Creating Success Around the World- Interview and Blog Hop

Welcome to

Creating Success around the World!

The worldwide blog hop tour, that introduces you to creative people from all corners of the globe.

Every Wednesday our hosts on each continent will introduce you to someone new whose creativity is inspiring! Come take this worldwide tour with us! 

You can visit each host below and read about a featured creative person on each continent! All interviews are posted simultaneously around the world, resulting in one big crafting party.  And then, add your blog to the Blog Hop party below.  You could be featured in the next Around the World Interview!  Fame. Notoriety.  Pure Awesomeness!  It’s all in the touch of a keyboard button…

                 

 Australasia- Jill from Creating My Way to Success

Europe- Yaga from The Shiny Bubble

Asia- Janelle from Of Pinks and Fairy Tales

Africa-Adepeju from Peekadot
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Our Guest Star this week is from Texas, USA

Today we are welcoming Molly Smith, a fabulous quiller, all the way from the great state of Texas. My buddy, Tom Selleck and his mustache, is all excited. We’ve had guests on here before from Texas and it is always a great excuse to drag out the charcoal grill and cook up some big ol’ steaks. Because we all know that Texas people like steak. Big steaks. So Tom invited his buddy William Shatner out and they have set up the grill and started cooking.
Because the grill seems to bring out the testosterone in guys, they have started a friendly competition. It started innocently enough with Tom challenging Bill to cook up a better steak. Bill took the challenge and ran with it. He dragged in a bigger grill than Tom’s and threw a batch of filet mignon on. Tom then put together his personal top secret barbeque sauce recipe. Bill countered with a vat of barbeque sauce that he made out of fresh tomatoes and spices imported personally from his chef out of the state of Texas.

Tom brought in bigger steaks, and an industrial size monster grill with dual exhaust and monster truck sized tires, that includes a steel covered juke box playing “The Yellow Rose of Texas”. Not to be outdone, Bill brought in a large group of authentic cowboys in ten gallon hats to cheer him on. Tom brought in the entire cast from Quigley Down Under, two ranch hands and an oil derrick.

Great. You know how hard it is to clean up grease?

Bill brought in the entire Dallas Cowboys football team. And the goal post and two hotdog vendors who just happened to be in the stadium at the time. Tom one-upped him and brought in the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders.

Hmmm… Bill is going to have difficulty beating that.

And here is Molly!  Molly, I’m so sorry about the crowd. I was hoping to have a nice one-on-one interview with you. I’d take you out on the patio, but there is currently a rodeo going on out there and someone roped one of Tom’s People Choice Awards. Tom is just a bit upset about it. Things are getting a little out of hand. So lets go into my office where it is relatively quiet. Just through that crowd of cheerleaders and behind that cow. And don’t pay any attention to the Trekkie fans in spock ears that are currently raiding the fridge. They follow Bill everywhere.

Suzy: Tell me a little about yourself, your family, your other hobbies…  
Molly: I lived in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for 35 years and worked as a secretary, Executive Assistant and eventually a Paralegal. I began paper quilling over 30 years ago as a hobby and have authored a book called The New Paper Quilling. A layoff in 2000 caused me to start doing what I love and making money doing it.

Molly: I joined the Society of Craft Designers and dove right into what it takes to be a professional crafter. The SCD dissolved and became a part of the Craft and Hobby Association. I attend one CHA craft show a year to promote my designs, educate and attend workshops. My retired quilled sticker line with Provo Craft, called Stand-Outs™, was sold in catalogs, craft retail chains and on QVC. I have many of my projects published in books and magazines. Paper crafting is my hobby, period. 

Molly: I now live in a west Texas town where I was born and raised. My husband and I are taking care of my 92 year young dad. We have a daughter who is a nurse and three grandchildren. I spend a lot of time making paper bead jewelry and maintain an online store on Etsy.

Suzy: When and why did you start blogging, and where would you like your blogging to lead?  

Molly:  I started blogging in the summer of 2008 around the same time I began my Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. I do NOTHING in moderation so it all happened at once. Initially my blog was to keep a journal type record of things going on, purely personal, family-related and way TMI, because this is what I thought blogging was about. It soon turned to relating to my work and crafty information, with family added when I was in the mood. I have been told that there should be a statement as to why you blog. So far, mine has changed three times.

Suzy: Can you tell us a few things that most folks don’t know about you?

Molly:  I have a clown certificate from The University of Texas at Arlington and I have been in many parades, kids’ functions and birthday parties. I worked at a hospital for eight years and enjoyed going to the children’s unit on weekends.  

Molly:  I hoard boxes because some day I might need them. I buy boxes and I save every box I come across. I have boxes of boxes and when we recently moved, I had to box up my boxes of boxes. I also make boxes and love to decorate them for presentation or gift giving. I have the original Aleene’s Box Maker scoring board and own three other commercial score pads. 

Molly: Every once in a while I will Google “blog etiquette” just to keep current on what they are saying. 

Molly:  In addition to your Suzy’s Artsy-Craftsy Sitcom, I have several designer friends who are a huge inspiration to me: Margot Potter who makes jewelry, again Diane at Craftypod and Eileen Hull who designs for Sizzix.


Molly: A mega blogger who no doubt inspires me to the moon (and back to reality) is Jen Hadfield at Tatertots and Jello. I never visit unless I have at least an hour. And her friends Bridget at Bake at 350 and Cheryl at Tidymom.  I do not care for copycat or knock off blogs at all.

Suzy: Molly, thank you so much for stopping by for an interview! Your advice on blogging is wonderful and very appreciated. Please take a few moments to swing by Molly’s blog, It’s Molly Smith, and check out her latest projects. Molly’s book, “The New Paper Quilling” is a wonderful addition to any quiller’s library. The projects that she shares are just beautiful. Also, be sure to check out her Etsy shop where she sells some awesome paper bead jewelry.

Now we have to get back into the Green Room. Things are really out of control now. I just got a call from Lady Gaga who is very upset. It seems that Tom and Bill got into the downstairs freezer and grilled up all the meat that she had stored there for her next Grammy Award outfit. She’s pretty angry. She doesn’t have a thing worthwhile to wear now and certainly does not want to walk around looking silly.