Hazelnut Cottage

! New Chat Feature !

Hello!

I just added a cool new “Chat Now” feature here on my blog (see the right hand column). Very neat! Stop by if you see I’m here and say “Hello”! :)

Etsy Find: A Kat Tale

In keeping with the upcoming celebration of Mother’s Day, and being a mom of two young ones myself, I’ve made a recent sweet find on Etsy:

A Kat Tale...

Here are a few of my faves so far...captures the warmth and emotion of a mama and her child so well...

My Boy $21


Jetaime-Mae and Bebe $21


Slumber $21

The artist offers fine art prints of her original oil paintings in her Etsy shop. A few of her originals are available online as well!

Wanderings

Despite the fact that I have been oh so quiet on this here blog lately, lots has been happening both personally, artistically and spiritually.

It seems that I am in constant low grade emotional turmoil over one thing or another. If you know me well, or even superficially, I would venture to say that most people would not think that I am into drama. You know the kind. I am outwardly, at least, very even. But internally, things are always brewing and this week I got some insight. One huge breakthrough is about the guilt I feel about living this indie life. I realized that I was feeling huge amounts of guilt over my choice to live as an indie artist because I was perpetuating the financial insecurity I grew up with (never having rent money, people banging on the door to collect money) and passing this type of childhood—along with all the hurts and scars—onto my own children. HUGE.

Thankfully, with the help of my Pastors (did I say I love my Pastors?!) I’ve been able to lay everything out and process through my thoughts and feelings and have been embraced with their love and support and words of wisdom and affirmation. And they SEE me. They really get me, they do. And most especially the art part. And their assurance that my children’s life and childhood is vastly different (read: healthier and more spiritually grounded) than the one I grew up in is helping to ease some of my own pain.

One question I struggle with is this: “What do I want to teach my children?” Do I want to just talk about faith, about seeking God with your whole heart, about listening for His voice and following Him with courage—even into the unknown, even if it means your decisions are not popular or sensical or practical—or do I want to actually live it? Do I actually BELIEVE God is Jehovah Jireh when He says:

"Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.” Luke 12:27

Today, do we not have clothes on our back? Food to eat? A beautiful home to live in?

Oh, me of little faith...and that's what I’ve been up to lately...

Hazelnut Cottage: Featured on Scoutie Girl and Hapa | Hale

In the midst of all of the craziness that has been happening in my life lately, I forgot to mention that Hazelnut Cottage was recently featured on two different indie blogs, run by two wonderful women. The first feature ran on March 5th, on the Scoutie Girl blog. Jan DiCinto sure asks some good, soul searching questions and the process of answering has helped me work through some creative issues (oh, okay, ANGST). Her blog is such a wonderful array of indie features, sage advice, resources and a really great source of reasonably priced, quality online advertising.




And then, there's Leigh over at hapa |hale who has been a cheerleader for Hazelnut Cottage since day one, when I nervously introduced myself to her, wringing my sweaty hands, just so sure she'd either never answer me or send me one of those super nice rejection emails! :) She did neither, and was sweet enough to ONCE AGAIN give a shout out about the new stuff at the shop.

Bronchitis or Pneumonia?

So the sinus infection that began a week or so ago, which transformed into laryngitis for a while, now seems to be wreaking further havoc to my system. Hopefully, I'll be able to get a last minute appointment to the doctor today...thank God for nebulizers and albuterol!

Pray for me if you get the chance and wish me well! Ugh!

Etsy Find: Larimeloom

This girl that I have never met before, who lives in Italy, gets my inner style diva. She is the artist at Larimeloom on Etsy and I adore her work. I would be clothed, head to toe with her wonderful handmade creations, everyday if I could. Or honestly, maybe I just love the idea of being tall and lanky and well, able to unashamedly expose my midriff in public!








See what I mean?! How could you even BEGIN to choose? Sigh...Addicted.

Quote of the Week: It Shall Be Done

Treasures of a Work from Home, Stay At Home Mom

These were picked, by hand, by my little boy. After visiting with Frankie the Maltese and Desi (a similar looking pup, whose breed I can never recall), my little one pulled these up—roots and all—during our walk and presented them to me with glee. What a lucky mama I am to be able to share these moments with my boys, to savor their beginning years before they wander far and wide (and away from me). Sometimes the fleetingness of their childhood hits me and I almost gasp, literally. Each day they come into their own, more and more and are slowly entering into their own little lives, full of play and friends, teachers and coaches, interests and dreams, and less and less of mom being their everything. I yearn for this healthy and necessary separateness and yet, mourn it at the same time.

And there are so many opportunities coming my way right now, so many choices to make, transitions to go through. And I’m doing my best to “lean into” and go with it, trusting God in everything.

Meanwhile, I’m working on orders from my Etsy shop and found this in my inbox:



Now SHE knows how to LIVE!

And the Hazelnut Cottage Giveaway Winner Is...

MadMax! :) Congrats! I'll be emailing you later today to get your shipping info. Thanks to all for entering! I'll post again later...

About the Giveaway...

:) Just a quick update: I will run the Hazelnut Cottage handstamped jewelry giveaway until midnight on Wednesday, March 11th my time. I will post the winner and notify you via the email you included in your comment on Thursday, mid-morning.

Thanks! ~jan