Make More, Buy Less

My older son and I had a bit of papier-mache adventure over the past two weeks. I hadn’t done papier-mache since my time in Brownies, so I did a bit of research before we dove in. After watching this little video about how to make a papier-mache mask, I felt totally confident.

Some other things that made me happy this week include:

This poster from Urban Outfitters. Visual reinforcement is always good!

Charades, which I haven’t played in 27 years and laughed my head of with my colleagues playing it one night this week (yes, we’re a bunch of nerds). Official rules can be found here.

This version of chess. Every time I play with my son, it makes me happy. It’s the single greatest way to learn the game without getting out-of-your-mind frustrated.

This Trish McEvoy lip gloss in Irresistible Petal. The sheen makes me feel like warm weather is right around the corner.

As of 3:30 this afternoon, the Lewin household is offically on vacation. If you are too, or at least have Monday off, enjoy!

- P

Color makes me happy, so you can imagine how I felt when I spotted these awesome igneous rock formations on Pinterest.

Other things that made me happy this week include:

This great Valentine’s Day book

These fabulous and inexpensive online classes (took my first one yesterday)

This amazing story of kindness

This well-deserved honor for Jenny Komenda, one of my favorite decorators and the first blogger I followed regularly

Happy Friday, everyone.

- P

I’ve loved Stevie since I was 14 years old, so this backstage video of a very young and very beautiful Miss Stephanie Lynn Nicks makes me happy.

Have you heard of Operation Simplicity? It’s a simply brilliant blog from the lovely Joslyn Taylor (creator of Simple Lovely). I met Joslyn when I attended Alt Summit last year (one of the best experiences of my life, by the way), but didn’t hear about Operation Simplicity until I saw her featured in Better Homes & Gardens in December. In an effort to be more mindful about what she was bringing into her home, Joslyn resolved to end 2011 with less stuff than she started with, and chronicled (and continues to chronicle) her acquisitions along the way.

After reading the article, and then visiting the blog, I couldn’t stop thinking about that simply elegant framework — end the year with less stuff than I started with. It struck a chord with me, perhaps because the idea of consuming, spending, and acquiring stuff at the expense of, well, living, was what had gotten me started on this blog two years ago.

Fast forward to New Year’s Eve. In my extended family, stating your resolutions is a big deal. There’s a lot of pomp and circumstance, and some of my family members try to escape to the bathroom, just so they can avoid the moment when the round-the-table resolution train gets to them. Being a former child actress (and by that I mean starring in supporting roles in my high school musicals), I relish the moment when the spotlight is on me. This year I was ready.

So, with a huge thank you to Joslyn for articulating the most perfect resolution for me — the one who would like to “make more and buy less,” I will be following in your footsteps this year. While I won’t be dedicating a blog to the endeavor, I will report each month on what came in to my house. So here goes…my January report.

Perfect red cords from J. Crew

Chemise from Anthropologie

Gorgeous bib necklace from Stella & Dot

Bakelite-like necklace from J. Crew

Antlers. Have wanted them forever.

A new fitness DVD recommended by Boston Mamas

Craft supplies to make these great photo-to-canvas transfers

No mindless shopping at Target. No emotional spending binges. This is HUGE.

- P

I wrote my first Make More, Buy Less post just slightly more than two years ago. Eight posts later, I had written my last. Pretty lame, I know.

But there’s a reason.

Just a few days after I started this blog — an experiment in coming clean and finding my creative self — my husband lost his job and our world turned sideways. I would say upside down, but we were fortunate compared to others who have been laid off. My husband was provided with a decent severance package and my employer allowed me to ramp up to full time. I started a small side business to earn some extra dough in case job interviews didn’t come swiftly enough, but the phone was ringing within the first few weeks (thanks, in part, to my husband’s inability to wallow in his unemployed-ness — something I’m sure I would do). But blogging about trying to curb my spending and fulfilling some pretty lofty goals of personal growth seemed sort of pointless. Putting the brakes on my old habits was no longer optional, and trying to “make more” — crafting and sewing and cooking and exercising and all that — just seemed too overwhelming in the midst of having to sell our house (and then sell it again when our first buyers backed out), move from my dream town, and completely change our lives.

Within four months of the layoff, my husband was in a new job an hour-and-a-half away from our home. We opted to sell and move to another town, opinions of which I had formed twenty years earlier while playing against its high school field hockey team. To say I wasn’t thrilled about the move is an understatement. To say that I felt like I was dragged unwillingly by some uncontrollable force is more accurate. And while I still don’t feel like this town is my town, I do think the universe has plans and we don’t always understand them. Because, if my husband hadn’t lost his job, we would not have moved, and:

We would still be house poor.

We would still be living in my dream town, which despite all of its dreamy qualities (walkable, strong community, great schools, vibrant town center), had a lot of issues.

I would still be only 30 minutes from work, rather than nearly two hours, which forced me to assess whether I was truly happy at my job. (I wasn’t.)

I would not have actively pursued a new role — part-time webmaster, designer, and communications Jill-of-all-trades — at a school on the most gorgeous campus I have ever seen. And after a couple of interviews during which I was convinced I wouldn’t get the job, I did.

I would not be working ten minutes from my husband. We’re so close now we could meet for lunch.

I would not be working for a school that values and encourages its faculty to immerse themselves in interests outside of their job descriptions, as evidenced by my boss who has a booming jewelry design business, a colleague who ran an inn for two decades in her spare time, an athletic director who’s an amateur guitar player, and a headmaster who paints (and P.S., we’re not an art school.)

So here we are, settled in a place we didn’t plan to be two years ago, but seems to be working out pretty nicely. And I’m ready to come back to this germ of an idea I started and see where it goes.

Hope you come for the ride.

- P

Have you seen this?

I didn’t know anything about Playing for Change until my brother posted this video on Facebook. It turns out that not only is their music awesome (and I mean that – awe inspiring), but they have a pretty important mission too. Read all about it here.