Thankful for My Colorful Home

I can't believe how fast 2014 has gone. The holidays are fast approaching. We will be hosting Thanksgiving once again so I've got to get into cleaning action. Ugh. Most of the year, our dining room is used as a shipping room, inventory room, and general catchall. It is always a chore to move everything out to get ready for the big meal. Here's the general look of it today!

In about a month, I should be receiving a first copy of my upcoming book Crafting a Colorful Home: A Room by Room Guide to Personalizing Your Home with Color. 

I am really anticipating holding it in my hands, looking at the colorful images, feeling the pages. Seeing our home in print in a book is going to be a serious thrill. I hope it is well-received but that is out of my hands. I have written several books but thus far, CACH is the most personal. The book shares many of the different crafts I enjoy and teaches a whole bunch of techniques that most people do not know I do. 

Here's a little preview for a super simple project called Hanging Embroidery Hoop Lanterns over on the Roost blog. Isn't the photo gorgeous? All the photos were taken by the super talented Rikki Snyder (who BTW has been doing a lot of food photos for the NY Times - go Rikki!) These lanterns are made from wooden embroidery hoops. The shades are sewn of remnants of block printed fabrics. They are very easy to make (no sewing machine necessary) and they add a bit of a festive atmosphere to any space. To make them into lanterns, run some holiday lights down through them. See the Roost blog for a PDF of how to make them. 

I'll be selling signed copies of Crafting a Colorful Home on my website. I'll let you know when I have the page live. Of course I would love to sell you one and sign it for you. Retailing my books used to be a helpful chunk of extra money which I rely on. Unfortunately those sales seem to have almost disappeared since many people are now used to buying via Amazon and other third market vendors.

I found a very interesting blog post written by Dianne of The Crafty Pod entitled Is It Worth It to Write a Craft Book?. Diane has spelled it out perfectly - about the money involved, the time needed, the amount of effort and therefore lack of ability to keep other parts of your business going because you are so engrossed in THE BOOK. This post has come at a time when I am thinking again about the possibility of doing another book, researching ideas, etc. Reading the post has made me really think about whether I should even think about doing another book. Thank you Diane.