Faith Style

Imagine you had only one dress in your closet that worked for everything – work, date night, parties, or the occasional wedding. Well I’m here to share with you my secret style weapon. The Two Birds Bridesmaid dress, one dress that can be worn over 15 ways for every occasion and transforms to match your every mood.

This incredible dress was designed by Ariane Goldman from New York City and was created to marry a bride’s vision with her bridesmaids’ happiness. It is one dress, two sizes (size A 0-14, size B 16-24), comes in 18 colours, requires no alterations and can be worn more than a dozen ways.  You’ll never have to go looking for an occasional dress again. The beauty of this dress is that contours the body, draping beautifully and flattering all. This dress is approximately $300 CAD (for the shorter length) and when you do the math that is $20 a dress (since you can wear it a million ways)!!! Where in the world are you going to score a deal like that?

Dress it down for the summer with flip flops and a patterned scarf or dress it up with a killer pair of heels and jewels. Add a blazer to make it work appropriate or incorporate your own stylization with a cluster of vintage rhinestone brooches. The possibilities are endless and I guarantee you the dress will stand the test of time, lowering the cost per wear over decades.

I had my eye on this dress two years before I got married, my bridesmaids purchased it and so did I and none of us have been disappointed. Here are just a few ways to play with it. The best part is you can be the designer and be the creative soul behind your look. 

Visit www.twobirdsbridesmaid.com to view the different dresses; classic (which is the one I have and love!), go through the colour options like Kelly Green, Peacock and Coral and to watch the video tutorials to help you style it perfectly.

As written for Pretty Savvy

This was a speech made by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Anna Quindlen at the graduation ceremony of an American university where she was awarded an Honorary PhD.

“I’m a novelist. My work is human nature. Real life is all I know. Don’t ever confuse the two, your life and your work. You will walk out of here this afternoon with only one thing that no one else has. There will be hundreds of people out there with your same degree: there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you will be the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk or your life on a bus or in a car or at the computer. Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank accounts but also your soul.

People don’t talk about the soul very much anymore. It’s so much easier to write a resume than to craft a spirit. But a resume is cold comfort on a winter’s night, or when you’re sad, or broke, or lonely, or when you’ve received your test results and they’re not so good.

Here is my resume: I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my work stand in the way of being a good parent. I no longer consider myself the centre of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends and them to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today, because I would be a cardboard cut out. But I call them on the phone and I meet them for lunch. I would be rotten, at best mediocre, at my job if those other things were not true.

You cannot be really first rate at your work if your work is all you are. So here’s what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life. A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger pay cheque, the larger house. Do you think you’d care so very much about those things if you blew an aneurysm one afternoon or found a lump in your breast?

Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a breeze at the seaside, a life in which you stop and watch how a red-tailed hawk circles over the water, or the way a baby scowls with concentration when she tries to pick up a sweet with her thumb and first finger.

Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an email. Write a letter. Get a life in which you are generous. And realize that life is the best thing ever, and that you have no business taking it for granted. Care so deeply about its goodness that you want to spread it around. Take money you would have spent on beer and give it to charity. Work in a soup kitchen. Be a big brother or sister. All of you want to do well. But if you do not do good too, then doing well will never be enough.

It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, and our minutes. It is so easy to take for granted the colour of our kids’ eyes, the way the melody in a symphony rises and falls and disappears and rises again. It is so easy to exist instead of to live. I learned to live many years ago. I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned that it is not a dress rehearsal, and that today is the only guarantee you get. I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and utterly. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned. By telling them this: Consider the lilies of the field. Look at the fuzz on a baby’s ear. Read in the back yard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a terminal illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived”.

Be Happy Just Do It, originally uploaded by dear panda..

I will be taking a bit of a hiatus for the next little while. Lots going on and the changes are a good thing. I will share more when I’m back full-time but for now here is a snippet of the project I’m working on for Fall 2010.

The Real Beauty Journey

Usually most of us feel at peace and our happiest when we’re on vacation whether it’s in front of a beautiful ocean or in another country exploring a foreign culture. Truly experiencing beauty at it’s very core.

What if we were privileged to encounter beauty in it’s purest form everyday?

On January 1, 2011 I’m starting my journey to seek out beauty in it’s real form. Not the air brushed photo of a popular model or obtaining the coveted iPhone (which I’m guilty of having). For 365 days I’m going to search out all forms of beauty and share my discoveries with you.

Beauty could be the generous woman I saw (who cared enough) bring the homeless man on the street a cup of coffee and timbits, could be the poem I heard a spoken words artist perform or a picture of a far away landscape that made my soul dance.

Why am I doing this? I’m doing this because I believe if we surround ourselves with honest beauty from the real world we’d be more apt at projecting that same humanity more often out to the universe. And also because we’ve lost something in today’s society. With the addiction to speed and the need to move at a fast pace it’s unfortunately taken over our lives leaving little or no time for the meaningful things we used to cherish. The one thing I’ve learned in my lifetime is that the little things in life matter the most.

