Spotlight 3 - Jill !!

Welcome to the third episode of  SPOTLIGHT !!!

Today's guest is Jill. I came to know about her blog when I was interviewed for Creating Success around the world by Janelle. I love her upcycling projects and other stitching projects. Though I do not have much experience in stitching I would love to stitch someday....

For now let us welcome Jill........

Hi , my name is Jill and I blog over at Creating my way to Success.  I live now in the beautiful Cairns, Australia - right next to the amazing Great Barrier Reef and stunning tropical rainforests.  I am originally from England, but emigrated out here around 10 years ago with my husband, and we now have two gorgeous daughters.

I trained as a teacher of English as a foreign language, but now am a full time mum, and blogger -not yet paid employment, but hopefully one day I'll build it up to be!

My blog started out as a way to show off the things I was creating and selling at local markets with my friend.  For both of us the blogs took over as what we enjoyed most, and now we both have independent blogs, and no longer sell at markets.

I write about mostly sewing, which is my creative medium - although now and then I do try other things.  I love helping people to make things and have lots of free tutorials available for all levels. I'm gradually producing a series of tutorials for useful things to make in just 5 steps and 15 minutes in the belief that ANYONE can sew!

I particularly enjoy upcycling and using what I have to create. I have an ongoing linky on my blog where people can link up clothes upcycling projects and ideas. 

There are currently over 350 ideas linked up, and the list is constantly growing - it's a fantastic resource that I was inspired to set up after I spent a month last year upcycling clothes every day from a pile I had collected over several years!

My blog title says exactly what it is that I'm trying to achieve - using my creativity to work my way towards success - both personally with my creativity and financially - in finding a way to earn an income doing what I really enjoy!

 My blog has slowly (over 2 years) grown to the size that I am now beginning to make a little money from advertising. I have also started to make some of my patterns and tutorials available for sale.  

I know my blog is still relatively small, and I am at the beginning of a long road on the way to growing it to the size of a profitable business, but I believe I will get there!

For anyone else wanting to turn their blog and creativity into a business, I would say go for it. I'm a great believer in chasing your dreams - and believe that anything is possible with 

Persistence 

and

 Consistency!

I think you have to find your own path in terms of how you achieve this, follow your heart and do what you enjoy. I've tried copying what other successful people have done - and there is a lot to be learned in this method, but the most valuable lesson I have learned is that what works for someone else will not necessarily work for you!

As for future plans for my blog - I have lots of plans for more tutorials - both free and more complicated and detailed ones for sale.

I also have another large pile of clothes to be upcycled so there will be lots more clothes upcycling projects coming up too!

If you haven't visited my blog before - then do come over and say hello!

You can find me here at:

Creating my way to Success

Thanks so much for having me Deepthi!

 best Jill

All the very Jill :) And if you are interested in learning stitching, head over to Jill's blog.

Come back again on 15th October and check out who will be under the spotlight .

P.S. - If you have missed any episode of Spotlight, click here .

P.S.S - And if you are interested to come under the Spotlight, do mail me or message me.

P.P.P.S. -  You don't have to be a follower of my blog :)

Spotlight 1 !!! Sonia

Hello Everyone!!!!

Today I am launching a new event on my blog called SPOTLIGHT!!!!!
Come and visit my blog on the 1st and 15th of every month to check it out :)

Though I have been on Blogger since 3-4 years, I didn't blog seriously and I even when I started this blog, I was not much serious about it..... Slowly I began to read others blogs and a whole new world opened in front of me....
I have learnt a lot of things from this Blog-world ... I made quiet a few friends on the way whom I can respect and cherish....
So this is my effort to introduce such talented bloggers/artists to others.... And hence the name SPOTLIGHT.......

And Here is my first guest.... I am not soo good with the words... so I will let my guest do the work, while I lay back and relax ;)

Drum rolls Please.....

Here comes Dr. Sonia from Cards, Crafts and Kids project!!!!

Many of us know her... She always has some sweet words for all of us on our blogs..... I don't know how she manages time to comment on all of our blogs.... But she does that sweetly....
Most of her crafts are Kids-friendly... at the same time very beautiful!!!! She puts all her heart into the art she does ... you can see that in the detailing that she put in each of her work.

So Sonia tell us something about you and your family and your profession.

Well I am an ENT Surgeon by profession and I immensely enjoy my work though it is hectic and taxing at times. As a person I tend to obsess and worry about lots of tiny details be it a surgery, a dinner party, my daughters school projects etc ,etc. After I started crafting I found it was the perfect escape route to calm and distract my mind in a creative way!!

Yes Blogging can be therapeutic .... 

I blog at http://cardsandschoolprojects.blogspot.com.

When my daughter started going to playschool I had to make a lot of school projects for her and found so few theme based ideas on the net so I started the blog to share whatever simple work I made for my 2 year old’s school. Slowly this evolved into a full fledged hobby for me and I have shared all kinds of crafts on my blog from glass painting, interactive cards, edible crafts ,3 D papercrafts, clay crafts.

Wow !! You are a true Multitasker !!!!
And you seem to manage all the fronts with such ease !!!

Tell us about your source of inspiration?

I am constantly being inspired by bloggers. Often it is the blogger friends I follow and many a times it’s a new blog. You yourself have been a source of inspiration by the varied type of crafts you do. 

Thanks lots Doc!

I also love my blogger friends who take time to drop by my blog and encourage me..I hold these people in the highest of esteem as they are the ones who keep me blogging and who keep on inspiring me!

