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Whether it's creating a killer capsule wardrobe or sourcing affordable luxe, Stacey's Wardrobe is your spot! Style inspiration for the colorful minimalist. Effortless, minimal, luxe style blog for the every girl.

NEWSLETTER

Saturday, November 3

Navy & Lace Outfit of the Day

Hello Lovelies!

Enjoy this outfit video that I threw together  :)


Much love and make the most out of the rest of your weekend!

-S

No comments

Friday, October 19

25,000 Women and a Few Good Men

I DID IT!

Start line

This past weekend I ran my second half marathon in a city I love with a friend I love even more.

The Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco was absolutely phenomenal.  I wish I could say that I trained so well and was super ready and prepared to run by October 14th at 7am....but I wasn't.

I wasn't ready at all.

Sore and smiling!

But I'm telling you race day endorphins sure did kick in at full force! Even though my body wasn't ready it caught up real quick. I was so inspired by all the women coming together to run with their unique motivations and goals. There were women who were fighting cancer, women who had won that fight and women running in memory of those who hadn't. There were mothers and daughters and granddaughters running together. There were co-workers, sisters, friends and even a few husbands/boyfriends in tow. The energy was enormous and contagious and somehow I managed to chug along and reach the end where my lovely finishers medal was waiting for me.


Yes, we got Tiffany's necklaces!

Kudos to Nike for throwing together such an amazing event. I hope to run it again next year with my mom and maybe take advantage of the free Paul Mitchell haircuts and massages afterward.

The thing I love about running is that anyone can do it. Anyone can set a goal, pick a plan and achieve it. It can be as individual or team-oriented as you choose. It can be wherever you choose. No gym membership necessary. What I love the most it that crossing that finish line gives you tons of the 'good stuff' on the inside that allows you to believe that you can do anything.

You are unstoppable. 
You are strong. 
You freakin' rock!


Love, S
6 comments

Thursday, October 4

Get and Stay Organized + Giveaway!

Hiya lovelies and newest lovelies :)

I'm so glad you are here, welcome!

If you are like me, new months, new seasons and new years remind you to reevaluate your goals, your habits and your overall progress toward the things you desire most in life. Whether its a fitness goal, a career aspiration or getting better at your hobby, staying organized is key to achieving your goals. The following are just a few ideas that have really helped me to stay on top of things and keep stress at bay.


via Apartment Therapy


Make any system you like work for you

We are always getting tons of 'tips and tricks' for how to do this and how to do that and maybe they never seem to fit into your actual life. No need to throw out the baby with the bathwater! Pick and choose and tweak to make good suggestions realistic for you.


Via Google

Organize a little at a time regularly

Each night, or morning, go through your tasks and goals for the day. Be sure to prioritize them and have a plan to accomplish them. When papers come in, file them immediately. When you arrive at home take the extra 5 minutes to put away your clothes and belongings. Quick steps like these will save you stress later on.

Via Real Simple


Do an organization overhaul regularly

Re-asses your main priorities and align your months, weeks and days to match. Clean out that junk drawer. Go through your entire closet for items to donate, sell or keep. Re-organize your file cabinet and shred unnecessary documents as well as making digital copies when possible. Update the calendar with events and deadlines for the following month. These regular tune-ups will give you a fresh start and keep you on track. Be creative!

If you have any organization ideas that work great for you I'd love to hear them. Let's help each other out, comment below!

Also, check out my girl Deidre's Birthday Giveaway!! I've got a few goodies on there for you lovelies so enter soon and tell your friends!




Love, S

2 comments

Wednesday, September 26

The A-Z guide for Awesome Travel

Hello Lovelies!

It's no secret that I have a wanderers' spirit and that I fully enjoy the thrill of fumbling through a new city with old friends and new acquaintances. My sights often jump to the next adventure and the newest frontier. I say why not get out there? The world is simply filled to the brim with big and bigger possibilities and you will never be able to experience them if you never leave your own backyard.  

Explore. Travel. Learn. Go!

