Good morning and welcome to create with Heidi. I'm Heidi Kaisand, owner of Hen and Chicks Studio in Conrad, Iowa and lover of all things creative. Each week here on Create With Heidi, we like to cover topics that educate and inspire you about how people are being creative. Whether it's quilting, scrapbooking, food wall, or just hanging out with others who seem to have their creative Mojo grooving in all the right directions, we are excited to share these things with you. I always like to start with a good quote. And I actually found a phrase, and then found a phrase that has been made creative. That was very, very fitting to Hen and Chicks studio. So the phrase that I found is "see a penny, pick it up. All day long, you'll have good luck." And let me tell you, if we had time, we would have a whole nother show about finding pennies, and whether it's good luck, bad luck, and which side is good luck and which side's bad luck and all of that. But the phrase that I found that somebody had been a little creative with was find a chicken, pick it up. And all the day you'll have good clock. And it made me laugh. It made me smile. It was appropriate. So I've actually included it in something that we're going to be talking about later in our feathered friends newsletter. We'll be talking about that in a little bit. But today, as we've been doing the last couple of months, I have another staff member from Hen and Chicks Studio. Jami Willett joining us. Good morning, Jami. Good morning, Heidi, it is so much fun to be talking about all of the creative things that we're doing at Hen and Chicks Studio. And for me, it's fun to have somebody to banter with as we talk about this. And Jami is a good sport and agrees to coming on air with me so that we can talk about all things creative at Hen and chicks studio. So good morning, and glad that you are with us this morning.
Creativity at the Studio!
Heidi Kaisand
Jami Willett
At Hen and Chicks studio, there are oh my gosh, there's so many things going on. We don't want anybody to miss out on the fun. So let's explain to our customers. How can they find us? We know what are where where can they get signed up for our newsletter? You know, where can they find us? Well, Heidi, I mean, first of all, we love to have customers come into the store, and our customers, I hesitate to even say customers because I'm sure you probably agree with me they've really become almost an extended family of our love. And we love to share in their life happenings and help them to find joy and happiness when they come into our store. So obviously, we'd love that people come to our physical location, located in Conrad on Main Street right on the corner, easy to find us, can't miss a yellow chicken the window even we've got it well marked with that big yellow chick.
Heidi Kaisand
Just look for that, and you'll find it. Yeah.
Jami Willett
But also one of the blessings that we've had in the past year with having to shut some things down is that it's offered us opportunity to open our family, or open our doors to a larger group of people. It hasn't been wonderful. It has been in it's funny. It's a place that most of us probably never thought we would be experiencing by any means. But through our Facebook community, which we do have the hen and chicks creative community, which is a Facebook, on Facebook group. We also have our hen and chicks studio just normal page, which is it's basically like our store, our storefront, the Hen and Chicks community is coming into the store and being a part a little bit more and and watching that and seeing how people interact with each other not even necessarily with us. But people just posting What do you think about this, and they'll get comments and the feedback that you can get from people that you may not even know and the camaraderie that starts to happen between people that maybe have not actually met in person but lives dates apart. Yeah, so those are that's, that's another place that we're obviously available, as well as our website, which on our website, then you wouldn't have the interaction but you can always go in there's a lot of inspiration, a lot of ideas.
Heidi Kaisand
Yes. And when you get there, yes. And so like when, for example, when you stop on our website, we do have one of those boxes that pops up so that you can sign up for our E newsletter. And that is a great way to know that you're going to get the information to us. And if once you've signed up, you can just click off, click off to the side and the box goes away. But it allows you to get signed up for our newsletter because we do sometimes share things there that we don't share other places. And of course, we tried to make it one of the first places we share things. So that if you're signed up, you're gonna get the news right when we announce some of the things that we're doing, so that's important. And when you talked about Facebook and, and Instagram a little bit, I think it is so important. In this day and age of technology and of social media are, if you like the page there's actually like that, something that says, you know, follow this page or like this page, it is important to both us and for you to actually click that button, or, you know, click that little thumbs up, because your, they call it like a news feed the discussion and the conversations from us won't pop in to your newsfeed. Unless you've liked us or are following us, you might have to otherwise search for our page, and find and find us.
