HELLO my name is Heather

  • Revive

    ByHeather Bailey

    This weekend I had the pleasure of speaking at the Revive blog conference in Phoenix, Arizona. It was put on by two cool ladies, Coley and Lindsey,
    who run an outdoor antique market twice a year called Junk in the Trunk Vintage Market. The next one is April 27th at Westworld—and I will SO be there.

    They wanted to reembrace their blog and improve
    their approach, so instead of waiting to attend a remote conference or researching
    the subject online, they decided to assemble an event to educate others while getting an education
    themselves.

    ReviveBlogConferenceArizona_Hellmynameisheather_A

    I was asked to
    give a keynote address, but because I am in the throes of designing
    another fabric collection—yes!—that is due this week—we decided
    on a Q &A
    instead. That way, the audience could glean what they most wanted from
    my being there. The other speakers joined in as well— it was great.

    It's always nice to step out of the studio for a break when I'm in the thick of a big project. Time
    away helps me gain perspective on where I'm at. And more
    than that, this time, I got to meet and help some wonderful and creative women in my own area.

    So, as I was posting images from the conference on Instagram during
    the event, a couple of women commented on Instagram that they felt like
    the only bloggers in their states. (It was Maine and South Carolina, I
    think.) They wished there were meet-ups in their areas as well.

    If you feel this way too, can I just take a moment to empower you to make it happen!?
    You can rent a small space or see if the city has a meeting room you
    can use, ask a couple of bigger bloggers to do a shout-out for you, see
    who might be willing to come speak. Bring in some food. Or keep things
    super simple with a round-table discussion amongst the attendees. The
    fact is, if you're feeling alone in your area, the chances are that
    others around are feeling the same way. You can be the solution.

    And you don't have to make things all fancy and froo-froo. Just get
    started and see what becomes. You will likely return home with a few new
    friends, some great ideas, and a good helping of fresh energy.

    Photos above are from my Instagram feed: www.Instagram.com/heatherbailey or @heatherbailey if you're in the app. Sign up for Instagram, it's awesome.

  • Lucky Ducky

    ByHeather Bailey

    A quick reminder: the Project Life Olive Edition SALE ends tonight at midnight EST over at Amazon.com.

    I also want to introduce you to the digital version of the Olive Edition, which is on sale today at ACDigitals.com
    as well. The entire digital kit is available for only $10.15, or you
    can purchase portions of the collection for $3.19 each. Have a look.
    There are a ton of designs included in the kit. A serious deal.

    Heather Johnson recently posted these layouts she created with the Olive
    Edition digital kit. Aren't they gorgeous!? I love how she layered the
    gray chevron print with the turquoise floral background and balanced
    the bold titles across the spread. Great job, Heather—I love what you
    put together. Super fun.

    HeatherJohnsonPage1

    Heather is a photographer and a blogger from St. Paul, Minnesota. She is also on Becky Higgin's Creative Team
    this year, which means she is a talented idea machine, churning out
    Project Life inspiration left and right. I'm excited to see what she
    does next with my designs. This is truly the most fun aspect of my
    business—seeing what people make of my finished work. I love it.

    HeatherJohnsonPage2

    Without further ado, I have a winner to announce for Friday's Project Life GIVEAWAY post. Whitney Winter, you can thank Random.org for calling your number on this one. An Olive Edition core kit and binder, along with a big pack of photo pocket pages is all yours. Email me
    your shipping info and we'll have Amazon send out your prize. Thank you
    to everyone who entered the contest. Like I said before, we're having
    lots of giveaways this year, so hang in there and keep those fingers
    crossed.

  • Meet Ashley

    ByHeather Bailey

    Meet my new intern, Ashley. If you follow my daily feed
    on Instagram, you'll remember my quick post about her a couple of weeks
    back. She has been working with me for a few weeks now and I just
    wanted to take a moment to introduce her.

