Melanie Toye's Hobbies

If this is the year you want to start writing your first fiction novel and actually finish it and turn it into a book. Then let me share with you, I made you the perfect course. It’s called, Fiction Novel Writing online course, which is available for purchase from my Etsy store . Why you need to write your book this year It’s important when we want to write a book that we don’t wait years down the track to write it. We begin, today. With my guided course I help:  Guide you with creating a routine to write.  Help you with writing prompts if you are unsure where to start.  Help you learn that if you just focus on writing your book, the first draft can be anything you want it to be and to let go of editing until you are in the editing phase.  What are some reasons people put off writing a novel: They don’t have time for it. I help you find time and set time to write in my online course. You are unsure if you have a good enough story. The best way is to write your story...

Image by Vicki Becker from Pixabay Left over yarn, can be very annoying. Ha! Because, you want to use it all but you also don't want to run out. So we play this balancing game, buy more than we need and then wonder what to do with the left overs. Here are 5 ideas of what to do with your left over yarn: 1. Chuck your left-over yarn Let's be real, if you are crocheting amigurumi. If you are like me, I end up with little bits of all different colours that have been cut off throughout crocheting amigurumi.  I have tried to place the left over yarn, inside the amigurumi as stuffing. The problem here is, if your outer yarn is a light colour, like white and you are stuffing with bright colours, like green and hot pink... you can actually see the yarn that's been stuffed on the inside.  Also, it is annoying to stuff. For example, I use pillow stuffing (it is cheaper than cushion stuffing) and it just sits how you want it to sit inside the amigurumi shape. I guess that's what I...

Image by Yunus Emre Ilıca from Pixabay So when you are a parent of boys, when scrapbooking photos of boys, you need to find cool things that boys like. Because I have to do this, I thought I would give you some ideas for what I buy when scrapbooking photos of my kids, who are boys. Themes to consider for scrapbooking: Pokemon Cars Sports Stitch from Disney Lollies and cake Harry Potter Animals Also you may want to look at festive themes such as: Easter Christmas Halloween and whatever else! Then scrapbook for these holiday/festive themes. Find out what they are interested in and then buy double the stickers. Give your child/children a pack of stickers each and let them create their own scrapbook page.  When creating a theme, I always look for 3 types of scrapbooking supplies: Stickers Scrapbooking paper Washi Tape And I look for the theme of each item. I personally use the top 3 supplies for 90% of my scrapbooking.  So it is easier to shop for because I know I will use it in ...

Image by tengdu xiao from Pixabay I have to say, it was a year ago where I heard about mystery diamond paintings. I am part of hobby groups on Facebook and someone posted their myserty diamond painting. I thought this is pretty cool. So what is a mystery diamond painting? Sit down for this. You can buy mystery diamond paintings online. The store owner provides a product where you receive a diamond painting kit but have no idea what the image is until you finish diamond painting it! Pretty cool huh!? So everything comes in the kit is for the image. All the correct coloured drills etc. It takes out the amount of time we spend looking through pictures we like, and have someone else decide what that picture will be.  There are no clues either. Normally, there is a little image of the picture on the diamond painting side of the canvas. But for a mystery diamond painting there is no image of it. You literally have to wait till the end to see it. You can select what type of drills you wo...

Image by  Pexels  from  Pixabay As a published author, you can see the books I have for sale here , I love just playing around with words.  For example, I have created the 2 day fiction writing retreat at home , which is available from my Etsy store.  I feel it's such a cool retreat, designed for you to write. I keep it pretty minimal, so you have time to focus and just write. In a nice inspirational space that you carve out for yourself, with some simple ideas from me on how to prepare your writing space. So I decided today, how about if I share 5 fiction writing prompts, you can play around with. What is a writing prompt? A writing prompt is where you are provided with a sentence or dialogue for a story and then you take that and write a short story, or a chapter of a book, or even, if you are new to writing, just write a paragraph that relates to the writing prompt.  I have actually created a creative writing prompt eBook for kids who are into creative w...

Image by Hans from Pixabay For an intermediate crocheter, how much can you get done in 30 minutes of crocheting? Well, I am an intermediate crocheter and it takes me all the same speed to create anything, so let's look into what I can do and you can do, in 30 minutes. For an adult sized blanket, doing one stitch. Check out my two stitches adult blanket pattern here.  I can do one complete row, doing one stitch, in 30 minutes. An adult sized blanket, is fun and also if you don't count stitches like me, it's actually relaxing. Plus, if you gift them, people love them and want more. So it's a great project to have on the side, when you relax at night and watch TV you can also be crocheting your blanket. It can take me months to complete a crochet blanket.   For an adult scarf , I can complete two rows, using two stitches in 30 minutes. It's a similar pattern to the blanket, here is a blog post on how to make a scarf, with a video. Scarves just don't seem as fun f...

