Quarantine Hobbies

While spending so much time at home, I discovered some new hobbies to fill the time and to still feel productive while I wasn't able to work. When it was first announced that everything was closing and we were asked to stay home as much as possible, I knew I needed a project to work on or I would go crazy. So I looked on the Just Serve app for any kind of service project I would be able to work on at home. I was so excited to find the wonderful organization, Dolls of Hope, they send handmade teddy bears and dolls all around the world to all kinds of children in need. The pattern and all needed supplies are listed online and anybody can make bears/dolls to donate. This was exactly what I was looking for! 

I headed to Joannes and loaded up on all different patterns of super soft fleece. Luckily, it was all on mega sale because we were moving into the warmer months and they were trying to sell off the warmer fabrics. I tried to get a good mix of patterns that would appeal to both boys and girls, there were so many cute patterns to choose from, it was hard to narrow it down.

I would work on the bears every night while watching a movie, it was like my little fun night in, every night. The bears are so easy to make, from start to finish each bear takes around 20-25 minutes. I kind of streamlined the process and would cut a bunch out, then embroider all their faces, then sew their shells, then fill them with stuffing and sew up their seams.

The kitties loved helping.

For how easy and quick they are to make, they are super adorable and are pretty big! They were such a rewarding project to work on.

My pile of bears in the corner grew bigger and bigger!

I eventually made 70 before I needed a little bit of a break. I packaged them all up and dropped them off at the Dolls of Hope in American Fork. Karin thought it was such a fun idea, that she made some too! She brought them up when they visited in July so I could drop hers off at the same time.

Dolls of Hope keeps track of everyones donations and when they send a shipment of bears and dolls, they let you know who made them, so I can see where my bears get sent.

I just got the first notification of where some of my bears were sent, a domestic violence shelter Chinle, Arizona.

There was a fun little movement happening around the world of recreating famous works of art at home. I was so excited about this trend, it was so fun to see so many people getting into art history! My family has been recreating works of art since I was a kid. It was one of the many ways my mom would prepare us before visiting museums to get us excited about the artwork we would be seeing.

Here is a selection of some of the masterpieces the family recreated:

Frida Kahlo on White Bench by Nickolas Muray

Escaping Criticism, by Pere Borrell del Caso

We of course had to get our pets involved...

Woman with Cat, by Edouard Manet

Girl with Cat, By Albert Anker

Girl with Cat, by Rudolf Epp

Girl with a Cat, by Antoni Piotrowski

The Sleeping Gypsy, by Henri Rousseau

Woman with Cat, by Boris Gregoriev

Snap the Whip, by Winslow Homer

I really wanted to recreate some Mucha paintings because Art Nouveau is my favorite and I thought they would be super easy because they are usually of just one girl in fancy outfits. They turned out to be harder than I thought to recreate, but I managed to do a couple that were kinda close.

Beers of the Muse, by Alphonse Mucha

Sarah Bernhardt, the Lady of the Camellias, by Alphonse Mucha

Mother and Two Children, by Mary Cassatt

Infanta Margarita Teresa in Silver Dress, by Diego Velázquez

Blue Halo Mary

Three Musicians, by Pablo Picasso

After we had been in quarantine for a couple of months, sweet mom thought it would be fun to send all her girls a fun little surprise in the mail. She sent the other families puzzles that they could do together, but she knew that I hate traditional puzzles, I find them to be a big anxiety fest. So she sent me this 3D puzzle of the Queen Anne's Revenge, also known as Black Beard's ship. Such a fun surprise to get in the mail!

I watched all 5 Pirates of the Caribbean movies while I built, and I discovered The Queen Anne's Revenge was in the 4th movie! 

The cats were super helpful ...

Complete! This particular model is especially cool because it has LED lights built into it so it lights up!

Once I had finished the ship, both my mom and I thought it was so cool and it was so much fun to make, so she sent me another fun surprise in the mail, this time Notre Dame!

