{"id":120,"date":"2024-02-07T18:37:50","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T18:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/patriciakouttab.com\/?page_id=120"},"modified":"2024-04-22T21:40:19","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T21:40:19","slug":"about-me","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/patriciakouttab.com\/index.php\/about-me\/","title":{"rendered":"About Me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Thank you for visiting! I&#8217;m Patricia Kouttab, artist and creative entrepreneur. I&#8217;m sure like many of you creatives out there, I&#8217;m full of ideas and constantly thinking of my next creation. Throughout my life I&#8217;ve loved painting, drawing, coloring and designing. My early career was a professional graphic designer and after realizing I had the entrepreneur spirit I took the leap to freelance graphic artist. Eventually, the world started changing and print designers were no longer in such high demand. I also felt pulled to leave the computer a bit and get back to painting and drawing. I began creating coloring books and painting while being a stay-at-home mom. Then I really switched things up and in 2019 I decided to open a toy store. Yes, a toy store! We are a family of collectors and we all love toys, antiques and unique vintage stuff so it was a logical choice for me to start a company that would include all of us (check out our <a href=\"https:\/\/kerbobbleblog.com\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/kerbobbleblog.com\">toy blog<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My primary drive was to help my husband, Nadim, move on from a job that was making him miserable and unhealthy with the hours and stress that he endured. So I embarked on creating a business that encompassed all of the things that we loved but also had my own personality. My goal was to create a safe place that makes people feel happy, positive and totally present.  By offering vintage toys, we take people back to a time when life was simple and using the imagination was the focus. I had no idea that it would encompass my whole family and that each of us would become so passionate about it. I also didn&#8217;t know what an impact it would have on the community and how much love our customers would share with us. Today our store <a href=\"https:\/\/kerbobble-toys.com\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/kerbobble-toys.com\">Kerbobble Toys<\/a> is thriving and is a small town staple in <a href=\"https:\/\/historicmanassas.org\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/historicmanassas.org\">Historic Manassas<\/a>, Virginia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What does this have to do with art?  Well, I believe art goes beyond painting or drawing or creating music. I think anytime we dream up an idea or envision the possibility of making a difference in the world, that&#8217;s <strong>art<\/strong> &#8211; no matter how big or small. I think my artistic spirit is what moved me to create <a href=\"https:\/\/kerbobble-toys.com\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/kerbobble-toys.com\">Kerbobble Toys<\/a> and what continues to move me to create more. I made this website to share my art and my thoughts with you and hopefully it inspires you in some way. I believe we are all connected in so many ways and that we are especially connected to nature and the Earth. As I continue to explore and learn in this life, I hope you&#8217;ll join me and follow your own dreams and journey to happiness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Happy creating!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"675\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/patriciakouttab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/PatriciaKouttab2024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-170\" style=\"width:296px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/patriciakouttab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/PatriciaKouttab2024.jpg 675w, https:\/\/patriciakouttab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/PatriciaKouttab2024-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/patriciakouttab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/PatriciaKouttab2024-600x800.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 675px) 100vw, 675px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Patricia Kouttab 2024<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thank you for visiting! I&#8217;m Patricia Kouttab, artist and creative entrepreneur. I&#8217;m sure like many of you creatives out there, I&#8217;m full of ideas and constantly thinking of my next creation. Throughout my life I&#8217;ve loved painting, drawing, coloring and designing. My early career was a professional graphic designer and after realizing I had the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-120","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patriciakouttab.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patriciakouttab.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patriciakouttab.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patriciakouttab.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patriciakouttab.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/patriciakouttab.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173,"href":"https:\/\/patriciakouttab.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/120\/revisions\/173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patriciakouttab.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}