I've been learning a lot during my recent travels and would love to share with you my do's and don'ts related to all things traveling!  Within the past year I have found myself exploring the Philippines, Atlanta, Nigeria and California so why not give you the lowdown on getting the most out of your traveling experience? Not that I'm an expert (I've definitely had my fair share of meltdown moments, let's be real).  Even so, I love to exchange tips and tricks to make life just that tad bit easier so let's jump right in, shall we?


Allow time for getting lost. Think about what time you plan on arriving (anywhere) and add at least 30 minutes to it.
Budget for unexpected expenses in addition to the known costs of travel. Be realistic with yourself here. If you are a vacation shopoholic then don't just set aside $20 for the mall. You will go over.  If you are driving your car 2,000 miles to this new locale then budget for car repairs. Yes, a breakdown can and will happen to you. Sorry.
Clear your schedule before and after your trip. You will need a little more time than you think to prepare and you will need a little more time than you think to recover. Give yourself at least 2 days.
Determine who will be getting you to and from the airport before you leave. The last thing you want to do during your final days on the beach is to have to track down a friend for a ride home.
Empty full size products (think shampoo, conditioner, lotions etc) into travel sized containers that you can purchase at target or the drugstore.
Flexibilty is key! Stay loose and remember that you make plans and they WILL change. Things come up so learn to roll with the punches. Even after plan C fails, keep moving forward. (While your at it, apply this to your life).


Groups get discounts! Plus it's more fun to travel with the whole gang...at least until it's not so much fun anymore.
Have the basic OTC medications with you. Include antihistamine (even if you don't have allergies), cold and cough, pain relievers etc.
Invest in quality suitcases. Do you really want to end up with a broken handle on your overly stuffed rolling carry-on and therefore be forced to lug it in your arms all through the airport? I didn't think so.
Journal and take lots of photographs. You will want to remember all the awesome fun you're having.
Keep a stash of snacks with you at all times. Sometimes food on the run is too expensive or inaccessible. Have you ever heard of the term hangry? While traveling it can be easy to get so hungry you become angry...
Learn as much as you can about your destination before you jump on the plane. Ask friends, read publications etc. Of course it will be NOTHING like when you see it for yourself but it's great to at least have your bearings.


Make (and bring with you) copies of all your important travel documents. That includes reservations, itinerary, confirmations, passport and ID cards.
Never over plan your days. Leave space open for spontaneous adventures.
Organize spill-able items (perfume, nail polish, face wash etc) together in secure waterproof container like a Ziploc bag, lunch tote or a makeup bag with a liner.

Pack smart, but pack a little more than you think you need. This goes back to flexibility. What if you get invited to a nice dinner during your beach vacay but you only have shorts and tanks with you? What if gets uncharacteristically cold 4 nights in a row and you didn't pack any sweaters?? Be careful though, whatever you pack you will have to carry around.


Quench your thirst! Dehydration is one of the most common ailments of travelers and could lead to serious health problems. Carry a water bottle with you whenever possible.
Reserve the bling for a night out at home. Try not to travel with expensive or flashy jewelry as they attract thieves or could get lost.

Savor every moment and stay present. Before you know it you will be back on the daily grind missing those very moments.
Tuck a lightweight duffle bag into your suitcase to carry gifts or souvenirs. Luggage has a funny way of expanding on the way home.
Umbrella! Do not forget the umbrella!


Vary your activities. Try not to spend your whole trip hanging out in that one Starbucks down the street. Explore!
Workout regularly. Yes, this may take some discipline and creativity but taking care of your body will help you get the most out of your vacation. It will also limit the amount of damage control you have to do when you return.
X-ray etiquette? Avoid lace up shoes, too many layers, belts, too much jewelry or anything else that will slow you down in the security checkpoint.
Yearly. That's a minimum for how often I recommend spending time out of your own context and away from home. It doesn't need to be a five star European getaway. Even a weekend at an old friend's place can do wonders for the soul.
Zero in on authentic local food. Trust me, it's usually more delicious than the americanized version sold to tourists :)

 
    

Next stop, San Francisco in October! Where are you lovelies headed in the coming months? What is your ultimate dream destination? Comment below!

