Boho Bling Bracelets for Charity

 

I found out that an old friend of mine, Kevin, has cancer.  His mother-in-law set up an online fundraiser to help his family pay for his chemotherapy and help pay the bills while he is unable to work.  You can read about Kevin and donate to his fund by going here:  http://www.gofundme.com/3oota4  

I was not able to donate as much as I would like to because I am disabled.  In order to be able to help more substantially, I designed a simple adjustable sliding knot bracelet to sell in my new shop, ThunderBlingJewelry. 

There is a category called, “Boho Bling Bracelets” that I created for Kevin’s Cancer Fund bracelets.  The bracelets are $20 with FREE SHIPPING.  For each bracelet sold, I will donate $15 to Kevin.  The remaining $5 will pay for shipping, materials and etsy/paypal transaction fees. 

These bracelets look great alone or layered with other Boho Bling Bracelets.  They are a great gift idea for women, teens and even girls.  I can make them to fit any wrist. 

If I sell 33 bracelets I will be able to donate $500 to Kevin.  I’m hoping to at least raise that much for him.  Please help Kevin by going to https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThunderBlingJewelry?section_id=13977825 and picking out some Boho Bling Bracelets, or go to his fundraiser site at http://www.gofundme.com/3oota4 and donate directly to him.

I’ve known Kevin since I was a very little girl when he lived down the street from me.  We used to sit on the bus together and sing.  He taught me “The Crazy Old Man From China,” only he sang, “…China na nah…”  We also had matching brown tennis shoes at the time when only white shoes were “cool,” which was pretty awesome for me because he was cool in my opinion and I was a bit dorky…still am, I guess.  

His brothers were really good to me when I was in high school.  One time I got a ride home from track practice from a really creepy guy who scared me nearly to death.  I never told them, but from then on, one of them always drove me home from practice. 

They are good people and treated me like a sister, so after hearing about Kevin’s illness, I naturally wanted to help.  Please help out.  By getting some of my bracelets, you get a great product and I am able to turn my time into money for Kevin’s fund. 

Kevin is a wonderful husband and father of two, and the financial burden of this setback is not an easy thing to manage when you are a breadwinner.  He had just missed a bunch of work because he had back surgery, and was still paying that off when his cancer was discovered.  Then he had to have surgery again, plus chemo. 

He has missed a lot of work and will miss a lot more and the bills are piling up.  His insurance pays for some of the treatments, but what it doesn’t is still an astronomical amount and the clinic insisted that he pay that money up front, so money is needed NOW to pay for the life saving treatments. 

Thank you for reading about Kevin.  If you can, please help by donating directly to his fund at Cancer Sucks or by buying some of my Boho Bling Bracelets.  Thanks. 

Rewrite Your Story - Healing for the Migraine Sufferer

I am sitting in bed with a cup of coffee, a gluten free sugar cookie and a book, just pondering.  I'm working on some new artwork, trying to figure out what direction to go. I am creating some mixed media artbooks, and decided that I want to actually tell a story. Why not MY story? What IS my story?

My migraine doctor reminded me last week about how far I've come since I first saw her five years ago. At the time I was severely disabled by my migraines and was struggling with depression, fear and hopelessness. I don't share a lot of the really hard stuff with a lot of people.  I don't want to be all "woa is me."  I do feel fortunate.  I am also a very ambitions (and proud) person and am not exactly proud of being disabled.  Being unable to work outside the home has been extremely emotionally difficult for me for a multitude of reasons.  I don't want to talk about the emotional struggles of pain disorders today, but I'd like to at some point.  Today, I just want to share what I was thinking as I was sitting here. 

I was pondering my story, and the stories that we believe about ourselves. What would be the moral of my story?  I guess it is to trust yourself, hang on to hope, believe what is healthy for you to believe, figure out what you need to do to make your life the way you want it and never give up and NEVER believe the negative, ugly things that people tell you about your lot in life. 

