A Cultured Pearl

Feeling Fancy

Posted on September 10th, 2015

There’s nothing wrong with calm and routine. My life, particularly during the week, is pretty uneventful. I wake up at the same time, run the same number of miles, drink the same latte for breakfast, work the same hours, eat one of the same three things for lunch… you get the picture. Mostly, I value predictability– I worry about enough irrational things without the stress of actual concerns. But at the same time, this kind of lifestyle runs the risk of dragging you down into the depths of the mundane.

A lot of people combat this kind of mundane with a Treat Yo’self attitude. A Monday afternoon cupcake, margs & tacos with girlfriends on Tuesdays, new shoes on a Thursday lunch break… These things are awesome and do make you feel fancy, but at a fairly substantial cost to your wallet or your waistline or both. Great every once in a while, but probably not wise for the daily pick me up.

Still, don’t settle for boredom! Get your everyday glam on through these seven very important tactics:

Come home to tidy. Let’s get the most boring thing out of the way first. Cleaning is like the anti-fancy, but when you come home from the office and you can feel proud of your apartment, you’ll have your own little slice of heaven in which to unleash your fanciness for the rest of the evening. I often have fresh flowers at home, too. Nothing makes me feel like I have my life together quite like a vase of blooms.

Drink coffee. It’s a little comical that I’m writing this. When I moved to Seattle three months ago, I had had coffee six times in my life. Really. So I moved to Seattle, one of the world’s great coffee cities and got to Starbucks Gold Level in approximately 35 days… and now I drink a latte every single morning. I know I lumped my latte in with the mundane above, but even though it’s part of my routine, it’s one of the loveliest parts of my day, too. It turns out coffee has caffeine!!!! And caffeine is a stimulant that makes me feel fancy.

Don’t wear clothes that make you feel like garbage. More on this another time… but I am sure you will feel the opposite of fancy if you’re wearing that one sweater that’s kind of itchy, or that one pair of pants that gaps weirdly in the back. I’m not saying dress to the nines every day– but don’t set yourself up for failure!

Subscribe to magazines. This is like a mini version of treating yourself. Magazine subscriptions are super cheap; I think last year I even found some online survey to take so I got three for free. I particularly like that I never know exactly which day they’ll show up, so every time you see a new episode of your favorite periodicals in your mailbox will be like a little surprise present.
Stock up on chic supplies. A certain amount of our mundane activities are unavoidable, but if you can invest in little ways to spice them up it will bring you joy throughout the day. I spend a lot of my work day attending meetings and taking copious handwritten notes, which is made distinctly more bearable by a smart notebook and my favorite pens.

Light up. We have candles going every night in our house. Even if we’re just microwaving leftovers, we light these tapers to dress up our table. After dinner, I light one of my favorite scented candles. I swear it calms me down at the end of the day. I’ll probably do a whole post on my favorite candle scents…. but the spoiler is anything from Anthropologie.

Add some bling. Earlier I said you don’t need to dress for a black tie gala every day, and I meant it! …but a little sparkle never hurts. I can’t even begin to count the number of times someone has told me I look nice when I actually didn’t look nice, I was just wearing a nice necklace. I’ve mentioned it before, but my key strategy here is Rocksbox– I have a constant rotation of jewels, and when one set stops making me fancy I sub it out for another! Use promo code helenbff51 for a free month!