A new year, a fresh start 2017

At the end of 2016, it's time to reflect upon the past year and look ahead to 2017.

2016

2016 has been a good and busy year. We had a great family holiday to Japan, and plenty more family fun and experiences.  

Our girls had awesome years at school, achieving lots both academically and in all other areas too!

My blog this year

For me - it was a year when I put everything I could think of into my blog.  After 6 years, I feel like I've built it up into a great resource of sewing tutorials and upcycling inspiration. Slowly, over the years I've become more and more focussed with what my blog is about - and what I love to do. Sewing is not the main focus of my blog - although having created over 150 free sewing tutorials, you'd be forgiven for thinking that it was!

I'm definitely an advocate of doing things in an environment friendly manner - reduce, reuse and recycle. But again this isn't the sole focus of my blog, just an aspect of it.

What me and my blog are all about is, 

Use what you've got

This is something I do and have always tried to do in all areas of my life. So here on the blog I sew and create things, 'using what I've got' on hand - materials and supplies I've recycled, been given, found in a charity shop etc.   In our home I try to use what we've got in the pantry, fridge and kitchen to make dinners, cakes, and snacks When we want things, our first stop is always to see if something we already have can be repurposed or reused before we consider buying.

I love to find and share stories - largely on Facebook, of companies and people I find who 'use what they've got'  - like the feature post I wrote about The Woolly Pedlar earlier this year - a lovely lady whose whole business is built on the concept of 

'using what you've got'!!

13 years of..

For the past 13 years I've been a stay-at-home mum. This was a conscious decision my husband and I made for our lifestyle. My 'job' if you like has been to be there for our kids - educating and supporting them in their learning and endeavours. I've helped them with projects, homework and extra curricular activities. I've helped out and volunteered a plenty at their kindergarten and school - everything from president of their kindy to manager of their sports teams.

In my time for myself over the years, I've renovated a couple of houses with my husband, and on my own I've built up a couple of blogs. This one - and also an education blog chronicling and sharing things I've done over the years with our girls to help their education and learning experiences. If you're interested to see that blog - go here to Be Our Best.

This blog - Creating my way to Success, started out as a hobby - somewhere to share my sewing creations, and has developed into a reflection of who I am and what I enjoy doing.  

I would love for this blog to be an income producing job for me - as I'm sure plenty people would love their hobby and personal interests to be. I've tried everything I can think of (and am willing to do) to make this the case, but sadly so far have been unsuccessful in making a lot of money from my blog. I do make a small amount of money from advertising, and sales of my e-books but not enough to live on!

I could go down the path of sponsored posts to earn money, but that's not something I'm comfortable with given my ethos of 'Use what you've got'. I don't want to promote all kinds of products that I myself don't use or wouldn't buy. Since a lot of my shopping is done at charity shops and I make things out of what I have and things like old clothes friends give me, there's not really much that fits my blog that I could comfortably promote and sell to try to make some money!

This year as I mentioned earlier, I've tried lots of new tactics to promote my blog. I've explored and pushed Pinterest, 

I ran a month long project with some blogging friends to use our social media followings to help promote each other's blogs - 

(36 shares in 36 days); 

and also hosted a major Christmas project with other fellow bloggers too - The 12 Days of Christmas DIY Challenges.

I've revamped and reorganised my blog - shared, promoted, linked and done all I can think of. I've had some successes here and there, but not enough to justify spending so much time on my blog any more. I need to try a new tactic.
"Success comes from doing things differently"

2017

So, in 2017 there will be a big change for me.

Teaching!

Instead of doing casual work here and there and lots of 'volunteer work', I'm going back to a regular paid job teaching English as a foreign language.

After 13 years of teaching my girls, I'm looking forward to a new teaching challenge. The hours are within my girls' school days so I'm lucky with that and can still drive them around to all their various after school sports here and there and help out with those where needed.

So, this all means I won't have as much time to put into my blog and sewing.  I won't stop, but just do less.  However, having put SO much time into the blog this year and not seen enough of a return to justify the hours, I think that less time spent on the blog will be a good thing all round.  

