Did You
Know? 10
Facts About Heather Bailey!
1) I did not graduate from high school. On
a whim, at the beginning of my junior year, I applied to my parent’s alma-mater
university. And to my surprise, I was not only admitted, but offered a
Leadership Scholarship. After my freshman year of college, living out of state
and entirely on my own, it was surreal to attend my would-be high school
graduation as a spectator. And yes, I did graduate from college.
2) My sister says that physical humor is
my hidden talent. When I play Charades or parody a groovy Golden Platters dance
from The Brady Bunch TV show, I am 100% committed. Her personal favorite is my “Foxy Lady” dance to the Jimmy
Hendrix song by the same name.
3) If God had blessed me with a talent for
singing, I would write folk songs and play a mean acoustic guitar. I might even
dye my hair a funky color and wear drippy macrame fringe. There is still hope
for the guitar portion of this fantasy. However, I must admit that I have
started classes to this end on three occasions and I still only know two
chords.
4) My childhood family nickname was “Finder Girl.” With a photographic
memory, I had an uncanny ability to find lost articles by “flipping through the
pictures in my mind.” My memory is not quite as sharply photographic as an adult, but
I am still very good at finding things.
5) I am a patented inventor. I created a
new hair-styling tool which can replace bobby pins, hair elastics and
headbands. I cheekily named them Trash Ties, after the twisty-ties we use to
seal plastic bags. I offer them today in tons of colors, each with a
fully-photographed, 16-page style guide at HeatherBaileyStore.com.
6) When I was eleven years old, I took the
universal girlhood horse-loving phenomenon to new heights by becoming a trail
guide for a nearby stable. After cleaning stalls, applying ointments to old
horse knees, reconditioning tack and shoveling straw, an older friend and I
would saddle up a number of the horses and lead customers on trail rides
through the golden hills of San Francisco’s East Bay. It was dreamy.
7) I boast an odd assortment of
meaningless, but funny, celebrity encounters. Claire Danes stepped on my foot
repeatedly when filming the opening sequence for the movie, The Mod Squad.
Cameron Diaz grabbed me on the shoulders and shook me as she brightly
exclaimed, “I’m in the wrong trailer!” She was dressed as a mustached man at the
time—so this definitely
qualifies as weird. (She was in disguise for the movie, Charlie’s Angels.) Drew Barrymore doted
over my oldest son while he smiled up at her from his stroller. James Franco
asked me to make him some sterling silver hair combs for his girlfriend. David
Arquette saw me making said hair combs and started up a crafting conversation
with me. To top off my brief Hollywood experience, I once wandered my way
through an unmanned security station at the Oscars and found myself on the red
carpet. THE red carpet. I was in a tee shirt, jeans and sneakers and was
carrying a large stack of books from the patent library. Very elegant.
8) I believe that running is one of the
most convenient forms of exercise. However, I have had a difficult history with
running. In high school, I joined the cross-country running team, but never was
able to fully run a 3-mile race. My lungs would burn and I would become faint
and dizzy. In college, my apartment was right next to the university’s track field, so I
gave running another try and failed. I tried to master running at least two
more times as an adult and failed again. It wasn’t till after my youngest son was born, when I
was thirty-six years old, that I finally figured it out. I had told myself to
give it one more try, but with an all-new approach: find some help and take it
s…l…o…w…l…y.
This time
around there was new technology available that didn’t exist during my
previous attempts. I used an app on my phone called Couch to 5K which
instructed me when to run and when to walk. For the first few weeks, I didn’t feel like I was even
exercising. However, within a few months, I was running as far as six miles in
one go. I am still stupefied by this. It turned out I was pushing myself too
hard when I was younger and not easing my way into it. Go figure.
9) I love to knit. I asked for basic
supplies for Christmas my freshman year in college. During the break, my mom
showed me how to cast on and introduced me to the two basic stitches, then
promised to help me more once I returned home in the summer. I couldn’t wait. By the time I
was home again a couple months later, I had completed two fisherman’s-knit sweaters—the ones with the
intricate cables and whatnot. (This was before knitting had its comeback.)
Later, when I entered an apparel collection into the school’s fashion show
competition as a Junior, competing against the graduating Seniors, I won the
coveted, top award of Best Overall Line. The Seniors were not so thrilled. I
believe it was the one-of-a-kind hand-knit sweaters that won me the show,
including a few sweaters for which I had hand-spun the yarns on my own spinning
wheel. Yes, I was a college co-ed who kept a spinning wheel at the foot of her
bed and knit during class.
10) If you haven’t picked it up from the
other facts above, I definitely have an inner hippy, though I don’t think this comes
across upon first impression. I like to bake bread from freshly-ground wheat
and make homemade greek yogurt. I spin yarn, embroider and keep a garden when
my design schedule permits. In my dream life, like Marie Antoinette once did, I
would build a quaint village next to my home to play out my pastoral fantasies.
I would dip candles, sheer sheep, raise chickens, and supervise pony rides for
children. I would have an orchard and a robust garden. Heck, while we’re at it, let’s turn those village
buildings into guest houses and host sewing and self-improvement retreats.
Imagine us all sitting around the campfire with old quilts wrapped around us,
singing folk songs, sharing stories and playing charades. Yeah, it’s a good dream.
Share with us what you have in common with Heather and be entered in to win 10
yards of her new fabric collection!!
Congratulations to our winner Abbey... she also enjoys running!
#DesignerSpotlight #iamafreespirit
