Creating Success Around the World- Interview and Blog Hop

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

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This week our guest is from Florida, USA!

Today we are welcoming Al from Almcleary.com.  Al is a fabulous fiber artist and multi-talented crafter from the state of Florida.  My buddy Tom Selleck, his mustache and I are thrilled to have her come visit.  Unfortunately, it’s going to be a bit crowded in my Green Room today as Tom has also volunteered to oversee a support group.  Seems that there is a large crowd of women who are having difficulty accepting the fact that Kiss frontman, Gene Simmons finally got married this week, essentially making the ridiculous looking dude unavailable. 

Personally, I don’t understand the attraction to men in pleather stretch pants, platform shoes and clown makeup, but apparently there are quite a few mourning the loss of availability of one such rocker.   I’m told it’s the tongue thing.  I just say…ewwwww.  But far be it for me to judge.  To each his own, I always say.  So I have much admiration for Tom’s willingness to step in there and help these ladies move on.  Tom is just awesome that way. 

So he has spent the last few hours counseling several hundred women in how to let go of the clown make-up and move onto more manly things like dudes with mustaches who play detectives on TV.  Or maybe Hawaiian shirted guys who used to have a show based in Hawaii?  Or fellows that hang out with two other men and a baby?  And I’m pretty sure I heard him assign them “Quigley Down Under” as a homework assignment.    

My buddy Tom is totally working the room.

Anyway, Al and I will go out on the porch in the meantime and do our interview.  We have iced tea and cookies out there.  And no manly-man-ness to distract us.

Suzy: So tell me a little about yourself, your family, your other hobbies…   Al:  I am from Jamaica, but I have been living in the US for over 25 years. (I still have a Jamaican accent). I have 4 brothers and no sisters.  My mom taught me to embroider when I was about 4 – I think – (I cannot remember a time when I was not sewing). She taught me how to crochet when I was about 6 and my Grandmother taught me how to make doll dresses when I was about eight years old. I hated every minute of it. While they were bugging me about sewing etc, all I wanted to do is to go outside and play Cricket and Soccer with my Dad and my brothers.

Al: At age 14, I went away to an all girls boarding school. When I was home during the summer, my mom would have a project ready for me – something we could bond over . One summer we crocheted a skirt – I still have it today, we did a table cloth and a huge wall hanging. I still have both. Although sewing was not fun for me, I obliged my mom, because I really got to know her and our family history while we sewed.

Al: I stopped crafting during my college years. in fact I did not start again until my mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer. I wanted to go back to our bonding ritual (like we did in high school). The thing is, we had to do quick and easy projects – things she could enjoy while she was here – the solution was Silk Ribbon embroidery. It was instant gratification, It was quick, easy, pretty and 3D. It is my favorite craft of all times.  
 

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

Al: I started blogging about 5 years ago. It was my son’s Idea. I was spending a lot of time on the phone with my friends answering questions about marketing themselves and their products, how to build a web site, how to fix their computer and all things technology related. He suggested that I start blogging so that more people would have access to the information.

Al: I would love my blog to become a marketing tool for www.almcleary.com. I would love to reach kids and to teach them the value of making things with your hands. They may not appreciate it now, but maybe later when they have their own kids.

                    

Suzy: Can you tell us a few things that most folks don’t know about you?Al: My childhood friends do not know that I am a crafter. They see me as a technology geek. My online friends on the other hand have no idea that I am a Techno nerd – they see me as a crafter.  My new friends – people I have met in the last 5 years know me as both.
Al:  Only my son knows that I can only draw on the computer. I am taking a drawing class. I am learning to sketch with pen and paper.  I can only draw the things I see in my head – I do not see things the same way others do. You may see a child riding a bicycle, I will see a child galloping down the road on a horse.
Suzy: You have a fabulous eye for marketing ideas.  Can you give us some marketing pointers that you might have learned along the way that might help promote our sites or stores?

Al: I have over 120 offline marketing ideas listed here – the list keeps growing.  

                                                        

Suzy: Your textile art is wonderful.  How did you get started with it?

Al: I started when my mom was ill. We had several ideas for embroidery patterns – most of them reflected her grandchildren playing and having fun. The quickest way to bring them to life was to do them digitally. I would illustrate them on my computer so we could see how the finished product would look. “One day she said to me, I wish we could somehow get these on a piece of fabric”. I started looking into how I could that done, but at the time, you had to print a minimum of 10 yards of fabric. Those who did digital printing charged $75.00 per yard, so I did it myself on my Epson printer. These days, I send them out to be printed.


   
Suzy: This crafty blog community is full of wonderful folks.  Can you tell me what blogs inspire you?  (They don’t have to be craft related).

Al: I love to read What I Made, Blog CB2, Guy Kawasaki, Social Media Examiner, and Twit TV.

Suzy: Can you tell us a little about what you are promoting right now?  
Al: I have decided to take the plunge and offer my work for sale on Almcleary.com. I am starting with my pillows, but I hope to start selling blankets and lighting soon. All the items will feature original my illustrations of things that I see in my day to day life. I will write the inspiration for each piece on my blog.


Suzy: Al, thank you so much for taking the time to be interviewed!  Please take a few moments and swing by Al’s site, Almcleary.com and see what she has going on.  Amazing stuff.

Well, Al we had best get back in the Green Room.  Seems that Kim Kardashian has shown up for the support group and is causing a ruckus.  No, she didn’t have a crush on Gene Simmons.  I doubt she even knows who he is.  Apparently, she thought the group could help her deal with the fact that she was just voted as the “Most Annoying Celebrity”  by Parade Magazine.   I guess she figured that she might get a bit of sympathy and a few pats on the back.

Unfortunately for Kim, everyone is just annoyed that she showed up.  The women are annoyed that she is wearing $1500 designer jeans and sporting a coach purse, while they are all wearing Wal-Mart blue light specials.  Tom is annoyed that she took the focus off of him and his mustache.  And I’m annoyed that she drank my last root beer. 

Might be something to that “Most Annoying Celebrity” thing after all….

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And remember, if you and your blog would like to join the party, link up in the international blog hop below! I am always looking for new guest stars. And just think of all the awe in your friends and family’s eyes when you tell them you were actually on a sitcom! Well, maybe a sitcom in my mind, but let’s not get too literal.
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