Jami Willett
And even along with that, Heidi is that we often pop in on live, Facebook Live, yes, which we never, very rarely, we only have two scheduled, so called recurring events on Facebook Live. And so if you're ever on and you get notification that we are on live, you can honestly select there to be notified whenever we go live. And sometimes they'll go live give you first look at things or opportunities at things from unboxing a fabric to a sale, you know, we never know from day to day what we might be doing on a live or when we might be doing something. So that's another opportunity to be notified. Immediately. Hey, they're live, we can go watch them.
Heidi Kaisand
Yes, and we know, we know that not everybody is on Facebook. And we're gonna we're gonna take a quick commercial break, and then we're gonna be back. And I want to talk about YouTube as well. So we'll be right back after this.
Heidi Kaisand
Realigning text with audioWelcome back to create with Heidi, this is Heidi Kaisand. And I'm chatting with fellow staff member Jamie Willett. She is a willing participant in able to come and help chat about hen and chicks studio so that we can talk about all the things you know, at Hen and chicks studio as the owner, I am so lucky to have an entire staff of people. If you know, you know, they say it takes a village to like raise your kids Well, it takes a village to run a store. And let me tell you, whether you're seeing them or hearing them in our Facebook Lives or like on the radio. Let me tell you, every every every staff member at Hen and chicks studio makes it all come together. And so I'm truly blessed to have a great team. Because we all can dive in and do different things. So I just have to give a shout out there to everybody on the hen and chicks Studio Team. Because, again, I couldn't do it without all of them. So we're pretty lucky, aren't we Jamie to hang out with some some cool ladies. Yes, some awesome chicks. Yes, that's right. Well, we were talking about social media beforehand. And one thing I just want to mention too, is we know not everybody's on Facebook, we know they're not all on Instagram. So we work very hard to put our content in other places as well. So for example, YouTube, and you can subscribe to Hen and chicks studio on YouTube. So just like on Facebook, that when we post a new video, you can get a notification. And, for example, let's talk about what our take home Tuesday. And what we've been doing on every Tuesday at two o'clock. And Jamie is our host for take home Tuesday. We do a fun video. And we can talk more about that. But we do it on Facebook Live. But what we do immediately following that show, is we download that video and we upload it to YouTube so that our YouTube followers can see it. And then we can also upload it to our website. And and I think that's so important is that you that you know that you don't have to be on Facebook to see those same things that we're showing on Facebook, because most often, we are like even our hen house, happy hour or shopping night. We even put that on YouTube so that you can watch it after the fact.
Jami Willett
Realigning text with audioWell, I think that's very important too Heidi because we know we're never going to be able to pick a time that works in everyone's schedule to watch. So by the fact that we they're sitting there waiting for you to check them out on YouTube at any point in time. That's good. convenient to you. If you're a night owl, or if you're a morning owl, it's the content remains the same, the information is still there. And generally, especially when we have our shopping night, they still have an opportunity to watch and see what we feature that during that hour as well, because it's so it is like a big show and tell party, that particular event is like a big show until party.
Heidi Kaisand
Realigning text with audioBut even and even the radio show that we're doing right now, maybe you're not able to listen at 835 on Wednesday morning, or you can't, you know, you're not the Marshalltown area or you don't get it streaming live. But you want to listen to that, well, then we load all that into a podcast form. And it's all available on our website, or you can even like if you have Google podcast, I know it's on there, then you can have it on your favorite podcast.
Jami Willett
That's a good resource on any of these things that they're available for you to refer back to as well. Because how many times do we hear something? Oh, yeah, that's great. But then we need to go back to it again, to refresh our minds. Absolutely. Having the resources there.
