Having a formal chemistry background is always cool but if you want to become a hobbyist you will have to experiment a lot on your own and make a lot of mistakes on your own. Knowing the different electron orbitals and shells and energy levels and functional groups and what not is cool, but I have found practical chemistry needs a lot of practical practice. I have no formal chemistry education but I looked into it and the one thing that put me off is how much theory they require of you before you start lab work and even then it seems most lab work is reserved for the graduate level. I have thrown myself into some chemistry texts but I swear I learn more by just sloppily plowing ahead on my own and learning from the problems I run into. In the age of Google and forums and free ebooks its amazing how much you learn when you run into a problem that you have to figure out on your own.  It's cool that you are now in the position to get the best of both worlds though.