The Opening of the MitzaRose Creations Store, and How it all Began Part 1 of 3

Tonight I sit here hopeful and excited. I am opening my online store. I have so many products to photograph and load up I just don't know were to start. To be honest it is a little bit overwhelming. 

I guess I should tell you a little bit about why I am opening up my shop, and in order to do that I must tell you a story about me. I am a mother of 6 children and a grandmother of 1. I graduated from college magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Digital Media Production.

But my love of art did not start there, you see some would say it is in my blood. My Great Grandmother made her living money after she retired by creating and selling stuffed animals, paintings, jewelry, and making various other crafts. She would vend at whatever festival or craft show she could find. She was able to travel to Florida from Pennsylvania every winter on her crafting business. She and my Great Grandfather were what the Florida locals call "Snow Birds".

When I was young she would sit with me for hours as she would make crafts and we would play card games. I would watch her and loved the fact that she was able to go to work and yet still spend time with me. It was always extra special time when I would get to go to the event and sell items with her. I knew at a young age that this was something that I wanted in my life. 

My Great Grandfather and my Grandmother both have a love and a talent for photography. I was in middle school with a chance to take photography as an elective. I jumped on that opportunity. I know I am telling my age when I talk about having a dark room and cameras with actual film that had to be processed correctly to get the picture to print perfectly. I learned so much from both my Great Grandfather and my Grandmother that even though things have moved to a digital world, the things I learned still carry true today, such as lighting and composition and shutter speed. So yes I love photography and always prefer to be behind the camera instead of in front of it. 

My Mother also was crafty. She enjoyed sewing the most. She tried to teach me how to sew 5 or 6 times before I got the hang of it. I did  not have the most patience when I was younger, and ripping out a seam that I had just sewed in only to redo it because I did not get it right was not something I could keep doing until I had matured.

In high school I used drawing and listening to music to manage my very real and very much undiagnosed (for almost another 24 years) Bipolar disorder. I learned young to control it because I lived in a time and place when it was not accepted. They sent you off to live in asylums' as people with issues were not allowed to remain in general society. This was way before inclusion and no child gets left behind. Art is my therapy, and it always has been. 

Shortly before my oldest daughter's birth I inherited some art supplies and jewelry making items, and again art became my therapy. Undiagnosed bipolar, New Mom, Stressed Marriage, and yet with my arts, I managed. I started selling the things I was making on an auction site. It was new and fresh at the time, and people loved it. I was selling enough to support purchasing new materials and was even starting to turn a profit! I was excited! I was starting to branch into other crafts.

But it was not to last. My marriage was done. I could no longer handle the small town, and strained family over religion. I could not stay. I hunted for a way out, (unmedicated, undiagnosed bipolar, with the walls closing in and been tied to the same 60 mile radius her whole life) to be completely honest I hunted for any way out. I made some not so great choices and I left everything and everyone behind and moved to a whole new state with someone I thought I knew. I continued to make some not so great choices for a while as I suffered a prolonged manic episode. I do have a wonderful daughter out of the experience.

I let my arts fall to the wayside as I continued to rollercoaster with my mental health. I struggled still not knowing that everyone did not go through what I dealt with mentally. I was an outcast. The family that was religious did not want anything to do with me. So I grew very close to my Grandmother, and we are still very close to this day. I was dealing with abandonment issues, and PTSD, but still though that everyone had the feelings and trouble controlling their emotions like I did. I felt like I was in a constant state of fight or flight. 

I sought help right before I found out that I was pregnant with my second daughter. But I was told that I was normal and everyone deals with issues like I had. instead of seeking help someplace else I believed that I was just weak minded and not worthy of a good life because other people deal with the same issues and their lives are good, and not in a constant state of unrest.

I met a wonderful man and fell in love. And before long we were moving to a new state. Stay tuned for Part 2 ...