A doctor told me once that I just had to accept that I get migraines and there is nothing I can do about it. This was very hurtful to me. Yes. It is true that I do have to accept that I have a migraine disorder and it IS my lot in life, but there is so much that I CAN do about it.  I don't get to choose a different body or life, but I do get to choose what I do with it.  Despite my doctor's ambivalence and that of many other doctors I have had the misfortune of seeing, I clung desperately to the belief that I do have the power to change my life and my story and I did it, and am doing it. I educated myself, learning about migraines, learning my triggers and avoiding them, and have implemented behaviors to raise my trigger threshold via both medical methods (profalactic medications, pfo closure,...) and natural ones (exercise, nutrition, meditation, biofeedback, pt and ot, affirmations, cognitive behavioral therapy, retraining the brain...)  

It really pains me to think about all the fellow migrainers out there with doctors that are not helpful, especially the ones that prescribe medications willy nilly, ones that actually cause rebound headaches. Mine previous doctors did, quite willy nilly in fact. It also pains me to think about the lack of emotional support and all the misinformation out there. When you have a constant headache, wading through a bunch of riff raff to find something accurate and helpful is not an easy thing to do. 

When I was looking for emotional support, fellowship and information along the way, I joined some online groups, but for the most part I found a lot of people who saw themselves as powerless victims, hopeless, helpless, completely out of control, and many who used the forums as opportunities to complain and gain sympathy. When someone offered suggestions, there were often reasons why that wouldn't work and why it was pointless to even try, or the suggestions were completely ignored. I made the mistake of giving my contact information to a young girl who was an energy leach with a voracious appetite.  She was a headache giver as well as a getter. She had no interest in making her life better. She gained her fulfillment from the sympathy she received from others, so getting migraines was giving her something that she wanted.  She wanted the victim/martyr role. 

On another forum, I was attacked for posting information from my migraine doctor. I even attached links to pubmed documents with evidence supporting my doctor's claims, but instead of reading the links to check my facts, I was told by a faux doctor that I knew nothing because the hypothalamus is not a gland. 

I call him a faux doctor because any doctor should know that it actually is part of both the neurological system and the endocrine system, and even for the lay person a few seconds on google is all that is needed to find that information.  Here's a couple that I just found (expending almost no effort):

http://kidshealth.org/PageManager.jsp?dn=KidsHealth&lic=152&ps=107&cat_id=20090&article_set=22889&m=y

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endocrine_system

The hypothalamus is a gland in the brain that is the instigator of the migraine response, a painful neurovascular event, that is not well understood by most doctors, and not treated effectively without first understanding it.  We must learn about the hypothalamus and how to keep that gland "happy" so that we can feel better. The hypothalamus is the key to managing migraines, but it is a topic for another day.

A big part of my migraine healing process was managing my inner dialogue, and not just the constant chatter, the idealistic expectations of self-perfection and the cup-half-empty stuff.  I also had to ask myself, "What if I had no more migraines, what then? Would I lose something? Is there something I gain by having them? Is it actually something I want?  Is being able to use the excuse, 'I can't. I have a headache.' some thing that is worth the headache?"  No, it is not. 

Then I made as list of what I would have to do to control them.  It was a very long list and I keep adding things, but I've been accomplishing things on that list too and my headaches have gotten a lot better.  Sometimes we expect others (like doctors) to change our lives for us, but WE have more power to do that in most cases.  The pfo closure did make a huge difference for me.  I estimate about a 40-50% reduction in overall pain...I don't mean that I have no headache 50% of the time.  I mean that my pain intensity level is reduced by at least 40%.  This means that I can do more of the things that I need to do to raise my threshold and make my hypothalamus more happy.  One of those things is physical exercise. I was too sick to do it and now I can walk daily and get my body in shape, which is very important in preventing migraines. 

So I am working on my list; and I've tried more things.  I don't have the headaches under control, but I've made huge improvements.  I'm so glad I didn't believe that doctor who said I could do nothing about it, and the other doctor that said I was the most unlucky individual he's met.  What a horrible thing to say to someone, and I call BULLSHIT on them both.  BULLSHIT!  I am so so so blessed; blessed to have finally found doctors who help, blessed to find resources to teach me, blessed to have my art and many healthy outlets to deal with the emotional struggles, blessed to have a sharp, problem-solver's mind and blessed to find people who care about me and support my healing process, even though they aren't the people I had hoped would support me.  I learned to nurture those relationships that were healthy for me and let go of nurturing and trying to change those that weren't. 

