putting money aside for that.
• 12.5% of earnings towards my pension - this is basically the same as last year and I'll need to see if I can do it all through my work or if I'll need to keep putting away additional sums as before.
• Secondary income - this is the same as last year as well.  I'm starting to form more of an idea about what I'd be comfortable doing so we'll see what happens.
• Changing my bank account - yep still haven't done this yet.  To be honest, it's not as high on my priority as it probably should be.

Learning New Skills.

• Skateboarding - this is still something that I want to learn to do and what I've learnt over the last couple of years is that I just haven't been very disciplined when it comes to sorting this out.  I plan to practice at least twice a month, usually with my husband who wants to get back into it.
• Surfing - now that we know that we don't need any more lessons just yet but just need to practice we can just hire some surfboards, which I can book in advance when I know what Ed's work hours are.  Again we just need to be more organised and disciplined so that we do this whenever we're both off.
• Drawing - this is something that I wrote about in my new hobbies blog.  It's really just for my own enjoyment and to keep my brain nice and healthy, but there is a possibility that it could play some part in getting a secondary income.  I'd like to practice at least once a week.
• Flute playing - again this was in my hobbies blog and this is also just for my own enjoyment.  In fact, there is absolutely no way I'm playing the flute in public.  This isn't high on my list of things to prioritize but I would still like to do this once a week if I can.
• Reading - another thing that's just for my own personal enjoyment.  I plan to do a little reading every night, just before bed - at least on a weekday.
• Learning another language - this is something I've put in but I haven't really made any decisions on or plans yet.  Ed has said that whatever I learn he would like to learn with me, but what language that is I'm still not sure about.  Sometimes I think it would be good to learn French as some of the countries we want to visit have it as their official language, there's also the possibility of learning Welsh seeing as we are now in Wales, but it would also be good to get back into learning British Sign Language again and that's more where I'm leaning.  There's no way I'd be able to learn multiple languages at a time, so it'll just have to be one for now.  We'll see.

So that's all of them.  There are quite a lot that I've written down, but as I said we'll prioritize the top ones to begin with and see how the year goes.  In a way, it's good for the way my brain works to have a few different ones going so that I spend my time bouncing between things the way my brain does.  I actually find it hard to concentrate otherwise.  I wasn't really that organised with my goals last year and I feel like that showed in the outcome so I want to be more organised this time around, starting by breaking the goals up into quarters again.  Having something more concrete to work toward means I'll be much more likely to accomplish them.  Let's see what we can actually do this time around.

Walking: Pont ar Daf to Dyffryn Cellwen

It had been quite a long week and I really felt like I needed to stretch my legs and give my mind a chance to just wander aimlessly, preferably in a location where there weren't other people.  So I decided to go on a long walk in the mountains.  For ease, I wanted to start somewhere where Ed could drop me off on his way to work, but I also wanted some parts of it to be in an area I hadn't been to before with some off-path sections so I planned on heading up Fan Fawr and then just going west.

I knew the weather wasn't going to be good and a little bit chilly, but it was meant to clear up a little as the day went by (though that didn't really happen).  I made sure I wore a number of layers and had more in my bag, along with a thermos of hot tea to make sure I was able to stay at the right temperature throughout the day and in case anything bad happened so I could protect myself from the elements.  I also took both my walking poles to give myself a bit more stability when crossing any rivers and when going through the boggier areas.  As an additional safety assurance, and because my route wasn't 100% fixed, I set my WhatsApp so that my husband could see where I was at any time.

So, from Pont ar Daf I headed to Storey Arms and up onto Fan Fawr, straight into the clouds.  It wasn't actually as cold as I was expecting, but it was as wet as predicted and I knew that my feet weren't going to stay dry for very long (I had also packed my trainers, some dry socks, and a miniature towel for when I finished - a luxury for sure, but definitely a good one).  However, I find as long as I can keep my body warm my feet do just fine in these conditions.

From the top of Fan Fawr I headed towards the trig point and then north with the plan of cutting across west a little bit later to look at some old, unused sheepfolds on Nant (brook) y Gaseg.  Unfortunately, at that point I couldn't see far enough in the front to be able to navigate properly so I decided to follow a path I already knew which would lead me to Nant Mawr, a tributary I could follow down to Nant y Gaseg.  From there it would be easy enough to find the sheepfolds.  As I was following this I finally came out of the clouds and could see them ahead of me and this allowed me to then take a more direct route.  

