giant update

hello, all!

i know, i'm a terrible, terrible blogger... i haven't blogged since last year (!).  it's been a very strange and stressful 2011 so far (with the worst behind me, thankfully), so i think you will understand when i explain myself a bit.  just a warning: this post will be quite long and detailed.

as you might know, as long as i've had my business, i've had problems with endometriosis.  it's not a pretty tale, but suffice to say i was at stage iv when i was finally diagnosed 4 years ago, but due to complications (it had adhered my lady organs to my colon, for one thing - not fun!), i was never really rid of it completely, even after 2 surgeries and a 6-month round of an awful medication called lupron.  i started having a lot of problems last april and may, and after a few months and lots (and LOTS) of tests and procedures, it was discovered that an endometrial lesion was pushing through my colon wall, blocking the inside and killing about 5 inches of my colon.  i began another 6-month round of lupron in october, and for those who aren't familiar, it makes life pretty miserable.  i continued to work (after all, launching my business was what kept me distracted from the bad stuff going on through the first round), but when my surgery date finally approached, i had to close up my shop for a few weeks.  thankfully, the surgery was a huge success:  yes, i had to have a hysterectomy and colon resection, but it looks like the lupron did its job, as my surgeons found no active or living endometrial tissue in my abdomen, meaning i should be rid of endometriosis once and for all at this point.  recovery has been difficult at times, easy at others, but i am glad to have this chapter of my life come to a close so i can finally LIVE.  having endometriosis really screwed up my metabolism over the past decade, but soon after surgery, i began to lose weight, and happily i have lost 17 pounds so far (i was a beanpole before all this, so i am thrilled i'm finally getting thin and healthy again!)

as soon as i was cleared for work by my doctor (6 weeks post-op), i began making up for lost time.  i participated in 2 art fairs recently and also offered a deal on heartsy (like groupon for etsy sellers, if you're not familiar), which kept me plenty busy for a while ;).

i also created new chiyogami bangles, released some sets of stud earrings and wine glass charms, started selling to a few new brick-and-mortar shops, and began an email newsletter (you can sign up in the box in the top right corner of this page ^).

it feels great to be productive again :).

here are some photos from the art fairs, starting with 'japan-aid' which took place on april 29th:

the middle of my display table

my pencil sets on display

and the 'may day' art fair at caffe medici in austin, tx on may 1st:

my set-up.  ignore the computer and sign in the background - those aren't mine :p

the middle of my table again, only this time i upgraded my price tags

my pencils on display again.  these were so popular!

and i have to say - i've got a really great husband and wonderful friends!  brandon helped me out for 'japan-aid', and my best girl friend brandie assisted me at the 'may day' fair.  she was so awesome that i'm going to have her help at future shows, too.  here we are at a restaurant afterward, celebrating a job well done:

i will be doing more art fairs this year (i have 5 planned), so i will keep you updated on the details for those.

life outside work has been good, too.  my husband and i took a short trip to galveston island on the texas coast right after the 'may day' fair, which was lovely, though i wish we could have stayed longer (we were only there 2 nights and 1 full day).  also, my friend carena won a cruise for her and a guest through her work, and she invited me to tag along.  i've never been out of the country nor been on a cruise, though i have always longed to travel, so i am very excited.  the cruise is in august, and sails to the bahamas, st. maarten, and st. thomas.  then, in september, brandon and i will be going to new mexico (a first for me) to witness his cousin hudson marrying my fellow 'shana logic' artist lauren king (small world, right?), who is now, after discovering this happy coincidence, my friend.  it's going to be a fun rest of the year :).

so now you're pretty well updated, at least on the major things.  whew!

oh, one more thing:  my mother bought me a tassimo coffee machine as a 'get well' gift, and i have now become a coffee-lover.  if you'll excuse me, i'm going to go make an aromatic cup of maxwell house french vanilla coffee right now ;).

♥,

melissa

ps - thank you SO much to all of you who have sent kind messages my way throughout the last few months - your support means so much to me!

it's been a long time...

... since i posted on my dear blog! sorry about that, the internet! the reason for my absence can mostly be attributed to me freaking out about school.

you might remember a post way back in february where i said something like, "okay, i'm off to take my film class' midterm! wish me luck!". well, i never took it. it's a self-paced distance-learning class, so of course i didn't get in trouble or anything, except that the course expires in 1 1/2 weeks, and i hadn't even made it half-way through! so guess what i've been doing for the last few days? reading my film book and watching my films like crazy! at least it's a fun class :). also, i have these two 10-page papers due for two history classes. i've got 1 1/2 weeks to submit those, as well. plus i have a paper due in my literature class on tuesday, followed by the final the next tuesday. but then i will be done for the semester, and i will breathe a huge sigh of relief! i have a knack for putting things off till the last minute and somehow pulling it off and making all a's, so hopefully that trend will continue :p.

in the short breaks i allowed myself, i created some ginkgo pieces that have a simple kind of beauty. here's one:



it's not washi paper, but it is japanese paper, so no, i didn't cheat :p.

this week i was surprised with two custom orders and a normal order! that was thrilling :D. one of the custom orders was a batch of 40 washi fortune cookies, so that was exciting! my little shop is getting a lot of traffic lately, and i couldn't be happier. i ran an ad on projectwonderful for about a week and gained a customer from it, and over 500 clicks to my shop from the ad. so if you're thinking about that sort of thing for your shop, i say go for it! it worked for me, anyway :).

i made it past 200 hearts at last! i'm not sure how some of you ladies do it (namely tizz: girl, you've got a ton more hearts than me, and we started selling at the same time! congrats to you!), but my hearts have come in slowly since 3 months ago, when i opened my shop. and speaking of hearts, my washi fortune cookies have over 600 views and 17 hearts!

also, i decided to buy a full arsenal of gold-plated findings to keep on hand just in case a customer can't wear silver (or if they prefer gold).

on a personal note, it's been one year since i landed myself in the emergency room, unknowing that i had stage iv endometriosis. it's been a really rough year, i have to say, but a lot of really great things happened, too. two surgeries and one year later, i have finished my shot treatment. the hot flashes stopped, and i feel a lot better since the lupron is leaving my system, and hopefully now i can get on with my life! up until now, it has been impossible to lose weight (i look like i'm average weight, but i'm somehow at 170 pounds since endo and all the treatments i have been on made me gain weight) since i wasn't allowed to for about 6 months (for risk of bursting the cysts, and also recovering from the surgeries, which were a few months apart). i've been exercising vigourously throughout the day, almost every day, so we'll see. i really want to look fabulous in my wedding dress in october!

oh, and my soon-to-be mother-in-law, whom i haven't spoken to in 3 months, wants to eat dinner with brandon, the step-dad, and me on monday. that should be interesting...

well, that's what's up! it's likely that i won't be able to blog much in the next 1 1/2 weeks, but i'll make an effort ;p.

and by the way, ladies who won prizes in my recent contest: don't forget to redeem your gift certificates! there's no expiration on them, i just don't want you to forget your free goodies :)

♥,
melissa