Another Loss

Yesterday I learned the sad news that my friend Adriana lost her battle with cervical cancer.  Adriana and I were friends back in high school.  We lost touch over the years, as many of us do.  Thanks to modern technology we started chatting online this past year.  We shared many things, talked about life, talked about our dreams... She was working on writing a book about cancer.  I was dreaming of starting my own business.  Every time we talked she encouraged me to just DO IT!  Just take the leap and start your own business!  Then I came up with the idea to design a bracelet in her honor, and sell it to raise money to help her with her medical bills.  I rushed to make as many as possible and to set up a website where I could sell them.  It really kicked me into high gear because I wanted to start the fundraiser as soon as possible.  Unfortunately I was not very successful.  I didn't sell very many bracelets, I had no idea how to market them, and knew nothing about business.  When the fundraiser was over, I gave her a pitifully small check, but I knew I had done the best I could.

"Adriana Hope Bracelet" from the fundraiser.

I became inspired to do other fundraisers, and signed on to do one for Gabby Vogel, and have signed on for another one which I am currently preparing for.  I may not know exactly what I am doing, or how to successfully run a business.  I haven't made any money by running my business, as I have barely made enough to offset the cost of running the business and materials, as well as the donations and care packages I make.  What I do have, is a big heart, and a lot of inspiration.  If it weren't for Adriana I probably would still be sitting on my couch dreaming about having a business instead of actually having one.  Thank you, Adriana, for the many inspiring words you've said to me over the past year.  I can't believe you are gone.  I wish I had talked to you more often when I had the chance.
I hope you are at peace now, and in no more pain.  You will be missed!

Get Well Gabby!

Gabby

Our fundraiser for the Vogel family was a success!  We were able to send the family a check for $125.00.  Thank you to everyone who bought a bracelet or scarf, or helped us to spread the word about the fundraiser! We look forward to our next fundraiser, which will be coming soon!

The "Always In My Heart" bracelet from Gabby's fundraiser.

Jessica Joy Rees

Today the world lost a truly amazing and inspiring person.  Jessica Joy Rees was diagnosed with brain cancer last year.  Since her diagnosis, she has been dedicating herself to spreading joy to other kids who are also fighting cancer.  Jessica was the creator of JOY JARS which are special jars that are stuffed with goodies and passed out to sick kids.  She also was the inspiration for the NEGU foundation (NEGU stands for Never Ever Give UP), which raises money for research, and provides support for children undergoing cancer, and their families. 

I asked Jessica a few times  what her favorite colors were, so I could make her a hat, but she would never tell me.  Most people would have jumped to get a "free gift".  She was more concerned with helping other people than receiving anything for herself. 

Jessica was only 12 years old, but touched more people than most of us could hope to ever touch in our entire life.  Please show your support and help to carry on Jessie's legacy by visiting www.negu.org and finding out what you can do to help! 

In The Beginning..

I wanted to be able to share with our customers about what's going on here at Zoe Darling Boutique, so I've decided what better way to do that than to start a blog?  So here we are!  My journey to get to today has been an interesting one, so I decided that I will backdate my posts to when the original events happened, as I tell you the story of how Zoe Darling came to be!  Hopefully you haven't fallen asleep yet.  I promise, the rest of my posts will be more interesting than this one!

Kidney Stone to Gem Stone

So.. as I left you last, I had just been sent home from the hospital with a very painful kidney stone!  I'm sure you are wondering what this has to do with how Zoe Darling Boutique came to be. 

About five years earlier I had my first experience with kidney stones.  Luckily, it was my only experience until this sucker.  The second one was twice the size of the first one, and it sure as heck felt like it!!  There isn't too much they do for stones.. usually just give you some pain meds to help you get through it til the stone passes on it's own.  Thankfully my first stone passed after a few days.  However, this time, after a few days of excruciating pain, and not much medicine left, I had to go to a specialist.  He gave me some more pain medicine, and said to give it a few days.  To make a long (6 week) story short, I ended up having surgery to remove the stone.  I tried EVERYTHING in my power to get rid of it, including drinking shots of fresh lemon juice (gross!).  My Dr and everyone around me thought I was nuts for not having the surgery sooner, but I was terrified of having surgery.  It was a loooooong six weeks.  I'm not sure if it was longer for me, or for my boyfriend, who spent all his time outside of work with me.  And this is where my journey to opening my own business started. 

About a week into this, I was starting to drive Ron nuts.  Laying on the couch watching soap operas and moaning about how much pain I was in... One day he made me get dressed and forced me to go out.  He took me to Walmart and said we weren't leaving until I found something to take home that would keep me busy.  In the toy section, I found a little plastic bracelet craft kit and grabbed it so he would let me go home.  I really had no interest in doing anything, no less trying to string little plastic beads onto elastic.  After a few more days passed, I finally got bored enough to open the kit.  Over the next few days I made enough bracelets for a small army of children.  I was actually starting to get really into it!  It didn't take me long to go through everything in the kit.  I begged Ron to take me to the craft store, where I loaded our cart up with tons of supplies.  When we got back to my apartment I dumped everything on the floor and start trying to make different things.  I spent the next few weeks learning different techniques and coming up with different designs.  Some of those first items were pretty bad lol!!

Some of my "Kidney Stone Designs"

And that... is how it all began!

Stones

This is a day that I will never forget..  The story is a little long, but it's funny to me, and it really does mark the birth of Zoe Darling.

My boyfriend (who is now my fiance) and I were in his kitchen, along with his sister, the cosmetologist. It was my first time really hanging out with her for longer than a minute or two, she was going to put foils in my hair for me and give me a little trim.  I thought it would be a good chance for us to get to know eachother.  She was mixing up my color when I felt a sharp pain in my side.  I guess I must have made a face because everyone looked at me and asked if I was ok.  I said yeah I'm fine, just a cramp.  So she goes back to mixing... and a few seconds later,  "OW!"  We went through this process a few times of them asking if I was ok and me saying I'm fine.. full well knowing I was not fine, and what was about to happen.  But I figured if I pretended it was fine maybe it would disappear.  Besides, Easter was coming up, and I wanted to look good for my first family get together with Ron's family.  So Jill looked at me like I was crazy and asked once more if I wanted to go through with the foils because once they were in I had to stay for the full process.  I managed to moan, "DO IT!"

Once she started putting the foils in, and I was sure I was going to get my hair done (lol) I let everyone in on what was happening.  It had happened before, and I couldn't mistake the signs of it beginning again.  KIDNEY STONES!  So the next two hours I moaned and practically rolled around on the floor while my hair was baking.  We managed to find a percocet after digging through every prescription we had ever gotten in our lives, which was definitely a relief.  But let me tell you, when that dye was out... I left my hair soaking wet and drug Ron out to the car to go to the hospital so they could pump some morphine in my veins!!  They confirmed that it was  indeed a kidney stone passing and sent me home
with some drugs to get me through the pain til the stone passed.  Simple enough, right?


I ended up missing the family Easter dinner, so nobody even got to see my awesome hair.  What a shame, lol!

So I know you are wondering WHAT IN THE WORLD does all this have to do with anything??  I promise, it does.  You will just have to wait til next time to find out!