I like to fill spaces, so I have been known to frequent garage sales. I have several collections: flower frogs, cook books, flower arranging and gardening books, colanders, ice cream scoops, exercise videos, which I use in spells, and I'm probably forgetting something. I like to cook, and frequently stray from the recipe I'm using, or else just throw things together. I like to make up soups from whatever I have around. I love summer and using fresh herbs I grow. CMK, we could have some fun in a big enough kitchen. LOL

I also dry flowers (that I grow) and hang some for decoration, and with others make little baskets or bowls of them for gifts or to lay around the house. I used to read a lot. James Michener was one of my favorite authors. I can't seem to stay awake to read much these days, but like to read my gardening and devotional books. We also have our almost 7 month old grandson 2 days a week. That will change to one day a week when we go back to work soon.
Sue

I'm a reader - I read a lot of non-fiction, mainly gardening books and rock biographies but read some fiction...I listen to music a lot, play guitar (or try too), watch old movies and old TV shows, collect 50's & 60's stuff and vintage clothing, go out to see live music, and I like to cook vegan and vegetarian foods.
GGG

I love to read. And I also cross-stitch, embroider, and make quilts.

I love to cook but not in gardening season, read yes, garden related of course but I love mystery and suspense, period novels, stories about swashbucklers and buccaneers. I crochet and knit in the winter that is when my hands are not so rough after the gardening season. I use to paint when I was young, maybe I'll take it up again maybe I won't. LOVE old black and white movies I'm building quite a DVD collection of them mostly film noir from the 40's, also like shows like Rosemary and Thyme, Rough Diamond, A touch of Frost and other english shows. In another half hour I'll be glued to the TV watching Midsummer Murders another favorite of mine. Done lots of other stuff when I was younger but that's another story.
Next month I'll be judging my last flower show, kind of bittersweet, I've been judging for over 20 years but it's time for others to take up the reins.
Oh yes, before I forget DH and I used to raise rabbits for show, Belgian Hares, Tans, Netherland Dwarfs, and Holland Lops were some of the breeds we raised at one time. Drift fishing was another thing we used to do, there's nothing like playing a 25lb salmon in amongst a sea of bobbing boats LOL.

Annette

I love to read as well...mysteries of all sorts, horror and supernatural thrillers, historical romance, also many of the classics over and over. I also like to do mosaics, T2T stuff...my favorite decorating style is shabby chic, crochet, cross stitch, paint on furniture, collect vintage and antique items...especially chickens! I like to do way to many things!!! One thing I do not like to do is cook!

Be Safe, Rach

I love to read more than anything else, even more than gardening, though it is close. I spend a lot of time on Gardenweb's Readers Paradise Forum. I highly recommend that forum to fellow reading enthusiasts.

My DH and I both like to cook and we share that responsibility. Sometimes it is merely a chore and other times it is an extravaganza.

Besides reading and gardening, I like to sew. Textiles are a passion with me. I make both quilts and clothes, and take sewing classes in the fashion design program at a nearby community college. I've been doing this one class at a time for a number of years. One of these days I may accidentally complete the entire program! I'm intrigued by spinning and weaving but so far have not wandered into that territory. Perhaps someday I will.

I also enjoy travel and hiking. I'm not an athlete, but I love to walk for miles at a slow but steady pace. My DH and I even hiked the Milford Track in New Zealand one year. The South Island of NZ was the most beautiful place I have ever been, with the possible exception of a wonderful mountainside garden in northern California. I used to walk marathons but haven't done that for several years now. Sometimes I think about getting back to it, but all these things do compete for time. Training for a marathon takes quite a time commitment. Still, it may happen.

How did I ever have time to actually work? I really have no idea!

Rosefolly

This is a very interesting thread......

I love to read; in fact, just finished Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy. I read all year round. I knit in winter; have an afghan waiting to be sewn together right now...will wait for a slower time. I crochet. I used to sew. Love, love to cook, especially homemade breads (unfortunately, watching carbs so that isn't happening now), making jelly and jams from the garden; like reading and collecting gardening books.

My new hobby is starting a small home orchard. I would like to totally live off the farm foodwise. I am trying to convince DH that we should buy a milk cow this fall. He is slow to convince, but I will persevere!

I used to paint but haven't done that in years; absolutely no talent but enjoyed it anyway.

I like to read too, but really only in winter - science fiction, non-fiction, any really good novels. I'm surprised at the number of readers because in the "real world" I find most people are too busy to ever read.

