Hobbies: Knowing when to walk away, knowing when to run

 I love gardening. I am not a good gardener. I start seeds that turn into seedlings... that die. I buy seedlings that I plant... that die. I water too much. I don't water enough. And my tomatoes know it. And show it.I love it. I love it all. Conversely, I was strolling through the aisles of the local fabric store admiring the balls of yarn, bolts of fabric and other haberdashery items. Stroking them. Wondering about them. Admiring them.Then I promptly walked away to go kill more things in my garden.That is the difference between hobbies you should be running toward and those you should be running from. I'll spend big money on my garden (almost without thinking about it) but can't muster permission to put down a fiver for a few yards of fabric.I'm also tossing much of my art journal "hobby." I have realized that it takes up so much room in my actual room and in my brain. When I finally get to it, I find it rather boring. My art journal and I are not friends. She is bossy and gets high on guilt trips.

“Their friendship was like a wilted bunch of flowers that she insisted on topping up with water. Why not let it die instead?” One Day, David Nicholls

I salivate and get all inspired by Instagrammers who make beautiful art journals. I'm just not one of them. In fact, I think I genuinely get more out of seeing their photos than creating my own pages. I blame mydocumentedlife. She's just so good and I wish all my stuff were like her pages, but it's not. And trying just makes me tired.I'd rather fill my bird feeder for the cats next door. More entertaining. (All the cat lovers are nodding and the bird lovers are shaking their heads.)I'm aware that I created this actual published art journal:Sometimes it's good to level with oneself. And this self is leaning toward the garden centre.All this time at home (we are in another lockdown here) has me counting the Currency of Things. Sewing stashes and art journal materials is expensive in the currencies of time and mind space. I'd rather be blogging, writing, creating online writing courses, and killing plants (not intentionally, just a side effect of my mad "skills").Is this part of spring fever? Am I going to start wanting to wash walls? Is this what is going on here? I'm actually excited to put stuff in the garbage bag, thereby giving myself a free pass and not feeling obligated to make art. I can't believe I'm typing this but it's true.I invite you to do the same. Just fail big at a hobby and chuck all the stuff. The last time I did this, I ended up in Paris. I'm not sure what will happen this time, but I know for certain that for the moment, I'm just really excited about full garbage bags.One of the side effects of this purging is finding material for writing. Seems I can't walk by a ripped page of an atlas without being transported to a sunlit day of my angsty 20s. So I've been back to writing. And that feels good.Also, since I've just freed my mind of art journaling and sewing, I'll be blogging more. Subscribe to the blog to get these sent to your inbox. I'm getting my freebies together so you'll also be the first to know about freebies, online writing courses, and plants I murder.I've been loving all the photos of the new book and pets. Keep posting them on Instagram!