Blog posts that inspire

The Soul of Civility ~ Author Meet & Greet

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Good Morning Everyone,

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. My weekend was a tad bit longer. We got MLK day off so having that extra day was so helpful. I finished taking down all my Christmas decorations and was able to purge more items! I always feel good when I am able to drop off stuff at the Goodwill. Always a good feeling.

I am now in deep 2024 planning. I discussed a few things on my recently recorded YouTube video. I will link it below if I have it finished by the time, I share this blog post.

In my video I talked about my word of the year and how I was letting myself become frustrated with things and how I was beginning to pull back and allow myself to think and stay composed. That got me thinking about my recent meet and greet with author Alexandra Hudson and her book called the Soul of Civility.

In the first chapter, Alexandra mentions Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and begins to talk about the difference between civility and politeness. She said, “King wrote that racist laws gave the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Like segregation, incivility deforms the soul of both the abuser and the abused. Also, like segregation, incivility often originates from an inaccurately low view of personhood. Often, people lash out at others because of their own inaccurate view of self. This can manifest in their deriving their validation in abusing others; but harming others only makes them feel lesser. Appreciating the gift of being human and realizing that when we hurt others with our incivility, we hurt ourselves – is central to reclaiming basic decency in our world.” 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

Alexandra said, “Civility- the motivation behind our conduct that sees other persons as our moral equals and worthy of basic respect- is much deeper, richer, and of greater import than politeness, or external compliance with rules of etiquette. Politeness and manners are the form, the technique, of an act, but civility is more.” 

 

 

I could tell that Alexandra was genuinely interested in each person that came up to her during our meet and greet. Before signing a copy of her book, she asked me what I loved in life and what I did. I told her and this is what she wrote in my book, “Thank you for your passion for beauty! It will heal our broken world”. Love Lexi… 

Her words on civility truly had me thinking about how I think of others and treat them. Am I just being polite, or do I look at them with dignity and inherently valuable? 

 

photo credit: K. Cuppy

 

Alexandra had a very elegant bearing about her when I met her, and you can tell that she does see others with dignity and value. I hope that you can order her book and let it inspire you as well as educate you. 

 

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My Word of the Year…

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Good Morning Everyone,

It is the first full week of 2024 and I have my word of the year. Well, I have my phrase of the year and it is “radiate calm”. My post from 2018 popped in my head a few days ago. That quote, “radiate calm” really spoke to me. I have had several moments in 2023 where I felt like becoming unhinged. I let things really get to me instead of maintaining a quiet spirit. Maybe that should be my phrase for the year.

I went back to my post. I still can’t believe that I read the book and wrote this post 6 years ago. The book provided four ways to radiate calm under any circumstance. 1) Stay composed, 2) Avoid drama, 3) Find common ground and 4) Maintain perspective. 

I can recall several moments where I should have used those tips! I have decided to take these four tips and for every week for this entire year I will write one of those tips for the week in my Day Designer to remind me what to focus on.

Another tip or thing that I do is pray and try to breathe deeply. I want to keep my mind and emotions in order. Last year was so full of changes that I felt like I did not have perspective. As I get older that has become very important to me.

 

photo credit: L. Shockley 

 

As I begin 2024, I am trying to remain hopeful that staying composed, praying, and keeping perspective will help me to radiate calm this year. 

Enjoy your week!

 

 

My Branding Project Complete

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Good Morning Everyone!

I had a wonderful 5 days off for the Thanksgiving season! Goodness it was really hard to return to the office this week. In the next two weeks I am going to be planning 3 holiday luncheons. Out of the 3 luncheons I am the lead of 2 of them! I don’t know what I was thinking!!! But I do enjoy being on teams just not the lead so wish me luck.

Today I wanted to share my branding project that I started in late August. I shared about this project in early October and we just wrapped up everything. I am still shocked that I took this step in my blog and small business. I just felt like having a custom logo for my brand would help me keep the vision in front of me. 

After sharing my thoughts with Mary on Pinterest and having our Zoom meetings we finally nailed down what I wanted for A Home for Elegance.

Crest via MK Design

 

It all started with this crest. I love it so much! When I spoke with Mary it seems as though she could read my mind. I think she looked at my website, Instagram page, and immediately knew that a crest would suit my brand and she was right. 

So this crest, as I previously mentioned, was sketched by hand for me. Mary knew that I loved chinoiserie and I told her that I wanted to incorporate that in my logo somehow. 

 

 

I now have this logo in lots of different colors. 

 

 

Another feature that was created and included in my brand package was my brand colors! This is my color palette for my brand. I just love everything about it! Beautiful pinks, blues, greens and creams. 

