What if you don’t take breaks because you are so in love with what you are doing every day? Welp. Suck it up buttercup, you need a lunch break too.
Read More
Before making a plan for the next year, (Ep 01 of Craft Leftovers), let’s take an hour to consider this past year. What went well? What could have been better? What just totally missed the boat? Do you try again next year or let it go? I’m taking you through
Read More
One of the questions I get most often. Okay more like the “oh no” deer in the headlights response I get when I bring up book keeping. It doesn’t have to be scary. In fact, it can be kind of fun. In this episode I talk about the difference between
Read More
After a year of work I’m taking the Junk Mail Migration Paintings & Tapestry on the road! How did I create a traveling exhibit? And what are the essentials to coordinating with multiple partnering institutions? As a curator at an art center, I received and installed hundreds of works of
Read More
Livestream introducing what’s on the horizon for Craft Leftovers and walking you through my method for annual planning and then implementing that plan ANYTIME of year.
Read More
On February 17th, I woke up early and headed off to the Iowa State Research Park Core Facility to present my entrepreneurial story to our local 1 Million Cups chapter. I decided to scrap my usual presentation and tell my whole entrepreneurial story. Starting with Craft Leftovers and coming full circle with this year’s launch of my art business this October.
Read MoreWe were up at 6am Saturday morning shuffling around the house, getting coffee and stocking the citizens up on pets and food for the day. We were doing our first Market Day Iowa in 3 years. It’s funny, to remember that I thought “what issue was I selling?” Oh yeah,
Read MoreHey everyone! I just wanted to remind you that TONIGHT, I’ll be hosting a live video chat on my new book Mend It Better. If you go to my Shindig event page at 6PM ENT (5PM CST), you can talk with me, ask questions, and hear some never before insights
Read MoreI’m super excited about this weekend’s Renegade Holiday Sale in Chicago and I hope I’ll get to meet at least a few of you that live in the area! You can find me at Booth #80 on the first floor. I’ll be selling loads of zines! Singles of all all
Read MoreI didn’t even know it, but my book is officially up on Storey’s site as “coming soon!” as of last week. Thanks to @staciemakedo who clued me in to this exciting news. Here is the run down on the book according to their site. Those marketing folks at Storey sure
Read MoreThis past month I moved my studio to my home fully, finally, and officially. I really like our house. So does Jason. We decided not to renew the lease on our office. I’ve been slowly moving home the most used things. March 28th, we moved all the least used things.
Read MoreOr how I learned to be a better blogger by examining my own reading habits. There are so many amazing craft blogs. And I physically can’t read them all. I leave it up to Craftzine.com, Craftgossip.com, and Whipup.net to keep me up to date on most the amazing things crafting
Read MorePart of organizing and using up my stash of yarn is to pass some of it on. The yarn is priced around a cup of coffee, a latte, a cello lesson, or somewhere in between. I don’t want much for my stash yarn, just take me out for a cup
Read MoreI think most of us are beyond the world of Rolodex, but there is something nice about having all the physical contact info at your finger tips. When I go to craft fairs, craft shops, meet random people, I pick up their post cards, fliers, and business cards. While I
Read MoreCrafty Business: All the ins and outs of running a small, creative one woman business. In the last Crafty Business post, I talked to Kristy Hall about making progress and how feeling like you’ve done “enough” can be elusive. I mentioned my progress report sheet and linked to the pdf.
Read MoreThis week I commented on using progress reports on Twitter and Kirsty Hall made a few remarks that sparked my curiosity. She had a lot of great things to say on the topic of feeling a sense of accomplishment as a self employed creative person and I thought I would
Read More
I wanted to share with you a few of the great projects in the July issue of Craft Leftovers Monthly. I know you will just love them and it’s quite the deal: just $9 for 8 patterns + 1 recipe for a frozen delight + an interview with Lee Meredith + an article on dealing with scraps in my studio + a few of my favorite online tutorials and patterns + a crafty wordfind.
Read MoreLast week I talked about what the zine contains, Monday covered how I come up with content each month. And today I’m going to go over the nuts and bolts of how these ideas make their way onto the printed page and get to your mailbox. Writing and Editing After
Read More
Last week I showed you the content concepts and the general ideas behind Craft Leftovers Monthly–recycled, ad free, paid guests, patterns, goofy articles, illustrations and photos. Today I’m sharing with you how general ideas become specific patterns and articles. How does random inspiration from the blogs I read and doodles in my sketchbook become a 36 page zine each and every month?
Read More
Each time I’m wrapping up Craft Leftovers Monthly, I’m pleasantly surprised to realize, “Hey, this is my job.” Thanks so much for making this possible by subscribing and letting me visit your mailbox each month. I want to share with you what Craft Leftovers Monthly is all about and how it comes together each month.
Read MoreView More