August Designs + hoarder life

Hello everyone!

I sit here, exhausted, as I write you all to say I'm so sorry for getting these designs to you so late, especially when I've been done with them all for days now. 🥲 I’m gonna show the designs first and then I’ll share some stuff going on behind the scenes for those who wanna know more. These are all the completed designs (minus the Hou-ou / Phoenix) which is just waiting on Taka to pick the colors. I’m really happy with how they all turned out! 😍

 

If you'd like to read more about why these were behind schedule for me to share with you all, please read ahead. I understand I have a tendency to probably share TMI about my personal life, so I apologize if that is of no interest to you, but part of why I share so much isn't because I think my life is terribly fascinating, but because I feel like sharing struggles might also help others who could be going through similar things.

HOARDER LIFE

So for those of you interested, the reason I wasn’t able to post these to you all despite the design being done is because behind the scenes I’ve spent all of last week caring for my grandparents. My Lola (grandmother) has been recovering well from Covid with Pneumonia, but she and my Lolo (grandfather) are, while not senile or with dementia (she’s still sharp as a tack), getting to a point where they’re not really eating unless a meal is presented to them. My Lolo has pretty short term memory loss these days and more or less functions on autopilot. However, while my Lola was in the hopsital and currently while she regains her strength, they've been staying with my uncle, who's only about 15 minutes away from me. I can tell they aren't very happy over there because a) it's not home and b) my uncle, while very chill himself, his wife has a cold personality and rigid house rules. When I've been going over every day to make sure they're eating well, hydrating, assisting when needed and just keeping them company overall, I can tell my Lola and Lolo are happy and more energized, and they also enjoy eating their favorite filipino foods which I prepare for them. My Lolo also seems less forgetful when I'm there to chat with him.

OK, that's great and really sweet, and super good that my Lola is recovering well, right? Right, but here's the thing... some of you have followed me on IG for years and know there was a small 2 month window where Taka and I lived with them during the pandemic. Well, that was a true living hell because we were trying to help her with her hoarding problem and had only about 5 square ft of space to live in in her home, which is.. our bed.  About 13 years ago, my Lola retired and the beginning of her hoarding life started as she had a great pension, money from investments, and a whooooooole lotta time. Not a great combo for a shopaholic. I've been telling my aunt & uncle for years that her hoarding is way outta hand, but they just didn't want to believe it was all that bad.

Finally, about two weeks ago, my auntie whose a nurse in TX called my uncle and was like "Hey, I think something's wrong with mom. She's like panicking or something and says she's been tired for days. Go check on her." So my uncle went over there and realized something wasn't right, so he called 911. When the fire department came to help get her out of bed, they couldn't even bring a stretcher into the house because it is SO FULL OF STUFF! I don't know how they did it, but they managed to get her out of the house and to a hospital where she was diagnosed with Covid with Pneumonia. During her hospital stay, they told my uncle that her house was one of the worst hoarding cases they'd ever seen and she absolutely needed to take care of it because it was a hazard to my grandparents' health. While I'm not happy my Lola got sick, I also kinda am because it means my family finally recognizes her shopping/hoarding addiction and is finally taking steps to address it.

This week, I'm not spending as much time with my grandparents, but helping assist my auntie who flew in this morning from TX to begin the process of ridding her home of all her unnecessary belongings. We got 2 quotes today and I had a thrifter acquaintance come over and take a bunch of clothes and shoes that he could sell. All week I am coordinating with local friends, artists and crafters to take stuff from her home that they can use. The wild thing is that while she is a hoarder, so much stuff she buys is really useful because her favorite stores are Ross, TJ Maxx, Michael's, and Joann Fabrics. After Wednesday, we are having the professional haulers come in and take everything else they can. We are adamantly trying to find a hauling company that can donate most of it rather than trash it and so far we found one we like. But til then we are also trying to rehome as much of her stuff to locals in need as we can as long as they come over to get it. I am so eager to get it out of her home so it can be safe and back to how it was before she retired.