Going back to regular paid teaching won't mean I'll be doing any 'more' than I've been doing, just different things. My hours will have to be a little more focused and a little less flexible, but again I think this may be a good thing and help me focus and maybe even get more quality stuff done!

My blog in 2017

So there you have my plan and big change for the New Year 2017.

I do hope you'll still come and visit my blog to see what I'm up to. I've got a list of several things I want and need to sew for myself and my girls this year; I'm going to continue my learning to crochet as I am enjoying it so far, and feel it's important to always continue to learn!  I also have plenty of tutorials and posts already here on the blog to share and browse through.

The Round Tuit party will still run each week 

and I'll still be on my Facebook page most days, sharing fun things, sewing, crochet and upcycle links and most of all ideas and inspiration to 'use what you've got'.

So how about you?

Have you had a good year in 2016? And do you have any exciting plans for 2017?  I'd love to hear what others are up to!

Trying something different!

Taking a break from my blog is always a good time to reflect. The recent school holidays gave me a couple of weeks with minimum blogging and lots of quality time spent with my girls. 

Once they returned to school, I then took a week to get reorganised and refocussed with what I'm doing and where I'm going with my blogs.  

Taking stock I kind of felt like it was a case of Dream Vs Reality.

The Dream

 for me is having one or more successful blogs that I enjoy producing and that bring in a decent income, at least equivalent to what I could earn if I went to work for somebody else.

The Reality

 of this is that I have 3 blogs (this one, Be Our Best and A Fitter and Healthier Me). 

I love producing them and working on them, so that's a definite plus, but as for earning an income?  $100 - $200 a month isn't quite a salary. It's a start but not quite enough to reflect the hours I put in....YET!! 

Unfortunately I seem to be stuck at this 'level' of traffic and income for my blogs and have been for a while.

So, I'm still figuring out how to turn my dream into a reality.

A quote that has been in the forefront of my mind lately - and I've put up on the whiteboard above my desk is:

"You will never change your life until you change something you do daily."

I feel this quote reflects the changes I have made over the last couple of years with regard to my fitness. Instead of just doing whatever exercise I felt like, I decided that in order to make the improvements I wanted, I needed to be more focussed. 

I began to follow exercise and running programmes which told me what I needed to do each day. This was different to the exercise I had been doing and aside from enjoying the discipline and order of having set workouts to do and check off my plans, I began to see much better and more measurable results than I had previously.

I'm still following fitness programmes and plans and have started to document my learning and progress on my newest blog - 

A Fitter and Healthier Me.

In the case of my fitness, I changed what I did daily - and it really did result in a bigger positive change in my overall life.

Replicate this success

So this is what I need to do with other areas of my life. In order to make more progress, I need to change something I do daily.

Another quote I have up on my whiteboard just now is:

"Successful people ask better questions and as a result they get better answers."

So I've come up with a new plan of attack to try to make my own dream a reality. My plan very simply is...

To ask better questions on a daily basis!

What kind of questions should I be asking?

To figure this out I've been looking again at trying to nail down exactly what it is I do (and want to do) and why. 

This is something I'm constantly working on.  

I love sewing and have produced over 100 free sewing tutorials for my blog. I also have a particular interest in and passion for upcycling - reflected in my ongoing linky - 600+ clothes upcycling projects, my current clothes upcycling challenge for 2015, and of course the e-book I produced last year for making Eco-friendly shopping bags - largely from upcycled materials.

But what I do is more than just sewing and upcycling. I love when I can motivate others to have a go and do things. I'm a big fan of people doing things for themselves - not just handing over responsibility to others. I feel particularly strongly about this in terms of things you can make instead of buy.  I was brought up with the mentality of  looking at things that you want, and figuring out if you can make it yourself.  Some of this I think was borne of financial necessity, but there is also a certain satisfaction in solving your own problems and making things more personalised too, rather than always just buying a solution. This approach is often more environmentally friendly too - using supplies you have already got rather than always buying something new.