After a little nosey around it was time to cross over the brook.  It took a little while to find a safe spot as the water had risen quite a bit in the rain and the main issue was not trying to not get my feet wet (this had already happened) but more that you could see the rocks were a little bit too slippery to use safely.  However, I did finally find somewhere and I was very glad I had my walking poles with me.  Then it was straight up the very steep east side of Fan Llia back into the clouds.  If I'm honest, I actually quite enjoy walking in cloud cover and mist.  You may not get the views, but there's something very magical about it and I love how easy it is to mis-interrupt things you see in the distance and the changed noises that reach you.  

The plan was to then find a route down the west side of Fan Llia, cross the road, and look for a route around the side of Fan Nedd that would take me to the actual path leading to the top.  However, visibility had gotten even worse by this point and I knew this wasn't going to be a safe option at all.  So I changed my plans and decided to just follow the Beacons Way off Fan Llia and onto the Roman road I was planning on following later, leaving Fan Nedd for another day.  I have walked this path before so I took the slightly lower route this time, not that I could really see anything to make this really feel any different.  It was, of course, raining pretty heavily once I'd reached the bottom and it was time to have my lunch.  Nothing that a good, hot cup of tea couldn't fix though.

Then it was onto the Roman road for 2.5 hours.  I'd already walked just under half of this before when I had walked this section of the Beacons Way, and I have to grudgingly admit the other half wasn't any more fascinating than the first.  Up until this point, I hadn't bothered listening to anything on my headphones as I was enjoying the more natural noises of brooks, rain, and wind.  This time of year also meant that there weren't even livestock noises out on the hills, but now I needed a little bit of extra distraction so I put on some podcasts I'd been saving.  It was also quite a straightforward walk from here on so I could afford to concentrate less on where I was going.

As expected, it did get a little bit more complicated when I was walking through farmland and I ended up not being able to finish the very last part how or where I wanted.  Instead, I ended up walking along a B road which allowed me to look into the fields where the Roman fort and camp were meant to be.  It turns out there wasn't actually too much to see so I didn't feel like I'd missed out too much.  Then it was onto Dyffryn Cellwen to meet up with a friend who kindly drove me to get a pint or three.  Though things didn't exactly go to plan this walk was still exactly what I needed and, though physically tired, I felt much better afterward.  I also ended up with a lot more energy again, managing to get quite a lot done in the days following that walk.  It's definitely something I need to remember to fit into my days a lot more often.

New Hobbies and When Am I Going to Do Them

I do quite a lot of crafting at the moment and I really enjoy it, but for a while now there have been other things that I have wanted to add to my hobby time.  This is partly because there are so many things I want to learn or relearn how to do and partly because I know that developing new skills is a good way to keep my brain nice and healthy.  Although I do knit or sew in the evenings, we also have the TV on quite a lot of the time and whilst this is fine, we often find we've just turned it on out of habit and can't really think of anything we actually want to watch.  In the end, we usually just end up watching the same things over again.  At the end of the day, there are other things I could be doing.

Firstly there's the ever-present learning how to skateboard and surf.  These are both just things that Ed and me are learning for fun (or in his case relearning when it comes to skateboarding) we really haven't bothered to make the time to actually do them.  We do have to wait until we both have time off together, but that just means that we need to prioritise them when our days do coincide.  Theoretically, that shouldn't be that hard to do.

I had my flute looked at and fixed last month and I've decided that, instead of giving it away or selling it, I would like to try and learn how to play it again.  Unfortunately, because I've been ill I haven't played it as much as I had hoped, but I have managed to fit in a couple of sections.  It is strange how natural it feels to be holding the instrument again, but also alien in the fact that I'm having to start from scratch again.  It would be good to put aside one hour a week to practice this, which could end up being very unfortunate for my neighbours.

Like most people, I drew a lot when I was little and haven't really drawn at all as an adult.  I do remember enjoying it and, even though I'm not sure how good I would actually be at it, it would be good to try it again.  I'm thinking about trying different styles from what I used to do and, if it feels like it's going well, I might actually try painting again as well.  As with the flute playing it would be good to put aside at least one hour a week to practice this.

