Getting Back Into The Swing Of Things...Finally

First and foremost, I MUST apologize for "slacking off" the last couple of weeks. Second, I need to explain why. 

I have been out of town, and out of sorts so much lately that I just did not have the energy or time to commit to "An Impassioned Life".  My sister and I are working really hard with our mom, who lives about two hours away, getting her house ready to list on the market for sale.  She is going to moving closer to us (Thank ya baby Jesus) and the grand-kids, but until that happens, it means several back and forth trips to her.  With my Fibro being a factor, I think, I am just wiped out when I get home and it takes me about two days to fully recover. And by the time I am recovered and back to feeling normal again, it seems like its time to make the trip all over again!  So, I sincerely apologize for not posting, but I promise, that time is over.  

I will say, I was so completely overwhelmed when I logged in tonight and saw that over 1100 people have read my blog. Talk about a motivational booster!!  Your comments, and just the fact that you read my posts, is SOOOOOOOOOO appreciated! I love my readers!

Alright, alright, other than moving mom I have also been working on building up my future Etsy shop merchandise. Which means, lots of jewelry making.  I am having a wonderful time doing it and I plan on posting some pics next week. I think I have finally found my niche as far as jewelry making goes. Simple, classic and pretty.  I hope to have the shop open in the next month or so.  I will be sure to let everyone know when that happens.

So, thank you again for keeping up with me on this journey, I promise to not leave you hanging again.  As always, I am always available via email. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, I know here it's going to be a hot one, so remember to stay cool and hydrated!

Happy Fibro Friday! (And a bit of thrift shopping too!)

Welcome to my second "Fibro Friday"!  

This week has been so-so for me.  I've had a few good days, and a few bad days. But overall, I'm not complaining!  I received my TENS Unit in the mail yesterday. TENS is an acronym for Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation. For those of you that don't know it is or what it does, its a little device that has conductor pad thingy's (yes, that is the technical term for them :) ) that send a low voltage current between pads to stimulate the nerves.  

It's supposed to help with pain basically. Although, when you are using it, it feels like a tiny rubber band being snapped against your skin.  So, I'm a little iffy about the whole thing. Not only the whole rubber band slapping feeling, there are also warnings all over it about where NOT to place the electrodes because of the risk of..ohh...ya know...heart attack. The thought of purposely running an electrical current through my body, low voltage or not, is a little scary for me.

I tried it out for maybe three minutes last night. That was all I could handle after I accidentally turned it all the way to the highest setting and freaked myself out!

Aside from my little mishap last night, the biggest problem I have had this week is my hips.  They ache so bad when I sit for long periods of time. I hate the feeling too. It's almost a ache that feels like it needs to pop pain. Does that make sense?  I've been having trouble sleeping too, but that's nothing new for me. I also found, at the beginning of the week, that I started developing a patch of Eczema on my face, right smack on my chin. (Eczema has been linked to Fibromyalgia, in case you didn't know.) It wasn't the red scaly kind of Eczema, thank goodness, but it was bumpy and itched like crazy! How do I know it was Eczema you ask?  I have suffered from Eczema for years, so I have gotten pretty acquainted with its various forms.  Thankfully, I keep a bottle of Aveeno Eczema lotion on hand at all times. That stuff works wonders on my skin!

Alright, enough about the Fibro for today...it's making my back hurt just thinking about it! On a brighter note, I got to spend the morning with my nephew Alex. Dude is so stinking cute! I have the pleasure of watching him a couple times a month when my sister works at my niece's pre-school. Today was one of those days. Of course I take Zoe with me, and she entertains the heck out of him! She's crazy and that seems to make him extremely happy. :)

He is so special to me, probably in part because I always wanted a boy. (but I completely love my little girls!) Now, "dudeman" was born with a club foot, so he has really been through the ringer getting it corrected.  He was in a full leg cast for several weeks, and now he has these crazy looking boot things that has a bar connecting them. 

But I tell you what, those bars don't keep him from doing anything! He can crawl faster than the wind, and he can roll all over the place.  He definitely doesn't let it keep him down. 

Once my sister got home, we ventured South to my house and picked Iris up from school.  Then we headed out to a new little flea market that opened recently...can anyone say jackpot!  For the most part it was junk, but I did find a few things that were ridiculously cheap.  I came across five vintage tablecloths that were in great condition.  Now, if you like vintage tablecloths like I do, you know how crazy expensive they can be.  I have seen them in upwards of thirty dollars or so.  Well, this thrifty shopper paid a total of $5.50 for all five, together. I couldn't believe my luck!  Two of them are Christmas patterns, and those can go for a good bit of change on Etsy and Ebay.  

My next "treasure" was a vintage 1950's/60's Samsonite travel case.  Now, I just found this sold on Ebay for $15.00...I paid $1.49 for it.  Are you kidding me??? So, yes it is a bit rusty around the metal bits, but that just adds to its charm.  I am debating on what to do with it though. Keep it and use it to store craft supplies, display it around the house or re-sell it.  Knowing me, I will end up keeping it. I hate to give up a good piece.  

