taste so sweet

I got my 100th sale last January 15th. The reality of being able to earn some money while doing the thing I love hit me hard this month. I was stubborn enough to quit my engineering job in Singapore (with good pay) and chose to stay home with the kids, earning nothing, for years. While I did have the dreams of working on something that I love from home, with the kids, I was often uncertain of the possibility that it could be done soon. Faith keep me going, and my husband provides his constant support... and here I am. While I'm not earning as much as other wonderful sellers in Etsy, I have earned something. The most valuable were the wonderful heartwarming feedback I got from my customers. I've gone farther than I used to dream of going. I am thankful for that.

I've been sleeping a lot less nowadays, but I've been feeling a lot happier too.

Go for your dream. If you can dream it, you can do it. :)

{Check my shop for print or clip art of the image above.}

2010 to 2011

Happy New Year to all who read this! :)

I am writing this about three hours before the new year start in West Indonesia. 2010 has been quite an amazing year for me. This year I got to watch my stubborn little princess to turn from one to two, getting chattier by the month. And my boy grew taller (and less chubby) into a four and a half year old boy. My! I couldn't believe he will turn FIVE next June.

I started my Etsy shop in March, got my first sale ever a few days later. And only managed to have the next sale in October (that was like... seven month later!). So after that one sale in March, I had two sales in October, three in November, and... five in December? Nah, I had a total of 45 sales now, so that's 39 sales in December. I am so grateful, and any of you who read this has been (or hopefully, still is) my customer, I want to say a huge THANK YOU for purchasing my art. I've gone through quite a lot of 'down' times this year, and every sale has been a tremendous encouragement for me to move on.

I plan to write more next year (that's starting tomorrow, ehm), but not very sure if I can because my priority would still be filling up the shop and attending to all my dear customers. And I just lose my part-time assistant (who help out with the housechores) today. So yeah, looks like I need to be realistic. I will try to share what I has learned during my journey along the way, but... yeah, I'll just take it one step at a time.

Thank you for reading this. Thank you for visiting the shop. Thank you for believing in my art and in me. I wish you all the very best in your journey next year. Happy New Year!

IF: Star gazing

Detail:

I don't think I can finish this piece in time for IF, so pardon me to upload it just as it is. It was done with watercolor, but because I could not be neat, I kept on having a hard time with the stars and the dark background. So I re-painted the components in different papers and scanned them and stitched them together in photoshop. Kind of cheating, uh?

While doing the piece and struggled with mothering activities and house chores, I had some thought about being a star. 

The Sun is just one star among the billions other stars in the Universe [according to Wikipedia, our galaxy, the Milky Way,  is estimated to contain at least 200 billion stars and possibly up to 400 billion stars. And our galaxy is one of billions galaxies in the observable universe.] He is not the biggest, nor the brightest, not even the most beautiful star. He is not the tiniest, not the palest, he is kind of mediocre (compared to other stars). But of course we won't say that our Sun is mediocre! The Sun is the most important star for us. All living beings on Earth depend on the Sun to live. We don't care about his rank in the stars ranking system, the Sun means everything for us.

Being a wannabe artist, I often browsed through many many many wonderful blogs by talented artist (crafters, illustrators, knitters, etc.) and wished that I could be more like them. I want to shine brighter and be a prettier star in the universe.

But then I realized that if the Sun shines brighter, the Earth could get hotter. Likewise, if the Sun shines slightly less, the Earth could get colder. Earthlings would suffer if the Sun changes his brightness.

I am the Sun and I have my own solar system. I might be only one small star out of hundred billions other stars in the galaxies. But I am an important Sun for my family. I need to know my solar system and shine accordingly. I don't have to be the brightest, or the prettiest star out there. I just need to be the best star for my own solar system.

What do you think?

IF: Caged

I've been wanting to participate on IF since forever, but used to feel not having enough time/courage to do it. I pushed myself to do it now. :) I hope I am not late yet.

So, here's my take for Caged.

I have been listening to people saying that I could not do a lot of things to make a living, that I should follow the paths that have been prepared or the paths that have been opened by opportunities. I ended up not knowing what I wanted to study after high school and eagerly took the chance to study Engineering abroad. Well, it turned out that even though Engineering brought me good money, it was not something that I loved to do daily. I felt caged.

Then I found out that the cage actually lies inside my head. I was seeing the world through my 'caged' glasses. I only need to remove that glasses, there was nothing that caged me in reality.

The first time I flew off the cage, it felt scary. Can I find food for tomorrow? Will I live? Am I safe? All those questions filled up my mind and my heart trembled with fear and excitement of freedom. I am still in my journey of finding my true self now, exploring of what I really love to do daily. Wish me luck! :)

beautiful ritual

I always love reading the inspiring soulemama blog. Then yesterday, her writing tugged my heart's string once more in this post.