Thursday
Jun162005
wordgoddess collab: hobbies
Thursday, June 16, 2005 at 11:13AM
Today's entry is part of a Wordgoddess collab. The topic: "hobbies."
The word "hobbies" itself could be the subject of some debate. I decided to go with the Wikipedia definition of hobby: "Hobbies are practised for interest and enjoyment, rather than financial reward." So though I'm a writer for interest and enjoyment as well financial reward (though the latter is not as spectacular as I would like yet), I'll omit it from this entry.
Drawing
I've always loved drawing. Probably because I hated colouring when I was a kid, could never stay inside the lines. My friends back in early grade school used to ask me to draw pictures so they could colour them.
You can see some of my doodles on this page.
Comics
This is related to the above hobby, of course, but I now consider it a hobby on its own. Some of my comics:
Waiting For Frodo: A three-year trip I did about a avid fan and his friends waiting in line for upcoming Lord of the Rings movies. I even had fans at Weta Digital. :-)
My Life In A Nutshell: Semi-autobiographical comic.
Inkygirl comics: These are comics related to the writing life. I posted some during Nanowrimo a while back, posting others to Inkygirl from time to time.
Gardening comics: Just started this collection. :-)
Music
Jodi, Allison and I perform at Confluence in 2004.
Photo by John Hall.
I've been a member of the filk/folk trio Urban Tapestry for almost twelve years now. Jodi, Allison and I get together to practise for upcoming gigs (hey, we're performing in a castle in Germany this October!) and just to hang out. We have a tape and two CDs. We all write songs for the group, and some have aired on national radio.
This definitely fits the definition of hobby, since we don't make nearly enough money to call it anything else. We're happy if we make enough from CD sales to enable us to get to conventions where we can hang out with friends and make music. :-) I have fun playing music on my own, but I find I get far more pleasure out of playing with other people.
If you're wondering what filk is, do check out my site, The Dandelion Report.
Instruments I play:
Piano (I taught piano for about 25 years part-time), flute, Celtic harp, penny whistle, guitar, assorted bangy percussion things. My tendinitis has made it tough to play some of these instruments in the past few years, but I'm confident that my tendons will eventually recover to that point I'll be able to pick them all up again at some point.
This past year, I also started to get into Irish session music with my penny whistle, attending biweekly sessions in Toronto.
And above and to the right you can see a studio picture of my harp, custom-built by Larry Fisher (click for bigger version).
Urban Tapestry keychain figures created by Michelle Bottorff. I'm the one in the middle!
Our friend Kathleen Sloan bought these for us at an Interfilk auction.
Collections
When I was a kid, I used to collect autographs. I was too shy to ask for them in person, so usually researched contact info in the big Who's Who in our local library, then write to the person with a letter and a self-addressed stamped envelope. My collection includes autographs from Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Zenna Henderson, Michael Crichton, Mort Walker, Anne Murray, Isaac Asimov, the Carpenters, Jean-Pierre Rampal, and Bill Gaines (MAD magazine).
One of my favourites was a hand-typed letter from Stephen King. It even had liquid papered corrected mistakes.
I also used to collect stamps; I'm sure my stamp collection is sitting in some box in our storage locker right now.
I currently collect postcards, and have started posting them in my Flickr postcard collection. I recently added postcards from Mary Ellen (Vermont) and Alexa (Germany)...thanks so much! If you feel like sending me one, please mail it to: Debbie Ridpath Ohi, 34 Eglinton Ave W., P.O. Box 189, Toronto, ON Canada M4R 2H6.
I have a weird food collection (non-perishable items) which I plan to display on Flickr once we get settled in our new house.
I also collect bookmarks. This is one of my favourite collectible item because they're small, relatively inexpensive, and I use them all the time. At the end of Waiting For Frodo, I sent out a shameless plea for bookmarks and was gratified by the response. Here are a few that I received from around the globe:
Crafts
The photo below is of my first attempt at painted ceramics. I was quite pleased with how it turned out (a gift for Jeff) but want to experiment more with paint colours and textures.
One thing I'm really looking forward to in our new house is having a home office large enough to turn one of the corners into a craft area. When we lived out in the country, I used to be involved in all kinds of crafty-type activities, and even made a bit of money off some freelance work. I tend to give most of my craft projects away to friends and family, and my few still-surviving projects are in the storage locker, so I'll just have to describe them in text instead of posting photos:
Papermaking
Watercolor painting (I handpainted our wedding invitations and programs)
Wreath-making (woven entirely from materials I found outside)
Fimo sculptures (tiny animals I'd do for fun, then give to friends)
Christmas ornaments made from felt (I had fun creating unique ornaments)
Rubber stamping
Beading (Allison showed me how to make earrings)
As for needlework, I've never had much luck due to lack of patience. My one and only completed needlework project was a crocheted baby blanket for my niece Sara, started when I heard my sister was pregnant. It ended up being the size of a large misshapen handkerchief rather than a blanket, but I did still proudly sew a "MADE BY YOUR AUNT" label into one corner.
