From her delicious edible confections to her vintage 1950s-style clothing, everything in Christine McConnell’s world is handmade.
“I just started making stuff and I found … now I like never go buy clothes. I just go buy fabric and I just make it myself,” said McConnell, who previously was a secretary.
She explains that she started posting photos of her hobbies online a few years ago.
“I didn’t go to school for any of this. I don’t have like a college degree or anything fancy,” she said. “It was all just trial and error and watching KZread videos basically. So like, if I had a question, KZread was my teacher.”
Completely self-taught, she pushed herself and the images quickly went viral.
“I have like a horrifying sweet tooth and I always have so I just started making things that were like my favorite thing to make and I realized that I have a passion for it,” she said.
Among McConnell’s creations are a fruit basket that is really dessert, a dinner that’s actually doughnuts, intricate chocolate tea sets and a Godzilla-Bridezilla cake.
She’s been called the “Tim Burton of baking.”
“I’m actually going to be doing a project for the marketing for Tim Burton’s next movie,” she said. “So that’s a really, really exciting thing. I haven’t met him but they are talking about working that out. And I mean, obviously he’s such a massive inspiration.”
McConnell’s new book, “Deceptive Desserts: A Lady’s Guide to Baking Bad,” is already a best-seller.
While some of her projects take time, they don’t require tons of money.
“You can spend a bazillion dollars or you can go to Walmart and get basic groceries,” she said. “You don’t have to have a lot of money. I didn’t have a lot of money when I was doing this entire book and everything building up to the book deal.”
But as a result of her determination, McConnell is experiencing overwhelming, sweet success.
“I was really never much of a dreamer as far as thinking incredible things were going to happen to me. I’m just like everybody else and I just got really lucky,” she said.
Origional broadcast 3/31/2016