I was born in Arlington, Massachusetts and have lived in a few neighbouring towns in Massachusetts all my life. My husband John, (who was born and raised in Greece) and I now make our home in the little town of Ashland, MA, and I like to call our home on the hill the "Enchanted Cottage as it is small and cozy, nestled in amongst the trees.

I have journeyed through breast cancer twice now. The first diagnosis seven years ago at the age of 42, about two months after my husband John and I were married. I had found a lump in my left breast and went for a biopsy to check to make sure things were alright (I had a biopsy in my right breast over 20 years earlier which was benign so I was hopeful this would be also). But this time it turned out differently. I remember the two of us walking to the car in the darkened parking lot of the doctor's office at the end of a cold winter day in January. We got into the car and together we cried. John took the following day off work to be with me, and I cried for the next two days, feeling so devastated. Then I dried my tears, sat down quietly at the dining room table with a pen and paper and drew a line down the middle of the page. On the left side I wrote as a heading "Things I have going for me" and on the right "Thing I have going against me".

The left side began to fill up with SO MANY things like, I have a wonderful husband who will be there for me all the way, I have been diagnosed early, I have insurance, I live near the best hospital in the country, I have loving family and dear friends, I am otherwise perfectly healthy, etc. The right side only had ONE things written, "Breast Cancer". Looking at that page gave me courage I needed, and I began to feel an inner calm.

The surgery went well (a lumpectomy) followed by six weeks of radiation. I began to focus on the things that nurtured me most. Gentle music, the sound of water ( designed a three-pool water garden for our back yard in a corner where nothing ever grew, that now delights us each spring and summer). I realized that books and the joy of reading was a passion in my life that buoyed my spirit, and that flowers nurtured my spirit as well. Although I have been a freelance artist and calligrapher for many years, my work began to 'shift ' a bit from designing note cards and bookmarks with my copyrighted Angel Ariane. I began to have a "new vision", although Angel Ariane is still very much a part of my life, I knew that many other women are also nurtured by reading and by the beauty of flowers too. So my creations began to take a different direction. I began creating bookmarks and now magnets and note cards using pressed flowers and hand calligraphed nurturing verses like, "You are Loved", "You are divinely protected and guided", "Breathe", "Be Still", Listen to your inner voice", "You are a sacred soul on a sacred journey and you are deeply loved", "Remember when you were little you thought you could do anything?" (You Can.) "Everything will be all right", and many others.

I thought, if every time someone could sit down with a book and open it up to find a laminated bookmark with beautiful real pressed flowers beside a nurturing verse, that would be a powerful and loving affirmation for health and well-being. Women are so often nurturing others and often find it difficult to make time to nurture themselves (and this is so often where 'dis-ease' begins, when we forget to give ourselves the same love we so readily give to others). And, for every item I sell, I donate approximately 50% of my profits to cancer research organizations. I have so much to be grateful for, and it feels good to be giving others a way to add a little more love to their day, as well as being a small part of the wonderful efforts to find a cure for cancer by being able to donate money to different organizations working toward that goal.