Focus on Life - Week 35

Several times throughout this year, Sally's prompts have been just perfect for the week's happenings...

... and this is one such week :)

The prompt was Growth and Change and boy, has a lot grown and changed in the past 7 days!

I have realized a dream, 6 years in the making,

and opened my very own Etsy shop, 

Cara whispers...

 

I joined Etsy in early 2007, and just loved it, and thought about opening a shop. Then, in May that year, the stroke happened and everything changed...

Throughout the past 6 years, day-to-day living has taken most of my energy, but slowly my stamina has increased, and this year, I really wanted to make the shop dream a reality.

Last week's long Bank Holiday weekend seemed the perfect time!

I started by taking a photo of vintage book pages, fabrics and lace, which I carefully arranged to create my shop banner - little realizing I literally needed just the tiniest sliver!

Anyway, following the helpful step-by-step instructions provided by Etsy, I used GIMP to create this

 And each day, I've been adding new items to it...

 ... starting with art books I made before the stroke.

 

Then, I added some recent paintings, I've done post-stroke with my left-hand (my right side is still paralyzed), so now, the shop has 10 items in it!!

(I found Picasa makes these cool collages automatically with pics in the same folder!)

 

 I fully expect (and hope!) this shop will grow and change as my skill-set (and stamina!) grows and changes.

I leave you with this quote (borrowed with permission from Anca's blog):

 

may my mind come alive today
to the invisible geography
that invites me to new frontiers,
to break the dead shell of yesterdays,
to risk being disturbed and changed.

John O’Donohue from 'A Morning Offering'

 

 

PS Sorry for length of post... but apparently it's my 250th!!