Use What You've Got

This philosophy was what spurred me to start my second blog -

 Be Our Best. When a friend was telling me she was considering getting a special tutor for her daughter to help her with her school work. Her daughter was only in grade 1 at the time. 

I feel that particularly in primary school, there is so much we can do with our kids to help them with their school work - that doesn't involve just workbooks and extra study. Playing games, baking with them, going places, reading books - there are so many simple everyday activities can help develop those basic skills taught at primary school. I wanted to share these ideas and what we do with our kids on this blog to show once again that the answer isn't always just to spend money and buy a solution...in this case a tutor. A better way to look at things is to 'use what you've got' - be that supplies or games or simply time and imagination.

Crafting with a purpose

My sewing and crafting is also something I like to do with a purpose. I either make things my girls want - like pencil cases, aprons, toys and bags, but also I find fabric in charity shops, remnant boxes or perhaps old clothes and see the potential of what it can be turned into - something useful!

So essentially, I've decided that I'm going to look at what I do in a different way from now on, because:

"Success comes from doing things differently."

My new plan of action

Problem.....Solution!

Each day I will focus on a particular problem - be it a crafting supply I need to use up in my stashbusting goal for 2015,  clothes I need to transform into items to sell for my girl's school carnival, an item that my girls want to buy - (there are mutterings of a new fancy pencil case just now), or even left overs in the kitchen I need to transform into a tasty meal or snack. Some of these problems I may be able to solve in a day, some may take a week. 

I'll also be taking this approach for my other two blogs - identifying 'problems' and finding solutions. So things my girls need help with  - perhaps homework, after school activities, challenges they face etc; and finally with my fitness blog - I'm constantly trying to learn and improve my fitness and diet, so looking at that as problem - solution will work well too.

Finally, I'm a big fan of Anthony Robbins - who I find to be a great motivator, and I often listen to his CDs in the car. One thing he identifies as important is that 

"you should never leave the site of a goal without taking a step towards it."

So - here's the first problem I'm going to work on with regard to my creative blog. This is something that will help in both my stashbusting and my clothes upcycling challenge for 2015.

I found these notebooks, pens, pencils and erasers on sale for literally a few cents a (long) while ago and bought them with the school carnival stall in mind.

So I've decided to finally get around to using them up and combine them with making something using the old clothes stash for the school stall. 

My first thought is something like these

Mini Notebook and Pencil folders:

I shall have to adapt it somehow since I don't have coloured pencils, and the pencils and pens I have are longer than these folders - plus I have the erasers to use too. Any suggestions are very welcome!

You can follow along with my progress with finding solutions to my 'problems' here on my blog - but also on Facebook where I share plenty photos and inspiration.

How about you?

Do you have a 'Dream vs Reality' situation too?

What are you working towards and do you have a plan in place to get there?

Jill

Happy New Year 2015

A new year and a new plan.

This year is going to be AMAZING!

After starting "Use What You've Got" last year, I'm going to continue that but on a bigger more ambitious scale!

I'm continuing to declutter my house and I have to say a LOT of space is taken up with fabric, notions and clothes to be upcycled.

So, this year I'm going to use it all up!

Yep - you heard right, I'm aiming to use up my stash! Not just 'Stashbusting September', not just make a dent in it, over the whole year I'm going to - USE IT UP!

There are 2 parts to my challenge for this year:

1. Clothes Upcycling

I collected a large collection of clothing from my daughters' school carnival last year with the idea that I'd upcycled them all into bags, toys, pouches etc to sell at this year's carnival in October.

So those clothes are in these chest of drawers and also the bags in front. I'm going to work through one drawer every 2 months from February onwards.

I also have some of my own stash which I can add to this challenge, or the next one!

2. Use up my fabric and notion stash

 These boxes hold most of my fabric stash. They are bursting at the seams, and there are also a couple of bags and a large roll of fabric next to them!

Then these smaller boxes have my smaller fabric scraps in - colour coded.

