Blog posts that inspire

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!

 

 

Quiet Elegance

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Good Morning Everyone,

I needed to take some time off from the blog, boutique, LTK and Instagram. Now I have been on there “liking” photos but for the most part I have not really been activate on it and it has been really nice. 

Lauren and her brother Ely are moved into college. My husband and I officially became “empty nesters” on Saturday. When we woke up on Saturday morning, we both were really sad. We do miss our kids, but we understand that this is simply a part of life. Lauren did call us that morning and I was so happy! She just wanted to tell us about her first night and how things were going. It was good to hear that she missed us! I just keep praying that the Lord is with them.

 I was cleaning up my office and found some old blog posts that I had printed out in 2016. I remember sharing this post called “To Meditate On” and I really enjoyed reading it. It will now be a part of my daily morning devotionals. It helped me to reset my mind as I start this new journey in my life. 

 

photo via Town & Country

 

Do you ever see a woman like this and just stare? I found this photo a few years ago and I had to go on a quest to figure out who it was. I found out that this elegant woman in this photo is Ann Getty. In this photo she was leaving her mansion in San Fransico in 1977 and was accompanied by her footman and butler. If you want to read more about her then read this article. 

When I saw this photo the phrase “quiet elegance” popped in my mind. I love seeing women like this. Where they don’t shout from the rooftop, “Oh I have money and this and that”. They just quietly go about their day living their lives with respect and beauty. They simply don’t see the need in drawing attention to themselves. Their elegance does it for them. I pray and hope that over time I can do that. Just live my life in quiet elegance. Enjoy your day! 

 

My Phone Gallery Wishlist

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Happy Friday,

This will be our last pizza dinner with Lauren for a few weeks. I am trying not to get sad about it. Goodness, I still can’t believe that we are moving her in her dorm room next week. I continue to pray that the angels are with her and her brother as they start their school year. I still see her little pigtails on her head. Time goes by too fast. 

Okay let’s move on. Today’s post should be a fun one. I am sharing my wish list on my phone. I keep a photo album on my phone called “My Wishlist”. I created it a few years ago. Every time I saw a place, dress, bag, antique, really anything that I wanted I would take a screenshot of it on my phone. I then realized that I needed to keep these photos in their own separate album. 

 

 

This is an actual screenshot of my wish list on my phone. You will see all kinds of things. These are all photos of inspiration. There are photos of rooms, movies, accessories, homes, antiques and honestly items that I would LOVE to create for my own brand. Oh dare to dream? What I also realized was that every time I took a photo of something, whatever it was, that item would appear, or that opportunity to visit it would come. I mean it has been very, very interesting for the last few years since I have created this album on my phone. 

 

 

I know that Habakkuk 2.2 in the Bible says, ” The LORD answered me: “Write down the vision; write it clearly on clay tablets so whoever reads it can run to tell others.” With this wish list photo album, I am “writing down” my vision. I am making it plain for the Lord to see. 

And each time that I get something on this list, I just smile and delete it. But I thank the Lord in the process. Now I am not one of those, “fake it till you make it” people or prosperity, but I do believe that you can tell the Lord the desires of your heart. He already knows what they are but if you enjoy beauty like I do, then there is nothing wrong with having it in front of you. 

If you look in the upper right-hand corner of my second album you will see the Swan House and Swan Coach House. We just booked our room for next month to go and visit. I am so excited! Continue to write down your vision! Keep those dreams in front of you whatever they may be! 

Have a great weekend!

 

 

Your Gratitude List…

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Good Morning Everyone,

I hope you all had a great weekend! I am still busy at work, and we are now on our last full week of Lauren being home! I can’t believe it. It truly is amazing at how fast time does really fly. My husband and I have been sending each other pictures of the kids of when they were little. I still can’t believe that Lauren will be off to college next week. 

Having that thought pushed me into thinking about being grateful for things in my life. I was listening to another Tonya Leigh podcast and this one was called “2 Ways to Upgrade your Gratitude Practice”. 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

I still can’t believe that I took this photo!! It is just so magical. I still remember standing in this garden last year in Newport, RH. It truly felt like a dream…. even now I am taking in this moment and being grateful that I got to see this with my family.

