Something Special for your Heart and Eyes

My muse and champion is continuing along her journey with art.  I have two of her beautiful works in my living room, and each piece tells a story of courage and hope.  

She simply does not just paint, she converses with you about important times in our history.  

She has a unique talent and eye for creating optimal emotion in her works.  

If you go to her blog, you can read the stories behind each piece. 

Mandy was and is one of my earthly angels.  Her works make me happy.

They will make you happy too and she is having a special sale now.  

Below you can read about Mandy of Weathered Silo

I am a self-taught artist with a passion for objects timeworn and uncovering what lies beneath. I sketch, paint, and occasionally sew. My studio name pays tribute to my great-grandparents and their parents who homesteaded in the early 1900s on the prairies of Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico.

 photo via Shorpy

Don't you just love this photograph?! Those faces, those clothes! I think its the perfect image to announce my 40% off sale.

Why am I having this HUGE SALE? Because I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who's hung in there and supported my work along the way. I'm definitely still creating art, it's just that I'm in a slow period since I am helping my mom through some serious health issues. My energies have also been focused on settling into the new school year, new school community, and part-time work. Thank you for not giving up on me!
  

For one week only everything my Etsy shop will be 40% off. Just be sure to enter the coupon code THANKYOU40 at checkout to receive your discount. Sale ends midnight Pacific time Friday, October 19th. Happy shopping!

Securing the Future of American Health Care — NEJM

Securing the Future of American Health Care — NEJM

"The law also roots out waste and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, gets rid of insurance overpayments, reinvests those savings back into the system, and adds 8 years to the solvency of Medicare. Obamacare is closing the Medicare doughnut hole — saving people an average of $600 last year — and bolstering your efforts to get your patients to adhere to their medications. More than 3 million young adults who would otherwise be uninsured have coverage on their parents' plan until they are 26 years old, and up to 17 million children with preexisting conditions are no longer at risk of being denied coverage. Small-business owners are getting tax credits to provide coverage for their workers and will soon be able to pool together to leverage better rates, just like big corporations."

ObamaCare Facts: Facts on the Obama Health Care Plan

http://obamacarefacts.com/index.php

 

Obama Care Facts 2012 - We Tell you the Facts, Not The Talking Points

We present the Facts on Obama Care (ObamaCare) / The Health Care for America plan. Our goal is to help you understand the basics of the Obama Care health care plan and bill, so you can decide for yourself what you think of ObamaCare, based on the facts and not the News Radio / TV opinions.

(ObamaCare Facts Image Public Domain, Photo by Chuck Kennedy; U.S. Government Work)

• ObamaCare, Obama Care and Health Care for America are all the same thing; an extension of thePatient Protection and the Affordable Care Act and ongoing efforts to reform the health care industry.

• Some aspects of Obamacare health care reform are already enacted. The Patient Protection andAffordable Care Act was signed 2 years ago, I bet you didn't even notice unless you needed coverage and didn't have it. The Affordable Care Act requires thatinsurance plans cover preventative services and stopsinsurance companies form dropping you when you are sick as well as offering a number of other reforms and protections.

• ObamaCare is a hot button political issue and both sides of the isle will try to persuade you for or against it. You need THE FACTS on ObamaCare and the Health Care For America Plan.

• ObamaCare's goal is to provide affordable health insurance for all US citizens.

• ObamaCare does not replace private insurance or medicaid

• Medicaid will be reformed and expanded in order to help cover more people, especially those below the poverty level.

• ObamaCare aims to improve community health care centers in an effort improve health care for those who cannot afford private health care.

• Affordable health coverage means American's and their families pay what they can afford.

• American Employers need to provide comparable coverage to theHealth Care for America Plan or pay a modest and fair Tax to support ObamaCare. (like the current state run unemployment and workers compensation programs)

• If an American or their family chooses not to purchase healthcare through the Health Care for America Act they can buy private insurance. Those who chose to not participate will pay a penalty tax to help cover the rest of us. In other words no one is actually forcing you to havehealth insurance.

• 19 million Americans will receive tax credits to help pay for healthcare and most middle class Americans will actually save thousands on healthcare via tax cuts (this has been going on for the past 3 years already)

• The government is by the people and for the people. The health insurance companies are for profit organizations who are for the bottom line and the investors.