I like photography and got a new camera (canon) this year to play around with.

I hate to cook and do housework. Fortunately DH likes to cook, so he makes good healthy meals and I make instant and frozen stuff.

Mostly my time goes to my 2 little ones who are the joy of my life. We have so much fun in the summer - so far this summer we've gone blueberry picking at a u-pick farm, to the county fair, to several different parks and playgrounds, the Renaissance Fair, a blues festival, several playdates and birthday parties, a pioneer days festival, bubble fest at the science museum, 2 kids museums and 2 science museums, a bonfire, picnics and lots lots more. Practically every day we do something "special". They are very sweet kids and we have so much fun. I'm trying to really enjoy it now, because I see they grow so fast and when they are teens will probably not want to do "family" stuff, so I'm making memories now. There's not much time left over after them.

I also love to read. I read almost anything...mysteries,action thrillers,historical novels, plain history, medical stories. You name it and I read it...all year round! Another hobby of mine is doing genealogy. It kind of dovetails my love of history. I like to cook although not so much when I am working. I have off from school in the summer because I am a school nurse.There just never seems to be enough time in the day to do all the things I love!
Joann

I love Martial Arts, and spend majority of my time either in a garden, or in the Dojo.
Just started learning JiuJitsu, and absolutely love it!
~Natalie

I love to cook as you all know and canning the results of my harvesting is a great source of satisfaction. I am a great reader and have a huge collection of women writers, I don't read male authors anymore. I also participate in lots of physical activities, trailrunning, swimming, mountain biking in the woods on rough trails, road biking and weight lifting. I love to "keep house" and take a lot of satisfaction from seeing the results of my efforts. I like to collect turned wooden bowls and also Native American Art although I think the things I currently have are happy and complete and I may not add anymore unless something really speaks to me. I like to travel and DH and I really enjoy live performances so we combine the two. I also love Blue Grass Festivals and have 2 that I attend nearly every year. I love to camp also and combine the attendance at the festivals with camping and also the bike riding and trailrunning.

I think my greatest love is trying to get the most out of my life. c

I didn't see anyone else mention it, am I the only knitter? I love knitting, and it works perfect because it feels so good to knit when it is cold and garden when it is warm. :) In fact, I was telling my husband the other day, I am going to knit in the winter, garden in the spring and fall, and do house decor projects in the heat of summer. Of course, life never works out like you plan, huh? I can't control where my urges will take me.

Catankgirl, I keep thinking about knitting. Many of my friends have moved their focus from quiltmaking to knitting and I feel the lure. So far I have been resisting. There really is a limit to how much one can do, even with good health and a long life! Maybe someday, along with spinning and weaving. Actually I see knitting as the 'gateway drug' to spinning and weaving. People I know who have taken up those crafts made the transition through that pathway.

I think I posted a lot of this stuff in the thread about whether I'm more behind with gardening or housework, but I'll say it here, too.

I sing in a high calibre choir that requires quite a few hours of rehearsal each week, both at the rehearsal hall and at home. We are off in the summer, though. I play piano and guitar, also. Summer evenings and playing the guitar go together like peas and carrots.

I am a single mom, and my daughter's activities sort of become my hobbies. She figure skates and dances competitively, and I sit on executives for both groups. I have also learned how to sew, out of necessity (costumes), and the more I do it, the less I resent it. haha

I keep aquariums, and at one time was really into breeding certain types of fish. I also keep vivariums and have an assortment of reptiles and amphibians. I enjoy 'landscaping' them with waterfalls and live plants.

I was a history major in school, and I enjoy anything old. I love museums, antique stores, heritage villages - anything with a sense of history about it. I live in the house my grandparents built 60 years ago and have deliberately left certain things, like the very old, flower patterned linoleum on my bedroom floor, that other people surely would have replaced.

I Used to be an avid reader when i was a young married woman.Then the kids came along(4 of them) and reading was put on the back burner,and has pretty much stayed there.I sew and used to sew all our clothes,including suits for dh when he retired from the marine corps.

I'm an avid cross stitcher now when i'm not in the garden,.I also quilt,tole paint,love to go yard saleing on the weekend,and have my GK's over and teach them some of the crafts i do.