This is a lot of my notions, buttons, zips and all sorts of other bits and pieces I've saved over the years.

More pockets full of fabric, clothes, trinkets and things I've saved to use creatively!

Basically our spare room built in wardrobes are full of my fabric and clothes upcycling stash.

It's time to stop collecting and saving and start using!

So - to use up my fabric stash, I'm going to make things using my own tutorials - including some new ones. What I make I will either use for ourselves if it's things we need, try to sell, or give as gifts.

I'm also going to use this as an opportunity to try out lots of other tutorials - starting with things I've pinned on my

 "things I want to make board"

I also have a pile of old sewing magazines and books with plenty of things to make in them than I need to use and try:

So there you have it!

Ambitious - it's going to be lots to get through in a year, but I love a good challenge!

I hope you'll follow along, I'll be posting all about the things I make and my slowly shrinking stash!  It all starts in February when the holiday ends and the girls go back to school  for the year!

Have you got any big plans or goals for the year?

I hope 2015 brings all you hope, wish and strive for!

Jill

Use What You've Got! - The Masterplan

This is the philosophy I was brought up on and still stick to in my life.

Use What You've Got

If you want something, rather than going out to buy it - see first if you can make it yourself, using things you already have.

For example, my daughters came home from school at the end of last term wanting to buy loom bands. Instead of spending money, buying more plastic toys, I looked at my stash, found lots of embroidery threads, looked up some macrame tutorials and helped my girls learn to craft their own bracelets, hair decorations etc.

I've always enjoyed finding my own materials for projects.

Like using old car windscreen shades, old curtains and clothes to make Insulated lunch bags:

Or an old kiddies t-shirt to make an ipod/mp3 player sleeve:

Or in the kitchen, the other week I came to make lasagne for dinner as planned when I realised I'd forgotten to buy the lasagne sheets -oops!

Then I decided, rather than nip to the shops to buy some, I'd dust off my pasta maker (which I had for well over a year before I even tried it out!). I quickly Googled a pasta recipe, made it and ended up with home-made pasta sheets in our lasagne!

But there's also the other side of 

Use What You've Got

I've just done a big spring clean of my house - all the cupboards and drawers got emptied, tidied, de-cluttered and cleaned.

In doing this, I really got to see quite how much 'stuff' we have that we never use. I'm sure most households are the same.

So - I've decided that we're going to make an effort to use these things.

For example - when cleaning out one cupboard I found a cross-stitch kit my daughter had been given for her birthday over a year ago, but had never been opened!  So that afternoon I sat down with her and showed her how to start, and she's loving cross-stitching away while listening to an audio book!

I also found some vases under the sink that we really never use.  There is a bush at the front of our house that has needed a good trim for a while, so I went out and snipped away, but instead of putting all the cuttings in the compost bin.. we have a selection of flowers in vases around the house - including these pretty ones brightening up my kitchen window!

You get the idea.

We have cupboards full of things we need to use not just store.

I also have a whole wardrobe (and more) full of fabric, and crafting supplies waiting for the perfect project. Time to get creative and find those perfect projects!

Everything from kitchen gadgets, to exercise equipment, board games, books and fabric is going to be part of my masterplan to..

Use What You've Got.

Not only will this be fun, and add more variety to our lives, but it should also save us money too. We have so many things to explore and create right here in our own house, whether it's making our own lasagne sheets or our own version of loom band bracelets. Anything that saves us from spending our hard earned dollars has to be a bonus!

So how is this going to work? How am I going to use all these things?

Well the #100happydays project I mentioned gave me the idea to start with 100 days of this.  The theory is that this will kickstart me into the habit of doing this long-term, not only the next 100 days.

So for the next 100 days, Every day I will post about

Using What I've Got

It may be a new recipe I'm trying from one of the many recipe books gathering dust on the shelf, or it may be a sewing tutorial using up some of my fabric stash, or perhaps a clothes upcycle (I have a large stash of clothes just waiting to be transformed!).