Love, S
4 comments

Sunday, September 2

I DANCED ON STAGE WITH CARLY RAE JEPSEN!


Truth.

Let me tell you the awesome story that I just so happened to have predicted from the beginning.

Backstage with Carly Rae!


First, a benevolent benefactor gifts me and my friends with 9 VIP tickets to see Carly Rae at the La County Fair. So awesome! At that moment I just decided that I must definitely meet her and will surely be on stage. There was no way to be sure about this other than my own gut. I'm telling you people, I felt it! :)

Oh hey Carly!

Anyway, we get to the fair, have some classic fair food and make our way to the FRONT ROW of the concert in our handmade T-shirts.



Yes, 9 of us sported lyrics to the song 'Call Me Maybe" in neon puffy paint. No big deal. But to be honest, I wasn't initially on board with the whole 'let's make shirts idea' mostly because I'm waaay too cool for that (Joke!)  In the end it was out of my hands and I eventually got into it.



While we were waiting for Carly Rae to arrive I tweeted her, you know, just to let her know we were excited to see her, that we made these awesome shirts and that we would LOVE to get up on stage. Here's where it gets CRAZY. She actually retweeted that tweet and then she started following me on twitter !!! I told the crew that we were for sure going to meet her now! My friend later tweeted a picture of us all together in our shirts and Carly loved it.

This huge bouncer guy slyly comes up to us and whispers "Carly Rae wants you guys on stage for the last song. Don't react. I'll come get you when its time."  Life made.

Next thing we knew we were ON STAGE talking, dancing and singing with Carly Rae Jepsen!

How cool is that? So cool, right? I know! I even had a little solo on the mic :)
So she is totally a sweetheart and she totally made our night. I can't wait for her new album Kiss to come out.

Here's the first video, a little shaky and blurred but hey, what can you do? We found a much better video! I've added that one instead. woot! The internet is a beautiful thing.That girl third from the left who screeches 'so call me maybe' yeah, that's me. It's okay that I blew my first singing debut.



 How do you like my killer dance moves tho?? Triple threat, maybe?? Now to work on the 3rd threat...

Where you think you're goin' baby?!
Special thanks to all the lovely friends who made this night possible! A blast was definitely had. Cheers to the weekend :)

Don't forget to follow The Lovely Life

Love, S
11 comments

Tuesday, August 14

50 Ways to Build Confidence


Here are some tips and tricks I've picked up along the way.  Plus a few things I'm still trying to get myself to do/believe.  My hope is that this helps you unleash that inner BOSS! One thing I know for sure: confidence is a journey, not a destination.
Enjoy!

