Image courtesy of Sugru

The team at Sugru deliberated amongst themselves to come up with ‘The Fixer’s Manifesto’, which aims to address and encourage the furthering of everyday items through repair, which amongst other things nurtures creativity and curbs consumerism.

You can download the PDF here, or buy a lovely letter pressed edition here.

Happy repairing!

I just wanted to say a HUGE thank you to those of you who have popped over to take a look at my Make your own chalkboard wall organizer. I’ve had unprecedented web traffic, tons of pins, retweets and reblogs. Thank you all, it’s SO MUCH appreciated.

A particular shout out to the Curbly community and to Chris Gardener in particular for taking the time to reblog it and share it with you all. Much kudos.

I went to sleep last night thinking about the blog and the direction it has taken over the last month with the weekly Plascon DIY posts. It’s revealed a need for me to continue on with the ‘how-to’s', not just projects, but primers.

According to a recent audit of my social media followers 70% of you are women, not hard to believe since I know I have a love for/of pretty things: decor, design, landscaping, gardening, food etc.

As gender roles cross pollinate (remember I’m the primary caregiver in our family) more and more women are empowering themselves with practical DIY skills.

Understandably readers are at different levels of skill and I’m trying to gauge where that skill level is? Do you know a pozidriver from a star screwdriver? The difference between a cut-off and bandsaw?

Maybe along side the weekly practical projects I need to feature a series of basic primers?

A few thoughts were.

Tooling up your toolbox
Getting screwed, a basic primer for choosing the right screw
Nails aren’t just for mani pedis
The light goes on, a basic understanding of household wiring

Yes, they are a little tongue and cheek, possibly bordering on insulting, but trust me, using the wrong tool for the job can cost you both time and money.

I’m open to suggestion and encourage you to share your comments below.

Again, thank you ALL for your support!

Yes, I know that the subject line might come across as rather inflated, bordering on gross exaggeration, but bear with me.

By now you’re familiar with Instagram, you probably have your own account and are merrily snapping away, presenting the world with fragments of your day as you go about working, playing and sleeping. Ok, not sleeping, but you get the picture (poor pun!).

So just how did Instagram save my life? Simple. It opened my eyes to new thoughts, ideas and creativity by reconnecting me to a creative social circle, well I’m not sure circle is the right description, but it’s the best I can do.

If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time you’ll know I’m a stay-at-home-dad, or if I’m lucky a work-from-home-dad, though of late the former seems to be the case.

When you are running after a toddler and expecting a newborn in under a month your world changes, you change, you adapt, you make sacrifices, it’s what love does. I don’t believe you lose your identity, it’s just re-purposed and you need to find yourself in that re-purposing.

That said there are moments when you become isolated, disconnected and quite frankly sometimes rather lonely, it tends to happen when your only company can only count to 10, skipping over a number here and there.

I believe creativity thrives in the mutual expression of ideas and thoughts, it can die a little, or a lot without it.

So how does Instagram come into play? Subconsciously it has reconnected me to network of like minded creatives. Some of whose work I’ve been a fan of for ages, some I’ve just met, but it gives insight into their lives and allows me to experience both their joys and frustrations alongside them.

I follow photographers, stylists, interior designers, store owners, crafters and illustrators, all of whom inspire and many of which I’ve built up close relationships and in some cases deep friendships with.

A week ago I was invited to attend a workshop on creative entrepreneurship, one of the guest speakers was the lovely Heather Moore of Skinny LaMinx. Heather shared a bit about her rise to fame and how she had a part-time job that allowed her to rent a space that she could just be creative in, not confined by assumptions, but a place to experiment with creative ideas to see what stuck.

Now while our circumstances are different there is no reason I can’t approach the downtime with a similar mind shift.

I’ve since cleaned my desk, bought a bunch of markers, pens and craft supplies, heck just this week I made a paint chip garland cake topper and am using what little free time I have to being creative again.

I’ve committing myself to make friends with my Wacom Bamboo, even if it kills me, or I it and trying to familiarize myself with the inner working of Adobe Creative Suite.

Daily, hourly my Instagram timeline is filled by amazing images of creative people that inspire me to do something, anything, to go create. Where will it lead? I’m not sure, but right now that’s good enough for me. I’m taking baby steps.

If you want to share in my Instagram life you can find me there as @mattallison and I’d love to hear how Instagram has impacted your own life?