The World of Women Create Podcast

Chair stylist Wendy Conklin joins Editor in Chief Jennifer Blot for a conversation on the inspiration behind her Taylor Swift-themed chair collection, her entrepreneurial journey, and fun and easy ways to add creativity and color to your home. 

Wendy is a former educator turned boutique chair decorator helping people around the globe infuse personality, color and whimsy into their surroundings. Through her company, Chair Whimsy, she offers various options to turn a boring and beige room into wow, including her range of ready-made designer chairs, custom chair design services, DIY inspirational makeovers, and a host of courses to unleash the DIYer’s inner artist.

Learn more about Wendy:

Website

Eras Tour Chairs

Instagram

Read Wendy's Story

Connecticut-based brand photographer, video storyteller and marketing strategist Nicole Bedard joins Editor in Chief Jennifer Blot for a conversation on the power of brand photography and crafting a compelling image portfolio for your website, marketing materials and magazine submissions.

Nicole specializes in capturing imagery and videos that help creative entrepreneurs step out from behind their work to showcase their unique processes, enhance their visibility, and make their branding irresistible to their ideal clients. She believes all creatives deserve to feel more confident, connect with more people, and create more of an impact in their industry.

Learn more about Nicole:

Website

Instagram

YouTube

LinkedIn

Multi-crafter, tutor, sewist, illustrator and designer Paula Milner joins Editor in Chief Jennifer Blot for a conversation on her passion for crafting and the journey to launching her popular brand, The Crafty Lass. 

In 2015, Paula established The Crafty Lass with the aim to inspire adults to get creative in their busy lives, and has gone on to work with some of the biggest names in the craft industry. Her hand drawn, nature-inspired fabric ranges and hand-carved woodblock designs can be found for sale across the U.K. She is a brand ambassador for Brother Sewing Machines, part of the founding Cricut Crew, and author of the 2024 book Simple Paper Flowers.

Learn more about Paula and The Crafty Lass brand:

Website

Facebook

Instagram

Pinterest

Die-hard modern fabric fan Chelsea O’Hayre joins Editor in Chief Jennifer Blot for a conversation on finding a way to turn a passion into a thriving business and how to recognize and seize additional opportunities as they arise.

Chelsea is the owner of Pink Door Fabrics and Renaissance Ribbons. She started Pink Door Fabrics in 2011, and recently acquired Renaissance in 2023. A lover of fabrics from an early age, Chelsea taught herself to sew many years ago and has transformed her hobby into a growing enterprise that ships worldwide. She has found a niche offering fabrics from all the hottest designers in block of the month programs. 

Learn more about Chelsea and her journey: 

Website – Pink Door Fabrics

Instagram – Pink Door Fabrics

Instagram – Renaissance Ribbons

Craft ambassador and entrepreneur Isabelle Fish joins Editor in Chief Jennifer Blot for a conversation on bespoke travel experiences that allow creatives to discover the world through the lens of craft. Having made herself at home in five different countries, including Canada, England and South Africa, Isabelle retains a particularly French attitude towards les métiers d’art, along with her insatiable appetite for travel and cultural discovery.

Isabelle’s company Rue Pigalle is a travel and events-based community for women patrons of craft who celebrate and champion its place in everyday life — all with the purpose to support craft practice and practitioners.

Learn more about Isabelle Fish and Rue Pigalle:

Read Isabelle's Women Create Story

Rue Pigalle - Website

Rue Pigalle - Instagram

Rue Pigalle - Facebook

Fashion industry veteran, pattern designer and clothing brand founder Christine Lindebak joins Editor in Chief Jennifer Blot for a conversation on her transition from working in the fast-paced corporate fashion world to building websites and running her very own creative business. 

Christine Lindebak is an American designer and creator based on the Mediterranean seaside in Valencia, Spain. She’s the force behind Sewing and the City, selling fashion sewing patterns online and in shops around the globe and inspiring people of all ages to sew their own clothes. Christine is also the founder of a bespoke homeware brand called Lindy Lindy, where she transforms vintage Spanish linens into one-of-a-kind, getting-ready attire for brides.

Learn more about Christine Lindebak:

Sewing in the City Website

Instagram – Sewing in the City

Lindy Lindy Website

Instagram – Lindy Lindy

Artist Megan Aroon joins Editor in Chief Jennifer Blot for a conversation on the beauty of living a nomadic life and creating on the go. For the past two years, Megan has traveled the U.S. in her tiny home, aka her van/mobile studio, with her cat Mikee, creating series of artworks along the way — including paintings inspired by the National Parks and other natural wonders. She is a conservation artist, striving to preserve and conserve the natural world, sharing the beauty of our planet as seen through her eyes in colorful, whimsical art.

