Facing Reality -- and learning to cope with a diagnosis of Diabetes

14 months ago, I learned that I have diabetes. I have spent the last year alternately trying like mad to get it under control and pretending that I can eat like I didn't "really" have this disease. Today, I went to a diabetes management class, and I am hopeful that I will "get it together" and be able to say that I am a lot healthier in 14 months from now.

I find it very scary to have diabetes-- both parents had it and both really died from complications from it, my mother at only 60 years old. She was legally blind by the time she died, and could no longer do any of the things she really loved to do- sewing, crafts, even reading was not possible for her anymore. I am going to be 60 years old in six months. I am petrified... I expect that I will reach the age of 61 and feel a lot better, but this next year just feels like I am following in Mom's footsteps (once I was diagnosed with Diabetes last year that is.) So my challenge is: to keep my blood sugars under control, and to lose weight. My goal is for there to be a whole lot less of me by next fall. Watch this space for updates! 

Working Off The Fall Blahs....

Am I the only one that feels sad in the fall? I love fall in that it's so beautiful-- but a lot of times I feel badly that a) I am soon not going to be able to get into the garden to work, and b) another year will soon be coming to a close.

So now here I am making myself feel better by trying to create jewelry and other things. Last week it rained all week which didn't help- but the rain is over as of today anyway so tomorrow I may go out work in the garden! (I WAS glad to see the rain, because my garden is parched for it, but I'm glad it's over for the time being :-).

So here are the things I've been working on of late:
I just took a class to learn how to paper piece a quilt block... that was fun and I really learned a lot. I also just have completed several pieces of jewelry for a friend.

Here is a picture of one of the three sets--

Here is a close up of the beads which were quite pretty.

There were earrings and a bracelet with the set but I changed them after the picture was taken. I will make some that are similar and post them again. One of the other sets was also black, but instead of the low key milky round beads and the teal freshwater pearls, this had red coral round beads and turquoise chips, and grey pearls to go with it. The third set was of poppy jasper chips, separated by gold seed beads amd accented by peach aventurine and tiger eye beads. I didn't get pictures of those sets, unfortunately.

So I'm getting things done I guess - today I made a card for a friend- I'd made a pin to go on over the weekend -- hope she likes it. I will take a photo of the card with the pin I made and post it after she gets it, in case she might see it and mess up my surprise :-).

Jewelry Gallery Slide Show

Here are some of the jewelry pieces I've made through the years, showing the very first pieces I did (when I had no clue what I was doing!) to the later pieces that I'm pretty happy with. Some along the way were experiments-- and didn't work quite as well as I'd hoped lol. But overall, there was progress....

A Better Me

Just trying this out--hope it works!

Previously completed artsy stuff-- first collaged box

It seems I always do things and forget to post them because I am so busy DOING them that I forget to share them. So I decided tonight to post things I have finished some time ago.

The first one that came to mind was a box I made for the grandson of a friend. He was interested in bugs, Egyptology, and tigers. So I found pictures in magazines to decoupage on the box using these motifs.



I found a picture of an archeological dig near a pyramid. Then I added a picture of a tiger that appeared to be looking down to my collection of pictures. I put the tiger on the box so that it looked as if he was peering down into the dig site. A giant moth hovered nearby.

That completed the top of the box. I wanted the sides to be all different. I painted stripes on the sides, that started out looking like the stripes on an Egyptian Pharoah's mantle,



I found a page of stickers of ants at the craft store. The ants crawled up and down the stripes like the rooms in an anthill, and as the box was turned,



the stripes became more and more like the stripes on a tiger's fur.



On the front, I put small cut outs of a bee hive and a few bees flying to it.


For the inside of the box, I found a picture of the bug collection of a famous ornithologist from the 19th century. That was glued in, with a plain black bottom of the interior of the box.


The bottom of the outside of the box was a large picture of a tiger that I found a lovely picture of a giant moth. It resembled a Commodore's hat from the English Navy of old. (My friend and her grandson were British so that was particularly nice for this box.)

Places I have been...

