The Dream
Ever since I was a young child I have had one dream that no matter what
else happens in life, it always leads me back... just waiting, waiting, waiting,
so patiently for it's time and opportunity. When I was little, I loved playing
with my dolls, the toy tractors in the sand pile were more of a favorite, but the
number one thing I loved to do was to play "store".
But my store play had a special twist to it... I had to make everything that I
had in my little shop, that was the most fun. I didn't play "garage sale" just
slapping price tags on all my toys, I played real STORE. I remember one
cousin said I was crazy... that wasn't playing, that was WORK! Well, I loved to
create things and my mind would go ten thousand miles a minute with ideas.
Remember bleach bottle piggy banks? And it's amazing what you can make
out of paper towel rolls...Scrap cardboard, markers and old game pieces got
life reborn into them when I made new board games. I always loved to sew,
so there were things out of fabric as well. I used scrap blocks to make the
dolls furniture... and yes, how I do so remember the days of hand saws! It
was always fun and I would say someday this will all be for real, being my
own business owner where I am creating the goods that sit upon REAL
store shelves and those precious items being cherished by their new
owners upon their shelves, mantles, and walls of their homes!
After I was married and I had only one child, I thought the time was then. I
had gone to school for starting my own business in 1984. I had done all the
research and found the shop and was ready to take the plunge. I had
decided on a rather questionable business at that time, questionable by
other people that is... but not me! I could see the vision of what was on the
horizon! A sewing and craft supply store! Hmmmm... I was indeed a few
years ahead of my time! I dealt with people who rebuked the idea saying the
entire industry was dead! Hmmmm... my little crystal ball said otherwise and
so did the test of time. We all have seen the transformation of that industry in
the last 24 years! But I kept a dream of someday having my store alive.
For years I did craft shows, starting when I was just married with my trusty
sewing machine with bibs and dollclothes, then heading towards other odd
crafts, then to my scrollsaws and fretwork... continuing on even while
having five children. The older two girls grew up taking turns on mommy's
lap while I sewed sweatshirts and learned to sew themselves when they
were four years old. The next kids were raised in the scrollsaw era where I
could hear every move those busy toddlers made while I was sawing in the
basement beneath their busy little feet. And there were times when they
really helped out with a handy screwdriver to the just finished
wallhangings... and YES, I saved those for them to have, all the scratches
and all.
I traveled to shows with kids in tow and/or big belly when pregnant.
Awakening at 3 am, if I even went to sleep that night, to travel sometimes two
hours or more to shows in Brainerd, Rochester, St. Paul in all kinds of
weather, set up for three hours, and work non-stop all day long. My girls
learned to count change the CORRECT way and to set up our movable store
under the pressure of sleep deprivation and the clock ticking before the
mobs hit the craft show floor. I now hear the stories of their little pranks with
velcro sticky side up on my carpet as the little devils were hiding under my
upside down cart that transformed itself into a table with a sleek tablecloth.
All got their turns to go to a show alone with Mom, be in charge of the booth
alone as mom checked out the show (in the days before cell phones). Those
days were so fun! It is one of the things I so miss about my daughters now
living in other states and so far from home.
In 1995, I thought the time was right when we bought another farmstead and
I moved my workspace to the old house there to have more room. I had
grand plans for the great shed there. Visions of the cutest country store with
all those creations longing to be born bouncing around in my head. It was
one of the last things my dad told me to do! Get that store, live that dream! He
was so proud to watch us reroofing that shed, that he had cut the lumber for
the farmer then to build fifty years before. We also added on an entry porch
that he got to see on one of his last times out driving his pick-up truck. Life
wasn't to work out that way though. It was not yet time and I was not yet
ready.
I realized the night before a craft show that fall of 1995 that something was
just totally not right with me... I had found a lump in my neck a couple weeks
earlier, actually my oldest daughter did.... and I was just exhausted. That
night before that huge craft show and with so much yet to do, I simply said it
was time for bed... at 7:00! Now, I rarely, if EVER, slept the night before
shows and here I was heading to bed hours before normal. It would take
time and five doctors to discover that I indeed had a very rare form of
lymphoma, and another four doctors to totally disagree on treatment, but
none disputed the outcome. The last doctor in Mayo put it bluntly, if I did not
find something that could help me I had an outside chance at five years!