Our mindsets, thought processes, beliefs, reactions, relationships,stories...are all things that can heal us or make us sick and these are all things that WE HAVE THE POWER TO CREATE OR CHANGE.  Don't ever give away your power over your life or cling to stories that make you miserable.  I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with my book, but I want it to be about the story of my life that is beautiful - the one about me clinging to hope, bravely fighting the battles and winning the war over illness. 

Thunder Bling Jewelry - Handmade Tribal Chic Jewelry - My New Etsy Shop

I have opened a new etsy shop to showcase some of my jewelry work that doesn't fit into my DoodlepunkArt shop.

Many of my pieces feature sparkly crystals and hammered metal.

Other work features fiber, wood, bone and gemstone.

I really enjoy using waxed nylon cord, meticulously creating a knot between each bead to achieve soft, comfortable pieces that won't grab your hairs.

Many of my pieces are boho chic, yet very sparkly.

This knotted blue tiger eye bracelet has both bling and a natural, bohemian feel.

These two agate bracelets are more tribal, yet I still snuck in a teensy bit of bling in the first one with the metallic copper glass seed beads.

I've gotten sort of obsessed with making bracelets lately.

This one is made with lapis lazuli chip beads and sunstone.  Each gemstone bead is divided by a metallic copper glass seed bead.  This bracelet is beaded in a more standard fashion with sturdy beading cable, so it holds a more circular shape.

This one is hand-knotted using carved bone, recycled vintage wooden beads and glass seed beads.  It is nickel free, like most of my work.  This one comes in men's sizes as well.  

This one features mint/aqua green agate and black crystals.

This one has sunstone chips and cobalt blue crystals which have antiqued copper caps.

This one is hand-knotted as well with red bamboo coral and turquoise magnesite beads.

Here is another one that features the glass crystals with the metallic caps, only these ones are burgundy red with blackened silver caps.  The black stones are agate.

Here is another turquoise magnesite and red bamboo coral bracelet.

Both of these earrings are turquoise magnesite as well.

To check out more of my beaded work, go to my ThunderBlingJewelry shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/ThunderBlingJewelry

Be True To Yourself

Throw your heart over the fence and the rest will follow.  ~Norman Vincent Peale

In my life I have heard many times from both of my parents something similar to this, "That is very imaginative.  Too bad nobody would ever want to buy that."  or  "This is weird. Why can't you just paint a pretty flower or a mountain?"  

The more we stray from "the norm" the more we will hear things like this.  "Why can't you be like ____?"  The kids who are different in school get ridiculed.  We keep getting these messages to conform.  "Buy this so you can be happy."  "If you don't look like this, you are ugly."  

God made us each unique and special.  This is part of His plan for us and conforming to "the norm" is turning your back on yourself and God and denying your True Will.  If we strive to do and get better at what it is that is uniquely us, that comes to us naturally, that brings us joy, then eventually we will find our path and it will lead us on a great adventure.  

As artists, we must strive to find our own way, despite the "You must be crazy" looks and comments.  We must have faith in our vision and stick with the task of bringing it into reality.  We must be true to ourselves and embrace what it is that we love to do.  

Choosing a profession that we don't love can lead us to misery.  Choosing one that we love may be a rocky path, but it makes a great story and a meaningful life with a sense of purpose.  I do not know a lot of people who are truly passionate about what they do.  Despite my struggles, I would not trade lives.  

I have made a profession out of a vision.  My mom thought I'd gone completely bonkers when I started wandering the driveway looking for interesting gravel.  She said, "Why can't you just string some pretty beads together...make something someone would actually want to wear."  I had a vision.  It was incomplete, but I explored it and it turned into DoodlepunkArt, and now I work for myself doing something that I LOVE with a fervent passion.  I have thrown my heart over the fence and the rest did follow.