I'm a hobby collector. Jack of all trades, that's me. You know the quote, "Jack of all trades and master of none." Well, that's not the whole quote. The whole quote is: "A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one." I love that. Every hobby or skill I pick up makes me a better person. "Well-rounded," as one would put on their college application. I learn to appreciate life more with every hobby I pick up.
Photography taught me to appreciate golden hour and bask in the sun.
Coding taught me that there's more to something than what you see.
Plants have taught me that it's okay to mess up (and kill a plant)--it's only failure if you don't learn from it.
So, as a self-proclaimed hobby collector, here's my tips for starting a new hobby!
- Research it just enough, but not too much. You don't have to know everything about something before you start. Sometimes it's just fun to jump in and learn as you go! (That's how I learned photography.) But it's nice to learn at least a little bit before jumping in. (I did some Google searches to see what kind of materials I would need for acrylic painting.)
- Find some tutorials. YouTube is seriously THE BEST PLACE for tutorials. I've used it for everything from editing photos to learning about plants to sewing. We live in a day and age where you have NO EXCUSE to not learn how to do something you're interested in. I made my first skirt (and a lot of others) from a fantastic YouTube video. And made several macrame plant hangers. And followed painting tutorials. Don't underestimate the YouTube. But you know what's probably BETTER than YouTube? Learning from someone you know. I just don't always know people (or live around people) who know how to do what I want to learn. BUT I joined a knitting group to learn to knit and it's been a lot of fun. (Even though I'm bad at it.)
- Don't spend a lot of money on supplies. Seriously. Don't. You may not be into the hobby as much as you think you will be, and you don't want to waste a lot of money on it. You can learn with inexpensive materials and, if you end up LOVING it, you can spend a little money here and there to update or add to what you have. Examples: I don't paint a lot so I'm glad I bought cheap paints. But I decorated cookies for YEARS and invested into a lot of supplies. I'm also really loving sewing and have slowly acquired more tools and plan to invest and upgrade my sewing machine in the next year or so.
- Decide that you don't have to be good at it. It's okay to do something because you enjoy it and not because you're good at it. I'm not good at painting (oh how I WISH I could create something out of my brain, but all I can do is copy people) but I ENJOY it.
- HAVE FUN. Have the biggest amount of fun doing it. Even if you're not good. Even if you're horrible. Even if you do it wrong.
- Don't compare your progress or skill level to someone else's. Some people are naturally better at some things than other. So while your best friend may pick up knitting in like two weeks, you may still be dealing with tangled ball of yarn three months later. (I'm the latter of these two people when it comes to knitting.)
- Understand that it can take time to perfect/get better at something. I think that's part of what I like about new hobbies--if I'm starting at the bottom, I can only go up from here! Part of the learning process is learning what works... and what doesn't work. And that just takes TIME. The more you do something, the better you will get at it. And it's okay if it takes a long time. If you love it, keep doing it.
- You don't have to monetize your hobby. Every time I pick up a new hobby, people say, "You should sell that!" And while I know they mean it in all niceness, it kind of annoys me. I want to be able to do things just because I like them! Not to make money. So no, I do not sell skirts. I sew because I like to make myself unique skirts I can't find anywhere else. On the other hand, I did sell baked goods for several years to raise money for my missions trips. I was able to fully fund three missions trips that way. But I recently closed my side business, which leads us to...
- If you don't enjoy it, it's okay to quit. My passion for baking and decorating cookies slowly faded after a few years and a few thousand cookies. People often ask me when I'm making cookies again, and I just smile and tell them I've moved on to new things. (Like sewing. For love, not money.)
For funzies, here are a few of the hobbies I've tried over the years:
- blogging (particularly book blogging and style blogging)
- photography
- writing (I did a few drafts of some fiction books--it was fun!)
- coding (HTML. Though I've experimented with a few other things.)
- baking/cooking (I had a side gig making decorated cookies for a few years)
- plants (not quite the same as gardening--I just love to love houseplants)
- scrapbooking
- watercolor and acrylics
- embroidery
- sewing (my current fave hobby)
- knitting
- macrame
- quilting (I'm working on my first quilt!)
And here are some things I want to try at some point in the future:
- making pottery
- crochet
- quilting
- woodworking
- gardening (flowers and food)
- birdwatching (and identifying)
- jam/jelly making
- candle making
- soap making
- applique
- leather work
- making hair feathers
