Lately

A few thoughts from all over the place:

Living Space

When we moved into our current apartment, we signed a 6 month lease. We had no clue where we might be and since we hadn’t planned on moving (thanks, condo owner who decided to sell), we just didn’t feel right about committing to a new space suddenly. Now, we’ve upgraded to the full year. Why is this important? Because for those first 6 months, we unpacked 40% of the apartment, and left everything else to linger. Now that we’re here for real, I’ve finally started to get my act together on creating an organized home. Or at the very least, a fully unpacked one…like I said in my post here, we aren’t the best at unpacking. Last week we donated 2 bags, a beach chair, a box of stuff, and 2 wicker baskets to Goodwill. It was also our wedding anniversary weekend, and you know you’re getting old when a drop-off at Goodwill was a legitimate highlight of the day.

Mary Poppins: organizing life since 1964 (yes, I know it’s 1934 if you want to be technical).

Yesterday I ordered a 2 pack of these 4-drawer storage towers in the hopes of getting our closet organized. I like them because the wicker fronts look nicer than those clear, plastic bins everyone uses to store clothes in their college dorms. My hope is that the towers can hold linens, towels, and bulky winter items. Especially since my bulky winter items are currently folded on top of a giant rolling cooler (um, yeah. We also have enough outdoor stuff to warrant a garage, but that’s a topic for another day).

I also bought this shoe organizer for my side of the bed, and 2 of these larger underbed organizers for both of us to put overflow/seasonal clothing into. It’s sort of ridiculous how much clothing we have, when neither of us shops regularly, but here we are. I think once it’s all out of sight, we’ll be able to focus on getting everything else pulled together.

Using Poshmark to balance my wardobe

Oh, but just because I don’t go shopping every week, doesn’t mean I don’t want to be more in the know regarding fashion. I am fully invested in trying to look like a stylish person. I just want to do it my own way – meaning, I don’t really feel the need to jump on every trend as it comes down the pike. I’d much rather find quality, lasting pieces that are laid back but still stylish. No need for massive amounts of fringe, or ankle crop flared jeans in my closet.

Each time I’ve gone through my clothes I find a surprising amount of good quality items that I don’t use. It’s a byproduct of when I did spend time shopping, and of having a lot of quality hand-me-downs from a mom who looooves a good handbag (don’t we all). The last time I used Poshmark I made nearly $200 in sales, and I was able to use that money to pay for almost every meal we had on our trip to Thailand that year.

This time around, I’m cycling my sales back into my own wardrobe. I did a clothing audit, which is exactly as exciting as it sounds, and found out that the majority of what I own is…workout clothing and pajamas?! I have one pair of work pants I love. I own one pullover sweater, and no cardigans. It was a hot mess. Anyway, I overthought things as I typically do, Googled a ton of capsule wardrobes, pretended I was French for a minute, and came up with some basic colors and clothing items I wanted to purchase to make a more cohesive wardrobe.

OK, this is where Poshmark comes into play. I was able to take the sales I made, and combined them with a $100 Express gift card I randomly found while cleaning (see, THIS is why you clean). All together, I was able to upgrade my fall wardrobe with the following pieces from Express and Nordstrom Rack:

marled cowlneck sweater//mauve cardigan//berry double-slash longsleeved shirt//black ankle booties//ripped skinny black jeans

I’m excited about all of it – everything works together in some way, I already own a ton of black, and I feel like each piece has something slightly trendy going on, without being so trendy that I’ll hate it in six months. AND I still have $21 in Poshmark credit leftover, so I spent exactly $0 on this haul. I just posted some new things on there, and will likely use whatever sales I make next to invest in a better handbag, or possibly a good quality pair of dark denim jeans. I plan on writing more about how I’m going to streamline my closet soon.

Hobbies

I’m one of those people who constantly feels a need to do something creative, but has problems committing to a process. I feel energized when I see raw materials – a blank piece of drawing paper, loose beads, yarn – but for some reason, I blank out when I finally get my hands on them. Then I get frustrated, and I stop attempting to draw/make jewelry/knit/etc. I’m going to try to change this, and the first step was to promise to myself to finish one full round of a craft before passing judgement. I ordered an embroidery hoop kit online as my first attempt.

In my fantasies, I find something I love so much that I HAVE to start an Etsy shop to sell it (I know this is like…the fantasy world of every slightly #basic Millennial woman, but go with me here). I would love to create some side income, particularly if I can do it in a way that is creative. Plus, I like being able to have control over it – I’ve already started my own LLC for some freelance writing projects, and for someone who isn’t into fine print, I enjoyed setting everything up and getting it done.

So let’s hope mixed media projects are my secret heartsong, and maybe in a few months, there will be an Etsy link posted here and we can all celebrate the genius of my abstract embroidered hoop projects. Or something like that.

And that’s it for me – what about you? Am I missing out on some hot fashion trend (that isn’t cropped ankle flares)? Have you ever created a side business out of something you love doing?