Style Resolutions Revisited: Rachel from Heart of Light

I am finishing off Style Resolutions Revisited for this week with the very talented Rachel of Heart of Light. Here's how she did:

Re-visiting my resolutions from last year was a fun surprise. I certainly didn't accomplish everything I set out to do, but I did manage to get started.

Interior design: I want to continue to reorganize and prioritize. This involves putting some open shelving in my kitchen area to better display some of my flea market treasures and hopefully finding a way to make my sewing area more functional.

Update: This is still a work in progress. We have some shelves designed and cut but they've been waiting to get painted and installed for the last few months. Whoops. I did make a lot of progress on the re-organization front and I've been fairly ruthless about giving things away if I'm not using them.

Gifts/Wrapping: I am trying to move away from wrapping paper, as much as I adore the patterns. This year I used recycled brown paper tied with bright string, and by next year I'm hoping to have some sweet reusable cloth bags sewn up in various sizes and festive colors.

Update: I accomplished this! I sewed up lots of little felt gift bags that were a huge hit. Some of them were given back to me, and some were kept by the recipients (with promises to use them next year!).


Shopping/Fashion: I need to do a major overhaul on my wardrobe and clean out things I'll never wear again, revamp old pieces that need some work (my big goal this year), and invest sparingly in quality pieces. This resolution might break down because I have a hard time resisting cute, cheap tops and dresses.

Update: Oh, dear. I didn't get any further along with this goal last year. I was simply too busy to do much shopping at all, so I only bought a couple of little dresses to get me through the summer. I did do a major clean out and closet re-organization, so when I have time for shopping again, I'll be ready to invest carefully.

I'm going to try to look at this year as a continuation of last year. Starting a business out of our apartment has added additional interior challenges that I'll need to deal with - having a neatly organized, easily accessible workspace is key and we live in a small apartment. I'm constantly working to find ways to make my space more functional. I loved my gift wrapping so much that I'm hoping to make some in less Christmas-y colors that I can use year round. And I'm happy with the low priority shopping took last year, so I'll be fine if that continues into the new year.

Thanks, Rachel for the update! I love the gift bags. Click here to see her original interview from last year. If you haven't been before, visit Heart of Light for lots more domestic inspiration, and her lovely (and very popular) Etsy shop. I hope you have a great weekend. Next week I'm back with more interviews in this series - I hope you are enjoying them. There also will be a chance for you to share your own.