It is no secret! I love, love, LOVE the cute green hat in my profile picture! If it’s cold outside you can usually find me wearing one of three, soon to be four hats, from the Hill N Trees Gallery at Etsy.com I found Shawn and Heidi Hill’s shop one evening, about a year ago, while browsing Etsy. I fell in love with the color combos and designs that they had to offer. I immediately purchased the adorable green hat and have since ordered two hats and two head bands from them. These accessories are fun to wear, comfy, cozy, and QUALITY!!! I receive many compliments on these hats and headbands when I am wearing them in town! I have not only appreciated the quality products from Hill N Trees, I have also loved the personal touch, service and class that Shawn and Heidi have offered. With all this being said I decided I could no longer keep them a secret! It’s time you met the incredible people behind Hill N Trees!!! To celebrate their first blog interview they have decided to give one of YOU a fabulous headband for winter! These lil’ beauties keep you stylish while keeping your ears cozy warm on those chilly winter outings! Details for the giveaway are at the end of this post. Enjoy!!!
We are giving away THIS headband!!! See below to enter!
Welcome Shawn and Heidi from Hill N Trees!
Mae: Please share with my readers what it is you do and make…
We are a husband and wife team of artists who enjoy doing crafts together and want to share them with others. The different items we make are as unique as ourselves.
We provide customers with handmade crocheted headbands, head wraps, scarves, cowls, gloves, and hats throughout the fall and winter seasons and during the warmer times of the year with lightweight headbands and colorful purses and diaper bags that make the perfect accessory. Our handmade goodies can be purchased in our own personal color combos or if desired they can be custom made to suit your taste and match any outfit. All of our crocheted items can be made in child and adult sizes in acrylic or wool blends. We sell online through ETSY in small orders or in larger orders to be sold in small shops and boutiques. We use only the highest quality of materials in the making of our items. All of our handmade treats make the perfect gifts for yourself or for others. We hope our customers enjoy our artwork as much as we enjoy making it for them. We truly love and take great pride in each and every piece we make!
Mae: Hill N Trees is a very unique name, how did you come up with it?
Heidi: It is actually a combination of my husbands last name, Hill (my last name now), and my maiden name; Shawn Hill and Heidi Trees. We started our business before we were married and we wanted to name it something that we each had a part in.
Mae: What inspired you to start Hill N Trees?
Heidi: My husband asked me to crochet him a hat a few years ago. Upon wearing it to work he received so many compliments and requests that I started making them for other people. After a couple of months of making them for friends, family, and coworkers, for Christmas and Birthdays, the requests kept coming in! We then decided to find an outlet to start selling them outside of our little community.
Mae: Idea’s can be hard to follow through on, what motivated you to make your idea of Hill N Trees a reality?
Heidi: I had reached my wits end my dead end job and my husband had reached his wits end dealing with the treatment I was receiving at work so we made a decision to do whatever it took to be our own bosses and never have to “clock-in” ever again. We set goals for ourselves each day, week and month and try to make each day more successful than the last.
Mae: What are some challenges you have overcome since starting your business?
Heidi: Our biggest challenge has been separating work and our personal life. It is so hard to find time for each other and time for relaxing when orders come in. We try to at least one full day of not checking emails or lifting a finger for work just so we can have some time to ourselves.
Mae: What does a typical day look like for you?
Heidi: Up early. My husband has a coffee shop and usually leaves the house around 4 or 5 AM. I get up and have quiet time and coffee, then I put my gameface on and it’s GO time! More coffee and emails, coming up with new designs and products… MORE coffee… then trying to get all the orders filled before the hubby comes home and does our shipping. Then we crochet, crochet, crochet the night away! It is a long but rewarding day!
Mae: What is a favorite part of yours when creating your amazing products?
Heidi: Definitely playing with colorful yarn combinations. It sounds so simple, but we honestly have a blast mixing and matching colors to come up with fun, new color combos for our products. Equally as fun, is sparking our creativity to invent new patterns and designs for next season!
Mae: What are some of your goals and plans for the future of your business?
Heidi: Our goal is to someday build our business up to a point where we have no other choice but to open a small boutique as well as operate multiple web based storefronts.
Mae: Do you have a favorite quote?
Heidi: Conquers All
Mae: Who inspires you and why?
Heidi: grandfather, Popi, played a HUGE roll in my life. While growing up I watched him create new thing and invent anything he needed. Throughout his lifetime he had many successful businesses and I take great joy in the fact that although he is no longer with us, he is my inspiration and I think he would be proud.
Mae: Any final thoughts you’d like to leave us with?
Heidi:We would really like to THANK YOU so much for the opportunity to be a part of your blogging family. It is truly an honor that you would notice, and take the time to get to know us. We LOVE what we do and we hope that it shows in our work. For anyone out there with a dream of having their own business our advice is to GO FOR IT!! It has brought so much joy to our lives. It has grown us closer than we could have ever imagined. We are SO thankful and blessed God has given us this opportunity.
THANK YOU Shawn and Heidi for sharing with us. Your interview is very inspirational! It inspires me to keep working on my goals for this blog and my other passions. I really appreicate you taking the time to share and also for giving one of my awesome readers a fabulous headband! I know they will love it!!!
The giveaway is now closed. Thank you for entering! Congrats Lindsay M!
Strive For Progress!
~Mae
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ADORABLE HEADBAND! I really enjoyed the article/interview! They sound like a really neat couple.
Great article! I also really enjoyed reading it!
Cherie, you are correct, they are an awesome couple who just happen to be my daughter and son n law. I am very proud of them!! We also have a few of their homemade goodies and they are all top drawer!
Oh my gosh! I used to go to school with Shawn. I love the croched head band with flower so cute! How awesome to do something with your spouse! You guys rock!!
Very cool! I love people who choose to make a business of their talents. Thanks for sharing the shop where you got your cool hat. Hope I win
I have been admiring that green hat for a long time now. I’d love to have any of their products. So nice to meet the people behind them. Thanks for sharing!
Great article! It’s awesome that you are able to work together and do something that you really love to do. Being creative is so satisfying! Would love to win a headband!!!!
Love the interview. What a great addition to your blog. Hats are my favorite thing in the winter so I will be checking these out.
What a great article. I LOVE Hill N Trees stuff! So fun and creative!!
AMAZING, BEAUTIFUL, ARTISTIC, INSPIRING… those are just a few of the words that came to my mind after reading your interview and looking at your products. You guys are awesome. I really really enjoyed getting to know you better through this interview!!! =)
That is really cute!!
Great interview! Thank you, Mae, for branching out and opening up your blog! I will definitely be doing some shopping at Hill N Trees!
Love contributors and interviews on Blogs, hope to have more in the future!
Such a cute hat, and a great interview. Loving the blog cousin – you’re doing such a great job coming up with topics, engaging with users, and cross promoting on Facebook. This social media/internet marketing chicka is super impressed. Keep up the great work!!
Thank you!!! I really appreciate the feedback especially from you considering your expertise!
What an inspiring business! Their products are so beautiful and colorful. I will admit I have a bit of hat fetish
So I would love to have another beautifully crafted one. Thanks for the interview!
Love the article! How amazing that they are actually following their dream. I would love to win the headband! I am going to check out their site because I happen to have a daughter that LOVES hats:)
Very cute and wonderful article.
Thanks for letting us know about them perfect for gifts.
I LOVE the headband! SOOO Cute. Thank you for the article. We are in the process of starting our own business and this is inspiring! Good advice with the setting goals for each day, week and month!
Love this article and headband! They seem like such a sweet couple and what an inspiration story! Love, love, love.