Hi folks. I’ve been spinning many, many plates lately and it’s really cut into my podcast production time. (Don’t worry, I have a plan to reverse this trend.) In the meantime, I want to give you a heads up about a few things: 1)  For all you locals, Lisa Price, owner of artgoodies and the [...]

I just listed some 26-peg CraftSanity looms in my shop. You can weave finished pieces measuring about 12″ square on this loom making it perfect for  bags, patchwork rugs and bed coverings, square table mats, seat covers and more. This loom has been very popular at art markets and I’m excited to finally make it [...]

What a great opening day for the Fulton Street Artisans Market in Grand Rapids! I sold several looms (Thank you, dear customers!) and enjoyed meeting some very supportive column readers. A special thanks to our kind booth neighbors for helping Jeff and I set up the new “EZ Up” tent for the first time. And [...]

Okay, podcast episode 114 is in the bag. We just have to update the blog and do a couple other behind-the-scenes maneuvers. But first I want to tell you about the exciting opportunity I will get this summer to participate in the Conference of Creative Entrepreneurs, Aug. 13-15 in Seattle, Wash. I will be speaking [...]

My oh my. I’m insanely busy and kind of loving it. I’m exhausted and I don’t really know what day it is, but, wow, am I having fun! I’m very excited to report that awesome apron designs have been submitted to the first-ever CraftSanity Apron Show to benefit Safe Haven Ministries. Thank you to those [...]

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks filled with creativity and color, teaching  and talking art and craft. So while I’ve been away from the keyboard creating, this blog as been a bit neglected. So it’s high time for a CraftSanity update. I’ve been training for the 25K I’m running in May and working hard [...]

Hi there. I’m on deadline for my next craft column right now, but wanted to write a quick post to let you know that I’m okay and planning to release a new podcast soon. There’s been tons to blog about including my fabric yo-yo craze, but I’ve been very busy with family and work commitments. [...]

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 [...]

If you’re bothered by the garbage bag of gift wrap that becomes the centerpiece of many holiday parties, you might want to consider wrapping your packages with recycled paper  and topping them with recycled bows. (Newspaper and brown paper bags are great for this.) While some may think it’s extremely tacky to wrap gifts in [...]

I started knitting this Harry Potter scarf a couple years ago and put it aside about three stripes in. I’m not sure why I didn’t finish this thing because I’ve found it very relaxing to pick it up again. I’m knitting in the round on size 7 circulars, so I can mindlessly stitch until it’s [...]

Here’s the quilt. I have each embroidery framed out with fabric from my stash. Next I’ll adding muslin to make them into 12-inch blocks. After that, I’ll have the wind at my back. Well, at least until I get to the machine quilting part. I bought a new foot for my machine and will be [...]

I stayed up late Monday night to whip up an original design for a pillowcase dress for this weekend’s craft column. This was my first attempt at a pillowcase dress, so I was totally winging it and praying something fierce. Thankfully, the little number passed the morning-after test and still looked okay to me in [...]

It pains me to report that my performance at this year’s Spectrum Health Irish Jig 5K was slower than last year. I ran a disappointing 23: 54. (My 5K PR from September 2007 is 22:35.) Unfortunately, the deck was stacked against me before I got even one leg into my compression pants this morning. I [...]

Okay, so we fixed the comments feed. My apologies to those of you who tried to comment and couldn’t because we had it restricted to “registered users.” Oops. See, I told you this change was going to be tricky. I’m a creature of habit and while I didn’t really care for the old blog tool [...]

I’m a tad under the weather, but plan to be back in action in time for Sunday’s big, exciting Metro Health Grand Rapids Marathon. My first attempt at 26.2 miles – holy smokes! Fall is here and it’s pretty chilly tonight in Michigan, so we won’t have to worry about overheating during the race. I’m [...]