My mother, sister and I have been sewing for many, many years.  My sister and I learned from our mother at a very young age.  We started small and over the years both my sister and I, as well as our mother, honed our sewing skills and, as a result, ended up making many, many things including our own clothes, large quilts, small quilts, mini quilts, quilted pillows. place-mats and runners.


My sister continued her love of quilts by creating Inspired Creations By D quilted wall art.

After making a bunch of quilts that she gave away as gifts my mother gave up large quilts in favor of smaller pillows.  She loved making log cabin pillows like those shown in the picture at the beginning of this post.  She was happy to make the standard log cabin quilts and other quilted pillows until she learned how to make folded log cabin quilted pillows.  From that point on it was all folded log cabin pillows, table runners and place-mats.
She even took her love of log cabin quilts to the point where she was making miniature 8" by 8" pillows for my baby "Bud."  She made two of them just for him - one for downstairs in the family room when he was laying on the sofa and one for the chair we used as his bed upstairs.


He loved them and it was so adorable seeing him laying down with his head on his pillow.


My mother also liked making folded mini pillows, place-mats and table runners like the table runner shown in the picture above.


The first time I made a quilt I thought, "This is fun!" However, like making clothes I very quickly learned that I didn't want to spend a lot of time on large quilts and outfits to wear. I much preferred mini quilts and doll clothes, both of which were smaller and took a lot less time. I know, I know - I get bored easily and large quilts are very time consuming.  So, I focused more on making dolls and smaller quilts like pillows, place-mats, table runners, etc.

I took making pillows one step further when I started creating custom fabric designs for my Linda Walsh Originals Spoonflower shop. I made lots of pillows with my custom fabric designs like those shown in the picture collage above.


I had so much fun making my Sneaks Family custom fabric pillows for my grandsons for Christmas gifts one year I decided to create a free e-pattern for all of you so you could make some Sneaks Family pillows of your own.  If you'd like to make some of your own my free e-pattern is here.  Please note the design of the individual fabrics shown in the e-pattern have changed since that e-pattern was created.

I absolutely loved coloring as a child.   After all who doesn't remember coloring as a child and how relaxing it was. I could spend hours on end just coloring away.


So, of course, it should come as no surprise that I would create some free coloring pages for kids.  Plenty of pages with coloring activities for you and your children to enjoy coloring together or to keep them occupied for days on end.

But, coloring pages aren't just for kids anymore.  Adult coloring pages became all the rage back in 2016 as a way for adults to relax and relieve stress.  Well, like any rage, the availability of free and paid coloring books just grew and grew.   Everyone was creating coloring pages from artists to museums to publishers and coloring supply companies.


And, like any rage creativity took over when coloring someone else's pages became coloring your own designs and the creations of your own beautiful art journals.

I love to color and would love to learn how to create my own art journals.  I'm not that confident in my own artistic drawing capabilities but hope to take an online e-class at some point.


In the meantime I decided to create to Pinterest boards to house all the free coloring pages I found and all the free art journal tutorials, video's, patterns and how-to's I would like to try.

I hope you like some of my favorite examples of coloring page art and some of the free adult coloring printable pages I've found.


If you love my Coloring Pages Art & Printables For Adults Pinterest board please follow my board by clicking on the link above.

Enjoy!


I also love seeing beautiful art journals and would love to create one, or two, or three....... It's on my bucket list. When I do I'm hoping some of the tutorials, video's and how-to's on my Pinterest board will be helpful.

If you love my Art Journals Tutorials, Video's, Patterns and How-To's board please follow my board by clicking on the link above.

If you would like to follow all of my Pinterest boards please click on the button below and then click on the red FOLLOW button:

I absolutely love to craft and especially love creating free tutorials, e-patterns, free e-printables, free e-books and how-to's for my customers and blog readers and have created a lot of "freebies" over the years.  To say the variety of crafts I like to try is an eclectic mix would be an understatement.  I don't think I've even found a craft I haven't liked.

All of my "freebies" are available on the "My Free E-Patterns, E-Printables, E-Tutorials, and E-Books" page of my Linda's Blog and on my "My Free E-Patterns, E-Printables, E-Tutorials, and E-Books" Pinterest board.

My love of crafts developed as a young child.  You see, my family is a family of crafters and have been for many generations. From my great aunt, grandmother, grandfather, mother, father, brothers, sister, nieces, nephews, children and grandchildren we're sewing enthusiasts, painters, woodworkers, knitters, crafters, designers, etc. and we all learned as small children from each other. 

And, as a crafter, there is nothing more enjoyable than teaching a young child how to make something and watching the sheer delight on their face as they learn how to make something and how proud they are when their creation is complete.  The sense of accomplishment is immeasurable.

So, of course, I had to set-up a "Crafting With Kids" Pinterest Board with some of the amazing tutorials, e-patterns, video's and how-to's I've found out there. 


