Inching Slowly Back In To The World of Art

When I was younger, I had all the energy in the world and really dived into my craft of doing stained glass with both feet and hands. I operated my shop called 'Carter's Stained Glass' from 1988-2006. During this time I married John who is 18 years older than I. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's at the age of 60 in 2001 and my world began to change.

Also during this time, my mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and my world really started to crash down. I ended up closing the shop and moving back to Nashville to be closer to family. I had very little time to do my stained glass, but I did find time to get some therapy learning how to do pottery. My glass tools and supplies laid mostly untouched. I did open my etsy shop in 2009, but did very little with it and eventually took everything off the site and used it just to buy stuff. I had many of our precious animals dying of old age, John in the hospital for back surgery, mom in her final stages of Alzheimer's, and then my dads health took a turn for the worse. To top it off our family business got flooded in the Nashville flood in May of 2010. My friend's all told me that if I had no bad luck, I would have no luck at all.

Fast forward to late 2010. John finally got to the point that I could not take care of him without risking my own health so I put him in assisted living. My mother also passed away. The business started recovering from the flood and then my dad annouced that he was remarrying the friend who he had been doing some traveling with after mom went into the Alzheimer's nursing home. Recovery for me was finally coming!!!

Funny how it take time to heal from trauma. I started in the fall of 2010 to list a few more items on etsy, made a few sales, and then made more stuff to list. I had some local folks ask about classes so I started to teach on a regular basis again. Little by little, the studio came alive. I did not jump in with two feet, but rather one toe at a time.

It is now July of 2011 and my life is as busy as ever. Sales are going great on etsy and I spend my days planning new stuff to make, marketing, and doing custom work. I do still have that occational thought being overwhelmed, but those days are getting fewer and far between all the time. Recovery is not yet complete, but it is good to feel alive again!!