Hi, my name is Tina Kewy, I am a doll maker, and I am fairly well known world wide. I've no idea what people think and if they think I am some kind of bigshot artist with an immense studio and loads of money, because, they couldn't be further from the truth.
I am a stay at home mom, former pre-school teacher, who happens to have a talent and a burning passion for sculpting.
Life has been good to me because sculpting has provided me with the means to support my family and most importantly, for my 4 year old twins who both have diagnosed conditions that require therapy and extra care.
The smaller of my boys, John, is an IUGR survivor who suffered brain damage in utero. As a result he has Cerebral Palsy and a host of neurological impairments but not intellectual ones; in other words, he has a stellar intelligence but his body is failing him.
My other little guy, Cody, is neurotypical but has a condition which I *think* in English is ADHD. Thankfully he was diagnosed from a very early age and has been in therapy for almost 2 years now along with his brother, so we are hoping this won't cause him trouble later in school and he has already learned how to manage it and attends regular pre-school.
Life since the twins has been bumpy to say the least but so so full!! There have been times when I am struggling but I've been fortunate to have good people around me to help me through it... I couldn't have done it without you, my customers...
I owe it all to you!!
My typical day starts with me getting up before anyone else and getting ready. Then I get the boys up and dress them. I then drive them to school, or at least part-way as they've kicked John out of one school already just after Christmas as they couldn't deal with his needs. Thankfully we've found a GREAT school but it's *very* far away. So we came up with a compromise. I drive the boys half-way and the school bus picks them up. I drive back home where I clean up, start cooking lunch, do housework and sculpt. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I pick up the boys at 12.30 and drive them to another part of town for their therapies.
These are my "short" days as I only have 3 hrs between dropping them off and having to leave to pick them up again.
I pick them up around 3pm on my "long" days and we usually spend the afternoon in the park or on playdates. Before we got sick, we did swimming x3 a week which we will pick up again in March.
They go to bed at 7.30pm... I then have a shower, clean up their toys, maybe do some laundry and I start cooking dinner. My hubby gets home around 9.30pm as he works two jobs. We eat and I sit down to sculpt some more.
I don't really "watch" TV, more like, I listen to it while I work.
Those babies you so love, are made on this little coffee table:
I'm not fancy... in fact I am running out of room fast. In my dreams I often see that I have a proper studio... or even a proper house with more than the two tiny bedrooms we have now. Oh how I wish it was true!! :)
Maybe some day... we shall see.
For now I just wanted to thank you all for your support over the years, for your patience and I wanted you to know I will always be grateful for my you, my customers because, because of you, I am able to provide the services and therapies my little boys need and one day, when they have overcome their issues and are happy, normal people with normal, full lives, I will make sure they know that in my darkest hours, it was the patience, love and kindness of strangers all around the world, who bought the dolls I make on my coffee table, in my tiny two bedroom apartment, in the middle of Athens, Greece, that gave them a fighting chance in life... because on a pre-school teacher's salary, I wouldn't be able to even afford John's special formula, let alone anything else...
Sorry for rambling...
But thank you for reading...
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