Here We are Staying

You probably notice that I've been quite for the past few days.

My son has been sick and inevitably I caught the cold. *sigh* For the past few nights, I went to bed early, trying to rest and hopefully getting better soon. In the meantime, I'm completing orders to ensure they are out on time.

So many changes happen at the same time. I dropped a few hints in the beginning of the year posts, saying that I have news, didn't I?

Well... I think it's time to share the good news. We have decided to stay in Canada and we bought a townhome. We feel so much better after making a decision eventhough the process was quite stressful. Being undecided for the past 3 years was not fun at all. *relief* Now after choosing a path, we can simply follow that path and see what the future holds for us. This is one of the biggest decisions we made so far and we surely didn't make it lightly (think about how many years we've floating around).

I hope that this is the last time we move, at least for the next 5 years. If you're curious on how many times we had moved for the past 3 years, take a peek on the posts when I just started blogging and you'll be sure you don't want to be in my shoes. Lol.

Talking about the house now, well...we're not taking possession until the 22nd and there will be a lot of renovation projects before we move in. Then the packing and unpacking, my favorite things to do...NOT. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Oh, and I'll need to return to my day job starting next week. That means wheather I like it or not, I have to slow down in taking care of my Etsy shops. If you have suggestions on how I can manage my time better doing all of these, I'd love to hear them.

Now, let me get back completing my orders, including a wholesale order that just came in.

Thanks for dropping by.

Giveaway: 5x7 print from Megan Cutler

Win this beautiful Merciful 5 x 7 inch Print, sponsored by Megan of Megan Cutler. 

Get to know Megan our Saturday Artisan this week. She is the artist behind Emariecreations. More information is on yesterday's post. 

There are many ways to enter. Please make sure you leave a separate comment for every entry. 

How to enter to win:

Mandatory entry:

• Go to Megan Cutler shop. Return to my Adore By Nat blog and simply leave a comment here about your favorite item from her store.

Extra entries (only qualify once mandatory entry is fulfilled):

• Earn 2 entries - Go to yesterday's post to know her more. Leave a comment there (yesterday's post) on at least one the following: what you learn from the interview, what you want to see more on her shop and why, or any constructive feedbacks are always appreciated. Come back here and leave 2 comments that you did, to ensure your entries are counted.

• Heart Megan Cutler (1 entry). Simply let us know your Etsy username.
• Follow my adorebynat blog (1 entry). If you're already a follower, you still get an entry, just says you're following already.
• Like my Adorebynat Facebook Page. I`d love you to say 'hi' there (don`t be a stranger!) and come back here to leave comment (1 entry). If you liked my FB page already, you still can say hi and earn 1 entry.
• Follow adorebynat on twitter (1 entry).
• Tweet about this giveaway, add "@adorebynat " in your tweet. (1 entry).
• Blog about this giveaway to earn 2 entries. Leave two separate comments here please providing me with the link to your post.
• Be creative and share the love! Refer your friends and family to enter this giveaway. Use your social media (other than twitter and blog) to shout out this giveaway. As long as you provide me a link or a way to confirm it, you'll earn 2 entries (two separate comments).
• Purchase an item from Megan Cutler and earn 10 entries for each purchase. Don't forget letting us know by leaving comments :-)

Contest starts now and ends on February 19, 2011. Contest opens worldwide.

Don't forget to leave me a way to contact you. Entries without contact information will be disqualified. Entries that do not follow the rules will be disqualified. Contest winner will be drawn on Sunday, February 20 by a random number generator, by the artist herself. Winner must respond within 48 hours after being contacted otherwise another winner will be randomly selected.

Saturday Artisan: Megan Cutler

Meet Megan Cutler, our Saturday Artisan. Emotion is such an important part of our life. In fact, I personally learned about that recently ... but let's steer away from what happened with me and focus on Megan instead. *smile* Read on to find out how emotion is used on Megan's beautiful pieces. 

Tell us a bit about yourself and what arts/ crafts that you make?

I’m Megan Cutler, an abstract painter out of San Francisco. I’m a quiet little hermit, with messy black hair, over-done mac eyes, an albino bulldog is always at my side. My paintings are acrylic, often with collaged items [normally in the form of paper], incorporating drips, text and bold colors. I graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute, with a major in fine art, and a concentration in painting. 

If you can hang on to one of your paintings, which one is it going to be? 

Hmm, hang onto one painting? That’s tough, most of my paintings are very personal, and emotional, so they all feel like a part of me. I think it would be ‘tire tracks’, it was one of my first pieces that really ‘clicked’ in this raw abstract style. It came after a break-up that left me devastated, and I used the painting as therapy. I think that’s when I realized that the more I invested myself in the painting, the stronger, and more successful it was. I also love how hostile the painting is – most viewers assume the artist is going to be male, and I enjoying throwing out the typical female artist stereotypes.. we can do more than paint pretty flowers. ‘everything is a self portrait, everything is a diary’ chuck Palahniuk. 

How do you balance your personal and work life? Balancing work life and personal life is hard, really hard, and I’m still trying to get the knack of it. I work full time at a specialty veterinary hospital, and while I love my job, it’s stressful and draining. I have my own dog at home as well, so on my days off we hangout at my art studio. He lays on his bed and chews bones while I jump around the studio, trying to get to each canvas at just the right time to get my layers and drips perfected. [I normally have around 5 paintings going at a time] I consume a lot of caffeine, and always have multiple to-do lists going to try to stay on target.

What inspires you?

Everyone always asks where I get the inspiration for my paintings, and I guess its’ because they’re so emotional. But I pull from daily life. There is so much emotion in life, I think a lot of people over-look it, especially if it’s sad. Its like the photographer who can see a photo everywhere, I find beautiful words everywhere. I read a lot, and write down quotes that jump out at me in a journal. I also do a lot of my own writing, and tend to pull the main idea and emotion for paintings straight from this journal. 

Tell us a bit more about your charity work: "15% of my pet-related art items are donated to badrap rescue (badrap.org)" 

I donate a portion of my pet-related items to badrap which is a bay area pitbull rescue group. They also teach do low cost spay/neuter and vaccines and educate the community about pitbulls. I donate to them because as a dog mom [of a rescued deaf American bulldog/pitbull] and someone working in the veterinary field, animals are my passion. And I have such a huge love for the bully-breeds, because they get such a badrap, and are so loving and loyal. I’ve learned a lot from my dog over the 7 years I’ve had him, and consider him my hero [as well as my best friend].

 

Any tutorial that you’d like to share, pretty please? 

I will share one of my secret tips, although you may not all realize how invaluable this tip is until you try it [or see my work in person]. I paint in acrylics because they’re cheaper, less toxic, and to be honest, I don’t have the patience for oils, however, I do miss that ‘glow’ oil paints have. So, my tip is: Acrylic Medium. I pile it on! I use it to mix with my acrylics and thin them out for my sheer layers, I apply the medium in between layers to add depth, and then I do at least 2 layers of gloss medium/top coat to the finished painting. The sheen is amazing! It makes the paintings look like oil painting. [however, this does make photographing your work more difficult, as they want to glare].

 Stay-tuned for tomorrow's giveaway. Don't forget to enter these giveaways in the meantime: There are three giveaways contests going on now:

• Gumball Bracelet - ends tomorrow!
• Polka Dot Donut Pushpins

Treasuries of the Day

This morning I woke up not feeling great. My little one had a cold and I finally got it.

But knowing that I've been included in a few treasuries today, I felt loved :-)

Enjoy! Clicks and comments are always appreciated.