Hobbies

When I finished college and started my first real job it seemed like I worked all the time. My co-workers were mostly around the same age as me that I didn't even notice how much I worked because work was a lot of fun. Really. It was.

Then I moved from my job in R&D to a position in sales and it was fun in a different way. I was on my own most of the time, which was not fun, but I had the chance to travel all around the country meeting new people, consulting with my customers, seeing how many different electronics were made. In that job I was in the air or another state about 75% of my time and it didn't leave much free time to explore my interests outside of travel - and travel I did making good use of all my hundreds of thousands of frequent flier miles to cash in on vacations near and far.

When I moved from sales into a marketing role I enrolled in an executive M.B.A. degree program that took place on the weekends and left me with little to no free time. It did, however, introduce me to some of the most amazing people and I soon made some strong friendships with my classmates. The day after I graduated with my MBA Chris and I met - and six months later started planning our wedding. Not too long into our newlywed phase I became pregnant with Julia and then time just seems to have flown by since then. I was so busy in the years after college that I didn't have too much time to figure out what I liked to do and invest time in some hobbies outside of traveling.

Since I was laid-off last summer I've had a chance to carve out a bit of time to pursue some interests. I always loved taking photographs and so I enrolled in a couple online classes to learn Photoshop and digital scrapbooking. This fueled my interest in taking better photos and resulted in my taking some photography classes and getting a DSLR camera. I'm having a lot of fun learning to take better photos and feel like all the learning is really making a difference in the quality of photos I take. I'm also starting to get better about creating scrapbook pages to document for the girls all the fun we have as a family.

The other hobby I've recently explored is sewing. It was mostly out of a desire to make some customized stuff for Emma. I had never even heard of a running stitch before I purchased my sewing machine in March, but my mom is excellent with all things sewing and crafty so I figured I'd be fine to give my "custom" items a go. Mom worked with me a bit, I took a intro. to sewing class at the craft store and just started to play with the machine a bit on my own. I don't get much time to sew since it's not something easily integrated into our busy days but I do find that it is very satisfying to create something yourself when I get some free moments.

On Mother's Day I got a chance to spend some time sewing. I made a shawl bib for Emma and a dress for Julia. I used one of Julia's shawls as a template but think that it is a bit too big. Next time I'm going to make it smaller so it covers only to Emma's elbows and the front goes down to her midriff. Overall, though, I like how it turned out and am happy that I got to use some fun fabric instead of the more babyish bib patterns at the store.

The dress was a bit more challenging than I expected since I had to layer two material together so it wasn't a see-thru dress. I also made some straps from the interior fabric and getting that measurement right was harder than expected with a wriggly little girl who was not interested in sitting still for me to measure. None-the-less, I'm thrilled with the way it turned out and Julia loves it, too! Here she is modeling the dress for me.

Next up, making a camera strap cover that I found here. I'm not sure how it will turn out or when I'll get some time to dedicate to sewing again, but one thing I know is it sure will feel good to know that I made it myself.