Aloha Dabblers!

Welcome the heck to 2026!
I feel like I slept/napped/rested/meditated/embroidered the last 3 (4?) weeks, which I'm (surprisingly?) quite OK with.
If you don't know me personally (yet), I chose to delete the word ✨should✨ from my vocab, and maaate, it's freeing, tellyawhat. 7/7 would recommend.

As well as Turtle-ing (actually, they probably don't do embroidery on account of not having thumbs) I also;
🐕 Walked approx 60km (not in one go)​
🍧 Made approx. 5kg of trifle (3.9kg for Xmas day + a smaller one for myself 😋)​
📖 Read an entire book in a day ('Proof of Heaven - A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife' if you wanted a rec)​
🍞 Baked multiple loaves of bread and ate them in 2 days each (recipe if you want- add a bunch more salt is my advice)
​🪄 Fiiinally watched Wicked, Wonka, and The Secret Life of Pets 2
🕛 Caught the last 8 minutes of the NYE Hagley concert + countdown 🫣😅
🧵 Spent 4 days winding embroidery floss onto cards and organising by colour (4/7 - I did not expect it to take that long..but loook how satisfyingly pretty it is, and I listened to a bunch of stuff)

All-in-all, a long, sloooww break, which was exactly what I think I needed (and aim to move towards what my days include more often).
Noticeably absent was;
- guilt around "not doing enough",
- gardening (small amount of guilt...so I did some last night),
- socialising beyond capacity,
- feeling like I had to be outside "making the most of the sun",
- and scrolling/rabbithole-ing (which is a pleasant realisation).

Of course, I'd LOVE to know what you've been up to (official holiday break or not), what you didn't get up to, or if there were any thoughts swirling around about me or you ("lucky for some", "is that it"?, "my task list got longer rather than shorter" ... - I lovingly dare you say them out loud and curiously ask "how is this for me"?, and double-dare you to press reply and tell me, let's chat them out 😘)

--

Numerology isn't something I've dabbled in (yet?), but apparently last year was a '9' year, which means endings/wrapping things up and this year is a '1' year = startings/fresh new energy. I forgot to ask further questions, but (obviously) I'm all about starting new things, so I said "count me in"!

One of those things is about how ✨this✨ (the newsletter, prioritising play and joy, following the nudges of excitement, and being a terrible beginner) might look like this year, and how I can help you lean into this, too.

That means it's probably going to;
📍 be a little less Ōtautahi-specific - absolutely still/more of a focus on local people doing rad things, upcoming events/workshops etc (possibly a little more curated and specific), and a bit more human/knowledge/play/joy-specific​
🙋‍♀️ be more personal - insights, ideas (for you), learnings, lessons, semi-solicited advice, questions, recommendations and resources
🥰 have more stories, collaborations and connections (with said rad local people)​
💝 (Hopefully) exclusive offers, giveaways, launches, early access to stuff, maaaybe some workshops with me? 👀
🔮 Suuuurely include a bunch of stuff we haven't thought of, yet! 🤩

If this isn't feeling like something you'd be interested in, no hard feelings and I still love you- please feel free to unsubcribe and/or send to a pal who might be.
Or, if you've already got your paint-stained lazy pants on, you're probably in the right place. Feel free to send to a pal who'd love a play-nudge, too!

--

Let's keep the rest super stripped-back this week, and I'll start introducing new things (and myself) next week.

Fizzed to have you here,

Cassie.x ✨

Wednesday 14th Jan

👯 Swingtown Rebels taster classes (free, every Wed) - https://swingtownrebels.co.nz/home/whats-on/​

🤿 SCUBA Have-A-Go: Southbridge (also Rolleston on Wed 21st and Darfield Fri 23rd) - https://events.humanitix.com/scuba-have-a-go-southbridge​

Friday 16th Jan

🌯 Food Truck Friday (technically not a hobby... but ye gotta eat- and the vendors are living out their hobby>biz dreams, so go celebrate them!) https://www.facebook.com/events/1988109698749106​

Saturday 17th Jan

🎪 The Local Edit Ōtautahi: Jan Pop-Up Market ("local creatives, small businesses, and seriously good handmade goods" - we love!) - https://www.facebook.com/events/903223469032789​

Sunday 18th Jan

🐟 Aquaponics Workshop (this one's already sold out, but if it's something of interest, sub to their newsletter for the next one or nab the online course) - https://www.aquaponicsnz.com/workshops​

Monday 19th Jan

🎶 Adult Tap Dancing (casual) - https://www.hspa.co.nz/classes (scroll to the bottom)

🧱 Build Your Way to Better Mental Health (healing through LEGO, 8 weeks) - https://events.humanitix.com/lego-serious-play-8-week-therapeutic-applications-workshop​

OTHER STUFF YOU MIGHT WANNA BOOK:

Remember, it's the World Buskers Festival super sooon (23Jan-01Feb) and there's a BUNCH of fun stuff on - https://www.worldbuskersfestival.co.nz/​

​
​Fire through your upcoming events here!

Get the full picture at MetService​

Word Jumble: (hint: related to the events above, answers at the bottom of the newsletter)

UKSBSRE ISFAVETL

SAPQOINUAC

GWSIONTNW

Yep, we're at the end already!
Catch you next week 💛

​
​Here are your quick links:​
👋 Share your community event [free]​​​​
🤝 Share your business or something for sale [paid]​​​​
🤘 Share your current hobby-obsession [free]​​
​🫶 If someone rad sent this to you and you wanna sign up for yourself [free]

Now go dilly-dally.

C.x​
​Publisher, The Dabbling​
​Ōtautahi’s Unofficial Hobby-Hypewoman

Fun answers:

BUSKERS FESTIVAL

AQUAPONICS

SWINGTOWN