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Located in: TN, United States
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StoryI am a hopeless romantic who enjoys anything involved in the Middle Ages. I enjoy a good story and if given the choice between a book or a movie I would have a hard time choosing. I love the great outdoors and while I would rather be there than outside, I am not the avid adventure woman you would imagine me to be. Most of the time I talk to myself or say what I’m doing under my breathe as I do it. This does not make me crazy, but rather a very sane individual. I love twirly dresses, flowers, and mud. I hate snakes, large spiders, and the sound of sneezing. I carefully drive a Subaru and have never been to the ER except to visit a friend. My best friends happen to be my family and my dog happens to be my bodyguard.
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Appearance
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Skills
I am a dedicated hardworker who enjoys working in a group. I am loyal, to whatever job and/or company I am a part of. I am a good encourager, creative, and very ocd.
Journey
The Creative Journey
As a child I loved dressing up and acting. Any time my brothers and I would play a game together, I would insist we wore the proper clothes. Whether it be a cape or hat, costumes were needed to complete the transformation of the world we had created in our minds. This is what I consider the beginning of my journey into the exotic world of costuming. Clothes have always been important to me not just in there functionality, but in the way they can explain ourselves to other people.
I am the only sister of my three brothers. When I was nine my parents decided as a way to help teach us kids the differences between our roles as men and women, my mom and I would start wearing only skirts and dresses. This was batck in the early 2000's when mini skirts came back into full swing. My mom was unable to find any skirts she was comfortable putting her young daughter in, let alone that could fit a skinny child. So remembering how her mother sewed her clothes as a girl my mom decided to pass this skill on to me while making me my own clothes. Needless to say I was hooked and I developed a knack for anything involving fabric.
In high school my 4-H agent started a sewing camp for young girls and asked my mom and I to be instructors. In order to do so we had to go through a series of courses offered through the University of Tennessee 4H program . There I met Ms. Sue and Ms. Carmen. These two ladies, especially Ms. Carmen fine tuned my sewing skills taking me from a simple home sewer, to seamstress. It was also during this time that my brother developed an interest in filmmaking and produced his first film Beyond Under: the least of the least. Naturally, because I knew how to sew, (and because I fit into the category of "free labor") he asked me to be the film's costume director. So with no budget I set out to costume the main cast of thirteen plus over fifty extras borrowing a few church Bible costumes to add to what I couldn't afford to make.
I didn't just set out to clothe the actors, I delved into the script and journeys of each character. Looking into their past, learning their personalities, and understanding their hopes and desires. I assigned each character a color that portrayed what kind of person they were as well as giving the audience a glimpse to what was going on inside each character. It was then that I discovered the art of storytelling through costume. One year later in 2012 I returned to the film world to costume BOO! Do Something, a film set in the 19th century about the true story of a traveling evangelist. I had to costume the main cast and extras in period correct looking costumes with a very limited budget. In addition to these, I have also been Costume Designer for the web series Literal: What We Believe and James&jamie.
After graduation I took a year off to take a few online courses and start my sewing business, Clothed in Righteousness: a ministry that uses simple alterations as a way to develop relationships with clients, to share God's love, and to encourage them in their walk with The Lord. This summer (Lord willing) I will be offering personal one-on-one sewing lessons out of my home to further develop this ministry.
My passion, as mentioned before, is to not simply clothe a person but to help them express what's on the inside through what they wear on the outside. Everyday we dress ourselves in an image. Either that of our true selves, or that of what we want the world to see of us. As a costume director I view my job as protraying the director's vision of a person to an audience, and to help create a character for an actor to portray. Nothing brings me as much joy as seeing an actor or actress in their costume for the first time. That gleam in their eye when something inside clicks and they are no longer an actor, they are their character.
It's beautiful.
I am the only sister of my three brothers. When I was nine my parents decided as a way to help teach us kids the differences between our roles as men and women, my mom and I would start wearing only skirts and dresses. This was batck in the early 2000's when mini skirts came back into full swing. My mom was unable to find any skirts she was comfortable putting her young daughter in, let alone that could fit a skinny child. So remembering how her mother sewed her clothes as a girl my mom decided to pass this skill on to me while making me my own clothes. Needless to say I was hooked and I developed a knack for anything involving fabric.
