HELLOmynameisHeather

Flirty Skirt, Dirty Dirt

My friend, Jill, has two cute little girls and she always has them dolled up to the nines.  (And she's the best hair-bow-maker around -- a new bow for every outfit.)  Jill watched Charlotte a couple of times a week last year.  During that time her girls became like sisters to Charlotte -- and Jill really did a great job of keeping them all busy and entertained with swimming, carousel-ing, park-time, etc.  So, as a heart-felt thank you to Jill, I designed her girls some matching, skirty outfits.

The tee shirts -- Talk about a high impact-to-effort ratio, decorating tee-shirts can be easy-peasy.  I fused floral elements from my Rose Bouquet print from Pop Garden to each store-bought tee shirt using fusible web.  I then stitched around the edges of each fused piece (with a ball-point needle installed in my machine to prevent holes from forming in the knit material.)  There are at least three or four flowers in this print that make perfect appliques. 

The two skirts -- I had a lot of fun putting the fabric combinations together.  I wanted them to match each other, but not really match.  I didn't draft a pattern as they're just sewn from various rectangles.  I probably should have jotted down some measurements as I went.  However, my friend Jona does have pattern for a similar skirt all ready to go - The Edith Twirl.  (Check out the embroidery on those Edith under-skirts.)

The floral print in the skirt above is probably my favorite print from Pop Garden.  It's soft and romantic, yet electric and sassy.  And the ziggity Zag Stripe to the right is entirely too fun to sew with.  I still need to bind a quilt in this print and see what it does. Fussy-cut quilt blocks made with this fabric could result in some interesting effects too.  More sewing, more sewing.

I'm not sure if I scratched that dern sewing itch well enough with this one project, but I expect to do more sewing once my next fabric collection is off to the mill here soon. And OH, it's pretty.  And sweet.  Sweet and pretty.  That's all I'm going to say.  Like that housekeeper-lady says in The Parent Trap, "I'm not saying a word."

What else, what else?  OH!  I should have mentioned this first -- yikes.  Tara's baby girl, Grace, was born this week!!  And she's stinkin' beautiful.  Which is really unfair to the other bruised, swollen newborns in the nursery.  I mean, come on -- tilting, exotic eyes, high cheekbones, a perfectly-shaped head covered with beautiful, dark hair.  At three weeks early, we were only caught slightly off-guard.  Isaac's been phone-interviewing for a new Office Assitant this week and then final interviews are next week.  Tara will be back in a few months in a new position.  We'll miss her while she's away smooching on that sweet, new baby.

We're really overlapping about five or six projects at the moment.  And as I'm not so great at falling asleep when I'm excited about a project - or six projects, imagine my self-satisfaction at rolling out of bed on time this morning for my 8 o'clock tap class -- jazz hands!  : )

And then there's the yard.  Wednesday was Fill-the-Raised-Garden-with-Dirt Day.  Thursday was Move-the-Big-Rocks-Around Day.  (Isaac might as well have been at Disneyland.  He wouldn't climb down from that bulldozer for anything.)  Yesterday was Rake-the-Dirt-All-Smooth Day.  And today has been Form-the-Perfectly-Curved-Curbing Day.  Isaac's ready to move onto Install-the-Five-Valve-Sprinkler-System Day, but I'm entirely ready for a break, so we've pacted to give ourselves a week of Avoid-the-Yardwork-Alltogether Days so we can celebrate Get-Back-to-What-We-Should-Have-Been-Doing Day - which may evolve into a week-long celebration in the end.

And I'm looking to do March of the Tools again this year.  One more day till March.  There are a number of gizmos, gadgets, thing-a-majigs and who-z-whatzits I'm excited to share.  I'll have the badge back up in my sidebar later today.  I'd love for you to join me - yes, please join me.  Infact, email me to let me know you're doing March of the Tools too and I'll post a link to your blog on the March of the Tools page so we can all see who is playing along and get some leads on new, must-have tools.

New 'Do

I asked Charlotte how she wanted her hair done today.  I fully expected a ponytail request, or pigtails, or braids.  Instead, Miss Salty replied, "Make a hair do that nobody has ever seen before."  Well, en garde!  Challenge accepted.

And don't get too boggled studying the photo.  I've put together a Hair-Do How-To pdf to untwist the mystery.  Click on the image below to download the pdf instruction sheet. 

