masterpieces MAKING MEMORIES AND
Two moms craft creative environments for hands on learning
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H by AMY SULLIVAN
HE COVID-19 QUARANTINE HAS CAUSED countless creative and crafty projects for those cooped up indoors. The gift of time has led people to initiate new endeavors or complete already-begun undertakings. For many parents, keeping kids entertained after online learning was quite a challenge. Two local mothers were fortunate to have the space and supplies to engage, inspire, and entertain their little ones, making memories and masterpieces along the way.
the Hutto Haven Amanda Hutto has always been a crafty person, inheriting her artistic interests and drawing talent from her mother, who always painted when she and her sister were little. Her mom also cross stitched and sewed, additional skills she passed down to Amanda, who now enjoys doing the same with her own three girls, eight-year-old Lorelai, sevenyear-old Penelope, and five-year-old Eleanor, and hopes to eventually enjoy with her two-year-old son, Forrest. “We are always making something, always painting or making bracelets, and always wanting to learn to do something new,” Amanda declared. A warm, window-filled, luxuriously lit craft room, an addition built off the back of the house into the backyard, has become an important part of their home. Evolved from a previous playroom when the kids were little, it’s now the perfect place for Amanda and her children to get their creative juices flowing. When coming from the kitchen, you discover the big open studio space, painted in a bright light yellow, stocked 50 • PAD U CAH L I FE
with Amanda’s supplies and a full section of children’s crafting materials. Her kids’ artwork lines the walls, as do pieces from small art shops found on Instagram and original watercolors painted by Amanda. Cube-shaped shelving stretches across the bottom of the entire room, which contains felt, fabric, bins full of ribbon, beads, and buttons, topped off with an entire unit full of kids’ crafts and games. Art kits, each child’s own choice of beads and glitter, and special school baskets brimming with scissors, pencils, and crayons line the kids’ shelves. There is also a spot for library books because they all love to read. One of the walls even contains a chalkboard, with a big basket of chalk underneath one of the windows, for creating chalk art masterpieces. Amanda has worked hard to convert the craft room into a place where the kids can join her, now that they are old enough. Amanda’s husband Brandon custom-built a dual-purpose table, for both drawing and sewing, just the way Amanda wanted it, with space for chairs to be placed all around the table. This provides potential for all three girls to be at the table with her simultaneously as they get older and want to sit down and create something together. “Everyone can grow into it – it doesn’t have to grow around them anymore,” Amanda says, relieved. All of Amanda’s children like to do something different when it comes to art. She declares her oldest daughter, Lorelai, the artist; she loves to draw and sketch, and to take art classes at Paducah’s MAKE studio. “Most one-year-olds try to eat crayons, but she would hold a crayon and color correctly, at a young age. She always wanted to sit and color. Now she
