Today is World Ovarian Cancer Day. Tomorrow is the Horseshoe Market and the following day is Mother's Day. Needless to say I've been thinking a lot about the amazing woman who taught me to sew, embroider, read and died almost three years ago now. My mom Joy was an amazing mom and creative.

In 2005, because her cousin Joni had also had ovarian cancer my mom knew the symptoms. Health professionals considering IBS and other possible conditions with similar syptoms. Knowing her life was at stake she firmly asked to have a CA-125 test, saying it would put her mind at ease to know it wasn't ovarian cancer. But it was. Because she knew the sypmtoms and advocated for herself it was caught realitively early. Because it was caught early treatments prolonged the length and quality of her life. She was around to be a huge part of my wedding, the birth of my first son, and be the amazing rock, mother and friend that she always was. Because it was Ovarian Cancer and there still is no cure she died June 4th 2012.

One of the things I still miss the most is making and giving her gifts. The first felt necklaces I made were Mothers Day gifts for my mom and sister. So I've devised a way to give my mom a special mother's day gift. I know she would be so excited and proud of me for sharing the things I make at this market. It was the kind of thing we dreamed about together. The felted wool balls I'm selling at the market tomorrow are for Joy. I first made these felted wool balls as part of an effort to remove as many questionable synthetic materials from my life and mourn my mothers loss. Prevention and grieving all in one go. At the Market tomorrow all the proceeds from my wool felt balls will go to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. These felted wool balls are more colorful than my usual palette including of course lots of teal. They are excellent to use in the dryer instead of dryer sheets. They are safe effective and green. I also found them lovely and an awesome toy for a baby or dog as they are 100% wet felted wool and get better with each washing.

If you are a woman please take some time to look at the symptoms and learn the facts. Part of how we beat this disease is with knowledge! I hope to have more information for you at the fair and my back up device as long as it's still a back-up will be a sign-up place for Jodi's Race a race taking place here in Denver at City Park on June 6th. I hope to see you there!

#WorldOvarianCancerDay #HorseshoeMarket #ovariancancerawareness #ovariancancerresearchfund #JodisRace #DenverOvarianCancer #MothersDay