hark! the herald angels sing....

Glory to the Newborn King!!

 "Song of the Heart" by J Kirk Richards

I found this artwork on Pinterest....fell in love with it and wanted to share it with you. It makes me think of the angels singing at the moment Jesus was born. The joy and celebration that rang out in Heaven and on earth.

Hoping you all had a very Merry CHRISTmas

and wishing you a blessed 2013!

drumroll please......

Congratulations Tammy Brandstetter! You are the lucky winner of the November give away! I will send your 8x10 "Angel's Bouquet" print right out in the mail as soon as you contact me with your address.

Thank you to everyone for entering the drawing! I had the most names ever to draw from! The next give away will be announced some time after the new year.

Well said.....

Where Was God? Mike Huckabee's Incredible Response to the Newtown Shooting Tragedy from anberlin_fan on GodTube.

I was so moved by this video that I just had to share it. I don't want to get into any political "he said", "she said" issues. This, for me, has nothing to do with being a democrat or republican. Let's be real and look at the truth.......as a society, God has been pushed aside and only called upon in times of crisis. God needs to be in our lives EVERYDAY....we need Him in our homes, schools, and offices. Without God, we allow evil to step in and cause pain, suffering and hopelessness. God is love.....He can be nothing else. God also gave us free will. We decide for ourselves whether or not we want a relationship with Him. I choose God.

the new chicks.....

Never in a million years did I think we would one day have chickens! It's a rather long story but a funny one indeed. My brother-in-law has a bunch of chickens and once in a while, Kevin, my husband, would bring home fresh eggs after visiting with his brother. Not only are the eggs delicious but they come from free-range, no hormone, no antibiotic chickens! I have a growing concern about our food supply but that story will have to wait until another time.

We've tossed the idea around about getting our own chickens so we, too, would have fresh, healthy eggs. But this idea remained just that....an idea. Where would we put them? Would Daisy kill them? How would we keep them in our yard? Do we really need something else to take care of? Where would we find the time? The questions seemed to outweigh the answers so it remained an idea for many months. UNTIL.....

Kevin works with an investor that had a house on a land contract. The people living in the house defaulted on the contract and had to leave. They left alright.....they left cat and dogs in the house, they left trash all over the yard and left four chicken roaming the property. Unbelievable! The dogs and cats were rescued but what about the chickens? Well, a few days later, we decided it was now or never but before putting in a lot of time fixing them a coop, Kevin wanted to make sure they were still at the house. 

After church one Sunday, Kevin, Ryan and I stopped by the house to check on the chickens and there they were huddled under some bushes. My hubby and son decided, heck, we are here, there is a cage to put them in, we might as well try to catch them and take them home now. Here's the funny part....... the chickens had come out from under the bushes and were now huddled behind a grill up against the house. Kevin took an old towel and Ryan had an old blanket........one on the left side of the grill and one on the other side.....they moved in slowly and when they got close enough to try to catch them the chickens panicked and started squawking and flying. Ryan (not realizing chickens can fly and to be honest, I didn't think of it either) jumped back and let out quite a yell! Then they went chasing the chickens around the yard! It was quite a sight. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Needless to say, the chickens didn't come home with us that day.

After a couple of other attempts to "catch" the chickens, Kevin decided instead to go over to the house after they had roosted at dusk and shut them inside the coop and then go back over in the morning to put them in the cage since they were confined inside the coop. Kevin had converted our kid's old playhouse into quite a nice little chicken coop so we were ready to bring them home.

Now, the first night that the chickens were here, Kevin tried to get them in the coop for the night. Since they were new to their surroundings, we didn't think they would know to go into their new coop. In his attempt to get them inside the coop he spooked them and they flew into a nearby tree and slept there the first night. The second night, the same thing happened but this time, Kevin climbed the tree and got them down! (impressive huh?) I told him not to do any of these things without me watching as I needed some good laughs!! A few days later someone told Kevin that he should have let them out of the cage in the coop and kept them confined inside for a day or two so they knew that was their new home. Live and learn, right?!?

Anyway, all is well. The chickens now go to roost at dusk all by themselves. They stay in the yard and Daisy has gotten use to them and best of all, we have delicious healthy eggs every day!

hard to believe

A Prayer Tribute to the Victims of The Newtown School Shooting from sharethemessage on GodTube.

Hard to believe in one day I am sharing with you my excitement about the future and later in the day question the future.....the future of our society. It is unfathomable to think a young man at the age of 20 could gun down 18 innocent children ages 5 to 10 years old. My heart aches for the all victims and their families. Not only the entire community of Newtown CT is affected but it has touched us all. We are grieving with them.

He heals the brokenhearted
And binds up their wounds.

