This month we meet the multi-talented creative blogger behind One Crafty Mumma – Melissa!

How do you describe One Crafty Mumma to people you meet who haven’t read it before?

I don’t think I’ve ever told anybody in conversation that I have a blog, but I guess if somebody asked I’d have to say that it’s a mix of cooking, crafting, our day to day life, sewing and a Mama that enjoys teaching her children to craft. I’m quite passionate about giving my children the opportunity to draw, paint, hand stitch, create models, use a sewing machine, knit and take on any craft that they’d like to learn and from time to time I like to also share their creations on my blog.

When did you first start blogging and what made you first hit the keyboard?

My first blog post was in February 2006 and I only started because a few of my online friends were blogging and it looked like fun. I didn’t have categories, nicely aligned posts or even a pretty blog header way back then.

You’ve been blogging at One Crafty Mumma for over four years – congratulations! How has the blog changed or evolved over time?

For the first two years of blogging my posts were primarily scrapbooking related with a little bit of our daily happenings thrown in there as well. Some of my old posts make me cringe when I go back and read them, but I guess that’s all part of evolving and getting to the rhythm of how I blog these days. My posts encompass a much broader range of topics now and I’m more comfortable sharing snippets of our day or asking questions on my blog now – my readers are super knowledgable and helpful if ever I have something to ask.

What is the thing you most enjoy about blogging?

Being able to create and document a visual diary so that our children can look back through past posts and see how much they’re grown and read about the fun things we did over the years. Although I can’t squeeze everything that happens in our week into my blog posts, it’s a great way of recording snippets of what we do together and how we spend our time. I also have the loveliest group of readers that leave the most heart warming comments and many of them send me nice emails, sometimes to point out something on the web that they think I might be interested in or to tell me about a project that they’re working on that was inspired by something that I made. It’s a warm fuzzy kind of feeling when people take time out to tell you something special or say thank you for a blog post.

What is the coolest thing your blog has helped you to do?

Make some really lovely online friends and it also gives me the confidence to share projects and new ideas that I have. I also feel really lucky to sometimes receive gifts in the mail from nice businesses that want to share their products with me. Today I received a very cool craft book from Penguin Books and last week some beautiful new patterns to try out from Amy Butler Designs. It’s a really nice feeling to know that people want you to try and enjoy their products.

What piece of advice would you give to someone just starting out their very first blog?

Definitely just do it. It’s such a great experience and fun, fun, fun! There’s no right or wrong way to blog and it’s such a fantastic way of recording memories and sharing it with other like minded people.

Tell us about your pets, friends, hobbies, star sign, shoe size… whatever!

I live in Tasmania and I’m happily married with two children and a border collie dog called Trooper. I have a weakness for chocolate, love cooking, day dreaming, camping and toasting marshmellows on the fire in summer time. When I’m not creating I work part time for my husband’s business. Every Friday night we celebrate ‘Friday family fun night’ which usually entails cooking homemade pizzas, playing a board game together or watching a family friendly DVD. Oh and I love drinking warm tea while I’m crocheting.

Do you have a particular favourite post you think is One Crafty Mumma at its best?

Goodness, that’s a hard question. All of my posts are so varied from one day to the next and include lots of different topics about my cooking, crocheting, kids craft, sewing, knitting, scrapbooking, tutorials and our daily happenings, so it’s really tricky for me to pinpoint a favourite. But, my husband has just started building a wood fired oven in our back yard so that we can bake bread, pizza and roast meals outdoors – so I’m really looking forward to doing quite a few posts about the building process and then lots more when we start to actually use it. See, I told you that my posts are quite random :)

Recommend a blog to us! If you like One Crafty Mumma, maybe you’d like…

A Collection of Thoughts – One of my favourite blogs filled with lots of cooking, crafting and other inspirational ideas.

What do you love about Nuffnang?

Nuffnang is like a dream come true for me (seriously!) because I can earn some extra income from the advertising that goes on my blog AND it’s super easy. I remember loading the *test* Nuffnang banner onto my blog and wondering if I’d ever be able to figure out how it all worked and what to do etc… But, after loading up the tester I haven’t had to look, fiddle around or think about advertising because it all just happens automatically. How good is that!!?

Drop by and visit One Crafty Mumma to get some inspiration for your own craft projects, or for cool creative projects to do with your kids!