LIFE WITH LYNN


Sharing and enjoying my small-town life with my darling husband, family, friends,
faith, two adorable Ragdoll cats and one very sassy Yorkie!


Monday, September 20, 2010

Day # 20 (A Hobby of Mine)















A hobby of mine?  This was another HARD one.  I have LOTS of interests!  My problem is not lack of hobbies, my problem is lack of TIME to pursue them!

I love to do so many things!  Honestly, I simply do NOT understand "boredom".  How can anyone ever be bored in this wonderful world full of so many interesting and fun things to learn and do???!

OK... so before I get off on a tangent about that, back to the post at hand!
My main passion is probably quilt-making.  And if you click here, you can see my earlier blog post about my quilts. 

I love making quilts because:

(# 1) I love quilts.  I just DO.  I always have.  I love wrapping up in them, I love sleeping under them, I love the look and the feel of quilts and ...

(# 2) Quilting uses fabric and I am a fabric junkie.  I have what we quilter's affectionately refer to as "a stash".  A very big stash.  This means yards and yards of fabric, in a rainbow of colors and myriads of patterns... just waiting to be used.  I love looking at, touching, and buying beautiful fabric.   To me, quilting is like painting with fabric.

Here are a few quilts I have made that are not pictured in the other post:










































This next quilt is one of my favorites... I made it for my nephew, Alex.  I told him there was love in every stitch, and there was!





















I am working on a new one right now, for our queen size guest bed. 
Bentley likes sleeping on the pieces!















Yes, I'll  definitely have to de-furr it before I can sew it together... but that's OK!

OK, so time to move on to Hobby #2.  I also love (decorative) painting... and here are some things I have painted:









I like to paint fruit.   This is a wooden top to a neat tin-punch basket:
























More fruit.  What you can't really see in the photo is the light metallic "shimmer" on the fruit.    That was a fun technique.








An old shoe shine kit, cleaned up and "fancified"!
































I also LOVE folk art.  This was a fun project.   It's actually just a cardboard box; I painted and faux-finished the bottom of the box to look like aged leather.

















Another fun project.  "Apple Orchard" on a wooden Bentwood box..














I'll paint on anything... even old crocks! 















 Painting little cottages is fun... and I went through a "birdhouse" phase!  ;o)






























A couple of stools I painted:

















The top:













 The top of the second stool:










This sign is pretty long, almost 3 feet.  



Another sign I made.  (My life's motto in 3 words!)






One of my favorite pieces... a sailboat with a painted canvas sail and flag.  I also faux-finished the bottom of the boat (it was just a plain block of wood.)
























Crackled herbs and seeds sign, hanging in our guest bedroom:






Another favorite.  Looks like it's painted on old vintage wormwood, right?  Wrong!  Just a well-distressed and "antiqued" new piece of pine!  ;o)








A yellow rose.  I am actually pretty proud of the "water droplets" -- I think they look nicely realistic. 















Well, I could go on and on showing you stuff I have painted.... but I think you get the idea, right?!

I also like to make jewelry... fun, beaded costume jewelry.  I have a huge collection of beads in all shapes and sizes.  (I like to collect beads, too!)  Some earrings I have made: (I love dangly, french hook earrings... always have!)


























My favorite bracelets to make are simple stretchy bracelets made with beads and silver accents.  I wear three of  these bracelets together A LOT.  Soooooo cute - and match almost everything!































I also like to "stamp" and scrapbook.  I have boxes of rubber stamps and inks and other supplies.  I make cards and memory books.  I can also use scraps of fabrics and beads in some of my projects.  As you can see, all of my hobbies have started overlapping!!!

Some cards (with matching envelopes) I have made:
Cards are fun, QUICK 'N' EASY projects!  And so much fun to send.
(The card at the very top of this post is another one I made.)





























Here's a sampling of some scrapbooking I have done.
One for Boo... (Yes, my cat has a scrapbook.  Oh, quit laughing, it's not THAT funny!!!!)  ;o)













A few pages from it:























A vacation scrapbook I made from a cruise my husband and I were on a couple of years ago:













A few pages from it:
I like to cross-stitch, although I haven't done a project in years.  I've done some pretty cute ones, though.
Here's one that hangs in our downstairs guest bedroom:


















I have also done stained glass, ceramics and pottery, VERY fun.  


I love home decorating, and scouring flea markets and garage sales for fun finds that I can repair, strip and refinish, or re-paint, or otherwise make functional and beautiful.

Here's a darling small dresser that I found at a flea market for $2.00.  A couple of coats of red paint, and some stenciled stars, then an all-over *distressing* , and voila' !

















I like to cross-country ski.

I like to roller blade.  (Sorry, no pictures of that!!!)

I like to travel.  (Is that a "hobby"?)  (There will more info on that in a future post... so please stay tuned!)

I also like to read.  Mostly murder mysteries and whodunnits, but I'll read almost anything.

Sooo---  as you can see, there is NO shortage of things I love to do.  I just need more time to be able to them!

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