After the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, it is nice to make time for self-care. One way to carve out moments of relaxation is by taking on a new hobby.

That was the case for Lillie Brown of Aurora, who was inspired to try diamond art after seeing the trendy craft on TikTok. Part cross-stitch and part paint by numbers, diamond art uses a canvas with a preprinted design that crafters embellish with flat sided gems.

“I wanted to try something new in the craft department because that’s my favorite place to be. Diamond art is such a stress relief to sit and just bedazzle a picture,” says Brown.

As a mother of two young children, Brown especially likes that she can easily put it away and return to the canvas whenever she has a few minutes.

Another flexible hobby is writing. If the last time you wrote something was an essay for school, there are several local writing groups that can help you hone your skills.

The St. Charles Writing Group at the St. Charles Library begins its sessions with a discussion or writing exercise that relates to the writing process. The group then moves into workshop, where members share feedback on manuscripts presented the previous month.

The group meets from 9:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. at the library. Upcoming sessions include Mission Possible: The Hunt for an Agent on Saturday, Jan. 10, and Manuscript Read Aloud on Saturday, Jan. 24.

Once you have flexed your writing muscles, you might feel inspired to share your work. One option is to publish it yourself. That is what Ramsey Miller of Aurora decided to do last summer when he fulfilled a childhood dream of publishing his own zine.

His monthly zine, You Are Here, promotes happenings in Aurora, including Aurora Library events, spotlights of notable Illinois figures and short stories written by local residents.

“I realized how tight the art community was in Aurora and wanted to give people a way to be informed about local events as well as share art and ideas,” Miller says.

People can pick up a copy of You Are Here at the following downtown Aurora locations:

Yellow Bird Books, 34 S. Stolp Ave.Super Jumbo Records, 102 E. Galena Blvd.Society 57, 100 S. River St.

For a fun hobby the whole family can enjoy, consider bird watching. The Kane County Audubon Society, a local chapter of the Illinois Audubon Society, meets monthly to discuss bird oriented and nature topics. Meetings are held at 7 p.m. on the second Wednesday of the month, September through May, at Hickory Knolls Discovery Center in St. Charles.

The group also offers field trips, bird walks and nature hikes on select Saturdays, as well as on the second Wednesday in June, July and August in place of a monthly meeting. Recent outings have included bird counts at various locations and leisurely walks through local forest preserves in search of birds.

Visit kanecountyaudubon.com/events for the latest schedule of events, which are open to the public.