Gardening
This is a very recently started hobby inspired by our purchase of a new house that came with an established perennial garden. Here's one of my favourite views of the garden (along side of the house), which I'm currently using as a desktop image:
Yikes. This entry is way too long, and I could easily keep blathering on about other hobby-type activities like photography, canoe trips and cooking and chocolate and learning languages and food movies and office supply stores and tea and and and
But I'd better post this now before it gets unmanageable. I guess what I've learned most from this entry is that there are so many interesting and exciting things to do in the world and too little time to do them. :-)
The word "hobbies" itself could be the subject of some debate. I decided to go with the Wikipedia definition of hobby: "Hobbies are practised for interest and enjoyment, rather than financial reward." So though I'm a writer for interest and enjoyment as well financial reward (though the latter is not as spectacular as I would like yet), I'll omit it from this entry.
Drawing
I've always loved drawing. Probably because I hated colouring when I was a kid, could never stay inside the lines. My friends back in early grade school used to ask me to draw pictures so they could colour them.
You can see some of my doodles on this page.
 |  |
Comics
This is related to the above hobby, of course, but I now consider it a hobby on its own. Some of my comics:
Waiting For Frodo: A three-year trip I did about a avid fan and his friends waiting in line for upcoming Lord of the Rings movies. I even had fans at Weta Digital. :-)
My Life In A Nutshell: Semi-autobiographical comic.
Inkygirl comics: These are comics related to the writing life. I posted some during Nanowrimo a while back, posting others to Inkygirl from time to time.
Gardening comics: Just started this collection. :-)
Music
Photo by John Hall.
I've been a member of the filk/folk trio Urban Tapestry for almost twelve years now. Jodi, Allison and I get together to practise for upcoming gigs (hey, we're performing in a castle in Germany this October!) and just to hang out. We have a tape and two CDs. We all write songs for the group, and some have aired on national radio.
 |
This definitely fits the definition of hobby, since we don't make nearly enough money to call it anything else. We're happy if we make enough from CD sales to enable us to get to conventions where we can hang out with friends and make music. :-) I have fun playing music on my own, but I find I get far more pleasure out of playing with other people.
If you're wondering what filk is, do check out my site, The Dandelion Report.
Instruments I play:
Piano (I taught piano for about 25 years part-time), flute, Celtic harp, penny whistle, guitar, assorted bangy percussion things. My tendinitis has made it tough to play some of these instruments in the past few years, but I'm confident that my tendons will eventually recover to that point I'll be able to pick them all up again at some point.
This past year, I also started to get into Irish session music with my penny whistle, attending biweekly sessions in Toronto.
And above and to the right you can see a studio picture of my harp, custom-built by Larry Fisher (click for bigger version).
Our friend Kathleen Sloan bought these for us at an Interfilk auction.
Collections
When I was a kid, I used to collect autographs. I was too shy to ask for them in person, so usually researched contact info in the big Who's Who in our local library, then write to the person with a letter and a self-addressed stamped envelope. My collection includes autographs from Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Zenna Henderson, Michael Crichton, Mort Walker, Anne Murray, Isaac Asimov, the Carpenters, Jean-Pierre Rampal, and Bill Gaines (MAD magazine).
One of my favourites was a hand-typed letter from Stephen King. It even had liquid papered corrected mistakes.
I also used to collect stamps; I'm sure my stamp collection is sitting in some box in our storage locker right now.
 |
I have a weird food collection (non-perishable items) which I plan to display on Flickr once we get settled in our new house.
I also collect bookmarks. This is one of my favourite collectible item because they're small, relatively inexpensive, and I use them all the time. At the end of Waiting For Frodo, I sent out a shameless plea for bookmarks and was gratified by the response. Here are a few that I received from around the globe:
Crafts
The photo below is of my first attempt at painted ceramics. I was quite pleased with how it turned out (a gift for Jeff) but want to experiment more with paint colours and textures.
One thing I'm really looking forward to in our new house is having a home office large enough to turn one of the corners into a craft area. When we lived out in the country, I used to be involved in all kinds of crafty-type activities, and even made a bit of money off some freelance work. I tend to give most of my craft projects away to friends and family, and my few still-surviving projects are in the storage locker, so I'll just have to describe them in text instead of posting photos:
Papermaking
Watercolor painting (I handpainted our wedding invitations and programs)
Wreath-making (woven entirely from materials I found outside)
Fimo sculptures (tiny animals I'd do for fun, then give to friends)
Christmas ornaments made from felt (I had fun creating unique ornaments)
Rubber stamping
Beading (Allison showed me how to make earrings)
As for needlework, I've never had much luck due to lack of patience. My one and only completed needlework project was a crocheted baby blanket for my niece Sara, started when I heard my sister was pregnant. It ended up being the size of a large misshapen handkerchief rather than a blanket, but I did still proudly sew a "MADE BY YOUR AUNT" label into one corner.
Gardening
This is a very recently started hobby inspired by our purchase of a new house that came with an established perennial garden. Here's one of my favourite views of the garden (along side of the house), which I'm currently using as a desktop image:
Yikes. This entry is way too long, and I could easily keep blathering on about other hobby-type activities like photography, canoe trips and cooking and chocolate and learning languages and food movies and office supply stores and tea and and and
But I'd better post this now before it gets unmanageable. I guess what I've learned most from this entry is that there are so many interesting and exciting things to do in the world and too little time to do them. :-)
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