In high school my 4-H agent started a sewing camp for young girls and asked my mom and I to be instructors. In order to do so we had to go through a series of courses offered through the University of Tennessee 4H program . There I met Ms. Sue and Ms. Carmen. These two ladies, especially Ms. Carmen fine tuned my sewing skills taking me from a simple home sewer, to seamstress. It was also during this time that my brother developed an interest in filmmaking and produced his first film Beyond Under: the least of the least. Naturally, because I knew how to sew, (and because I fit into the category of "free labor") he asked me to be the film's costume director. So with no budget I set out to costume the main cast of thirteen plus over fifty extras borrowing a few church Bible costumes to add to what I couldn't afford to make.
I didn't just set out to clothe the actors, I delved into the script and journeys of each character. Looking into their past, learning their personalities, and understanding their hopes and desires. I assigned each character a color that portrayed what kind of person they were as well as giving the audience a glimpse to what was going on inside each character. It was then that I discovered the art of storytelling through costume. One year later in 2012 I returned to the film world to costume BOO! Do Something, a film set in the 19th century about the true story of a traveling evangelist. I had to costume the main cast and extras in period correct looking costumes with a very limited budget. In addition to these, I have also been Costume Designer for the web series Literal: What We Believe and James&jamie.
After graduation I took a year off to take a few online courses and start my sewing business, Clothed in Righteousness: a ministry that uses simple alterations as a way to develop relationships with clients, to share God's love, and to encourage them in their walk with The Lord. This summer (Lord willing) I will be offering personal one-on-one sewing lessons out of my home to further develop this ministry.
My passion, as mentioned before, is to not simply clothe a person but to help them express what's on the inside through what they wear on the outside. Everyday we dress ourselves in an image. Either that of our true selves, or that of what we want the world to see of us. As a costume director I view my job as protraying the director's vision of a person to an audience, and to help create a character for an actor to portray. Nothing brings me as much joy as seeing an actor or actress in their costume for the first time. That gleam in their eye when something inside clicks and they are no longer an actor, they are their character.
It's beautiful.
The Faith Journey
When it comes to telling my testimony, I like to refer to myself as the gentile version of Paul. Where he called himself a “ Hebrew of Hebrews”, I am a “Preacher’s kid of Preacher’s kids”. Eight hours after I was born my father preached his very first sermon serving at his first church. I grew up with a preacher as a daddy until I was five years old and we moved to become missionaries in southeast Tennessee.
All my life I was surrounded by either missions or Jesus and while I loved basking in the glory of being the “missionary’s kid”, I myself was not a true “Christian”. I would have strangers and loved ones ask me, when they discovered I was unsaved, when I was going to “give my heart to Jesus” and I always loathed both the question and the asker. To me, they were asking this question because, since my dad was a minister, naturally his daughter should have a relationship with The Almighty God. Or so I assumed they thought. I felt like everyone expected me to do certain things and be a certain way just because of my birthright and I wanted to decide who I wanted to be for myself. So I always told myself I’d do it one day; that I’d have another chance, I was still young.
One day when I was ten years old, my family went to a local ice cream place after Sunday night service. I remember I was either going to or coming from the bathroom when I had a great realization that stopped me dead in my tracks. I realized that if I were to die, right then and there, my soul would go to hell and there would be absolutely no second chances. I was a sinner, regardless of what my father did or didn’t do. I should have fell to my knees right then and there, but I waited until we got home and as my mom was tucking me in bed I told her I was finally ready to give my heart to The Lord.
Fast forward six years. My father had been having some theological issues with the ministry he was serving with. The organization was doing things he did not believe to be biblically correct. After much praying and struggling my father resigned from a ministry he had poured his heart into for seven years. At first I was at peace with the whole situation, and I still support my dad’s decision one hundred percent. But as the weeks turned into months and my father couldn’t find another job, reality began to press down on me. I was no longer a small child and I understood bills and groceries. Suddenly, my perfect “minister’s kid” world was collapsing in on me. I began to doubt in a loving God. After all, if He really cared about us, why didn’t He give my dad a job? I refused to pray, questioned every spiritual decision my parents made, and became an overall disagreeable person. It was during this time of uncertainty for our family, that I was beginning to realize my religion was based on my family’s social standing in the church and not my relationship with The God of the Universe. Everything I built my life around was gone and I was left with a faith that was, once again, based on my parent’s works.
