Year: 2016
I live in a one-room apartment. It’s a loft with concrete floors and brick walls and I absolutely love it. But when it comes to storage, there isn’t any. When I left my husband I left behind a pretty big house with a big, remodeled kitchen. I entertained a good amount and had lots of dishes and serving pieces that I brought out just for special occasions. While I still love to entertain, those days are over.
I am not complaining. Moving to a smaller space has freed me up from all of that stuff, and I could write a self-help book about that freedom! Everything worth having now has to do double or triple duty. And, my go-to accessory is a great mirror. It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money (the one in the photos here is from T.J. Maxx).
My Ottoman
I use a mirror on an ottoman in my “living room” to put it to work as a hard surface (the ottoman unfolds into a single bed for the times all of my kids are in town). The mirror makes it a perfect coffee table.
My Holiday Decor
I found some really pretty glass balls in a blush color last week at Lowe’s on sale and put them on the mirrored coffee table and I have an instant holiday display that looks beautiful.
My Serving Tray
As a nibbling station for a holiday party, I used my handy-dandy mirror and piled it high with different colors of grapes, lots of cheeses, figs, crackers, olives, and other fruit. I used cake stands to create some height. It was a big hit.
Anytime I use mirrors as serving pieces, or just as my coffee table, I make sure to put several candles on top. Candles on the mirror are so sparkly and warm.
The mirror that you see here has a mirrored “frame” that I think works well, but you can find one that suits you. Try this at home and you will figure out all kinds of ways to use your mirror. When you aren’t using it for anything else, you can hang it up and look at your reflection in it while you pat yourself on the back!
Read More
I was in Chicago last weekend and my soon-to-be-daughter-in-law pointed to a woman who was wearing the most beautiful, green, dyed fox jacket and we both envied it (we were actually green with envy…ha). It was gorgeous. So, I immediately went online only to find that anything like that was in the thousands of dollars. And, honestly, I would feel guilty making a fox die for me to dye him green. So, I kept shopping online until I found this! I asked my daughter to put it on for the photo below because she is so much cuter in it than I am! I started wearing it yesterday as the temperature dropped and the compliments have not stopped. I bought my faux fur jacket on Asos and the cost… about $75! Looks way more expensive, right?
Not only do I love it, but, it is me (and, now my daughter). It is something I will wear over and over, while I have friends who wouldn’t be caught dead in a green furry jacket. That’s OK… it is my style. As soon as it arrived I fell in love. I know that it will look as good with my QVC jeans and one of my pairs of booties from Target, as it will with black leggings and a pair of Stuart Weitzman over-the-knee boots. That’s me. I am an equal opportunity shopper. I don’t judge by the color of the price tag!
The Moral of the Story
Yes, the moral of the story is to figure out your own style and look for pieces that fit that style, no matter what the price. Think about the clothes that make you feel most comfortable when you walk into a room. The pieces in which you feel confident. Because feeling confident is really what style is all about. When you feel like you look your best when walking into a room, you have found your style. Whether you find pieces at T.J. Maxx or Barney’s, make sure they fit your style profile and, you can get good wear from them, and you can’t go wrong.
Read More
I have always felt like having a side job, or a talent that can earn you a little extra income here or there is a great thing. I have a son who played lacrosse in high school and college and he sometimes coaches. It’s a few hours on some weekends, he enjoys it and gets a little extra money in his pocket. And, that extra money, while not a fortune, makes a difference. It might buy a piece of furniture for his condo at the end of the year or a flight somewhere, but it counts.
My other son has a roommate who has a small Etsy shop and hand-makes collages. She has a regular job, and this is a little something on the side. It covers some groceries, movies, etc. And, she enjoys it: it is her creative outlet.
In my head I visualize my work-life in 3 categories: income, ideas and dreams.