If you love to craft with your kids I hope you find these tutorials, patterns, video's, and how-to's helpful.
If you love my Crafting With Kids Tutorials, Video's, Patterns, and How-To's board please follow my board by clicking on the link above.

Have fun with the kids.

I just love perusing Pinterest and looking at all the beautiful couture dress creations from all the very talented designers out there.

In doing so I found pictures of the most beautiful couture dresses made by French fashion designer Sylvie Facon.  They were made out of book spines and book pages and were incredibly beautiful.

So, of course, after seeing these I thought how unique they were and wondered if there were any other unique dresses out there made of book spines, book pages, newspaper, paper, toilet paper and  book related custom fabric images.  And, to my delight there were lots of them.

It seems there has been a craze the last few years with fashion designers and students of fashion design to make clothing out of these items.  It also seems like museums, bookstores and libraries like to display historic fashions, ordinary fashions, and couture fashion designs made out of paper in their institutions.

I was delighted.  So, of course, I had to set-up a Books and Paper Dresses Pinterest board for all the wonderful creations I found.  I hope you enjoy my Books and Paper Dresses Pinterest board.

I often get asked by independent crafts pattern designers where they can sell their e-patterns so I thought it might be helpful to create a blog post about this.

To give you a little background on me I'm a doll maker and doll pattern designer and have had several websites for over 15 years.

Fifteen years ago for a small business owner to have a website online that you had control over you basically had to either create your own using HTML or some comparable software that could publish to the web and then FTP (file transfer protocol) it to what-ever service provider was hosting your website and domain name.

Back in 2004, when I started, I created two of my own websites that I updated to Godaddy via FTP.  I wanted to be able to update my website whenever I wanted and change it whatever way I wished. As a result my first two websites were created in Microsoft Publisher and FTP'd to my hosting accounts at GoDaddy where my two domain names resided.

I used Paypal HTML coding back then and had to copy and paste their payment HTML coding for every item I wanted to sell. While I had complete control over my website design the coding was tedious at best.

When instant download e-patterns came along I used PayloadZ and Paypal to handle the "Buy Now" capabilities. This, too, utilized HTML coding which, again, was tedious at best.

So, before long I outgrew the capabilities of these two websites and needed websites with more sophisticated shopping carts and with the ability to handle instant download e-products. So, I decided to open two new websites utilizing a CubeCart shopping cart at In A Pickle Web Design, which was owned by Annie Kelly.

With the two new websites with Annie I now had 4 websites and a GoDaddy Website Tonight "Information" page. Two of the websites I was still maintaining with Publisher and transferring via FTP to GoDaddy, two I was maintaining using the In A Pickle Web Design CubeCart interface, and one the "Information" page I was maintaining through GoDaddy's interface.

Five websites, however, wasn't all I had. I had jumped on the blogging craze back in 2003 utilizing an AOL blog, then a Yahoo 360 blog, and then several Blogger.com blogs. For me blogging was the perfect solution for disseminating information about your small business and letting your customers get to know you.

Back then, however, there was a lot of skepticism about blogging with some small business owners even claiming they would never buy anything off a blog. Not me. I took a giant step forward and stopped issuing newsletters. I jumped on the blogging band wagon and have never looked back.

My online interests continued to expand over the years as well as my doll & craft interests. Over time my blogs multiplied as each had a different audience and, therefore, a different subject to discuss.

So, at one point in time I had 5 websites, 18 blogs, an Etsy shop, a Zibbet shop, 3 Zazzle shops, and several other secondary e-pattern and handmade goods online selling venues. I also had a topsite, several plugboards, and a lot of social media pages and/or groups to maintain.

In 2014 I decided to do a little downsizing.  Everything I had been doing had become too much to handle so I decided to start downsizing gradually. The first to go were the plugboards, followed by half of my blogs, followed by several social media communities and groups, followed by some of the selling venues.

In 2015 I decided to consolidate all of my websites into one selling website that could handle not only all my e-products, all my print patterns, and all my handmade goods but be expandable so it was able to be displayed correctly on all the desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile devices out there, as well as being able to be displayed on all the various browsers.

Back then I did a lot of research and decided to create my new Linda Walsh Originals Shop at GoDaddy utilizing their Quick Shopping Cart. What I liked about the GoDaddy website was that it could handle all of my different businesses (e-commerce and regular commerce) under one roof. I could sell both my handmade products and all my e-products in one website.

My consolidated website handling both digital products and handmade products worked well for  four years, but was still a lot of work with everything else I was doing, including online classes that I love to take.

So, I decided to downsize even more and closed my Linda Walsh Originals Shop which was selling my e-patterns and all my handmade doll and craft decorations and updated the products I was selling via my Linda Walsh Originals Etsy Shop.

I also decided to upgrade my Linda Walsh Originals Information website which is a GoDaddy Website Tonight website to be an "About me" portfolio with multiple pages of sorts for everything and anything concerning Linda Walsh Originals.

