Is collecting BJD's your only hobby? Which hobby came first?

I have collected dolls and doll furniture for years, others before the BJD's. I have also been an avid reader -- especially sci fi, and a traveler. I've spent a lot of time camping and canoeing, and before dolls collected camels, dragonflies and astromomical themed jewelry.
Not enough?
I also sew -- a LOT!, and have fabulous grandchildren who like to play board games. Of course, the computer sucks up time. Recently I have taken knitting back up.

 

Collecting BJDs is just one of several hobbies I have, and one of the newest. I also play video games, collect Pokémon cards/merch, draw, write, and have also gotten more involved with photography after getting involved with BJDs. All of these hobbies I've been involved with since I was a kid, they've just evolved as I grew up. So BJDs is one of my newer hobbies, especially since I never collected dolls as a child. I was more of an action figure girl.

 

I have a number of different hobbies

Collections:
Magic: The Gathering: I collect M:tG cards, and quite rapidly too! I draft once or twice a week (which means buying around 45 cards/draft) and attend pre-release events for new sets (where I usually open 90-450 cards and then win 300-600 more). This hobby was around before BJDs, and is one of the ones that sometimes competes with dolls for my hobby funds (especially when I attend multiple prereleases at once, since that alone can cost what a small BJD does!)
Warhammer 40k: My boyfriend and I both have small WH40k armies (I play Tyranids, he plays Orks), and I collect units from other armies for terrain/NPC enemies. This hobby started around the same time as BJDs, and doesn't tend to compete with them too much, mainly because there's always a long break between buying new units (since I have to paint and base things before buying anything new!). I really love the painting side of this hobby, and it complements working with BJDs, since I have lots of practice painting tiny details!

Artistic hobbies:
Sculpting: I sculpt lots of things - my own BJDs, little toys for my cousins and friends, armour for my dolls, and the like. I work with DAS clay and am constantly trying new things so I can improve. This hobby isn't too expensive, because DAS clay is quite cheap (and reusable, to an extent), but sometimes the other costs (like primer and paint) stack up a bit. I would say this hobby complements my BJD hobby more than it competes with it, since I so often make things for my dolls
Drawing: I draw in a few different mediums - pencils and markers are my favourites. I'm not super talented, but I like playing around with multimedia projects (so I might draw something and then sculpt it into a stamp and then experiment with stamping in glitter glue on black cardboard and embellishing with pencils, or something like that). I love drawing sketches of my dolls, and think they're really helping me learn to draw from life better.

Other
Fish keeping: I have a 40L aquarium with 5 glass catfish and an uncountable swarm of cherry shrimp. The tank is full of live plants, and so I spend a lot of time maintaining it - pruning back plants and encouraging them to grow in certain ways, and making sure the water quality stays optimal for my fish and shrimps. It's incredibly satisfying to cultivate a balanced aquarium, and I'm hoping to one day move on to a larger project (like the currently-empty 160L aquarium my parents own )

 

hehe as an art supply addict other than anticipating the expenses of BJD as a hobby, my most expensive hobby is probably collecting copics

I also weave bracelets and study languages (mainly Japanese, but I've dabbled in a little Korean and Spanish)

 

Painting and photography were my two main hobbies before BJDs. Now, thanks to dolls, I can add sewing and room box making to that list.
I also enjoy gaming, especially JRPGs and adventure games.

 

My dolls are basically my only hobby now since fibromyalgia has severely limited my ability to participate in my other hobbies of reading, sewing historical costumes and participating in the SCA, photography, and scrapbooking. My dolls give me something beautiful to look at even when I don't have the energy to actively "play" with them- dressing, posing, and photographing them. A lot of the time I spend online is spent on doll forums or looking at doll photos. I had one hobby lead to another in that it was another scrapbooker who introduced me to the Blythe doll customizing hobby which then led to me discovering BJD's.

 

I have been sewing and knitting for practically my whole life. Those led to making Waldorf dolls, which led to making 18" doll clothes, which led to designing knitting patterns for 18" dolls, which pretty much immersed me in the world of dolls, where a few years ago I discovered BJDs, which led to the start of my collection about a year ago. Which now consists of 3 Fairyland dolls.