Via Pinterest

 
1. Find a fun way to workout. Endorphins are nature’s happy pill
2. Talk to a good friend. No frenemies allowed!
3. Identify your favorite physical feature and accentuate it.
4. Buy a new outfit that looks fabulous on you.
5. Create or re-work your budget. Being in control of your finances increases confidence!
6. Set a SMART goal for yourself and work toward it.
7. Put a few affirmations on sticky notes wherever you will see them often.
8. Try a new hairstyle.
9. Practice the discipline of daily gratitude.
10. Pray, meditate, or reflect often.
11. Focus your thoughts on your positive attributes/qualities/skills. Replace negative thoughts instantly with positive ones.
12. Learn a new hobby.
13. Volunteer! Getting outside of your own problems to help others builds confidence.
14. Create something. A song, a painting, a letter, a craft…whatever it may be.
15. Incorporate healthy foods into your diet. Doing good things for your body will help you feel better about YOU!
16. Experiment with color. Paint a wall, wear a scarf, try that lipstick!
17. Give yourself a break. If you wouldn’t say it to your best friend don’t say it to yourself.
18. Genuinely compliment someone else.
19. Identify your core values. Are the things you do daily in line with those values? Make necessary changes.
20. Take a class in your area of interest.
21. Meet new people! Join a club or go to a mixer. Just get creative!
22. This should’ve been first on the list! You MUST believe you can actually attain more confidence.
23. Learn to say ‘No’
24. Try to take more risks. Do that thing you’ve always wanted to do but were too afraid.
25. Conquer your To-Do list! Cross off one task at a time.
26. Stop comparing yourself to other people. You can be the best version of yourself; no one else will ever beat you at that!
27. Make a list of things of things you’ve done/accomplished that you are proud of. It can be as small as ‘being awesome at taking care of  your pup’ to ‘winning the Nobel prize…twice’
28. Find value in yourself, first and foremost. Not your job, not your relationships and not your net-worth.
29. Clean up your space! Disorganization and excess clutter disrupt your inner peace.
30. Don’t be too afraid to seek counsel or aid when you need it.
31. Stop focusing on the things you don’t like about your life. Change your mindset and you will be able to see the beauty all around you.
32. Receive criticism with an open but discerning mind. Sift through it to find any truth, throw out the rest, make changes if necessary and move on.
33. Release guilt over mistakes and missed opportunities in the past. As long as you are breathing you will mess up, the key is to learn from the messy and keep growing.
34. Know that building self-esteem is a process that takes lots of little steps over time.
35. Learn to love, respect and trust yourself.
36. Read books about confidence, taking risks and achieving dreams.
37. Put yourself out there! Share your opinions and passions with others.
38. Cultivate increased generosity in your life.
39. Realize that everyone else is too busy worrying about their own hair/clothes/impressions/flaws to be thinking about yours.
40. Relax. Unplug. Just BE.
41. Do what makes you happy!
42. Eliminate any negative or abusive relationships from your life completely and immediately.
43. Fill your life with positive, encouraging and loving relationships.
44. Don’t play the victim. Accept that you are in control of your life.
45. Adopt a ZERO-tolerance policy for any negative self-talk.
46. Begin to accept things that are beyond your control. Eventually embrace those things.
47. Remember that good ‘ol advice “Fake it 'till you make it”. Even if you don’t feeeel confident today, behave like the you who is confident.
48. Practice good posture. Slumped shoulders and a lowered head convey self-doubt and unimportance to other people as well as to your own brain!
49. Let your hair down and have some fun!
50. BE YOURSELF. ALWAYS.

-Love, S
4 comments

Wednesday, August 8

Grow Everyday

via pinterest
Hi lovelies!

Last night I came up with the novel idea to do something everyday that leads me closer to the life I want to live.  Brilliant, right? But here's the thing, I am living the life I want to and I do feel that I'm on the right track for further enrichment. It's just that personally, I feel much better any day that is filled with things/thoughts/experiences/habits/people that line up with what I love, value and ultimately desire for my life.  I don't always make the choices that I want to consistently because at times I get caught up in what I want at the moment instead of choosing what will lead me to what I want the most.  I'm the kind of girl who craves change and growth and newness regularly so even though I'm so grateful for the person I am today, I'm equally excited about the person I am becoming. Want to join the fun?

Define your values
This means you might have to do some serious soul-searching. What are your core beliefs? What drives your major decisions? What do you desire most in life for yourself and for others? What do you need to feel purposeful, at peace, connected, loved and/or happy?

Identify small steps
Try not to be too over zealous here. You can't expect to go from 0 to 60 and sustain that long-term. That's what we want, long-term transformation, which will inevitably be slow and gradual.  If you sit on the couch all day now don't decide to run 5 miles a day at 6am starting tomorrow. Instead you would start by taking walks after dinner or going to the gym for a class 2-3 times a week.  It helps to look for evidence of the behavior that you desire in your current life. For example, you may want to read more daily and you already web surf for more hours than you'd care to admit. You could replace a few website views with reading a few pages of an ebook. The key is small actions that you can repeat daily without completely shocking your system.

Commit 
Decide officially what you will be doing and when you will start. Write down your goals, this is very important! Tell someone who will keep you accountable like friends, family or a group of people with the similar goals.

Help yourself
Hopefully you know yourself well and you can recognize potential areas or times where you are more likely to give up on your goals.  Use that to help you! Back to that reading example, you could set a timer when you first get on the computer to limit your web surfing and remind you to read your book. You could also change your homepage to something that will remind you to read instead of web surf for hours on end.  Will power is never enough, its imperative that you help yourself with effective  guardrails (for you).

