Hello! I’ve been completely swamped here at the CraftSanity Headquarters as the winds of change swirl around us once again. I’m staring down a monumental professional challenge (more on that later) but I’m going to do my best and I firmly believe that good things are on the horizon. I’m a tad behind in answering [...]

This is the fabric postcard that I sent to my swap partner, Michelle, in London. She wrote to let me know it arrived safely, so I thought I’d share a picture of it with you. The design was inspired by the flowers Abby has been drawing in her sketchbook. I stitched the message and address [...]

Dear Readers, When I invited you to send letters about what letter-writing means to you for a chance to win a copy of Samara O’Shea’s book “For the Love of Letters,” I wasn’t sure how many people would take the time to submit an entry after listening to O’Shea on CraftSanity episode 69. But I [...]

Who’s the big April fool? Today that would be me. I fell for a ridiculous April Fool’s joke. In my defense I was operating on less than four hours of sleep and looking for an out. You see, my training for next month’s big 25K isn’t going so well. Illness sidelined me for a few [...]

If you signed up for the CraftSanity Pen Pal exchange, you should have received an e-mail with information about your pal by now. If you did not, please let me know. I’m participating in this exchange and looking forward to it. I tried to match people with similar interests when possible, but hope those assigned [...]

You don’t have to know me long to realize I’m a loud-talker. Yep. I confess. I’m a bit animated and tend to get a little loud, especially when I’m with my sisters. Together we produce an impressive wall of sound. Since I have a great deal of self-awareness about my loud-talking tendencies and know how [...]

It’s been a couple days since I checked the P.O. Box and was very happy to get some more fabulous mail today. A talented woman named Billie Jean from Sparta, Mich. sent me a letter AND a fabric postcard. How great is that! Wow. And I got another wonderful letter from cousin David. He really [...]

Last week, when I watched the kind gentleman at the post office show me how the P.O. box system works, I have to admit I was kind of hoping there would be a letter inside my box when he turned the key and swung the metal door open for me to peer inside for the [...]

I recently interviewed Samara O’Shea, author of “For the Love of Letters: A 21st-Century Guide to Letter Writing” for a story I wrote for my newspaper about the seemingly lost art of putting pen to paper. (The story will appear in Monday’s edition of The Grand Rapids Press, so check back here Monday for a [...]