    Ashley is a fashion design student at the local college, with a focus on
    textile design. I wasn't sure we had room for an intern on our team,
    but Ashley was enthusiastic, self-confident and pleasantly tenacious—all
    great qualities.

    In short, she impressed me into a yes.

    They say, fortune favors the bold. This is absolutely true. Add talent
    and style to the mix, and you have great odds for success.

    AshleyT

    So, I have a fun story about Ashley. The day we first met up, after I
    returned to my desk from our lunch together, I came across a press release for a design competition from Aquafina
    in my inbox. Often enough, such emails get dismissed or filed away.
    However, this time, without reading over the details too closely, I
    forwarded the email to Ashley and then forgot all about it.

    A couple of weeks later, Ashley came into work and said, "Remember
    that contest you sent me? Well, I'm a finalist!" (Of course, I only
    vaguely remembered forwarding some-kinda-something to her, so I can't
    claim a lick of credit for this.) It turned out the contest was for a
    fashion sketch and the four finalists would be treated to a fully-paid trip to New York City and tickets to the Project Runway
    finale. Ashley's submission not only won her a top spot amongst the
    entries, but her tenacity in securing Facebook votes paid off big-time.
    She and her husband spread the word every which way and asked for
    help—they even passed out flyers at the mall. Impressive, huh? Way to
    make things happen.

    So, less than a month after our first meet-up, that is, less than a
    month after I forwarded an unassuming little email her way, Ashley and
    her husband flew to New York just last week and had a seriously good
    time of it. The trip included several days to do their own thing in the
    city. Unfortunately, due to inclement weather, they had to fly back west
    before the Project Runway finale show was taped—or risk being stuck in
    town for several days longer. But, to make up for it, Aquafina is going
    to fly her out for the next finale show. We'll have to pick her brain
    then, right? 🙂

    Pretty cool, huh? And all because she went for it—and is talented
    too—that always helps—the same reasons why she'll be working here with
    me while she finishes up her degree.

    So, say hello to Ashley. And if you cross paths with her while
    following up on an order or calling in for whatever reason, give her a
    big, warm welcome.

  • Project Life Giveaway

    ByHeather Bailey

    ProjectLifeGiveawayD

    GIVEAWAY TODAY—with a seriously awesome prize of one binder, one core kit and one big pack of photo pocket pages from my Olive Edition of Project Life. *Leave a comment below to enter*.

    While you're at it, have a look at the Paper Hearts Tutorial I posted yesterday, featuring the Olive Edition 12 x 12 papers. All of these items are available for purchase on Amazon.com—and psst—the Heather Bailey items are on special sale for 20% off through Monday at midnight EST.

    *Amazon is shipping the prize; they require the winner to have a U.S. address. Prize winner will be selected on Monday morning.*

    Good luck!
    xo—Heather

    UPDATE: The giveaway contest is now closed. Congratulations to our winner, announced in this post.

  • Paper Hearts

    ByHeather Bailey

    OrigamiHeartValentine_HeatherBailey_1b

    Oh, love… love, love. It bends our paper hearts backward and
    forward—folding our lives into something more beautiful—or making an
    unintelligible mess of us.

    OrigamiHeartValentine_HeatherBailey_7bW2How's that for romantic cheesiness this Valentine's Day!? Have at it, Hallmark.

    Yesterday, I took a break from working on artwork for my next fabric
    collection to fold a few paper hearts for my children. My new 12×12 paper packs from Project Life have been calling my name since they arrived at the studio last month.

    I'm delighted with how these valentines turned out. I wasn't sure
    that cardstock would fold so well. But hey, here they are. See for
    yourselves—pretty great.

    There are number of techniques for folding a variety of origami
    hearts. This design is one of my favorites. I like the burst of
    contrasting color at the center. And they are super fast and super fun
    to make. 

    OrigamiHeartValentine_HeatherBailey_9 copy

    I suggest you take a quick break from whatever it is you're doing right
    now and make one—a little play for a better day. You can use any ol'
    paper, though double-sided paper is best. And, because you start with a
    rectangle that is twice as long as it is wide, you can even use a dollar bill from your wallet.

