Hi there, Celtic Sheltie Friends, I’m here to tell you all about me.
First off, I’m Cassi, and I own The Celtic Sheltie. I opened my etsy store a year ago this coming February 4th, my birthday. It has been slow going. I’ve made a few sales, have some favorites, but still not selling much.
This post isn’t all about my etsy shop, however, it’s about introducing me and how I’d like to do things and see how they work.
As I said, my name is Cassi, and the last ten years have been a journey for me. On August 30, 2009 my older son, Shane, died of heart failure brought on because he had Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. He had just turned 20 on June 7th. The day he passed, I knew, I just knew that was his last day. I stood vigil near his bed. Around six or six fifteen I left him to take a quick shower. By the time I got out and returned to him, he’d gone.
That was hard, but I wasn’t prepared for the morning of September 17th 2010 when my younger son, Patrick stopped breathing from lung problems stemming from severe infection in 2006 and caused by the same dreaded disease, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Patrick’s death stunned me to the soul. I couldn’t believe both my sons were gone. My husband, who had been home when Shane passed, was in Salt Lake, Utah when Patrick died. He was driving truck long haul. Instead of his dispatcher telling him they’d make arrangements to get him home asap, they had him drive all the way to Illinois, then on to Springfield, Missouri to their home terminal, and across to home in Arizona. We live only a hundred miles south of Las Vegas, Nevada and five hundred and twenty from Salt lake. He could have been home in a day. It took them four days to get him home.
The loss of Patrick broke me, I went into depression, and if it hadn’t been for our Sheltie, Sophie, I’d never have made it through. She was not quite a year old when Patrick died. She was my rock, my get out of bed reason, she kept me going. Even my mom and husband couldn’t have done that.
Ten years down the road, I can function. I am trying to figure myself out, trying to do things to help find myself. After twenty one years of being a parent to living boys, I was suddenly the parent to two sons who were now in the beyond. I didn’t have them to care for and it was so hard because I did most everything for them. My whole world ended or so it seemed. For weeks everything seemed so surreal. There was no one to care for like I’d been doing. I grieved, I wandered like a lost soul. Finally, I’ve come to know that I need to do things for me.
Before they were both gone, while I cared for them, I wrote books. I had several in the works and had several published with an e-publisher. I didn’t keep up on the promotion of those books and they sold very few copies. Finally, my publisher gave me the rights back. That means I can do what I want with them. I’d like to write, again, but who knows.
Right now I am trying to run my business, take in some work to help my husband with income in because he just turned 68 and is still driving truck to keep us going, even with his Social Security. I am caregiver to my mom, now. She’s had a couple of strokes that damaged her eyes and she can hardly see.
I’ve started writing blog posts for a Persian cat blog. The owner lives in England, but so far we’ve worked well together. If you have a chance take a glance at my articles over there, please do, or you can see them here. I signed up at guru.com to find some jobs I might be able to do. So far he is the only one who’s accepted me, but that’s okay. A couple of people invited me to work for them and then guru email me saying those jobs weren’t to their standards and rules and were taken down. Not a problem. I try to bid on jobs weekly, something will come along.
I’ve also started crocheting some amigurumi. The first one is a dragon. The dragon in the images I’m posting is named Gumball. He isn’t for sale, but I will have others that will be. They will be available at my etsy shop, even though I wasn’t going to add things like that there, I changed my mind. The pattern I’m working with is from Crafty Intentions, they are on etsy as well. There are patterns for a jackalope, pegasus, eyeball monster, a funny little monster that you can customize, a phoenix, and some other fantastic patterns.
Anyway, I want this blog to be about Shelties, Maine Coons (yes, I have a Maine Coon named Acacia Coonie), the other pets in our house, my handmade jewelry and home decor, plus other goodies that are and will be available in my store. and just life.
I hope you’ll join me here at The Celtic Sheltie and Friends blog. We are also on facebook. I have a page, The Celtic Sheltie and a group The Celtic Sheltie and Friends. I’m also on Instagram, and trying to be on Pinterest, but I haven’t yet figured that all out.
