Monday's a cool day! - Meet Grace Hester with gracehesterdesigns

This week's interview with Grace Hester is brought to you by pioupioukids. If you haven't stopped by her shop yet, make sure you check it out at gracehesterdesigns. There's some really cool prints and you're bound to find one that's just perfect for your kid's room. I personally love the colorful simple designs. 

- Who are you?

Grace Hester online, aka Grace Chiam-Hester in real life. (Super hero in disguise?)

 

- Where do you live?

Westerville, Ohio (closest major city would be Columbus, Ohio)

 

- What do you do?

I am a full-time working mom for a global company and I just started in an operations leadership role after 3 years of being in an internal global consulting team.

 

- How many kids? And husbands/partners?

2 young daughters: a 4-1/2-year-old, and a 16-month-old.  They have totally taken over my whole reason for being.  I am originally from Singapore and moved to Cleveland, Ohio after a long-distance relationship with my now-husband Noah.  We were wedded on 01-01-01 and have been married for over 8 years now.

 

- And so you have a shop…:

o What’s its name?

Grace Hester Designs

o What do you sell?

Right now, I am focused on selling digitally-created or mixed-media prints and artwork targeted towards younger children.  I also offer multi-language prints and am starting to brainstorm ideas for more adult-inclined prints/artwork.

 

o But how on earth do you find time!?!

For the few precious hours after the girls go to bed, I try my best to maximize those hours by being really focused on what I need to do.  My general time management approach is to work on appropriate things based on my known energy levels.  For instance, I would work on developing designs only when I know I have a 1-hour quiet block to do so because then I get to the final design much more efficiently.  But I may fulfill orders in the 20 minutes before work because it helps me get into the office mode for the day and because it does not require much focus.  My to-do lists are mobile, prioritized in relation to one another, and the actual to-do is always manageable in small blocks of time so the progress I make towards a bigger picture is usually made one mini task at a time.  I was never a slow-and-steady kind of gal but once this approach began to work for me, I was sold.   

 

- Anything else you’d like to add…

I am starting to post random blog postings on my blog about productivity and tips specific to, or beyond the scope of being an Etsy seller.  I am looking for additional ideas, tips, tools that have helped any busy mom with their respective juggling acts.  Please email me with your ideas at grace@gracehesterdesigns.com or visit gracehester.typepad.com/theproductivemom to post a comment.  

 

My top 5 movies/ movie series

Le Violon Rouge (The Red Violin)

The Underworld Series (Always had a thing for vampires)

Harry Potter Series

LOTR Series

Top 5 Recommendations for Kids Movies

“Princes and Princesses” - This movie may be the very reason I love silhouette-styled design so much, it's in French but has English subtitles.

“Backyardigans's International Super Spy” - We never get tired of this episode and I personally love the fact that Secret Agent Pablo travels all over the world 007-style.

 

“My Neighbour Totoro” - My fave Hayao Miyazaki movie is actually “Spirited Away” but some parts of it are pretty dark - more suited for an older child.  Totoro is an awesome introduction to his works.

  

“A Charlie Brown Christmas” - Classic.  My husband grew up watching this - I didn't.  And every time we play it for our girls, I feel like I missed out on an entire childhood because I did not.

“The Gentle Giant“- I do not know where one can get a copy of it anymore but we have a copy that was transferred from an old VHS to DVD.  It is such a beautiful story of how a guarded giant learns to let the children play in his garden, and as a result, opens his heart to love - another classic that my husband introduced me to.