Psalm 147:3

we're getting closer.......

I just received an email from Coynes & Co. with the new 2013 catalog attached! Here are the pages from their catalog that feature my angel products. I am in the process of setting up an account with them and will be placing my order as soon as I am approved. I will be putting these items for sale on my website before January but they will not be shipping until February. I am so excited, I can hardly contain  myself!!!

Ya know, when I first started painting these angels a couple of years ago, I was met with a little bit of skepticism that "angels won't sell". But as an artist, I didn't care about that. I had an internal passion that just had to come out! I told myself, whether they sell or not is not my concern, I will continue to paint them anyway. Sometimes, we just have to do what is in our heart.......and most of the time that is our best work.

So far, the feedback has been very positive. The angel art is licensing well but time will tell if the consumer is ready for such products. I can tell you that when I am at retail shows, people gravitate to the angel art and I have a collector of my original paintings that said to me via email, "Your paintings give me such peace, and I smile every time I see one of them. This gives me many reasons to smile as I must have enough for every room of the house by now!" -  Eileen, Traverse City, Michigan

That is a dream come true......that my art....my God-given gift,

brings comfort, peace and smiles to those who see it.

whew

"Guardian Angel"

©Teresa Kogut, all rights reserved

Wow! I can't believe I haven't posted since Thanksgiving! I have had shows every weekend since then so the weeks were filled with preparing for the shows. However, this past weekend was the last show of 2012. A BIG thank you to all that came out to see me! You helped make these shows a success and I love connecting with you :)

I would love to share photos of all the wonderful shows I was lucky enough to attend but my camera is "out of order" so I only have my phone camera. Guess what I want for Christmas this year????

photo taken at Handcrafters in Northville MI, Dec 8th

Now that I am back in the studio, I have BIG plans! First of all.....I am antsy to get painting again, so I will be posting new art as I get them finished.  Secondly, I am diving into designing cross stitch patterns for the TNNA market in March. At the request of my customers, this is a must and I am so excited! And last but most importantly, I have been working diligently on plans for 2013. It is going to be an amazing year with lots of exciting new ways to stay connected with YOU! 

Blessings for a wonderful Monday!

happy thankgiving

"Pilgrims"

©Teresa Kogut, all rights reserved

I have soooo much I want to share with you all......from our new "girls" (we have adopted four chickens) to what is going on in the studio!!! Time is so hard to come by for me right now that I just haven't had the time to post lately. I am excited about some new endeavors and will update you on those sometime in December. The next three weekends I have shows so I will be busy getting prepared for those but I will do my best to keep in touch throughout all the activities. I just have to post pics and share some chicken stories with you soon though.....after Thanksgiving. 

Our house will be bursting at the seams with love and laughter this Thanksgiving! We have never fed 33 people before! That's a record for the Kogut family!  So I will end this post with what I am most thankful for......my family.....and Jesus......and my friends.......and our freedom...and our military people......and all of the blessings God has given us.....ok, I think that covers it....just so ya know, you are one those blessings. Thank you for following along with my blog even though my thoughts and posts can be erratic.

God Bless our Veterans

Fallen Soldier is Carried Home by an Angel - a Beautiful Veterans Tribute from ourgodisforus on GodTube.

As we go on day to day, we sometimes take for granted all that our veterans have done for us, past and present....putting their lives and dreams on hold in order to protect the freedoms of all Americans. What a selfless act. Let us be mindful of their sacrifice and respectful of their lives by living our lives as responsible, respectful, loving, caring people and not taking our freedom for granted......nor abusing it. 

GOD BLESS AMERICA

AND THOSE WHO DEFEND IT

finding focus

"Wrapped in Friendship"

8x10 watercolor

©Teresa Kogut, all rights reserved

Do you have trouble finding time in everyday to get done not only what NEEDS to be done but working towards large goals/projects for the future??? Argh, me too. I have two businesses....well, you could say three. One is my licensing business, two is my pattern business and three is promoting/selling my work retail through my website, Etsy, American-Artists.com, and various shows. I find it VERY challenging to give each one of these the time they need to be successful. There are too many days when I let my business dictate my direction..not good. (obviously, some days will be like that when there is a fire to put out) If I come to work and just go from one thing to the next with no plan, at the end of the day I feel like I worked my tush off, but didn't accomplish anything. Sure, I filled my retail orders, answered emails, updated my social media status (and that sure can suck you in and before you know it, an hour has passed by) and hopefully worked on a painting or punchneedle pattern. But I have big goals and exciting plans for my future and if I don't specifically set time aside for these endeavors, I will never get there.

Sooooo, here is my plan and hopefully this might help you as well in organizing your day.