I'm still in the process of critiquing my business interests as well as my creative interests.  After all this time I've decided I want to spend more time in creative mode versus business mode so I wouldn't be surprised if I downsize even more.

I always like to give back and over the years have posted many free e-patterns, e-books and e-printables so everyone can enjoy crafting.  If you're interested in my "freebies" please visit my "Free E-Patterns, E-Printables, & E-Books" page.

I've been in love with .pdf instant download e-products since they first came on the scene in 2004 and have tried all sorts of different venues.

Some I like, some I don't. Some have come and gone, some are free, some are very expensive, some are for specific types of patterns, some are commercial sellers websites, etc. The internet is always changing so what was there in 2004 might not be in existence today.

Nowadays there are websites that do it all, some are websites that provide html code so you can sell your e-patterns on your website or your blog, some are handmade craft websites where you can list your e-patterns and then send them as an email attachment to your customer or, depending on the website, can send the download link to the customer via e-mail or put it in the customer's account on their website, some are websites that provide a download integration for your Etsy shoppe, some are social networking websites that allow for selling, etc.
The online crafts e-pattern, e-printable, and e-book craft industry has been slowly developing over the last decade and, as far as I'm concerned, is still in it's infancy. There's plenty of room for growth and, I'm sure, plenty of room for change. Which venue is best for you is based on what you're selling, what your experience is, what your skill level is, and how much time you can devote to this.

Selling e-patterns online as an independent pattern designer is a long, slow process that requires nerves of steel and a lot of patience. It is not for the faint of heart or those hoping to make a quick buck. That just is not going to happen.

If you’re an artist or crafter who has created e-patterns you might be wondering how you go about selling them. Where do you store your e-patterns and how do you sell instant downloads? Whether its e-patterns, e-tutorials or e-books you first need to create a .PDF (Portable Document Format) file which is your electronic product. With the various computer software available nowadays, as well as the various online websites willing to help you with that, once you have created the .PDF file then there are basically two ways to get the .pdf file to your customer.

1) You can send them yourself as attachments to an email once you have been notified of payment by the customer.

2) They can be sent automatically or available in a customer's account as an "instant download e-patterns" once payment has been made.

So, what kind of online set-up do you need to accomplish this?

1) You can have your own website that has Paypal (or other payment processor) payment button capabilities. Once you have received notification from Paypal (or other payment processor) of payment you can send the e-pattern to your customer as an attachment to an e-mail.

2) You can have a blog that has HTML capabilities in the sidebar or posts that allow you to create Paypal (or other payment processor) payment button. Once you have received notification from Paypal (or other payment processor) of payment you can send the e-pattern to your customer as an attachment to an e-mail.

3) You can have your own website or blog that allows for HTML modules in the sidebar or posts whereby you can copy/paste the Buy Now Digital Goods E-commerce Shopping Cart providers HTML code. In this instance they provide a service whereby they store your e-products on their servers and provide you with a Buy Now (or similar) button link. When your customer clicks on that Buy Now link then the payment process would begin. Once payment has been made an email will automatically be sent to the customer with the e-pattern download link. They click on the link and follow the prompts to download your e-product. Digital Goods E-commerce Shopping Cart providers charge you a fee for this service.

4) You can have your own website that has e-commerce instant download shopping cart capabilities that will send your customer the download link for their e-pattern via email once payment has been made to you.

5) You can have your own website that has e-commerce instant download shopping cart capabilities that will put the download link in the customer's account once payment has been made to you.

6) You can utilize a third-party website with an e-commerce shopping cart provider that has "instant download capabilities." Once payment has been made by the customer the software will automatically generate an email to the customer with the download link or put it in the customer's account where they can automatically download it. Depending on their set-up you can either: a) upload your .PDF files onto their servers, b) transfer your .PDF files via FTP (file transfer protocol), or c) send them as attachments to an email to them. It all depends on how the e-pattern website is set up. The e-pattern website owners collect payment and then remit to you once they have been paid and have deducted their fee, or they may have a system in place to automatically pay you once the customer has paid. They may charge a monthly fee or charge a % of the sale price and/or both.

7) You can utilize a third-party handmade goods marketplace or community website to create a shop for you to sell your handmade goods and/or e-patterns. Once you have been notified of payment you can, depending on their set-up, either send the e-pattern to the customer as an attachment to an email, or sometimes these third-party handmade goods marketplaces or communities have apps that can work in conjunction with your shop and automatically send the customer an email with the e-pattern download link once payment has been made.

If you're an independent crafts pattern designer and you want to sell your e-patterns online, but aren't quite ready for your own website you might want to check out the following websites, blogging platforms, and e-commerce services websites:

Amazon - https://kdp.amazon.com/ - Amazon's online digital distribution publishing division for selling e-books online.

Artfire - https://www.artfire.com/ - Shops created and maintained by designers. E-Patterns sold by designers are emailed to customers as attachments to an email.