Image by Daria Głodowska from Pixabay  Crocheting can be hard, long and tedious but also incredibly rewarding once you complete a project, especially for the first time. Better yet, when you make two and they look the same! Today, we are going to look at 3 easy bookmark projects to make for book lovers. 1. Crochet a bookmark for a gift I am a reader, but I do this thing, where I read part of a book, then I open a completely different book and read part of it and then I keep reading more books. It's not because I am bored of the book or topic, it is just I am digesting what it saying for that theme. I mainly read non-fiction books, because I am always wanting to grow.  So crocheting several book marks can really be ideal for the book lover. You can use different colours. So here is my crocheting pattern you can have to create your book reader friends a book mark, or several book marks! It is very easy to make and as said above, you can make them using different colours! They d...

Image by Pexels from Pixabay So I used to create craft time every second weekend and that weekend I would just craft, for hours, well really over 2 full days. Now I craft whenever I want. But if you struggle to craft, you need to block at time, even an hour on the weekend and just do it. Maybe even wake up an hour before everyone in your home and start crafting! So here are 5 creative habits for the weekend ahead: 1. Take out your craft supplies and then put them away When I want to do a craft, I simply take out my resources for that craft. Get my craft space ready and make sure, I have a glass of water nearby. Then when I am ready to start, it's all there ready for me and waiting.  Most importantly, as soon as I finish the craft, I put everything away. This may seem silly, because I may want to do more in the same day or the next day. But by putting everything away, if I change my mind later to not go back to that craft, it's already put away and I don't have to worry abo...

I'm excited to showcase to you today the end result of scrapbooking with fabric! I have a bag full of fabrics, lace, bits and bobs that I feel would be great to scrapbook with. Why not right? Here's a picture of the inside of my fabric bag:  I decided to pull out some pieces that I thought would look great on my scrapbooking page. I always before I start scrapbooking, is pull out what I want to work with. I just feel it is easier, to choose what I want up front and then when placing it on the page, that is when I work out where it will fit. So as you can see in the image below, I decided to try these flowers. (The flowers I had up in my home but I am over the blue flowers, so decided to cut them up to just be a flower and no stalk and then re-use for my scrapbooking! I also found some coloured sequins. Pink flowers. Some blue fabric. Some pink fluffy fabric. White lace. A gorgeous gold lace and some cute miniature coloured buttons.  Below is the end result. I really wanted to ...

Image by Fathromi Ramdlon from Pixabay Personally, I love writing fiction. To be honest with you, I love writing in a whole array of styles.  You can view my fiction and non-fiction eBooks for sale and where to purchase from at this link .  I have always loved writing. So I am sharing my love of writing with you.  Here are some hot 2026 tips on writing fiction this year: 1. Create a villain for your fiction novel When I first wrote my novel Entice Me, it was a sweet story with no grit. I lost my first novel to a computer crash. I nearly stopped writing fiction novels for good. I had a lovely friend who said, "Mel, why not re-write your novel but make it better." I thought about it for a while. To be honest, I was really upset about losing my novel. A writer cannot remember every aspect of the story written, well I surely couldn't. So I thought about what my friend said and this time, I rewrote my first novel, Entice Me and added a villain - Sally. Sally is a super cow. W...

Image by Jose Antonio Alba from Pixabay  "A hobby is something you do or make that gives you time to yourself." Whatever hobby you choose. A hobby carves out time for yourself to immerse yourself in something special. Creativity is at the core.  There are many types of hobbies you can start.  Here are ten hobbies you can start today: 1. Crocheting 2. Scrapbooking 3. Diamond Painting 4. Reading 5. Writing 6. Gardening 7. Miniatures 8. Painting 9. Drawing 10. Building  The above is 10 cool hobbies, the top 5 is what I feature on my blog now. But you can do anything as a hobby. As long as you love it, it's a hobby. It's not about how much it costs to hobby. It doesn't matter how much space it takes in your home or garage or outdoors. It brings a smile to your face when you talk about it to others and you feel good when doing the hobby. You could spend hours a week working on your hobby or even just 5 or 10 minutes. It doesn't matter how much time you spend on it...