Melanie Toye's Hobbies

Image by Julius H. from Pixabay  I am an intermediate level crocheter. I avoid learning new stitches because I don't want to forget the stitches I know. So I avoid a lot of projects that I don't know the stitches for. But I do know a decent amount of stitches...let's see, chain, single crochet, increase, decrease and I can crochet a lot of projects using these four stitches.  Last year I posted my crochet fails , because I wanted you to see that even as experienced as I am, I still make mistakes ... mostly though I blame it on the pattern. Ha ha! I recently bought a rhino pattern off Etsy and I stuffed it up a few times but I kept going. So normally a pattern shows all the different parts of the body and I normally just choose which bit I am going to focus on and not in any order. So I started to create the body of this Rhino ... I skipped the beginning where you create the legs and arms first. Because I like to do arms and legs last, because it normally requires a few goe...

Image by Xavier Espinosa from Pixabay  t’s interesting, I am author of 10 books . Some are fiction and some are non-fiction, and then I also sell kids books.so I have quite a range of book writing experience. So when I started writing a fresh new fiction novel. I really wanted something different to my normal stories. I love to grow and upskill so why not create a story that is so wild, so imaginative and thrilling that it excites me to write it?  So I started writing my next fiction novel and do you know what happened? I wrote this super cool, just absolute imaginative scene. And then I thought … should I delete it? Now, I did hand write this down so luckily I wasn’t typing it because deleting it, it would be simply gone. I thought about the scene do a few days and this is what I concluded:  Just because the scene is so imaginative, doesn’t mean my readers will not love it! I love to write what I love. So if my imagination is that creative and I do love the scene, why w...

When you feel uninspired change up your craft space  So I haven’t been scrapbooking as much because I have a set of drawers with stickers, washi tape and other cool stationery and then I have my tub of scrapbooking paper in my cupboard.  I was thinking about what I could do to bring my scrapbooking closer. Here’s a photo of my tub of scrapbooking paper. Look how undesirable it looks. Inside I have large paper about A4 size and A3. Then I have 12x12 inch paper. Plus an ice cream tub full of scrap paper.  It just made me feel unsatisfied and what makes me excited to work on a hobby is that I can see the resources and get excited to get started. But this set-up was not empowering me. I started brainstorming about maybe making a craft space. I found a table from IKEA with draws on both sides that I could put my scrapbooking paper and accessories in as well as my diamond painting. I also found a desk backing which is like a three level high shelving that attaches to the table....

So I have this blog, which I love writing for.  If you come to my blog to read about crocheting, scrapbooking, diamond painting, writing and more then I suggest you subscribe to my email newsletter. I will only email you once a week and I will share with you my blog posts for the week. I am trying to build my views per month on my blog and I need your help, by reading as many of my blog posts as possible.  You can literally type in the search bar, crocheting, scrapbooking, diamond painting, hobbies or writing and read all the related blog posts on your favourite topic. Have a read-a-thon.  And then subscribe to my email newsletter, so you can read more blog posts that come up so you don't have to remember to look for my blog every week. My blog posts will be literally emailed to you every week. Too easy! You just click my home page, under the first blog post it will show the above image. In your message just type in, subscribing to your email and my favourite hobby is ......

Image by Eli Digital Creative from Pixabay  So I did it again ... I have been purchasing books from my Apple Books ... and I thought it would continue this way, because the last time I bought second hand books ... they have only been read a little amount. So I thought if I keep reading Apple Books, I will actually read it. Also, non-fiction books are generally not as old as some of the books in thrift stores. But I had a day to myself and I really love exploring thrift stores to see what cool non-fiction books they do have (and if they have any craft!)... so I went back. Where I shop, there are about 5 thrift stores right next to each other. So if I only find a couple of books at one store, I can progress easily to the next one to see what they have. I also took a big thick bag to carry my books in ... but honestly, if I over did it ... I would just buy some more bags from the store to carry them in. I was really happy with what I got. I bought a hard-cover Bucket List, photograph...

Image by Uwe Walker from Pixabay Personally, I love crocheting and I have given away a lot of my crocheting from amigurumi to blankets and scarves. But this year, what if I don't just focus on gifts but also crocheting for my home. So I decided to share my home crocheting projects with you, so you too can decorate your home with cool crocheting decorations. Although it is summer in Australia at the moment. I am in the middle of crocheting two blankets . One for my sister (been over a year in waiting) - a white one and one for me a multi-coloured pink yarn colour. Although, I don't want to stop there. This is how I envision my adult blankets. At least have two different coloured blankets for my lounge. Why two? So when I am cleaning one I have another blanket I can use in the interim.  Also, these adult blankets are perfect for winter because the Acrylic yarn 3ply that I use, is incredibly warm. Unsure, where to find an adult blanket pattern. Check out one of my earlier blog po...