Blogger (or any blogging website) - https://blogger.com - Free blogging host provider.  Create a selling blog.  Publish post with image and information about e-pattern.  Include copy and paste code for Paypal or other eCommerce downloading button within the post or email e-pattern to customer as an attachment once payment has been received.

Bonanza - https://www.bonanza.com/ - Online handmade goods marketplace and social networking community. Shops created and maintained by handmade artisans. E-Patterns sold by designers are emailed to customers as attachments to an email.

CraftHub - https://www.crafthub.me/ - An Etsy app that works with Etsy shops selling .pdf instant download e-patterns and provides an integration between ETSY and downloads to customers.

CraftIsArt - http://www.craftisart.com/ - Online artisan and handmade goods selling community. Shops created and maintained by handmade artisans. E-Patterns sold by designers are emailed to customers as attachments to an email.

Doll Street Dreamers - http://www.dollstreetdreamers.com/ - Oldest social networking doll club on the web. Offers doll classes and pattern shop for instant download doll e-patterns sold by members. Pattern shop maintained by owner of doll club. Owner handles all aspects of download and interface with customer.

DPD - https://getdpd.com/ - Digital Goods eCommerce service for selling downloadable goods online. Provides copy ad paste codes for instant download e-patterns to use in websites and blogs.

eCRATER - https://www.ecrater.com - eCRATER is both a free web store builder and an online marketplace.  E-Patterns would be emailed to customers as attachments to an email.

EJunkie -https://www.e-junkie.com/- Digital Goods eCommerce service for selling downloadable goods online. Provides copy ad paste codes for instant download e-patterns to use in websites and blogs.

Easydigitaldownloads - https://easydigitaldownloads.com/ - Digital Goods eCommerce service for selling downloadable goods online. Provides copy and paste codes for instant download e-patterns to use in websites and blogs.

Etsy - https://www.etsy.com  - Shops created and maintained by designers.  E-Patterns sold by designers are uploaded to Etsy listings and downloaded by customers once payment has been processed.

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ - Free social media network.  Sell e-patterns on your business page or within groups.  Paypal bill your customers and once paid e-patterns would be emailed to customers as attachment to an email.

FetchApp - https://www.fetchapp.com/ - Digital Goods eCommerce service for selling downloadable goods online. Provides copy and paste codes for instant download e-patterns to use in websites and blogs.

FlickRocket - https://www.flickrocket.com/-  E-commerce content shop platform for selling e-products. Since 2010, FlickRocket’s cloud based solution powers shops for big and small content owners which enable secure digital content sales and marketing. E-Patterns sold by designers can be downloaded by customers once payment has been processed.

Folksy - https://folksy.com/ - British online handmade goods marketplace and community.  Shops created and maintained by handmade artisans. E-Patterns sold by designers are emailed to customers as attachments to an email.

Go To Patterns & Co. - http://gotopatterns.com -  Website selling sewing & craft patterns. Independent pattern designers can contact them for designer terms.  Submitted patterns are reviewed for quality content.

Gumroad - https://gumroad.com - Digital Goods eCommerce service for selling downloadable goods directly to customers. Integrates with your website, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, SoundCloud, and email newsletters.

Handmade Artists - https://handmadeartists.com/ - Online handmade goods marketplace and social networking community. Shops created and maintained by handmade artisans. E-Patterns sold by designers are emailed to customers as attachments to an email.

iCRAFT -   https://icraftgifts.com/ - iCraft is an online handmade goods marketplace.  E-Patterns would be emailed to customers as attachments to an email.

MagCloud - http://www.magcloud.com/ - Hewlett Packard online print on demand and digital distribution publishing. Used by e-zines, e-book sellers, and some e-patterns. Customers can choose to buy either print on demand pattern or downloadable e-pattern.

Makerist -  https://www.makerist.com -  E-Commerce selling website.  E-Patterns sold by designers are uploaded to Makerist and downloaded by customers once payment has been processed.

PayloadZ - https://www.payloadz.com/ - Digital Goods eCommerce service for selling downloadable goods online. Provides copy and paste codes for instant download e-patterns to use in websites and blogs.

Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com - Free social media network.  With a business account you can create boards for pinning your items for sale. Your pin would include an image, description and link back to your website where your item was pinned from, like a website, blog post, or 3rd party marketplace. Pinned items with prices show up in the gifts section.

Pulley - https://pulleyapp.com/ - Digital Goods eCommerce service for selling downloadable goods online. Provides copy and paste codes for instant download e-patterns to use in websites and blogs.

Ravelry - https://www.ravelry.com - Social networking website for knitters and crocheters.  E-Patterns. E-Patterns would be emailed to customers as attachments to an email.

SendOwl - https://www.sendowl.com/ - Digital Goods eCommerce service for selling downloadable goods online. Provides copy and paste codes for instant download e-patterns to use in websites and blogs.