Playing board games is something that Ed and me used to love doing in the past, especially when we had no TV and a limited amount of lighting.  Even though we do take them with us when we go on holiday, we don't really play them that much and it's a shame to keep them all if we're not actually going to use them.  It would also be a good excuse for us to spend some quality time together, at least once a week, as our different work rotas mean that we don't actually get to spend that much time together.

Reading is one of those big ones that I always want to do more of but just don't put aside the time to actually do.  And I have books piling up that I want to read, both physically and on my wish list.  There is no real excuse, I'm just not making it a priority and I could realistically spend some time every evening reading quite easily.

Really this is about dedicating specific time to each of these hobbies every week and then keeping to it until they become a habit.  Right now I can do these during the day as it'll be a little while before my new job starts, but when it does start I want to try and fit these into the evenings.  So, this is the plan: I'm going to practice my flute for one hour on Tuesday night (though that does mean that my poor husband has to listen to me attempting to play), practice drawing for one hour on Wednesday night, and then Thursdays will be our board game /date night.  We'll skateboard or surf whenever we have days off together.  As for the reading, my plan is to start getting ready for bed at around 10pm and have reading as the last thing that I do, so that should give me about 30 minutes a day.  I haven't actually been the most organised recently so it should actually be quite easy to fit these in with a bit of planning.  I also have the weekends when Ed is working to fit in these hobbies on weeks when I haven't been able to fit them in for some reason, or to spend extra time on them if I want to.

Crafting 2023 Update #3

It's been a pretty steady quarter when it comes to getting some crafting done.  I haven't exactly stuck to what I had planned to do this year, with a few extra projects creeping in, and I think a few projects will be moving over to next year, but as I'm crafting for fun I'm not too bothered about it.

Completion and Use-Up Projects.

There are still a couple of projects to do on this list, but they are ones that will take a little while to do, especially the top, and I need to find some time that I can just set aside for them.  However, I am still planning on getting these done by the end of 2023.

The Maggie and Coddy Jumpers.

I have now finished the Coddy jumper for my husband.  I'd never knitted with cotton yarn before and it feels very different on the needles and through the fingers.  I will have to see how the loose threads do as they don't bind in the same way that wool does, but I'll just keep an eye on those.  Otherwise, I am very happy with how this has turned out and will now start working on my own jumper, which happily means going back to good old wool.

More Socks.

Not exactly surprising as these don't take too long to make, but I've finished the socks that my friend requested and I think they turned out pretty well.  Apparently, they also fit quite well, which I'm surprised at as I didn't really have their measurements to work from.

Double Knit Shawl and Jumper (2793).

One of Ed's friends is having a baby and when we were in a craft shop I came across some wool and knitting patterns that were on sale.  So, it seemed like a match made in heaven and a good enough reason to go all granny and make them a baby shawl.  There was also the extra wool to make the world's tiniest jumper, which is taking almost no time at all to make.  So I've now decided that this is the only size of jumper I'm going to make in the future.  If anyone requests a jumper I'm just going to make this tiny version of it and send that to them instead.

Field of Fucks Cross-stitch.

By Fandom Cross Stitchery

I now have all the material I need to make this and I'm looking forward to getting back into cross-stitching.  I don't think it's going to take me too long to do either, so I should get this finished by the end of the year ready to start the New Year with the right type of sentiment.

Quilling.

This is a craft I did when I was much younger and I'm thinking I'm going to give it a go for our Christmas cards this year.  I'm hoping they don't take me too long to do as I am starting them quite late, but I'm just going to not put too much pressure on myself and enjoy revisiting this hobby, we can always buy the other cards if we need to.

I actually hadn't planned on doing as much crafting this year as last, but I seem to have done just as much.  I do really enjoy creating things, but it does mean that I'm not doing other things I enjoy, like reading.  It's unlikely that I'll get around to sewing the trousers and dress I had planned to do this year, but I don't exactly need them so they can wait until next year which is probably going to be a year of sewing in the way this year seems to have been the year of knitting.  Anything clothes-wise that I make now is just for me to enjoy rather than filling in my wardrobe.  If I do finish what I have planned for this year I will be very happy.