Hello and welcome to Dani Grace Designs. I am your host Katie M. Egloff, there are two Katie Egloffs the other being my sister-in-law, thus the reason for using middle initial.
Dani Grace Designs didn't happen overnight; I didn't wake up one morning and say, "Self, let's start a business". No, Dani Grace Designs is a lifetime of creativity, experiences and even heartache all rolled up into one. I've always loved to create and all through my childhood I remember loving to paint, doodle, draw anything to creative. I love learning a new craft, something I could master. Crochet, scrap-booking, knitting, sewing, are just to a few of the things I have learned over the years.
In the summer of 2019, having dealt with a back injury since May of 2016, it finally had enough of being ignored. It had flared and faded but now it had become a whining, annoying toddler without their nap and was not letting up. I finally had to take the steps to get it treated. Weeks of physical therapy didn't bring relief so doctors ordered an MRI which revealed a bulging disc in the middle of my back. A surgeon said surgery was not recommended which sent me to back physical therapy and to a pain clinic where we started a process of injections and later a nerve ablation.
Through this process while I was pain, I was diagnosed with depression. Most of my life I’ve always had mild to moderate anxiety and have been treated for it. However, I had NEVER been depressed before, not like this and it was crippling.
The pain and depression kept me pretty much housebound, sitting or laying down. Normally, I would knit or crochet a project but it was in the middle of the summer and a warm fuzzy project just didn’t appeal to me.
Then my daughter, Allie, started making friendship bracelets, just like the ones I would make in middle and high school. I wanted to make them too, except I wanted to kick it up a notch.
I learned to make intricate designs with multiple colors of embroidery floss and had quickly amassed a collection of over 50 bracelets. I then looked at the bracelet I got when Joe and I went to Mexico in January of 2019 and became determined to learn to make it.
That is when the Dani bracelet happened. On my search of the web-o-sphere I found what materials I needed and learned the basics. I figured out (by trial and error) how many strings I needed, what length, how to make the closure.
The next thing I knew I was excited about something and passionate to learn, design and make more. For fun, I posted what I had been working on to my Facebook page and friends wanted to order them. Co-workers saw me wearing my designs and wanted to order them. I was asked to do a couple of vendor fairs and have kept designing since.
I share my painful story and battle with depression and chronic pain, not for my readers or customers to feel sorry for me but to see there is hope. There is a way to make it. Everyone's path to recovery is not the same, I found my path and I know I still have a battle each day but don't give up keep fighting.
Thank you for visiting Dani Grace Designs.
Where something small can have a big impact.