new hobby

Okay, I have a new hobby, and I am trying, trying so hard not to become obsessive about it. But I'm having so much fun!

So, what is this latest hobby, you ask (because you can't think of one I haven't tried before)...

I'm learning to make jewelry. Picture on the left, one of the first of my creations. Not very good, but I'm only learning!

So let me ask you this: in this bleak economy where we're struggling to buy groceries, and pay the light bill, what makes more sense than to have a hobby that you can't justify??? You're probably thinking what I was thinking when starting this new pastime - wouldn't this be a great time to learn to do something useful? You know, something that would actually contribute to saving money - like canning food, or sewing, or basket weaving (I do spend a lot of money on baskets). But no, that would be no fun. That wouldn't be a hobby, it would be a chore. Something I had to do. And that isn't what hobbies are about. No, hobbies are about doing something creative and learning a new craft. Hobbies are about engaging in an activity that gives you pleasure. An activity that makes you smile. And if you enjoy it, you continue doing it. And you stop doing it when you stop enjoying it. Or run out of hobby money, whichever comes first.

It's like this... I was talking to an unknown kooky lady in Walmart today. She was shopping for Easter window clingies and they were SO CUTE. And she drew me into her clingie world by telling me all about the Christmas clingies she had and how she had put them on her car windows, and they had done just fine, and how the gel clingies don't do as well on car windows as the regular clingies, and, anyway (did I tell you she was kooky?), I started looking at the clingies with her and thought, you know, I need some of these clingies for my kitchen windows. So after she and I decided just which clingies were the cutest, I bought two sets. One with a bunny rabbit holding an Easter basket, and one with lots of cute, brightly colored, Springy Easter eggs (my kitchen windows look so adorable - even the neighbors' cat thinks so, but that's another story). But the point is this - as the lady and I discussed while clingie-shopping - it is especially important during this time when the nation is on the brink of a depression, that we continue to live our lives normally. That we don't give up everything that makes us smile just for the sake of a few extra groceries. That we spend $2.00 on clingies.

And so, that is how I justify a new hobby.

And I don't know who that lady was, but she is probably at this very moment blogging about the kooky lady she shopped with in Walmart today.