MS Awareness

Multiple Sclerosis (or MS) is a chronic, often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system, which is made of of the brain, spinal cored, and optic nerves. Symptons may be mild, such as numbness in the limbs, or severe, such as paralysis or of loss of vision. The progress, severity, and speciific symptons of MS are as unpredictable and very from one person to another. Today, new treatments and advances in research are giving new hope to people affected by the disease. Over 400,000 in the United States alone suffer from this disease. 2.5 million world wide. 200-300 are diagnosed weekly in this country alone.

I know this because I was diagnosed with MS 19 years. It has changed by life, from working, family and socially. I never know when I awake up what kind of day I will have, fatigue, pain, numbness, but I consider myself one of the lucky ones for many reasons. One I have very suporrt family, my husband and daughter both understand how everyday can be different.
Secondly I have been able to have some of the best neurogical doctors in Northwest Indiana.
They keep up to date on current treatments and listen to me symptons and do everything they can to keep the disease from progressing. Thirdly I have been able to me on the disease modify drugs for most of the 19 years. Without this drugs, I have noway of knowing how the disease might have progressed.


But here a thousands of MS patients who are not at lucky as I am. There insurance won't cover the drugs or there doctors are even unaware and don't recommend them to their patients. There are also those for whom the drugs do not work. There is much research to be done to eradicate this disease.

To help with this cause I've designed 3 bracelets and 2 sets of earrings to make everyone aware of this disabling disease. Each bracelet will be $25.00 and $5.00 be donated and the earrings are $15.00 and $3.00 will be donated to the National MS Society.

You will find these for sale in my etsy shop designsbynoramarie.etsy.com

Please join me in helping to fight this cause by purchasing one yourself or passing this information on.

If you would like to find out more about Mutliple Scelrosis or make a donation log on to
www.nationalmssociety.org.

Story of St. Patrick

Being of Irish decent St. Patrick has always been one of my favorite patron saints.

The story goes that he brought Christianity and drove the snakes out of Ireland, but this is only the by product of hundred of years of storytelling. He is the parton saint of Ireland, but even for his celebrity status his life still remains somewhat of a mystery.

He was born towards the end of the 4th century in Britian to wealthy parents. At the age of 16, he was taken prisoner by a group of Iris raiders who attacked the family's estate. He was then transported to Ireland where he spent the next 6 years in captivity. He worked as a lonely shepherd and turned to religion for solace and become a devote Christian. It is at this time it is belived he began to dream of converting the Irish people to Christianity.

After six years he excaped . His writings state that he heard a voice which he belived to be God telling him to leave Ireland. He returned to Britian where it is reported that he had a second revelation-an angel in a dream telling him to return to Ireland as a missionary. He began training and after being ordained as a priest he was sent to Ireland with a duel mission to minister to Christians already living in Ireland and to beging to convert the Irish.

Familiar with the language and culture, Patrick chose to incorporate traditional Irish ritual in his lessons. For example he uses bonfires to celebrate Easter since the Irish were use to doing so to worshop their gods. He also superimposed a sun, a powerul Irish symbol, on the the Christian cross to create what is now known as the Celtic cross.

Most Irish practiced a nature based pagan religion.With culture centering around a rich tradition of oral legend and myth, it is know wonder how the story of St Patrick's life become an exaggerated one over the centuries. Spinning exciting tales to remember history has always been a part of the Irish way of life.

I have created this rosary to help celebrate the legend of St. Patrick.

You can find this for sale on in my new shop Designsbynoramarie.etsy.com

Facts found on History.com

Bracelet

Here is my bracelet creation.

These handmade emerald glass beads are each an individual work of art. The flowers are on transparent or silver foiled glass beads. Bracelet is linked together with antique brass jump rings. Lobster clasp and measures 7" long. Will be listed in my Etsy shop this week for $15.00

Creationsbynoramarie.etsy.com

Jewelry Creations

Well after summer classes, reading, and many hours of practice I am finally ready to show off my new creations, my jewelry pieces.

I hope everyone enjoys them and will leave me lots of comments.

All the earrings are priced at $12.00 and will be listed this week in my Etsy shop
Creationsbynoramarie.etsy.com

Handiworkshowcase websites

Well this is the beginning of a new week and I am keeping my promise to myself by adding new items to my shop and blog each week, but before I do that I want to introduce you to a great sewer and quilter.

Her name is Pam S. Cole. I actually met Pam about a year and a half ago by purchasing one of her accessory bags from Ebay. I discovered that she lives in the same state I do, but 200 miles away. We began sending emails back and forth and quickly became friends.

Besides being an experience quilting and sewer, Pam also has started several connecting websites. handiworkshowcase.com handiworksellers.com stitchershandiwork.com.

These sites have offered myself and others another venue to show and sell our items.

Pam is offering a special starting August 1st. This will be to the first 6 new sellers for each of the sites.

The startup special will include up to 3 items on a page, along with links to the sellers" other sites--including Etsy mini gallery. If sellers do not already have a web site, I would strongly recommend registering a domain name ($10) to reserve there business name for their web site...and then when they ar ready they can set up a starter page on their site.

If sellers would like to try adding a Paypal cart button to their 3 items, I would suggest items that can be reproduced nutiple times for repeats sales.

The goal with all the Handiworks sites is to creat a visually pleasant browsing experience for potential buyers. If you need help with you photos, Pam can do that also.

I hope you all will take a look at these sites. For further information you can reach Pam at
pam@pamspatchwork.com.

Take a look at her own site pamspatchwork.com or her blog
pamcole-pamspatchwork.blogspot.com I know you will love her quilts and bags.

Managing Time

Well here it is Saturday and I fell like I have not accomplished a thing, yet I know I have.

Between running for Physical Therapy appointments. I have managed to finish and send out two orders, work on another order, make a new wallet, and work on my jewelry collection and take pictures for all of these. I guess after re-reading this I did accomplish a lot this week.

Oh yes, I did have some fun and went with my girlfriend to see the Harry Potter Movie.

I hope and I mean hope to post my new creations on Monday.

I also have joined a new team on Etsy called the Carried away Etsy bag team. I am now included in a wonderful group of woman who design and sew some beautiful bags.

Along with belong to Unique Women in Business and having my own shop I guess this will make me a very busy lady.

I plan in the near future to feature some of these creative designs on my blog and least one monthly. I think this will be a great way to help everyone in there business.

So to all my followers, keep checking in with my blog or Etsy shop and don't forget my giveaway in Sept.