life of a designer » Her Daily Muse - The digital sketch book of designer Sierra Bailey

A fitting Seussism for this week…

Apr 022012

Exactly one year ago this week (April 4th to be exact) I came to Austin to visit my sister. About an hour after I arrived, we went to dinner with her friends. When we arrived at dinner, I met a guy and his name was Adam. Who would have known that one year later I would be sitting next to Adam in our apartment in Austin, planning our upcoming wedding?

“We are all a little weird and
Life’s a little weird,
And when we find someone
Whose weirdness is compatible with ours,
We join up with them and fall in
Mutual weirdness and call it Love.”
—
Dr. Seuss (via boa-idolanon)

My sisters are trying to kill me…

life of a designer 1 Response »

Mar 292012

Gorgeous French confections!

The best Candy Bouquet in the world!

Completely by coincidence I received not one, but TWO packages of sweet treats from sisters yesterday. Holly lugged the above bag full of mouth watering and beautiful confections all the way from Miette and Chantal Guillon in San Francisco to Austin. At the same moment she stepped off the plane, UPS arrived with the coolest Candy Bouquet I've ever seen from Gillian. She of course knows my affection for fruity, sugary candies and it was filled to the brim!

Last night I ate three macarons, half of a weird marshmallow stick, a gingersnap, some sort of raspberry sugar cube thing, three flavors of rock candy and countless gummy treats before bed...this is not going to end well.

My fist pumping excitement when the Candy Bouquet arrived...yes, I was really THAT excited!

Thank you girls, I love it all (and will reluctantly share...maybe).

The biggest lesson I have learned from life (so far)

life of a designer 4 Responses »

Mar 222012

You have a MUCH higher shot at getting what you want if you ask for it.

Adam came home late last night from a trip and asked what I wanted to do for my birthday. Lucky for him, I had already doodled on my jewelry table (I keep it covered it in large sheets of drawing paper in case the impromptu need to doodle strikes) what would make me happiest today. So far today he has gone to run errands of his own and prefaced this by telling me it was email time...I however decided it was facebook time, but it's my birthday, I can do what I want. I just received a call to put on a specific outfit...although he said shorts...SHORTS??? Does he not know me at all??? SKIRTS. Always SKIRTS...geez. And a bikini top...again, I think he's transformed me in his mind to someone else...I mean really, do we see an ocean...no...then why would I wear a bikini top around? But anyway...we are headed somewhere pretty to walk Faye. Yay!!

Expecting people to read my mind trying to figure out what would make me happy has not always panned out, but this...this is working!

Feeling the wind in my hair…

life of a designer 4 Responses »

Mar 222012

Every year I start calling myself whatever age it is I will turn in March...perhaps its to try the new age on for size before I have to commit. Or because I have always wanted to be older. To be taken seriously as a designer, in business, as an independent woman. This year has been tough to grasp...I've been having a few issues with this birthday. Every woman has her scary age...and every woman has her own personal idea of why it scares her, and well...my scary has always been the age I turn today, 35.

When I step back, I'll admit that I'm amazed at what I have done in 35 years...amazed that I have fit so much in! Shocked that I have followed my childhood dream to become a designer and proud that I am accomplishing my adult dream of being considered a good one, and even more so, glad that I have the confidence to write it all here.

Still. I find myself surprised when I hear a character in a movie commend herself for "still looking good at..." or saying "it's never too late, even at..." and then ends her sentiments with...35. Oof. It kind of irks me that men never utter such lines in these movies, but maybe I've just missed those.

Today I plan on taking a little time to stand still. Because if life continues flying by at this pace, I'll be forty in the blink of an eye!

*photo of me...as a kid in the early 80's, you know the days before we realized that seat belts might be a good idea.

Whew…I need a nap!

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Mar 212012

Wow. That basically sums up the last few weeks. Two huge events, a near foot breaking experience and so much work that I'm still tired from it. This week ended up somehow being chock full of meetings, basically meaning that I have not and will not be home during the day all week. Except tomorrow. Because its my birthday and all I want to do is catch up on email. Yes, I am that much of a nerd.

*I snapped the oh-so attractive photo above this morning at my annual exam. They ran out of all but XL gowns in the room I was in and I had to laugh that paired with my necklace, it looked like I was in a maxi dress...a very well ventilated maxi dress!

There’s always good with the bad

life of a designer, Ramblings 3 Responses »

Mar 092012

photo by Giovanna Tucker

SXSW is upon us here in Austin and so is the rain...and cold. I feel for my fellow artisans who are trying to set up outside this weekend...or next weekend for that matter. I am crossing my fingers for sunny skies as we all hustle to accommodate for such nasty weather. Of course the gross weather has made it easier for me to get to the massive amount of work I had to do this week. Luckily, I was able to get much done for next week as well.

A pretty cool discovery last night was that you can upload a poster you designed to Staples.com and they will print it out at your local store within 4 hours. You just have to pick it up..how cool is that??? An 18x24 poster is only $22! I just had a text based image printed today, but as I want 6-8 photos blown up by next thurs...hoping the quality is solid. Any suggestions for local (Austin) printers just in case?

work, sleep…repeat

life of a designer 2 Responses »

Mar 042012

Less then a week until the first SXSW show. I'm still sick, but the flu moved from my entire body to my head. Other than the migraine I've been battling all day, symptoms have been help back with otc sinus pills. Adam has been away for the last two days so my life has consisted of making jewelry (while watching season 1 of Ugly Betty) and sleeping. Good times.

In a land where time just disappears…

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Mar 022012

Just a tiny part of what had to come out of the cupboards

At the end of my last post I remarked how tired I was, how much I just wanted to lie down. Well what I didn't realize was that the fatigue creeping over me was in fact the prelude to the flu. 40 hours of high fever, chills, night sweats, body aches and general miserableness. At about 2pm this afternoon, I awoke in my hopefully last fever breaking puddle (pleasant...I know) and was feeling vastly better. So I went about cleaning up the chaos which is caused by both members of the house being ill (Adam was a day ahead of me and the poor thing had to fly today...I am so happy I am not him right now!).

Unfortunately though there was a bit more to tackle then just sheet changing, dish washing and shoving piles of yoga pants and pajamas in the hamper. During all of this flu brouhaha, we were due for the annual pest prevention spray. Which meant that I had to empty all of my cupboards in the kitchen, bathroom and bar into the rest of the apartment and cover them with sheets. When the exterminator arrived however, he took one luck at me and fled, yelling over his should that he'd be back in few weeks and not to breathe on him. Which was great because where would Faye, Adam and I gone for four house of quarantine if we both had the flu? Our friends would be crazy to let us in! Bad because all afternoon I have been enjoying the pain in the ass task of putting everything back in its place. Ugh. The only good part of it all is that as we want to move out by April 1st, we may be able to avoid it altogether.

In other news...my first SXSW show is NEXT WEEKEND. How did that happen??? I want to cry that I lost 40 hours being sick, but better that I'm sick now than next week!