    OrigamiHeartValentines_HeatherBailey

    To make things easy, I created a PDF instruction sheet. See sidebar under "Free Patterns" or click here. The image below gives you the general idea.

    For my hearts, I used one half-sheet of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper each and wool-blend felt in Bubblegum from my designer felt collection at HeatherBaileyStore.com. Though we have some papers in stock at HeatherBaileyStore.com, these particular papers are only available at Amazon.com. Click here or search "Project Life Olive Edition" on Amazon. They come in a pack of 24
    for only $7.99. However, for Valentine's Day weekend, the paper packs
    are on SALE for an additional 20% off (that's $6.39 each), along with
    the rest of the Project Life Olive Edition I designed—wahoo!

    HeatherBailey_OrigamiHeartPaperValentine

    By the way, there are Heather Bailey for Project Life GIVEAWAYS GALORE being hosted this weekend around the web. My Olive Edition is making some special rounds for the holiday. Becky Higgins is giving away a core kit, binder and pocket pages on her blog, as are Ali Edwards, Lisa Bearnson and Margie Romney Aslett (tomorrow). I'm not even sure if that's the whole list.

    I will have a GIVEAWAY here too tomorrow, so be sure to check back in. And, like I said above, the whole Olive collection is seriously on SALE for the weekend. Go crazy. Go get some.

    And fold up some paper hearts for your smoochies today. You don't
    even have to run to the store to have heart-felt valentines ready to go.

  • Knit Bits

    ByHeather Bailey

    Knitting1
    I
    taught myself to knit 20 years ago. My freshman year in college, my mom
    gave me some supplies for Christmas, but she never got around to
    showing me the basics over Christmas break. She offered to teach me once
    I returned home again for the summer—but I was too impatient. I would
    have to teach myself. My first project was a fisherman's knit
    sweater—because that's my kind of crazy—always start with the hardest
    project.

    Knitting2wIsaac
    and I dated long distance for my first couple of years of college, so
    we spent a lot of time on the phone—often for hours at a time. I got a
    lot of knitting done during those long calls.

    Come to think of it, I made two fisherman knit sweaters that
    semester—it was A LOT of time spent on the phone—Isaac was quite the
    talker back then. I was happy to listen and knit, occasionally chiming
    in with an "uh-uh…yep…sure…of course…then what?…" A $40 Radio
    Shack headset phone saved my aching neck. I loved that phone.

    That was back when I still planned to become a surgeon. Knitting and
    doll-making were my stress-relief from a demanding school schedule.

    By the time I switched my major to Apparel Design, knitting was my
    side-kick. I brought my knitting to class, to the cafeteria, to
    church—everywhere I went.

    Later, when I designed a full-on clothing collection for competition
    in the university's annual fashion show, my collection was the only one
    to include a variety of knitted garments. In fact, I suspect that my
    men's intarsia sweaters were pivotal to my First Place win in my first
    fashion show. It was early in my second year of the program, and I was
    competiting against designers with twice as much schooling and
    experience.

    Knitting3

    Living in sunny Arizona, I don't knit quite as frequently as I did
    when we lived where it snows. But, it is still one of my
    all-time-favorite pastimes. When I get the itch to knit, it doesn't
    matter if I have a project figured out—or even the right needles (as
    evidenced by my rubber-band-modified double-pointed needles above)—I set
    to it.

    RuffleScarf1wThis
    time, I tried my hand at the trendy, new ruffle yarns and made a scarf
    for my sister-in-law, Laura. She's in DC, where it's a bit colder. And
    she's my style-sister. If I can't wear it—because it's just not cold
    enough here—then I can enjoy the finished knitting through her.

    I did finally grab some shorty little light-weight bamboo needles to finish the job—so I could knit on a plane without bothering my neighbors—and avoid getting patted down by airport security.

    I dont' know how many of you knit, but have you ever tried working with ruffle yarn?

