What you may not know about me is I was born in a tiny town in Australia with one traffic light.
Yep, I lived in a caravan (Americans call it a trailer) and yep, we moved around a lot. It was just me, my baby sister, and my fierce single mum (before she married my Sunday school teacher… but that is a story for another day!) and we were so happy—the three musketeers!
Growing up, I knew we didn’t have much. There were no new clothes (except if there was a wedding we had to attend), we didn’t do any extracurricular activities at school (too expensive), and I was never able to attend any school trips or excursions (just not a priority in our little family).
But my mum always made everything feel special.
We didn’t have a lot of furniture so she would wrap old tea chests in tablecloths and tell us it was a ‘coffee table.’ She would pick flowers from the public spaces and put them in a glass on the ‘coffee table’ so we could enjoy fresh flowers. She would cover our school books with brown paper and stickers so we’d feel special.
She showed me the importance of beauty in our environment and she still knows how to recycle anything and everything and make it into a work of art. I have always admired that about her.
Mum demonstrated that luxury is a mindset. We didn’t have money to buy expensive things for ourselves, but we did have a creative spirit to create special experiences for yourself and others.
That’s part of my definition of luxury. This may go against the picture of opulence that luxury may evoke when you imagine what it looks like.
But I’m here to say that luxury is not always about things—it is about time—taking the time to give back to yourself.
I am really interested in how the culture of luxury is woven into the world of “the career women.” What do they seek out or steer clear of when it comes to luxury? How does an investment in luxury impact a woman’s self-confidence? How do they choose to take the time to give back to themselves or create luxury experiences for others?
With all these questions in mind, I decided to do something about it and partnered with audience segmentation experts Audience Audit to develop a custom, quantitative study of women who purchase luxury goods and services to understand how they think about this topic, and their experience in defining what luxury looks like to them. The results of the study will be shared this summer, and I can’t wait to tell you more.
A few ideas for incorporating everyday luxury in your life.
Maybe you’d like a little extra luxury in your day (or week) or you’d like to treat someone you care about who’s feeling crazy tired right now as they’re leading through change (read last week’s blog about that here). Here’s a few ideas how to do just that!
- Add fresh flowers to your grocery order and put them on your desk so you see them all day
- Elevate your morning coffee routine with a delish cup of coffee in a pretty mug (my fave is the Tiffany one)
- Turn your shower into a spa with products that you love and take just a few extra minutes each day
- Call a friend and laugh and catch up without the hustle and bustle of your to-do list
- Cancel every unnecessary meeting in your calendar—do it!
- Pop some popcorn and watch your fave movie
- Elevate your everyday house products so they feel even more special – I love these hand wash sets by Nest
- Mediate a little longer on a gorgeous cushion
- Use a fabulous pen, notebook, or accessory for all your written notes
- Choose outfits that make you feel confident like you can conquer the world
- Hire a personal trainer to boost your strength and make you work even harder!
- Pack a face mask to pop on in your hotel room or on the flight (yes I really do wear these on long distance flights) and these eye patches are the best
- Book that vacation —you know you deserve it