Heidi Kaisand
Realigning text with audioYes, absolutely. Well, let's talk a little bit about the event that we've got going on tomorrow. One of the tools, one of the notions we use every day when we're quilting, is a needle, a sewing machine needle. Now there's of course, hand needles, but right at the moment, I'm talking about sewing machine needles. And if, if you do a lot of sewing, that little piece of metal is so critical, because it's what helps pull the thread through the machine and create our stitches. And it can make the world of difference in your sewing as to what needle you're using. And tomorrow, on Facebook, actually at 10am, we are doing a Facebook Live with a special guest. Her name is Rhonda Pierce, and she's from schmetz needles. And she will be joining us for this free class. And it's so exciting. Because you can you can go to our website, and you can actually sign up for the class for free, so that you are on an automatic email notification tomorrow. So if you want to do that right now, so that you you know, don't forget about it tomorrow, you can go sign up and you can get on that notification list. But aren't needles. It's one of those things that's like a it's not a flashy item. It's not an exciting item, you know, Jamie, butisn't it and even in it? It's not an expensive item? No, no. And but but it can make such a difference. And I think, you know, don't you think that sometimes we maybe go a little too long without changing our needles.
Jami Willett
I think that's a habit that, you know, we tend to think it's okay, and we're just going to keep going and going and going until the needle breaks or something, you know, that's our last place we look if something's not going right. And I think Heidi, what you and I have been learning a lot. And for our listening audience, we're always learning, we're always trying new things are exploring, obviously, and we can always learn from every situation. And every day, even our customers will teach us things. But one of the things that Connie, who came in, and she does a lot of training us that she mentioned to us, that needle is what for for cost sake, we're gonna say 49 cent item, right? To make sure that you're always getting that top quality. Why not just change it? And I think that is a new mindset that we have to wrap our minds. Wait, I can change that. Why borrow trouble when I can change something for a few cents, right, my machine that costs a lot more running smoothly.
Heidi Kaisand
And certainly we can ask Rhonda all sorts of questions, I'm sure tomorrow. But you know, some people say well, how many hours should you go with a needle? And, and you're the person you're talking about Connie Keller, who was teaching us a couple weeks ago with long arm quilting. It's like it's really not even about the number of hours. It's just a habit you should get into that every day. If you're sewing, you should change your needle, because you might not see the neck on the needle or you might not you know, see the bird that has been created that might cause your thread to break.
Jami Willett
Yeah, and I think it's going to be really exciting just to really hear what the difference is in needles and open, open people's minds to different uses and different. Well, if I'm going to use metallic thread, for instance, do I need a different needle? Yeah, some of those questions that maybe we haven't even thought of That can be answered through this. It's a free class that people can come and sign up for.
Heidi Kaisand
Yes. And I know one of the things I'm looking forward to because even though I've been quilting for a few years, I always get mixed up on Is it the bigger the number or the smaller the number that you know what I mean like is the needle get bigger with the bigger number or smaller with the bigger number, you know, which direction does that go and I know Rhonda is going to be be talking about that and clarifying any confusion we've had about the size of needles. So that that will be exciting. So once again, that will be at 10am. On that is Thursday, January 28. It is on our hidden chick studio Facebook page. And it will be a live presentation. So again, what we were talking about earlier, get signed up to make sure that when we go live, you get those notifications. And then you can also go to our website and sign up through the free class. So that you're on our list for getting reminded about that event tomorrow. So so much going on. Now we're gonna take a quick commercial break, and we will be back right after this.
Heidi Kaisand
Welcome back to create with Heidi, this is Heidi Kaisand. And I'm with Jamie Willett, another staff member at Hen and chicks studio. We're talking about all things creative at Hen and chicks studio. You know, we mentioned take home Tuesday a little bit earlier. I'd love to have you, Jamie, tell everybody what our goal is with take home Tuesday.
Jami Willett
Well take on Tuesday, it really was birthed from a compilation of things that happened over a few weeks of time. And we just thought, Hey, who doesn't like something quick, easy, fun, not complicated. And one thing I really want to encourage people during these take home Tuesday's is that you do not have to be a master quilter to participate in these or to watch them or maybe even find entertainment value and just watching or getting a new idea. So our goal with this is just something quick, simple, relatively easy, sometimes doesn't even require sewing at all. Just a fun project that you could consider doing by using your scraps or paper, you know, things that you might have at your home.
