Little Bit Of Czech Republic

If you clicked on this page, you are probably interested  in finding out more about the person, who created this blog.  I guess, I owe you this much, so let me introduce my self:

First of all I have to apologize for stumbling all over the well established English language. English is my fourth language, and your punctuation is still foreign to me. I have things to say and I am not letting my inexperience with your grammar take that away from me.  So I apologize in advance.

Don’t get too excited. It’s just me that we are talking about.  I have no title next to my name, or written accomplishments on a recorded page. My face is not sculpted on a famous statue, it is just me, Marketa.

I entered into this world ready to embrace life and all it had in store for me.  I was a little bit naïve then, but what do you expect?  Life sent my way a multitude of experiences in my early years.  Hardship, happiness, fear, gratitude, adventure, laughter, creativity, sadness, disappointments, hope, endurance and love….They all played a big roll in shaping me into who I am today. So who Am I, you may ask? If I tell you what I like to do, will that paint a better picture about who I am? Or if I tell you what I believe in, or my life accomplishments would that do the trick? I have a plethora of stories to tell, but if you don’t mind I will save them for my future posts on this blog.

So lets get this introduction started.  I was born and raised in a small town ( more like a village to be precise) called Černice, near the city Plzeň, in the heart of the Czech Republic. The town where everybody greets everybody with a friendly hello. In the middle of my town stood a hill that slowly crept up to meet the sky, like an ant hill seeking the warmth from the sun. From God’s view our town resembled a hand crafted quilt full of colorful patches of homes, streets, grassy fields, deep-green forests, colorful specks of wild flowers, in-woven blue threads  of ponds and streams and our river.  It was simply beautiful place to live in.  I loved the outdoors, the magic that it had to offer, and this is where I spent most of my time.  Surrounded by nature, it made me feel like I was safe, loved and never alone. This is the place where I found God, and this is where it all began.

Many years later I am here in a place so different from my home, but I still love it. I became what I have been dreaming  about becoming ever since I was a little girl. No its not the Mail carrier, that I secretly wished to become. Why you may ask? I just wanted to make people happy.  Every time I received a hand written letter from a friend( and let me tell you something I love hand written letters ♥) , it made my day and brought me happiness, that would overpower any sad feelings. So I thought to my little self “I want to be the one, who brings happiness to people, so I have to be a Mail carrier ” 🙂 Unfortunately little did I know, that my plans of bringing happiness to people would be soon sabotaged by an invention called email. Seriously ?

I can proudly say that my real wish, and dream became a reality.  I am a mom of some pretty great kids. They are my treasures, and they keep me on my toes.

I have been blessed with curious mind and creative hands. I can’t categorize all the things that I can do as hobbies. Since I can only do things when I make the time (and there isn’t much to spare) especially now thanks to this crazy way of reaching out to people called blogging :).

I have been involved with art ever since I was a little girl. Don’t get me wrong here, I tried to be normal like the other kids. I gave piano a shot, also my leotard didn’t get worn out from over use during gymnastic class , but I definitely scored some points playing Table tennis (at least during practice anyway ).  So as you see my hands were trying to find  their true destiny, and I guess  in art they found it. It is probably easier to list the things that I haven’t tried then to list the things that I have.

I went to a Technical pre-engineering high school, where I had a wonderful opportunity to get involved in some of the more technical art techniques. Welding, wood turning and Blacksmith works were some of my favorites. Then there were art classes that taught me, that art is a form of self expressionism and fun. This is where I was introduced to Batik, screen printing, carving, rug weaving, and paper mache.  A couple of years in a row during summer vacation, I had the opportunity as a child to join a group of kids along with our art teachers, on an art summer adventure. We were able to travel, and visit different places full of history and beauty. Supplied with pencils, charcoal and a drawing pad, we took on the challenge of temporarily preserving the beauty made by man and God on to our papers.

       Latter on I was enrolled into the children’s school of art. This is where the seriously deep art happened. I will always treasure the memory of when my hand touched clay for the first time. The sensation charged from the wet, cold and incredibly smooth texture of the clay, straight into my heart. It was love at first site/ touch. I love what clay allows you to do. Later on, opportunities never seemed to stop from presenting them selves.  One of them was painting.  I have a great weakness: “Hello My name is Marketa, and I am a perfectionist”. There, I said it out loud.  Being a perfectionist places allot of challenges and obstacles in my path.  The way I see things or myself will never be perfect in my eyes.  It’s a curse if you ask me.  I enjoy painting, but because of my curse, I have to categorize my self as a realist.  My eyes appreciate many forms of art, but my brain has its own plans.  So the outcome is usually “what you see is what you get”.  So that is kind of what my work is about. I usually paint on request of my family and friends.

     You are probably wondering how did this blog came to be. Let me just say that in my first attempt to help my friends to be reunited with some Czech deliciousness, a brilliant idea sparked in my mind.  Why not write a cook book? From that point on a notebook became my constant companion during cooking.  I took pictures after carefully arranging meals on my plate before the food disappeared, and endured all too familiar, teasing comments from my family. When I successfully compiled all my recipes together in my computer, few weeks later the beauty was born.

Holding the cookbook in my hand was not the answer I was hoping for.  I wanted to be able to share what I created and be able to answer questions.  I guess I had no other choice than to gather my courage, overcome the fear of technology and create this blog.

  I know it’s not perfect, but hopefully it will make someone happy.  As my babička (grandma) always said “Happiness comes from your stomach” (I always thought it came from the heart ,but she might be right). Food definitely holds power over us. Like it or not.

And yes I love to cook (and invite people over for some good Czech meals), read, decorate, write,learn, sew, create, but best of all I love being a Mom.

Enjoy

Marketa.

To be continued….