What do you do in your spare time?

[GreenEyesToo]

That's gorgeous, Quoll! I wouldn't have thought that was a first attempt (but then I know nothing about knots, French or otherwise!)

How long did it take you to do?

[pattirose]

! That's really pretty Quoll. Great job!

[ree]

Quoll,
Now I've seen two impressive examples of your work! You are
so talented! Like GE2 I can hardly believe this is an example of
a first attempt! I'm also curious to know how long it took to complete.

[quoll]

Thank you folks!!

That was the result of a 3 hour workshop starting from absolute scratch so I was very happy with it - especially as a good deal of time was spent learning how to do French Knots!!!! Silk ribbon embroidery is great - it is quite forgiving of incompetencies really. I even bought a kit of a wildflower garden to do but not sure when I will ever get around to doing it!

[quoll]

Here's my most recent achievement. Whilst it may not appear much, you should know that I am the world's worst knitter! DH is thrilled, I gave them to him even though they are a bit snug - he has been pestering me to knit him socks for years

[GreenEyesToo]

Love those colours! Well done, Quoll - much better than I could do (but then that's not saying much!)

[ambra]

I used to cross-stitch but I haven't done it in a long time. My craft of choice now is soap making; I just do the melt-and-pour stuff: melt base, add fragrance and color, pour in mold, let cool, pop out and you're done. I found a mold with the memorial ribbon on it and I'm going to try to make soaps with different colored ribbons in different scents to raise money for the Relay for Life this year.

I'm also into touring wineries, thanks to my mom. There are a couple of nice ones, Chateau Morrisette and Villa Appallacia, near my home. I'll probably make a trip to them in the spring to get a few bottles of my favorite wines from each one.

I'm also into history; living in VA, you either end up loving or hating it because there's so much of it around you. I grew up near Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown and went on many school trips to those places growing up. One of the biggest thrills I've had was about a year ago when I went with my dad to the Mariner's Museum in Newport News and got to see where they're restoring the USS Monitor. It gave me chills looking into the restoration lab at the gun turrett and cannons that were being worked on, knowing I was looking at a major piece of history.

My mom's been doing the geneology family and I've been reading up on the research she's done. I love the little stories about our family that she's found out like my great-great-great-great grandfather being kidnapped by Indians, taken to OH, then escaping and walking back to VA two years later or the letters my mom found to my great-grandfather from a rather miffed young lady who wasn't happy that he'd taken her sister on a sleigh ride. Things like that are more interesting to me than who descended from whom.

[tipou]

this is great! i find lots of things i have in common with other fangirls.

i like all kind of arts and crafts. i lack the patience for many of them though. i prefer collage, painting & drawing - watercoulour and gel pens are my current passions. i loooooooove paper, i collect all sorts of papers from around the world, i even learned papermaking.

lots of my online friends are into soap making. i just love reading them, when they share recipes about fragrances and textures... its some kind of witch craft to me.

i kind of stumbled into history myself. my first job when i finished college was with a local historical society. i thought i would bore myself to death - surprise! - i got hooked. and forged lifelong friendships too. during the first day i was put in charge of inventoring the contents of a private "cache" lately discovered in the home of a prominent citizen - official documents, but some private too... i had to be discreet, of course, but it was such a precious gift to explore the life of another human being like this... we ended up writing a story of the family, and this became a labour of love for me - that is where i got the writing bug.

i would so love to live, like you, in such an historical place. your sense of self is certainly different when you can walk upon those sites. whenever i visit a "historical site", its like the ghosts inhabit me, my heart keeps pounding! i feel them there, those who lived there. its so powerful, isn't it?

people should write more in this thread. its nice to find out about people.

[dirtygirldiva]

I think everyone pretty much knows me....I'm the roller derby, foul mouthed sailor that mothers the world over adore....lol

I guess one thing that isn't quite known is that I am studying to be a Graphic Designer. I'm taking college classes right now at the local community college to earn my associates degree, then I plan on taking that and transferring to the University of Washington to pursue my batchelors degree. I hope to one day run my own graphics house, or something similar. I fell in love with graphic design in my junior year of High School when I took a class on computer graphics. The assignments were fun and creative, like create a logo for a fictional company, construct an advertising campaign for an already existing product. I like the fact that I can use my artistict side to build a career.

I guess the roller derby is a way I can express myself and not feel like a fish out of water. Growing up, most of my friends all had significant others, or guys that were always oggling them, or things they knew how to do and were great at. I've always been kind of a jack of all trades...I know a little bit about a lot of things, but was never really great at any one thing, drove me nuts for the longest. And while I am not great at roller derby, I still feel like it's something that I do, that not a lot of other people do, letting me stand out a little. Plus it's a great way to boost self esteem and blow off steam after a long day at work.

I also love photography and writing fanfiction. Writing fanfiction is fun as hell, because you get to take characters from your favorite medium and make them do what you want, or what you know they should have done. I love writing for Harry Potter (Severus/Hermione) and for CSI (Grissom/Sara) I never thought I could write a good story that was told from Severus or Grissom's POV, I always related more to the female leads, but I found that the more I wrote and the more I read other peoples work, the better I got at getting into their heads.

I guess I just like to keep busy...idleness makes me think too much, and that is never a good thing with me...lol

[tipou]

DGD, i studied in fine arts! so we have things in common apart from rufus. anyplace i can see your things?

[dirtygirldiva]

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