Festival of Trees

I know this isn't technically a hobby, but every year I go to the Festival of Trees and I couldn't resist blogging about it. The Festival of Trees is a fundraiser for the Primary Children's Medical Center. Donors donate trees and they are auctioned off. This year there were over 700 trees.

Many of the trees are made in memory of people who have passed away or are battling a serious illness. Many of the trees have the story of the person it was made in memory of. I tend to get very emotional, but this year and last year was particularly moving. July 2010 I lost my best friend of 10 years to stage 4 melanoma. I know how hard the Christmas season is when you have lost someone you love. However, the Festival of Trees helps the Christmas spirit come alive.

I really enjoyed the Festival of Trees...I can't wait to see it again next year. 

The Festival of Trees is my favorite part of Christmas. I went a little picture crazy as well as recorded a shaky video of my favorite trees—it’s kind of sideways:

 

By the Unified Fire Department in honor of 9/11

Barbie tree

Beautiful sunflower tree

The tree was entirely Snoopy

Disney inspired tree

I loved the color scheme

Gorgeous butteflies

I love the scones!

Donated by the Utah based band Neon Trees

My favorite tree

I of course enjoyed the scones--a traditional part of the Festival of Trees. I am glad I have this tradition to celebrate this year. And a tradition is sort of like a hobby...right?

Crossing Words

I have always been secretly jealous of people who do crossword puzzles. Ted Moseby of How I Met Your Mother does the Sunday crossword. My sister steals our newspaper to do the daily crossword. My uncle actually has to get two papers delivered to his house so both he and his son can do the crossword puzzle. Lisa Simpson was a crossword champ.

I figured that my blog was the perfect opportunity to try my hand at crossword puzzles. However, I have awful handwriting and an aversion to newsprint (thanks to my three years on the high school newspaper...I swear I still have some of that ink on my hands). So I opted to do it the electronic way--using Yahoo! games daily crossword. Plus, this way it tells me if I'm wrong.

When I first started the crossword puzzle I was surprised by how easy it was. I thought maybe everyone had exaggerated the difficulty or else I was some sort of genius. My confidence, however, was short lived. As I continued it became more difficult. I must confess that I used an online crossword puzzle dictionary several times. Yes: I am a blog cheater. In my defense the words in these puzzles must be obscure if an English major can't figure them out. Eventually I finished.

This without a doubt will not be my new hobby. It felt more like homework...less enjoyable, even. I'm glad I tried, but I think I'll leave the crossword puzzles to Ted Moseby.

Muppet time!

It's no secret in my family that I do not enjoy movies. I don't like sitting still for extended periods of time, I don't enjoy sticky floors, I hate crowds, I have a short attention span, and I can't eat popcorn. I have actually fallen asleep during 5 of the 6 Star Wars movies--in the theatre (my family went to the re-release of the original 3 movies in theatre). I should note that I have only seen 5 of the Star Wars movies.

The last time I saw a movie in theatre was August 2010--I don't even remember what movie it was, but the highlight of the night was taking this picture. I want my two hours back.

I am the only person in my family who has a disdain for movies. My parents go to the movies at least twice a month and attempt (unsuccessfully) to drag me there. My family has a tradition of going to movies on Thanksgiving. Our tradition started when my mom was a kid. Her dad was a fire fighter who rarely had Thanksgiving off--so her family would see a movie instead of having a big dinner. My mom decided to carry on this tradition in our family. The last two or three Thanksgivings I have refused to go.

This year, in the spirit of trying new things for my hobby blog, I agreed to go. Also, I just couldn't resist The Muppets--Jason Segal, Amy Adams, Kermit the Frog, and cameos by Dave Grohl, Jim Parsons, Neil Patrick Harris, the kid who plays Manny on Modern Family, and Zach Galifinakis. I was actually excited to see it.

I love Kermit!

The Muppets was a cute movie with several very funny moments. A "Muppet of a Man" Walter and his two friends set out to reunite the Muppets to save the Muppet Theatre from an evil oil man. The Muppets--who have moved on to interesting careers--must raise $10 million in a telethon or else lose their studio, and the Muppet name--forever. Laugh out loud moments such as a barbershop quartet rendition of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and several instances of breaking the fourth wall made for a very fun movie.

I actually had a fun time. I went to the Union Station theatre in Farmington and was surprised how nice theatres had become. The floors weren't sticky, the seats were much more comfortable, and the implementation of assigned seats made for a stress free movie experience. Even though I enjoyed the movie I did have trouble sitting still. Overall it was a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving.

I probably won't be seeing a movie every weekend, but in the future I won't be so reluctant to go. This certainly won't be my new hobby, but I know I will see more movies in the future.

Fleur'd

My sister was recently married and her friend made adorable headbands with fabric flowers for the bridesmaids. I decided it would be a fun activity to see if I could make them as well.

