It's coming faster than we think

     Tomorrow is October 1st and I absolutely hate the fact that I am sitting here thinking about the upcoming holiday's.  My whole life I grumbled when I walked into a store and saw Christmas decorations before Halloween got here but as an online shop owner now, I get it.  I get it, I get it.  Each year I tell myself I am going to buckle down get rid of distractions and get great, holiday worthy, items made, posted and promoted in my shop in plenty of time for the holiday's because I know I can't wait until December 5th to start.

    Yet here I sit on September 30th, with so many things going on in my life I wonder to myself, when am I going to get the time to create enough?  This has to be the year I get a head start and make gorgeous, creative, beautiful items for one and all and sell them all so I can in turn buy gorgeous, creative, beautiful items to give to my family for gifts.  But when will I find time?  It just is not going to happen.  No matter how much I make up my mind life will always interfere with the best layed plans.  Some one will need me, my school work will get heavy, I will have an episode that stops me from creating.  It will always be something so all I can do is just move forward as best as I can just like I always do.  I will have new items posted, I will work on my ornaments but I will not be performing any miracles.  First and fore most I will concentrate on the ribbon ornaments for my friend for a few weeks.  Then we will delve into the holiday creation in the free minutes of my life.
Just the real life facts in the every day life of Debsparkles.  ;o)

Empowerment

A strong word.  A person can be empowered in many ways.  Today I am brainstorming way's to empower someone and I am going to appeal to your heart.  I have a friend, well I am not sure that is the best description, she is someone who has more than once been a part of my extended family. a best friend to my own daughter, someone we love.  She is in need of help.  Often we all are in need of some help but remember the old saying "no matter how tough it gets someone else has it tougher"
This is definitely one of those moments for me.  I am going to tell her story but I will not name her, she will just be called her because as much as I want to share what she is going through and what I wish to do, I must also protect her privacy.  If you and I are close and have the same group of close friends then you are already aware of who we are trying to help.

She married her high school sweetheart.  Sad and strange as it may be her childhood sweetheart, decorated service man husband quickly plunged her into a life of abuse.  But like most of us woman, she tried to work at things, she loved him and could fix him.  This is a thought I know so very well having spent 5 years married to an abusive alcoholic.  I loved him and I could fix him.  Yeah sure.

She gave birth to two gorgeous kids and the abuse became steadily worse and worse until the day she realized because she is a strong person that she needed to get out of the situation.  She tried living in the same state so the kids had contact with dad but that still left her vulnerable to the physical and emotional abuse.  Recently she came home so she had the support of family and friends  and after a recent court hearing on custody, had to return her children to dads state or face kidnapping charges. 
Any mom can understand the pain of leaving your kids with the man who has beat you over and over.  But she will fight and continue fighting for her children til the very end. 
I truly, truly have to wonder, what kind of a Judge facing a pile of police reports proving a man has beaten his wife over and over, blatantly hands those children over to the abuser without thought to not only their safety but to the woman who has given birth, loved and raised these children and subjected herself to more abuse to keep them safe?  I cannot for the life of me understand it. 

So now to start getting to the point of this post.  As a mom who's kids are her life she has no choice to travel between states for court appearances to fight for her family.  She has friends and family ready to support her emotionally, mentally, physically but the fact is this will cost money.  Lots of money.  Money to travel, pay lawyers, eat and have a place to stay.  The one power not in her reach is ready cash. 

What can I do?  There has to be something, that is the person I am.  Those that know me personally or have been reading my blog know I am dirt poor and never will be able to hand someone money.  But there is always a way and what I do have is my ability to turn my pile of beads into something of value.  So I am in the progress of beading awareness ribbon ornaments.  The samples I have been working on are done in purple because that is the color for domestic violence but I think I will be making them in as many colors as I can.  The only money I take from the sales will be what I spend in shipping.  The rest will go to my friend.  Anything I can do will empower her just a bit more than yesterday.
The ornaments will be listed for sale in my Etsy shop but I will also take custom orders in any color or amount.  If you are interested please contact me through my gmail and I can give you more information.   deb913@gmail.com

So as I make and list more ornaments they will pop up on my pictures or give send me an email if you can help.  Thank you and if nothing else say a prayer for my friend to keep her strong while she gets through this fight to bring her babies home. 

My Weekend

I know, your saying what's that baby doing here again!  I just love showing off my newest grand baby and she was so cute in her new pink tutu I couldn't help myself.

This weekend I attended my first live selling event in a very, very long time.  It was rather fun but I forgot how exhausting it is.  I came home with not only serious exhaustion but an unbelievable sunburn.  I made it through the entire summer without sunburn and in September I get zapped.  fortunately my Italian skin turns to tan quickly so I am now sporting a toasty glow.  Any way, I had made up a good amount of inexpensive chokers, friendship bracelets and keychains.  I put my
Etsy shop into vacation mode and brought every piece from the shop with me.  So I had a good full table.  I did not sell a fortunes worth of stuff but it was not a bad weekend.  I made my table money back with a bit more.  I gave out a lot of business cards for both my Etsy shop and my Avon business.  And I learned what to bring if I am foolish enough to do another live event in the near future.  For the entire 2 days I sold my felt and sequined ornaments and my friendship bracelets.  I pretty much wiped out my stock on ornaments so I need to get busy because I do sell them well during the holiday season.  All in all it was a fun weekend and I am glad I went. Now if I could just recuperate!

