Featured Team CAC Seller...

We're starting a new feature in the team blog, to coincide with Self Portrait Thursday. Each week we'll feature another team member. We're starting things off with Leah of Matic Studio.

To start, please tell us a bit about yourself. What's your story?
I am a WAHM to Nalia (Sugarfoots) who just turned 2 and Noah who will be five next month. I am married to my absolute soulmate, but polar earthly opposite. I am so creative that it keeps me awak at night. I am a jack of all trades and get bored with one thing easily. I tend to be very outgoing, but relish my alone-time. (sometimes I got to the restroom downstairs just so I can hear silence for a few moments!) I love to dance and sing, though singing is NOT something I am good at! Ask my kids! I love to cook and bake and live for my java in the morning! I enjoy my real friendships and cherish my few true friends. I love my Mama with all my heart and pray I can be half the mother to my kids that she was to me.

What is your favorite quote?
Que sera, sera- whatever will be, will be (knowing the Lord makes this one SO much easier to accept!)

What is your favorite movie?
Somewhere in Time with Christopher Reeve (it's a flick from my childhood that is special to me and my Mama)

What is your favorite TV show?
LOL- SCRUBS!!!!

What is your favorite song at the moment?
Slow Fade by casting crowns

What kinds of music do you listen to?
anyting with a great drum beat or bass ling- I enjoy male vocals more than female and prefer alternative/grunge as well as latin/salsa

How long have you been creating?
umm...when does conception REALLY begin? 28 years I would say?

What inspires you?
honestly, my God and the beauty He provides all around me....my kids and their absolute love of life and innocence, and the person I see when I look into my husband's eyes looking back at me

Please describe your creative process (the how, the when, materials, etc.).
well, it starts with finding rare and unique yarns, fabrics or beads....that combined with my hooks and hands eventually turns into my finished product. I never really have anything in mind until it forms itself. that's why my items are all one of a kind (unless I get a custom order for more of the same). I am NEVER without at least one skein of yarn and a hook, so the where part is WHEREVER I am at the moment

Is there any kind of music you listen to when you create?
I listen to K-Love since I only have a radio dowsntairs, but I usually put on my latin jive if I have my IPod- it amps me up while I paint and seems to force me to paint more vibrantly

What's your biggest artistic disaster to date? How did it help you progress?
um....I would have to say a painting I was commissioned to make for my step-father. It was a colored oil painting to be made from a sketchy, 80 something year old black and white blown up photo of a village in portugal. I HATE painting landscapes and told him so. He still insisted I paint it and I HATED the final product. I will never again do something I am not comfortable with or do not enjoy doing artistically. it makes me doomed to fail, I feel. It also makes me strive to find venues that challenge and provoke me creatively.

What's your favorite piece that you've done?
my oil painting- Compelling Fire

What's the best advice you were given when starting out?
Do what makes you happy- that's it! No formal training, just the encouragement of a Mama and a Gram who knew I could be whatever I wanted and saw my potential while helping encourage and funnel it while I was so young

Do you have any advice to give others?
Seek God in all you do, and in doing so, follow the one path you were destined to lead

What's coming up for you; any big plans artistically?
I have a trunk show coming up next month and am gearing up for my spring line. I just finished remodeling my Studio and have been enjoying photographing my items in ONE spot!

Where can we find you? Both online and in stores.
You can find me at:
http://MaticStudio.etsy.com
http://Sugarfoots.etsy.com
http://TheDreamGiver.etsy.com
http://MaticStudio.blogspot.com
I am also on facebook- Leah moerschel
myspace-themusingmama
maticstudio [!at] hotmail.com

and I am featuring some of my smaller pieces at Le Chic Boutique in New York as well as Two Old Bittys baby boutique in Lousiana.