Sellfy -  https://sellfy.com/ - Sellfy allows creators of digital files to sell their e-patterns in their shop on Sellfy.  Shops created and maintained by designers.  E-Patterns sold by designers are downloaded by customers once payment has been processed.

SellPin - https://www.sellpin.com - Buying and selling marketplace that integrates with Pinterest users selling goods and offers payment capability through credit card or Paypal. E-Patterns would be emailed to customers as attachments to an email.

Sellwire - https://sellwire.net - Digital Goods eCommerce service for selling downloadable goods online. Provides copy and paste links for instant download e-patterns to use in websites and blogs.

Selz - https://selz.com/ - Selz includes secure, unlimited eCommerce hosting on all plans. You can also use our Buy Buttons and widgets to add eCommerce to any existing website or blog.
Shopify - https://www.shopify.com - Shopify is the only eCommerce platform that lets business owners sell directly on the world’s biggest websites and apps. In just a few clicks, you can make your products buy-able on the social networks and online marketplaces people use every day.

SimpleGoods - https://simplegoods.co/ - Digital Goods eCommerce service for selling downloadable goods online. Provides widgets for instant download e-patterns to use in websites and blogs.

The Pattern Cupboard - http://www.thepatterncupboard.com/ - Large selection of designers and crafts e-patterns. Currently owned and managed by DJDoodle, LLC. Designers upload .pdf e-patterns and maintain their designer accounts. The Pattern Cupboard handles all aspects of download and interface with customer.

YouCanMakeThis - https://www.youcanmakethis.com -  Website selling sewing, crochet, jewelry, crafts & hobbies, stitchery and quilting e-patterns.  You set-up an author account and submit ideas for projects,  Your idea is reviewed and if they like your idea they promote and sell your e-patterns.

Wordpress - https://wordpress.com/ - Website or blog hosting provider.  Create a selling blog.  Publish post with image and information about e-pattern.  Include copy and paste code for Paypal or other eCommerce downloading button within the post or email e-pattern to customer as an attachment once payment has been received.

Zibbet - https://marketplace.zibbet.com/ - Online handmade goods marketplace and social networking community. Shops created and maintained by handmade artisans. E-Patterns sold by designers are emailed to customers as attachments to an email.

If you're an independent crafts pattern designer who wants to sell e-patterns, e-tutorials or e-books online I hope you find my post helpful.

© 2004-2023 Copyright Linda Walsh Originals - Written By Linda Walsh.

Some of my earliest memories of birthday parties had me sitting in a chair propped up on pillows so I could reach the table, like the picture shown above.

It's too bad the picture above is a black and white photo.  What you can't tell from the picture is my cheeks were bright red and I had a fever.  I was sick but there was no way I was going to miss my birthday party.  I'm sure you all have memories of such times.  There is no way you can go through childhood and not remember a time when you were sick and should have been in bed, but wanted to attend the birthday party.

I can remember family birthday parties as well as birthday parties filled with some of my childhood friends.  There would be birthday cakes with candles to blow out, ice cream, party hats, those old fashioned party horns that you would blow into, and presents.

My older brother and I were "Irish Twins" because we were born 10 months apart.  So, when I was very young for the family birthday party when one of us had a birthday the other one would get presents, too.  I guess it was just easier for my folks and grandparents to give both of us presents at each others birthday then to deal with the fallout of one of us not getting presents that day.  That way neither one of us was jealous of the other getting presents when we didn't and we ended up having two family birthday parties. Sounds like a win-win.

In the early years my mother always made the birthday cakes.  As I got older I always wanted to make the birthday cakes. A lot of the time I didn't get to as my Dad and brothers inevitably wanted a white cake with white frosting loaded with coconut.  I hated coconut and never had a piece of their cakes.

I never had a piece of this cake.  I couldn't stand the smell of it. The reason is I had made the mistake of eating a whole package of coconut snow-balls on a dare from my older brother and ended up upchucking the whole bunch. As a result and to this day, I can't stand the smell of coconut. If someone asks me what kind of dessert I want for my birthday I always say lemon meringue pie. So, when it came to birthday cakes I let my mother make them.

Like most young girls from the "baby boomer" generation I learned how to cook from my mother. We'd bake cookies, cupcakes and cakes. I loved cookies and cupcakes, but really wasn't a big fan of cakes. 



I loved baking small things like cupcakes because you can easily decorate them. So, you can imagine how thrilled I was when the Easy-Bake Ovens for girls came out. I could make all the little cakes and cupcakes I wanted. Unfortunately, my first attempt at a cake in the Easy-Bake oven didn't turn out so well. It was hard as a rock and inedible.  Subsequent attempts, however, were a hit.

Nowadays I'd have to really step up my game as cakes have become an art  form.  I suppose it was always an art form for bakeries and the very talented bakers who made them, but nowadays there are all sorts of video's and tutorials out there to teach you how to make some of the most amazing art cakes you'd ever want to see.

