SIMPLIFYING: PART TWO

FLOWERS BRING ME JOY

So the question was: How can I simplify my lifestyle?

A few years ago as "retirement" from a ministry loomed in front of me I took stock of my life and decided I should be INTENTIONAL and while following" God's plan for me", and taking into consideration my purpose and passion, create a lifestyle that was balanced and joy-filled. So I came up with a plan to hone in on just that. I found some relevant questionaaires that helped me discover some significant insights into my life. Then I came up with 6 areas that my life generally fell into: 1) Personal ( mind, body, spirit ) 2) Home 3) Relationships 4) Work/Job 5) Giving 6) Finances.

The next step was to write out a descriptive narrative of what my life might look like in each of these areas if my life were balanced, purposeful, and full of passion and joy. It turned out to be a fun exercise that motivated and encouraged me!

 From this narrative I wrote out goals in each area. I found balance in limiting the number of things that I allowed myself to be involved in but making sure I had plans in each area of my life that I had listed. I also wrote out ways in which I could "kill two birds with one stone" so to speak. Meaning, that I looked for ways in which I could be working on TWO goals while engaged in ONE activity. For example, if, as a "relationship goal" I wanted to plan more INTENTIONAL time with my husband and as a" personal body goal" I needed to get more exercise by walking, I came up with a plan to start walking with my husband for exercise.

This plan is working AMAZINGLY well. Of course, I have to keep checking my activities with my goals to make sure I'm staying on track because it's very easy for me to keep adding more "things to do" to my list. I always need to keep working on "balance in life".

So how did Hob Nobbers fit into this plan?  Well, while I was working in the ministry, we had a fabulous fundraiser called, An Olde English Christmas. We decorated the Plummer House ( historical mansion that we just so happen to also LIVE IN ) for an old fashioned Christmas and invited artists and other entrepeneurs to "rent a room" and sell their wares. So Karen, Renee, and I rented a room and filled it with our many collected vintage treasures ( there was no Hob Nobbers at this time ) and it was the most popular room in the whole house! People kept asking where our REAL "shoppe" was located. The event lasted two days and after the first day our room looked bare as we sold so much of our stuff. We had to go home in the evening and collect more stuff to bring back. Thankfully,  Karen had an attic full of treasures! When I retired then, while asking myself what it was that I enjoyed, without hesitation I came up with ," collecting and selling our vintage treasures"... and Hob Nobbers was born! It was a huge benefit that it also MADE MONEY! Another "two for one" goal! I began blogging about Hob Nobbers when everyone wanted to know when our next sale was because we only have three occasional sales a year. Now we just hand out cards that refer our friends to my blog.

Another hobby sprang from all this as another friend, Sherrie, and I began putting on workshops and blogging about "living your life to full bloom", called Blooming Boomers, where we share how we've created our lives to be INTENTIONALLY purposeful, balanced, and joy-filled. Beginning September 15th we'll be offering this information in our blog through a workshop entitled, JOYFULLY BALANCED, and will also be offering it in the future as an e-book. This workshop and book will help YOU work through the same steps that we did in creating our balanced and joy-filled lives. Currently we are finishing up a series called, The Garden Of Your Mind. You can find us here: bloomingboomers.wordpress.com.  If you'd like to make sure your life is balanced, joy-filled, and full of passion and purpose please join us! We also have other fun projects in the works so stay in touch to see what's happening! Oh! And there are no "follower" buttons on our wordpress blog. You need to hit the "subscribe" button to join in the fun! Also feel free to take the Blooming Boomers button ( the one with the pot of flowers ) on my sidebar.

And why am I writing about this on my Hob Nobber page? I've found that women who are in business  ( like you perhaps ) want to find balance in their lives, they want to make sure their lives are truly joy-filled, and they want to have purpose and passion in their lives.  So I wanted to make sure everyone who comes here has an oportunity to find out about our upcoming workshop! Please invite your friends to join in as well. Hope to see you there!

SIMPLIFYING

So here's the dilemma... How do you SIMPLIFY your SPACE and yet still SURROUND  yourself with the lovely vintage things you love? And how do you SIMPLIFY your LIFE and still be in the business of collecting things to repurpose to sell and have loads of projects to work on? This has been my dilemma. But I'm working on a solution!

First of all, I don't like clutter in my home and lots of little knick-knacky things all over ( too much to dust for one thing ). Though I do love looking at all the lovely homes that DO have LOTS of little pretty things!

But I ALSO LOVE having beautiful treasures that make me smile and are lovely to look at. So can these two "lifestyles" be compatible? And the answer is YES, THEY CAN!

 Here's how I'm working it out...

First, PART ONE:  My Personal Living Space:

1) Keep just my FAVORITE items for home decor   There are so many cute things that I love but I can't possibly keep them all. So I choose a FEW PIECES that either have special meaning to me or things that make me smile and that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE. I keep the uncluttered look in my surroundings this way. I also find that I like to" rotate" treasures. If I find something I REALLY like and want to keep, I've made a "rule" for myself that I have to sell or give-away something else. This works to keep my home uncluttered and having the look of simplicity that I need for the peaceful ambience I enjoy. I still have pieces that make me smile and brighten my home.

2) Allow one small room or area in the house for a more frilly look    I do have one  room that is  a bit more fru-fru with more frivolous treasures. This is a spare bedroom with twin beds that is a guest room. Women feel very cozy in there with all the cuteness but men, not so much. I allow this room to have a bit more "clutter" than I normally would but it gives me a place to indulge that part of my personality. But I even "purge" my treasures in there once in a while.

3) Collect ONLY those things that I will USE    I'm not a fan of large collections. So I've decided that I'll "collect" only those items that are practical and can be ACTUALLY USED on a regular basis. Therefore, I DO keep fun pieces and treasures that I can use for having guests for dinner and entertaining. I enjoy vintage tablecloths, napkins, serving pieces, dishes, etc. and it's fun bringing them all out for meals and actually making GOOD USE of theses treasures.

I do have a couple of exceptions to the "no collection" rule:
A)  I keep all the old cups and saucers that have been passed down from my Grandmother's collections. But I try to USE them as often as I can. ( See Gramma Camp post )

B)  And the other exception to collections is the Byerly's Carolers that I collect and decorate with at Christmas. I've ALWAYS loved dolls but didn't want to have a large group of dolls laying around so this was my way of indulging in the love of dolls.

4) Keep "treasures to sell" neatly put away or stored in fun vintage storage   This is my BIGGEST challenge as my "treasures to sell" keeps growing! But I now have found a room for storing these treasures and am working on storing them in a fun and interesting way. I try to keep these business treasures separate from my "personal treasures". It helps keep my "thoughts organized" to keep these two areas of my life separate.  I joined the blog party "Where Bloggers Create" and found some very inspiring ideas! Thanks everyone! I'm still trying to get around to see everyone's spaces.

And lastly, the question of how to SIMPLIFY MY LIFE while being in an "anything-but-simple-business" of collecting and selling vintage treasures...You will find in my next post, PART TWO!

I'd also love any other ideas that YOU might have that would be helpful!