An Interview With

Rachel Paxton

Webmaster of Creative Home Decorating

Join me as I interview Rachel and see how she leads a very busy lifestyle and still manages to keep up her online business.

Hello Rachel. Thanks for joining us today and taking the time from your schedule to give us a "behind the scenes" look at your beginnings and growth in building a web business. Please share with us some background about your life in general.

I have been married for almost fourteen years and am the mother of a 21-yr-old daughter, a 20-yr-old step-daughter, 4-year-old twin boys, and a 2-month-old son.

I worked outside the home as a technical editor for 10 years, but have been working at home full time since my twins were born. I plan on homeschooling my three youngest children,and we are currently doing preschool at home.

WOW! I'm tired already and we haven't even begun to discuss your online business.

I have been a fan of your website for many years. You were a Web Infopreneur long before the "Work at Home on the Internet" craze became the popular mantra. What led you to start up this site?

I started Creative Homemaking.com in 1996. It was an extension of a print newsletter I had started to help families learn to save money by living more frugally.

I published the print newsletter for several years before working on my web site full time. In the next couple of years I also started Crafty-Moms.com and Christian-Parent.com.

In the past 13 years I have written hundreds of articles that have been published on my web sites, as well as both online and offline in a wide variety of publications.

In your home decorating section, I notice you cover just about every type of style. Does your home have a particular architectural style? If it does, do you find the style of the house has influenced your home decorating style?

I live in a stucco home, and I chose a Tuscan influence for mydecorating style. There are a lot of vineyards in the area where I live, so it is easy to find Tuscan decorating elements to accessorize my home. However, the home decorating articles I have written aren't just about Tuscan influence, I write about whatever interests me for that moment.

One of my most popular decorating articles is an article I wrote about decorating a Beatrix Potter style nursery.

You recently added a new cooking newsletter with the Prepared Pantry. I tried the Cheese Popovers and they were a big hit. As a mother of a very large family it must be hard to please everyone. Do you enjoy cooking at home for your family?

I do enjoy cooking. With a big family, it is a challenge to find things to prepare that everyone likes, so I am always looking for new recipes to try.

I don't consider myself an expert cook, but I have been cooking since I was a child, and I really enjoy cooking and baking with my children. My boys love to help me in the kitchen.

You have a great section on Frugal Living. With all that's going on with the Economy today, do you find that your visitors are reading more on how to live within a budget and become debt free?

Even though more people are looking to live within their means in today's economy, families living on one income have been looking for ways to live more frugally for many years. I have always written articles with these families in mind.

With all that you have to do, your site, forums, newsletters, etc., this must keep you busy. Do you have any advice for harassed moms on how to organize their time in order to keep on track and get everything accomplished on time?

You definitely have to prioritize your time. Family and your home have to always come first, or you are losing sight of why you are staying home in the first place. This is, of course, is easier said than done.

I try to only work at night when my children are asleep,and make sure to work in quality time for them every day, so they get the focused attention they deserve.

Well, Rachel, you certainly are the epitome of the "stay-at-home", "work-at-home" mom. I really don't know how you even had time to do this interview, but I'm glad you did. From the letters I receive, my readers are really interested in learning more about the people making all this wonderful information on the internet available to them.

Thank you, Gloria. It's been a pleasure.

If you love to bake but don't have time to cook from scratch visit Prepared Pantry for some truly outstanding and out of the ordinary prepared mixes.