They even have beautiful doll cakes.  Now for the doll maker and lifelong doll lover, for that, I'd actually like cake.  Then there's the dog and animal cakes. All I can say is "Wow!"  I'd love to create a cairn terrier cake based on a picture of my "beloved" Bud. 

I've always wanted to learn how to make those fancy decorated cakes, just for learning how to make the floral decorations, but have never had the time. However, it's on my craft bucket list which I have to alter to add making a doll cake.

In the meantime I set-up a Cake Tutorials, Video's and How-To's for Decorating Cakes Pinterest board and have been adding all sorts of delicious looking cakes to it.  Enjoy!


I would love to learn how to create beautiful cakes. If you would love to learn this, too, perhaps these tutorials, video's and how-to's will be helpful.

If you love my Cake Tutorials, Video's and How-To's for Decorating Cakes board please follow my board by clicking on the link above.

Have fun making your cakes - especially your doll cakes.

I have loved flowers, floral design and floral crafts since I was a little girl.  My love of flowers was fostered by my next door neighbor's beautiful English Garden. I was mesmerized by the colors and textures of the various flowers.  I can remember just standing there admiring all the beautiful flowers and thinking of creating a beautiful bouquet with them.


While I loved all the flowers my favorite was always the dahlia.  It never mattered to me whether it was a spider dahlia, anemone dahlia, cactus dahlia, waterlily dahlia - it didn't matter.   I loved all of them.  Every time I planned a garden I planted dahlia bulbs.

When I was 8 I decided I wanted to have my own garden and wrote about this experience in my "Wonder What The Birthday Flowers Will Be Next Year?" post.  It was definitely a learning experience and one I never forgot.

I think being mesmerized by my neighbor's beautiful garden at and early age fostered  my love of all things floral, including floral crafts.  While I absolutely love fresh flowers and can be mesmerized for hours at their shear beauty, unfortunately, they just don't last.

That's what drew me to naturally dried floral and then silk floral in the late 1980's and early 1990's.  The silk floral last for decades and if they get a little banged up, you just re-do the floral arrangement.  It's hard to do that with fresh flowers.

I've always admired the beautiful floral creations that bakers created for their beautiful cakes and often wondered how they did that.  I even thought about trying that but just never had the time.  Plus, given I really don't like cake and, when crafting, tend to prefer smaller creations, when the cupcake craze became a mania in the early 2000's I thought floral cupcakes might actually be easier to create than a large cake.

However, with a lot of crazes I have they never come to fruition.  They're still on my bucket list and I still hope to learn how to create them.  In the meantime I set-up a Cupcake and Cupcake Making Recipe Tutorials, Video's and How-To's for Decorating and Making Cupcakes Pinterest board filled with all the amazing cupcakes I have found. 

Aside from lack of time, with the amount of free YouTube video's, blog tutorials, and how-to's out there I have no excuse for not learning how to do this.  They even have e-classes showing you how to create these amazing little works of art.


If you love my Cupcake and Cupcake Making Recipe Tutorials, Video's and How-To's for Decorating and Making Cupcakes Pinterest board please follow my board by clicking on the link above.

Have fun making your cupcakes - especially your floral cupcakes.

One of the things I always looked forward to during the Christmas season was my multi-day cookie marathons with my mother. There's nothing quite like the smell of cookies baking, the scent of Christmas candles burning, and the festive atmosphere of a busy kitchen during the holiday season.

And, there's nothing like working with your mother in the kitchen when you're both totally in sync and have similar cooking habits.  Not only did she teach me how to cook when I was a young girl,  but she taught me her cooking and kitchen style.  As a result, whenever we cooked together we were always in a perfect rhythm.

For many years my Mother and I would reserve 3-4 days in the weeks before Christmas for our annual cookie marathons. We would spend two days baking cookies and then one day packaging the cookies for our friends, loved ones, and several senior centers and nursing homes.

Every year we would select the cookies we would be baking from our list. For the most part we kept making ones that we knew were really good. Once in awhile we would add a new cookie, but it had to be exceptional to bump another cookie off the list.

Sometimes we added fudge and chocolate candies that we'd made.

We knew that our cookies were good - how could they not be with many, many years of experience honing our cookie making skills? As our list continued to grow we even had people asking to be put on our list. So, of course, we added them and the list continued to grow and grow.

During this period we really took over the kitchen, the dining room, the family room and the sun-room. Let's face it during our cookie marathons we basically took over the house. There were tables everywhere for cooling the cookies or cookies on cookie sheets waiting to go into the oven or tables for the bags of finished cookies. Everywhere you looked there were cookies, but the smell was irresistible.


Of course, before we ventured to do this I had already decorated the house for the Christmas holiday season.  I decorated the dining room with my carolers scene, which is shown in the picture at the beginning of this post.  I also decorated the kitchen, family room, sun-room, living room and outside of the house.

