Something I have always wanted to do.

I took a few watercolour classes some years ago wuth a wonderful teacher.. she saud if you feel you cant draw then don't... just paint... make a mark on the paper... anywhere.. as a big blank sheet of paper is really intimidating.. and she was right... I cant draw(!)... I am not artistic.. my paintings are awful.. unrecognisable... but I love it.. and I am not going to stop.. its just for me..

Hazel Soan..10-minute watercolours..published by collins gem).. full of useful basic information... not at all scary!!

Now that I am taking retirement, I would like to start that book and do a few scrapbooks

Like PageTurner, learn to swim.

I had a horrible experience in water as a child and ever since I've been absolutely terrified of swimming... even the smell of a swimming bath's makes me I'll!

Every now and again I think I'll try and I just can't do it....

I am so like you MaggieMaybe.. I have a keyboard, call it piano,, have rudiments so I could tinkle out a tune,, get free music on line, but still can`t make myself sit and play with it..

lots of enthusiasm so little get up and go..

I would love to be able to crochet. I enjoy knitting fairly simple things but cannot get the hang of crochet. I've bought a book and watched online tutorials, sadly to no avail!!

NanaandGrampy you may have small hands and stumpy fingers, but don't let that stop you playing the piano. This Chinese girl has NO fingers on one hand, and plays beautifully!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MU2Y--nfFI

Bradfordlass - love the sculpture and also the Clarice Cliff. Well done you!

Re piano, just saying in case it encourages anyone else....

At my group class a while ago I met a woman in at least her late 40s who'd recently passed grade 3, having started as a complete beginner only a few years previously.

Having been too chicken to face exams - fear of failure through sheer nerves - I admired her enormously.

Wish I had not given up learning another language. I did make an attempt many years ago and found it much easier when I visited my relatives who at that time were living in that particular country and I was able to mix with the local people Too late now.

I can sew, do embroidery & cross stitch also I can crochet but can't knit. No-one succeeded in teaching me, I wish MiL had tried to teach me because although she was left handed she had taught many right handed people successfully. I envy those ladies who can "Knit'n' Natter"

I'm in awe of all your abilities!
I would love to be able to sing and have joined choirs but one stopped because the choirmaster left and the next became too advanced for me, alas.
I always had the ambition to have my own horse but 15 yrs of helping with RDA got that out of my system.
I would love to have a boat but then again I get seasick so perhaps not.
Nope I can't think of anything I still yearn to try.

Since the 1970s I've wanted to build a straw-bale house .....maybe one day!!!

My friend and I have for a long while wanted to do a walking holiday ... so we are! First week in September we will drive up to Scotland from S Wales and walk as much of Hadrian’s Wall as we can. We are both well into our sixties, reasonably fit and well so fingers crossed. Oh and for the entire week we will be camping much to the hilarity of our adult children!

I’ve been going to watercolour classes for a couple of years and learnt that yes, everyone can paint and/or draw. We all have completely different styles. Small and exact or huge and abstract. It’s a case of finding your style. The lesson bit is learning to control the paint and put it where you want it. I started classes because I found that, although I could paint on walls, a sheet of blank paper just too daunting.

What I would really love to do is play the piano, but my eyes are dyslexic when it comes to reading music and I can’t see which line the notes are on, and I have an appalling memory so chances of learning by rote are negligible. Maybe the drums ....!

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.

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!

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.

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!!

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

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!!!

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!

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!

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.

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.