Goodbye August

         August has flown by quickly and I do not feel like I have had one minute to enjoy the all too short summer season.  But I do feel like I have accomplished much.  I am very well settled in my new home, boxes are all unpacked, getting pictures on the wall, and feeling content.  I just finished 2 more online college classes and waiting for grades, starting my next 2 classes next week.  Giving some thought to something, actually I have decided to do it.  The town I am living in has a townwide garage sale every September.  I remember doing it about 20 years ago.  I have lived here before when my kids were very little.  I have decided to sign up for a table and now I have just a bit under 2 weeks to make up a bunch of small inexpensive things, maybe bracelets and keychains.  I think I will put my Etsy shop in vacation mode for that weekend and take all the items from the shop.  Should be a fun weekend if it does not rain.  But I better go pick up my beading needles.

Meet my neighbors

As you know, I have been in the process of moving.  I finally got myself settled into my new home last week , got unpacked and a good start on getting things where I want them.  I have already gotten into the habit of taking my coffee in the morning and heading for the back porch to enjoy what little bit of summer we have left.  This picture is what I sit and watch each morning with my coffee.  I live right next door to a large cattle farm and there are literally 35 to 40 cows on the other side of my driveway when I get up.  I must admit that I am having great fun with it. 
The irony here is I have spent the last 20 years of my life living right in the middle of downtown of my city.  I have lived less than a 5 minutes walk away from the market, the bank, the library the park and have spent my summers enjoying the hustle and bustle of a town full of tourists coming in to spend their money at the harness track.
Now here I am.  Absolutely nothing within walking distance.  I have to learn to shop for at least 2 weeks at a time, arrange rides to do my banking and bill paying and instead of the hustle and bustle of tourists I am listening to birds and crickets and gentle mooing.
This may be the best thing I have done for myself in a long, long time once I am used to the change in how I take care of the things mentioned above.  I may get to concentrate better on my school work. I may be able to create more and better pieces, course that depends on how I can get those last minute supplies that I don't like to bulk order but yes, I am now a country girl.  We shall see how it goes.

A Fresh Start

This time tomorrow I will be laying my head down to go to sleep in my new room.  After all the crap, I have boxed up my belongings, shipped my furniture out and have found a new home.  I am excited.  I decided not to feel bad about leaving this house, it is time for a fresh start in all area's of life.  My new home is small, cute and cozy.  I will be able to do my beadwork, have internet access to do my schoolwork and my Etsy shop and my blog all from the comfort of my house.  My new grandbaby will have her own furniture there to come have overnight visits with Grandma instead of Grandma having to go to Amelia's house every weekend.  I am truly looking forward to all these changes.
Most especially not having to head for the library every single day to get my school work done. What a great change it will be to sit down at the computer and study when I want day or night!  I look forward to having the time to create and add new work to my shop.  The fact that I am moving to the country will take some getting used to.  After all these years I am so very used to being able to walk out my front door and then walk anywhere I need to go, the store, the bank, the library or just walk the main streets of town when things are jumping downtown.  My next door neighbor or should I say neighbor's is a herd of cows, I will be living right next door to a large cow farm.  Since I cannot drive anymore I will be at home a whole lot often than I have been in a very long time but I think I am looking forward to that too.   For now, it's off to bed, still have a lot of work to do tomorrow.

Here we go again

I just finished posting this amulet bag in my shop.  I haven't had a lot of time to do my beadwork lately.  I spend most of my creating hours doing schoolwork.  Now, while I am not going to put the shop in vacation mode, I won't be creating for a bit again.  I will just be posting the new work I have finished because my landlord is at it again.
I am very tired of fighting.  My health both physical and emotional needs a break so I have decided I need a fresh start somewhere else.  I need some life changes so Debbie can take care of Debbie before she is lost.  Problem is I have no where to go so I have some challenges ahead as far as what to do with my belongings.  I had them in storage last time I tried to move and let me tell you 3 large storage units is a lot of money. But we are talking furniture and belongings for a family of 4 accumulated over 20 some years.  I am going to have some impromptu lawn sales.  Since I will be moving into a smaller place I have no room for all the furniture other than what my daughter decides to take where ever she may end up.  I guess I have to look at it like I am cleaning out the closet that we just shove everything into.  Once I pare down to what I know I could fit in the smallest of places, LOL, that means my clothes and my beading supplies, then we will move on to the next decision.  In the mean time, my Etsy shop will remain open but after this week I probably will not be adding new items for a good month or so.