Sandy Hook Resident Sally Lynn MacDonald

Is One Clever Lady

By Shannon Hicks

It has been a funny little journey for Sally Lynn MacDonald, a Sandy Hook resident who will make her television debut during HGTV’s next season.

For someone who just did not see the attraction of crafts stores the first time she walked through one with some friends a few years ago, it is ironic that Mrs MacDonald will be featured in two segments of one of Home & Garden Television’s programs in a few months. The mother of three and a passionate “memory crafter,” Mrs MacDonald will be seen on That’s Clever! when its new season begins in June.

Previously called Crafters Coast to Coast, HGTV’s That’s Clever! is a weekday show that profiles three “fun and charismatic independent crafters.” That’s Clever! is a daily, half-hour series that highlights the contemporary crafting scene from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon. The program, according to its notes, is meant to inspire creative viewers to try each individual’s particular craft and learn a little about the personal side of the crafter.

In each episode, the show travels around the country and visits three different crafters in their own homes who then take viewers step-by-step through their particular craft. One recent episode took viewers to Dallas, Texas, and the home of Andrea Curtis, who creates Not So Tribal Masks using corrugated cardboard, oval-shaped containers, and drinking cups (among other items); then to the Laguna Beach, Calif., home of Staci Shubert, who designs handmade leather handbags and necklaces using Italian cowhide, Italian pig suede, and fabric; and then to Atlanta, where Sharon Lapin made a bumblebee jar lid magnet.

After the three feature segments, each episode of That’s So Clever! wraps with one of the crafters offering instruction for a quick, simple craft they also came up with.

A crew from HGTV was in town in December to shoot tape of Sandy Hook Center, and then returned a few days later to spend the day at Mrs McDonald’s home, shooting her segments.

The show is hosted by Angela Martinez, but like many shows with segments shot around the country Ms Martinez does not always travel with the crew. She will be heard in a voiceover when Mrs MacDonald’s segment airs in a few months, but Ms Martinez was not in Sandy Hook recently. The HGTV crew included director of photography Joe Fox, audio technician Justin Dickson, producer Brian Heller, and director Celia Bonaduce.

Mrs MacDonald was tapped be the crafter who shows two items, so after taping was done of her card holders made from recycled Band-Aid tins, she was also filmed offering the instruction for domino bracelets, which she makes with miniature dominoes. She was discovered during a trade show she was at with some friends a few months ago — friends who are about to open their own stores, one in Stafford Springs and the other in Milford. One of her friends introduced Mrs MacDonald to a producer from T Weller Grossman, the production company for That’s Clever!

After sending some emails and photos of her work, Mrs MacDonald heard back from the production company, who wanted to schedule a time for her to host a film crew at her home.

Neil and Sally Lynn MacDonald moved to Connecticut from Florida in 1995, and found their dream home in Sandy Hook just over a year later; they spent one year renting in Danbury. A side room off the home’s front entrance was probably designed as a formal sitting room, but Sally Lynn has taken it over. It is now her play space — a large artist’s table is set up in the center of the room, and well organized cabinets, bins, and shelving dominate two of the walls.

Sally Lynn was working for IBM when she and her husband moved to Connecticut, and she had no interest in the world of arts and crafts at the time. Her first reaction to the world of crafts, in fact, was less than spectacular.

“I went with some friends to AC Moore in Orange during a lunch hour one day,” she said. “I walked in, walked around, walked out… and just didn’t get it. I didn’t see why anyone would spend their time and money on this stuff.”

Then Mrs MacDonald became pregnant with her first child and everything changed. She realized she had a creative side and needed to indulge it.

“I wanted to have the most amazing baby book,” she said. Suddenly the former noncrafter was not only interested in designing pages that were beyond the standard books found on shelves, she was driving 50 miles each way to get to what many crafters consider the best scrapbook supply store in the state, New England Scrapbook in Canton.

“I started having a love of everything I call memory crafting,” Mrs MacDonald, now the mother of three, said one recent afternoon while waiting for her children to return home from school.

Once the bug bit, Mrs MacDonald did not give up. Her scrapbooks are page after amazing page of personalized creations.