 

 

This is one of the secondary logos. It has the name and the crest in the background. It also had the tagline and the year that I started the blog. So creative. 

 

 

These are samples of my new logos. I have my main logo, crest, and do you see my hummingbird logo? I have a hummingbird logo! You may have noticed it on my website’s home page. 

 

 

Above are more samples of my crest and logo in my brand colors. So beautiful and elegant! I love seeing my brand in this way. 

 

And last but not least, is my new chinoiserie pattern. That’s right Mary created my very own chinoiserie pattern that I can use for my brand projects, and I thought about using it to create my very own silk scarf. What do you all think? A silk scarf with my chinoiserie pattern?

I am looking forward to using my new logo, colors, and patterns. Having this for my brand is a dream and I look forward to what the Lord will allow me to do in the near future. Thank you all for your support since 2014! 

 

Tips for Antique Shopping

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Good Morning Friends,

I feel like I got a lot accomplished this past weekend. It could be because I got an hour back. Boy does that help A LOT! I did do some fabulous antiquing. A few shops in Franklin, Indiana had an early Christmas sale, so I went down and purchased a few things. I will share those in a later post. 

Today I wanted to share a few tips from Ajiri Aki recent book called Joi. I have been reading this book slowly on my lunch breaks and I am being honest, this is a wonderful book to read if you really want to know how the Parisian’s live. Ajiri has created such a beautiful, wonderful life in France. I envy her antiquing opportunities that she has there but let’s get into her tips for antiquing! 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

  • First tip is to, “use your imagination”. Look beyond what the object once was and imagine how it can serve you today.  Oh my goodness! I use this tip all the time when I go antiquing. I immediately think, “okay where can I use this. Where will this fit in my home. Will this be beautiful and useful”. Thinking about antiques in this way can help you to find those treasures. 
  • Find perfection in the imperfect. The imperfect bits give antiques character and make them unique. Of course, it’s important to inspect pieces before you commit- especially textiles. But embrace the patina on copper or silver objects; even small chips on ceramics are okay. These are signs of use. Plus, you can reupholster or polish any damage or imperfections you don’t want to live with. 
  • Don’t be afraid to ask for a better price. In France, you ask, Est-ce que c’est possible de faire un petit prix pour moi? Which literally means, “Is it possible for you to make the little price for me?” It’s a cute and polite way to ask for a price reduction. They expect you to ask- in fact, most items are priced with wiggle room in mind. And if you buy a few things from the same vendor, they’re likely to give you a bigger reduction. I do this all the TIME! Sometimes I get a deal and sometimes I don’t.

 

Some of my antiquing finds…

  • Don’t let an item be the one that got away. Know what you want to pay for something, but if you walk away from it, understand that the object might be gone forever. I used to worry that I was being scammed on prices. Now I know what I am willing to pay for something. There are items I sold to others that I wished I had kept for myself, and I may never find another like them. I know now that if it’s something that brings me great pleasure to use and own, I will willingly pay a pretty penny for it.  I don’t know how many times this has happened to me and I have gone back to look for that piece and it is GONE! Antiques usually don’t stay. Especially if they are priced well and if they are in good shape. My recent Rose Canton jars were a recent “walk away” item. I walked away from them but then got home and realized that I may NEVER see TWO of them together again! So I went back and got them! NO REGRETS! 
  • Educate yourself. The internet is full of articles on how to identify silver-plated versus sterling, porcelain versus stoneware, earthenware versus faience, transferware versus hand-painted. I don’t think one is better than the other, but just knowing the difference will help you feel more confident in the market. Bonus: I also think it’s fun to educate yourself about the different styles and their iconography and ornamentation. It makes spotting something more exciting. Also, collecting art books or visiting museums and chateaux will help you learn what you like and train your eye to seek certain things. I have heard the express “train your eye” for beautiful things more than once. Learn what you like. Then seeing quality will come to you. 

 

Some of my lovely finds…

 

You should definitely order this book. Not only are the photos good but you can just read the honesty in Ajiri words. She really does love living in Paris.  I am enjoying this book so much. She had more tips but you will need to order the book to read the rest. Have a great week! 

 

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Tips from Joie by Ajiri Aki, page 188

 

A Home for Elegance on Pinterest

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Good Morning!

Today was a really nice day. I got to work from home and then go and volunteer at Random Acts of Flowers. It met some wonderful ladies, made about 5 bouquets for some patients and had a great time! Volunteering is something that I enjoy a lot. Especially, making flower bouquets! 

