Open Letter To All

Taken from my original post on MM. . .

I finally have a bit of time today and wanted to spend a some of it catching up in one big swoop with all of the people here as I've been out of touch with most of you for over a month and I feel really horrible about it.

As some of you already know, I was diagnosed with cancer earlier this spring (about the time I got home from NYC's workshop). . . I've been in and out of town seeing doctors trying to sort out some sort of plan on how to deal with all of this and not make me entirely bankrupt or any sicker than I've already been and as a result I've had to put off a lot of things I had planned to do this summer. I wanted to take some time this afternoon and thank those of you who have emailed, texted, tagged etc. me in my absence for thinking of me, it really means a lot. I will be in and out of town again in the near future as I get prepared for the 2nd phase of this treatment stuff and I hope that I can catch up on things I've inadvertently fell behind on here and at the very least try and respond to some of the 1k of emails I have stacked up in my inbox while I'm home these next few days.

I hope you all are well and I look forward to having time again soon to catch up on the boards, it seems that a whole lifetime has gone by for some of you in my absence! Keep up the good work and I look forward to catching up with you all soon, I miss you all so much <3

~angel~

Las Vegas - October 2009

So here's the heads up on the next Vegas workshop, slated currently for early October of 2009.
Bridal to editorial will be covered with an optional Men's Grooming too for those interested. Please make plans now as this workshop is sure to fill quickly as a return request for a workshop not even completed yet lol

~angel~

so here's what I've been up to on a personal note. . .

So as some of you may know I went for another series of tests in late March and early April for cancer screenings. The results came back positive and I have been diagnosed with cervical cancer. Before you gasp too loudly, due to my slightly neurotic need to know things I did not take the standard wait and see path that was recommended by one doctor and went for a second opinion which proved it is in early stages as far as they could tell without a biopsy and chances are quite likely I can have a very minor surgical procedure in conjunction with my biopsy and eliminate it. I am quite hopeful that this is the right course and that things will go well and smoothly for me as a result :)
On a side note, I am posting this as so many of you have taken to texting and emailing me wondering where I've been and I finally feel ok to talk about it now after visiting with my oncologist last thurs. He's a wonderful and warm person and put me at ease about the whole thing as I've been worried on pin and needles since my blood tests came back and no one can hear the word cancer without assuming the worst :(

Best Wishes to all of you this Memorial Day ^^
keep your fingers crossed, my procedure is schedualed for June 19th :)
~angel~

*LA UPDATE*

So the plans for LA's workshop had to be postponed :(
I will be working on making this workshop happen in part in Las Vegas in July for those interested and working on reschedule dates for LA proper later in the summer.

England's workshop, will it happen?

So I've been thinking about what to do over the summer about this workshop and here's what I've been thinking. . .
I will need to bring Lily with me (for those who don't know she's my 12yr old that I sometimes exploit as an assitant lol) and would like to stay at least 2 weeks if not longer. There are so many of you I would like to work with as well that it only seems right to just stay a bit longer.
I am most definitely interested in bringing the workshop over and if we can get enough interest in it I will! Please feel free to pass along the 'plan' as it were to fellow artists and we'll see if we can get something together on it like a bit of a working holiday.

~angel~

LA workshop

First rounds of emails have gone out regarding tools for the workshop and making sure we're all good with the dates.
So we're looking at June 3-4, 2009 for the LA workshop dates. If you've not made it on the mailing list yet or would like to know more about what we're doing in California please feel free to email me at angelgraves@live.ca to get in on what's going on :)

Later Days~

~angel~

Model Mayhem FAQ rebuild

Just a note to let you all know I'm currently working on updating and reworking the MM FAQ for the HMS Forum. If you have links to helpful info or threads you want to be sure are included please feel free to email me or PM me on the site. There's a thread I started too for corralling the ideas to add to the update if you'd rather post there.
Thanks to all who are volunteering help with this and to all who will toss in the advice in the future :)

~angel~