I’ve always been interested in the creative process. I grew up with a love for both film and literature, and I always wondered how some of these great and popular works could spring so well-formed from the mind of one person. As I got older and became more interested in writing fiction, I began to realize that behind a finished novel are hours of revision, editing, and tinkering. I also found that many books or works of art I admire often ended up in very different places than the artist intended when they began them.  Maybe there are some geniuses out there whose art springs wholly formed from their minds, but, for us mere mortals, art is a process.  In...

I was scanning through our Instagram feed the other day and reflecting on how our style has changed over the almost decade that we’ve been making reclaimed wooden art. If you’ve recently stumbled onto our site or social media feeds, you might think we’ve always been about bold colors and a retro aesthetic, but those of you who have been with us for a long time (thank you, by the way!) know that our style has changed a great deal over the years.  The truth is, I always wanted to try using retro colors in our pieces, but I had to overcome some fears before we were able to successfully pull it off.  For the first 4 years of our...

“This is the year, Kris!” I’ve lost count how many times Kelley has said this at the start of a new year. It’s a running joke between us at this point. (She even said it at the beginning of 2020. Ha.) I tease her for it, but honestly, many of the milestones we’ve had with Hemlock & Heather began with that optimism and forward-thinking attitude. We balance each other out The truth is, I’ve never been the optimistic one in our relationship. As much as I hate to admit it, for many of the obstacles we’ve overcome and projects we’ve taken from concept to reality, my first thought has often been how we can’t rather than why we can.  I...

New Year, New H&H (Ha, J/K, we still have the same ol' problems) We've been a bit quiet over here lately. Frankly, we just needed a break. A break from social media. A break from reality. A break from the shop. A break from our to-do lists. And definitely a break from this weird transition from 2020 into 2021.  We took this pic the last week of December and patted ourselves on the back for being already focused on our goals for H&H when typically we wait until the first week/weekend of the new year to even talk about our goals.  Here's what happened: We crashed and burned.  Those pats on the back we gave ourselves for goal setting early? A bit...

“Stay in your lane. Comparison kills creativity and joy". - Brene Brown  For years I've been telling myself that "Comparison is the thief of joy", yet Kris has always pointed out that it's just another empty platitude if you don’t actually put it into practice. I'm still guilty of it; I still scroll through the endless feed of pictures and posts and compare myself or our business to everyone else's. You know what it does? It kills my joy. Every. Single. Time. Kris is really good about staying in his own lane and not caring what everyone else is doing, what they're creating, or how successful they seem to be on social media. He keeps his head down and stays...