Interview with Kate Petty: Mom & Crafter

Monday, July 11, 2011

Interview with Kate Petty: Mom & Crafter

Kate is new to pinning but her tutorial-laden craft blog, mini-eco, has been featured on sites around the world, from Craftzine to Swiss Miss. Now Kate is even writing for Homemade Living!

If you give her blog a click, you’ll instantly know why her talents are in high demand: mini-eco’s specialty is fun things to make with your kids using everyday things around your house.

So while she’s pinning cool kids’ stuff, inspiring eye candy, plus craft tutorials from other sources, what better time to get acquainted than with a pinterview?

Hi, Kate! First, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I’m a full-time mum to two lovely little boys. We have just recently returned to the UK after a seven year stint in Australia. Pre-kids I was a web designer and developer. I set up mini-eco 18 months ago in an attempt to document the things I make for (and with) my sons. Crafting keeps us all sane and running my blog gives my grey-matter a good work out. It’s also a wonderful way of connecting with other crafty folk around the globe.

Source: mini-eco, “Cardboard Instruments”

A lot of pinners love DIY projects and with mini-eco, you’re obviously no exception: has crafting been a life-long love?

Well I always loved making things as far back as I can remember. I studied Fine Art at college but when I left I ‘fell’ into web development and stopped creating things for a good ten years or so. Having kids, and breaking out of that corporate environment, reignited my crafty spark I think.

Source: mini-eco, “Geeky Weaves” tutorial

What’s been one of your favorite creations/projects?

My favorite projects are always the latest ones. I’ve been trying to make more adult orientated things of late which has made a lovely change. My macrame owl and woven Space Invaders have been a lot of fun.

Source: mini-eco tutorials

Many of your tutorials are kid-friendly activities: outside of these projects, what do you like keeping your boys occupied with?

They are typical boys and have a lot of energy. They love to swim, climb & walk so most days that’s what we do! They are very close in age and also love to fight with one another so I spend a large proportion of my day separating them. :)

Source: Kate’s pins

Since you started pinning relatively recently, we’d love to hear a fresh perspective on what we can do to make Pinterest better.

Hmmmm…an ‘advanced search’ function. That’s me being picky though…Pinterest is such a fine idea and I really can’t fault it. It’s super easy to use and the graphical user interface is great… beautifully clean, if you know what I mean. I’m a rather haphazard/forgetful person so it’s just lovely to be able to keep a ‘visual diary of inspiration’ so to speak, it makes me feel like I have a more organised life haha!