WOW! Life has a way of smacking us in the face sometimes doesn't it? There
I was, then just turning 34, with five kids ranging in age from merely twelve
down to two years old, and no where near ready to say this is curtains! I
needed to be here for my kids!!!!!!!!! To see them grow and graduate and
marry and have kids of their own and live happy lives! And another of those
driving forces behind me was my DREAM! My Children and that Dream have
kept me alive! THEY are the best medicine anyone could hope for. Yes, I
rejected traditional treatment that could offer me little hope and tried every
kind of conceivable alternative I could afford, or even not afford, and
something worked! I have held my own for over 12 1/2 years! The fear and
questions linger on... will it return? But I decided long ago, cancer does not
control my life, I do! I got that realization just before my father's death in
1998. He was dying from cancer and said he would be there waiting for me
as I was coming soon. I snapped back to him without any hesitation that I
have way too much to do yet and I would not be coming THAT soon! I have
lived with the philosophy of living 50 more years of LIFE, not just struggling
to survive five years! I want to THRIVE not just survive! I now view cancer as
the greatest blessing I have ever received!
As my health was beginning to improve I thought perhaps the time would be
right for my dream... unfortunately the universe had other plans. In June of
1998, a lightning bolt transformed our family's life in that flash! Within
minutes we were without a home and within hours my children were
attempting to sleep somewhere else, with which relatives I did not know! Life
felt so empty that night sitting in the van with my husband waiting
impatiently for the sun to rise so we could see what was left after the fire,
smoke and tremendous amounts of water! But the greatest pain was not
being able to hold my children tight that night! We had never been split up
like that before and it traumatized everyone. Soon we had a camper that
slept three, and a four room tent. But you would be amazed how cozy
people can get in a small camper in a thunderstorm! We bought a 37 foot
travel trailer soon after that we called home for five months and we all
bonded like velcro. The best days of our lives. Cramped, on each other's
nerves, but together!
We all learned a valuable lesson of what is important in life... it's not the
things, it's the people! In that crisis we learned that we could always count
on each other! Eventually we moved into our "temporary" housing, aka
trailer houses, and that is where we still live today with just the youngest two
boys left at home. We hope to sell more land to afford to finish the new
house like we planned, but with tight credit people are finding trouble getting
financing to buy the land they so desperately want. Say a prayer for us there!
Life is full of challenges, but how we react is what is important. My oldest
daughter has the most wonderful saying at the bottom of all her emails...
The Power of Attitude
"Our lives are not determined by what happens to us,
but by how we react to what happens;
not by what life brings to us,
but by the attitude we bring to life.
A positive attitude causes a chain reaction
of positive thoughts, events,and outcomes.
It is a catalyst...a spark that creates extraordinary results."
In 2001, I was given a great opportunity once again in the form of a stroke.
Obviously I had not learned enough with cancer...hmmm! When I had to use
a cane to get around, couldn't find words easily, and my right hand would
not work right I was so afraid I would lose my ability to create and express
myself. Some medication I was given about sent me over the edge. It was a
very "opportunity" laden time for me... but I vowed to regain what I had lost
and be as stubborn as I could be about it.... I had way too much to do yet! I
now can hide the effects until I let myself get way too exhausted... then it's
tipsy time when I lose my balance and I can get real chummy with the hubby,
or one of my children to have them hold me up in public! OHHHH, ain't that
sweet!
But that challenge has made me even more determined to achieve my
dream. I have watched my daughters grow and become wonderful young
women, and my sons become such committed, hard working young men! To
me, THEY are all my heroes. I am so proud of what they have accomplished
and realize that my most important job all these years was to be their Mom!
And now as my job as Mom is being transformed... ( I joke and say I am being
downsized right out of a job!)... it is NOW the time for my dream!
That house we are building is designed for, you guessed it, my business!
The front entry opens into my showroom for my laser engraving. Much of the
lower level will be production area and storage. But although the house is
not yet done, call me finally impatient... IT IS TIME! It can wait no longer. This
business, this dream, is like a child that is finally ready to be born and there
is no holding it back! With or without a roof on that new house, it is TIME! I
will work from my cramped quarters here in the middle of the living room
creating those precious items that now sit upon people's shelves, mantles,
and on their walls. I love to create treasures that make people think, inspire,
and make them feel so special. Because remember it is not about things, it is
about people... and through my products I want to create that constant
reminder. One of the latest frames I created is about the generations.... how I
had wished we had thought about getting pictures like that taken years ago
when there was still time. I hope my frames inspire people to do just that,
create that special memory that will be cherished for generations!
One day recently I stood and watched as an engraved item of mine was
placed upon a wonderful little gift shop shelf and I had to fight to hold back
the tears. My items were being professionally photographed that same day
for a new website that has commissioned from me a line of personally
engraved items. And I realized... my lifelong dream of having that one little
store of my own was too small! The universe had so much more in mind for
me! I have to expand my vision and IT IS TIME!
I hope to always honor my mission of inspiring and encouraging people
about what is important in their lives and to find their true passion. For as I
embark upon the fulfillment of my dream, after all these years and all these
opportunities that have better prepared me to get here, may I serve as
inspiration for others.... NEVER give up!
Thank you for sharing in my story and may you be blessed and be a
blessing today!
