About Me

 

 Hello, and welcome to my blog! My name is Ellen and I’m just a sixty something old Norwegian restarting a blog I originally opened in 2018 while a student at Worcester State University, earning my second B.A. I worked previously as a financial advisor who skied avidly. My skiing days ended in February of 2016 when I sustained a severe tibial plateau injury in a freak accident on a bunny slope in New Hampshire. My career as a financial advisor ended in early 2018 when I needed a medical retirement due to complications of my injuries. As a woman of faith, I wept at all the changes, but trusted God to provide me with other areas of focus in life.

And God provided: Granddaughter Luna, needing child care two days a week, arrived early in December 2017 and I went on to start a second B.A. in English, where I adopted writing as a focus, finally graduating in May 2023 with a Master’s Degree, also in English. The focus was literature and I enjoyed every minute of it. I’m grateful particularly to my mentors, Elizabeth Bidinger and Dennis Quinn, for encouraging me tremendously along the way. My granddaughter was a focus twice a week, all day, and the other weekdays were spent studying, writing, and reading. Balancing a course of study in my late fifties with a precious newborn deeply wanted and loved was the busiest time I can ever remember.

These days I focus on homemaking for my husband Jim, and working with my service-dog-in-training, Lily. I am deaf now and wear cochlear implants. I’m beginning to sew again after a hiatus following the death of three family members; my mother, a favorite aunt, and my stepdaughter who died of a rare and aggressive cancer at age 46.

I rarely quilt, particularly as I prefer to do English Smocking and Fine Embroidery. A member of Smocking Arts Guild of America, I’m in the Artisan program for Fine Embroidery. I attended the most recent convention in October 2024 with Lily, who proved her worth as a guide, companion, and hearing dog.

I’m Grandma to nine precious grandchildren living across the United States. One of the grands comes daily, four days a week after school. Privileged to share her life so often, I sew many items for her. Her most desired item right now? A smocked dress. She’s outgrown her smocked Easter dress and wants one for Christmas. Grandma will be happy to oblige!