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.

The greatest moments of your life

There is a moral to this story so I'll start with that:

Live Without Fear Moral #1:
If there is something that you want to do or try, never be afraid to do it on your own. You may miss out on one of the greatest moments of your life because you were to scared to go somewhere by yourself.




This weekend I experienced one of the greatest moments of my life.

It's no big secret that Mint Condition is my favorite group and that their song "So Fine" is my all time favorite song. So it should also be no surprise that when I found out they were coming to Raleigh that I dropped everything and bought a ticket. Of course I asked friends if they wanted to go but no one was interested. Would that stop me? Of course not! I love them more than cooked food. If you asked me to make a choice between Mint Condition and eating I would say, "I guess I needed to lose some weight anyway." Nothing could stop me from seeing them.

Let me also add that seeing MC play my favorite song live was at the top of my "Things to Do in this Lifetime" list. They don't tour very often so I didn't think it was a possibility of seeing them, let alone having them play my favorite song. On Saturday night I was able to cross that thing off my list. The very first song they sang was my song! Words could not explain my joy.

Yes my friends, if I had been too scared to go to a concert by myself I would have never experienced one of my all time greatest moments.

So now I'll ask you.....What is at the top of your "Things to Do" list and would you be willing to do it alone?

Secrets uncovered (and on the cover too!)

When I started off as a knitwear designer I had my share of doubts. Would people take me seriously? Would people like what I had to offer? I started by publishing on my blog and then moved onto bigger goals. I've since had the opportunity to work with some great people for online and book publications.

Of course with any endeavor, there is your ultimate goal. The dream of all dreams. My dream of all dreams is to be published in a major knitting magazine.

The first time I submitted ideas to Soho Publishing, they turned down all of them. It was a slight blow, but it helped me recognize where I faultered and where I needed to improve. I went back to the drawing board, literally, and then entered new things in the next round of submissions.

Then the email of all emails came. They wanted three of my designs.

One each for the Spring and Summer issues of Knit.1 and the other for the Spring Knit Simple.

I held onto this little secret until the check cleared and I knew for sure that things were going to get published. It took all the strength in the world not to tell you all.

But that's not even the biggest news. The greatest news I received a week or so ago. Want to know what it is?

On March 7*, my little ditty will be gracing the cover of.....




When I found out, I screamed and danced for about 10 mins, fell out on the floor, and then called my parents.

I have to thank all my bloggy friends for helping me reach this goal. Without all the encouragement it may have taken me years to get up the courage to reach this goal.




(*day it hits the newstands)