CABELL SWEENEY
I'm what the kids today like to call “extra”; so I don't know how to make this a bullet point bio.
I claim Roswell, Georgia as my hometown. I graduated from The University of Georgia with a degree in Early Childhood Education. In the summer of 1998 I married fellow Bulldog Mike Sweeney (known to everyone as “Sweeney”). We met doing Young Life in college and it was Sweeney's job with Young Life that took us from Athens to Hamilton to Roswell to Rome. That might sound very cosmopolitan to anyone who doesn't know all those places are in Georgia. It is also our involvement with Young Life that brought almost every single significant relationship into our lives.
I could write a book about how God has changed me and my understanding of Him with each person I've met and each place I've lived. But no other person or place has changed me more than the man I married, Mike Sweeney. The life and love we shared is more than I could possibly fit into this sentence or even this paragraph.
About a year after moving to Rome, to take his dream job in our dream town, Sweeney had a reoccurrence of Melanoma. The cancer had spread starting an 18 month battle with the disease. I wrote about that journey/battle here. In March of 2010, Sweeney died.
A heart doesn't stop beating because it is broken; you keep living on because you have to. So I found myself trying to figure out how to “live on” without Sweeney. My family, especially my mother, my friends, and my God have carried me. This job of creating has carried me and has been a source of joy and hope. Creating and dreaming shoulder to shoulder with Susan, whose friendship has been an anchor and a buoy, is one of the things for which I am most grateful; she has also carried me.
Just this morning I scribbled this thought in my book's margin - Beauty is the distant song of Heaven beckoning us...Come Near! I want to create beautiful things. I want those beautiful things to find their way into your homes. I want those creations to sing to you of the Heaven that has come to earth and of the Heaven that is yet to come.
If you’d like to read more about mike’s story, check out our caring bridge site.
CHELSEA RILEY
Chelsea Riley grew up in Greenville, South Carolina and earned a Bachelors of Art from Anderson University in 2011. She moved to Rome in 2013 to join a great community of friends and with the dream of one day working in a ceramics studio. Chelsea joined the fray at Cabell's in 2017 when we stole her from a nearby elementary school where she was teaching art (sorry kids). We put her degree in graphic design and background and ceramics to work immediately. And immediately Chelsea became indispensable. We are all in awe of her ability to craft such delicate things as petals and leaves and bees and birds and mushrooms and...and... and...all the things. Her talent is endless. When describing Chelsea words like “magic” or “pottery wizard” are often used. Chelsea is a gift to Cabell's Designs and to me personally in every way. I hope she and I worked together until... Heaven.
SUSAN PETERSON
I AM A WIFE TO TODD AND A MOM TO HANNAH AND ZACHARY. THOSE ARE MY GREATEST PASSIONS IN LIFE. ZACH GOES TO The university of michigan AND PLAYS FOOTBALL FOR THE wolverines. (go big blue!) HANNAH LIVES IN WASHINGTON D.C. AND WORKS FOR THE WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME. TODD AND I ARE SO PROUD OF THEM!
BECAUSE I KNOW THAT WE REALLY AREN'T GUARANTEED ANYTHING IN THIS LIFE, THE FACT THAT I HAVE A FAMILY I LOVE AND A BEST FRIEND WITH WHOM I LOVE TO WORK AND PLAY IS MORE THAN HUMBLING. IT IS OVERWHELMING. MY JOB AT CABELL'S DESIGNS IS LIFE GIVING AND PURPOSEFUL. I LOVE IT. IN FACT, CABELL AND I LOVE DREAMING AND CREATING TOGETHER SO MUCH WE GRABBED OUR DEAR FRIEND ERIKA LAUGHLIN AND STARTED A COMPANY CALLED RELISH. RELISH IS A LINE OF TABLEWARE MOLDED FROM OUR HANDCRAFTED POTTERY BUT MADE FROM MELAMINE.
WHEN THERE'S EXTRA TIME AFTER WORK, I AM ALSO PASSIONATE ABOUT A FEW OTHER THINGS…. YOUNG LIFE - TEENAGERS IN MY COMMUNITY AND AROUND THE WORLD, FINDING REAL WAYS TO HELP THE POOR, BIBLE LITERACY AND TRANSLATION , AND PASSION CITY CHURCH, THE MOST AMAZING CHURCH I'VE EVER BEEN A PART OF. I ALSO REALLY LOVE TO PLANT THINGS, COOK YUMMY FOOD, AND HAVE PEOPLE OVER ALL THE TIME. LIFE IS FULL AT OUR HOUSE, BUT I LIKE IT THAT WAY.
IF YOU WANT TO READ MORE ABOUT THE THINGS I CARE DEEPLY ABOUT, PLEASE DO!
Younglife, Younglife Africa, Karama Collection,