Interview with the The Mrs. of TryingOurBest

Talk about jumping in with both feet! The Mrs. over at Trying Our Best hosted her first swap for Christmas and she's already hosting a second one for Valentine's Day! Sign-ups are still open for that one (Until the 23rd) so get in on it!

SwapDex: Tell us a bit about you

The Mrs: I'm 29 and live where the Marine Corps has sent us in the frigid cold Northeast. Perhaps I'm exaggerating some but really, to me, its cold up here. I've been married for seven years to a fantastic guy, who happens to be a Marine who flys all over while I stay home with the three kiddos, an almost five year old, a three year old, and a two month old. All boys. Yup... all boys. So I'm the only gal in the house but I do have crafting buddies, my boys love a good craft, the hubs? Not so much. We don't have many pets, we have some fish and quite frankly I deal with enough poo on a daily basis I have no desire for anything else!

My mother was an art teacher for many years, and a life long sewer, quilter, crafter extraordinaire, really that woman can do anything. In fact she frequently will make purses or bags that I give away on my site. She most definately got me started crafting and whenever I'm doing a project most of the time I'm bouncing ideas off of her. I really love paper crafts. When my first two boys were born I actually made their baby announcements, all 60+ by hand (I went home for ma's help!) They were beautiful, handstamped, then handpainted little airplanes flying over three different layers of cardstock. I enjoy scrapbooking but with three small kids I will admit, its taken a very back burner. Lately most of my crafts revolve around the kids and making Christmas ornaments. We are waiting for our cinnamon applesauce ornaments to dry to we can paint them, I have some glass balls drying that I did some reverse painting in, and I love using their handprints and footprints to decorate plates, mugs, you name it! My biggest problem crafting is that I am a bit of a perfectionist, if I'm going to do it I want it done right, so much so that I frustrate even myself. I need to get over this. Crafts should be enjoyed not stressed over.

SD: How long have you been swapping? How did you first learn about swapping, and what made you decide to start?

TM: This is my first swap that I've run. I am in another swap for crafty ornaments and I signed up on the last day so I figured why not have one over at my page. A lot of my readers are military wives and we are all spread out over the us and some in foreign countries but we feel like we really know each other. Doing something fun over the holidays just seemed logical. A blog friend of mine is doing a Blogger Santa so I figured I'd pick up the ornament part of the holiday. I'm really excited to see what kind of ornament people pick out or make. And really can you ever have too many ornaments?

Money is tight this time of year so I didn't want people to feel like they couldn't join in due to money reasons I also didn't want people to feel like they had to make one. Crafting can be done on the cheap but its also something that isn't enjoyed by all so I wanted to give people the choice to either make an ornament or to buy one and a 10 dollar limit seemed right to me.

SD: What do you think is the most challenging part of hosting a swap? Any advice for someone who is thinking about hosting a swap?

TM: I'm hoping that this swap runs smoothly, I think one part that helps swaps go well is when there is good email communication. I live on my email, really it goes straight to my blackberry and I'm able to zip off a response in a fairly short amount of time, with the exception of dinner and bathtime of course! It's easier when you get the information to and from partners in a timely manner so that they can go ahead with their planning, whether it be executing the craft or shopping for the ornament. I realize not everyone is addicted to email like me but lag time of a couple days can really drag things out.

SD: Any exciting plans for the near future?

TM: I'd like to do more swaps in the future. Giveaways are always a big hit on the ol blog and this is kinda like a giveaway for everyone. That's cheesy but really everyone loves getting a little surprise in the mail that isn't a bill and I'm sure I'm not alone in finding it fun to come up with an idea to mail off to someone. I'm trying to think of what kind of swap I can do in the future, I'd like to do a cookie swap or something like that but I realize some people might be worried about receiving food from a "stranger" of sorts. Maybe an easter egg exchange or a valentine's day candy swap? I'm open to suggestions!

Thanks for letting us in on the inner workings of your swapping life!