Crafting a Colorful Home is Coming Soon + A Special Offer for You - My Blog Readers!

If you have been following my blog for a while, you know that over the past couple years I have been working on a book called Crafting A Colorful Home: A Room-by-Room Guide to Personalizing Your Space with Color. It is being published by Roost Books on January 20, 2015 - twelve days from now. I have been anticipating seeing it and crossing my fingers it looks good. I know that this may sound odd but seeing the words, images and ideas I toiled over for a very long time actually in book format is a bit unsettling. I always have all kinds of doubts --- about myself, my taste, my projects and designs, my words - you know - basically everything. Yes - I had an editor and a copy editor and a publishing board - but still - what if everyone hates it? You'd think I would be used to this - but I'm not and I suppose even authors with one hundred books in print still have these doubts.

This book is different than any of my other knitting and stitching books. It is about building a home around color, art, creativity, a lot of paint, yarn, thread, fabric, collections, animals, and family. It is designed to be a guide for any crafter/DIY-er/maker/textile lover, etc. to make their own home or apartment into a colorful, warm, and cozy space.  

Crafting a Colorful Home happened as a result of the Houzz.com feature from September of 2012. Houzz is a website for homeowners, decorators, architects, remodelers and anyone interested in houses and living spaces. You can see our Home Tour here which was photographed by the extremely talented Rikki Snyder. The Houzz feature - called An Antique Cape Cod House Explodes with Color -  went kind of nutty - with over 294 comments - many of them not particularly nice. It was Number 6 Overall Most Popular House Tour in 2012. Considering it was not published until September, not bad.

I was dumbfounded by many of the comments - many reflecting a lack of confidence and fear of using color in their home. Many were worried about resale value of their homes if they used any color in their home. Some commenters just plain thought me nuts - one even worrying about my sanity. I told my literary agent Linda about the feature and she shared the article with Jenn Urban-Brown, an Editor at Roost Books. 

Before I knew it, I was signed on to write a book about our colorful home, how I decorate it and how others can learn to have confidence when decorating and making colorful things for their homes. I was able to get Rikki Snyder the photography gig for the book - which made me very happy because it was her first book job and after all - she had approached me about the Houzz article and photographed it. Crafting A Colorful Home took me a little over 1 1/2 years. 

And then the waiting started. Books take a very long time to come back to the author in book form and be released into the world. All kinds of copy editing, book design, layouts, page proofs, and more happen - some the author is involved in, some not. And then as an author, you hit your deadlines and your job is over. You keep your fingers crossed that you will like what they do to your work. I'm used to this now, many books in. My book becomes the publisher's book and they do what they have to to make the book sell.

The night before the Yankee Magazine shoot just before Christmas, I received an advance copy of Crafting A Colorful Home straight from the warehouse so that it could be photographed for the article. I held my breath as I opened the book. Supper had to wait - I had to look through it and see what it looked like. I exhaled as I examined it all - it was good. Phew! 

So this is what I would like to offer you all - my dear blog readers..... For the month of January, I will sell and ship you a signed copy of Crafting a Colorful Home free of any shipping charges. And I have some goodies for you too! I will enclose an exclusive Kristin Nicholas Bookplate for you to mount inside the book (or in another book).  You have two Bookplate Designs to choose from - FLOWERS or HOUSE. I will also include a set of 5 assorted Kristin Nicholas photo postcards. I bet Amazon won't do this for you!

The books will begin shipping January 20th which is the on-sale date. Order now or before the end of January to receive this special offer. (NOTE: Your Paypal account will be charged upon ordering.)

I thank you for ordering from me. Tomorrow I will share with you how this helps me and my family because this post has gotten way too long. 

Hop on over to my website to place your order. If you want the book signed to you or someone in particular, don't forget to add a note - otherwise I will sign it generically. Don't forget to choose your Bookplate Choice - FLOWER or HOUSE - and leave that in the comments too. 

If you prefer to order an unsigned book from Amazon, here is the link.  But of course, I appreciate you ordering signed books from me. Direct sales from the author to the reader really help us (and any other author).