Did you miss me? I sure missed you!

I’ve got so much news to spill, I’m just going to jump right in!

I don’t even remember when my last “real” newsletter was sent out, so I’m going to start back in 2011 and catch everyone up.

Way back in May of last year, we started the home buying process. Because the home we wanted was a short sale AND we were taking out an additional loan amount to fix it up the process took… FOREVER. We were homeless for about 2 weeks, which was all kinds of interesting, and then we were like crazy squatters for about 3 months – who was also all kinds of interesting. And the fun didn’t stop there… In the midst of this craziness, my husband landed himself in the emergency room. What we thought was a hernia, ended up being stage 4 colon cancer. We cried and joked and put all of our ducks in place to cure him, buy our house, keep my business running, keep him teaching AND keep a smile on our faces … (easier said, than done).

We closed on our house on Halloween (very awesome, for me). Chemo started almost immediately afterwards. Thinking that we were going to have surgery to remove the cancer, that had spread from the colon to the lymph nodes to the liver, I took a hiatus from any new projects … only to learn that we had to get through 6 rounds (3 months) of chemo before surgery could happen. Thanksgiving was spent with my mom and our close friends. Christmas was spent split between our families and in as little time as we could manage, so we didn’t disrupt the chemo cycle. By the new year, my business was just starting to limp back to life; chemo effects had started to worsen and 2012 was shaping up to be craptacular. <— oh yeah, i said it!

So, 2012. Work was still happening on the house – roof, floors, paint, deck, cleaning, unpacking, etc. – first 6 rounds of chemo were coming to a close. The Doktor’s birthday came and went, relatively uneventfully and surgery was scheduled. I actually began hunting down new clients to make sure we could pay our hospitals bills … we have a mortgage now, you know. HA!

The Doktor’s family, my mom and the Doktor’s best friend came to GA for the surgery. While the family stayed at Emory, mom and the BF helped me get the whole house in order so that Dok could come home and not have anything to worry about. Surgery went off without a hitch and was a huge success. They were able to remove the entire sigmoid section of the colon, the section of cancerous liver and lymph nodes. The Doktor was at Emory for a full week. I drove back and forth every single day to find that he was recovering like a champ – FINALLY, good news! After the week was up, they sent him packing and I brought him home to his man-cave (and his cats).

Meanwhile, in designer land … I began working closely with a client of mine on a book project and relaunching my website. Things started picking up, and I was/am moving along at a wobble instead of a limp.

I decided to create STAB CANCER IN THE FACE … which is currently just a Facebook group, but I have the design and coding mostly complete for the website. It’ll be a forum site for anyone that has had to face cancer who wants to share their story, rage or laughter. We learned through this experience that you need be allowed to embrace your anger at the situation, because cancer sucks – but also that you have find something to laugh about because if you can’t laugh at all, you’ll never truly heal. I’m working on getting it registered as a non-profit organization and selling merchandise to help donate funds to families in need. We may not make tons of money, but even $20 can help when it comes to paying off those medical expenses.

I’m working with a friend of mine to create a new magazine. I’m also the secretary of Effie’s Club Follies helping them maintain their marketing and taking minutes at meetings. I’m also crocheting up a storm of new items to sell for charity AS well as for my nerd business – which is still a secret for now while we work out the kinks. Taking that design hiatus was painful, but also productive and I can’t wait to see what I get to come up with next.

Now that we’re back in the present of this newsletter (which is quickly becoming a novel – I promise I’ll wrap this up soon…. The Doktor has 6 more rounds (3 months) of chemo left to go, we’re not looking forward to that, but we did get good news back from Emory regarding his pathology – out of the 22 lymph nodes removed, only 2 of them had cancer cells in them!!!! That is EPICLY AWESOME! <— yeah, i said it! We’ll be sick for a little while, but it’s better than having cancer, EVER. Our house is mostly in order – still unpacking books and art (but that’s par for the course with us). My office/craft-cave is a haven and I spend 90% of time in it creating amazing things that make me giggle. We have finally been able to take a breath and just relax for a moment. Work is picking back up and I’m walking steady again – no more limping or wobbling for me!

I just received an email that I have an opportunity to submit a proposal for a rebranding and 2 websites for Holly Wilder (2x cupcake wars winner). AWESOME!!! My new website is launched and I LOVE it! You can sign up for my newsletter, view and UPDATED portfolio, socialize with me via Facebook, twitter, google+, tumblr and interest. There is also a CLIENT PORTAL. Register for an account and I’ll set you up with with access to all of your design files and invoices in one easy location for you to access. You’ll also be able to leave me notes for upcoming projects or TO DO items in the “comments” section of your account. How about that!?! I’m also working on creating another payment portal that doesn’t use paypal – so keep your eyes peeled for that.

It’s been a crazy 8 months and I can’t say enough how much I appreciate everyone’s support, prayers, good vibes and patience with me while I deal with this whole LIFE thing.

Now – onto what you really want to know…. SCHEDULING!

Now that we’re finally able to breathe and have some wiggle room outside of doctors appointments and client hunting … I’m actually going to take a week off for my birthday. I’m going to go home and sleep and eat and laugh and refuel. I’ll be unavailable from Tuesday, May 15th – Thursday, May 24th.

As always, if you have something pressing, get it over to me now and I’ll get it done for you before I head out. You can always call me and continue to email and I’ll be in touch ASAP!

I’m looking forward to coming back fully energized and ready to tackle the world… MWAHAHAHA

Logo: Illustration of most popular ruins on property
Print material: marketing postcard, print advertisements, business cards

Print materials: marketing post cards, sell sheets, print advertisements
Created for Inspire Marketing Group

Print materials: marketing post cards, print advertisements, table tents, speciality menus
Web materials: e-marketing blasts, e-menus
Created for: Inspire Marketing Group