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Sunday, October 19, 2014

A Little Shabby Chic Motivation

Sometimes motivation can be found in the strangest places---even at a yard sale.

Last Friday, I stopped by a yard sale my friends were having in the church gym. After wandering around a few minutes, picking things off the tables that I thought I could resell in my Etsy shop, I made one last pass by the clothing tables and stumbled on this:

 As I turned it over in my hands and checked the zipper and seams, my friend said, "that's my old prom dress." 

"What year?" I asked her, sheepishly. 

"1986."

I immediately saw dollar signs, as 80s prom dresses go for good money on Etsy and eBay. After a conversation with my group of friends at the checkout table, I headed for the door saying, "Yeah, if I could fit into this dress, I'd definitely wear it!"

Fast forward to Sunday morning. We had a little time before church so I decided to iron it and get it ready to photograph and list on Etsy. I figured I'd start it out at $135 on eBay and list it for $140 flat on Etsy.

After I got it all arranged on my broken mannequin, Legless Matilda, I went to my closet to get my shoes so I could take everything outside and get some great romantic pictures. As I turned to leave my closet, I spied my favorite burgundy top that I used to love to wear when we lived in Seattle a few years ago. It doesn't fit anymore, but I keep it around because of that tiny spark of hope still in me.

I thought how cute it would be with this dress. I thought about all the great pictures Jamie could get of me spinning around in a field somewhere with the lacy dress and the burgundy velvet, and my long bleach-blonde hair. (I keep thinking that by the time I ever lose some weight, I'll have really, really long hair...)

I decided to measure the waist on the dress, just for fun. I thought, surely it's smaller than I was in high school. I wore an 11/12 in high school and probably could have stood to lose 20 pounds without sacrificing my curves.

I pulled out my measuring tape. 32 inches. My heart started fluttering. Jamie wore a 32 jean size in high school and I remember always wanting to wear his Calvin Kleins but they'd be too small in the thigh and too big in the waist. 

I grabbed my phone and googled, what size is a 32" waist?"

"14."

That's a FOURTEEN, ya'll. A 14 is doable. It's more than doable. That's 12 sizes and I don't know how many pounds away from where I'm at now, but that's 3 sizes up from my kinda chubby high school years. 

So, stay tuned as I do this thing.

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6 comments:

  1. I love this post! Yes!!! YOU CAN DO THIS!

    ReplyDelete
  2. You've got this Sarah!!
    I've been studying THM all day and breaking in my new Polar FT7. I even looked through some of YOUR THM recipes for tasty motivation.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You've totally got this! And I can't wait to see those photos!!

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  4. Oh, honey, the dress is beautiful and you are beautiful. What a wonderful story- you and the dress found each other to help you be healthier. I am not taking as good care of myself as I should- your wonderful post is inspirational to me- thank you! ♥

    ReplyDelete

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Mrs. Sarah Coller

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