We're back!

Hi again! It's crazy/fun to be writing again after a six month long hiatus, but sometimes a break is just the thing you need to recharge your crafty batteries. If you read our signing off post in January, and then saw our post last Friday with our first project in six months, you may be wondering what in the world we are up to. (And if you're just joining us, please check out our About Us section to learn more about what it is we do here :)

Here's the completely honest truth, guys: we overextended ourselves.

We started this little crafty space of ours in August of 2012 and were SO excited to be creating together. Shannon and I have always loved to create, so when I moved here to Pittsburgh, it only seemed natural to start a blog together and create together. "They"  ("they" being the big bloggers that have thousands of followers and endorsements, which we certainly are not) say that you're supposed to be consistent with your blogging (not a bad thing at all), so we set a schedule and committed ourselves to blogging 3 times a week. This was working well for us and after we had been blogging for awhile, we were completely thrilled to be invited to be contributors on a friend's blog. Then another invitation came along. Then a third. At the time we thought we could balance it all, and we did for awhile...but it took its toll.

After several months of creating projects for our own blog and three others, on top of balancing families and jobs, we found ourselves with no free time and no energy. And  let me tell you, it's extremely difficult to find inspiration when you feel like your creativity has been completely tapped. I personally found myself becoming increasingly short with my kids and, as a stay-at-home mom, I felt like I was failing at my primary job. Shannon was feeling equally stressed with trying to balance a full-time job and husband, then trying to create projects when she could find a spare minute.

It was time for a break.

We took the past six months off with no expectations. We agreed that the blog would be here if we decided to start again, but if not, that was OK too. Then, we did whatever we wanted. I didn't touch my sewing machine for 2 months. It felt SO good to reset. Out of the blue last month, we were contacted by Michael's  asking if we'd like to contribute posts once a month as part of their Michael's Makers program. Shannon and I talked, and decided that we were ready to take on blogging again, casually for now, because we honestly do love to make things and share them with you. Our experience contributing to other blogs has been invaluable, and we both walked away learning so much and being so grateful for those opportunities, but we also learned our limit.

So what now? At this moment, you can expect a minimum of one post a month that we will be sharing as part of our partnership with Michael's, and additional posts as we feel inspired (and maybe a little redesign a la Shannon if you notice the new graphics :) We know you guys have better things to do than read about a project that was half-heartedly put together, so by casually blogging, it means that Shannon and I will both be able to create and share things with you that we genuinely love. At times, it may be a project. Other times, it may be peeks into our personal lives or a round-up of things we love. But just know that through it all, we have appreciated all of your kind words and support because we're still figuring things out. And that's OK.