    My take: It was fun to knit with, but a little slow. You knit each
    chain/eyelet that runs along one edge of the yarn (see top photo), and
    it's a bit of work to keep the yarn untwisted. Then there is the matter
    of burying the yarn ends. There was no straight-forward solution for
    this, so I put it off of course. I finally resolved to crochet the ends
    into the work so they would be undetectable—which worked perfectly.

    I finished up last night, in time to ship this one off for
    Valentine's Day. Sorry for the spoiler, Laura. I'm sending chocolate
    too.

    If you're a
    knitter, here are the details: I cast 15 stitches onto size US 4
    (3.5mm) needles. Knitting every row, I used 2 full balls of Flaunt™ yarn
    by Loops & Threads™ (Michael's) for a mid-length scarf. This yarn
    comes in several variegated options, as well as in solids.

    Next up, I'm making a twinner scarf for me—in teal.

  • Win to Plan, Plan to Win

    ByHeather Bailey

    Ooo! I just received samples from my Project Life Olive Edition collection—like, five minutes ago: 12×12 papers, albums, month dividers and card kits. The fact that it was time to announce some giveaway winners gave me the perfect excuse to dig into the big box of journaling cards.

    WinnersT

    So, I ask you, if "Happiness is winning!", then is losing sheer misery?
    Or can we take happiness into our own hands and go get ourselves a
    gosh-darn happy planner at Target and make everything okay again? Become
    a winner.

    CanvasPlannersWI'm
    planning to do lots of giveaways this year—serious fun. But, announcing
    winners always seems like a bit of a bummer for the non-selected—as
    evidenced by the 'Giveaway Echo' that generally follows. I certainly
    don't want to sadden the masses—even if this "Happiness is" card does
    rub it in just a little bit 🙂

    So, shatter the Giveaway Echo and leave a congrats for Tiffany Harvey, Claudia Miller, and Kristy from Hopeful Threads. Random.org was their friend today. Each will receive a canvas planner from my collection at Target stores now.

    (Ladies, please email me your shipping addresses & we'll send
    your planners out this week. If you prefer a particular cover design,
    let me know—I'll try to accommodate your request.)

    And congratulations to our three Instagram winners—posted earlier today on Instagram: @loveelainellc, @daniellewilkes, and @danielle_layla. It appears Danielle is the name to have.

    P.S. There are still a few FREE pocket planners for the taking. Just
    ask for one at order checkout and it's yours—while supplies last.     Details here.

  • Heather Bailey Planners at Target Stores Now

    ByHeather Bailey

    So, guess what! I have a new collection of planners and calendars at
    Target stores nationwide. True story. And they're gorgeous.

    I worked with Mead—the
    company we all know for their awesome back-to-school supplies,
    notebooks, office organization, etc. What a great company to work with.
    It's business love.

    Mead_HeatherBailey_PlannersT

    If you’re getting organized for the new year, like I am, go get one
    of my new planners. There are a number of different styles and sizes,
    including prints and solids:  pocket planners, purse-sized Hbtargetplanners,
    desk planners, wall calendars. Several of the designs have a full-month
    view, followed by a week-by-week view—which is the bomb, as far as
    planners go.

    (There is one design which makes a fantastic daily journal. I'll take more photos and show you what I mean.)

    It’s months of work to put together a new collection like this. And then, BOOM!,
    one day the news explodes in a post. Like fireworks.
    Come to think of it, I started on this line before I was pregnant with
    our baby and the collection hit stores more than a year after he was
    born. In effect, birthing a new planner collection takes just about as
    long as it does to gestate a baby elephant.

    EmbossedDaisy_HeatherBailey_5up

    So, next time you’re at Target, go have a look. And while you’re in the
    planner section, straighten up the area for me, will you? And tell
    someone else in the aisle—“See this gal here, Heather Bailey, I know
    her.” Then, go suggest to your friends that they need spiffy new
    planners too.