One night I was doing what I rarely did, praying. I was telling God that He wasn’t doing His job right and asking Him if He was even real. It was then that God spoke to me in a very distinguishable voice, something I was not use to hearing. He said “Susan, I have taken care of you for sixteen years. Let Me prove to you that I can continue to take care of you and your family and if I fail, you can find yourself another god.” So I did. I let The God Who holds the whole world in His hands prove Himself to me and so far He hasn’t proven me wrong. My family has never missed a bill, we always have food on the table, and we still live in the same house we lived in while my dad was at his former job.
So that is where I am at now, serving a God I know loves me. Not out of obligation or birthright duty, but simply because He loves me and I love Him. I do not know what the future holds, or if tomorrow will even exist, but I do know that no matter what, God is real, He loves us, and will take care of us. Even if there are ditches in the road. There is more to my story and I would love to tell you more but for now I'll leave you with a verse that Job used to describe God to a friend:
"Indeed, these are but glimpses of His ways; how faint the whisper, we hear of Him!
Who then can understand the thunder of His might?” Job 26:14
All my life I was surrounded by either missions or Jesus and while I loved basking in the glory of being the “missionary’s kid”, I myself was not a true “Christian”. I would have strangers and loved ones ask me, when they discovered I was unsaved, when I was going to “give my heart to Jesus” and I always loathed both the question and the asker. To me, they were asking this question because, since my dad was a minister, naturally his daughter should have a relationship with The Almighty God. Or so I assumed they thought. I felt like everyone expected me to do certain things and be a certain way just because of my birthright and I wanted to decide who I wanted to be for myself. So I always told myself I’d do it one day; that I’d have another chance, I was still young.
One day when I was ten years old, my family went to a local ice cream place after Sunday night service. I remember I was either going to or coming from the bathroom when I had a great realization that stopped me dead in my tracks. I realized that if I were to die, right then and there, my soul would go to hell and there would be absolutely no second chances. I was a sinner, regardless of what my father did or didn’t do. I should have fell to my knees right then and there, but I waited until we got home and as my mom was tucking me in bed I told her I was finally ready to give my heart to The Lord.
Fast forward six years. My father had been having some theological issues with the ministry he was serving with. The organization was doing things he did not believe to be biblically correct. After much praying and struggling my father resigned from a ministry he had poured his heart into for seven years. At first I was at peace with the whole situation, and I still support my dad’s decision one hundred percent. But as the weeks turned into months and my father couldn’t find another job, reality began to press down on me. I was no longer a small child and I understood bills and groceries. Suddenly, my perfect “minister’s kid” world was collapsing in on me. I began to doubt in a loving God. After all, if He really cared about us, why didn’t He give my dad a job? I refused to pray, questioned every spiritual decision my parents made, and became an overall disagreeable person. It was during this time of uncertainty for our family, that I was beginning to realize my religion was based on my family’s social standing in the church and not my relationship with The God of the Universe. Everything I built my life around was gone and I was left with a faith that was, once again, based on my parent’s works.
One night I was doing what I rarely did, praying. I was telling God that He wasn’t doing His job right and asking Him if He was even real. It was then that God spoke to me in a very distinguishable voice, something I was not use to hearing. He said “Susan, I have taken care of you for sixteen years. Let Me prove to you that I can continue to take care of you and your family and if I fail, you can find yourself another god.” So I did. I let The God Who holds the whole world in His hands prove Himself to me and so far He hasn’t proven me wrong. My family has never missed a bill, we always have food on the table, and we still live in the same house we lived in while my dad was at his former job.
So that is where I am at now, serving a God I know loves me. Not out of obligation or birthright duty, but simply because He loves me and I love Him. I do not know what the future holds, or if tomorrow will even exist, but I do know that no matter what, God is real, He loves us, and will take care of us. Even if there are ditches in the road. There is more to my story and I would love to tell you more but for now I'll leave you with a verse that Job used to describe God to a friend:
"Indeed, these are but glimpses of His ways; how faint the whisper, we hear of Him!
Who then can understand the thunder of His might?” Job 26:14
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