I HATE cooking,only did it because we had to eat,but now that all the kids are gone off on their own(many years now) DH decided he liked cooking so i turned the kitchen over to him.He does a good job and cleans up as he goes along.I feel so lucky!!! LOL

I also love to take pictures of my gardens and all the different flowers.
Kathi

I noticed someone else mentioned genealogy. That is what I spend most of my free time on. It is really quite addictive. I also have a 50's and 60's doll collection that I add to when I can. And I do love to read. Am reading "My Sister My Love" by Joyce Carol Oates. Flea markets and auctions are fun, too.

rosefolly, spinning is definately tempting once you start knitting. Good yarn is SO expensive. But being the hippy Californian I am, I buy thrift store sweaters and unravel them for the yarn. I can get really good yarn that way, wool, even angoria and cashmere for super cheap. But that's a whole nother addictive way to waste lots of time under the guise of saving money. lol That's exactly why I'm *trying* not to let myself start getting too much into seed saving and trading.

Too.many.hobbies.to.keep.track.of... :D

Another reader and knitter here! I love the classic English literature, with Austen, the Bront and Thomas Hardy ranking as my personal favorites (have just finished re-reading Jane Eyre). I also love our Nobel laureate José Saramago, who is not to everybody's taste, including his fellow countrypeople, but whom I find fascinating, though definitely not an easy read. Plus Tolstoi. Nobody seems to read the great Russians these days, how sad.

I knit year round - wools in Winter and cottons in Summer. Have you ever tried knitting with cotton crochet yarn? Really outstanding pieces you can create thus. I also crochet a lot, enjoy that because it's so portable. One of my favorite Summer hangouts is the beach in the Algarve where we go often - sitting in a comfortable chair in the shade of the parasol looking out to the sea with a good book and a crochet or knit craft, my dog at my side enjoying the view. Sheer bliss! :-)

DH and I are really into travelling and we do it as much as vacation periods and finances allow. We have an ongoing love affair with Scotland and have visited many times, even toying with the idea of some day getting a place there and living there part of the year.

I also enjoy cross-stitch, but haven't done much in ages due to poor eye sight. I sow a little, nothing fancy, but simple things for the house such as cushions, curtains and throws. A few years ago I got interested in antiques and took classes on porcelain and glass restoration and also wood restoration and this is something I really enjoy, particularly working with wood. Also like cooking and particularly fond of making jams and other preserves.

I'm also fond of photography and I have a new camera (Olympus) which I still haven't learnt to use properly. Photography is a good hobby to pair with travelling, so I get two in one with that.

Like Rosefolly, I don't know how I manage to get time to work... :-)

Eduarda

I quilt. I quilt equally as much as I garden. I used to quilt only in the winter, and put it all away as soon as the first spring day arrived, but now I quilt year round. I belong to a quilt guild and two small groups, and my Karaoke Quilters (we sing along to the radio as we sew) is going on a retreat this weekend. Can't wait !

Carol

This is a great thread. Karaoke Quilterswhat fun!

I was about to say you can add me to the list of readers, but then I remembered the stack pile of books overflowing the coal bucket next to my bed......books I've bought but haven't yet read. So I guess you can add me to the list of book buyers. I love books and love to read, but I don't spend as much time at it as I used to. I do, however, keep an audio book, usually a mystery, in my car at all times.

In winter I love old-fahioned rug hooking, the kind that uses strips of cloth cut from old woolen clothing. My current project is a table mat I started in 1997. (I took a long hiatus from hooking.) It shows the seven cats we had at the time, the ones we were always telling to "get off the table!"

I grew up in my dad's darkroom, and love photography. I swore I'd never get a digital camera (silly me), but that went by the boards when I worked as a newspaper reporter/photographer and had to process my own film. When we switched to digital, that was that. I'll link to my Flickr page below.

I inherited my dad's photos, negatives, and slides, and bought a sophisticated scanner with the intention of digitizing some of his work. The prospect of the learning curve has me somewhat paralyzed, though. I suppose one of these days I'll plug it in . . .

When my kids were growing up we had a huge vegetable garden and I spent endless hours freezing and canning and drying and cooking. I made three meals a day from scratch every day. But I loved it. I also sewed a lot of their clothes, and some of mine, and did crafts with them all the time. I can't imagine having that much energy! Well, I know I never will again.

These days I'm cooking for one, and it isn't nearly as much fun. I do have the occasional creative spurt in the kitchen, but not often. I would still love to bake, but like someone else who posted, I have to limit carbs so that's out.

I enjoy blogging.

I'm not skilled at genealogy, but I love to poke around the Internet looking for bits and pieces of family information. In that way, I managed to trace one line back to around 1720. Because I was so moved to see the gravestones of two of my great-great-grandparents on the Internet, and grateful to whomever took those pictures, I volunteered at Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness to photograph gravestones in my rural area. I received my first assignment last week.

