LONG POST!! -DT Call Closed! See who made it! & Some Random Things~

Hey there my sweet friends!  So before I go into rambling away, please know that this will be a very long, over due post with lots of news, updates and annoucements. If you would like to read on, I would suggest gettng a drink and get comfy :) 
I will start with the annoucement first. Our current Design Team Call has closed. We had so many entries and I want to personally thank each person who expressed interest and applied. The hard part is always having to choose because you all do such beautiful work and I wish I could offer a position to all of you!! But after several days of weeding through all the gorgeous entries, I finally narrowed it down and was able to choose 7 amazing and talented new designers to add to our awesome team! If you did not make it this time around, don't let that get you down! I hope you will apply again in the future. So without further ado, here are the new and returning designers who made it to the 2019 FFC Design Team!!

NEW 2019 DESIGNERS

Rianna Fenning -
Welcome To RiCre8s

Larelyn Sartini-
Handmade From My Heart

Alycia Wybou-
Let's Be Creative

Sharon Smith-
Fiddly Diddly Cards & Crafts

Helen Nile- 
Made By Helen

Dawn Bennett-
Dip N' Dots Creations

Robin Francini-
Granninista Not Your Granni's Crafts 

RETURNING 2019 DESIGNERS

Joyce Tompkins- 

Joyce's Creative Crafts

Art Jypsy-

AJ's Creative Energy

Heather Mills-

Wire Wrapture

Sherry Wegner-

Scrapper Mommy's Kreations

Christine Miller-

With A Grateful Heart

Tina Campbell-

Tina's Scrap Corner

Alka Haat-

Corner Table Crafting

SO CONGRATS TO ALL NEW AND RETURNING DESIGNERS!

Ok now would be a good time to stop reading if you were only wanting to see who made the team. :)

Moving forward- I have had a TON of emails flooding my inbox in the past several weeks. A lot of you are wanting to know why I have not been designing. Some of you are asking how my health is doing, some of you are wanting to purchase craft supplies while others want to get readings done by me. So I wanted to take this time and opportunity to answer some of these questions and point you in the right direction. :) 

I will start with my health. For many years, I have been battling several health ailments. For those of you who are new and not aware, I live in chronic pain 24/7. Rather then go into detail over every little thing, I'll just sum it up in a few words. I am dealing with a very rapid progression of degenerative disk disease that will leave me crippled and unable to walk soon, Fibromyalgia, Diabetes, Spinal Stenosis, Sciatica, 4 pinched nerves, cervical & lumbar radiculothapy, arthritis, carpul tunnel and the list goes on. Yes there is more! But you get the gist. I had a surgical procedure on my spine a month or so ago and while it was supposed to have given me 'immediate relief ', it has given me nothing but severe pain and uncomfortableness. The doctors try very hard to keep my pain managed as surgery is off the table for me and has been for quite awhile now. I get 4 injections in my neck and 4 in my back every 28 days and I am able to get some relief with the Robaxin (strong mucsle relaxer), Gabapentin (Nerve pain medication) & Oxycodone (narcotic pain medication). Some days I have good days and other days not so much. I was asked in one of the emails, "Why don't we see you posting and crafting much anymore?"---  In a nutshell, I am still designing, just not here and for the times I may not be posting as much, it's my health. And while there are some inconsistencies with how often I would post, it is definitely not because I am not reliable or serious about what I do. I have to clarify that because I had someone ask me if I "give a shit about my followers". Yea! And to answer that, YES I care very much about my friends and followers! When I have not posted in a few days or week's time, it is simply because the pain is so unbearable even with the meds, that I cannot get out of bed to go to the bathroom, let alone go into the studio to create. But good news, for awhile now, I have been working on a schedule that allows me to create when I am in the least amount of pain and I have been using those times to get the most work done. So that wraps up my health portion. 

