I'm Baaack!

It's been a long time.  A really long time, but I am wanting to start up my blog again.  I just need a place to put all my ideas and thoughts.  I want to share about my shop, my dance teaching experiences, about my life as someone with chronic pain, about my adventures in a new city, and just random thoughts.  It is a little all over the map, but with one important piece connecting everything....ME!  😉 

Let's just start fresh in this brand new year.  Forget my previous posts, and begin new.  A lot has changed since I previously blogged, so a fresh start seems best.   I decided to revamp with the new year.  We moved which made me revamp our home.  I am trying to improve and revamp my Etsy shop.  I want to start using and revamp my Aftcra shop (I let that one slide last year.  Not good.).  Since I am doing the revamp everywhere else, why not revamp the blog. 

After living 8 years in Madison, WI we have finally moved back to Pennsylvania.  We moved in December and are happily settling in to life in Philadelphia.  We were in Madison far longer than we anticipated and I missed the East coast every day we were there.  My chosen family is in the Philadelphia area, so it is WONDERFUL being so much closer to everyone.  We are living in an extremely old brick home in the South side.  It's so much fun living in a place with this amount of history, and brick! 

We now have two cats and I am obsessed with them.  When the love of my life, David Bowie, passed away in 2016, I didn't handle it well.  To try to fill the void, I adopted a black cat and named her Ziggy Stardust.  She's not a cat.  She's an extremely odd dog.  She does tricks, she cuddles, she listens to commands, and is hilarious.  She's fantastic.  I didn't want her to be alone so a few months after adopting Ziggy, we got another one!  That little weird peanut is named Captain Geech.  She's a weirdo and it's funny.  She has more cat-like traits than Zig, but she acts like an awkward puppy.  They make me happy.  They're sweet. 

I've been growing the shop a great deal since my last post.  My Etsy shop is doing well and I get most of my orders during the fall months due to Halloween.  I get crazy with Halloween orders and, even though I lose a great deal of sleep, I love it.  I love creating and making such special pieces for everyone to wear on Halloween.  I love that my tutus get shipped all around the world and I especially love seeing everyone's pictures of their costumes.  It's a lot of fun.  With the move, I decided that I want to make my shop more of a focus than I have previously done.  I think that I can make it a little more stable throughout the entire year.  I have a lot of ideas, and a lot of plans.  Stay tuned!  It's going to be fun! 

I still struggle with chronic migraines every single day.  I have been to a million doctors and have tried a million things, but what I have learned the most is that there is absolutely no awareness or understanding out there.  It's as if there is no respect for migraines being an actual disorder and that chronic migraines aren't looked at as real or difficult.  I hope to bring a little more awareness to chronic migraines.  More on these later. 

I'm not teaching dance in Philly yet, but I want to begin sharing my lessons and ideas for dance classes.  I've taught in so many different settings and ways that I feel I have a lot to share.  Also, kids are just funny so I'll tap into that. 

This is an extremely long post and if you have made it this far CONGRATS!  You are an incredible person!  My posts won't always be this long and annoying, but I just felt like we had a lot of catching up to do.  That's it for now. 

Life's a party; wear a tutu! 

Lots of love!

Janelle