Something I have always wanted to do.

blue60 That is really lovely!

I have always wanted to paint 'properly'. So I signed up to Anna Mason's school, and can now paint on my own without tuition. Here's the latest, an Iris from the allotment.

I've always wanted to be able to sing or play the guitar, sadly I can do neither. I have got a ukelele in the corner of the spare room which I sometimes get out of the box but I believe that I should practice a little every single day and other things take preference. The odd times when I do get it out I make an awful racket. Thank goodness for good insulation or I'd have the neighbours complaining.

Thank you BradfordLass I am just hoping that a few of us take the plunge and start a new hobby.

mistymorning your idea of putting your much loved cat’s face on a stone in the garden is just wonderful. Could you find a photo and slowly but surely start sketching your cat’s face and then look up online how to paint one on a stone? Just a suggestion but it could be your project for 2019.

NanKate This is all so exciting, not just for you but for all of us to see you boldly going where you haven't been before!!

CONGRATULATIONS on your courage.

I believe in having a go (often a second chance) at whatever you want. I have been to pottery lessons, woodwork classes, yoga, done Pilates, Zumba and building a family tree, with lots of historical research, as well as attempting an autobiography or at least a record of my life.

Like many others my school art lessons were useless. Since then I have found that copying drawings helps and must teach you something! When unemployed I took advantage of free water colour painting lessons with some success (though not brilliant!) because of a sympathetic and helpful teacher. I even sold one painting!

Birthday gifts from DS's included a helicopter flight, hot air balloon ride and indoor sky dive. I think they understand me!!

glammanana After years of wishing, I joined a choir after I retired and it is now my highlight of the week. We have also done lots of charity gigs and some major performances at the Royal College of Music and Abbey Road , exceeding my wildest dreams. It is inspiring to be part of something so special and though my little voice is part of the whole, one or two small mistakes of mine are not really noticeable so that is great for my own self esteem.

I still want to learn to play the piano and do a parachute jump but am somewhat tied down with DGC care so have to wait for those ones.

Keep it up you are doing well.
I've always wanted to have a go at throwing a pot on a potter's wheel, have found somewhere I could.do it so hoping to have a go later in the summer.

Well done. What an achievement.

I would like to write my story, not that my life is anything special, and not that I want to write for the whole world to read, but just for my children and grandchildren. I give them snippets here and there, but nothing like seeing it in writing....I'd better get started then .......

I would like to learn how to rock paint. When my beautiful cat was alive she loved to sit under the Vibernum tree close to the fence where she felt private, safe, and yet there was enough sun to give her the warmth cats so love. She would clean herself constantly and after passing i constantly without thinking look over and she is no longer there. I would love to paint her face on a large stone/rock as i have seen so many over the years and place it where she once loved to be and call it "Morks Garden" But i am not talented in art and perhaps buy a book showing me how to go about it when i have recovered from my hip replacement surgery. My ex decorator after wife passed took up mosiac work - which i think is a stunning hobby to take up - imagine making a beautiful table - but when i hinted on taking a look he suggested i learn from books like he did - damn !!!!!

Hi folks. Day 2 of my voyage into the unknown. I’ve got my HB pencil and have drawn a mug with a handle which looks lifelike and then a glass bottle. Both I am pleased with because up until now I only doodled circles and squares.

The book’You will be able to draw by the end of this book’ by Jake Spicer is proving to do just what it says, but of course these are early days. Do reconsider Tilly buying the book. It would be lovely to have someone to discuss the drawing tasks with.

I put a tick against every instruction I read to make sure I don’t miss anything.

I am getting childlike fun out of achieving something I thought was impossible. ?✍️

I would really like to crochet. I can knit quite complicated patterns but have never mastered crochet. A lady who owned a craft shop in the village ran a short course two years ago. At the end of the course I thought I had just about got the hang of it but then I fell and damaged a finger and couldn't hold the hook comfortably. After that I broke a shoulder. By the time it healed, I had again lost the knack and don't see myself ever regaining it.

I would just love to be able to play the clarinet, especially Stanger on the Shore but despite my best efforts I just cannot get a note of it. All the puffing and blowing etc, nothing. A chap who plays outside our supermarket sometime showed me how to blow and gave me some tips but still no sound. So I just dream.

I have never been able to draw or paint at all and all my art teachers were as described above - gave no help at all and left us to get on with it.
I started on a book called 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain' and actually managed a couple of little drawings, but life intervened - I should give it another go.
An interesting exercise was to copy an upside-down sketch from the book. As the brain isn't thinking 'Oh yes, that's a cat / chair / whatever' it has to pay attention to the actual lines that need to be drawn.

I wish I could play a musical instrument but I can't. I have been lucky enough to join a handbell group, tho, which is lots of fun.

lmm6. I agree! I think - "Beginners" should be for beginners! I went to "Beginners Italian". They were all talking to each other when I arrived. In Italian.