• ObamaCare ensures that sick people can't be dropped from insurance, people can't be denied for preexisting conditions and women can't be charged more than men by insurance companies. These measures prevent all types of discrimination in regards to your right to health care.

• All Americans have the option to stay on their current healthcare plans.

• Those with incomes exceeding 250k will be subject to higher taxes. This will help pay for the ObamaCare. As you can imagine this does not make some people happy. Though it's important to note that those making less will not be losing money, rather they will be gaining the option of healthcare.

• The Affordable Health Care Act doesn't just focus on insurance, it also reforms the parts of the healthcare system that aren't working or are costing the tax payer money. For example by focusing on preventive measures instead of just treatment ObamaCare will save tens of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives.

• The average American will save money under Obamacare. In fact many Americans are already paying less for health care services.

• Obamacare cuts the national deficit by over 100,000,000,000 dollars during it's first 10 years.

• Over the next two decades Obamacare is projected to cut the national deficit by over 1,000,000,000,000 dollars.

• ObamaCare aims to make it easier for small businesses to provide coverage to workers by offering Tax Credits to employers who enroll their workers in private healthcare plans.

• One of the main goals of ObamaCare is to ensure that all preventative care will be free on all insurance plans. Private insurance plans that are grand fathered in and are all ready in place will be exempt until they lose their grand fathered status.

MOST IMPORTANTLY: The "ObamaCare" Bill is currently signed into law. There are many people, including Mitt Romney who would like to see ObamaCare repealed. If this happens millions of Americans will be without proper health coverage, many more will be dropped from private insurance companies who are not required to provide healthcare. From employers will drop health care plans of workers. Many more will suffer the consequences of a health care system controlled by private companies, who's bottom line is money and not health.

Danny DeVito and Crew Speak Out for Prop 37, GMO Labeling | Common Dreams

We know not the effect of genetically engineered foods on disease, but common sense will tell you that it can't be good.  I don't want Monsanto dictating what I feed my body, do you?

Danny DeVito and Crew Speak Out for Prop 37, GMO Labeling | Common Dreams

Published on Tuesday, October 9, 2012 by Food & Water Watch

Danny DeVito and Crew Speak Out for Prop 37, GMO Labeling

In November, Californians will vote on Prop 37 requiring that GE foods be labeled. Just as labels list fat, sodium and sugar, labels should tell the buyer whether or not the product includes genetically engineered ingredients.

Unfortunately, major corporations like Monsanto are pouring billions of dollars into this election in order to confuse voters, and protect their bottom line.

Sign the pledge here if you plan to vote YES on Prop 37 and support the labeling of genetically engineered foods in California.

Here also is an interesting article published in 2010 by http://www.farmaid.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=qlI5IhNVJsE&b=2723877&ct=8939681&notoc=1     

"With the power to own and patent genetics, seed companies can demand even more control over the market as a whole. The seed industry has suffered enormous concentration of power in the past few decades, with at least 200 independent seed companies exiting the market in the last fifteen years and four companies now controlling over 50% of the market. This consolidation means farmers have far fewer options for seed varieties. Meanwhile, farmers have seen the sharpest rise in seed prices during the period in which GE crops rose in prominence.[13]

In this sense, the deregulation of new GE varieties comes as a slap in the face to the farmers and eaters who put their trust in the USDA and Department of Justice as they examined antitrust abuses in our food system this past year, including specific investigations into Monsanto and the seed industry. The newest wave of GE products will only further corporate control over our food supply, putting the interests of corporations far before the needs of farmers and eaters.

The bottom line? 
Surely, this is a lot to take in. Genetic engineering is a complicated topic, with a broad set of consequences for our society. There are many questions left unanswered about how GE will impact farmers and eaters, and even less clarity about how these impacts will be managed.

Until our regulatory system and the biotech companies themselves properly address the risks inherent in GE crops, farmers and eaters have a right to reject them. Releasing GE crops into the fields without mitigating their risks is gambling with our health, our environment and livelihoods of family farmers."

"Landslide" by Stevie Nicks, such a beautiful song.

A few months ago my mom was in the hospital for almost an entire month.  She is doing well again, thanks be to God.  I heard this song one day as I was pulling out of the hospital's parking garage, and lost it.

Now when I hear this song, I realize I cannot handle the seasons of my life, but I will do so anyway.

I play this as a tribute to all of our parents and to those who have died, who have suffered in pain.  

