Of Life and a touch of Copper

Life has been an emotional roller coaster these past few months. For those of you that don't know...two of my sisters AND my mom have been diagnosed with breast cancer in the past 5 months. It is CRAZY that this is happening to my family all at the same time. No, it is not in our family. They are the first. We were completely taken by surprise when my first sister was diagnosed then to have 2 more diagnosed in such a short period of time seems unheard of. I am too much in the moment of it all and unable to put my emotions into the proper words so I will give you a brief update on how everyone is doing.

Sister #1 has set the tone for everyone. She has handled her diagnosis and treatment with the utmost amount of Grace. I can't even begin to tell you how easy she has made it for the rest of us to cope. She had her last chemotherapy treatment last week. Although she will continue with additional weekly treatments for another six months, we are looking forward to her strength (and hair) returning.

Sister #2 began her chemotherapy treatments and is half way through already. She had a different course of treatment, so although it is shorter in terms of time she is getting mega doses of chemo in one shot. She has followed Sister #1's lead and is in a very good place emotionally and showing an incredible amount of Grace as well.

Mom will begin radiation treatments shortly. This will be new to us so I'm not quite sure what to expect. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Right now I don't want to know more. I can't even believe how much I have learned about cancer, treatments and cancer centers. We will deal with this one day at a time, just as we have everything else. And of course Mom is ever graceful also. I guess her girls learned it somewhere ;).

While I am here I would like to give a shout out to the beautiful people that work in cancer centers daily. They are truly amazing people!! I think they are angels here on earth.

My life is one day at a time. One appointment at a time. One person at a time. I don't do much thinking ahead or trying to plan a schedule for the family like I used to. Just one day, everyday filled with as much happiness as is possible. I strive to be joyful and creative everyday. I am surprisingly finding joy. It really is about the small, simple pleasures and enjoying the company of each person I come into contact with.

Creativity has been a bit more difficult. I don't have the drive to be as creative as I was in the past, but it really does make happy. So I try to do one creative thing everyday.

I haven't felt much like melting glass so I have been working a bit with metals. I have been practicing a new technique of etching metal when my time allows. I purchased a wonderful tutorial from Payton Jett. She totally rocks! You can find out more about Payton and the tutorial in her Etsy Shop. I have only etched copper so far but today I am experimenting with brass and silver. I can't wait to see what happens. I will keep you posted. Here are a couple of pictures I snapped to show you what I have been up to.

This was my second attempt at etching. The first didn't come out quit so well but I think I didn't have the right type of ink to make it work and I got excited and rushed the process along. You can't do that and expect great results. I was much happier with my second attempt.

Here is what those cut out circles look like. They are one inch discs. I have since drilled one hole in each disc. I am thinking they would make cute earrings.

And today I will etch these...

 The group shot.

 One inch disc with heart. Sterling Silver.

 One inch disc with owl. Brass. Isn't he cute?

And of course I had to do a tree. This is a 2 inch disc in copper.

I hope I will be adding some of these to my Etsy shop, Ema K Designs, one day soon. But as I said earlier, one day at time.

If you have an interest in any of them. Please do contact me. I still need to make some money but I haven't been very good at listing lately so do contact me if you like what you see.

Peace and Joy to All,