Your works are amazing!! Do you own a business or are you planning about it? I am sure if you do something like that you will be an instant hit!!

I don’t craft professionally as for me so far its strictly hobby and a way to relax from my professional duties as a surgeon.

And Ha Ha! I am way too attached to my crafts to sell them [ often I can’t bring myself to gift them too!!] as often so many sentimental memories are attached when I make a craft with my kiddo and especially if I made it with stuff friends gifted !

I know the feeling ;)  Even I used to do the same thing when I started to craft.... Even now I can't part with my paintings and drawings..... Though I don't mind much about my crafts...

Hey Doc!!! You have soo much experience in crafting can you advice other bloggers about business tactics and where do you source your items from and how you plan about selling your products and so forth, so that it will help others too.

If you are a craft blogger and you plan to get customers online the key point is search engine optimization. We all google for information and inspiration. Simple things such as a proper blog name, good informative post titles and captions for photos is often all that is needed for a craft blog to click!

Another thing would be to have a good relationship with your clients especially if you sell crafts or craft materials online. Many Indians including myself are not very comfortable about buying online so simple things such as acknowledging receipt of the client’s money, mailing or texting the courier details would go a long way in assuaging anxieties and building a business relation.


Thanks Doc!! I hope everyone benefits from all your advice.. including me .

About sourcing items…I tend to buy locally 98% of the time ….after all we should support the local market!! Most of the time I just drop in to local fancy stores and pick up beads and pearls but my favorite shop for craft supplies is Itsy Bitsy Bangalore!

Wow !!! What a noble thought about promoting local suppliers. And thanks for the tips for both Bloggers and Suppliers.
And next time I am in Bangalore I will surely visit Itsy Bitsy....

Do you have some future plans for your blog or some big project lined up?

Planning to write about various crafting tools starting with a series on Paper crafting tools .

I will be looking forward to all those post regarding craft tools beside your regular crafts... All the best doc!!!!

Come back again on 15th September and check out who will be under the spotlight .

P.S. - And if you are interested to come under the Spotlight, do mail me or message me.
P.P.S. -  You don't have to be a  follower of my blog :)

Happy Hair = Happy Meeee

Ya... I  know... Today's post is a different one.....
If you are following my blog, you might have noticed how I keep on cribbing about being busy and lot of travelling.....
From April this year, I have been travelling from Karnataka and back to Andhra Pradesh frequently....
Guntur to Namma Bangalore to Shimoga to Mysore, Shringeri, Mysore, Shimoga,  Guntur.....and the list continues in the same way.........
All the change in the whether and water plus the summer took a toll on my hair....
I have always received compliments regarding my hair.... even the VLCC guy who did the hair cut last time had complimented me about my hair......
But sadly I started having hair fall.....plus split-ends and the lusterless hair.... EWE.....made me crib more and more....
then I saw this ad... Dove ad....where the two friends say about their Hairy problems and that ad looked kind of cute..... you know.... how you sometimes like some ads immediately...... He He.... I usually buy products on the basis of ads....like I purchase books after checking out the cover ( I had purchased Eragon in the same manner... and I am very glad that I did)...

Any way..... coming back to the subject.... my hair.... I tried the Dove Intense Repair plus the Hair Fall Rescue Serum.......

And Lo ......magic..... And that was the end of my hair problems.......

And here is one of my recent hairy-scary photo ;)


This post is my entry to "......and that was the end of my Hair Problems"  by Indiblogger :)
All opinions are my own and this is not a sponsored post.

Internet on the go!!

Hi All!!!!

Yes I know I have not posted any crafts or drawings lately. Hope to do it soon ( I have more than 50 drawings to post and 15 crafts like cards and other items to post but no time to blog :( ). This post is just to say Hi to all my blogosphere friends and to share a few experiences about mobile internet especially internet on Vodafone .

The reason me not blogging this month except for the interviews is me being out of Guntur. I had to attend BFA classes in Mysore. And now I am on vacation Hehe :). I am travelling to my mom's place and MIL's place and my granny's place and many more ;). I am loving this travelling.

But the side effects of this travelling is that I cannot carry my laptop. That means no internet and that means no blogging and checking my blogland friends' blogs and no mails and facebooking.
I was so worried about how I will be able to post the interviews in April and join in the linky and check my mails. Thanks to Vodafone, I could do most of my work using my mobile. I could even do a bit of editing of the blogposts using my mobile.

I have been doing facebooking, checking mails and chatting with friends on my mobile. But the thing that I love most about mobile internet will always be the apps. There are so many useful as well as entertaining apps and that too free.

I am going to conduct craft classes for kids and teens next week. And there I have to teach them origami among other paper crafts. I will admit here that I am no expert in origami .... hehe ;) ;).

I was browsing through the free apps and I came across this real cool app about origami. Though I had downloaded an app regarding origami earlier, I prefer this one since it has videos. And I haven't come to the best part yet..... These videos are FREE !!!!

Yes!!!  I have been watching these videos and learning origami while travelling. By the time the classes start, I hope to be an expert in some simple origami techniques. Hehe!! Cool right?!?! entertainent as well as education as well as work. And the speed is also not bad. I now have access to my mail, facebook, my blog and my friend's blogs throughout the day.

I dont know what I would have done without internet on my mobile. I have downloaded lots of apps and am enjoying my vacations here with my daughter who loves the angry birds and sketch and draw app. So for me, even though I am not blogging, my vacations are running smoothly. Hope your vacations are also interesting like mine.

Will post something sooooon (Hope to :) )