{Featured Artist: jecka}

This giveaway is now closed!

Here at Gussy has a lot to say we love to look at all things beautiful. Beautiful wall art, beautiful winter accessories, beautiful stories about family life.

Today marks week #7 of my series on featured Etsy artists. It is my goal to introduce some drool-worthy eye-candy. Over the next few months I'll be showcasing hand-selected Etsy artists that offer products that I think will appeal to you, my readers :)

Please join me in welcoming Jessica at Jecka.

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What inspires you? Color! I love color and finding different combinations of color that just compliment each other. And I can't forget those random light bulbs that pop up above my head while I'm out and about.




Where do you call home? Are you from there originally? My home is in sunny southern California, though I was born on the opposite side of the country in North Carolina. I moved here with my family when I was 2 and have been here ever since.

Name something unique to where you live. Where I live specifically is, to me, a great place to live just because I’m close to the places that other people come here to visit without being smack dab in the middle of the commotion. I can drive to Disneyland or the beach or Hollywood easily if I feel like it one day, traffic permitting. Gotta love that LA traffic.

Share an interesting fact about yourself. I was almost born in a toilet.




How did you come up with jecka? And just who is Jessica? "Jecka" is the way my 3-year-old brother says my name and I decided to use it as my shop name, frankly, because I couldn't think of anything else and was just excited to set up shop already.

Jessica is a 20-year-old student who has not yet figured out what to do with her life except live it. She’s laid-back, sarcastic, and can be a bit emotional at times. She identifies more with the “craft” part of arts ‘n’ crafts. She lives by what her mom once told her: “If you can’t laugh about it, then what can you do?” And she loves sushi.




If you had to describe yourself in a word, what would that word be? Smiley.

What made you decide to open up shop? Hating the whole typical retail/food service part-time job deal! I've always believed in doing what you love, and I didn't think now was too early to start. I decided that if I did decide to open up shop, I wouldn't have time for working part time, going to school, and running a small business. So I nixed the thing I could (and desperately wanted to) do without.

Name your favorite thing about selling handmade. I get such a great sense of satisfaction whenever someone buys my creations. It's the biggest compliment to me when someone is willing to pay money for something I made myself.




Do you have a day job or sell on Etsy full-time? As of right now my day job is going to school. I treat Etsy as my part-time job, but the part-time job that I absolutely love. I love being able to call making headbands “work.”

Give us a little glimpse into what a typical day in your life looks like. I wake up to several alarms. I’m talking like 10 different alarms coming from my laptop, my Nintendo DS, and my cell. I’m a HEAVY sleeper. I slept through someone smashing into my car at 3 in the morning right outside my bedroom window. Sometimes I don’t hear ANY of my alarms and oversleep. Happens quite often.

I roll out of bed and get ready for the day. On weekdays that means school (unless I don’t wake up). On weekends that means the possibilities are endless.

After school I just go with the flow. Whatever I end up doing, I always try to check Etsy several times a day for sales and convos. If I have sales, I take care of them as soon as possible.

Share with us a favorite Etsy purchase or shop. This isn’t much of a shop anymore in seeing that there aren’t any items listed now, but it once was, and trust me, it was awesome: hitchcocksatterlee.etsy.com, which would then redirect you to hitchcocksatterlee.com. She makes these sculptures/creatures out of different bug and fish parts and they’re just oddly beautiful to me.

List a few of your most favorite pastimes. I love spending time with the people I love on top of everything. Besides that, I’m a big TV junkie and I love playing video games. When I actually feel like doing something productive I find fun little projects to do, like making huge hanging pom poms or an old-school Nintendo controller case for my DS.




What are three of your favorite foods? Sushi, sinigang and adobo. The last two are Filipino dishes and no one can beat my mom’s and grandma’s versions in my book!

What are you listening to right now? My roommate sleeping and grinding her teeth.

Name one place you must visit in your lifetime and why. I absolutely MUST go anywhere where I can stay up all night and watch the Northern Lights. If there’s one phenomenon I want to see in my life, it’s the aurora borealis.

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Now for something fabulous!

Jessica has offered to give away a chunky flap headband of your choice!

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To enter:

Leave a comment with your favorite yarn color from her shop.




For additional entries {leave a separate comment}:

-Comment that you follow my blog

-Comment that you follow me on Twitter

-Tweet about this {leave a comment with your Tweet}

-Blog about this {leave a comment with your post URL}

RULES:

• The giveaway will close Sunday, January 3 at 10 pm CST, and the winner will be announced the following day

• An email address must be listed on your blog profile, blog, or the comment you leave. Don't make me hunt you down {'cuz I'll pick someone else!}

Please check back Friday, January 8 for another featured artist post!