My brain has been very preoccupied with raising twins and it’s already overloaded with just being a mom and the continuous responsibilities of running a household. Learning something brand new was just not in the cards for me right now. It was important for me to take a step back. I decided to scratch all the new projects and start over with projects that come easy to me and use up some fabric from my stash. During the Christmas holiday I took up embroidery again and completed this stocking for one of my twins. This was an easy project that took just about a week to complete.

I had lost my favorite person in the world, my Grandma of 95 years young. I owe all of my fiber arts career to her, in fact. She's the one who taught me to crochet, embroidery and sewing techniques. My go to person for everything. We used to enter our county fairs together. This past “Fair Season” was very quiet and sad. In the past we would call multiple times a day for weeks on updates, how we had butterflies of excitement about the items we entered and who won what in each fair category. Such wonderful and loving memories.

A year ago, when I shared about Abby Maddy, I was more excited than ever to be moving in a new direction with the company. We began in January with a build-out of a studio space in our home that would allow me to work while juggling our two teenagers’ schedules. But just as I was getting the studio settled, and beginning to work on the spring launch, we received some unexpected news. On March 30, 2023, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

I’ve been blessed in the last year to work with some incredible artists on interesting and challenging projects. It took a little bit to get going the first six months but then things just really picked up in a big way. Now I’m involved in something art related at least every month. Which is fabulous because I’m motivated to continue making work and working towards my goals.