I found two tutorials on the internet that I decided to try--one for flat flowers and one for puffy flowers.


I honestly didn't have much faith in myself in the beginning--I am not the best at following instructions. However, I found that I as able to make them very easily. In fact I made my own video tutorial :

 Once I had finished the flowers I realized I had a problem: I had no real use for fabric flowers. After contemplating this obviously huge problem I decided to decorate a bulletin board with them. I simply covered a bulletin board with fabric using a staple gun. Voila! A use for my flowers.

My lovely flowers

I loved how the flowers turned out, but I'm not sure I loved making them. I had a few entertaining moments--I always love using a glue gun and a nail gun.

I now have this lovely anecdote: I needed to iron the fabric, but I was too lazy to bring up the iron and ironing board from the basement. I had the genius idea of using my old hair straightener as a substitute iron. As I was attempting to iron a large piece of fabric with a small flat iron, I realized I could just take the fabric to the basement and leave the iron where it was. At least I tried being resourceful.

Overall I think I will occasionally make fabric flowers and similar crafts. However I do not see this becoming a hobby. It was a bit boring, and I don't really enjoy having my fingers covered in glue, burned by a glue gun, or being near sharp objects.

Even though this won't be a longtime hobby, I'm glad I tried something new. I also have a great new bulletin board to hang on my wall.

Puzzled...continued

I spent a week working on this 1000 piece puzzle. I am finally done! I was surprised how much I loved doing it. It was very relaxing. This is the first semester that I haven't been totally stressed about finals, and honestly, I think this puzzle contributed to it.

Finished!

I am working on more hobbies, so I will be posting again shortly.

Puzzled

Puzzles are not really an activity I would associate with a college student. It's an activity more reminiscent of my Grandma, a toddler, or a student forced to stay inside for recess. It's certainly not an activity I would imagine myself doing.

My mom and I decided to take a trip to Hobby Lobby to find some ideas for this blog. It was as I was heading toward the register that I spotted an aisle of puzzles. Eureka! A new hobby for my blog.

There were many puzzles to choose from--Coke themed, stamps, recreations of water-colors that Moms like to put in the living room--all with various levels of difficulty. I was tempted to choose an easy one--after all, I am a beginner, and this was just an experiment for a blog--but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the purpose of this blog was to find something new and leave my comfort zone. So I chose a whimsical tea-set themed 1000 piece puzzle.

My lovely puzzle

I haven't actually done a puzzle since third grade. I loved puzzles when I was little (I was rewarded with Disney-themed puzzles a child, but that's another story), but they fell by the wayside when I was introduced to things like Oregon Trail and the Playstation.

I was in for a surprise. This was not like the puzzles of my youth. This was a complex puzzle. I was in over my head, but I dove in anyway.

I spent three hours doing edges first (while simultaneously watching Project Runway repeats). During this time my shoulder ached, by back hurt, I actually cried, and I swore very loudly. Who knew puzzles could be so emotional? However, after the initial discomfort and frustration, I actually grew to like it.

To my complete shock, I actually spent a chunk of today doing the puzzle, and what felt like five minutes in the afternoon was in reality an hour and a half. There is something very soothing about doing puzzles. I have complete control of a chaotic situation, and in the end it all works out into an interesting piece of "art". It's almost therapeutic.

My work so far

So much detail!

Needless to say, I have found a new hobby. My Grandma Green "puzzles", so I am hoping this will be a common interest we can share. I plan to send my old puzzles to her in Pocatello, Idaho, along with a handwritten note. We can be "Puzzle Pals".

The lesson I've learned through this particular experience is that you should never assume you will dislike something. I let go of my puzzle prejudice and found a pastime I truly like. This isn't the end, though! I have many more hobbies to try--and if they all work out this well, I will be a very busy girl.

Finding a hobby

When I was in 11th grade I took a sewing class where I learned that I had a love of sewing. I loved the class so much that I took the class every semester until I graduated. It was there that I developed a passion for quilting.

My second quilt finished on my last day of Senior Year.

My first quilt I started my first semester of Junior year and finished my first semester of Senior year.

I created these two quilts as part of the final projects for the four classes. I loved doing them, as a hobby, it was simply unrealistic. Quilting is extremely time consuming, expensive (each of those quilts cost me at least $150 to make), and requires access to expensive equipment (a quality sewing machine can cost about $1500, and a quilting machine is around $5000-10000). While fun, it was almost stressful--it caused me great shoulder pain and became very tedious.

You can see all the detail that goes into sewing...I did all the stitching on a quilting machine.

The point of this story of my fallen hobby is that hobbies need to be fun and relaxing--not stressful. I miss sewing, and if I have learned anything from this experience it's that hobbies you love fall into your lap when you least expect it.