    Thanks, friends. I’m getting fantastically caught-up on design work
    which means there will be news erupting left and right around here.

    To celebrate, let's do another giveaway. I have THREE undated
    calendars for three lucky fans. Undated means they can be used for a
    different year than 2013. It doesn't mean they're "Undateable." And you can use refills to keep these planners going after the current year is over. Leave a comment to enter the giveaway.

    I also have TWO more planners to give away for you Instagrammers. Post about the Target collection or upload this image—AND include the hashtag #heatherbaileyplanner to enter. In fact, you can use any of these photos if you like. See my Instagram page for a glimpse at the planners our Instagram winners will get to choose from (user name: @heatherbailey).



    CanvasPlanners_HeatherBailey

    I also have SEVEN of these adorable pocket planners below to hand out. These go to the first seven guests to place an order at www.HeatherBaileyStore.com and SIMPLY ASK for one in their Order Comments at checkout.

    PocketCalendars_HeatherBaileyB

    Giveaway winners will be determined sometime on Monday, January 28th. Good luck!

  • Sixteen?

    ByHeather Bailey

    I was that girl who carried a doll baby with her everywhere she went.
    And not by the hair or the hem of her skirt, but gently, sweetly wrapped
    in a blanket, safe and warm.

    1997_BaileyFamily

    One of the earliest photos of me, as a
    toddler, shows me clutching my Raggedy Ann doll. My eyes are teared up
    and I'm miserable because my mom tried to take Raggedy away for the
    photo. She finally relented and gave her back. The teary-eyed portrait
    is the best image they got that day, capturing much more than my child's
    face, but a glimpse of my spirit as well.

    These are the same heart-strings that are being plucked today. My
    first real baby, my son Elijah turned 16 yesterday. He's 6'3" and
    growing. Tall and slender, with a deep voice and sprouting stubble, he
    is hardly recognizeable in form from the soft, cheeky baby you see here.
    But, like me, he is the same person underneath. Just like he was as a baby, he is kind-hearted, cuddly,
    intelligent beyond belief, and so, so good to his mom.

    1997_Elijah

    In those early years, Elijah was my daily companion and at times my
    only friend. The silver lining to a very hard period of my life is the
    closeness we developed as mother and son. I have such a mushy, saggy
    soft spot for him in the middle of my chest. It gets deeper and
    squooshier as the years pass. And it hurts sometimes. How is it that my
    little angel-faced baby is now housed in the framework of a man? It's a
    puzzle that has confounded mothers for centuries. I'm not the first.

    Elijah_16_SilhThe
    hope is that I'll know Elijah much longer as a man than I knew him as a
    boy. With this math on my side, perhaps the puzzle will resolve itself.
    Or maybe this is why we have memory loss in our old age—to ease the
    pains of distant memories.

    Today, my heart hurts. I know things are no different from yesterday.
    And I have nothing but gratitude for this forward-rolling life we've
    been given. I hang my heart on Elijah's daily hugs, his love for family
    activities, his lack of embarrassment over his old mom, and his wish to
    live near us as an adult. Unlike so many teenagers, he's in no hurry to
    leave us behind. This gives me clearance to teach him to fly, as I know
    he'll return safely and willingly—if more infrequently as the years
    pass. My eyes might be a bit redder for the experience, but success as a
    mom is a happy, healthy, functional child—who also still likes you
    somehow in the end.

    He is a good, good kid. I am grateful to be his mom.

  • Live from Marie, It’s Freshcut TV

    ByHeather Bailey

    We have a winner. By random drawing, one shiny copy of Creative Spaces Volume #2 is on its way to Renee G. Giveaways are the best, huh? Let's do a lot of them this year.

    Marie-osmond-heather-bailey-s

    And, here is fun news. Apparently, my Freshcut flannel fabrics were featured on Marie Osmond's television show this week on The Hallmark Channel. Ellen March, host of Sew It All on PBS, joined Marie to make pajama pants. For more info on the episode and the free pj pants pattern they used, click here.