My last find was a vintage 1950's Androck flour sifter.  This thing is so cool.  I normally don't like anything with ducks or geese on it, but they just totally fit this piece, and I was in need of a flour sifter.  I found this piece sold on Ebay for up to $16.50 and I paid a whopping...wait for it.... .49 cents for it!

Seriously, I couldn't have gotten any luckier. The vintage fairy was on my side today.  I also came across some vintage magazines (another of my favorites to collect) and a Physics book from 1915. I paid .75 each for those. Not too shabby of a day. 

So, now that I have shared my most recent finds, how about you share some of yours...so I can be completely jealous! Well, I am off to make the kids dinner. (i.e. The Papa Johns delivery guy is here) I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! 

And don't forget, shoot me an email just to say hi,  if you have questions or maybe a suggestion. Comment, comment, comment! :) And I finally added my email subscription thingy, so please subscribe to make sure you know what's going on!

Monday, Monday...(sing along with me!)

If you read my last post, you will know I had a pretty rough weekend where my Fibro is concerned. But, that didn't stop me from spending a few hours at one of my favorite antique malls, Southport Antique Mall.  I swear, I could have spent the night in that place.  I went for a purpose, and lost it about a third of the way through.  I went looking for a First Communion gift for my daughter Iris for the next day. (I know, Mother of the year right here, waiting till the last possible moment.) I ended up leaving with that gift, plus some vintage baseball and basketball cards for my husband (big kid at heart) and a bunch of wishes for a wad of cash to burn.

Since I don't like to give just the typical cliche kinds of gifts on special occasions, I ended up buying my daughter an antique rosary, that is supposedly from the Civil War Era. (making it roughly 150-160 years old!) It really is a pretty piece and she likes it because she knows how much I appreciate old things, and I don't buy them for people who aren't special to me. :)  Tell me what you think about the piece pictured below, is it as old as claimed to be? Either way, she loves it and I do too. The best part, and most important part when dealing with questionable antiques, is that I didn't pay a lot of money for it.

The mass for my daughter's First Communion was really nice. And although I am not a practicing Catholic anymore (12 years in Catholic school was enough for me.), I am happy that she has found something to believe in.  Mass was over an hour and a half long! Luckily the Priest is a funny old guy who cracks jokes and doesn't "preach" too much.  Afterwards we went over to the little parish center for a party and pictures. My daughter Zoe told her sister "You look like you just got married Sissy!". It is true, the whole white long dress and veil really does look wedding-ish. 

Now, mind you, Zoe had a make-up T-ball game (Go White Sox!), and she showed up to the party in her uniform. I don't normally dress her this way, although, she might prefer it. :) 

*As a side note, according to Zoe her team won (they don't keep score) and she hit a home run (impossible). My husband, who coaches the team, did say that Zoe was one of the only players that actually went for the ball when it was hit by the other team! That would explain the grass stains all over her pants I suppose...

Anyway, after a long day of church, party, T-ball and shopping, the girls and I decided to play "Beauty Shop".  I had recently purchased a set of hot rollers (I'm old school) and a curling iron with the hopes that my hair was long enough to curl into soft waves. Sadly, I was wrong. I ended up looking like Shirley Temple.  On a little girl, cute. On a thirty-blah blah blah year old woman, horrifying.  The girls results were so much better than mine, that I had to take a few pictures. Ok, so a few might be a fib...more like fifteen or twenty would be about right. I can't help it though, it's the photographer in me. 

You see what I mean about the Shirley Temple look? On Zoe it's adorable! I love it and so did she. Too bad her hair is so fine still that the curls fell out about an hour later!

Iris' hair is so thick I am jealous. Except for when it comes to brushing it. OUCH.  But it is so beautiful.  Her curls stayed in a bit longer and now I am being told that we should do it every morning before school...yeah, sure. :) 

So far so good for this lovely Monday.  It's getting ready to storm pretty good here so I need to get my jammies on and get a good book started...it's gonna be that kind of evening and I can't wait. 

Fibro Friday (3 days late)

Ok, ok, so I know I am two days late with this, but my post actually has to do with the reason for my delay. It's so hard to put into words the kind of pain I experience everyday, and the whole journey I have made to get to this point but I will try.

I was diagnosed with "Fibromyalgia" about a year ago.  Like I said in my welcome post, I am still on the fence about the whole diagnosis. I KNOW I have pain 24/7, I know it can be really hard to manage at times and I know that it will probably never go away.  I have had so many CT scans, MRI's, X-rays and blood work that I don't know if there isn't a part of my body that hasn't been invaded in some way. The scale tipping moment that told me this isn't just about getting older, was about two years ago when I had a migraine so severe that I ended up in the ER.  While there, I received a "migraine cocktail" that contained three different drugs to kick the migraines behind. And it did, but it left me with numbness and then a fiery pain so severe,  in my hip/buttock area, that I couldn't even walk. At the time the doctor thought I had some nerve damage from the shot, ergo the first in a series of scans. Nothing turned up. Nothing at all. And so began the long and tedious journey of trying to figure out what exactly was causing my pain.

