Many of you may be wondering why the name of our blog is something so… aggressive? Well, we are quite passionate about this topic and are naturally a bit aggressive toward the things we love. For years, we have noticed so many people adding unnecessary complexity to hobbies and tasks, creating hurdles that beginners struggle to overcome in order to take up a new hobby. These hurdles can take many forms, including:

• the use of, and lack of explanation for, vocabulary specific to a hobby,
• the suggestion that specific tools are needed for a given hobby,
• the idea that there is only one way to do something.

Whether it’s baking sourdough breads, fermenting, gardening, or cooking flavorful meals, everyone has their own tools, methods, and ideals that make their hobbies unique. Hobbies are meant to be fun, a chance to express yourself and have an outlet for creativity. For this reason, it doesn’t have to be perfect.

Here at Shit’s Not That Difficult, we value curiosity and experimentation MUCH more than getting things perfect every time. Whether it’s taking a scientific approach and cataloging attempts to perfect Sicilian pizza like Steph, or baking a cake based solely off of vibes and measuring ingredients intuitively like Hailey, everyone has their own methods.

Hobby-centric Vocabulary – it’s necessary, but overused for beginners

Whether it’s referring to the discard of sourdough starters, creating a tincture in herbal medicine, or using companion planting in gardening, all hobbies utilize specialized terms. Though they are important to know when discussing these topics with others, many beginners lack the knowledge of these terms. Beginners need a place to learn these terms without confusion, judgment, or excessive searching.

We promise that each of our posts will include an explanation of specialized terms with additional links to help in understanding.

See an example of these descriptions below.

You don’t need fancy tools to start a hobby, use what you have first.

Many influencers will tell you that you need to have expensive equipment or a specific ingredient to do things correctly. However, it’s completely untrue and totally possible to successfully practice your hobby using what you have available.

You don’t have a specific spice needed for a recipe and don’t have time to go out and buy it? That’s okay! Replace it with another spice that you like or exclude it entirely.

You don’t have a dutch oven to bake your sourdough? That’s okay! As long as you have an oven-safe pot and a cookie sheet, you can make it work.

Most hobbies can be completed without purchasing expensive or hard-to-find tools or ingredients. Buy what you feel drawn to and leave out what doesn’t, there is no reason to force something just because others tell you that’s how you’re supposed to do it.

There is more than one way to do your hobby.

Every recipe, tutorial, or how-to guide that you see out there is a reflection of one person’s experience and won’t work for everyone. That’s the beauty of hobbies, we all have the ability to create, experiment, and find our own unique expression of something we love.

We aren’t limited by the experiences of others and as long as we are willing to experiment – and have a few potential failures along the way – everyone can master something they’re interested in.

If you’re looking for a community to explore your interests, follow our journey toward furthering our knowledge.

In our last post, you met Steph, one half of the duo that makes up Shit’s Not That Difficult. Steph will focus primarily on breadmaking, gardening, and more as we continue. Now, you get to meet the other half of our team.

Hi, I’m Hailey

I love baking with sourdough (though Steph is the true master there), baking cakes and other sweet treats, cooking a wide variety of foods with local ingredients, traveling, herbalism, fermentation and a variety of other hobbies. I want to use this space to assist me in my exploration of these hobbies and create a community to encourage others to start new hobbies without judgment.

I am currently living and traveling in a school bus with my husband and a majority of my posts will consist of more information about our travels in the @burdbus and the meals we cook on a small camping stove for the extent of our travels. We have made some amazing meals this way in the past and hope to expand our skills! See some examples below:

• Pinterest

Look for more of our posts on Pinterest!