Curious as to what other hobbies you guys have ?

[vanalisa]

I've still got the back stitch to do on it but the cross stitch part is now finished and once lock down is over I'll get it framed for her.
View attachment 101060

Really pretty!
So you improvise the background stuff and/or fill in with a similar colour.
I bet that will be heavy when it's all finished maybe I'll get an easy tiny kit and try again.

 

[Sylvan]

This one has the background left unstitched and uses the colour of the aida to fill in for sky. I've got some more cross stitches to get on with now this one is done.

 

[vanalisa]

I've still got the back stitch to do on it but the cross stitch part is now finished and once lock down is over I'll get it framed for her.
View attachment 101060

Oh, I thought back stitch meant filling in the other part. It's very pretty and really makes me want to stop eating meat.
(Sorry, I'm struggling with my heart over eating meat).

 

[Sylvan]

Oh, I thought back stitch meant filling in the other part. It's very pretty and really makes me want to stop eating meat.
(Sorry, I'm struggling with my heart over eating meat).

Back stitch is outlining so this one will have the cow and calf outlined and the top set of branches.

 

[Essjay]

All this talk, I've just been looking at kits on Ebay and Amazon, but my husband doesn't like the one I like (it's "too orange")
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00FRH25S6/?tag=

 

[Sylvan]

All this talk, I've just been looking at kits on Ebay and Amazon, but my husband doesn't like the one I like (it's "too orange")
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00FRH25S6/?tag=

That's lovely, try lovecrafts as well, they have some nice kits in and theyre not too much different in price to amazon.

 

[Essjay]

This is the last one I did, the kit was a Christmas present from my son and daughter-in-law. And yes, it's been altered. The kit came with 14 count fabric but I used 18; the robin had red legs but all the robins I've seen have brown legs; the background should have been unstitched but i filled it in with half cross using 2 stands white and one strand glitter thread which creates a rippling glitter effect as you walk round the room. You can just make it out in the photo.

And this is the kind I usually do. Sorry about the reflections and shadows as it's hanging on the wall at right angles to the window.

 

[Sylvan]

They're beautiful, the bottom one must have taken you hours!

 

[Essjay]

On and off, a few years. I started it shortly before my mother came to live with us then left it and only finished it years later after she moved into a care home.

 

[howard_hopkinson]

Besides my aquarium activities I also do the following.
Play both acoustic and electric guitars and sing, play chess, wildlife photography including insect pics. I also do astrophotography taking pictures of galaxies, nebulae and star clusters etc.
I also like making timelapse videos.

 

[snailaquarium]

I see, building those new neural pathways can be hard, especially if the old ones are stubborn. It can be done, I've had some success with some issues, others, not so much

Well, there are many different approaches to issues people have, you should seek therapy from a range of therapists regarding the issue, now I don't mean go book up ten appointments when you can with ten different therapists, but if one method got you nowhere, try another.

I've made some fantastic changes in my life, if you had said to me as a shy young man "one day you'll be running your own TV channel (YouTube didn't exist back then) I'd have given you a two word response.

 

[snailaquarium]

I also do astrophotography taking pictures of galaxies, nebulae and star clusters etc.

Would you share any of these and explain your setup? I have a telescope, its broker but now I have lots f time on my hands I might be able to fix it.

 

[Essjay]

I also do astrophotography taking pictures of galaxies, nebulae and star clusters etc.

I know it's not a galaxy nebula or star cluster but Venus is spectacular at the moment.

 

[snailaquarium]

I've still got the back stitch to do on it but the cross stitch part is now finished and once lock down is over I'll get it framed for her.
View attachment 101060

That looks like a lot of stitching, I once did cross stitch for school.

 

[howard_hopkinson]

Would you share any of these and explain your setup? I have a telescope, its broker but now I have lots f time on my hands I might be able to fix it.

My setup is as follows.
80mm Explore Scientfic APO triplet telescope.
A Skywatcher EQ3 pro Synscan mount attached to a Skywatcher EQ5 steel tripod.
A Canon 60D DSLR attached to the scope with some extension tubes in order to achieve focus and I use a bahtinov mask to get perfect focus.
The camera contains an Astronomik light pollution clip in filter.
A large car starter battery is used for powering the mount.

Here are a few of my pics all taken using 90second subs, dark frames, bias frames and flat frames. The number of subs varies given the target but I usually aim to take around 75 frames minimum and sometimes many more.