Love always, Peggy
else happens in life, it always leads me back... just waiting, waiting, waiting,
so patiently for it's time and opportunity. When I was little, I loved playing
with my dolls, the toy tractors in the sand pile were more of a favorite, but the
number one thing I loved to do was to play "store".
But my store play had a special twist to it... I had to make everything that I
had in my little shop, that was the most fun. I didn't play "garage sale" just
slapping price tags on all my toys, I played real STORE. I remember one
cousin said I was crazy... that wasn't playing, that was WORK! Well, I loved to
create things and my mind would go ten thousand miles a minute with ideas.
Remember bleach bottle piggy banks? And it's amazing what you can make
out of paper towel rolls...Scrap cardboard, markers and old game pieces got
life reborn into them when I made new board games. I always loved to sew,
so there were things out of fabric as well. I used scrap blocks to make the
dolls furniture... and yes, how I do so remember the days of hand saws! It
was always fun and I would say someday this will all be for real, being my
own business owner where I am creating the goods that sit upon REAL
store shelves and those precious items being cherished by their new
owners upon their shelves, mantles, and walls of their homes!
After I was married and I had only one child, I thought the time was then. I
had gone to school for starting my own business in 1984. I had done all the
research and found the shop and was ready to take the plunge. I had
decided on a rather questionable business at that time, questionable by
other people that is... but not me! I could see the vision of what was on the
horizon! A sewing and craft supply store! Hmmmm... I was indeed a few
years ahead of my time! I dealt with people who rebuked the idea saying the
entire industry was dead! Hmmmm... my little crystal ball said otherwise and
so did the test of time. We all have seen the transformation of that industry in
the last 24 years! But I kept a dream of someday having my store alive.
For years I did craft shows, starting when I was just married with my trusty
sewing machine with bibs and dollclothes, then heading towards other odd
crafts, then to my scrollsaws and fretwork... continuing on even while
having five children. The older two girls grew up taking turns on mommy's
lap while I sewed sweatshirts and learned to sew themselves when they
were four years old. The next kids were raised in the scrollsaw era where I
could hear every move those busy toddlers made while I was sawing in the
basement beneath their busy little feet. And there were times when they
really helped out with a handy screwdriver to the just finished
wallhangings... and YES, I saved those for them to have, all the scratches
and all.
I traveled to shows with kids in tow and/or big belly when pregnant.
Awakening at 3 am, if I even went to sleep that night, to travel sometimes two
hours or more to shows in Brainerd, Rochester, St. Paul in all kinds of
weather, set up for three hours, and work non-stop all day long. My girls
learned to count change the CORRECT way and to set up our movable store
under the pressure of sleep deprivation and the clock ticking before the
mobs hit the craft show floor. I now hear the stories of their little pranks with
velcro sticky side up on my carpet as the little devils were hiding under my
upside down cart that transformed itself into a table with a sleek tablecloth.
All got their turns to go to a show alone with Mom, be in charge of the booth
alone as mom checked out the show (in the days before cell phones). Those
days were so fun! It is one of the things I so miss about my daughters now
living in other states and so far from home.
In 1995, I thought the time was right when we bought another farmstead and
I moved my workspace to the old house there to have more room. I had
grand plans for the great shed there. Visions of the cutest country store with
all those creations longing to be born bouncing around in my head. It was
one of the last things my dad told me to do! Get that store, live that dream! He
was so proud to watch us reroofing that shed, that he had cut the lumber for
the farmer then to build fifty years before. We also added on an entry porch
that he got to see on one of his last times out driving his pick-up truck. Life
wasn't to work out that way though. It was not yet time and I was not yet
ready.
I realized the night before a craft show that fall of 1995 that something was
just totally not right with me... I had found a lump in my neck a couple weeks
earlier, actually my oldest daughter did.... and I was just exhausted. That
night before that huge craft show and with so much yet to do, I simply said it
was time for bed... at 7:00! Now, I rarely, if EVER, slept the night before
shows and here I was heading to bed hours before normal. It would take
time and five doctors to discover that I indeed had a very rare form of
lymphoma, and another four doctors to totally disagree on treatment, but
none disputed the outcome. The last doctor in Mayo put it bluntly, if I did not
find something that could help me I had an outside chance at five years!
WOW! Life has a way of smacking us in the face sometimes doesn't it? There
I was, then just turning 34, with five kids ranging in age from merely twelve
down to two years old, and no where near ready to say this is curtains! I
needed to be here for my kids!!!!!!!!! To see them grow and graduate and
marry and have kids of their own and live happy lives! And another of those
driving forces behind me was my DREAM! My Children and that Dream have
kept me alive! THEY are the best medicine anyone could hope for. Yes, I
rejected traditional treatment that could offer me little hope and tried every
kind of conceivable alternative I could afford, or even not afford, and
something worked! I have held my own for over 12 1/2 years! The fear and
questions linger on... will it return? But I decided long ago, cancer does not
control my life, I do! I got that realization just before my father's death in
1998. He was dying from cancer and said he would be there waiting for me
as I was coming soon. I snapped back to him without any hesitation that I
have way too much to do yet and I would not be coming THAT soon! I have
lived with the philosophy of living 50 more years of LIFE, not just struggling
to survive five years! I want to THRIVE not just survive! I now view cancer as
the greatest blessing I have ever received!