This hairdo reminds me of a celtic knot -- and is a real cart-stopper I should warn you.  Three different people stopped us on our milk-run to the grocery store to ask how Charlotte's hair was put together.  I figured a pdf would make the explaining much easier.

If downloadable hairdos work for you, let me know and we'll put together some more Trash Ties tutorials.  In fact, send us photos of your own Trash Ties hairdo creations and perhaps we'll design a pdf to show off your twisted ingenuity.

(Learn more about patented Trash Ties at www.TrashTies.com or visit www.HeatherBaileyStore.com to pick up a set or three.)

Smoochy Pops

Valentine's Day is even better when it falls on the weekend.  No school-night-date-night conflict and there's time to have fun with the kids as well. 

I've been working on some interesting design projects this week.  It drives me crazy that I can't show sneak-peeks.  Some of my contracts actually prohibit me from letting the cat out of the bag - or the hen out of the haystack, to start a new cliche.  While I'm plugging away on product-design, I'm working on package design as well -- and I love it -- I love designing boxes.  My inner engineer gets the baton.

Perhaps next year, I can make some funky, 3-D valentines for folks to download and get those folds, flaps, tabs and tucks out of my system.  I wish I had thought of it last week, but was mightily engaged in the storm of drawings and prototypes strewn across the studio.

I'll make a note.  Till then, here's wishing you a Happy Valentine's Day weekend! Go smooch someone cute, or someone sweet, or someone cute and sweet. Or eat something cute and sweet if you have no one to smooch.

You Never Know

Score.  One groovy, vintage needlepoint on it's way.  If this is indeed as fun as it seems, then it will be cleaned, matted and framed for my grass-green loft.  If not, well then, I still had fun buying it.  Thanks, eBay. 

Wormhole

I sorted through old pictures today from before we had digital cameras, from before we had Charlotte.  For hours, on my entryway floor, I flipped through picture after picture of Elijah as a small child, then left to pick him up from school.  When he opened the car door to sit next to me, I swear my peripheral vision blurred into quick streaks of bright colors and I fell forward into one of Wheeler's 'wormholes.'  When did my son become a young man, all angular and grouchy?  When did my hair grow long?  And have a full ten years really gone by since I invented Trash Ties?  

There's a great article in this month's Go Gilbert! magazine outlining my personal history with my children's hat company, Noggins, the invention of my Trash Ties hair accessories, and later finding my passion for art and surface design.  If you're in the Gilbert, AZ area, pick up a free copy at a nearby salon, office, or restaurant, or click here to browse through the issue online. 

Interviewing for this article really took me back to the sweetness and the struggle of my life ten years ago.  To the tiny city apartment we shared in Hollywood where Elijah and I spent all of our time together and often did not get outside for days on end. 

After living in that apartment for a few months, I began to feel unexplicably uneasy about it and to feel strongly that we needed to move.  I loved living in Hollywood, but there was something wrong that I couldn't pinpoint.  Drumming up money for a new apartment fell to me and I had meager resources.  Isaac worked till late into the night and took with him our only car.  I had toddler Elijah with me at all times and the internet was pretty useless back then. 

As time went on, the prompting to get out of that apartment grew steadily stronger.  It was a problem I tried to fix alone, but could not.  It was a difficult, dark time.  One night, after sitting about in a stupor for weeks, I knelt in desperate prayer for help and within half an hour of that prayer, was handed Trash Ties.  It wasn't a literal handing-over, but spiritually, that's what it felt like.  Like a gift tied in silk ribbon, with a note saying, "You are loved.  Everything will be okay."  At 23, that was my first hugely spiritual experience.

With a little experimentation, Trash Ties were invented in the late evening of January 25th, ten years ago last week.  In the months following, I worked around the clock, squeezing every ounce of hope and will power into patenting Trash Ties and preparing it for market.  It was a raw, tender time, but man am I grateful for the adventures we had back then and for all that we learned!

In digging through old photos today and in reading over this new Go Gilbert! article, I realized that I have yet to tell that early story.  The struggles I went through and the help I received along the way are an integral part of my personal journey and I need to keep that history. 

Yes, Trash Ties enabled us to move from our Hollywood apartment.  It wasn't till a year after we left that I learned why I had felt so strongly about moving.  It's a crazy story, involving one horrifically sick little boy.  I'd like to continue telling that story here and there in future posts if you can go easy on me for getting emotional at times.  The reflection does me well.  Some old memories seem like forever ago and some seem like yesterday.  I have learned a lot and I have a lot to be grateful for.