The pain has never gone away and it progressed so much that I had trouble getting out of bed most mornings. Eventually the pain spread to my upper back. I literally woke up one morning and couldn't turn my head. That pain too never went away.  My trapezoid and rhomboid muscles are so tense all the time that I have lost all curvature in my neck, a condition called Cervical Kyphosis.

I usually sleep with heat patches on my shoulder and hip and it takes me about an hour in the morning to fully wake and be able to do the simplest of tasks. 

I finally started seeing a Pain Management Specialist.  He is WONDERFUL.  I finally feel like I am going to make some progress and I don't feel like he is just brushing me off. I spent two hours talking with him during my initial appointment and he never once hurried me along (not that I felt like anyway!).  He immediately scheduled some tests and procedures and prescribed some medication without making me feel like a drug addict.  

As of today, I have had 3 injections in my back. One in the Piriformis muscle, one in the Sacroiliac joint and one in the Rhomboid Trigger Point. So far so good as far as the Piriformis and Sacroiliac shots are concerned. Not so much with the Rhomboid Trigger Point injection. And that, my friends, stinks. The Rhomboid issue causes my arm and hand to ache and go numb, causes terrible headaches and jaw pain and generally just hurts like Hades.

Soooooo, my delay in getting my first Fibro post done was due to a really bad week-end and weekend. (Does that make sense?) I was so mad at myself for not having the energy to type this, but, I have learned through all of this, to give myself a break every once in awhile.  Anyone here with Fibro will understand what I mean.  

Here is to a better week ahead to me, and a wonderful week to you!

Here We Go!!

Welcome, welcome, welcome! So, this is my first official blog entry. I am so excited to be finally posting this!

Now, I did a lot of research to make sure I got this thing running in the best possible manner. I poured over countless other blogs and websites. My biggest hang up was “How do I possibly introduce myself to the whole entire world??”. After a ton of stressing and procrastinating, I finally just decided to just wing it. So, without further ado, I'd like to introduce...ME!

My name is Sascha, pronounced SASH-UH. Believe me, that's the easiest way to explain it. Born and raised in the Midwest, I am lucky to have a good appreciation for both the big city and the country alike. I am Thirty-blah blah blah years old (Not giving away just everything!) and I am married with two little girls (divas), Iris and Zoe. I have been married now (2^nd time around, ack) for almost five years. I am a stay at home/ work at home mom and I wouldn’t have that any other way. I have worked in Real Estate for about 13 years now, in some form or fashion. And while I really love it, I am soooooo tired of working for “The Man”. My passions in life are my family, arts and crafts, photography and reading my beloved books. I am a total bookworm that only just blossomed in my adulthood. Before age twenty-five, you couldn’t get me to touch a book let alone read one! I love my crazy life, even if there aren’t enough hours in the day to get it all done. I absolutely detest laundry and I would swear that dust bunnies across the globe have come together (in my house) just to irritate me. I love to tell stories, I am all hands, crazy facial expressions and really bad voice impressions. My mom always tells me I should have been a stand up comedian, but somehow I just don’t think anyone else would appreciate my animated story telling like they do. 

Now, what exactly do I plan on doing with this blog? Well, my intentions are to share, inspire and relate to others. I have a mind full of projects (along with a studio of half-finished ones) that I would love to share with others! I plan on posting tutorials, along with pictures, of current and past projects I have done. I find so much inspiration from other peoples work, and now I want to pay that forward and be the inspiration for others.

As I said earlier, I’m a mother to two little girls. They are my entire world. I would not be who I am now without them. They drive me absolutely insane, but I love them to absolute pieces. Having said that, sometimes they completely hinder my much needed arts and crafts time! I usually find myself creating at the most odd times of the day.  I get sooooooo frustrated when I have this “brilliant” idea in my head and have to end up waiting til 3am, when insomnia takes over, to actually do something! So, my second intention is to show others that it IS manageable. You can be a great mom and a great artist all at once. You just have to be...creative. :)

Something I didn’t mention in my initial intro, that I plan on blogging about, is my “Fibromyalgia”. I put that in quotations for the simple fact that the issue of whether Fibro is a “real” condition seems to be a hot topic, and unfortunately it feels like there is a stigma attached to the diagnosis. And let me tell you , that sucks. I hurt ALL THE TIME. I have had every possible test run to rule out nerve issues, bone fractures, Thyroid issues...you name it, I've done it. I am a close personal friend of all x-ray, CT and MRI machines within a 20 mile radius...trust me. I will go into the specifics in a later post because I have officially, as of just this moment, made Fridays here “Fibro Fridays”! In all sincerity though, it is an issue that is near and dear to me because it has changed my life in so many ways it's crazy. Along with being a mother and an artist, I am also able to be a chronic pain sufferer and an artist...again it just takes some creativity.

So, that is me...for now...I am really excited to begin this journey and I truly hope you will join me! Its sure to be a lot of fun and hopefully even more helpful to others that might find themselves experiencing some of the same “life's little quirks" like myself. Please feel free to leave me comments or send me an email to feisty.blatherings@gmail.com. It can be something good or constructively critical, I appreciate a bit of everything. And be sure to check back often as I am determined to make this the one blog you will be sure to come back to!

Enjoy!