Here’s the thing about hobbies: they’re expensive. I don’t care what it is. Quilting, crocheting, fishing...you’re going to shell out money no matter what.
But here’s the other thing about hobbies. They are essential. Not that you should spend all your time on hobbies, but you know the old saying about all work and no play. There has to be a balance.
I spent an undisclosed amount of money on yarn over the winter. You could submit me to the worst torture method you’ve got, and I wouldn’t give up that amount. Captain doesn't even know, and we are going to keep it that way. However, that investment brought me many hours of enjoyment, which in turn, allowed me to bring enjoyment--I hope--to those I shared my finished items with.
It’s getting too warm now for me to crochet now. It’s too early for gardening. I could do some reading, but I am seriously super picky about what books I buy. Nora Roberts (a/k/a J.D. Robb) is the only author I will spend money on. I know I could go to the public library and get books for free, except they aren’t really free for me because I always end up with late fees.
So this in-between time leaves me with a lot of time on my hands. I remembered I had picked up a wood burning kit on a garage sale several years ago thinking I would use that, some raw wood pieces, and a nice Min-Wax stain/varnish combo to make wall decor. Good theory, but it turns out that wood burner isn’t as easy to use as I thought it might be.
Go to plan B and we have raw wood items, stencils, paint markers, and stain/varnish. My first two attempts in this arena were both enjoyable to me and wall-worthy for anyone I might decide to gift them to.
Back to the money thing. Hobby Lobby has a nice selection of raw wood items, and I’m sure I could find a bazillion others on Amazon. None of them are out-of-this-world expensive but still cost something. Stencils aren’t terribly expensive, plus they are reusable so that’s a plus.
I bought a couple of different alphabet stencils--the kind where the whole alphabet, both upper and lower case, were on one sheet. This worked okay, but it was a little difficult to be sure I had the letters all the exact same space apart and lined up exactly the same.
I started researching to see if I could get the alphabet stencils where the letters were...freestanding, for lack of a better word. That way I could line them up better. Yes, but those were a little more expensive and there weren’t a lot of choices for fonts.
One of my bowling ladies mentioned using her Cricut to make my own customized stencils. I had a vague idea what a Cricut was since my niece does a bunch of scrap-booking, but I had NO idea they could do everything the videos say they can do!
So here’s the expensive part of this new hobby. Those things are $100 and up, depending on which model you buy. I will be adding this to my wish list for the future because I had 500 ideas pop into my head while I was looking at the tutorial videos.
Maybe I will just take my friend up on her offer and have an excuse to get together with her for coffee some Saturday morning. You can’t put a price on that!
Images used:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/1d/c9/d2/1dc9d298580c1d9b9c2deebc7dc068a7.jpg
https://www.memecreator.org/static/images/memes/4105312.jpg
http://www.spraypaintstencils.com/alphabetstencils/Military-image.gif
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