I took up the trumpet when I was 35 because I heard myself saying to the children "Learn as much as you can in your music lessons, I don't mind if you pass or fail but just take the chance to learn because i couldn't learn to play an instrument and I really wanted to but Granny and Grandad couldn't afford it."

I thought ... I'm 35. at three score and ten I'm half way ... I can't say this all my life! I took out my secret £5 a week savings and bought a silver cornet. A band can play outdoors so a cornet will survive if I practise scales while waiting for the spuds to boil. The town had a silver band. A trumpet (next on list) is acceptable in an orchestra, wind band, small group, and of course my cornet was for the silver band.
I was lucky in that I can read music as I sing.
I practised a lot and took grade 3 almost straight away then grade 5. I suddenly felt so nervous in grade 5 I had to sit down! My legs began to wobble. I was learning grade 7, aged 41 and only needed to improve the scales when my husband killed himself. No my playing wasn't that bad. I didn't get back to the band. I didn't like leaving the children in the evenings for several years after his death. My closest friend also died and my dad too so it was hard.

I recently watched a drawing class at a local arts centre. All their drawings/paintings were wonderful. I told one lady how envious I was and she told me anyone could do it if they had a good teacher. She said their teacher was wonderful and had taught them all how to draw. I'd love to try it but am embarrassed to draw in front of others. I went to a "beginners" art class once but it turned out everyone apart from me was already brilliant and it put me off trying again.

Tillybelle, have you tried Googling the name of the machine + manual and see if anything comes up in English?
Oh, that sounds a bit patronising! , perhaps you have done this already.

I never read instructions, just bash on, I tend to do things instinctively. I only resort to the manual if I'm stuck.

I have always wanted to learn how to ice skate. A bit late in the day for me now, considering my tendency to break bones!

BladeAnnie Please read what I said to Leggs55 about knitting!! I learned to knit first - self taught as a child (no other opportunity). Then found that knitting on the bus - I had about 2hrs on a bus a day to and from school - the knitting needles jab into the person next to you. So decided to learn to crochet. Only way open to me was my usual- secretly keep trying till it worked! It is so satisfying too! I think the instruction books are very off-putting actually. Use your own common sense. As a knitter you can work out what you want the wool to do ... just experiment till you get somewhere. Don't give up! Good luck!

Legs55. I think you could teach yourself! Really! Because you can do all the other things. I had to teach myself everything from tying laces, school tie, knitting, crochet, sewing, - all the things we do with our hands and cooking too. My mother would not tell me anything. I used to do it secretly because she was so disparaging about anything I did. Because I managed this in secret as a child, I think you could manage knitting too. I suspect the people teaching you aren't very good teachers probably - sorry! Once you've got some stitches on the needle you can start to work out how to put the other needle in, wool round, pull it through and over and onto the "holding needle! OOOO I really want to help you now....
Please give it a try!!!

shysal - if I build my straw house will you build me a chimney please?

NanKate. Funnily enough I saw a book with that name and seriously thought of buying it then decided I have too many things started already.... I would love to hear how it goes though, please.

I ended up doing Art A level by default - long story - and have always wondered what other people's experience of Art lessons at school were? Our Art "Teacher", from the lower school upwards, never taught us anything! She just used to say "Draw and paint such and such" and then she'd just wander about making unhelpful remarks encouraging us. It did not strike me as odd that she taught us nothing until my very dear friend came on holiday with me after my husband died. She is an artist and she started to encourage my then 8 yr old daughter to draw and paint giving her lots of tips and explanations. It was the first time I had heard any of the things she was saying - yet by an arbitrary stroke of luck I got a "C" at A-level!

Re what I would like to do - I would like someone to teach me how to use my new sewing machine. The instructions are in Italian. I can sing in Italian... but don't understand it!!

Oh there so many things I would like to try, most of them of a crafting nature. But one thing which has been a constant wish is dancing. Since I was a child I always wanted to tap dance. My mother tried to teach me to waltz (she was a good dancer) but said I was stiff and wooden and hopeless and gave up on me. So I have always avoided social occasions that involved dancing. I'm not sure I'd even have the energy to dance now. Perhaps I'd better stick to my crafting bucket list instead.

GreenGran78, that is an amazing video! So inspirational. I can't think of anything Ive always wanted to do? Does that make me lucky, because Ive perhaps done lots of stuff in my lifetime, or boring because I have no aspirations whatsoever? I'll have to give this some thought!

I enjoy watching The Repair Shop on BBC2 and really envy the remarkable skills of the experts on there. I would so love to have one thing I was particularly good at - what’s the old saying, ‘Jack of all trades and master of none’.

I have always enjoyed handicrafts but find I can’t manage these now with rheumatic arthritis and neuropathy in my hands and feet from chemotherapy.

So that leaves me with singing and like others have mentioned, I am tone deaf, so wouldn’t inflict my voice on others although I do find myself humming and singing to myself very often! Well, I think I sound fine ?! Good luck with the drawing NanKate.