I have five days to finish hand stitching the bindings and hanging sleeves on this stack of ArtPrize quilts. Five days until life returns to normal. Almost there… I’m headed out to shoot a photo for next week’s art & craft column. You can read today’s column about Alban Fischer, editor of trnsfr magazine here. [...]

Happy Monday! This is what I’m writing about today. Check back later this week to for the details. What are you working on?

This is what I’m writing about tonight. You’ll be able to read all about it in The Grand Rapids Press next Sunday. Doesn’t this luscious roving make you want to drop everything and spin some lovely sock yarn? Me too! Speaking of socks… I’m looking for an easy thigh-high sock pattern that I can knit [...]

Hello! I’m back from a short and lovely vacation with the family and excited to catch up with all of you. I’ve been working on lots of creative projects and will be sharing those is posts sprinkled out over the course of the next several days. A new podcast is in the works, too. I [...]

Dandelions rank among my favorite flowers. I used to pick them for my mom when I was a kid and now I get to watch my daughters pick them for me. Because most people consider them weeds, no one ever gets on your case for picking them and I love that, too. I wrote a [...]

Today I became a craft superhero in the eyes of my oldest child. How did I do it? I made underwear. I know what you’re thinking. Why oh why would someone who barely has time to breath invest gobs of time in sewing underwear? Did I turn 100 overnight? No, no. I’ve just become enlightened [...]

Four years ago the very first episode of CraftSanity was released into the world. My husband uploaded the show and added it to iTunes while I headed into to the office for my first day back at work after my second maternity leave. I was feeling emotionally torn about whether or not going back to [...]

MHC If you like happy endings be sure to check out my art & craft column in today’s Grand Rapids Press. I wrote an update about the smashing success of the Margaret’s Hope Chest “Hope Squared” Quilt drive. Carol Peters (left) and her daughter, Carin Vogelzang, mobilized quilters around the globe (with help from the Crazy Mom [...]

This is my first Day of the Dead paper cut banner, or “papel picado.” I LOVE paper cut art, so I had a great time cutting this design out of tissue paper with a craft knife. First, I drew the skeleton wearing a hat on a regular 8 1/2″ by 11″ piece of white paper. [...]

When my parents flew my sister and I to Washington state to meet our Great Grandmother, I couldn’t wait to check out her outhouse. I heard it was a two-seater and, at age 5, I found this little fact very intriguing. Ignorance is bliss, eh?

This lovely blue piece was made by Heather Robinson, a Holland, Michigan artist who often fields questions like this at art shows: “But what is for?” People get her ceramic buttons and paper bead jewelry, but passersby often want to know what pieces like the blue one above “do.” And they look to Heather to [...]

I have several projects in the works, including this rag rug. It’s a sample for Friday’s TV craft segment. This segment was inspired by a wonderful handmade effort at St. Andrew’s School in Grand Rapids where parents and volunteers are crocheting rag rugs out of donated bed sheets to raise money for a school emergency [...]

Check out my Grand Rapids Press craft column today for the full story of Betty White and her plarn (plastic yarn) creations. Betty gives a second wind to plastic shopping bags, expertly transforming them into dresses, hats, handbags and totes. Her most recent design is a one-piece swimsuit and matching hat. I probably wouldn’t ever [...]

Today was a lovely Mother’s Day here in West Michigan. The sun was out and the girls got to ride their bikes. I took pictures of them, flowering trees and other interesting things that caught my eye as we made our way around the neighborhood. To some this may seem like a pretty ordinary day, [...]

Forest Hills Fashion Show I’ve been having a lot of fun checking out student fashion designs and wrote today’s column on the topic after attending a Re-Fashion Show at the Forest Hills Fine Art Center here in West Michigan. Check out the column and additional video footage to see what these budding re-fashion designers having [...]