I have been getting a lot of emails expressing how much they miss my posts and work when I was designing for other companies. During the early spring up to about right before the Holiday season 2018, my health was all over the place. So I didn't want to be selfish and continue on with the design teams that I was apart of because I knew it was not fair to the teams or to myself, to be a designer but then not be able to keep up my commitment or meet deadlines. So I had to graciously step down. I have amazing relationships with the companies that I designed for and I am welcomed to go back whenever I want. And I appreciate those relationships and that open door policy so much. I would love to go back to them again some day. So what does this mean for me and for you as my followers? Well, I will still be posting here each week for our challenges of course and for any updates or changes such as this post. But as many of you know, this is my personal blog that I had started up long before the challenges and just decided to start the challenges on here one day and it just stuck. I will continue to keep it that way. But for my crafty peeps who want to know if I am designing, I AM still designing, just more along the lines of for my crafty business and some business collaborations with a few companies, which you will see more of at a later date. 

But if you want to see what I am up to on a daily/weekly basis, please visit my other blog, Studio 33- Stampin with Jo.  Hope you come check it out and please subscribe!!! I have announced it here on this blog a couple of times in the hopes that many of you would see it and come follow. For those of you who do not know, I am an Independent Stampin' Up Demonstrator here in New Jersey. I started a separate blog for this because I didn't want to put too much on this blog and confuse people. So I am designing on that blog. The only downside? I have well over 600 followers here, and only a small handful roughly 30+ over there. I really need to build up my followers over there because that is where I am!!! That is where i am bringing you beautiful creations with so much more! I have started making videos! Yep I have! LOL and so I'd love for you all to come over there, subscribe to the blog, subcribe to my YouTube channel and have some fun with me. I have been having giveaways on that blog and lots will be happening over there. I would really love it if you could follow me over there too as you do here. :)  Purdy please? *Batting eyelashes*  hehehe ....   No need to be intimidated because it's a business page. I still run it as a blog too and bring you beautiful projects, inspiration, tutorials, giveaways and yes even sales! Who doesn't love to save some money right? :) 

And for those of you who emailed wanting to purchase Stampin' Up products, you can definitely do so by visiting Studio 33- Stampin with Jo, or visiting My Shop or sending me an email to stampinwithjo@gmail.com 

Lastly, Some of you who follow me on Facebook know that I also have my other business, Haven Muriel Psychic Services. I've had a lot of questions in email regarding that and some of you wanting to know how you can get a reading. Just click that link above and it will take you to my Facebook business page. Click on "book now" and a drop down menu will pop up and there you can see what I offer and my pricing. You can book that way or simply send me a message on Facebook. Please do not send me an email for readings. You will have to go through Facebook for that. Now to tell you a bit on my background with this, because i've had the questions lol.  From the age of about 7, I knew I was gifted and "different". I had my first premonition at that age and they have been happening all my life. Basically I am able to see things happening before they happen. I have always been pulled toward people, especially those who are struggling with someone or another. I have always wanted to help them or help "fix" their issues or problems. That is because I am an empath and I am able to connect to someone's energy and feel what is going on with them. I am also a 4th generation psychic medium & spiritual healer. My maternal grandmother and great-aunt had the gift, my aunts have it along with my sister, cousin and my children. We are a very gifted family. I have chosen about 3 years ago to embrace this gift that I have been given and to help as many people as I can. I get asked all the time, "Do you see spirit, do you hear them". Yes & Yes. I am able to connect people to their loved ones, I am able to give healing, I am clairvoyant, clairaudient, & clairsentient. This means i can hear, feel and see. So to my skeptics out there :)   .. yes I know you are out there lol ...  it's okay. I've had several skeptics come my way over the years and now they are believers. I have testimonals on my website and five-star reviews on how I work with spirit. So again, for those of you who are wanting readings, please visit Haven Muriel Psychic Services. 

Well friends, whew that was a LONG post! I warned ya! For those of you who stayed through till the end, Thank you! I hope I was able to answer the questions that I have been receiving as of lately and I do hope that you will all come and follow me over at my other blog and see what i'm up to. If you have a blog and you would like to me to come follow you, please leave it in the comments when you join the other blog or down below on this one. I do return the favors and follow back. :) I love to see what everyone is up to when I can and always look to be inspired! Well my friends, have an amazing week ahead and I hope to hear from some of you soon! God Bless you!

       xoxo