I'll make use of all three of my blogs - this one, Be Our Best and A Fitter and Healthier Me. I'll also use my Facebook , Google+, Pinterest and Instagram accounts. Adding into the mix the #100happydays, which this time I will complete, a happy photo each and every day!

I'm planning a little revamp of my blog to reflect my new focus and make full use of all the resources on it that I've created over the years.

One thing related to my blog I'd like to do, is make more use of my Round Tuit weekly linky party. There are around 200 fabulous links each week and just now all I do is feature my 3 favourites. That seems a shame, so I'm going to look at more ways to feature and highlight the links.

Finally, as I've mentioned many times before, I would love to be able to earn a decent income from my own work at home, so I'm going to set myself a financial target too. One that is achievable I'm sure, but will also push me to make full use of what I've got to attain it - through blog income, freelance writing, my occasional mystery shopping jobs and audits, and perhaps selling some of my sewing creations.

I'll put it out there for all to see and to keep me accountable. My goal is to make $1000 per month, working from home. 

So there you have it. My new masterplan. I'll be spending this weekend working out my week ahead, and plan to stay a week ahead in my planning but also staying flexible because things don't always go to plan! 

I hope you'll follow along and perhaps join me in this journey.

I'll end with a question for you..

How much do you

Use What You've Got?

Take a look in your cupboards - do you have things you never use? Clothes you never wear? Recipes you've never tried? Or a crafting stash that has been there for a long time waiting, waiting, waiting for the perfect project?

Do you think it might be time to use it?

It all starts tomorrow (Monday July 14th 2014)

What next?

No, I'm not going on holiday, but it's always nice to have a pretty picture at the start of a post..he he....

Starting with the problem

Towards the end of last year I took a break from blogging and a step back to try and re-evaluate what I was doing and where I was going. Prior to that I was putting more and more time into my blog but watching my page views and income drop at the same time. Something wasn't working.

The first half of 2014

This year (2014) I've tried some new things and had a vague idea and plan about what to do, but things still haven't been super clear.

My 'vague' plan was to 'use what I've got' to try and work towards my goals of earning an income from home doing what I enjoy.

Wordpress

I decided to try hard with my fitness wordpress blog. I got free hosting for a year and decided after several years working with blogger blogs that I should try out wordpress.

I learned lots but ultimately when it came to renew the hosting and actually pay, it wasn't worth it financially.  So I transferred the main posts onto a blogger blog I set up for free! 

(A Fitter and Healthier Me). I like having a place to share what I do and learn in terms of fitness and health, but having a free blog for this makes more sense to me than paying $100 for a platform to do this.

Freelance Writing

I also started looking for freelance writing work this year. I figured since I was writing lots for my own blogs, I could try and get paid for writing for others.  In just over 4 months, I've made $500 doing this. Some jobs I've enjoyed, some I haven't. I've found a lot of people paying very little and expecting huge amounts of work. I've gained lots of experience through doing this, and I've added it to my other small part time income sources, like mystery shopping. But overall, it's reiterated in my mind quite how much I want to build my own business, so that I can benefit from all my efforts and work, not someone else.

Where am I going?

I've been feeling recently that I'm a bit 'lost' with my direction and lacking full motivation.

A few weeks ago, I found something called 100 Happy Days. To join in this, all you had to do was post a picture on social media each day for 100 days with the hashtag #100happydays. Apparently most people fail to complete this, but I thought I'd give it a  go. I'm good at sticking at things, good at motivating myself and am generally a very optimistic and happy person..

Sadly, I lapsed after a few days and then stopped completely.

Something is definitely not right, and so SOMETHING has to change!

What am I going to do?

Create a new plan of course.  It's been slowly formulating in my head over the past few weeks, and I need to make it very specific, achievable, purposeful and most of all fun and interesting for me to do.

This week as I've spring cleaned and decluttered my house, I've refined and polished my plan and I'm ready to go. No slipping, no slacking and definitely no giving up.

SO tomorrow I will be posting my new plan of action and on Monday it all begins!