During our cookie marathons hubby would spend a day or however many days he needed to do his Christmas shopping and my mother and I would bake.  Before we began however we always put the Christmas carols on.  The house was decorated to the hilt, the carols were playing and there was the smell of cookies baking.  What could be better than that.

During the Christmas season hubby and I would inevitably attend one of the larger and more popular craft shows in our area. One show, in particular, always had a fudge booth which I loved seeing. I couldn't resist all the different types of fudge. I wanted to try making some so I started saving fudge and candy making recipes I thought might be good.

During one of our cookie marathons I told my mother I wanted to make some fudge and candy. She thought it was a great idea. Given how we were distributing our cookie containers and the time frame involved with doing so we decided that we would only make fudge and candies that didn't require refrigeration and selected several types of fudge we wanted to try. We created the fudge and then put each into a long rectangular Tupperware container for setting and then put it into a large cooler we had in the garage so it could set overnight.

The following day my mother and I emptied the containers and went to cut them. They were too big for us to easily cut so hubby lent a hand and cut them into 1" by 1" cubes. With the fudge done we started making the cookie recipes we had decided on. Since we had the fudge we didn't need quite as many cookies that year

It was a good thing we both were really organized and had similar kitchen styles for baking, washing, and cleaning up. While one was putting the cookies in the oven the other was taking cookies off the cookie sheets for cooling on the racks. While one was adding new cookie dough to the cookie sheets the other was washing some of the dishes. While one was mixing new dough the other was adding the cooled cookies to the plastic storage bags.

Two cooks in the kitchen spoils the brew was never a true adage during our cookie marathons or anytime we would be in the kitchen together. It was more like a Mother and daughter so in-tuned with each other they would be reading each other's minds at exactly the right moment. Knowing exactly what to do without speaking a word.

Oh, what fun we had. What warm memories to last a lifetime.  Memories to cherish and, now, times to be recalled but oh so missed.

Over the years I've seen pictures of some scrumptious cookies and cookie recipes and thought it might be nice to make them. So I kept copies of them in a 3-ring binder. 

As you can imagine my folder got quite large so you can imagine how happy I was when Pinterest came along.  Not only was I able to store as many recipes as I wanted to try but could organize them as well.  A definite win-win.  So, I set-up a Cookie and Cookie Recipe Tutorials, Video's and How-To's for Decorating and Making Cookies Pinterest Board.


When my  other and I were  making cookies they looked like what you would expect cookies to look like.  Well, nowadays, cookie decorating has become an art form with all sorts of methods for creating some of the most beautiful cookies you could look at.  They are simply gorgeous.  Especially the Victorian ones.  Now why would I think that...... Hmmm.....  Cookie making has become a recognized art form.  How great is that.....

Over the years when I've seen different fudge and candy recipes I thought might be nice I'd save the recipes to a folder. As you can imagine this folder also got quite large so a fudge and candy making " I LOVE Making Fudge and Candy" Pinterest Board was a perfect solution for storing recipes I wanted to try. So, here too, I set one up.


If you love my cookie, candy and fudge boards board please follow my boards by clicking on the links above.

Have fun making your cookies, fudge and candy.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I fell in LOVE with Pinterest.com back in 2011 and have been in love with it ever since.  It is by far the most wonderful way to organize everything and anything about "you."

What moves you, what you like, what you're keeping tabs on, things you saw online that you want to remember, things you want to try in the future, places you've been, what you consider "beautiful", your creations, your interests, foods you like, websites you like, blogs you like, your dreams, future plans for a wedding, dream home, your decorating style, must haves, things you'd like to make, inspirations, DIY projects to try, tips for everything and anything, tutorials to try, your bucket list, beautiful pictures, beautiful colors, things for your kids, nature at its finest, beautiful animals, decorations for the holidays, and your favorites - whether they are artists, crafters, movies, pictures, collections, music, recipes, favorite hobbies, etc.  The list goes on and on.  Your boards and your page give your followers and the world a pictorial glimpse into the essence of "you."

Back in 2011 I created different boards for all sorts of crafts I liked, such as: some of my handmade Victorian dolls (of course), my cross-stitch projects that I'm very proud of, some of my e-patterns, creative embroidery I'd love to try (if I had a few spare moments), my favorite art doll artists, my favorite mixed media artists, my favorite doll pattern designers, my favorite teddy bear artists, my favorite needle & wool felt designers, doll and craft classes I'd love to take, my favorite "softies" designers, Victorian fashions and Godey's fashion plates I love, my favorite prim and folk-art designers, doll houses and miniatures, crazy quilt designers I love, beautiful art quilts, amazing art, cross-stitch and punch needle designers I love, quilt things I'd like to make, craft books worth reading, felt things I love and would like to create, fun paper crafts, mixed media, items I wish I could paint, sewing ideas and notions, etc.

I also wanted to showcase all the wonderful free crafts e-patterns, tutorials, printables, how-to's and video's I could find on every type of craft or media there is so my viewers could not only enjoy what all the talented crafters were sharing but try making some of the crafts projects themselves.

