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I’ve always loved being creative. As a child I spent hours in paper stores, admiring notepads, pretty pens, coloring books and stickers. While other kids played with toys, I decorated cardboard boxes for my dolls, sketched floor plans and clipped pictures of houses and color schemes from magazines. In high school my favorite classes were art and calligraphy — I was far less enthusiastic about biology and algebra.
My first small business as a young teen involved painting strawberries on clothespins and glass jars to sell. Later I ran a scrapbook business with Creative Memories. Over the years, decorating my homes has remained my most consistent creative outlet.
Today I feel fortunate to spend many days working on creative pursuits through my work. It still makes my heart happy. For a while I wondered if I should look for a new hobby since decorating had become my job. That thought led me to try other creative activities simply for the joy of making, not for work.
Even when I try to stop working for the evening, I often find myself doing what I love — creating and tending to my home. It sounds funny, but I still love my work as much as I did when it was a hobby.
Although I don’t consider myself especially crafty, I’ve collected supplies over the years with the intention of using them as a relaxing creative outlet: rubber stamps, paper, ribbons, embroidery kits, beads, markers, colored pencils, photo albums, stickers, glue and washi tape. It added up fast.
A couple of years ago my daughter Courtney and I tackled decluttering and organizing our art and craft supplies. We kept what inspired us to actually use it and donated the rest to our church groups and Goodwill. Organizing what we kept made it far easier to enjoy creating — our IKEA drawers are perfect for craft storage.
My previous mindset had been to keep everything just in case. But the more we had, the less we used. Now I aim to keep less and make time to use what I love.
I share these stories and more about the importance of “doing the things” in my book Make Room for What You Love. It’s not just about decluttering and organizing; it’s about making space in your home and your life for what truly replenishes you and being intentional with what you keep and how you spend your time.
Speaking of making room for what you love, months ago my girls and I began browsing coloring books at our favorite paper stores — yes, I still love paper shops. Coloring appealed as a simple, calming creative activity that doesn’t belong on a to-do list. All you need is a coloring book and a box of colored pencils. We brought our favorites home and discovered coloring is just as satisfying as it was in childhood.
Deep down, we wanted coloring books that celebrated houses and home life.
When we couldn’t find the type we wanted, we worked with our publisher to create our own dream coloring book.
It’s designed for house and home lovers.
On July 1 our first coloring book will be released, and we’re delighted with how it turned out. We had the pleasure of shaping the creative vision and working with the talented artist Nicole Dougherty, who hand-drew charming illustrations and thoughtful quotes that reflect our love for home.
The book is filled with houses, rooms, patterns and other delightful house-y motifs.
You can experiment with color schemes, mix patterns, and try new combinations. The pages are perforated and printed one-sided on quality paper, so your finished pages are easy to frame or display on an inspiration board.
What you see here is a small sneak peek of the book — we haven’t received the final printed copies yet, only sample pages. The cover complements The Inspired Room book, with shimmery copper leaves, and the coloring book makes a lovely gift or a fun activity for a girls’ night.
After spending several weeks coloring these pages, I can say coloring is as enjoyable now as it was in kindergarten — maybe even more so. It’s been a joyful project to be part of, and we hope you’ll love the coloring book as much as we do.
Make room in your home and life for the things you love. Set aside time to be creative and enjoy activities that recharge you.
This week I’ll share updates from around the house, including progress on my fireplace, and more about making space for what matters most.