A Short Lesson in Modern French Slang

Bon Chic Bon Genre. Observe the first letter in each word and say them as one word. "Baysaybayzhay." Say that more quickly and there it is, "Baisebeige!" Translated, it refers to people who think they're all that. I am exploring the changing values of world culture and expressing through dress the evolving image of the pillar of our modern society.

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Tiny-fying

An important aspect of living sustainably is being able to do more with less and space definitely is included with that. I am currently living in a tiny house that was originally built semi-detached from a grand house in 1892. The industrialist who built this house put his science lab on the third floor, so the maid's room and her loo as well as an open first floor plan to accommodate parties were part of his controversial home design plan. This space was enclosed sometime during the mid twentieth century and this is my home today.

I do have a large kitchen as well as the 17' by 35' front room and spacious storage in the basement to share, but I'm trying to find that sweet spot of comfortably living and working in my textile studio and running an e-tail business and gardening in my BathroomFarm conducted inside this room. So far so good, but it can be better. So, that means tiny-fying. Constantly. Like. A. Lot.

Small space living with an eye on profit and productivity certainly adds a new dimension to the process. At this point, there is probably nothing wrong with most of the things I have. Most of that unnecessary fluff is long gone. I do have to keep scrutinizing possessions to determine if they are appropriate to my goals and release them if they are not. Lucky for me, my neighborhood has the best neighborhood yard sale ever and it's coming up soon.

Right now my life is an intricate exercise of sorting, sifting, stumbling knee deep over tubs of stuff, separating the Etsy biz wheat from the yard sale chaff, photographing, editing and listing and there's not much fun stuff to talk about. I enjoy this part because I know that I'm going to wake up on the second Monday of June with a more ordered and focused life.

Intrigued? Visit my neighborhood yard sale during the first full weekend of June every year. Shop 80 acres of yard sale paradise at the Woodruff Place Flea Market this year on June 7th and 8th in Indianapolis, IN. We tithe 10% back to our neighborhood to preserve our historical prettiness. I love to participate in this event because I appreciate the luxury of living in an outstanding historic district. Being able to efficiently declutter allows me to enjoy doing that even more.

Can't wait until June? Shop for vintage textile treasures at my Quality Junk shop on Etsy! This is where textile items that are too fragile or difficult to sell at my yard sale come to find new homes. I named this shop after my own sale at the Woodruff Place Flea Market. Of course, there will be plenty of other textile items for sale on my porch in June. I'll see you there.