 

Oh my, no. I also carve wooden dolls, Hittys mostly. I collect other dolls, sew for French Fashion dolls, collect vintage evening bags, crochet and make doll hats. I go from thing to thing.

 

I have had many hobbies in my life, most of them was collecting something or another. Then there was/is drawing and painting, reading, manga and anime, cosplaying, sewing (mostly my cosplays and my own Lolita clothes), decorating, cooking, photography, medieval fairs and archery, crafting (whatever new there is to craft), making jewlery, etc. I've tried out caligraphy and oregami. there was a time I actively plaed tabletop rpgs and when I wrote fanfics, I still read them in enourmos ammounts. I may be leaving something out.....

 

Well I've mentioned it in other threads but fiction writing is my biggest hobby :P I also play a lot of video games and collect/play the yugioh trading card game. Each of these hobbies are at least ten years old :P while BJDs have been a thing for me for probably 4-5 months now. One way or another my hobbies generally have to do with a creative process I've found

 

I have lots of hobbies. I'm a very artistic person. I draw, I paint. I love rp games like Sims and Howrse.

 

I'm a writer, actor, singer, and artist in addition to my bjds, although dolls technically were my first. I had Barbies as a kid, and I sang and imagined stories from the time I was very young. The older I got, the more I started writing down my stories. Then I started drawing the characters to give them a physical representation, which progressed back into doll representations to add to the art. I'm a part of my school's choir and theater department as well as part of an AP arts course and I'm in the middle of writing a novel! The bjds have only been a progression of all my other hobbies coming together.

 

i have always been a collector, it was American Girl things and stuffed animals as a child.

Now it's dolls (only one bjd at present), and stuff animals from various genre (Pharaoh Hello Kitty, Final Fantasy characters)

I also play video games.... and i knit, sew, bead and dye.

i have too many hobbies actually.

 

It's definitely not my only hobby, but right now it certainly is my most obsessive!
I go through periods of intense fixation on one hobby, then very suddenly another one takes over, but seems to incorporate aspects of the things that came before. They never go away, they just become things that distract me from my current #1 obsession for various amounts of time.

Doodling, coloring, painting
Personal webmastering (in the very early 2000s)
Learning to play musical instruments, marching band
Self-study of foreign languages (eventually took classes when I got far along enough in school)
Crochet, sewing for myself and fashion dolls, brief dabbling in quilting
Birdwatching, nature studies
Tropical biology studies, which became interest in disease ecology
Flyff (online MMORPG game which I can no longer play)
TinierMe (a now-defunct anime/avatar community)
Irish /Celtic music
Video Games (mainly Harvest Moon, Animal Crossing and Pokémon: things you can play for hours on end with the brain on "low" setting)
Fashion dolls, tiny figures(like Sylvanian Family) and finally I've got into BJD! Several of the previous hobbies have been useful in BJD-world so far.
I look forward to it all coming together and making sense someday.

Edit: omigosh I feel so A.D.D. compared with everyone elses' responses. D:

 

Collecting BJDs is not my only hobby. It's probably the one that's starting to consume my life the most, but I have a number of hobbies. I enjoy video games, sewing (I want to make clothing for BJDs), reading, writing sometimes, and playing with my cat. I think it is probably one of my most expensive hobbies, even though I'm just getting started. I'm not sure if I've spent more on books or trying to get going with my BJD I do have. Good question! I do know that my life would be very different if I didn't have my Lu-Wen.

 

I mainly write fiction, and read more fiction. I'd consider doll-collecting my 3rd/4th hobby after that, since I started dabbling in photography thanks to BJDs.

 

Not at all,before BJDs i was in Groove dolls hobby.
I'm also into drawing,writing,reading,sewing,knitting,crochet,some japanese fashion,play second life and study random things

 

I used to assemble Zoids before...I also draw traditionally using chinese ink... and cosplay.... aside from playing video games, surfing the internet and sleeping

 

bjd is only my newest hobby. I love to draw and play mmo games i also collect other dolls like pullips and the Disney animator dolls. so i guess dolls is my big hobby right now... well see how that goes when i have no money for games.

 

I have lots of hobbies. Nordic LARP, table top games and roleplaying are the ones that take up most of my time. But I enjoy all creative hobbies; drawing, sewing, scrapbooking and of course the Bjd hobby