Her art was featured on “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Good Morning America,” along with magazine features in WHERE Women Create, O, The Oprah Magazine, Good Housekeeping and even the cover of Interior Design. Products with Megan’s art can be found at Urban Outfitters, HomeGoods, Nordstrom and more.

Learn more about Megan Aroon:

Website

Instagram

Pinterest

Sewing pattern designer and entrepreneur Sara Lawson joins Editor in Chief Jennifer Blot for a conversation on building an online community, the importance of using long-form video to support and inspire your customers’ creativity and more! Based in Chicago, Sara started her company Sew Sweetness in 2013, and today her team includes family members and pattern testers. In addition to designing sewing patterns for a wide array of tote bags, purses and pouches, she also produces full-length instructional videos to complement her patterns.

Sara has a popular live show on Facebook and YouTube called “Sewcial Sunday.” Topics for the show include new fabrics in the stash, a Bag Lab demonstration, book review and live question-and-answer session.

Learn more about Sara Lawson:

Website
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube

Internationally renowned surface pattern designer, entrepreneur and award-winning online educator Bonnie Christine joins Editor in Chief Jennifer Blot for a conversation on how to hit the ground running with pattern designing, methods to improve your productivity and much more!

Bonnie has been creating delicate and ethereal artwork for brands and products around the world since 2009. She’s a mama, artist and fabric designer living nestled back in the hills of the Great Smoky Mountains. Her goal is to help creatives earn a living doing what they love. Her journey of being a self-taught designer and learning “the hard way” is exactly what drives her passion for teaching others how to become a successful creative entrepreneur.

Learn more about Bonnie Christine:

Instagram

Website

Immersion with Bonnie Christine - Course

The Professional Creative Podcast

Weaver, spinner, garment designer and entrepreneur Astrid Tauber joins Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Blot for a conversation on what led Astrid to textile arts, along with her favorite parts of the creative process, the advantages to her family’s unconventional approach to education, and MUCH more!

Astrid, whose story was featured in WHAT Women Create in 2023, is the youngest artist to be featured in our magazines.

When she was 7 years old, her mom signed her up for a series of craft classes at a local store. Little did Astrid know that all these years later (she’s now 14), she would be a girl who could “shear a sheep, spin balanced yarn, and weave her own fabric to create garments.” Fiber was the chrysalis that took Astrid from a painfully shy girl who looked like a deer in headlights any time someone approached her, to a young woman who has found her voice and the confidence to be heard.

Learn More about Astrid Tauber:

Website

Facebook

Instagram

Master Milliner Jenny Pfanenstiel joins Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Blot for a conversation on her journey from making hats in her basement as a hobby to founding her couture shop Formé Millinery in Louisville, Kentucky, and acquiring supply companies that provide materials for other milliners and help ensure that the craft of millinery continues to thrive. Jenny is a world-renowned milliner awarded for her skill of creating and sculpting hats by hand using the highest quality and rare materials from across the globe.

The art of millinery is a technique that dates back centuries through molding straw and wool over wooden hat forms. Taking from traditional millinery techniques, Jenny is known throughout the world for her unique process of sculpting hats on a braid machine from the 1800s. She is a five-time Featured Milliner of the Kentucky Derby. In 2019, she was 1 of 50 women entrepreneurs selected as a Tory Burch Fellow through the Tory Burch Foundation. She has three co-branded hat patterns through McCall Patterns, and leads hat-making workshops for all levels. Jenny is the author of the book The Making of a Milliner and has collaborated with exciting brands and dignitaries such as Woodford Reserve, Vineyard Vines, J Peterman, Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, Madonna, and Barbara Cochran, to name a few. She and her husband Bart own four hat companies and just celebrated opening their third hat shop in Kentucky.

Learn more about Jenny Pfanenstiel:

Forme Millinery Website

Hat Box USA Website

Judith M Supply Website

The Hat Shoppe Louisville Website

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Forme Millinery Instagram

The Hat Shoppe Louisville Instagram

Judith M Supply Instagram

Cara Loffredo and Africa Rubio Pastor join Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Blot for a conversation on the importance of shopping local woman-founded businesses, especially during the critical holiday selling season. For the past six years, Cara and Africa have been running markets throughout the Boston area and have helped launch the careers of many women entrepreneurs, along with expanding their own business with new initiatives, including a popup brick-and-mortar shop earlier this year and a new series of Holiday Markets at the historic Faneuil Hall Marketplace.

A passion for entrepreneurship runs in Cara Loffredo‘s blood. She grew up surrounded by family members that all have had a small business at one point or another, from a dog and cat boarding kennel to an outdoor waterpark. After graduating from Suffolk University, Cara began working for a variety of organizations where she was able to get her hands dirty in all things small business, from running payroll, to event organization, to graphic design. Over the years she has come to realize she gets the greatest satisfaction and joy from helping others learn and succeed, and strives to bring this to the BWM community every day.

