The One Resolution I Hope We ALL Take Into 2018!

Welcome back and Happy New Year! I hope you had an amazing holiday and you’re enjoying your first few days of 2018.

For the last two weeks, I took a break from painting furniture, blogging, and social media. It felt a little odd, but it also felt really good. I listened to podcasts – The Tim Ferris Show being my favorite right now because he has fascinating guests – and re-read a few inspiring books – Feel The Fear and Do it Anyway by Susan Jeffers (an oldie but goodie) and Stephen Pressfield’s The War of Art. I spent time with family and friends and even had some lazy-time cozying up on the couch with MMM and Netflix while eating leftovers and ordering in.

In between all this relaxing, I started goal setting for 2018 while reflecting on the past year. Although there were definitely some personal challenges, 2017 was very good to me.

Just to highlight a few of my blessings, my dream of being published in a magazine came true when I was asked to become a Reloved Magazine Contributor.  I learned to ‘toughen-up’ and paint and move furniture in clever ways while dealing with frozen shoulder aka adhesive capsulitis- which still isn’t 100% ‘thawed’, but at least it’s moving and I don’t deal with constant pain. I made progress decorating my home and maybe more importantly, sharing the process with you which was outside my comfort zone. And partly in doing so, this little DIY blog of mine has increased in traffic and subscribers which makes me SO happy because I LOVE welcoming more creative DIYers to the SI family!

To top things off, I had the pleasure of meeting beautiful people while buying, selling and painting furniture, not to mention making new friends online. I even had the opportunity and pleasure to meet a few of you in person! My hopes for 2018 is much more of the same goodness and growth. I’m filled with gratitude.

So, as I thought about what my first post of the year should be, I decided to ease back into blogging by sharing the one resolution I hope we can ALL take into 2018!

TO SALVAGE … AND HOPEFULLY, INSPIRE OTHERS ALONG THE WAY!

A salvaged item can be found curbside, purchased at a thrift store, it can be a family hand me down, or a piece reimagined from shopping your own home.

A salvaged item is anything that is rescued or rediscovered and given a second chance.

I believe inspired creative upcycling is on the rise and becoming trendy, while the stigma of used items is disappearing. And how amazing is that!

If you’re a creative DIYer who gets more excited and inspired at a thrift store or flea market rather than a shopping mall – or have more fun searching for treasures on Craigslist rather than a trendy boutique – or have NO problem rescuing something curb-side when you see potential – you can restyle gorgeous one-of-a-kind items for your home OR build an entire business on repurposing!

The one resolution I hope we can ALL take into 2018 is to keep salvaging and restyling to give unloved items a beautiful new life.

I know I’ll keep doing my best to give YOU the inspiration, confidence, and tools, to easily create one-of-a-kind-salvaged projects for yourself! I’ll start by tackling these chairs for the second time and sharing the makeover with you next week. 🙂

Happy New Year and Happy Salvaging my friends!

Denise xo

HOW WAS YOUR HOLIDAY? DID YOU MAKE ANY NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS? FEEL FREE TO CHIME IN OR SAY ‘HI’… I ALWAYS LOVE HEARING FROM YOU!