Monday, February 28, 2011

About Me

I am a life long crafter thanks to the patience of two loving grandmothers who liked to sew, crochet and embroidery. I can't remember when I didn't want to create something, but I am not an "artist" I cannot paint or draw. That is how I defined myself for a very long time but now I realize I AM an artist just using other mediums. When most teenagers were working fast food during high school I was lucky (or determined, ie: stubborn) enough to not want to go that road and landed a job at our local chain craft store. American Handicrafts was a division of Tandy Leather and it was probably (this was in the 70's) one of the first chain craft stores. I worked that job from my junior year until December following my high school graduation. But marrying right out of high school meant I needed a more grown up full time job with benefits so my creating turned into the part time hobby. I had "planned" to some day have my own craft store but reality took another turn at 29 years of age with the diagnosis of breast cancer. From there on out the most important thing was making sure I had a job with good benefits and health care, being self employed after that was just not an option. Fast forward 22 years and I am a cancer survivor, unemployed but thankfully with a husband with good insurance. I am also unemployed, laid off permanently at the age of 51 so maybe that dream of having my own business will become reality, we'll see. Even with the way the economy is, I'm still optimistic about the future, I have to be, that optimism has helped me survive cancer, divorce, life threatening illnesses for my brother and my mother and a chronic disease diagnosis now of my own. Call me Pollyanna any time, I'll take that as a complement. Facing life head on and with faith in the Lord is the only way I know how to live and I am thankful for my faith and the optimism my parents brought me up with. I promise from here on out to try to write a brighter more uplifting blog, hang with me as I start the remainder of my life journey, as always the twists and turns promise to keep it interesting.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing = keep producing your art. You do beautiful work.

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  2. Yeah! Pam has a blog! And you are an artist with paper, fabric and words! Love ya!

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