As my health was beginning to improve I thought perhaps the time would be
right for my dream... unfortunately the universe had other plans. In June of
1998, a lightning bolt transformed our family's life in that flash! Within
minutes we were without a home and within hours my children were
attempting to sleep somewhere else, with which relatives I did not know! Life
felt so empty that night sitting in the van with my husband waiting
impatiently for the sun to rise so we could see what was left after the fire,
smoke and tremendous amounts of water! But the greatest pain was not
being able to hold my children tight that night! We had never been split up
like that before and it traumatized everyone. Soon we had a camper that
slept three, and a four room tent. But you would be amazed how cozy
people can get in a small camper in a thunderstorm! We bought a 37 foot
travel trailer soon after that we called home for five months and we all
bonded like velcro. The best days of our lives. Cramped, on each other's
nerves, but together!
We all learned a valuable lesson of what is important in life... it's not the
things, it's the people! In that crisis we learned that we could always count
on each other! Eventually we moved into our "temporary" housing, aka
trailer houses, and that is where we still live today with just the youngest two
boys left at home. We hope to sell more land to afford to finish the new
house like we planned, but with tight credit people are finding trouble getting
financing to buy the land they so desperately want. Say a prayer for us there!
Life is full of challenges, but how we react is what is important. My oldest
daughter has the most wonderful saying at the bottom of all her emails...
The Power of Attitude
"Our lives are not determined by what happens to us,
but by how we react to what happens;
not by what life brings to us,
but by the attitude we bring to life.
A positive attitude causes a chain reaction
of positive thoughts, events,and outcomes.
It is a catalyst...a spark that creates extraordinary results."
In 2001, I was given a great opportunity once again in the form of a stroke.
Obviously I had not learned enough with cancer...hmmm! When I had to use
a cane to get around, couldn't find words easily, and my right hand would
not work right I was so afraid I would lose my ability to create and express
myself. Some medication I was given about sent me over the edge. It was a
very "opportunity" laden time for me... but I vowed to regain what I had lost
and be as stubborn as I could be about it.... I had way too much to do yet! I
now can hide the effects until I let myself get way too exhausted... then it's
tipsy time when I lose my balance and I can get real chummy with the hubby,
or one of my children to have them hold me up in public! OHHHH, ain't that
sweet!
But that challenge has made me even more determined to achieve my
dream. I have watched my daughters grow and become wonderful young
women, and my sons become such committed, hard working young men! To
me, THEY are all my heroes. I am so proud of what they have accomplished
and realize that my most important job all these years was to be their Mom!
And now as my job as Mom is being transformed... ( I joke and say I am being
downsized right out of a job!)... it is NOW the time for my dream!
That house we are building is designed for, you guessed it, my business!
The front entry opens into my showroom for my laser engraving. Much of the
lower level will be production area and storage. But although the house is
not yet done, call me finally impatient... IT IS TIME! It can wait no longer. This
business, this dream, is like a child that is finally ready to be born and there
is no holding it back! With or without a roof on that new house, it is TIME! I
will work from my cramped quarters here in the middle of the living room
creating those precious items that now sit upon people's shelves, mantles,
and on their walls. I love to create treasures that make people think, inspire,
and make them feel so special. Because remember it is not about things, it is
about people... and through my products I want to create that constant
reminder. One of the latest frames I created is about the generations.... how I
had wished we had thought about getting pictures like that taken years ago
when there was still time. I hope my frames inspire people to do just that,
create that special memory that will be cherished for generations!
One day recently I stood and watched as an engraved item of mine was
placed upon a wonderful little gift shop shelf and I had to fight to hold back
the tears. My items were being professionally photographed that same day
for a new website that has commissioned from me a line of personally
engraved items. And I realized... my lifelong dream of having that one little
store of my own was too small! The universe had so much more in mind for
me! I have to expand my vision and IT IS TIME!
I hope to always honor my mission of inspiring and encouraging people
about what is important in their lives and to find their true passion. For as I
embark upon the fulfillment of my dream, after all these years and all these
opportunities that have better prepared me to get here, may I serve as
inspiration for others.... NEVER give up!
Thank you for sharing in my story and may you be blessed and be a
blessing today!
Love always, Peggy
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Treasured Haven Farm
1-888-574-0149