Melanie Toye's Hobbies

  So this year, I am looking at making crafts to then sell. I won’t be setting up a market. I will be just selling on Facebook Marketplace and through word of mouth.  I also don’t have too much spare time, just part weekends and at nights but again, not all the time.  So my plan is to build up my stock first so I can sell multiples at a time, rather than make one thing sell it. This way, that one buyer may want to buy multiple items at once and it’s an easier sale than if I was just selling one item at a time.  What is my timeframe to craft and sell? Like any plan, you need a timeframe to work towards. For me this is a year of crafting to sell. A year because I have a goal to try and save. And I feel a year is enough time to go through the seasons and experiment with colours and types of materials to see what people buy the most of and then produce more of it.  What am I going to craft and sell?  Well I have six years of miniature homes that I have built an...

So I have been crocheting for a year but mainly objects and animals and then I moved onto blankets and now while working on a blanket and because it’s half way made, it’s heavy and huge, I prefer to keep that project at home.  But when I am going somewhere, where I have to wait a bit or even travelling on the train, crocheting a scarf is the way to go. Plus, I even have my crochet projects (and many crochet hooks) placed in key rooms in my house. So if I find myself sitting in a seat and instead of having to get up and get a project, one is there waiting for me.  So it’s February here in Australia, which means we are in summer. So it’s the perfect time to crochet as many scarves as I want before winter begins.  So far I have made two scarves and I am in the middle of a third. One for me and my children. But I also want to make more scarves for myself, about four to six more. So I have one for each day. And a couple more for my children. Plus, it would be nice to make some...

  I have only been doing for scrapbooking for about a year but I absolutely love it. Here’s why you should take it up: Photos  So I got a new phone and lost about half of my photos and videos from last year, even though I am paying for the iCloud. It’s ok, it’s just a harsh reality of using technology. I also save my photos to a hard drive, another downfall because that could break and then all my photos will be lost. So what’s the best way to ensure photos are kept - by printing them. I really believe this. And then worst case scenario if you have a fire and lose your printed photos, you still have the photos electronically and you can start again.  I worked out that for about 12,000 photos at 10c each to be printed, it will cost about $1200. But 12,000 photos is a lot and you would have to go through the ones you actually want to print which could drop it by half and that’s now $600.  Now you don’t have to pay for it in one large hit and to be honest the printing s...