Hi Sparrows,

Today I'm happy to share Mel from One Crafty Mumma with you.  Her blog is encouraging, genuine and full of inventive tutorials, and full of photos of her collections and crafts. She also offers her readers some really amazing giveaway opportunities! In her interview she talks about handmade, DIY and growing up, share her insight on fitting blogging into your life, explains the mysterious (to me) world of Blythe,  and talks about being a blogger in Tasmania and how her online community has expanded her real life world. Thanks for joining us, Mel!

Love, Kyla

Kyla: First things first, could you introduce yourself to my readers?

Mel: Sure, I'm Mel from Tasmania (an Australian island at the base of Australia) and I blog at One Crafty Mumma about creating nice things, family time, cooking, crafty tutorials and our everyday life. I usually have a million projects on the go at once and like to dabble in all sorts of crafts – I have a cupboard full of unfinished projects! My family are super important to me and we try squeeze in as many fun days as we can with our two children, James and Bella. They're growing up so fast, so I try and make the most of our home time together.

K: Was growing up with handmade, crafty projects and home cooked meals an important part of your childhood that you wanted to share with your children, or were those things you discovered on your own as your family grew?

M: I grew up in a very crafty family – my Mum sewed pretty much all of our clothes when we were small, had a continual stream of baked goodness in the oven and was ready to try all the new groovy craft fads that were happening at the time (hello macrame). My Grandma was an avid knitter/crocheter and always had a project on the go when I would visit. There would be homemade jam simmering away on the stove and the best cream cakes you have ever seen on the table, just waiting for people to pop in for a visit. My Mum tried to encourage me to knit and sew as I was growing up, but I was never really interested enough to stick with a new project – my toys were way more exciting!

After I had my first baby, I can remember feeling the desire to knit and I struggled along with a perfectly plain knitted singlet. [That's Aussie speak for a layering tank top :) -k] I think it took me 6 months and my Mum kindly finished it off for me. I decided then and there that crafting was way too hard and definitely not my thing. Fast forward 5 years and I had an idea to sew some dress up clothes for my son. I bought a sewing machine, a dress up pattern book, some fabric one weekend and figured out how to sew a super hero cape by myself. I kept on sewing more and more dress ups – not super following the instructions, just winging it and hoping for the best and before I knew it, I was heavily absorbed in the crafting world and trying a mirage of new crafts. My Mum was so proud of me for finally catching on to the crafty bug!

Before long I was teaching my own children to craft and thankfully they were way more excited and interested in learning new skills than I was as a child. My daughter (Bella) is now ten and can independently knit (plain stitching), crochet, sew (machine + hand) and bake in the kitchen. My 15 year old boy (James) has moved on from sewing, but now spends hours building, creating and painting army models and tanks in our shed. I'm excited to think about what they both might be creating when they're all grown up.

K: You've been blogging for five years & seem to have have made it a natural and balanced part of your life- do you have any tips for bloggers who are still trying to navigate how it fits into their lives?

M: My biggest tip is to enjoy the experience and not get bogged down with what *everyone else* is doing on their own blogs. Definitely be inspired by other bloggers, but be your own voice and blog in your own style. If you want to be organized and plan ahead, there are some really cute (and free) blog post calendars on the net that other bloggers have kindly shared for you to print and use. Of course you can just record your posts in a diary too, but cute calendars are so much more fun :) Perhaps think up an idea for a regular feature that you'd like to write about each week. I've recently started two of these (Kids in the Kitchen and My Top Ten) and it just makes blogging easy on these days – I don't have to think up a post idea. My readers seem to enjoy the regular feature too because they know what to expect on my blog every Tuesday and Sunday. Most of all though, have fun, fun, fun with blogging!

K: From the outside the Australian blogging community seems really tight knit and supportive, but living in Tasmania you're also separated from the mainland Australian community. Has connecting with other bloggers at conferences been part of your blogging experience, or has the distance not effected your community?

M: Yes, from my experience Australian bloggers are a lovely and supportive group of people. Living in Tasmania, I haven't really mingled with many other bloggers yet though – but I'm off to my first conference on mainland Australia at the end of next week. I'm really looking forward to meeting and chatting with other like minded people, I think it's going to be lots of fun! I personally haven't come across any nastiness in the online community yet (touch wood), not even a tingle and I think that's what makes blogging so fun and enjoyable for me. I've also been so lucky this year to have a couple of really awesome opportunities from my blog and as the blogging community in Australia continues to grow, I think more and more people are going to jump on the bandwagon and publish their first post. I think it's important to support new bloggers that are just getting started as it can be pretty daunting when you first hit the keyboard.

K: You always share great recipes and tutorials, could you point us to some that are your reader's favourites in case some of my readers are looking for new projects to try this weekend?

M: Yes! Recipes: Mother's Day Chocolate Cake & Sweet Sweet Cinnamon Scrolls (these are seriously good!)
Tutorials: Vintage book reading journal, Bunny headband, Heart brooch & a Felted Breakfast

Mel's projects & tutorials are deliciously pictured above

K: I just discovered Blythe dolls in the past year and I have so many questions- and your daughter has a very sweet Blythe blog so I thought you might be able to give me the inside track. I've been (a little reluctantly) drawn in by the dolls and I'm fascinated by the professional level photoshoots and elaborate customizations that are out there online. From the outside it seems like a pretty absorbing hobby! Do you have any insight into why they're so fascinating, and do you ever have to resist the urge to play with your daughter's Blythes?

M: *Cough cough* I actually have two Blythe dolls of my own, although I don't play with them – just look :)  About 2 years ago, Bella and I saw some Blythe dolls online and we just fell in love with their quirky look.  I had a weak moment and ordered one from Japan and once it arrived, we were both totally addicted.  I can't explain the fascination, other than to say that once you have a *real* one in your hot little hands, you too will become addicted!  They're fun too – you can dress them up all sweet, take photos, make them a dolly house and get totally carried away with all the Blythe doll goodness that's out there on the internet.

Thanks again, Mel!

You can visit Mel on her blog, One Crafty Mumma where you'll find even more gorgeous photos, tutorials and inspiration.

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