I've belonged to a poetry group since the late 1980s, and although these days the focus of my writing is prose, rather than poetry, I'm still active with the group. In fact, I'm organizing an event to take place this week, and the Scranton paper published a small interview with me about it this morning. Here's the online version.

Amazing how many things trump housework!

Here is a link that might be useful: my Flickr photos

I love to read as well. All kinds of books. I can recommend THE THIRTEENTH TALE as a great book for those who love the old Bronte and Gothic style of novels. Really great story.

I also like writing, hiking and sailing. (All hobbies that have been somewhat curtailed by my two year old son and soon-to-arrive daughter :-) ).

In the winter, while the garden is sleeping, I focus on home decorating (and driving DH crazy!)

I cross stitch, crochet, knit. When my daughter and then her daughter were small, I sewed a lot of their clothing. My dh and I really enjoy traveling especially to historic places. We are just getting into composting and winter sowing. My baby gd just turned 18, but spending time with grown-up gks and their friends is one of my absolutely favorite things to do. I read everything I can get my hands on about whatever I'm trying to do at the time. I'm fascinated by genealogy and finding and identifying old family photographs.

Did I mention I have a full-time job and a part-time job. Oh, dear, I need a nap...

Dorothy

Ive really enjoyed reading all about you guys! It seems that many here love reading and sewing (etc.) things. I must say I am NOT good at sewing (etc.) I can sew up a tear or a button, but do not ask me to sew a hem, lol! It never turns out even.
-Endura, you love several of the same authors as me. What do you think of Dickens? Ive read all seven of Austin's novels, including the two she never finished. Jane Eyre is one of my very favorites. Im not crazy about the Brontes other novels though. Ive only read one Hardy book, and his writing isnt particularly my style. But I do like Tolstoy on the whole though. Well, I could go on and on about books, but probably should stop now...
Keep the posts comming!
CMK

Hi CMK, I have a somewhat ambivalent relationship with Dickens - some things I like, others I don't :-) I love the likes of A Christmas Carol and David Copperfield, I really don't like stuff like Hard Times (which I had to go through at University...). Two of my favorite novels of all times are Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" and Brontë's "Wuthering Heights" (the 3rd being Tolstoy's "War and Peace"). Thomas Hardy is kind of an acquired taste. I've read a good deal of his work, including Tess, The Return of the Native and Jude, The Obscure (BTW, I have the rose by the same name and it's a FANTASTIC one :-)) and I can see why he's not to everybody's taste. It's not an easy read by all means, but then so isn't Faulkner and I enjoyed "The Sound and the Fury"...

Then of course there's our national laureate José Saramago who, if you're interested, has a significant amount of his work translated into other languages, including English. If you wish to give him a try grab a copy of "Baltazar and Blimunda" and "The History of the Siege of Lisbon". The recent film "Blindness" also adapts another of his novels.

Like you, I could go on and on, but I think I'd better stop now :-)

Eduarda

In additon to gardening, I really enjoy home decorating, distressed furniture painting, and looking around in thrift stores for my next 'great' find.
I enjoy cooking, when I feel like it, and create most of my own recipes. Rarely do I follow a recipe unless I'm trying out something new. I love to camp and spend time out in the great outdoors. I'm an animal lover. I have three dogs and two cats. I will bend over backwards to help an animal in need, even a wild one if they are hurt and there is something I can do.
Years ago I used to draw and paint. I was pretty good with drawing, but haven't done any in years to speak of, other than landscape diagrams of something I want to do in my yard.

Besides tending my garden I play in a rock band and write songs. I love music! I also love reading and hiking and taking walks in nature. I also practice yoga and meditation.

My hobby at the moment is trying to find a nice single guy! lol (like finding a needle in a haystack!)

Estelle

Scherenschnitte (German scissors cutting)
Quilling (curling paper strips to make filagree ornaments)
Quilting
Sewing
Reading
Painting
Herb gifts (sachets, fireplace starters, wreaths)
Singing
Raising sheltie dogs
Beading
Drawing
There are lots of others, but I haven't done them in a few years so I don't think they count. These are the ones I have done in the past few months.

quilting
bead jewelry making
reading
collecting antiques
sculpting things from antique finds
aquarium planting
origami
scrapbooking only garden magazine cut outs

I have knitted and crochetted but I've given these up.