The Book of Me, Written by You - Week 21 - Hobbies

The Book Of Me, Written By You is a 15 month project set up by Julie Goucher at Anglers Rest.

Each week there are prompts which require answering.

Week 21 - Hobbies

Over the years I have had numerous hobbies, some of which I think are cringe worthy now I'm older:

• Stamp collecting
• Coin collecting
• Researching my family tree
• Cooking and baking
• Playing the piano and clarinet
• Cross-stitch
• Travelling
• Collecting thimbles
• Blogging

Stamp Collecting

I got quite into stamp collecting (partly inspired by Blue Peter and my grandfather) when I was about 9-13 years old. Looking back now I think it was quite a cringe worthy hobby to have, but my grandfather also collected stamps and it was something he encouraged me to do as well. When my grandfather passed away he left me his collections. 

Recently I have been clearing out my things at my parents house and have boxes of my stamp albums, which I am not quite sure what to do with. It is not a hobby I will ever pick up again now but yet those albums have memories especially my grandfathers and am not ready to throw them away yet but they do take up quite a lot of room in my little house.

Coin Collecting

As with stamp collecting, I was inspired both by Blue Peter and my grandparents to start a coin collection. My grandparents would buy us the special edition coins that were brought out to commemorate special occasions. I loved collecting coins from our holidays as well, so my coin album is also full of memories of the places I have visited. I do not actively collect coins although when I go on holiday I like to bring some coinage home with me for my album.

Researching my family history

I love researching my family history and have been researching since about 2002 or 2003. The hobby has been interrupted at various hectic points in my life, such as my degree or lack of money, but it is something I am still really interested in and actively research and blog about my research. It is hard to find the time to do research, but I still find it really inspiring and interesting. I am just finishing off writing my first family history book about my Davidson ancestors, which has taken a huge amounts of time and energy to do. 

I was inspired to start researching my family history when the 2001 census came out online and that was it I was hooked. My grandmother also inspired me as she would often talk about Cousin June or Auntie May, etc and being an inquisitive person I wanted to know more about these people, so began researching and am still addicted!!!

Cooking and baking

I love cooking and baking, which has been a hobby in which has been sparked since leaving home and having to learn how to cook for myself, but I discovered I loved cooking and being creative with cooking to see what interesting ingredients go together (and sometimes what ingredients do not go together well!). 

My mum was my inspiration for cooking as she always made every meal from scratch and fed up really well as we were growing up. She was a great cook and not afraid to try new tastes and flavours. She was always at the end of the phone when I left home to ask how I cooked certain foods or for recipes.

I had the pleasure of marrying a man who equally loves food and being cooked for, so we make a great pair, I cook and he eats. 

I also write a weekly blog post recipe called FOODY FRIDAY each week on my other blog, These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things.

Playing my clarinet and piano

I love making music, but have little time to play regularly these days, but when I can I do still occasionally find the time to make music either on my piano or clarinet. I play clarinet in the worship band at church some weeks, which helps me play semi-regularly and keeps my skills up to scratch but I do sometimes wish I had more time to play. I started playing clarinet at the age of 9 years old and had lessons until I was about 18 years old, when I left home and went on my gap year to Brasil. The piano was something I never really had lessons for but my mum played and would help teach me occasionally, but most of my piano skills I have acquired by teaching myself, picking up some music and just having a go. 

Cross-stitch

I love cross-stitching when I am sat at home watching a film or the TV. I am not good at just sitting and watching, I like to have something to do with my hands and cross-stitching is the perfect thing. I have made loads of big pictures, cards, bookmarks etc over the years. You can see some of my more recent creations on my other blog These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things.

My grandmother was the one who inspired me to have a go at cross-stitching, as she also did it and enjoyed it, so would buy me kits as Christmas presents and they were always so proud if we gave them presents in which we had made, so I would often do them a birthday or Christmas cross-stitch creation.

Travelling

I love travelling the world and the only thing which restricts me from doing more travelling is the lack of finance! I spent long periods of time in New Zealand, Brasil and Malawi and also visited many other countries for shorter periods. I love being immersed in other cultures and seeing the beauty of other countries. I have written blog posts about my travels in New Zealand and also shared a little of some of my other Old Adventures travelling.

Collecting Thimbles

I have collected for many, many years since I was quite a young child thimbles from all the different places I visit, if I can get my hands on one. I buy them if I go for day trips out to different places in the UK as well as places I have visited on holidays as well. These are a great memory of all my travels and I love looking back over them and remembering past holidays and adventures.

Blogging

Last but not least I love blogging (if you hadn't realised!!!), this hobby was inspired mainly by sister-in-law who put my blogs together for me and helped me learn the skills required. There were two reasons I wanted to start blogging, one was to share all my family research with extended family and others who also loved genealogy. The second reason I started blogging was when we were planning to go to New Zealand for 10 weeks I wanted to share my photos and journeys with my friends and family back home. It was a great thing to do as we have a diary of what we did each day through the blogging which I always look back over and am reminded what a great trip it was.

Since then I have been inspired to blog about my favourite things and my hobbies, to share some of my creativity and passions. I would say blogging now takes up most of my spare time, although I want to get back down to doing some more family history research these days.