Heidi Kaisand
Realigning text with audioAbsolutely and, and so it's Facebook Live every Tuesday on our Hen and chicks studio page. But of course, then it lives long term on our website. So if you're listening to this, and obviously it's Wednesday, you're like, I've never seen any of these, go straight to our website, head and chick studio.com. scroll over to the inspiration tab. And then there's a drop down menu for take home Tuesday. And you will have entertainment until next Tuesday when we go live again with that. So that is very exciting. And then again, earlier, we were talking about that we we do a lot of impromptu Facebook Lives and videos. But the other event that we do have that scheduled is our hen house happy hour. And that is the first Monday of the month. And it is at 7pm Central Time for an hour. So the next one is Monday, February 1. And that is our you know, I'm going to call it Facebook, live shopping. And you never know what to expect. Because of course we get halfway through and I can't find something or I think of a project. So I'm saying hey, Jamie, Kelly, Goldie, Virginia, whoever's working that night. You know, go grab that because we want to show or maybe a customer sees it on the wall. And they they're you know, they're liking that quilt and they want to know more about it. So it's planned yet a little on the unplanned isn't it
Jami Willett
Jane, whatever comes to mind. And at that happy at? Well, it is a happy hour, we'll call it is often Heidi when we debut new store samples that we've just got in and sometimes we've literally just got in Yeah, no, not long before. So it's another place that you can watch and see, maybe be the first to see when we have something new come into the store.
Heidi Kaisand
That's right. That's right. And again, it's just really fun to be able to show and I know a lot of our customers, it's like personalized shopping in a way for them. Because even when they come in the store, they have a certain mindset of what they're looking for. So say they're coming in and they're like I need some red fabric. Well, they might not even notice that beautiful pastel collection that we just got in because it's not what they were looking for that day.
Jami Willett
Realigning text with audioRight? Yeah, it's a really good overview of what we do have in the store and the items that we're kind Featuring at that point in time, because there is so many items we could feature and so many ideas and opportunities. So there's no way we can even cover everything. No, no. And there's always some good laughs and we always have some fun when the phone rings and different things, because you know, you just again, it's live, and we roll with it, we absolutely roll with it. So that is always fun. Now, the other thing that we've been having fun with this month, is our new feathered friends subscription program, or almost like a little club that we've created. And I wanted to just touch briefly on that. The reason I, the reason we created this feathered friends group is that if you can believe it, in October, actually October 3 2021. So less than 10 months from now, that marks the 10th anniversary, for opening Hen and Chicks studio. And to me, that is an amazing milestone, as well as one that's almost hard to believe that it's almost been 10 years.
Heidi Kaisand
Realigning text with audioSo we created the feathered friends as a 10 month subscription program to help us celebrate what's happening at hen and chicks studio. And it's been a little chaotic this first month getting a new program out the door. But I think the end result is going to be a lot of inspiration to those people who are joining. So that's really fun. Yes, and, and 10 years It's unbelievable. It's Time flies. And when you're having fun, right that we know that there's been challenges that you've had to face and they'll continue to be by what you've done hiding with the store and, and our loyal customers and retreat center. If we want to celebrate this and we want everyone to come join us in this.
Heidi Kaisand
Yep, and month celebration leading up to the 10 year anniversary. Yes. So for just a quick rundown of what the feathered friends happens with the with the 10 month subscription. And remember, you can go to Hen and chicks studio.com slash feathered friends and read about all the benefits but you get a newsletter every month called chick chatter with an exclusive new project in it from something that I've made. And lots of inspiration, some embroidery, a little bit of paper, just some fun things to hopefully boost your creativity, not only for the day that you get to read it, but for the month, along with some products. And then each you can come in as a chick a hand or a rooster. And each group has sort of more benefits as you go up to being a rooster. And so we certainly just want everybody to come in and enjoy at the level that they feel comfortable. So you can again you can sign up still for that on our website. And, as always, Jamie this goes so fast, and we've enjoyed having a good conversation about everything at hen and chicks studio, and until next week, be creative