Talking with interior designer and blogger Heather Clawson

Heather Clawson is proof you can make money with an art-history degree. Interior designer and author of the design blog "Habitually Chic," she recently published her first book, "Creativity at Work." The Penn State grad makes her home in New York City, where she juggles work on her popular blog, design clients and a personal life.

Excerpts from an interview:

Q: Congrats on the book, but how did you find the time to write it?

A: You know, I'm really lucky that I work from home and for myself and can go out and photograph and interview all these amazing people. I have access to them from the blog, but it was definitely a juggling act. The book itself wasn't as hard as the editing process. It's very time-consuming going back and forth and making sure everything is perfect before it goes to print.

Q: I'd read you started the blog as a kind of resume to help get clients.

A: When I first started it, really, I didn't know what it was. It was just a place to, it was almost like a visual online scrap board or scrapbook. I was working for another designer and reading blogs. At that time, which was more than five years ago, there weren't that many in New York. A lot of them (bloggers) just liked design, but they weren't working in design. So I thought, "Well, I can talk about going to installations or working on projects. I can talk about what's going on in New York with art and fashion."

When I was laid off in 2008, I had already been working on some projects myself and getting clients. So when that happened I really was able to go out on my own. It was really a resume. When you started a blog years ago, you really had no idea what it was going to turn into. I think nowadays people have a better idea what can happen from it.

Q: So how did you decide on "Habitually Chic" for the name?

A: Well, this is a good story: I was working for another designer, and I wasn't sure he'd look upon this fondly. So I didn't want to get in trouble, and I wanted to keep it anonymous. I had seen the Sartorialist, and he would sign off on things with an S. The blog initial and his initial were the same, and it got me thinking. "What phrase could be a style statement that worked with HC, my initials?" The C would be easy --" chic." For the H, I really looked in the English and French dictionary and started playing around with words. I asked my friends which one sounded the best, and "Habitually Chic" was born. I knew enough about marketing and branding to know that I should name it something unique that would come up in a Google search and not get confused with something else. People should think about that when they name their blogs.

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Talking with interior designer and blogger Heather Clawson