June 4th - Style Skills

"Style has nothing to do with money.

Anybody can do it with money.

The true art is to do it on a shoestring."

-Tom Hogan

In 1993 Tom Hogan and Johanna McElfresh opened up a thrift shop in New York called Chartreuse. Sarah quotes Tom quiet a bit today.

Chartreuse is a color, in case you didn't know...

I didn't know.

Today Sara shares some more "Simple Abundance strategies

that are essential to elevating 

secondhand skills to new-to-you savvy 

(they apply to both fashion and decorating)"

Number One

Save. Seek. Find.

"If you save while seeking what you really love, 

you will eventually find it and have the money to pay for it."

Number Two

Scale and Proportion

"Tom Hogan...believes the secret to a great-looking room (or outfit) 

comes down to striving for balance. 

Not symmetry, so much, as the visual weight of 

scale and proportion. 

For example, if you have one big, heavy piece at one end of a room, 

you need to balance it with another bulky shape at the other end. 

If you want to mix modern and rustic for an eclectic look, go ahead, 

just make sure each style is represented in the same proportion."

Number Three

Trust Your Instincts

"You know what you love.

Don't be guided by 'friends, fads and fashion'."

Number Four

Train Your Eye

"Your eye is used to a certain look, 

so anything different is going to look funny."-Tom

"Live with a sample...for a couple of weeks. 

If your eyes don't adjust, you know it's not for you."

Number Five

Take Your time

"Don't be in a hurry to pull it all together. 

People make the mistake of doing it too fast 

and then they end up hating it."-Tom

Here are some of the ways I've done this recently.

We have tried to wait to do some of the big things because we were trying to save up three months of living expenses. Well, now that we've reached that goal, we've wanted to add a few things to our home that we've been wanting and that will make it more comfortable.

Save. Seek. Find.

I've been wanting an entry way bench ever since we've moved in. I saw a teal metal one that I wanted, but it was too expensive. Since then we bought a couch, and moved the furniture around and filled in the wall with the huge hole in it...now if I had bought that bench it wouldn't have looked right to have so much blue in the room. 

Robbie found it, half off, and white with a wood top. 

And it's the perfect size too. Not too short, not too long.

Scale and Proportion

We moved the furniture around, and now everything is balanced. The piano on one side, the couch on the opposite wall...

I did something right and I didn't even know it.

Trust your Instincts

I don't know if I have an example for this one...

I just do it.

I use the blue couch example a lot. 

I wanted a blue couch, so gosh darn it I did it.

I want a command center where the fireplace is in my dining area...

so gosh darn it it's going to happen.

Train your Eye

Before I put up my collage of photos, I had them placed out on the floor for a week and kept going back and looking at them and rearranging them and putting them back until I was happy with it and ready to put it on the wall.

Take your Time

For Robbie and I, this can sometimes be a problem. 

Sometimes we take too long. 

We lived at Delbert for four years, and barely did anything. 

It's taken us two years here, and we've done more here than we ever did at Delbert. 

And now that we have our three months saved up, we're working up to our six months living expenses now, and spending some money on some things we want to get done. 

The goal is to have the laundry room and reading nook all planned out and saved up for by the end of the year. 

I agree with Sarah. 

This is some great advice.

What about you? 

Do you have any good advice to add?

***

Gratitude Journal

***

1) Today was a rough day. I didn't want to do anything. So I prayed and fasted for myself. And by the end of today I was a little better. I started with making the bed. I told myself that if I could make the bed even though I didn't want to I could do the next thing. Then I got in the shower, even though I didn't want to. Then I got dressed and ready for church. Then I got my butt and my kids butts in the car, even though I didn't want to. We spent at least half of Sacrament meeting in the bathroom. It started out as a walk, then Jacob had to pee, then poop...for 10 minutes. Then Riley had diarrhea. There is a lot of poop in our lives right now. 

Sometimes it's hard to do what you don't want to do, even though you know you have to or your should...or that it will be worse if you don't do it. If I hadn't made the bed, and come home to it all disheveled, I would have been sad. If I hadn't showered, I'd be pretty stinky, and very grumpy. If I hadn't showered, I wouldn't have been fit to go out in public, so no church. No church would have meant no sacrament, no lessons, no feeling the spirit...which would have meant that I would have felt even more awful. 

And now I'm ready for tomorrow. Looking forward to doing things. 

I'm grateful these rough days don't last forever.

2) Music. My cousin and I have been working on Danny Boy, and I love it. I think of Shelby.

3) Robbie. And Jesus. 

4) Being a mom. It's a pretty incredible experience. Also, the hardest ever. I'm responsible for my kids, for raising them into healthy and awesome people...Sometimes it's a little overwhelming.

5) Popcorn.