1. Albuquerque, NM, USA
2. Virginia Beach, VA, USA
3. Toronto, Ontario, Canada
4. Campbell, CA, USA
5. Lake Tahoe, CA, USA
6. Raleigh, NC, USA
7. Poughkeepsie, NY, USA
8. Oceanside, CA, USA
9. Torrance, CA, USA
10. San Jose, CA, USA
11. Santa Fe, NM, USA
12. Newport, RI, USA

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Places I have been...

1. Albuquerque, NM, USA
2. Virginia Beach, VA, USA
3. Toronto, Ontario, Canada
4. Campbell, CA, USA
5. Lake Tahoe, CA, USA
6. Raleigh, NC, USA
7. Poughkeepsie, NY, USA
8. Oceanside, CA, USA
9. Torrance, CA, USA
10. San Jose, CA, USA
11. Santa Fe, NM, USA
12. Newport, RI, USA

• Create your own travel map or travel blog
• Find Cheap Flights at TripAdvisor

Family Slide Show and Link to Big Slide Show

Another Twist In The Road.... Like-- Cross Country?

Well, I WAS doing great getting "My Personal Assistant" going-- but then, Joel lost his contract job in South Carolina (that was good news, believe me!) Then, in his search for the next job, he found one-- but it was 2500 miles away-- in San Jose California.... so I had to decide if I would let him commute from so far away or go with him. I went with him. We left North Carolina December 26th, and got here to San Jose January 1st, stopping for two days to see our son, daughter in law and grandchildren in Los Angeles along the way.

Several people have asked if I am going to start a new "My Personal Assistant" and no, I am not. First of all, Joel has just agreed to work at this job for a year, and he does not want to retire in California. Second of all, I decided I am going to be the roving Grandma. So-- that is what I am going to do. I will post pictures, I promise!

My new company-- My Personal Assistant!

It's been a long time since I've written in this blog, but my excuse is: I've been a busy gal!! Here's what's been going on this year alone:

In January, 2007, I started a small business as a "Concierge". I help seniors and disabled people with tasks that help delay having to move to an assisted living facility. I say "If it's not illegal or immoral, and you need help with it, I'm there!"

In February, I became involved with a group called "MOMS-I.N.C." (Moms Improving Nutrition For Children). The goal of this group is to get schools to eliminate sugar and trans fat from school lunches. I am the webmaster of the MOMS-I.N.C. website.

In March, I started a craft group in my home that is a great source of inspiration, skills transfer for all our members, as well as so much fun in terms of getting together with some great people!
In May I was the North Carolina Delegate for The Daughters Of The British Empire, in Long Beach, California. It was soooo much fun!

In August, I joined a "Business Networking International" group close by in Cary, North Carolina. What a great group of people!

In September, a friend took me to a "Cary Leads Group" which is another group whose purpose is to help small businesses with business referrals.

I have a full schedule, with several great clients. I love what I am doing!

The Craftin' Life

It's been a long time since I've written in this blog, but my excuse is: I've been a busy gal. Here's what's been going on this year alone:

In January, 2007, I started a small business as a "Concierge". I help seniors and disabled people with tasks that help delay having to move to an assisted living facility. I say "If it's not illegal or immoral, and you need help with it, I'm there!"

In February, I became involved with a group called "MOMS-I.N.C." (Moms Improving Nutrition For Children). The goal of this group is to get schools to eliminate sugar and trans fat from school lunches. I am the webmaster of the MOMS-I.N.C. website.

In March, I started a craft group in my home that is a great source of inspiration, skills transfer for all our members, as well as so much fun in terms of getting together with some great people!
In May I was the North Carolina Delegate for The Daughters Of The British Empire, in Long Beach, California. It was soooo much fun!

In August, I joined a "Business Networking International" group close by in Cary, North Carolina. What a great group of people!

In September, a friend took me to a "Cary Leads Group" which is another group whose purpose is to help small businesses with business referrals.

I have several great clients- in fact, my schedule is quite full. I love what I'm doing!

Making progress...