It was so much fun to watch movies that matched the puzzle I was building, so I made a list of all the movies that either have Notre Dame in them, or are set in Paris. 

I started out with Midnight in Paris. I love this movie so much and it has a nice scene right in front of Notre Dame.

Again, the cats were a big help ....

The next movie I watched was the 2011 version of the Three Musketeers. I didn't even know this movie existed but I am so glad I found it because it is so visually amazing, they added a lot of steampunk details, and had stunning sets. The acting and the hair are not the best, be warned, but the rest of the movie is so cool.

The movie ends with a dramatic scene of two characters jumping out of steampunk hot air balloon ships, and having an epic sword fight on the roof of Notre Dame.

I attempted to watch Amelie while building, but since it's all in French and I haven't seen it for a while, I opted to save that for a relaxing movie night after I finished the puzzle. It's another favorite of mine.

So I watched Van Helsing instead

 I ended my project with the live action Beauty and the Beast. Notre Dame is briefly in this movie, it's in the distance when they pan the city when Belle and the Beast visit her childhood home.

While The Queen Anne's Revenge is cool because it lights up, Notre Dame is cool because it opens and has lots of cool details inside.

You can really see the stained glass windows from inside.

It is also extremely detailed!

Both of these puzzles were so fun to do, and were on a similar difficulty level. Having these fun surprises show up in my mail box definitely added some sunshine to having to stay home all the time.

My other big hobby I experimented with was learning how to make sourdough bread. This was a popular hobby that lots of people picked up during quarantine since finding yeast at the grocery stores was almost impossible, so people started relying on sourdough starter. Laura was the one that really got me going on this project. She gave me some of her starter and walked me through each step of the process on my first loaf. I would FaceTime her every time I had to do a new step and she would walk me through it. There is no way I would have attempted this skill or would have succeeded without Lu as my teacher and cheerleader. 

After mixing together the ingredients, I would let it rise for 12-15 hours, usually overnight. And this bubbly surface was what I was looking for, then it was time to turn it out, knead it a few times and shape it.

After shaping it, it needed to rise for another 1-2 hours. The kneading and shaping was the one part I had a hard time with. I watched tons of youtube videos for tips on shaping, so that I would get nice high domed loaves. It still something I am working on, I need to knead it hard enough and then roll it up tight enough.

After it had risen for a while, then it was time to score it and start baking.

I got this beautiful teal pot just for this exact purpose. Baking it in this kind of lidded pot creates a nice, crusty outside.

For the last little bit of baking, you remove the lid, so the top can get nice and golden brown.

My first few loaves came out looking rather flat, but they still looked nice and rustic and they tasted AMAZING. The hardest thing about sourdough making as a hobby is not eating the entire loaf in one sitting. It was thrilling eating a delicious piece of sourdough that I had made all by myself! It was super rewarding.

I would make a loaf about once a week and then would give it to family or friends so I didn't eat my weight in bread. It was fun experimenting with the different steps and trying to get better loaves each time. 

For my first loaf, laura dropped off fresh herbs from her garden while my bread was cooking so that I could make sea salted herb butter to enjoy on my warm, freshly baked bread. I felt like I was eating at the fanciest restaurant in France when I took my first bite of warm sourdough and herb butter, it was pure heaven.

A couple of weeks into my bread making adventure, Angie dropped off some homemade jam she had made! The perfect topping for all the bread I was making! It tasted like candy and was soooooo delicious on a piece of sourdough.

With sourdough starter, you have to feed it once a week. Part of the feeding process is discarding some of the starter. At first I would just throw it away, but then I learned while watching my youtube tutorial videos, that you can make all sorts of things with the discarded starter. One of which is a pancake, you just pour it directly into a nice hot frying pan, brown it on both sides and voila, a tasty snack! I like sprinkling a little sea salt and rosemary on mine and then topping it with some butter. This little pancake might taste bland to some, and it has a very unusual texture, its kind of chewy and a little gooey. I thought it was delicious and was always excited for discard day so I could make my little pancake.