She said, "This is mom" after I handed her the card

Yesterday was a big day for us in the Teal Four Square Flash Mob community.  With the Facebook campaign falling on deaf ears I needed to do something else to help raise awareness of ovarian cancer.  That is how this whole Four Square Flash Mob thing started.  I imagined a crowd of people dressed in beautiful teal, crossing an intersection over and over, calling out about our "gems" and giving people symptom cards.  I am a nut, I know.  A little much and, well, different.  Let's just say that I am strangely happy that it wasn't a mob in downtown Seattle yesterday, but  instead just me and my little basket of cards, talking one on one with other women.

As I was leaving my apartment yesterday I still had not chosen my location. With all of my sales and marketing history (not professional that is) I would say I failed miserably in terms of planning.  Oh well.   But, that may have also been a good thing.  I hadn't done anything like this in a very very long time.  I am a shy person and for me to go out and talk to strangers is challenging.  Always has been.

So I got in my car and just started driving.  The air was cool, a little cloudy, and really I had no clue what was happening anywhere.  I thought, well I can go to Pikes Market, that would be crowded.  Then I thought, maybe by South Lake Union, so beautiful around the lake, surely I will find lots of people there.  Then I thought about Phinney Ridge, a little neighborhood with lots of shops.  Then Fremont, then Golden Gardens park by the sound.  I thought about Greenlake too, a little lake between Phinney and Wallingford.

So first I drove to Phinney Ridge and it didn't feel "right".  I kept sensing this need to go to Greenlake, so that's where I went.

On the west side of the lake I could see the regular view, people walking and running along the edge, as usual.  I decided that I should go to the eastern side of the lake, where the food stand and boat rentals are,  an area more concentrated with people. If you have ever driven anywhere in Seattle you know that you can't really see what's around the corner.  That's how it is driving around the lake, crazy.

As I drove around towards the eastern side and passed the tennis courts suddenly there appeared an area with a bunch of tents and balloons.  I saw a huge stage and thought, wow, just exactly the place to be. Perfection.

It took forever for me to find a place to park.  Finallly I found a little spot with 45 minute parking in front of Jodee's Desserts.  Yum.  I scurried my buns to the park, teal balloons and basket in hand, ready to talk to the world about ovarian cancer.

When I got there, I saw that the event was for the Light the Night Walk, http://www.lightthenight.org/. It's a walk to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. People were lined up to register, red and gold balloons were everywhere and you could see people forming their teams.  It was just a really nice event.  

I got permission from the people at the information booth, who were "in charge".  I want to say thank you so much for allowing me to hand out my cards at this special event. It felt really good to give out the cards because somewhere along the line, they will help.  I met some really nice people.

One woman stands out.  She and her sister were with their children, babies and older children.  She took the card and read it quickly.  She glanced at her sister and said "This is mom".  She asked for another one, and handed it to her sister.  My heart sank.  I gave her a sympathetic downward smile.  She did not ask questions and I knew I should keep walking, but then after a few feet of walking, one of her children grabbed me and said his mom wanted another card.  I knew that card was for grandma.  

I am so relieved that they have a little information.  That one little card may be the spurt of courage that is needed to be firmer with her doctor to at least look for ovarian cancer, in the hopes to rule it out.

I will never forget those words and the look on her face.  Imagine being at an event and being handed an ovarian cancer awareness card, sort of a shocker really.  Not something you would ever think to get, to be honest.

I write about this not to pat myself on the back or anything, because none of this is up to me.  I am just trying to do my part to give back.

Whether it's a national PSA or flash mob of one, we can all do a little something to help people be more aware of the whispers of ovarian cancer.

My friend Bob went out in his little town in Texas to do the same.  He distributed 100 cards and spoke with many women about ovarian cancer.  I have another friend who gave her pharmacy a bunch of cards.

So I leave you all with a few more little photos from yesterday.  I love you all and thank you for following along with me on my cancer journey.  God Bless you.

Love,
Denise

PS.....the dessert place is fantastic!
http://www.jodeesdesserts.com/#!home/mainPage  (Fabulous gluten free and dairy free desserts, yum)

PS again....Please visit Cancer Lifeline and view their incredible services.  They fell short of their goals this month and their unique services help all people dealing with cancer and their caregivers.  They have helped me so much.  http://www.cancerlifeline.org/