The reason for my disappearance...

Hello to everyone out there in miniatures blogland! This post is about what I've been doing for the last 2 years. I never intended on abandoning my miniatures but that's basically what I did.

I left the work force over 18 years ago to stay home with my four children. I was an Administrative Assistant and Program Director for an Adult Day Health Care. The agency I worked for also paid for me to go to college so I could finish up my degree. I walked away from all of it, my career and education to be a stay at home mom and wife.

I started miniatures in 2005, that same year I created my website, My Small Obsession, Creating Dollhouse Miniatures in 2008 and this blog in 2009. All three have been successful, thanks to my loyal followers. By 2016 all of my children had moved out and started their own lives. My husband of 21 years and I were all alone and we had problems. I diligently began trying to work on those problems...my husband, not so much. In March of 2016 I decided that I needed to get back out into the world so I started volunteering at the local homeless shelter. I volunteered in the Resource Center full time, from 7am to 2pm Monday through Friday. After finishing up in the Resource Center I would go volunteer in the kitchen and help to prepare and serve food until 6pm. After I was finished helping to clean up from dinner I would volunteer for Guest Services and check in the guests each evening and a variety of other tasks, until around 9-10pm. I was spending on average about 14 and a half hours a day.... I was avoiding being at home with a man that I felt no longer loved me. I would head home each night and find my husband sitting on the couch texting or gambling on his phone. I tried to get my husband to work on our marriage but he gave up and I decided to leave. It was the hardest decision of my life,,,,23 years together, four kids and 2 grandkids. I moved into my own place last December. I was hired by the shelter to work in Guest Services in August of 2017, running the women's part of the shelter as a Guest Services Assistant. Three weeks later they made me the Case Manager for the shelter and now I run the Resource Center. I love my job!

My husband and I are still legally married but we haven't lived together in almost a year. I have had a great deal of difficulty moving forward. This June I landed in a psych hospital for a week because I was having so much trouble accepting the loss of my marriage. It has been a difficult process and I discovered that I was not married to the man I thought I was. I spent a lot of years in denial. I had surgery in August on my neck and I'm still home recovering, I am scheduled to go back to work in December. I am finally well enough to get back into miniatures and I am still working on moving forward with the rest of my life.

This next month I will be updating my website, both blogs and all social media. I still haven't unpacked my studio so that is also a goal for the next 30 days. I really need to create again! I was working on a project when I started volunteering and it's still not finished. I hope to complete that project also.

I plan to start posting again on a regular basis on my blogs, website and social media. I have missed this part of my life so much and I am very eager to get back into it.

Thank you all so much for all the support these past 13 years, I wouldn't be here without you!

Mini Regards, Cassi