Site on hiatus

I'm off to move all my stuff. While I'm in route the blog may have some broken links and missing pictures. Things may not be fully functional until July.

See ya on the other side.

Purge your soul

Mark my words people. You never realize how much crap you accumulate until you have to pack and move it all.

You only get one life. What ya gonna do with it?

A few years ago I sat through a church sermon where the preacher spoke about living without fear. He said "Do you ever wonder why it's the craziest people that accomplish so much? It's because they live without a sense of fear. If there is something that you want to do, don't be afraid. No excuse is really good enough when it's something that is going to improve your life".
So I began the year of 2007 with a new mantra "Live without fear".

I also have this little saying , "You only have one life. What ya gonna do with it?". One of my biggest fears is not living the life I'm supposed to. When I lived in Minnesota, I had what seemed like a good life. Good job, good money. But I was very unhappy. Very! Life was routine and mundane. It got to the point that I didn't know what day of the week it was because they were all the same. And although this may sound slightly nuts, I felt as if I was just keeping time until I died. No next big thing to mark my life. No excitement. Just work, eat, sleep, repeat. So I decided that I would pursue my fashion career and apply to school. I started working on my portfolio and then I got the chance to relocate to Raleigh for work. A quick fix that I jumped at.

Now I've been in Raleigh for 3 years. Life is definitely better than before, yet I still felt as if I'm not living the life I am supposed to. I threw myself into knitwear design as a way of improving my overall design repetoire and keeping busy, and now I love it. With each day my passion for fashion (ha! that rhymes) grows and my love for the corporate technology world dwindles. The first things you think of when you awake in the morning should be your motivators through life, and my job definitely isn't something that motivates me. I'm busting my butt to make money for someone else. And at my funeral what will they say?..."She used to work for some company doing something, but she did it for 30 years so she must have been good at it. Blah. Blah. Blah" I want to be remembered for more than that and at some point I want to work for myself.

I've always had this dream of what my life should be and earlier this year I took the steps towards living that dream.




Sometimes you just have to step out on faith. I figured if I could get accepted to the Fashion Design program at FIT than I need to take the leap. I'm terrified and excited all at the same time. Yesterday I gave my 2 weeks notice at work and at the end of this month I'll be moving to NYC. (That's why I was in NYC last week. I was looking for an apt. Talk about stressful!)

Things will be a little quiet at Chez Saun while I make the transition. I'll try to check in when I can but I hope to be up to full speed by the first week in July. This is definitely going to be an adventure.

That's what friends are for

It's funny how technology has come to define my friendships. With my longtime "real-life" friends, we rarely and almost never communicate through email or text messages. We talk on the phone and see each other in person. Our relationships were forged in the physical realm and we tend to keep to that. Then there are my "innanet" friends. People for whom the friendships were started online. All of our interactions are through email, blogs, or text messages.

I've come to expect different things from the different sets of friends. For my real friends, I expect more physical interaction. You know... the normal things friends do like a phone call to see how I'm doing,picking me up from the airport, and doing the small things without me having to ask. If they started sending me only emails or text, I'd be upset. For my innanet friends all I expect are emails and texts and the occasional phone conversation.

I say all this because this past week, I learned a whole lot about my innanet friends and they surprised me more than I could have expected. I went to NYC on a mission to find something (more on that later), and discussed it with a few select people. Without having to ask, the great Sahara opened her home to me. She and Mr.K were so gracious since the cost of a hotel room would have run me about $1000. Carrie and Gina offered to help me in anyway possible. When I couldn't find what I was looking for on Thursday, I stopped by my innanet brother Dex's house. He went above and beyond the call of duty and put a call out to his friends to try and help me. One of his friends who I never ever met before even offered me a solution to my search. On top of all that, Sahara, arranged a SistahFriends sit & knit at Native in Harlem. I had a chance to meet Sherri, Chante , Shameka and Njoya, and so many more.

All of this love was so overwhelming and unexpected. My innanet friends did things for me that I would have never expected and for that I am so greatful and want to say THANK YOU!
This technology thing has brought me friends from unexpected places. It makes me want to meet each and every one of you.


Now onto some knitting content.


I can't really tell you about my mission just yet. I have a few loose ends to tie up and then maybe I can tell you on Wednesday. I can show you the few things I was able to pick up when I went by Purl in Soho. I got some Alchemy Silken Straw and a skein of Organic Savannah from The Fibre Co.

I only stopped by Purl because Tanis from Vogue Knitting suggested it. Did I forget to mention that I got a chance to visit the offices of Vogue Knitting/KnitSimple/Knit.1/Adorn. She gave me a tour and even showed me the yarn closet. It's like the famous "Vogue" closet but it's just yarn instead. It's huge!