An Ordinary Girl's World: Fashion, Love, Life

• Join online/offline community projects like ScriptFrenzy, NaNoWriMo, Art Everyday Month, 365 day challenge, etc. These are great ways to get involved in the ever growing online creative community as well as a wonderful way to kick yourself out of a rut and to create with abandon for a while.
• Have a Creative Genius Day/Night: This is a wonderful idea I got from Jenny's post on her blog Life After College. It involves setting out blocking out some specific time in your schedule to create a day or night just devoted to creating and engaging your imagination. Think of it as a really mini artistic retreat.
• Get out and try random stuff. There are so many different forms of art out there, so many different experiences just waiting to happen. Just get up and try stuff until you find something that you find interesting. Who knows, you may be pleasantly surprised at what you may find.
• Engage in Artist Dates or an Artistic Retreat: Engage your creativity by feeding the desire to have new experiences inside you. If you don't have much take some time to see that new movie you've been dying to see, or if you happen to have a free week coming up (spring break anyone) why not commit yourself to exploring different inspiration sources through an artistic retreat.
• Read and work through books like The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and Art and Soul by Pam Grout. They are wonderful for overcoming the initial feelings of apprehension.
• Creating a regular time to create and partake in artistic exercises weekly , if not daily: Make your artistic pursuits an official part of your day by giving them a specific time slot in your day. I know it may sound obvious but you would be surprised at how much of a difference it will make to your level of artistic output just by giving them an actual time slot instead of waiting until you are free and feeling inspired.

When you hear a song for the first time a video you have instantaneously created begins to play in your head.

You sometimes check up lyrics and analyze them for plot possibilities and video potential

You predict how well a song will do on the charts and at award shows.

You are always very interested in new musical talent.

You try to learn as much as you can about every aspect of music, constantly.

If you are in school you can probably be found taking widely different music and/ or dances classes at the same time.

When your friends invite you to karaoke you give them performance advice and sometimes critique their vocal quality.

You find audio engineering, music theory and even music history oddly fascinating.

You are always clued in with the latest innovations in technology and programming.

You manage crises well.

Business is not your foe.

You know what’s happening in the music industry as its happening in the industry.

After seeing a band perform for the first time you already know their image, style and genre.

Beats are constantly on the end of your finger tips.

You think life should have a soundtrack and may have created a few playlists for important events , describing them.

You know the names of all the top producers in the music industry.

When you hear about a music video for the first time you ask for the label/ producer not the artist

You love bringing music to life.

You critique videos that you see on TV (or youtube) and sometimes envision how you could have done it better.

You appreciate all the different genres of music and sometimes draw inspiration from two widely different genres, to create the next big thing.

You know that songwriting and producing through social networking are two major ways to enter the industry.

You try to create the perfect environment and medium to transfer the emotional quality of the music from the artist to the audience.

You are always on the lookout for unexpectedly amazing collaborations between artists in the music industry.

You are aware that music production is really tasking, and sometimes not as glamorous as it’s made out to be but you love it anyway.

Photos from: We Heart it.com

Love you all and Stay inspired,

P.S. So let me know what you think. What qualities/characteristics do you think a music producer should have? Are there any music producers out there? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.

• High Priority Items: These are things that you need to have urgently either for a particular event or in order to accomplish a set goal . These vary widely with time and need to be bought first when shopping. They include: a dress for an elegant ball or dinner a couple of nights before the event, supplies for a major project, etc.
  



• Basic Items: These are items that you need for everyday life but that you may not need right away. In your wardrobe : they are closet essentials, outside of your wardrobe they include certain household appliances such as vacuum cleaners and fridges. Basics are usually upgraded to high priority items if they are not bought in a while.

• Fantasy Items: These are the least attainable items that you usually don't need but really really want anyway. They can be anything from that gorgeous Elie Saab wedding dress I aspire to, or a million dollar mansion complete with orchard, Olympic-sized swimming pool and horse stables stocked with several thoroughbred horses. These are things that you usually have to work towards to and save up for in order to attain them one day.
  



• Splurge Items: These are items that you also really want but they are slightly (or not so slightly) out of your price range. You may or may not need them and the level of desire at that moment and the cost-per-wear determine whether or not you will buy them. They include: Designer shoes on sale, overpriced but extremely gorgeous $40 hairpieces, a compact digital camera, etc.

Remember that what falls into one category for a certain person may fall into a completely opposite category for another, because people are different and therefore have different wants, needs and means. Update your list regularly and make sure it reflects you all the time, and it should help you shop better. I discovered this list in a book I believe was called The Pink Book when I was about 11 years old and wrote it down in my diary knowing that it would be useful to me and it was the inspiration for this whole series. This is the last post in the budget shopping series and I hope that its helped you in your journey to lead a more budget friendly life.

