Hello! I’m Cassandra.
Mom. Wife. CEO of Jones Household Inc. Sewing Teacher. Seamstress. President of a Non-Profit, “The DEANA Foundation”. Writer of this blog.
These are a few of my titles.
A little bit about me: I graduated in 2001 from Rick’s College (now known as BYU-Idaho) with a specialized associate degree in Fashion Design. I was only 19 years old at the time and after completing my internship in a real-life sweatshop, I was kind of scared to pursue a fashion career. I returned to school where I earned a second associates degree, this time in Early Childhood.
I met my husband in the summer of 2002 and exactly one year later, we were married. At that time, I was working in State Preschool and taking side jobs sewing for clients. A couple of years later, I became pregnant with our first child and took a break from work altogether. Over the next several years, I had a couple more children, adopted our niece, and spent that time at home raising five children. I worked off and on from home, teaching sewing classes as well as sewing for clients. I had always had plans of doing more with my fashion background, but my family took up most of my time and then life took another turn. In 2012, my mom was diagnosed with a rare form of dementia, called semantic dementia (she was only 50 years old at the time). I spent the next 5 1/2 years helping my dad to care for her while simultaneously writing an award winning blog about our family’s journey, entitled, “Dementia Diaries: A Journey With Dementia”. I also established a non-profit, The DEANA Foundation, to help other families on the arduous journey of dementia. Caring for my mom and raising my family took up the majority of my time and there was hardly ever a moment of time where I wasn’t looking after somebody.
A week after my mom passed away (summer of 2017), my youngest son started first grade, which means that after years of caring for other people all day, everyday, I had a big chunk of time on my hands during the day. I was consumed in my grief and I felt lost and confused about what to do with my life at that point. Blogging had been a great outlet for me while caring for my mom, but the thought of continuing to blog about dementia after my heartbreaking loss was too much. I knew that in order to pull myself out of my pain, I needed to focus on the sweeter things in life, the things that brought me joy. I started this blog (originally entitled Jonesmade Lemonade) and spent the next couple of years rediscovering myself and my purpose beyond caregiver and mother. Through a series of events, I was given the opportunity to start teaching my sewing classes through a charter school program and from that point on, my love and passion for sewing was reignited.
While I still love to share recipes and family life on this blog, it has largely turned into my sewing platform. In addition to teaching, I have come upon other opportunities in the social media/sewing community where I have been able to share my skills and talents and connect with other sewists all around the world. This creative outlet has brought me purpose and helped me through my grief.
When I’m not in my sewing room, you can find me baking in the kitchen, working on other craft and home remodeling projects, working in my non-profit, taking trips with my family in our RV, and making other memories with my family! Thank you for joining me in my little corner of the world wide web <3
Xoxo,
Cassandra
