Well, if you want to sing out, sing out

and if you want to be free be free

'cause there's a million things to be

you know that there are, you know that there are

These lyrics from a Cat Stevens song have been singing through my mind today as I faced a challenging situation that I am trying not to dwell upon and move on from. My Dahl & Dane tote bags were featured on the Today Show via Lucky magazine's holiday gift guide, and to my disbelief they got the pricing wrong (UGH)! It was stated that the totes retail for $15 but in actuality they retail for $34 ($10 for each additional). Needless to say, we had a few emails from prospective customers who required an explanation and were a bit miffed. It's sort of a blow. We were counting on heaps of orders.

Being a pleaser, I kindly wrote everyone back stating that Lucky magazine had our information wrong and to forgive their error and not misjudge our moral, as we only want to spread happiness.

You can do what you want

the opportunity's on

And if you find a new way

you can do it today

you can make it all true...

Moving on, these lyrics got me thinking about forging your own path and the importance of letting yourself go, be daring, be excited, be free. I thought about my second year of college which was spent in Florence, Italy at a small school called Lorenzo de'Medici. I was a Fashion Design major there and studied intensively many hours a week. I found this school on my own. I wasn't interested in the least to have an American college experience, I craved something completely foreign and was shocked to discover how inexpensive the tuition was in comparison to American colleges. I found that while living in unique places like Florence I met many other people like myself, who craved travel, new situations & adventure. A network of creativity at my fingertips! I lived with a photographer (who is now quite a successful stylist for Ford) and we would go to the old cemeteries lined with fir trees and I'd model my clothes along with a friend who was a ballerina (who now lives in Denmark with her love and make dolls). Then we'd go home and develop our pictures in one of the bathrooms which we converted into a darkroom...it was paradisaical. These memories are still very alive, tapping away at my heart, reminding me that life is what we make of it. Even if we can't move off to a romantic city far away, we can create magic in our lives at home, and through communities like BurdaStyle, we can share them with an endless network of international creative minds. How's that for inspiration?