Meggan Maravich Craft Designer

Meggan Maravich

Meggan Maravich My name is Meggan. I am an artist, a wife, and a mother. Our children are ages 12, 10, 8, and 6 years old. I paint to stay sane. Some days, I'm insane to try to paint. I am usually driving to or from the school, basketball, soccer, dance class, karate, swimming lessons, camp, and church. Not as often, I'm driving to or from a restaurant where my book club meets, or even dinner with the girls. Point here is, I carry my sketch book with me wherever I go, and when I figure out how to safely drive AND sketch,
(or fold laundry for that matter) I may finally be able to catch up on my limitless tasks.

I began painting woodcrafts in 1995; I bought a few painting books and followed the directions to the letter - right down to the exact brand and color of acrylic paints. I had booths in many craft shows, and learned that I'm much more particular about my work
than the buyers are. I also learned that not only is it okay to make a mistake or even change up the colors, sometimes it even improves a project.

I first submitted a project of my own design to Crafts n Things in 1999 - it was a trio of Tipped Hat Snowmen ornaments. They were published in 2000, and ever since then I design and paint my own projects.

I love to paint. Painting is my creative outlet. I blog about my painting for two reasons. First, I love to design quick and easy projects that I can share with others; especially projects that deliver that wonderful feeling of Immediate Gratification.

Mainly, I blog about my painting in hopes that I will be "discovered" (before I die, preferably), and I can make enough money with my art to hire a full-time housekeeper so I can spend more of my time painting. That isn't very realistic, but then, neither is hoping I can make that much money just by painting! I have the terribly bad habit of reinvesting every penny (and beyond) into fresh art supplies!!!

My studios are a mess. Both of them. It really bothers me ... but I'm so far behind on projects and housework and just raising a family that I can't begin to dedicate free time to straightening and organizing when I could spend that time painting! I find that I will quickly clean off a table for crafting and put my supplies in a crate or a basket, and I can work almost right away, but finding things later is a major roadblock.

I don't like to cook, but as luck would have it, my kids like to eat. So I have a few simple recipes that I'm pretty good at making. I blog about my cooking for two reasons. First, because I love the idea that I can help another busy mom by sharing my super simple recipe ideas!

Mainly, though, because if I'm going to spend that much time doing something that I'm not crazy about, I want my efforts documented
(with photographs, if possible).

When I do cook, I use every pot, pan, and measuring spoon, and it takes me all day. By the time I've read the recipe, checked to make sure I have the ingredients, pulled things out of the fridge
realized I have to run to the store, put in a load of laundry, wondered why the butter is out, looked for a drinking glass and found the leftover lasagna in the cupboard which should have been in the fridge, (true story) put away a pile of laundry, put all the cold stuff back in the fridge and realized the stack of plates are there that should have been in the cupboard, driven 30 miles to the store, forgotten my list in the car and walked back out to get it, and finally returned home unloaded the groceries, folded a load of laundry, turned on the Roomba Robot and remembered I'm supposed to be cooking, it's usually time to pick up the kids from school. My husband says I'm not a good planner.

I love my blog and wish I could spend more time on it! I'm actually Obsessive Compulsive, so little things like spacing issues tend to really bother me, but so many other aspects of my life are not in perfect alignment or exactly the way I need them to be, so I've learned to put those things out of my mind for brief periods. Mainly so I can sleep at night. That's not to say I don't have days
where my OCD dominates - sometimes I'll spend hours color-coordinating the kids tee shirts or stacking crates and boxes from largest to smallest.

I am looking forward to creating some fun painted designs this year ... just as soon as I remember where I stashed those paintbrushes ...