Tonya mentioned this in her podcast…

“I also think we can get into gratitude slumps, gratitude ruts. And for me, what that feels like is I’m going through the motions of being grateful but I’m not really feeling it. Do you know what I’m talking about?

Like, you write it down in your journal, “I’m grateful for my family. I’m grateful for my job. I’m grateful for my house. I’m grateful for the food. I’m grateful for my friends.” But you’re not really feeling gratitude. You’re not feeling the emotion of gratitude”. 

Oh yes, I have been here which is why I don’t have a gratitude journal. I always felt like that was all I was doing. Just writing things down just to be writing things down.

 

 

 

Tonya said, “When it comes to gratitude, I think it’s about quality not quantity. I don’t think it’s about the numbers of things that you’re grateful for, but the depth of the gratitude that you have for some things.

Deep gratitude is when you get into the emotion of gratitude. And the way I like to do that is to think of one thing and go deep into why I am grateful for that person or that thing.

I could not agree with this more. I have found myself in the past just going through the motions of making a gratitude list and found myself just blowing right through things. But if I take one thing at a time, I find myself exploring that item, person or event more deeply. It brings more quality to my thoughts of gratefulness more than anything. Let me know in the comments below if you have done this before. How do you apply gratitude to your life?

 

In boutique news, the Vintage Vanity Collection is now on sale. There are a few pieces that are down to $15! You may order on the website. 

 

 

Past Inspiring Posts

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Good Morning Everyone,

Well, the new large antique mall that I went and visited on Saturday was just okay. Don’t get me wrong it was huge, but the quality of the antiques was just not there for me. There were no substantial furniture pieces, no large cabinets, antique chairs, fabrics, drapery, and I mean the list goes on and on. I went to the vintage jewelry selection, and they had nothing but rings. I did see one piece of artwork but that I was it. I did purchase a Waterford vase and a Lenox vase but that was it. The quest continues. 

I do plan on visiting a new antique store this weekend. The seller that I purchased my vintage cabinet from will be returning from her vacation and she has a store front. I will be messaging her later this week to see if she will be open. 

In boutique news, I will say that things have been really slow, and I have been taking a small break from it. I am taking a step back to re-evaluate where I am with it and what will be the next step. I am looking into a few things. My goal is to find my own manufacturer to work with. I do want to create my very own pieces for my store so we will see what the Lord leads me to. I am also having issues with my PayPal plugin. I have reached out to my web support team to try to get that fixed. Sorry if you have tried to purchase something and could not. Please know that most of the items are on my Poshmark page. I will be moving more of the dresses on there until we can get this problem fixed and you are more than welcome to make an offer! 

The Equestrian scarves are only $10 on my website but if you got to my Poshmark page and make an offer for $10 I will accept it! I only have 3 left! 

In today’s post I wanted to share past inspiring posts. There are a few posts that I myself keep going back to and sometimes I am a bit surprised that I share certain things. 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

It’s funny how you can look back on something that you may have written and you can pinpoint exactly where you were in that moment. In my blog post A Time to Focus, I was at a point in my life where I was working from home and taking a step back to think about my career. Now reading it I am so glad that I was able to put things in perspective. 

 

 

Another great post and reminder is Be Someone of Quality. I shared this post in 2105. I can’t believe this was 8 years ago but still relevant to today. 

Becoming a First Lady in your Life was another popular and well received blog post. I loved sharing this and will enjoy reading it in the future. 

Beauty from Mom is another great post full of inspiration and hope. A few people reached out to me to let me know that they were in the same position as me and did not grow up with mom’s who cared about beautiful things. Whenever this post shows up I have to read it. 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

Needs some inspiration for making lists? Then elegant evaluating is a great post to remind you that getting things in order can be done slowly. I find myself doing this often. 

Enjoy certain things in your life then Things I Savor in Life is a great post to read. This is the updated version that I wrote in 2021. If I am still blogging in a few years then I may have to do another update! It will be interesting to see where I am in another 10 years. 

This post just popped into my mind. A Paris All Your Own, was such a fun short story to read. I hope you enjoy it! I hope you all enjoyed this post.