Three Income Categories
The first is income. Not a lot to say about that. We all need it and we all work to get it. Some of us love what we do for a living and some of us just don’t. It may be your passion…it may not. And I include in the income category moms at home and other caregivers. The jobs they do may not earn actual dollars, but their hard work contributes to the household management, so I count them.
Ideas are the coaching and the collage making activities. I used to sell antiques with a friend twice a year at a local flea market. It was fun, we got to work together on the project and we walked away with a little bit of extra money. It felt like free money, which it was not, but it felt that way. I loved it. It was more fun than my regular job: it was harder work but I loved it.
Finally, the dream category. I shouldn’t really call it a dream. A dream is something that is 100% in your head. It has no basis in reality. But if you are actually working on your dream, however infrequent, it’s more. I have two items in my life that are dreams, but if either of them were to come true…well, my life would become a dream, that’s for sure. One is a project that I am working on with my son and daughter. How great would it be to have that come true and get to work with them sometimes? The other is with a long distance friend. We may only get one step ahead by the end of the year, but I am sticking with it.
What the dream project does for me is that it allows me to do just that, dream. Kind of like buying a lottery ticket. What if…what if I got to spend more time with my children and help them financially, as well. Or, what if my friend and I really get this going? What would life look like then?
It helps me to write it down in a chart:
- Income (my “regular” job)
- Idea (my one side interest that might get me a little added income)
- Dream (the big burrito in the sky, but one that is in the works)
As I get older, the categories have shifted a bit. The truth is that the dream is taking a much more prominent place in my brain. Maybe because I just don’t have as many years ahead to make it come true. Or maybe because it is more exciting and more important to me than it used to be. And, if I am honest with myself, the idea portion of my life has turned more into hobbies. It is more important to me now to make time to knit or play the guitar or read than it used to be.
One more thing about the ideas and the dreams…there is no shame in them not coming to fruition. There is only shame in not having them at all.
Read MoreI picked up a little book when I was traveling with my daughter and set it next to my bed when I returned home. It is called Design Your Day by Claire Diaz-Ortiz. It is maybe 100 pages. I didn’t pick it up for weeks and honestly I only moved it to dust, which means I didn’t move it at all. So a couple of nights ago I read a little of the book and I got to a point and stopped: it really had me thinking. Don’t you love books like that? Books that, with a few paragraphs, make a huge impression on you.
In the book , Diaz-Ortiz talks about picking one word of the year. The year might not be a year: it might be a season or a time period, like before my son’s wedding, or this fall, or before the holidays. But, I like the concept of the word. So I started thinking about what my word should be. I had a few in mind, but it took some time to zero in on just the right one.
My first thought was…freedom. That’s what I am trying to accomplish in my personal life certainly…attaining freedom. But, it wasn’t quite right. Then, when talking to a friend, a young man, someone I wouldn’t expect to get it, he said, “Good, but every time you think of the word freedom it will remind you of a time that you didn’t feel that freedom.” Wow, that was deep. So freedom was out.
My next thought was the word success. But that felt too final. Like something you’ve achieved, not something you work on every day. While I like finding small successes in my daily life, success comes at the end, not the during the journey. And, if I have achieved success, then what? Not quite right either.
So, here it is, here is my word for now (drum roll please)…forward. My word for the next, I don’t know, 6 months to a year is forward. That is what I am about and that is where I want to go and that is who I want to become, someone who is always moving forward. To me it means that what I think, say or do should be helping me to achieve forward motion. And, if I feel like I am off track or if I feel like I am moving in the other direction, I can shift my focus and get going again.
That is as far as I read in the book. I wanted to wait to continue until I had my word, so now I can read on. This is not a book recommendation since that’s as far as I read, but just that piece itself has helped me get some perspective on my direction and I plan to read further.
What’s your word? If you are not moving in the right direction for you, maybe you need a new word, one that reflects who you are or who you want to be. Once you have it, you may be more clear about your life and your goals and can plan how to get there.
Read More
Search through my blog posts