* early morning (while Ryan is getting ready for school I have about an hour) I work on punchneedle or work on a watercolor painting....my goal for Nov/Dec is to paint one watercolor a day within 2 hours

*Arriving at the studio, I finish my daily watercolor painting, then answer emails and fill retail orders

*Set timer for social media...allowing 1/2 hour for FB, pinterest, twitter, etc.

*1 hour to update blog (this I only do 2-3 times a week) but I an now keeping a notebook of blogging ideas so I don't feel like "oh my gosh, I haven't updated my blog in 4 days, what can I talk about!?!?!?!?!"

 NOTE: on the days I don't update my blog, I spend that time updating my website, Etsy, American-Artists.com, and my new avenue Artsyhome.com

*Mondays and Fridays I devote to my pattern business. I sell punchneedle and rug patterns but I am adding cross stitch and applique patterns to the mix so I need to be spending more time achieving those goals.....Next TNNA show is in March!

*Wednesdays and Thursdays are spent painting acrylic paintings <3 p="p">

*Tuesdays.......I reserve Tuesday to work on a new adventure (and will probably do this on some Saturdays as well until I get it up and running) more info to come on this at a later date. It is a fresh new fun and exciting idea but I don't know how long it's going to take to set up so I am keeping it hush, hush for now :)

*As an artist, I always have my sketchbook nearby....you never know when an idea will strike! Seriously, I try to sketch SOMETHING everyday....when, you ask? while cooking dinner, while waiting for a Dr. appt, etc or just sit down for 20 minutes and sketch whatever pops in your mind, sometimes those turn out to be the best ideas or will spark a series of related ideas.

When I stick to this plan, I feel such a sense of accomplishment! Oh and a great tip from Mary Kay....before you leave the studio or office every day, the last thing you do is make a list of 5 things you HAVE to do the next morning.....you don't do anything else until these 5 things are done and with laser focus, it doesn't take too awful long.

Here is an interesting article about time management mistakes via Mind Tools.

Had to chuckle at this article because I get caught up in this sometimes...helpful info from ArtBizBlog

Stay focused and accomplish great things

its our right......

It is a basic American right! Let nothing stop you today.....get out and vote!

GOD BLESS AMERICA

new give away!

Enter to win this 8x10 angel print. This give away will run from today until December 15th. I will be taking some time off for Christmas and will start the monthly give away program again in January. All you need to do is post a comment and tell us what is the best Christmas gift you have ever received. Thanks for entering and good luck!

_________________________________

October's give away winner is

MARTY PARTLOW WOOSLEY

Congratulations! Email your address so I can mail your garden flag. Thanks for entering!

Linda's home show

Back from my friend's home show in Port Huron Michigan.  She had a great turn out. People came from all over Michigan to shop. Linda spent a couple of weeks getting ready for the show..... removing almost everything in her beautiful home to make room for all the items for sale. Bob and Peggy from Wren in the Willow country store transformed Linda's home with many great Christmas treasures.  I set up my full booth with my art and Jann's totes/jewelry.  What a great time we had together. A big thank you to Dick and Linda for opening up your home for this event. 

Below are just a few pictures.....it really doesn't do it justice because I forgot my camera and these were taken with my phone. Take my word for it......her house looked amazing!

autumn in manistee

 Daisy <3 br="br">

 Troy trying to get Foxy and Brandy to look at the camera

 Brandy and my feet

 old barn window

 chippy, rusty ol' pickup <3 br="br">

Last weekend we went to my brother-in-law's house in Manistee, Michigan. We pulled our camper up there and stayed in it since there were so much of the family there. The weather was not great.....it rained starting Friday night and all the way through til Monday...the day we had to leave. But when the weather is like that it keeps everyone inside visiting and playing games so it wasn't all bad :)

October 6 show

My friend, Jann, and I traveled to Findlay, Ohio to do a show at Early American Home Store. It was Barb's, the owner of the store, first year doing this event. Oh boy the weather was coooollllldddd and breezy that Saturday! We had a wonderful time and thank you to Barb for inviting us :) Here are some photos of our booth, other vendors and inside EAH store.

Below are photos of Jann's Vintage Romance handmade jewelry and felted totes/ornaments.

Some of my goodies below...

Meet Kay and Ruth. They are sisters with the business name of Crows on the Ridge, creative sewing and painting. They are very talented and fun ladies! Very original designs as you will see below.

This is one of the problems of not posting as soon as I return home....I forgot the names of the ladies that made the below goodies! Wonderfully primitive stitcheries.

The following photos are from inside Early American Home. B.e.a.utiful!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures! TTFN (I know all you tigger fans know what that means!)