Story & Lesson Highlights with Mrs Samantha Lose of State College

We recently had the chance to connect with Mrs Samantha Lose and have shared our conversation below.

Samantha, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What is a normal day like for you right now?
Currently my normal days consist of a healthy balance between my full time job and my part time small business. I work full time as a recreational therapist at a memory care community from 9-5 Monday through Friday. My job can be demanding even chaotic at times, but it’s a passion of mine. I eventually see myself moving on from healthcare, but right now my heart is in the world of Alzheimer’s and dementia diseases. I try to keep a regular routine every day before work, simple things to help keep my mental health in check. It’s crazy how simple things like making my bed, cleaning around the house, a fresh cup of coffee, exercise, and allowing time before work for my pets to have some fresh air and sunshine can change my perspective for the day. I always think back to when my coworker asked me how I set myself up for success at the beginning of the day and my automatic response was “making my bed every morning makes me happy, it sets me up with a good day”. After work I try to keep a routine of going to the gym 2-4 times a week (usually in that 2 to 3 day range, 4 when I’m feeling myself). After the gym I usually dedicate my evenings to my husband and our critters. Walks around the block and the park, a nice home cooked meal by my husband every night, and then a relaxing evening. I have dedicated time to small business daily too, usually from 8 pm til 11 pm or 12 am. This time consists of crocheting, pattern writing/editing, social media scheduling and message responses, content creation and more. I have found having a daily routine and daily schedule helps me to successfully function throughout each day. Having ADHD, it’s taken so long for me to learn a healthy and appropriate system for balancing my every day life, full time job, small business, and social life. Don’t think that this routine is daily though! I am a huge advocate for taking days off from the small business life and focusing on parts of my life outside my business too. I never want my small business to feel like work, I already work a 40 hour a week job and feel that my small business should be a reflection of my free time, fun and happy and care free.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Samantha Lose, and I am the owner, operator, content creator, everything behind SunnyDazeWithSam. I am a one woman show, everything you see created: clothing, content, patterns, is created organically by me. I am a Freeform crochet artist that dabbles in a variety of other art-forms, but crochet has touched my heart in such a special way. I just pick up some yarn and a hook and I create whatever comes to mind. Even when my pieces turn out differently than my original idea I am inspired and pleased with the results. I always say it’s amazing what you can make with some yarn. I have a special love for hexagon cardigans, and cardigan designs and I have taken the simple hexagon design and turned it into a variety of different unique and cozy patterns. I found myself experimenting with a variety of different crafts before I found crochet, and none really kept my attention or my interest. When I started to crochet I fell in love and found such a love and enjoyment from the craft. Outside of my small business I live with my husband Alec, our two pitbulls, May and Zoe, and our cat Biggie Paws. My husband and I bought our first house together this year, and spend a lot of our time doing house projects and making our first home into the most perfect space for us. Outside of my full time job and small business I enjoy activities like hiking, biking, plants, and music. A huge part of my life is music festivals and raves, although I feel like camping festivals are no longer for me regularly, I appreciate the rave and festival scene for ultimately changing my personality, my perspectives of life, and opening so many creative outlets for me.

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
As a child I was insecure and lacked so much confidence, I never felt beautiful, powerful, I honestly don’t think I could have said anything positive about myself growing up. This self consciousness lasted until my late 20s. It took me over 25 years to find myself, to find love for myself, and find confidence in myself. Looking at my young self I always felt ugly, I felt scared to be myself, I felt like I couldn’t fit in with the world, my friends, I just didn’t feel right. My adolescent self was so confused, dark, struggled with mental illness, suffered huge losses, honestly the darkest times of my life were from ages 13-18. When I went off to college I started to feel a small bit of confidence, I started to feel a small bit of belonging in this world. Now, almost 30 years old, I can honestly say I’m happy. I feel comfortable as me, even with my faults and insecurities. I still struggle with mental illness, and I still struggle to keep myself in check, but I have narrowed down my weaknesses and I really try to work on them to the best of my abilities. I have been able to focus on self love, and also been able to accept negativity and work through anything that comes my way. I guess you could say I no longer believe that I don’t fit in, I no longer believe I’ll never find happiness. I no longer believe that I should be ashamed of how different and unique I am, and I have found love and confidence in myself.

Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Honestly, this past year I almost gave up on my small business, my successful career, and everything in between. Struggling with seasonal depression I quit almost everything that I loved in my life. I quit crocheting, quit listening to music, quit socializing with friends and family and even stopped engaging with my husband regularly. I spent so much time in bed sleeping, just in bed laying there hating my life. And there was no justifiable reason as to why, that’s just the nature of the beast with mental illness. It took me 6 plus months to get back to where I am now, and I can honestly say that i found my happiness again with the help of my husband, and of course yarn. I stopped worrying about sales, posting online, making patterns and tutorials, and I focused on my health, my well being, and loving myself and everything else fell into place. And that’s where my business comes from, all of my creative ideas and endeavors, it comes from the love I feel for myself, the gratefulness of the life that I have, and admiring the strength that I have for overcoming a chemical imbalance in my head that I’ll probably never get rid of, I have just learned to overcome it, live with it, and move on from it.

Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. Is the public version of you the real you?
I try to be so real and raw on social media. That includes discussing tough topics, like being uninspired, mental illnesses, self conscious moments, losing interest in my craft. I try to highlight my real life more than my small business lately on social media. I always get so many questions from my followers online about how i balance my work life and small business, how do i keep a successful marriage and social life, how do i just not get burnt out and exhausted? I try to answer all of these questions honestly and publicly, because the dark truth about social media is that some people only post the good, and that gives others this false sense of how life should be. Life isn’t black and white, life is truly grey, and i have learned to love being in the grey state of life. Sometimes I don’t finish patterns on time, sometimes my product drops are late, sometimes they don’t even happen, sometimes I don’t post on social media, sometimes I just go to work and go home and go to bed, sometimes real life is just so stressful and you know what, that is OKAY! Being open and honest about every day of my life publicly has helped me become comfortable, and I love that it has reached everyone the way that it has. Putting your life online can add so much pressure, but to me I feel a sense of reward and pride because I am who I am and I don’t try to hide that from anyone.

Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. When do you feel most at peace?
I feel most at peace sitting on the front porch of my husband and my first home, with the critters in their chairs and watching cars out the window. Sipping a cup of coffee, crocheting, listening to music or just listening to the natural world around me. I feel like I have finally found the most happiest and joyful part of my life, and although there are road bumps, I wouldn’t trade the life that I have for anything. Not everything is perfect, not everything looks pretty all of the time, not everything is always clean, but I am happy and content and finally don’t feel any pressure from my life or anything that happens in it. I just go with the flow, and as someone living with chronic anxiety and depression for a majority of my life, this is all that I have ever wanted. I have learned to be so grateful for everything that have, and that brings me so much peace.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sunnydazeeewithsam
• Instagram: @sunnydazewithsam
• Facebook: Sunnydazeeewithsam Crochet Creations
• Youtube: @SunnyDazeWithSam
• Other: SunnyDazeWithSam on Tik tok, threads, Lemon8 and more

Image Credits
Samantha Lose