Getting Creative Without Quitting Your Day Job

Kelly Wilkinson always felt like her crafty side was at odds with her job as a journalist, but now she has a book that incorporates both. Weekend Handmade provides instructions for quirky crafts that virtually anyone can do.

All these crafts have a quirky feel — think hipster Martha Stewart — and they're pretty simple, too.

Wilkinson works at KQED, the NPR affiliate in San Francisco, and tells Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon crafting was part of her childhood.

"I grew up in a really creative, crafty family," she says. In fact, they lived in a renovated barn. "Our house was really sort of like summer camp."

Wilkinson became a journalist after she grew up, but was always drawn back to the crafting world. She went back and forth between reporting positions and jobs in kitting or jewelry design studios.

"It felt like these two parts of my life were really at odds with each other," she says, "and then this book emerged. So it really feels like all of these different parts of my life are much more integrated now."