I know this is not about crafting, per se-- but it's what's been going on in my life. I figure I have to get through the thinking process of this mess if I'm going to be able to do any crafting at all. So here goes: (if you don't have this problem, just come back to read what's happening next time -- I promise it won't be about cleaning house! :-)).

Joel, my husband of 35+ years, has been working in Dallas TX (we live in Raleigh, NC so we have been about 20 hours apart for all but about 6 weeks since July!). This happened in July of 2004, because the money from our savings just "ran out" after Joel had been out of work for almost a year, (give or take a few small contracts that he had -- he teaches Java programming).

It's been rough. He's lonely-- I'm lonely. He's bored, and I'm anything BUT bored-- in fact, lately, I rarely get to do any where near as much crafting or working on my business as I'd like to.

Well! Yesterday (Saturday) Joel came home for a week- just in time for Valentine's Day, mind you :-D! In preparation for his coming home, I got the house cleaned for the first time since he left at the beginning of January. It feels sooo nice to be able to find things again-- I'm not totally sure how it got so out of hand, but I definitely hope to keep it from ever becoming like that again.

Tomorrow, I am going to tidy up the house from the weekend's activities to try to keep it nice and not have to dig out again like I did this last few weeks. (One big problem for me was that I put all the Christmas stuff into my son's old room, and kept telling myself I should go through it and get rid of the stuff that is just taking up space. Finally, I just put it all in the closet, and then somehow, I could think so much easier! Now why didn't I think of that earlier???? Amazing how it just kept nagging at my mind to get it out of the way, and when I finally did, I was free to think of what else needed to be done.

Anyway, after I do the tidying, I am going to work on my jewelry. I will post what I get done. Wish me luck ;-)

This was one of THOSE days...

Today was just "not my day". I was supposed to go help serve a meal at a soup kitchen, and I voluteeered to bring dessert. I planned to make a recipe called "Chocolate Brownie Mousse Trifle". -- It's sooo, soo good. However, my oven had other plans, it seems, because something is wrong with the thermostat, I think.

I say this because I baked the first of the two brownie batches that go into it, and set it on top of the stove to cool, and made the next batch. I got distracted and forgot to notice the time so the last one over cooked by about 10 minutes. Not a problem-- that one was fine. So I went to crumble up the first one while the second was cooling. The first wasn't cooked. So I stuck it back into the oven. For some reason, it just WOULD not finish cooking. So I went on to the other components of the dish. I made the mousse, no problem. I went to make the whipped cream. I couldn't get it to whip. I eventually gave up and just took the individual parts and we had brownies with mousse on top, and the canned whipped cream on top of that. It wasn't bad, but it was no where near what I had thought it would be.


So, needless to say, none of the crafts or jewelry making I'd hoped to do were accomplished. Ah well, there's always tomorrow!

Brianna (oldest grandaughter) and I in August, 2001.  

Starting out...and learning as I go!

Hi! I'm so glad you stopped by to read my blog :-). I know nothing about writing a blog-- so this is sort of a "learn as you go" experience-- just as my business of selling my jewelry and crafts has been!

First, to tell you a bit about myself:

I am Peggy, a mom of 5 wonderful sons, and a grandmother to 2 equally wonderful grandaughters. I've been married 35+ years to the same great guy. All that being said, now I can talk about the stuff I like to talk about the most: crafts and making things.

I've always loved to make things since I was small. When my kids were little, I made a lot of toys for them, (many of them were not the best quality things around-- but they were cheaper than the stuff in the stores :-)!) Finally, when they were bigger, and suddenly there was more time in the day, I went back to school and got a degree in

Art Education. I ended up deciding I didn't want to get a job in a school district because although I love children, I didn't like huge numbers of them all at once! So I got a job as activity director in a retirement home-- and it was the best of all jobs for me. While I worked there, I started making jewelry for "birthday gifts" for the residents monthly birthday parties. When I finally quit that job for health reasons, I eventually went on and started my own business selling my jewelry online.

So-- I would love to hear from you-- if you just like crafts, if you are a person who is in business for yourself, who have had a business such as this, or would like to. Maybe we can all "learn as we go".