About Me

Thanks for stopping by. Honestly, having to write about myself is a little tricky for me because I'm a little scatter brained and I can be a little shy when meeting new people, but when I get going - I get chatty - so please bare with me.

So, about me... I am a lover of all things related to sewing, crafting, fashion and DIY. I’m also a huge self-help/motivational junkie. Combine all that, and you get someone who LOVES to experiment with pattern, color, textiles, images and words. I find inspiration wherever I go and it doesn’t hurt that I work at one of the most amazing quilt shops in the planet!  (ok maybe exaggerating a little but seriously - I love that place)

I am surrounded by my loving family and friends who put up with my crazy craftiness and are thankfully, super supportive of what I do. I’m married to my high school sweetheart of 20+ years and together we brave the task of raising of two amazing and sometimes grey hair prompting - teenagers. I’m also a sister; a daughter; a friend and most recently - a breast cancer survivor. I’ll share more in a bit about my journey with breast cancer, but for now let’s stay on topic. :-)


When I’m not on the hunt for inspiration, I’m usually (meaning housework is done; “Ehem” not surfing Pinterest or “Hello!” - working my other jobs (yes jobs plural).) I’m usually - in my studio - sewing; making a new collage or jotting down an idea for a new class or pattern and it’s not uncommon to find me trying to do all of these things at once!! 

After several years of working on my first ‘craft and sewing blog’ (cosmicgirldesigns.com); teaching sewing classes and writing patterns, I discovered that my passion was more than just sewing and crafting. That really, the projects I enjoyed the most were those that were infused with positivity and helped expand self awareness and that I really, really enjoyed it when I shared these projects with other people. So I made the decision to mix things up a bit (as I like to do) and I was inspired to shift my creative focus - thus my new blog “The Mindful Crafter” was born.

The journey to this point has been quite a ride - I actually started working on my new blog in the Fall of 2013 and it was also right at that time that I was diagnosed with Stage 2 Breast Cancer - go figure...so my blog went on the back burner as all my energy and focus now had to be on survival!  Fighting and beating breast cancer has taught me so much - I've learned that I'm a lot stronger than I thought; to not procrastinate so much (YOLO!); to be grateful for the little things of course; and most importantly to be true to myself.

While I couldn’t have braved my battle without the amazing love and support of my family and friends, I also could not have survived without art and inspiration. Having a creative outlet not only was a wonderful distraction to the not so fun experience of dealing with cancer but also having a passion for self awareness and personal growth gave me the strength to keep a positive mindset and the confidence to know that I would survive cancer and be better off for it. So for me, breast cancer has been a blessing and has reaffirmed my belief that everything happens for a reason.

About my site­ 

I started my blog, 'The Mindful Crafter',as a way to share and combine my passion for personal growth and all things crafty and creative! My first blog is no more, but I still enjoy making patterns and I loved the logo and the name so much I couldn’t bare to fully part with it. So for now, it has been transformed as the brand for my pattern shop which currently lives on Craftsy.com. This may change in the future, but for now you can check out my patterns by going to the 'Pattern Shop' tab on my site.

In my never ending quest for “being the best possible version of me”, I have found that adding a little more creativity to everyday life can be a whole lot more more fun and meaningful than just reading another “self-help” book – which don’t get me wrong - I’d be the first one to recommend an inspirational read, but for me there’s something about adding artistic expression to the mix; that really does it for me - and who can't use a little more fun these days - right?! 

My vision and intention in this space is to be a friendly and inspirational guide for artistic and positive expression. I hope to include lot’s of fun projects and ‘how to’s’ to help you infuse more creativity and more meaning into all areas of your life as well as share my thoughts and insight from journey to self discovery.  All of this I hope will ignite your creative spark and help you become a "Mindful Crafter" too! 

My motto has always been: “Dream Big, Create the life you want, and Inspire others to do the same.” So this is me, bringing that motto to life, through word and deed. I hope you’ll join me on this adventure and together we can uncover our inner awesomeness and have fun along the way! 

Thanks for taking the time to learn more about me - feel free to take a look around and stay a while.