Today is actually Halloween and I always love seeing our small kids run around with their creative costumes. I have my candles burning and it is a very cold day. I hope you all got my latest newsletter. I was sharing my new boutique arrivals and the new business Pinterest page for A Home for Elegance.

 

 

I have thought about creating a page for the blog for some time now and just thought that maybe it would be a waste of time until I found out how many people actually shop on Pinterest and read blogs! I know that I am one of them and have discovered lots of wonderful things and people on Pinterest. According to Pinterest they have a whopping 80 million followers! I thought this would be another good place to find other like-minded people who would love the blog and maybe the boutique. 

 

 

I intend on only have a few categories to start. A board for my home life, elegant antiques, blog posts, boutique dresses, accessories and boutique store front inspo. Of course, my dream one day would be to have a small suite for women and girls to come by and shop. I hope that is in the Lord’s will. Follow along if you want another place to get the blog posts as well. Thank you all for following and have a great and safe Halloween!

 

 

Rebranding A Home for Elegance ~ New Project

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Good Morning!

I had a really nice weekend. I got some of my home projects done, re-arrange some flowers, cleaned my laundry room, started my Christmas shopping, had a Zoom call with my paralegal group, and received my new first round of branding items from my new brand manager!

Yes, you read that correctly! I am rebranding A Home for Elegance. I am approaching my 10th year of blogging! I NEVER thought in a million years I would still be doing this! But I love my blog and love the inspiration that I can provide to my readers.

I felt like this was the next step. I want my brand to have a more uniform look and some order to it. I wanted a custom logo and something that belonged to me so one night I did search on Instagram for graphic designers and Mary with MK Design popped up.

I was so nervous. It took me a few days to contact her but I finally did and we set up a Zoom call. It turns out Mary actually lives here in Indy! She is only 30 minutes away from me so that helps if we need to meet in person.

Once I saw her portfolio and we had our Zoom call I knew that Mary was the perfect fit for rebranding my website! She then sent me a project list and deadlines along with some homework for me to complete.  I had to create a Pinterest board of inspiration for Mary to gain some insight on what I wanted my new brand to look like. Below are some of photos that I pinned for Mary for inspiration. 

 

photos via Pinterest

I loved all of these font examples. Some of these were incorporated into my fonts for my brand.

 

In my heart, I knew that I wanted a crest. I could not shake it. I knew that I wanted one so these were the examples that I sent to Mary. 

 

 

Here were some of the colors that I wanted to include. I love the blues, pinks, creams and greens. I loved doing this part of the work!

 

Here it is! This is the first round of my new crest for my brand! I almost teared up when she sent me the packet! OMG! This was sketched by hand for me! I love everything about it. This really does speak to my brand! This is A Home for Elegance. I can already see this on my new packaging, dress tags, social media, website, just everything! I am so excited about this new journey! I think that Mary is also working on my very own chinoiserie print! I can’t wait. I want to put that on a silk scarf and have my very own collection! Now how beautiful would that be? I will share more later but this is all I want to put out for right now. Thank you to all of you who have been readers and supporters from the beginning. I still remember back in 2015 when Google approved my blog for advertising, then in 2020 I was approved to be on the LTK app. Then 2021 I started the dress boutique. Now I am rebranding. It certainly has been a slow and steady journey!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Inspiring Mellody

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Good Morning,

Well, it has been an interesting first week as an empty nester. Rick and I have adjusted pretty well. We do miss the kids, but it has been nice this week. I will say that! On Wednesday, we had our Founders Day lunch for the Guild. I will share a few photos from that soon. I also went to Random Acts of Flowers and did some flower arranging training! That was really fun! I so enjoyed it. Also, I finally moved my vintage cabinet and placed my books inside! I so love it and will share photos later. I do want to go to HomeGoods this weekend to find some blue and white for it. 

On Monday I shared a beautiful and elegant women named Ann Getty. Today I am sharing another inspiring woman that I just found named Mellody Hobson. 

 

 

I stumbled on Mellody while on Facebook. An advertisement for a course on Masterclass appeared in my newsfeed and it was her discussing finances, so I just had to Google her. She is married to George Lucas! Yes the creator of Star Wars and the Indiana Jones franchise. I could not believe that when I read it. But not only that she is the chairwoman of Starbucks and was the chairwoman for Dreamworks.

What I found so fascinating about Mellody was her background. It was sooo similar to my own. I listened to this podcast called The Positive Leadership and it was an interview with Mellody. You have to listen to it. It is so good!

What I found so inspiring about Mellody was her drive to create a better life for herself and how she let no one stop her from doing that. I love hearing stories about women coming up through the ranks from nothing and becoming great leaders in the field. I hope you enjoy the podcast about Mellody and have a great weekend!