Act everyday
Now it's time to do exactly what you wanted to do! Take it one day at a time, one action at a time. You can do this!

Forgive yourself and keep moving
You will fail. You will mess up. You will want to give up and go back to your old behaviors.  Let's just get that out of the way upfront so there aren't any surprises.  Dust yourself off and try again! We are going for overall consistency NOT perfection. You can still do this :)

Experience change!


 Oh, did you want to hear what my 'change actions' are?
Exercise daily-I'll do short walks on rest days
Quite time daily-Doesn't mean I have to be quiet, but I will be centered on Jesus
Read something - Books, the Bible, magazines, articles anything that adds to my life
Create something- Write, make a video, knit, paint, develop an idea etc

I do all of these thing often and I've seen a lot of fruit from them, when I do them. Now I want to commit to intentionally do these things daily!

-Love, S


No comments

Cleaning Frenzy

Hi there lovelies!

I took a break from my recent cleaning frenzy to relax on the couch and catch up on my favorite blogs.  I was inspired to do some serious cleaning because 1. it was desperately needed and 2. I read in my current book, The Happiness Project, that getting organized helps to boost mood. Of course, I already knew that little fact but it was a nice reminder especially since over the last few days every time I glanced over the apartment I let out a defeated sigh at the sight of all the clutter and grime. But those days are no more! I've been attacking one room at a time each night, mostly because the entire apartment would be too great an undertaking for me alone in one day. I didn't create this mess alone, it was the combined doing of 6 guests! Although I do miss them terribly and I would keep the mess in a heartbeat if it meant I could keep them here too.  But now that the place is empty {sad sigh} a thorough clean up was overdue.


So this book so far is pretty great! It's filled with lots of ideas and stories about experiencing more happiness. I, like the author, am already quite a happy girl but who says you can't have more of a good thing? I say check it out.
 The after in the living room.  I wasn't even willing to show you the before...let's just say I worked a mini miracle in there.  I'm thinking of adding some pillows to the mix, what colors do you think I should get?

Just take my word for it, yet another miracle was performed in the kitchen as well.  Dontcha just love how I created a makeshift napkin holder with two candles?? Yes, I thought you'd appreciate that.
















Next thing on my list? I want to freshen up my bedroom a bit but more importantly I need to go through my closet and drawers for a seasonal 'keep/donate/trash' cleanout. Wish me luck!

Love, S
1 comment

Monday, August 6

Finding Happy

For me, for many years summers have been about rest and adventure and letting life teach you a lesson or two (as opposed to forcing yourself to listen in class for hours on end).  Now that I've been out of school for a little bit I thought maybe those times were over.  I have always looked forward to those lazy days and those jammed-packed-full-of-fun days that the summer months have always promised me.  Surely Summer 2012 did not disappoint. I started out on a month long trip to Nigeria to explore, relax and reconnect with the lovely fam. It's like my whole perspective changed and my mind's eye just opened up to all the possibilities and blessings that surround me.  I was coming out of an extended period of lowness and suffering to which I will refer to as the "dark year" so this summer couldn't have come at a more perfect time.  Just when I thought I had received enough life and joy to not only heal my wounds but to carry me forward I was showered with even more lovely upon returning to the states.  There's nothing like new friends and old friends to remind you who you are,  refill your confidence and bolster your faith in the Father.  Even if I had a thousand tounges I couldn't praise God enough for what He has done for me and for who He is.  There's always a light at the end of the tunnel and there's always beauty in the midst of the desert.  We just have to learn to experience life beyond what we see in the physical.

 New friends hit the beach!

 Summer beauty

 My favorite treat all year round. Froyo!

 Best movie of the summer EVER! The Dark Knight Rises

 Me and the loveliest Momma

 Monday night dinner with the interns

 View from my Mom's backyard in Nigeria


I hope you lovelies are having a fantastic summer and that you are opening your hearts to all that life has for you!


2 comments
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