At the beginning of this year I heard about Maggie Doyne, a 23 year old American lady who has started up a home for orphaned children in Nepal. When I read her story I couldn’t believe her guts and her enthusiasm.

Maggie won the 2009 “Do Something” Awards, and this is what they write about her journey so far:

Maggie took off after high school to see the world and when she was trekking through the Himalayas, she stumbled upon hundreds of kids living in the streets, orphaned by years of human rights violations and war. Maggie knew she could stay and make a difference in these childrens’ lives, granting them the rights that every child around the world should have. She built and now runs Kopila Valley Children’s Home in Nepal, housing these innocent victims and saving them from lives of instability and hunger.
Through her work, Maggie has given shelter to 24 kids, sent 60 others to school, and assisted in the placement of over 700 orphans in the region. She has tackled human rights issues in the region, improving the lives of children affected by violence, child labor, sex trafficking, and poverty.

Frankly, I just had to get in contact with her.  So, I emailed her and I was even more inspired.

Well, I encourage you to read her story and be inspired and donate whatever you can.

Thanks Maggie for inspiring me and so many others!

Mia

PS Just to let you know I have been looking for a charity to donate to and this one is I really believe in.  I have decided to donate 10% of my profits from my book to the Kripala Children’s Home.

Mia

xxx

I have had a lot of emails asking about the book so I thought I would do a Q & A to answer those questions and some more…

What’s One Hour Craft (the book) about? The book is a way of encouraging people to start or continue to use their hands to make things, to create. The book contains quality crafts which can be made in an hour or less. If you only have fifteen minutes a day, it will only take you four days to create something from the book. I wanted to take the pressure off people these days, who are overwhelmed by the thought of starting enormous crafting activities that they know they may never finish!

Can you make a quality craft in one hour or are you kidding me? Yes, you can absolutely make something of quality in one hour. For example, you can sew a gorgeous bag in one hour, make and glaze a clay vase, make delicious tomato relish, make your own earrings etc. I do it all the time, and so do many of the readers of this site.

Who is the book written for? I wrote this book mainly for the female population! But I do have many male readers of this site and I welcome them on board. This book is aimed at a readership of 12 years old and up.

I have written the book for beginner or advanced crafters – I believe that there is something for everyone in the book. If you have been making things for a while, then this will teach you to make other things. On the other hand, if you have never crafted, this book provides you with easy-to-read photo tutorials to make the crafts.

I also think that One Hour Craft would really appeal to homeschooling mothers of adolescents. Most of the crafts are inexpensive to make and are written as lessons (me being a teacher and all). I know that a lot of homeschooling mamas read this site! Actually just buy it for yourself, forget the children!

What is the format of One Hour Craft? One Hour Craft is written in 10 chapters, covering crafts from across the design spectrum. The chapters are sewing & felt, plastic, soaps & lotions, plastic, clay, food, garden, jewellery, paper.

Tell us more about the tutorials in the book? Well there are so many (47 all together). I had so much fun making the book. I love the clay vase in the book, it is so easy to make and brilliant. I love the bean bag, the humbug bags, I love the earrings (you make the findings yourself). I really enjoyed designing the teacup bird feeder. Oh and I love the clock in the book – it is so fun and funky. Also the succulent crescent – I was so proud of myself for designing that beauty for the garden….. Must I go on? In this book you definitely get the creative best of me! Oh I forgot – The Sweet Suzy Bag *love, love, love* and the perfect tomato relish and the etched bird mirror is magical to make!

What was your aim in writing the book? To give people a way into crafting and creativity. To take any stress out of the process. Being a teacher, I believe that with clear instruction, you can learn anything easily! I also wanted everything in the book to be fun and bold and colourful!

What is your background? Firstly, I must say I am a crazy workaholic, who is trying to cut down a little and take more time out to, well, daydream . My day job is working as a fulltime lecturer at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia. I love my work and my students – they give me so much in return for what I give them. I teach English and I am passionate about my work. Before this I taught in high schools and primary schools and at TAFE for about six years.
I have also worked in Public Relations. I enjoyed public relations too, but didn’t like working such long hours. I have also owned my own business, making and selling silver jewellery. Great fun!
My degrees are in English and French. I speak French and would love to go and live in the south of France for a few years. I have also studied jewellery design and manufacturing at TAFE. Silversmithing is one of my greatest passions (but one I rarely get to indulge in these days!)
As for crafting, I have been making things ever since I remember. My mother is one of the most creative people ever to grace this planet and she insisted that we find things to do other than watch tv or play computer games (for this I am forever grateful). She taught all her daughters to sew and to cook and to knit, to make candles, to embroider etc. I have been making jewellery for the last seven years. I am a passionate sewer (as you know if you read this site). But I am a person who likes to try my hand at anything and everything. If I see something I like I obsessively try to make it myself.