Love you all and Stay inspired,

P.S. So let me know what you think. Do you use a shopping list? If so, how often? What kind of stuff would be on your ultimate shopping list? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.

1. Set up a visible monthly budget: It can be on paper or on Excel, either way is fine as long as you actually have it written somewhere. The reason I love Excel is because you can update the figures easier, but having a little notebook where you record your income and expenses as well as your monthly plan is fine too. When creating your monthly plan, look at your total income (or the amount of money you have or will soon have for the month) and list all of the categories of expenses you will have to take care of over the course of the month e.g. rent, food, clothes (!) , school supplies, transportation, emergency, miscellaneous, etc. Allocate a certain amount of money to each category and try to stick to your budget as much as possible. As time progresses you'll be able to predict how much money you spend better.
   
2. Monitor your income and expenses: Whenever you spend money, reflect that in the expense column of your budget according to its category. Do the same whenever you receive money. You don't even have to say what exactly you spent the money on, that's why we're using categories. By doing this you get a better idea of where all your money goes to every month and can therefore know where you need to cut back, if necessary. Evaluating and monitoring your budget also lets you know what options you have on how to use your money i.e. more shoes or more trips to the movies.


3. Cost-per-wear: As I've mentioned before one of the major keys to budget shopping is calculating the cost-per-wear. All you really have to do is guesstimate how many times you will wear an item (e.g. 1 a week for a year= 52 times) and divide it by its price. The problem with this is that people sometimes overestimate the durabilitiy/quality of an item, which causes them to get a wrong cost-per-wear. A couple tips to help you better determine high quality items are:

-Check the seams of the clothes: If threads pull apart relatively easily or if buttons are hanging loose, it probably wasn't well sewn.

-Check the quality of the fabric: some fabrics just look cheap, others really are. Being able to tell the difference between the two is something you can only learn with experience.

- Weigh the trend factor: Will you even want to be seen wearing the item in a couple of months? If not, will it be good enough to resell or use for something else?

If you want more help on setting up a budget or organising your finances, check out Suze Orman, particularly her advice on Oprah.

(Photo from: toolmantim )

Love you all and Stay inspired,

P.S. So let me know what you think. Do you have a budget plan? Does it work for you? How do you determine quality of an item? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.

• Always ask yourself how much of the trend factor does the item have- truth is, if its on sale the trend really is on it's way out anyway. However, if it is currently a trend, is on sale, but suits you and flows with your personal style buy it anyway because its a deal.




• Remember the cost-per-wear (or use): If it's on sale because its already defunct, really low quality or won't last as long as you'd like please pass it over. Because, even if it cost $1 and you only wore it once, instead of buying the $7 sister, you would have worn at least 14 times, it still wasn't worth the $1 you paid for it.(Do the math)




• Don't leave the list at home: It'll stop you from buying things you just don't need, in the heat of the moment.
  



• This is perfect time to buy your classics and basics, investment pieces will have an even greater cost-per-wear than they have usually.




• Don't rush to the cashier: Please try it on when possible, and if you can't try to visualise yourself wearing it. How do you look? Does it flow with the rest of your wardrobe? If not, its a no.

Thrift stores, vintage shops and other discount stores:

• When shopping online look for sellers with a good reputation and a good return policy.




• Look for quality material first before anything else: if the material is still good it can be fitted to your size or used in a DIY project.




• Be resilient: It took me a couple of days of rummaging through several flea markets and vintage shops to find the brooch of my dreams.




• Classics (not really basics though) and unusual accessories that reflect your style are things you should keep an eye out for when shopping in these stores.
  

Shopping your closet:
For a lot of people the idea of 'shopping your closet' became real when the recession hit. 'Shopping your closet' is when you arrange your closet in such a way that it becomes very clear to know what you have and what is available to you, so that coming up with an outfit becomes a whole lot easier. Also, when your wardrobe mimics the clarity of your favorite store, it is easier to identify the gaps in it, which will enable you to know what to buy the next time you shop.

• Hangs ties, scarves and belts so you can easily get to and see them.




• Hang long necklaces and earrings on jewelry trees if you can.




• You can pin smaller earrings on a board or something similar.




• Keep rings in a little partitioned drawer if you can.




• Hang as many clothes as you can.




• Get rid of any and everything you haven't worn in at least a year.




• Keep similar items together.



• Store away things you will not use for awhile e.g. winter clothes in summer.
  
  

On the next part of this series I will talk about making the ultimate shopping list, budgetting and the financial nitty-gritty in budget shopping. If you liked this post and what to follow the series, follow this blog either by email or using one of the RSS feed links in the sidebars.

Love you all and Stay inspired,