Altered Art

When it comes to the projects that decorate her home or are given to friends and family as gifts, Mrs MacDonald loves to take an item and give it a new life. Tins that were originally created to hold DVDs are turned into miniature scrapbooks. Rolodex cards become decorated works of functional art; Mrs MacDonald’s index cards are so much more than simple tabbed cards.

“It’s altered art,” she said. “I take one thing and give them a completely different use. Dominoes become bracelets, Band-Aid tins become card holders — perfect for small Thank You, Congratulations, Birthday, and even business cards.

“I have a hard time throwing things away,” she said with a laugh. “I don’t even use a recycle bin. I’ll take cardboard, sometimes, to the dump but only after carefully inspecting it and making sure there isn’t some kind of new life I can give it.

“I always look very carefully at everything before throwing it out.”

Scrapbooking was Mrs MacDonald’s introduction to the world of crafts. She has only one rule: have fun.

“Other than that, there are no rules,” she said recently.

She uses a three-ring binder so that as she finishes a page it can be added to the book. By doing this, she said, she does not allow herself to get stuck in the rut that so many others do when they try to keep up with their photo collections.

“As long as you have your pictures in order, somewhere,” she said, indicating a clear plastic bin in which she has organized dozens of photos by date and event, “you can find them when inspiration strikes. Don’t get stuck in things that constrain your creativity.

“I’ll never get caught up,” she admits, “but I’m having fun with the photos and scrapbook pages on my time.”

There is a personal computer in a desk in one corner and the kids — Brianna, 8, and twins Courtney and Cameron, 6 — have a worktable of their own when they want to create their own crafts, which are displayed proudly in that room and elsewhere within the MacDonald home. But it is clear that this room is Sally Lynn’s Play Space.

Once the craft bug bit, Sally Lynn got so involved in the world of crafts that she became a sales rep for Close To My Heart, a supplier. She participated in crops — group sales events — but that did not last too long.

“I had no intention of selling for the rest of my life, and when I stopped and looked around I realized that I had gotten away from why I enjoyed crafting so much. It wasn’t for the money, it was for the creativity,” she said. “I wasn’t spending time scrapbooking.”

She taught classes for about six months, which allowed her to return to her creative side without being tied to any particular product line. Soon, however, she realized that once again she was not doing what she wanted to be doing: enjoying her craft time at her pace, with no commitments to shows and sales figures.

“It was never about the sale,” she said. “It was about the creativity.”

That’s Clever! appeals to Mrs MacDonald because so many of the projects on the show are similar to what she does: people find new ways to use existing items.

“I like that most ideas are out of the box,” she said. “Most people do things you wouldn’t think of. The name of the show is perfect. Even being so immersed in the craft world, I’m impressed with so many of the ideas.”

Mrs MacDonald is similarly impressed with the number of people who have been discovered in this region alone. In addition to the day of taping done in Sandy Hook and Ridgefield in December, HGTV crews were reportedly dispatched to nearly a dozen homes in Connecticut during the past eight weeks to tape segments for the summer 2007 season of That’s Clever!

“I love the idea that there are people in Connecticut who are being taped for this show,” Mrs MacDonald said. “Who knows how, but all these people in the area were found.

“This show is really fun to begin with,” Mrs McDonald said. “It’s so real. The people aren’t actors, and it shows. But that’s what makes it more fun: it’s honest.”

During the filming with the HGTV crew, Mrs MacDonald had a lot of fun.

“It was pretty lofty to look into the camera and say ‘Welcome to my studio,’” she said with the laugh that punctuates so many of her conversations

“I’ll literally get my 15 minutes, and then I’ll continue to be inspired by all these other people who are amazing, absolutely amazing.”

The airdate for the That’s Clever! episode featuring Mrs MacDonald has not yet been determined — the new HGTV season does not even begin until June — but The Bee will let readers know when to watch for the airdate.

Meanwhile, Mrs MacDonald has a blog that she uses to share her latest finds, books she wants to read, people who inspire her, recent photos of projects, and even dishes on what she likes and dislikes — without bias — about products. Her blog can be read at inkyheart.typepad.com.