Stay turned for more information on my upcoming project and how you can get involved. Enjoy the summer and be sure to take a step back every so often to reflect on the beauty you’ve been privliged to experience.

Get out of the heat this evening and into a cool air conditioned boutique full of fabulous things and get your shop on. Shop Socials is hosting a shopping party tonight at Lavishy Boutique.

A frequent feature in LOULOU, Elle Canada, Chatelaine and More, fashion editors love Lavishy and so will you! This ‘gem’ of a boutique features it’s Canadian designed house label, plus gorgeous accessories direct from Paris and other haute spots around the globe. Join us for a private shopping adventure at Lavishy’s Yonge Street location on Thursday, July 8, 2010 at 7 PM. All shop socialites will enjoy an exclusive 20% discount for one night only and special giveaways, plus all the posh Shopping After Dark extras. Advance tickets are $10 each or purchase a seasons pass to enjoy events all summer for just $25.

To buy your tickets, click here. Happy Shopping!

I had the absolute pleasure of meeting the lovely Carrie McCarthy in 2007 and was completely intrigued by her business Style Statement. What is Style Statement?

Your Style Statement defines your authentic self. It’s a two-word compass for creating a life that reflects what’s true to you. From your wisdom to your wardrobe, from your longings to your living room – your  Style Statement  is where your essence meets your expression.

It begins with a unique series of questions about what you long for, what motivates you, and what you love.

It results in two profoundly magical words that guide your personal style – from clothes and interior design to relationships and inspirations.

It becomes a lifelong mantra that allows you to make choices that make you feel authentic, creative, and happy.

What we know to be true is that authenticity is magnetic, efficient and effective. When you are consistently being your truth—from your wardrobe to your wellness plan, you quite literally become a force of nature. True style is holistic.

Not just a style guide for your wardrobe or home decor, this statement “fully expresses your soul,” as Carrie puts it.

Does this sound like you?

You care about style. You care about spirituality.

You know that true beauty is much more profound than the way it’s marketed in most advertising and by most companies.

You want change and meaning, and you want to improve yourself and, by extension, the world around you.

Then Style Statement is for you.

How Is Style Statement Relevant?

Our days brim with choices, including the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the way we express ourselves, and the work we do. This can be exciting, but it has a downside: we can become overwhelmed or lost when faced with so many choices and lose sight of what we truly want and what sets us apart and makes us uniquely beautiful and interesting.

Style Statement is about simplifying our lives. It’s about looking at our true longings and desires, reassessing our direction, and making choices based only on what we need to be our whole selves. Clothing choices, creativity expressions, communities of friends, relationships, inspirations, and ways of living and working that bring out the best in us and push us to higher levels of fulfillment and presence in the world.

Style Statement is relevant because we have one life … and the choices we make about how we show up in it can make the difference between a so-so life and an extraordinary one.

I asked this proud mama her thoughts on style and how it affects our lives and businesses as we bustle through life.

S: Why do you think Style is important?
C: Style matters because every aesthetic and material choice we make sends a message to the world about who you are, and the world responds accordingly. The definition of Style is “the way in which something is said, done or expressed.” It’s everything, it’s about being authentic. And authenticity is simply what feels right. I know when I feel great – wearing a vintage dress having a deep conversation, life is graceful and full of possibilities.

S: What are your secrets to Authentic Style? How do you stay true to yourself, while running a household, business and raising children?
C: I stay true to myself by becoming more aware of what I love to do; Style Statement sessions, speaking, creating ideas. And what I need to delegate – cleaning the house (best thing I did for my family),  bookkeeping and social media. A big learning for me when I became a mom was to neglect things – the dishes, the laundry, making the bed and instead focus on business.
Neat & Tidy waits for the evenings!!!

S: What are the items in your life that you absolutely couldn’t live without?
C: If I lost everything I would be ok, not too attached, that said I love the following Refined Treasure things,
• Ray-ban sunglasses
• St. James striped long sleeve tshirt, the Parisian real deal
• googles for swimming
• pencils
• peonies, my favorite flower
• Christian Dior  jacket I bought at a thrift store for $10, OMG!!
• Oil of Olay face cream – my skin feels fabulous & what a great price

S: What are your newest obsessions?
C: My newest obsession is my well-being. As a new mom at 51 of a one year old my well-being is a priority. I want to be agile, stylish and open hearted to enjoy motherhood for years. Taking care of myself is part vigorous exercise,- swimming & cycling combined with mindful living, reading Pema Chodron daily for buddhist teachings, connecting with my husband (weekly date night prescribed by our therapist) and creating a Style Statement team.

S: Do you have any exciting news you’d like to share with us? Or can you share what your inspired to do next?
C: I’m on conversation with a wonderful TV production Company about a Style Statement show in Canada, US & Britain. I’ve began speaking gigs, which I love and intend to continue spreading the message of living authentically.