So how did you get time to write a book? That’s a good question and an obvious one. While I was writing, my schedule was to get up early (6.30 -6.45am), get myself and my daughter ready for the day. Out the door by 7.15am. Work all day. Pick up Millie from daycare and home by 5.00pm. Talk to my girl, housework, cooking etc until 7.00pm. Relax for half an hour. 7.30pm put Millie to bed. 7.30 -12.00 design things, make prototypes, re-make things while taking photos, type up the tutorials on the computer, download photos from my camera etc. 12.00 – 12.30am collapse into bed.
As a side, I must say I had a lot of help from a particularly lovely man in my life, who collated a lot of the data and spent night after night helping me with photo shoots, running out to shops for supplies, editing etc (and even more in his defense, I was not that fun to work with, impatient, perfectionistic and really tired!)

Will you be writing another book? Why stop at one more? I would like to write 100 more (is that possible?) I have two projects on the go at the moment. All I can say is that I am really excited and am going to be working with some creative and interesting people!

Back to the book, where can we buy it? You can buy it at the moment in bookstores in the UK and on-line at several bookstores (google it!) and on amazon.co.uk. On September 1 the book will be available in bookstores across Australia and I am excited about this. We will be having a book launch in Perth and some book signings around Perth – I will keep you posted. This is a really exciting time for me, where I get to sit back and enjoy.

*A big thanks to all of you for your support of me, this website and my first book and to A&C Black for publishing it.*

I hope this answers your questions….

Mia
xxx

Machine applique airplane tshirt.

Machine applique horse on sweater for my little girl.

Reversible tote bag with applique horse.

Applique cowboy t-shirt.

Applique lion t-shirt.

In my last post I was complaining that my sisters make me jealous by the beauty and skill of their creations, on a weekly basis *big sigh*. Well, I just thought I would let you see what I am talking about. Here are some of the gorgeous machine applique that Em has made lately.

I think all of our crafting lives go in cycles and there are times when we are extremely prolific with our creativity. This is one of those times for Em. I think she is spending about three hours a night sewing, screenprinting, appliqueing and designing. A mammoth effort for a mum of two little boys.

And… look at the results. Every time I see my lovely little nephews they are decked out in another amazing creation. And the pink sweater appliqued with the horse was a present for my girl, Millie. It has not been taken off very often in the last two weeks!

Oh, and the beautiful reversible applique tote bags. I will be putting up my hand for one of those definitely.

Well, in the next week we will put together a pattern or two for you to download and maybe a little tutorial.

There is lots more coming from Em. Can’t wait…

Mia xx

(Homemade bunting to welcome me home each day)

I was asked the other day, “Why do you make so many things?” This comment was followed with, “I just can’t be bothered, I’d rather go shopping”.

When I was driving away from my gf’s house I thought, ‘why do I make stuff?’ and ‘what’s so good about making stuff anyway?’.