Africa Rubio Pastor is the co-founder of Boston Women’s Market. Africa is originally from Madrid, Spain. When she lived in Spain she spent a lot of time with her mother at markets (as a vendor) helping her with her business. Africa realized the hard work that goes into building a business, setting up for markets, selling products and the long hours standing. BWM was built to provide vendors with an incredible experience while being part of the markets and community. Africa loves that she can help businesses thrive and support makers’ journeys through Boston Women’s Market.

Website

Instagram

Explore the Boston Women’s Market Events Calendar HERE

Artist and Interior Designer Kalen Mehlman of Kalen's Place joins Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Blot for a conversation on how our “creative selves” can transform over time, tapping into new opportunities and growth as professionals and artistic beings. Kalen shares the importance of recognizing our inner creative journey and how that can serve us professionally and personally.

A lifelong “creative”, Kalen Mehlman can be found in Phoenix, Arizona working as an artist and full-time interior designer…and taco slinger at her family’s local restaurant, The Beach House. Kalen’s scope of creative work includes providing custom pieces of whimsical artwork that were sold in boutiques and directly to clients throughout the Valley, teaching children’s art classes and inspiring workshops for many years, and designing interiors for both residential and commercial spaces. Currently, her primary focus as a creative and female entrepreneur is in the interior design world…but to her, there’s always room for new future “creative career” opportunities just around the corner!

Artist and author Kristina Henson joins Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Blot for a conversation on the Instagram phenomenon known as the 100-Day Project. Kristina provides insight on how and why she hopped on the trend, where to find inspiration for each day and how you can take your own 100-day project to the next level!  

Kristina Henson is an artist, author and storyteller living in Central New York, surrounded by the Finger Lakes that provide endless inspiration for her artwork and writing. Her career in graphic design has provided her with the skills needed to design and self-publish her two books: One Hundred Birds Telling One Hundred Little Stories and Letters to Lily. In both books, she weaves her observations and imagination into art and stories that touch the human spirit; she makes you see the sunset, smell the flowers and hear the birds.

Co-founder and President of Craft Industry Alliance Abby Glassenberg joins Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Blot for a conversation on the benefits of a membership organization and various aspects of building a successful business in the crafts industry, including email marketing campaigns, collaborations and finding a compatible retail marketplace.

Abby is a sewing pattern designer, craft book author, teacher and writer. She has an undergraduate degree in history from Johns Hopkins and a master’s degree in education from Harvard. She taught middle school social studies in Mississippi through Teach For America and sixth grade in the Newton Public Schools before becoming a textile artist. Abby is the author of three sewing books and lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with her husband and three children.

In this episode, Abby shares the ins and outs of Craft Industry Alliance, advice on where to begin with email newsletters, a bit more on her creative work today and more!

Artist, author and entrepreneur Jane Pollak joins Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Blot for a conversation on setting aside excuses and doing what you love NOW. An artist throughout her life, Jane took a detour for a couple of decades as a coach for creative entrepreneurs. But she reclaimed her role as an artist at the start of the pandemic when everything shut down and she had just learned a new craft — Penny Rug Pillow-making. She re-created herself at warp speed (though it felt like millennia to her), accomplishing in less than three years (and getting the attention of high-end interior designers) what took decades to build the first time around when her art form was Ukrainian Easter eggs.

In this episode, Jane shares the fascinating story of her entrepreneurial and creative journey, including displaying her work at the White House and drawing the attention of a high-profile tech pioneer. She also provides insight into the importance of shutting out negativity and surrounding oneself with a team of supporters.

In this episode of FROM MY KITCHEN TABLE, Jo Packham is joined by professional quilter-turned-weight-and-life-coach Dara Tomasson to discuss being weighed down physically and mentally by thoughts in our lives.

Dara helps women get to the root of the problem so they can shed the extra weight and start really loving and feeling accomplished with their lives. In Dara's professional quilting life she published free motion quilting books and did custom quilting. Since being certified as a life and weight loss coach she liberating women to change their relationship with themselves and their bodies. Her method is called Love Yourself Thin. When you learn to accept yourself as you are and understand how you got there you will be able to change.

"I teach women to feel comfortable getting to the root of their problems and solve them so food or people pleasing or procrastination or perfectionism isn’t such a problem."

Dara has 5 kids from 10-19 and lives on Vancouver Island. She was an elementary school teacher for 10 years. She turned her passion for teaching to teaching quilting with a specialty in free-motion quilting. She created custom quilts for women far and wide, taught across Canada and the USA, and published 4 books, one of which is the 12 Step Perfection Recovery Program. When she isn't helping her clients have more fun in their lives you can find Dara quilting for fun on her long arm, cheering her kids on in basketball, and making the most of this wonderful one life we all have been given!

Learn more about Dara:

Love Yourself Thin – Podcast

Instagram

Join Dara's Weight-Loss Program