As always, I’ve had a lot of synchronicities in my life lately. Mostly, it’s revolved around my shopping choices, money, friends, new acquaintances and Etsy. I’ve also been having a lot of bad dreams that have led to further examination. Yesterday, I wrote about Mindful Consumerism. I will be committing to a project in late August or early September which will allow me to choose only six primary pieces of clothing for the month. I can wear those six pieces exclusively but can “change my outfits up” by accessorizing in any way I choose.
The SYNCHRONICITIES: 1 – Having less money and using the credit card more for regular living expenses such as groceries and gas. Hate this! All will be paid off by the end of August, but living beyond our means makes me uncomfortable. Dreams ensued. 2 – I’ve been thinking of opening an Etsy shop, plus a friend of mine, Lauren (aka Salt of Salt Says . . .) just announced her opening for love/salt yesterday. I bought some beautiful Om/Namaste earrings from her! 3 – Another friend, Yancy, who happens to run a lovely Etsy shop called 5Seed is also planning upcoming posts surrounding apparel and mindful consumerism on her blog. 4 – A new acquaintance, Lela of NaturallyLela, left a comment on my blog a few days ago. She has an Etsy shop and is sending me an organic mat spray to try out. 5 – Both Yancy and Lela have been sweet enough to offer a product each in my first ever upcoming *GIVEAWAY* ! More to come on this . . . Stay Tuned!
Why am I telling you all this? I had an idea this morning that stirred me. I couldn’t go back to sleep. The thoughts kept flowing, which lead to . . .
(Notice it’s an eco-friendly, energy saving lightbulb idea)
The acronym thriftEEE stands for the Thrift Store & Everything Etsy Experiment. It is a loose project that anyone can join. Here’s how . . .
- Select the number of months in which you’d like to commit
- Only buy apparel, accessories, jewelry (and anything else you can think of . . . stationary, beauty products, etc.) from thrift stores, yard sales, antique stores and Etsy (Etsy is an online marketplace for buying and selling all things handmade and vintage)
- Join/Like/Follow the thriftEEE page on Facebook
- Follow thriftEEE on Twitter
- Examine and blog about your shopping choices through the experiment and share your links on the thriftEEE Facebook page and on Twitter
- Copy and paste the thriftEEE logo (above) in a blog post or on your side bar, linking back to this post
- Add comments here and on those sites with ideas for expanding the experiment!
Green your life. Reduce – Reuse – Recycle. Support Etsy friends. Give one-of-a-kind gifts by shopping this way. Examine your shopping choices. Learn. Grow. Explore.
I am publicly committing to this project for three months beginning today! Who is with me? I cannot wait to connect and share experiences with all of you and possibly make new friends along the way!
Peace Love & Light . . .
Wow… I’m almost tempted Heather!!
And, I LOVE Salt’s Etsy store. I was looking and looking and looking at her stuff yesterday when she announced the opening.
I’ve had some awesome luck with Etsy. I love having had jumped on that bandwagon. Keep me posted!!
And, can I just tell you… I MISS YOU!
Now that the wedding and all wedding related activities are FINALLY done and over with, it’s back to blog stalking for me.
xoxoxoxo
Shelli! OMGoodness, how are you? You have to do it . . . and reply to this with a link to YOUR Etsy!!!!
heck, sign me up for a month. i think i kind of rock this lifestyle as is, but it’ll be a good thing to promote
I’ll try this for a month, Heather! I rarely buy new clothes and make most of my jewelry anyway. It will be interesting to find out new ways to wash my hair….
I love this idea! I will do this for one month (maybe more..let’s see how one month goes)! This is going to be really hard because I could never get into buying used clothing…but this will force me too!
Yay Emma, Lauren and Brittany! Be sure to connect on Facebook and Twitter and let us know how you’re doing.
And Lauren, you can still buy regular shampoo, unless you wanna try other stuffs. Can’t wait to hear about your adventures!
Thanks for the support!
Amazing idea Heather!! Good luck with it!
I don’t know if you already knew this, but I work at a consignment shop and for the past two years have rarely purchased from anywhere else. It’s amazing because not only have I paid off my Macy’s, Target, etc. cards, I can get items that are all brand new for pennies on the dollar.
So, I’m in:)
Oh honey, what a great idea.
I am already a failure at it, and this is why:
Even though I wear my luluniform every day, and that comprises only a few garments, six? For the whole month? Would kill me. Also, the laundry situation. I live alone so it takes me a while to build up enough dirty laundry to justify a run through the machine.
And beauty products? From yard sales? Must go take nap. And fondle recently purchased l’occitane items. Yes. I know what manner of beast I am.
A princess beast. Maybe I could do thrifteee lite. For princesses.
this sounds like an awesome experiment. No’s not a great time (i.e. new computer purchase coming up!) but I would love to try this something!
I’ve added you to my blogroll! Can’t wait to follow the experiment!
Hi Callah!
Thanks for visiting. Feel free to join at any time that feels right for you. And remember, its an experiment, not a challenge. It’s more about examining our choices and being mindful than a strict set of rules. Hope to continue to connect. I added you to my yoga blogroll too!
H.
[...] some inspiration? Check out my friend Heather’s ThriftEEE project. It encourages people to only buy new items from thrift shops, garage sales, etc., or from small [...]