I came up with a few (a slight understatement) reasons to craft…

1. To make one-off items that no-one else has, like silver rings and brooches.
2. To re-use and recycle old clothing into cushion covers, quilts.
3. To give beautiful gifts like appliqued cushions that will be treasured for many years.
4. To save $$$ by using what you have in your home.
5. To get over a breakup. There is nothing better than putting yourself in front of a sewing machine for a weekend and creating a gorgeous, kick-arse dress.
6. To help get over a short illness, like the flu.
7. To recover, from a long illness or accident.
8. To keep busy so you don’t worry about your problems.
9. To teach your kids to be able to amuse themselves instead of relying on idle entertainment like tv watching.
10. To amuse yourself and not rely on everyone else to do the job.
11. To feel a sense of accomplishment when you have finished a task, like when I made my first quilt, that was awesome.
12. To build confidence in your ability to take on the world. I recommend building something with a hammer and nails (like the bird feeder from my new book).
13. To make some extra dosh by selling your things on etsy
14. To make your home look more beautiful and one-offish and a little less IKEA
15. To remind you of how great it is to be alive and to have two hands that can do so much.
16. To stop you from bitching about everything. When you get together with your mates, make stuff and you can see the conversation changes from negative to productive and positive really quickly.
17. To learn a new skill like knitting, crocheting.
18. To make heirlooms to leave with your children and their children and their children.
19. To keep your partner out of your hair for a little while.
20. To take some space for yourself.
21. To stop overthinking things. Have your noticed that crafting is therapy? When you are making things, you have no time to worry!
22. To become a doer and not a gunna (someone who is always ‘gunna’ do something.
23. To offer your gifts to the world. There is no greater gift to give the world than art and beauty. It changes everything.
24. To keep occupied so you don’t get bored (especially for those of us with over-active minds)
25. To learn to problem solve more accurately. Really creating something like a mosaic is solving a series of problems.
26. To develop your fine motor skills. If you embroider, sew or silversmith you will find your fingers get more and more accurate and you are able to complete finer tasks.
27. To make someone jealous (LOL).
28. Because you are jealous of someone else.  My sisters do this to me on a weekly basis (although I don’t think its intentional)
29. To let your imagination run wild and see where it ends up. Painting is great for this!
30. To feel free…..sort of the same feeling as running through the sand on the beach on a winter’s day.
31. To lose time. I remember making a silver bracelet once and looking up at from my bench to the clock and fours hours had disappeared. Where did they go?.
32. To learn skills like knitting and lacemaking from your old aunts and then be able to pass it onto your kids.
33. To feel like you belong. Join a group of people who make similar things to you
34. Because you just can’t stop no matter how hard you try
35. Because you love those shoes with the big flowers and think to yourself, ‘that would be so easy to make’.
36. Because you are stranded on a desert island and you need to craft a big SOS banner.
37. Because you just read a great craft blog and got completely inspired to make something.
38. Because you are having a party and want to make it really special. So you set about making all your own invitations, party bags, decorations etc.
39. Because you are getting married and want to have your stamp on the whole day.
40. Because your kids want to learn how to sew.
41. Because the front garden looks plain boring and you think to yourself that making a water feature and a few plaques couldn’t be that hard. (And it isn’t).
42. To live your life as a work of art. Live life like the French!
43. To live more sustainably and write a love letter to the the planet. Use materials bought at a thrift store, reupholster furniture, cover an old desk in fabric. Mother earth kisses you back!
44. To feel like a rocksar, wearing your one-off dresses that no-one else could possibly own!
45. To have a good excuse not to do your housework. You can’t possibly mop floors tonight, you promised to get that quilt top done by tomorrow.
46. To make some extra money selling your printed tshirts at a local market. Very fun!
47. To start up a craft blog?   OK is it obvious I am sort of running out of ideas at this point?
48. To meet Mr Right.  Not so likely unless Mr Right joings your knitting group.  Once again, not that likely either.
49. To give you an excuse to build a wonderful stash of fabrics.
50. Just because you can…

Any more ideas???

Mia xxx

(One Hour Craft, the book.  Available on amazon.co.uk)

Have you been wishing to start a craft blog but need a little push in the right direction? 

So, why start a craft blog?  There are a million reasons for writing a craft blog.  Some are:

• To connect with other crafters.  Maybe you have been lurking around the net for a while, reading all the craft blogs you find and loving them.  Why not make the big jump and start your own?  Once you start craft blogging you join a huge network of people who are likeminded and who have alll sorts of wisdom and ideas and can help convert your passion into ta die-hard addiction .
• To catalog your creations.  Craft blogging is an amazing way of keeping track of everything you make.  I suggest taking a good photo of each one of your marvellous creations and putting it on your blog (if only I took my own advice) so that, even if you give them away or sell them, they are never lost!
• To help sell your stuff.  If you are thinking of an on-line business or are already selling on Etsy, a craft blog is an excellent marketing tool.  You can easily build a profile and a brand name with a good craft blog, that will allow others to have some inside knowledge of your wares.
• To get a book deal.  Starting a blog is now the best way to become a published author.  After having my blog for three months and having a daily readership of between 4,000 and 10,000 I decided to start applying for book deals.  Before I had time to start, I had received two offers of book deals.  I accepted the best offer, was paid a very nice amount of development money and a forward.  It makes sense that a blog is an easier way to get a book deal.  It is like having an on-line portfolio where a publisher can see the quality of your design, can learn a lot about you, and be impressed by your writing style.
• Just for fun! I reckon this is the best reason of all.  Running a craft blog is loads of fun.  It sends you down a new path, an adventure.  You will make loads of new friends, gain new opportunities, get involved in swaps, etc.  The great thing about starting a craft blog is that it doesn’t matter about your age, your weight, what you look like.  All that matters is that you are passionate about making stuff!

