January Favorites

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Happy 2021! It’s hard to believe another year is upon us. Here are some things I am loving this month, including some favorites for winter beauty and skin care, fashion and free wellness resources.

Rose Hip Oil

The older I get, the faster my skin dries out in the winter. To help it feel more hydrated and dewy, I love Rose Hip Oil. I am currently using Pearlessence Rose Hip Oil with Vitamin C. I apply it in the morning and evenings, under my regular moisturizer.

Yoga With Adrienne

To combat long hours sitting at my desk, I like to break up the day with some gentle yoga, because I can do it right at home, no fancy equipment needed and it’s free! One of my favorites is Yoga with Adrienne on Youtube, which offers hundreds of different yoga videos, from beginner to advanced. I especially like this 16 minute Yoga for Flexibility video, to do after a long day of computer work.

ThredUp

One of the things I’ve missed most during the Pandemic is thrift shopping. I love finding a good deal! ThredUp takes thrift shopping and consignment shopping to a whole new level. I have used this online consignment and thrift store for the past year and saved hundreds of dollars. Currently about 80% of my regular wardrobe is from ThredUp. Shopping secondhand online can be a bit overwhelming, so I wrote a whole post about how I find great deals on ThredUp.

One of my recent orders from ThredUp

My New Humidifier

My house is bone dry in the winter, thanks to a woodstove and forced hot air heating, so adding in extra moisture is a must. I’ve had the same humidifier for years, and when it died unexpectedly a few days ago, I picked up this model from Vicks. My favorite part is that unlike my old humidifier, this one provides consistent and long lasting moisture - as in, the whole night - no refills needed!

How I Shop on ThredUp - and find great deals!

One of my favorite places to shop online is the second hand fashion site, ThredUp.  At first I was nervous about buying second hand clothes online, but after my first order I was hooked. The quality of the items and low prices were better than anything I could find locally. 

I live in a rural area and the clothes in our local thrift stores and consignment shops don’t offer a lot of variety, sizes or brands. There’s a lot of Wal-Mart and Old Navy clothing available and that’s about it.  Meanwhile, ThredUp offers ALL.THE.BRANDS. 

Just like in-person thrift shopping, online consignment shopping requires some strategy and skill to find the best deals. Here is how I use ThredUp to refresh my wardrobe each season. 

Several Thred-Up Items I bought over the past few months.

Start With a List 

While sometimes it’s fun to poke around and window shop online, I find this loosey-goosey approach leads to impulse buys of items I don’t really need or won’t actually wear.  So when I decide it’s time for a wardrobe refresh, I make a list of items that I need or want. While I may end up buying things not on the list, just like in a brick and mortar store, going in with some sort of plan generally keeps me focused and saves me money and time. 

Use the ThredUp Filters

 Thred Up has thousands of items. Literally, thousands. You could spend days sifting through all the available clothes and accessories. As someone who does not want to spend all day on anything, let alone shopping, I use the filters Thred Up provides to drill down to the items that I would be most interested in.  The filters I regularly include include:  

Size 

Depending on the brand of clothing, sizes can differ widely.  Generally more higher end items run much smaller than larger brands like Old Navy or Sonoma. So I select my main size, US XLarge and will go a size down and size up. This means my filter includes items that are listed as large, XLarge, and XXL/1x.  This ensures I get a good variety of choices for any items. 

A note about sizing up: For the longest time I avoided ever sizing up a dress size. As part of lifelong conditioning by the Western Toxic Diet Culture, I believed if I bought a size bigger than I thought I should be, I was conceding defeat and losing the battle to shrink my body.  For years I squeezed into medium dress sizes, telling myself that they would fit better when I just lost that last 5,10, 15 pounds. As a mid-sized woman, not only was I hella uncomfortable, it reinforced the idea that my body was something to be berated and hated and that if I wasn’t actively trying to shrink it or reshape it, I was lazy and undisciplined.  When I finally decided to jump off the diet wagon once and for all, I began buying clothes that actually fit me and were comfortable. Sometimes that is a size large, or, depending on the brand, an XLarge or even a 1x.  The sizes are simply guidelines for my body. They are not measurements of my worth as a person. 

Condition ( aka Wear & Tear) 

Thred Up gives you four conditions - Like New With Tags, Excellent, Good and Fair. I usually select Like New and Excellent. Most often I find that the prices on Good and Fair items are too high, for purchasing something that looks and feels second hand.  My exception to this rule is anything made of leather, because worn leather often looks better than new, and jeans, especially levi’s. Because broken-in jeans are the best, imo. 

