Sunday, January 10, 2016

So yesterday I ordered an anvil, ring and bracelet mandral set and another battery for my battery operated dremel. my son had given me a gift card to amazon for christmas and i put that towards these necessary items. on the one hand, i could have ordered something terribly frivolous -- but i ordered something that will allow me to do my metal working designs in an easier fashion, which in the long run should help me with my business. tools of my trade that everybody doing what i do probably has had for a long time, but that i've learned to work around not having.

it's raining and cold today so i opted to stay in and work on some of my designs. i started hammering at around 11 or 11:15 this morning figuring that my neighbors were probably already up and going for the day. idk how much of my hammering they actually hear downstairs -- next door says they hear nothing -- and they were off at church by the time i started hammering. at any rate, i then heard some movement downstairs and some yelling and figured i had awoken them, so i stopped, until around 1. but i have to tell you that when the urge to get a new design done strikes me it is very difficult to stop. i think although my new place is wonderful in size and light and everything else, it's biggest downfall is that it isn't on the first floor or out somewhere on it's own with no one else attached to it. i guess that will be something i will have to concentrate on for the next apt. i might move into. so much to think about when looking at places to live.

so as a result, not a lot gone done in the metal pins department today. but i did do three loads of laundry!

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Transition Just Goes On and On and On

Well, since my last post on this blog a lot of things have happened. The entire summer and fall of 2014 I spent traveling between my home in NH to PA, where my dad was "recuperating" from major heart surgery and dealing with the loss of his partner of 17 years from ALS. Unfortunately, he did not recover and passed away on October 14th. I won't go into the messy details of it all. Suffice to say that I wouldn't wish that sort of death on anyone and I certainly wouldn't wish for anyone I loved to have to witness that kind of death either.

The summer of 2015 brought a move to a new apartment. A place of calm and quiet and blessing from Father God. After looking for over a year and seeing idk how many apartments, I finally just had had enough of living from boxes and when I came to view this one I was smitten. Nevermind that it's a third floor apartment and my knees are shot. It has huge vaulted ceilings and tons of windows that let in natural light and it sits high in the trees so you feel like you are in a treehouse. And finally I have room to have a work space all my own where I can pound out metal (when the neighbors aren't home) and make my art. It also has room for the bits of furniture I brought back from my dad's house after his passing. If an apartment can be a source of healing, then this place certainly is. A friend of mine told her husband (after seeing the initial photos I posted on my facebook page) that this was why I had had to wait so long to find an apartment -- God wanted me to have this perfect place. I believe she is right.

In the last few months I've been steering my business in a different direction as well. And to that end, I have changed the name of my business to reflect that. As a present to myself, I had my DNA analyzed through Ancestry.com and discovered that besides the Irish (21%) there is also Scottish, Viking, and Scandinavian blood coursing through my veins. I was aware of the Irish, the rest was a surprise. So, in order to pay homage to that I have changed the name of my company to Oh! Dougherty Designs ... it's a play on the O' from my 3x great-grandfather's last name of O'Daugherty.

I've been promoting the new products I'm making as well. A local store, Scotland By the Yard in Quechee, VT, has been selling my penannular pins and I'm making the rounds to other businesses to see who might be interested in carrying them. I ordered new business cards and had my daughter design a new banner for me.

So, you see, my life is still in transition. Idk if it's as a result of what I saw my dad go through or not, but I feel like time is very very short, life should not be so miserable, and somewhere along the line we need to find what makes us happy and concentrate our efforts on that. If you have stuck with me through the dry spell of no new posts on my blog, I appreciate that and promise to make more of an effort to post on a regular basis. If nothing else, I hope that the wisdom I gained through trying times might help others.

blessings for a happy and prosperous and healthy 2016!!