GREAT NEWS!!

I am sooo excited to share some great news with you!  After much thought and consideration, I have decided to take Hip-Threads.com and my blogging and writing career FULL TIME!  I plan to post new goods for you bi-weekly, I will also be attending the Denver Highlands Farmers Market, and will continually have new blogs to post for you about my outdoor adventures on my hiking blog. 

The last day of my current job as a cancer registrar is Feb 26th.  I have been working in registry for nearly 5 years now and it's been such a great career for me!  Cancer registry is the task of data collection and quantifying all of the cancer cases diagnosed and/or treated at a hospital or facility.  Including documenting all of their treatment, making sure national treatment guidelines are followed, holding meetings with physicians to discuss difficult or interesting patients, and all aspects of a patients cancer journey from diagnosis through treatment then we follow the patient for life.  This is required by each state, we report to the Colorado Department of Health and Disease.  It's a great career which offers flexibility, the ability to work from home in many instances, and learning something new each day.  It was the first and only job I could consider doing for the rest of my life (besides having my own business) and the first job that actually made me feel important.  
 
I am sad to be leaving, but very excited for this new journey in my life!  And I will be contracting cancer registry work so I am able to keep it in my life, and it pays pretty well, which helps my family while I grow this business.  


From a young age, I knew that a traditional job was not for me, but I never knew what I was meant to do.  I never wanted a traditional 9-5 job, but what else is really out there? At a young age, a child is taught, teacher, doctor, lawyer, etc.  
From elementary school through high school students were required to take career aptitude tests; mine always came back with many different types of jobs, some artsy like "hat maker" which was a family joke for many years (well, still is).  Or scientist, business owner, writer, artist, doctor, but all the fields were so different that nothing was narrowed down for me.  And there was nothing I could really pin down as something that I *really* wanted to go.  
All of my friends always knew what they wanted to do after high school, but I never knew; and I changed my major in college as often as I changed my hair color (which was a lot).  Nothing seemed quite right for me and it always bothered me.  I ended up graduating University of Michigan with a bachelors of science degree in Kinesiology, which is something I have never practiced at all.  

 After college, I wasn't sure what to do, and with the bad economy in Michigan in 2001,  I returned to my summer job during college at The Manor Foundation.  I worked with mostly male youth who were in a lock-down facility because they were too violent, ignorant, or sexually deviant to live in normal society.   It was a crazy job, but I met friends for life there, and also my husband.  After the job became too much (it was very stressful), I stopped working there to plot my move to Colorado.  During that time, I started sewing patchwork clothing and found out that I loved it!  I tried to figure out how this could fit into my life while I made money at the same time.  I finally started to realize what all the artsy/ business categories on my aptitude tests finally meant.  I loved being crafty, sewing, knitting, & making new things each day and then trying to market them to my customers.  

  It finally started to occur to me, that entrepreneurship was what I was meant to do! A 9-5 job was never for me, I hate punching the clock and working for "the man", I have always hated it!  Cancer Registry has a lot of flexibility with the schedule, as well as the ability to work part time, which really appeals to me, now I will be able to do registry work part time from home, while developing my business! 
It was over seven years ago that I started sewing and it has taken me that long to finally be in the position to quit my job, feel comfortable financially, and to actually have the guts to start sewing and writing full time.  I feel very FREE to do the things that I love; quotations from songs keep racing through my mind like Aretha Franklins' Freedom and The Bridge's song Chains my favorite line is: "my whole life I've lived in chains, trapped like a slave, I am free now you can write it on my grave"!  It's like I am finally free to do what I love and I am going to cherish every moment of it!  
I have several friends who are entrepreneurs and I am really excited to join the cool kids club and work for myself too; like Jennie, Laura, and Jim and Heather too.  They have been an inspiration to me and I have always admired their hard work and successes.  
This winter/spring I will be working on my new clothing line for the Eco Friendly Outdoorsy Girl who loves to hike, garden and be one with nature.  I will also be writing for trails.com and my blog.  
Please contact me with any ideas, suggestions, and CUSTOM ORDERS!