My Personal Story...

The following pictures are of lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades, my favorite place to visit where I find peace and calmness... They are the perfect pictures to go along with my personal story...



First, I would like to say that I started my Blog to not only showcase my Pillow Collection and new designs that I add to my line, but also for design tips, renovations that I do, antique store, flea markets and architectural salvage stores that I shop at, friends in the business and creative ideas in general. I never could have guessed that in this short time I would have developed so many relationships and receive so many amazing comments from all of you.



I try not to put up any personal posts about me and just stick with design and decorating, but after reading some recent comments, especially after the interview I did with Woman's World Magazine, a lot of you said you liked being able to read and know more about me. This will probably be the only personal story that I put up and than it will be back to more of my adventures...



My Husband and I have been together for almost 19 years. We have our Son, who just turned 15 last week and our 5 year old Daughter. For the last five years I have been very sick. I won't go in to exact details because honestly, my conditions are so rare that I'm sure none of you have heard of any of them. I will say that I have had four throat surgeries and countless tests. I was hospitilized last year about ten times. Each year I have been getting more and more ill and some recent tests that I had done last month have shown some results that are not very good. I have about eight Specialists that I see and my GI is sending me to see the Chief of Head and Neck Surgery next week who needs to perform more tests. My prior test also showed a congenital defect which would require major surgery and is a completely different issue than my already complicated situation.



My Rheumatologist thinks he finally figured out which autoimmune disease I have and wants me to have an open lung biopsy, so I am going to a new Pulmonologist in three weeks. If I have the condition that he suspects I do, than things really will not be good, because of my other illness's I would not be able to take the medication needed to control that disease.



The purpose of me telling you my story, and there is much more going on with my health than I have listed, is this: I am so happy that I inspire people and motivate them to see that if they too work hard, they can be successful in their business. I am not the type of person that talks about myself, let alone my health problems to anyone that I am not extremely close with, so this is a big step for me. I have never felt bad for myself or asked why me? I keep busy with my business and now with my Blog because for me the best way to stay focused and positive is for me to keep busy. I never want anyone to feel bad for me. We all have our own issues and this just happens to be what I live with. I put a smile on my face and do not complain and never let anyone see what I am dealing with on a day to day basis. I have two children that count on me to take care of them and my hope is that I will be able to continue to be here for them...



My hope for those of you reading this is that you will see that although my business, my family and everything else is going so great for me, that not everything is as perfect as it seems and that my positive attitude and having positive, wonderful people around me is the most important thing I can do for myself. I will never be a healthy person, my illness's are not going to go away and all I hope is that I am here to see my children grow up. I also want to say to any of you that may be in a similar situation, dealing with an illness or something troubling, to always try and think about the positive things and make sure you have positive people around you. I am the type of person that always keep things in becuase I don't want to trouble anyone with my problems, but I have learned that keeping things in is not very healthy.



Now you know a little more about me and I hope that I can continue to inspire you with my Blog.



I am going Antique Shopping tomorrow, so I will be back to my fun and adventurious posts again...



I know quite a few of you already have read and left comments on this post. Thank you so much... It really means so much to me! After putting up this post this morning I decided to go on a road trip with my Daughter and head down to Lake Shrine. Here are pictures from our visit today.