I'm used to people thinking that cooking from scratch or making anything is too much effort. Each year I make my own mincemeat, Christmas pudding and Christmas cake and I love doing it.
It is part of the seasonal way we like to live our lives. In January we often make marmalade out of traditional Seville oranges, in summer I often make jam out of raspberries we grow in the garden, and in autumn we forage for berries and nuts and make things out of them. Part of it is loving growing things, cooking things and being creative, part of it is a form of nostalgia - a love of the past and the way things were done in the past.
Part of the reason I got into blogging was that there is a lovely online community (or lots of communities actually) where others are making things from scratch, loving reading and living in the past. Blogs are generally gentle, entertaining and wonderful places where likeminded people can congregate. I started reading Fading Grace's blog some years ago, and whilst Sophie has moved on to different projects I guess, she was very influential on me at the time and I miss her blogs. I've found a wonderful world of people who love many of the same things as me. Some of the current blogs and pages I'm loving are:
http://historyusherette.blogspot.co.uk/ Sarah Miller Walters fab blog on old films
http://prettynostalgic.co.uk/ A great project by Nicole who has published magazines, books and runs a society called the Nostalgianeers
Luckily I'm of an age where I don't really care whether everyone shares my interests - but I do think a lot of people do miss out by just living a very limited modern life where they miss out on very creative and interesting things because they are afraid to admit they enjoy it.