Brand

I choose brands that I know will fit me well.  Many higher end brands, which I wouldn’t buy anyway, run really small. For example, an extra large from Tory Burch brand has a 34 inch chest! Brands I regularly buy on Thred Up include Ann Taylor Loft, Gap, Old Navy, Daisy Fuentes, Land’s End, LL Bean, Levi’s, and Apartment 9.   I feel like these brands fit most average sized women. 

Price

Just because ThredUp is a second hand clothing site doesn’t mean everything on it is cheap. It carries a wide range of high end fashion items that run into the hundreds of dollars. And while it may delight many shoppers to find such good deals on brands like xx or xx, my tastes run a bit more beer and burgers. I usually set the filter for under $50 for outwear, shoes and jeans and under $25 for everything else. This lower price point still gives me more than enough options to choose from! 

Color

I love this feature because it allows me to weed out any items that are in the wrong color. Generally, I wear the same palette of colors through most of the year.  This includes pink, coral (so I select orange in the ThredUp filter) yellow, green, black, white and blue.  I avoid purple, because it is not a color that I usually like to wear. Same with brown and gray, as they tend to wash me out. And while I like the color red, unless I am shopping for a holiday outfit, I tend to skip it. You can also filter by pattern or solid. 

Fabric

I usually filter fabric depending on the type of item I am looking for. For example, for summer dresses I like a lighter, breathable fabric like cotton versus wool or polyester. For worktops I prefer Rayon because they don’t wrinkle. 

So there you have it. A complete beginner’s guide to shopping on ThredUp! If you’d like some fashion inspiration to help you get started, especially if you are mid-sized or plus-sized, be sure to check out my fashion boards on Pinterest.

Fall Cleaning Guide for Home & Spirit: Free Room Cleaning Worksheet

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Hello Friends,

I’ve been working on the Mabon House Fall Cleaning Guide for Home & Spirit.  I have to say, it is a fun project! And it’s inspired this week’s free printable  - a room energy assessment worksheet - which is like, the most horrible name I could have come up with...but again...writer’s block :) Lemme know if you have a better name. 

I created this worksheet based on an example from Arin Murphy-Hiscock’s book The Way of the Hedge Witch.  If you have never read any of Arin’s books, I highly recommend! She has a wonderful mix of practical and magical resources for creating a lovely home.

Basically this is how I used the worksheet to refresh the energy in my living room:

Do a Quick Declutter

I did a quick pick up of the room (i.e. I finally moved the pile of laundry off the living room sofa) and took care of anything that didn’t belong in there, including books and notebooks on the coffee table, aforementioned laundry, empty tea mugs (#dontjudgeme) shoes and some heavy blankets that we only use in the colder months.  Next I removed most the rooms decorations and knick knacks, which tend to accumulate over time. I stored these on my dining room table, until I was ready to decide what would go back in the room and what would be stored or donated.  

Assess How the Room Feels

Once the room was mostly picked up, I closed my eyes and just let myself feel the energy of the space. Using the worksheet I jotted down how it felt, which was cluttered and stagnant. Even with the windows wide open and the sun shining in, it just felt tired.

Think About How You Want the Space to Feel

Next I wrote down how I wanted the space to feel. Because it is the living room and is used by everyone in our family most evenings, I wanted it to feel comfortable and inviting, but also be spacious and have more energy to it. I wanted to feel good when I was relaxing in the space, not like I was just waiting to go to bed.

Clean the Surfaces

Next I made of quick to-do list which included:

• Vacuuming and dusting - this is self explanatory, yes?

• Rearragning the furniture - I moved the sofa to the opposite wall and took out a bookcase from one corner and that seemed to do the trick. Suddenly the room felt way more spacious, without feeling sparse.

• Adding back in decorations - Once the furniture arrangement suited me, I added back in some of the decorations, still keeping it on the light side. 

Adding in Your Own Magickal Elements

As I’ve mentioned before I don’t do much in the way of spells or other rituals. I just kind of go by my feelings. When a space feels good, I stop. You can certainly go beyond basic cleaning and rearranging with activities like smudging your space or casting a protective spell or two. Again, The Way of the Hedge Witch is a great place to start, if you looking for some guidance and inspiration.

How do you break up old energy in your home? Share with me on Instagram @mabon_house!