While she knows this is all happening, I do see that with her strength returning, she gets more feisty and demanding about what can or can't go from her home, which is why we are in such a rush to get it all gone. We all know that if she could return home she will always find reasons she can't part with 20 boxes of tupperware, or 3 air fryers, or 2 cricut machines she never used from 2005, or all the crappy shoes and clothes she got only because it was on sale, or at least $10k worth of yarns she's accumulated. 🙈 She really does have A LOT of amazing stuff, but we don't have the luxury of time to wait for when it's convenient for folks to come get stuff, or to take stuff to donation centers ourselves. And quite frankly, I'm also scared for when she gets home. Although I hope she'll feel refreshed and happy to see it look like it used to, I think she might have a bit of a meltdown when she sees it. None of us knows of any trauma she underwent in her life since she honestly lived a pretty charmed life according to her own account, but gosh am I scared to see how she reacts when her home is normal. Oh, and by the way, I should mention, the funny thing that all the hauling companies noted when they came today was that they were actually really surprised at how useful most her stuff was and how organized. Like if you watch that show Hoarders, a lot of those folks keep literal trash, but she actually doesn't keep too much trash (unless its like a cardboard box, plastic bags, etc).

The other thing is it is likely that even after everything goes back to some semblance of normal, I do think I am going to have to go over to their home maybe once a week to do some meal prep and maybe errands for them. As I mentioned before, my Lola retired about 13 years ago and during the time she worked she was spoiled by my Lolo who did all the cooking, cleaning, housework, yardwork, driving. But since my Lolo has definitely slowed down in the last  5 or so years, all the chores of the household fall on her, and well, let’s just say she’s pretty lazy. Her idea of “cooking” is cooking rice and then going to Safeway to buy fried chicken. She totally can cook, but just doesn’t want to. And when she was too weak to cook before they knew she had Covid, my grandparents didn’t eat for 3 days because my grandfather lacked the capacity to realize she needed medical attention or food and drink. She also ended up with a UTI. I realized this week while caring for them, that she also needs to be told to hydrate, but she also complains she doesn’t want to drink because it makes her go to the bathroom, so she just avoids drinks, probably why she got a UTI.

And last week, one of the mornings she was like, "your lolo and I are so hungry, we didn't eat since you fed us at 3pm yesterday." When I asked why she didn't just heat up the food I made her that afternoon she was like "I didn't feel like getting up to heat it up, so we just didn't eat." 🤦🏻‍♀️ So, yeah, unfortunately, I do think while they technically can take care of themselves, my family and I are going to be taking a lot more presence in their life moving forward. My family does know how important my business is and feels bad that they've slowing me down this month so far, but I think once we get things in order, it will just be sort of another thing that's part of my weekly schedule.

Haha anyway, that's a whole lot of something, you're probably all thinking if you actually read this far. I just wanted to let you know what's up. I do also have other design stuff to show you all because I am still taking care of business stuff whenever I have time even if this family stuff has been eating up most my time.

I also just got word from "Bill" that another package is being sent out in the next day or so... I am hopeful they mean it because I essentially am holding ransom some $$ I owe for some restocks they already started for me til they give me the price for the shipping they're sending me. I'm sure they'll want that money, so I think that means they'll also ship it out sooner than later. I've also got some new designs I haven't shown you all any sneaks for at my back up manu, and August designs (minus the houou) at my new manu we are testing out. :) So things are always moving forward with Shishido Creative!

Thank you all you wonderful pin fam for always having faith in us, supporting our creative endeavors and also "listening" to my weird life behind the scenes! I do so hope you all have been having a more fun summer than I have! 🙈 I also promise I have planned a vacation for myself and Taka next spring, and also totally am gonna treat myself to a massage in the next week or so. My self-care routine sorta sucks if you couldn't all tell, but I'm TRYING!! 😣  Now I'm going to go to sleep because I have to wake up in 6 hours to start my living nightmare at Lola's hoarder house of horrors. I'm sure thankful my auntie and I are close and can have a lot of laughs!!

- Mandy & Taka