This podcast is filled with BIG, fascinating ideas about the intersection of creativity and spirit. How do you find your own personal meaning in making things? Can art or craft (or any other creative pursuit) actually become a spiritual practice? How can creative work be spiritual and exist alongside your existing spiritual beliefs?

We have an excellent guide through all these questions this week: Bridget Benton is a mixed-media artist and a teacher who specializes in just this subject. Her book, The Creative Conversation, is based on classes she's been teaching for years. She helps creative people uncover the ways that making things feeds their souls - and how regular making can become an important path to staying grounded and understanding yourself.

Since it's nearly Earth Day, Michele Pacey and I are talking about creative reuse. Michele does most of her crafting with materials from her recycle bin, and she comes up with all kinds of beautiful and useful projects. Her blog, Michele Made Me, is full of inspiration. Creative reuse involves a lot of experimentation, trial and error, and flat-out play. Michele has some interesting things to say about how she approaches crafting with recycled materials. And, I made her tell me what's in her stash right now – um, wow! There's a lot of creative potential there. I hope this show will inspire you to dig into your recycle bin and make some cool things this weekend.

For the past three years, Mom and I have been doing an annual podcast together, in which I've interviewed her about various aspects of the holiday season.

This year, we decided to do something a little different, and just record one of our many conversations on a subject we revisit again and again - Christmas cookies! We had so much fun, and laughed a lot, and we hope you'll get a kick out of the result.

Back before I stopped podcasting, I had signed up to be part of the blog tour for Kathy Cano Murillo's new novel, Miss Scarlet's School of Patternless Sewing. So here's a fun podcast interview with the Crafty Chica herself, all about the new book and her burgeoning career as an author of crafty fiction.

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If you want a little more glimpse into the book, check out this video trailer Kathy put together! (Usual disclosures: Grand Central Publishing sent me a review copy, and the title link above is an affiliate link.)

Image by Zellaby, via Flickr

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In this show:

• My Mom, Pam Harris, returns to the show to talk about planning for your holiday season.

• How can you fit more crafting, cooking, and fun into the holiday season? What's the best way to plan activities, and make them happen?

• ...And what do you do when Life messes with your plan?

Links:

• Have you read, Gingerbread Snowflakes, my Mom's blog? There's lots and lots of wonderful holiday-season stuff there.

• If you liked this show, you'll love Mom's Winter Holiday Survival Planning Guide. (Yup, it's free.)

• Psssst: have you seen my Christmas pinboard on Pinterest?

Image by Professor Bop, via Flickr

In this show:

• Kirsty Hall and I talk about what it means to be more authentic online - whether it's in your blog posts, tweets, or Facebook updates.

• How does authenticity lead people to trust you - and when can it turn them away? What impact does it have on a small craft business?

• Is there anything you really shouldn't share online? .

Links:

• Visit Kirsty at her blog, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

Kirsty also mentioned these bloggers:

• Catherine Caine's take on Why "Professional Does Not Mean "Corporate"

• Havi Brooks talks about your right people, and people throwing shoes.

• Kate Davis blogs about her experiences recovering from an unexpected stroke.

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In this show:

• I talk with Marisa Lynch about her current project: revamping one (rather hideous) $1.00 thrift-store dress into something cute and fashionable every day. She blogs about it at New Dress a Day.

• We discuss exactly what goes into a project like this – keeping inspired, managing time, and where one stores hundreds of new garments!

• ...And we talk about Marisa's simple-yet-effective approach to garment reconstruction. There are no advanced tailoring skills needed, and the results are gorgeous.

Links:

• Check out New Dress a Day, where you can see the over 300 (!!!) garment revamps Marisa's completed already.

• Marisa's fame with this project is growing – she's been profiled on TIME's Money blog, and ReadyMade, Green LA Girl, (and numerous other blogs), and The Nate Berkus Show.

Image by ellajphillips, via Flickr Creative Commons

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In this show:

• I talk about why it's so important to plan at least some of your blog posts ahead. This is an idea not many bloggers seem to use, but it's really powerful.

• I share some approaches to planning and some tools that work.

• ...And I talk about how the specific benefits you can get from all this planning.

Links:

• As I mentioned in the show, my Mom plans her blog a year in advance. Check out her system!

• Charlie Gilkey offers free downloadable Blog Post Planners each month.

• ...And here's ProBlogger Darren Rowse's take on Building an Editorial Calendar for Your Blog.

• If you haven't heard it already, this podcast is a good companion to another one I did: Craft Blogging: What Should You Write About?

Image by TheAlienness Gisela Giardino, via Flickr Creative Commons

In this show:

• To further our ongoing discussion of Free and how it affects the craft community, I share my own story of Free. In some ways, Free has created my business. In others, it's created big challenges.

• I talk about the most important by-product of Free: community.

• ...And once again, I welcome your comments on this very complex subject.

Links:

Here's the discussions we've been having about Free so far:

• Paul Overton shares his experiences with Free on Make & Meaning, with Free: a Case Study.

• Paul and I also did a podcast about free a while back.

• Here's a piece I did on Make & Meaning, Free is Not a Marketing Tool. Some really interesting discussion in the comments.

• Kim Werker did an excellent post on her blog about how Free can lead to getting paid, but what you have to do to make that happen. • We also did a liveblog event at Make & Meaning about Free. You can read the transcript here.

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<strong>In this show:</strong>

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&bull; An interview with Kristin Roach, who turned a fun blog idea, <a href="http://www.craftleftovers.com" target="new">Craft Leftovers</a>, into a full-time business... one step at a time.

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&bull; Some discussion on the value of just trying stuff - and being willing to accept successes and failures along the way.

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&bull; Helpful ideas on the value of finding those intermediate steps between you and your big business goals.

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&bull; ...And a really important emerging idea: finding ways to create small income opportunities for other crafters.

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<strong>Links:</strong>

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&bull; Visit <a href="http://www.craftleftovers.com" target="new">Craft Leftovers</a> online, where you'll find Kristin's <a href="http://www.craftleftovers.com/blog/blog" target="new">blog</a>, <a href="http://craftleftovers.com/shop/" target="new">shop</a>, <a href="http://www.craftleftovers.com/blog/archive" target="new">patterns and projects</a>.

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&bull; Kristin's zine, <a href="http://www.craftleftovers.com/blog/clm" target="new">Craft Leftovers Monthly</a>, is always a delight - and gives her an opportunity to pay her contributors.

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&bull; Kristin also runs a side business, <a href="http://krostudio.com/" target="new">K.r.o Studio</a>, where she pursues her fine art, teaching, and community projects.

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&bull; Here's that ebook we just released: <a href="http://shop.craftypod.com/cardpaperribbon" target="new">Card. Paper. Ribbon.</a>

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