I know, I know...I've been meaning to do this for a very long time.  So here it is, my first blog post. 

Now what, I ask myself; tapping my fingers rapidly across the keys?  
Well, I suppose I should say that I started this blog to promote my Etsy shops, but after some thought (okay, a lot of thought) I decided it can just be about anything I'm interested in. 

Right now my shops are my passion, as I quit the day job I had been at for 16 years.  It was a good job but very stressful and ultimately it didn't make me a happy person.  

So the shop that I started in 2007 began to grow and I actually had time to make some of the things I'd always wanted to!  The spare room was painted and organized into a "studio", I did more art and craft shows and gained more confidence that I was doing the right thing.  
Not only did the shop prosper but I decided to add a photography shop as well, which is truly my artist passion and one that I hope I will continue to grow with.

That being said, life does tend to throw us a curve, a surprise, an fork in the road.  Mine was named "heart attack at 54".  One emergency ride to the hospital from a small mid-Florida town with on stoplight where I was setting up for an art show, with and a great bunch of emergency techs, to a whole team of people waiting my arrival in the ER.  
Another scary and very life changing few days later I was home with four stents, bruised and little battered with two very painful but tiny incisions in my lower abdomen (groin), and very very humbled.  Thanks to my surgeon who I hated with a passion at first because of his lack of bed side manner and my unwillingness to give up on the fact that I was freezing cold and begging to be warmed while he was telling me to stop crying.  I say thanks because he saved my life after all of that drama and came to see me before I left the hospital, held my hand, smiled and told me to have a long and healthy life.  Thanks doc, thanks to the nurses and techs that poked, prodded and otherwise took every shred of decency away from me...but you did your jobs well and got me through it all.
Now, during all that my mind was mainly on my kids; both living out of town/state, my parents and my dog; left at home, but my friend and dog sitter was taking good care of her (thank you Ellen), and of course my inventory tucked away in a tiny hotel room (and I speak the word hotel lightly as it was just pitiful...but actually clean).  All of that was taken care of by my sis and hubby who were with me and got me home in one piece.

I'm ever so grateful for the opportunity I have had to be working for myself at home for the past nearly 4 years.  It's been a struggle at times, a lot of blood sweat and tears, but I'm still here and I'm still kicking and still grateful that my products have traveled the world to many happy customers.  
My photography shop continues to grow and I'm looking forward to upgrading my camera equipment by the end of the year, 2014.  At that point, there'll be no stopping me.  Bigger and much better things are just beyond the horizon and will see you all there...