People say I am an overachiever but I think I'm just overwhelmed!
Overwhelmed with all there is to do and see and experience and realizing what a limited time we have to try it all! I love crochet and knitting, writing (poetry, essays, and stories), reading, cooking and baking (especially desserts), watching movies, enjoying music, dancing, shopping (buying shoes!), road trips and traveling and learning new things.

Guess my number one creative interest is writing.
I’m a writer with 5 published books for teachers, parents, or children and I've written over 100 articles for magazines including Better Homes & Gardens, Creating Keepsakes, Family Life, Crayola Kids, Crafts Magazine, Storytelling Magazine, and a variety of subscription-only publications. I've also written and contributed a variety of environmental projects for children for an internet website.

My head is always full of ideas to write about. I love the challenge of trying to interest others in my writing and in publishing me. I even get enormous pleasure from the proposal letter phase of the process!

But I've always wanted to have another creative outlet…something more active, more manipulative, with an end product that’s more tangible than words on paper! It’s been difficult to find something I could immerse myself in as much as I do writing.
And when your sister is an amazingly creative and accomplished artist in so many areas, it can be hard to find something uniquely yours.

A few summers ago, I decided to play around with yarn a bit and in no time I was hooked!
It is said that “Knitting is very conducive to thought.”
Must be true, because while knitting the thought came to my mind that I should take the advice of my sister (who has her own Etsy store) and join myself.
A little more knitting or crocheting (yes, seems like crocheting is very conducive to thought as well!) and I had my banner idea, my avatar, and my store planned. After that it didn't take me long to register and set up.

I love the whole idea of Etsy…Buy Handmade.
To me, as I think to most people, giving or receiving something handmade is always more special than any mass marketed, ordinary, pick-it-up-at-the-mall item. Handmade shows thought, care, and appreciation for the imagination and creativity in each of us.

Handmade gifts were the first presents most of us gave to our friends, families and loved ones. Who doesn't remember making something in school, spending one whole Saturday immersed in art materials, or keeping an unfinished project hidden in a shoe box under our beds, just to surprise Mom or Dad with that special gift we made by ourselves. And chances are our parents still have many of those gifts, while those we bought for them later in our adult lives are long gone by now.

How right it feels as adults to go back to what we seemed to innately understand as children ~ gifts made by hand with care and attention and gifts that spring from a creative spark inside are the best gifts we can give to others as well as to ourselves.