Prior to Pinterest when I found something I liked or wanted to try I'd print out the project and save it in a manila folder.  Needless to say, with 50+ years of crafting I acquired a lot of manila folders filled with all sorts of craft ideas I wanted to try.

Well, with Pinterest I was able to organize my boards for crafts I liked and wanted to try which enabled me to organize my craft area and get rid of all those manila folders.  Whenever I feel the urge to try something new I just visit my Pinterest boards.

Over the years I've created 253 boards with 55,208 pins.  And, over time, my viewership has increased to 1.1 million monthly viewers.  That's a lot of views and a lot of interest in crafts.  How great is that! Wow!

In my opinion for a small business crafter "pinning" is a win-win. It's a fabulous way to present a visual image to a vast audience whose distribution capabilities are endless.  It's also a fabulous way to generate sales for your website and viewers to your blogs.

But, it's also become a great tool for small business artists and crafters online.  In fact, in my opinion,  it's become a "must" for artists and crafters.  A "must" not just because it is one of the easiest ways to promote your creations online, but one of the best ways today for artists and crafters to promote each other.  In fact, it could easily be called the best link exchange ever.

Talk about a beautiful way for all of us to help promote one another. It doesn't get much better or easier than this.  My motto has always been, "What Helps One of Us Helps All of Us!"  Pinterest.com is a fabulous way to do just  that.

It's almost the start of the summer season in the U.S. and around this time of the year my thoughts turn to 4th of July, patriotic, and  Americana home decorations.  Over the years I have made many, many different  4th of July, patriotic, and  Americana home decorations.  Some of my own and some based on other crafters patterns.

If you'd like to check out my 4th of July e-patterns they're in my Etsy shop here.



As you know I love BIG woodcraft decorations.  One of my favorite BIG dolls and woodcraft is a self-sitting Uncle Sam that resides in the corner of my kitchen for the entire summer. He just sits there and every time I look at him I can't help but think of the role New England played in the history of this country. In particular he makes me think of the American Revolution and Paul Revere, etc.

My Uncle Sam is 32" tall and was made based upon a TLC Crafters design. He's so cheery sitting in his corner that I decided to name him "Firecracker Sam."

"Firecracker Sam" was made from 3/4" pine wood and was painted blue. Painted black stitches outline the edge of his face, beard, and mustache. Painted white stars adorn his hat and white stripes run down his pant legs. He is holding a painted wooden flag and set of firecrackers in his lap.

So, all summer long he just sits atop his pedestal. After we take him out and place him in his corner he always asks when we will be showing his favorite movie - "Yankee Doodle Dandy." I usually tell him I'm not sure, but I would try to make sure we show it for him.


The wreath shown above hangs in my kitchen all summer was made based on a Pretty Primitives pattern.

Now I know what you're thinking, "You've never met a wreath you haven't loved. Yeah, right Linda.... you love everything crafty. In fact, there isn't any craft you've met that you haven't loved!" Well, that may be true but wreaths certainly are one of my favorites. I love making them and love decorating with them and this wreath is one of my favorites.


I also love decorating my front door for the various holidays and seasons. My house is painted a colonial burgundy color so the big Uncle Sam woodcraft, shown in the picture above, looks great on the front door all during the Summer months. He was also made in 2002 and was based on a TLC Crafters pattern.


I had seen an adorable Uncle Sam ornament by Mary Ayres in a June/July 2000 Crafts magazine and just had to make one. He's totally adorable - don't you think?


To say I just love dolls would probably be an understatement based on the number of dolls I've made during over the years. It's got to be close to 2,000 now if not more. So, of course, I've made a lot of dolls for the 4th of July holiday season. Since they're also patriotic they're out during the Summer months.

I don't always make my dolls exactly like the patterns call for. In fact, most of the time they are entirely different.


The dolls shown in the picture above were adapted from a bunny and angel pattern I had seen in a March 1996 Crafts N Things magazine and was designed by Donna Newman. I thought they'd look cuter as as patriotic dolls and hope you would agree.


Back in 2002 I decided to make a bunch of little patriotic woodcrafts that I could use to decorate a section of the bookcase I have in my family room and created the woodcrafts shown in the picture above.  In 2016 I decided to create free e-books to show you how I made these adorable woodcraft decorations for your home.  They're all very easy to make and include a firecracker trio, birdhouse, stars, USA cube decoration and flags.

My free e-books are here. I hope you enjoy making your patriotic USA woodcraft decorations.


If you get the feeling I like patriotic crafts you would be right.  So, of course, I set up a Pinterest  board for all the wonderful 4th of July, Patriotic and Americana free tutorials, patterns, video's and how-to's I've found.  I hope these tutorials, video's, patterns, & how-to's are helpful.

If you love my Patriotic, 4th of July and Americana Crafts Tutorials, Video's, Patterns and How-To's board please follow my board by clicking on the link above.