How to Start a Craft Blog

1. Choose a blogging site to start your blog.  Before I started onehourcraft.com, I had a site at wordpress.com.  They are fantastic.  I recommend you start with them.  Go to http://www.wordpress.com.  When you are there, follow the very easy steps to set up your blog.  It will literally take you ten minutes to start it!  Here’s a good video tutorial to watch on youtube before starting your blog!
2. Choose a great blog name.  Many, many names are already taken.  There are millions of craft blogs, so play around with selecting a name that is not taken.  Make it snappy and memorable or cute and fun.  Remember your blog name is the first thing people read, so make  it good!
3. Images.  Including photos is a great idea for a craft blog since all artists and crafters are visual people.  Take some good photos of your craft.  Photos of something you are making can be the best material for your posts.  Make sure that your photos are taken in good light.  You will then need to upload your photos to your computer and resize them.  Photos for the Net are at a low resolution.  You can resize your photos using Picknick.  You can either upload your photos straight to your blog or you can upload them to flickr (a great photo-sharing sight.  From Flickr you can send the photos to your blog.
4. Write now.  Now we get to the most important point – your written content.  I suggest writing about your crafting endeavours to begin with.  Make sure that your style is easy to read and that you are approachable and upbeat.  I have noticed that blogging tends to attract quite quirky people with great senses of humour.  Crazyauntpurl is one of my fave reads.  Your writing is the thing which will coax your readers to return again and again.   I have found that the posts that attract the most readers are either the inspirational posts or the informative ones.  The tutorials I post are read a lot!  But be warned these posts can take a LOT of time too!
5. Attracting readers.  There are loads of ways to attract readers to your blogs.  Here are some of my tried and tested ones:  organise a craft swap, get to know other craft bloggers and leave comments on their sites, get other people to link to you (good content will mean that you don’t have to ask), offer free giveaways like things you have made and offer photos tutorials on different crafts.  Above all, the way to keep people coming back is to provide good content that is easy to read and to post regularly.  I find that if I take a blogging break it always takes a few weeks to get my readership up to what it was again.  Also when I take long breaks, people tend to stop commenting.

Answers to Common Questions

• How long does it take to set up a blog?  Setting up takes ten minutes, maintaining it is a LOT more time consuming.  At first I spent about 15+ hours a week maintaining my site.  Now I don’t have that time.  I find that a good shorter post takes me about an hour from woe to go.  A longer post with more links like this one takes about 2 – 3 hours.  Be warned the Net is addictive and there is nothing worse than your whole life being taken over by it.  This is not your life, just as an itty bitty part of it, so make sure it doesn’t swallow you whole.
• Do you have to know HTML?  Not if you start a blog with Wordpress.  I have taught myself HTML along the way but only when I started this site.  You don’t need any programming knowledge at all.  Yay!
• Will my privacy be violated?  What you share is up to you!  I love having a craft blog, because it gives my blog an angle.  I can share about craft, yet not really tell too much about my personal life.  I can share a lot of myself but I also manage to keep all the private bits private.  And that’s the way I like it. To have to share what I ate for breakfast would bore me to tears (let alone my readers).
• Are there weirdos stalking around the Net?  Yes.  There are some very strange people.  But it’s like life.  There is a bell curve of normality in any population.  You will always find a few who are completely out of the norm and most who are fairly normal.   I have had a lot of really abusive comments and the more high profile your blog becomes, the more of these you will have to cope with.  All I can say is that you can filter out all the comments which are not to your liking.  The first time I had someone who sent me a long string of abuse, over a month, I felt intimidated and pulled back from blogging.  Now, I ignore it.  I just delete abusive emails and comments and feel sorry for those people who send them.  Really who has the time to send these anyway?  That said, I have had thousands of encouraging and wonderful comments and few bad comments really!  I find that crafty people tend to be happy people and these are the people who will mainly be reading your blog .
• How often should I post?  Most people post two or three times a week.  Some post every day.  That is a very big time commitment and I have found it is mainly people who are making money on the Net or doing some serious marketing via the Net.  I have mostly posted a few times a week and have managed to keep a large readership doing this.
• Is there a formula for success?  The success of you blog will be defined by your goals and these are different for each person.  And YES, the formula for success in anything is to passionately love what you are doing.  I love making things.  I go to bed at night thinking about making stuff and wake up in the morning thinking the same.  It is my life!

Good luck with your blogs. 

Have I forgotten anything?

Mia xxx