One of my first memories as to why I like fashion, was of me as a kid walking around my hometown of Torino in Italy during a winter afternoon and noticing an older lady that was probably in her sixties with a beautiful long winter peacoat, pointed flats, and a Louis Vuitton bag. What I didn’t know then was that I thought that having that life was so impossible that I kept walking and told myself that life just didn’t exist for me.

Little did I know that as a kid I had a secret talent and passion that was a gift. I just didn’t think it was something I could tap into and use in life to make a career out of it. 

I believe God gave us all innate gifts that are unique to us. Too many times we shy away from our talents because we don’t understand how to channel and use them.

As a kid I was very artistic. The problem with loving the arts is that I didn’t know anyone who had pursued them and had success at it. I only knew my professors only pursued academics. I spent my childhood with people telling me that what I loved was a great thing, but it would never pay the bills. 

My problem was that I was hanging out around the wrong people. People who didn’t know how to teach others how to pursue their passion and be successful. For example I believe the majority of musicians, me included being one as a kid, are taught in school to either become broke school teachers, or broke orchestra players. And that maybe 1 or 2 of them can have a shot at becoming famous. As if there wasn’t any other option in between. There are many fulfilling careers that don’t revolve around become famous that are just in between and are still very fulfilling.

Also, almost any type of career has its stigmas and is frowned upon for something. 

The trick is that it is up to us as individuals to figure out what we love, and find the best way to break into that industry, and not wait for outward validation to do what we like.

I have learned lately that if I love something bad enough, doubtful voices can only weigh me down if I am not convinced of what I am doing. Nothing can destroy my foundation if I love what I do and I am at peace with where I am at. 

If I am unsure, have some doubt, or still question whether I love what I do, people criticizing my choice will only hurt me because they are bringing back to the surface doubts that were already boiling just under the surface. If they are gone, their voice will enter from one ear and go out the other. 

For a long time I wanted to pursue my motherhood lifestyle blog. The one thing that kept me from pursuing it full time were my own doubting voices. I was afraid people would view me as shallow, or make fun of me for liking clothes. What if people thought I just cared about my appearance and clothes? I had so many concerns in my head as to what people might view me as. Most of those came from my own stigmas and negative views about this industry. Something which held me back a lot.

I have also learned over the years that the right combination of passion and talent is what one needs to build what they love. For example, the reason why I chose to pursue a mom lifestyle blog is because I have really enjoyed being a stay at home mom. I have made a game out of it and called my self and traditional old fashioned housewife. I have taken pride in what I was doing and was often asked how I was able to do what I did. I wanted to share with others my systems and routines, and that’s where I had the desire to start this blog. 

There are many unique new ways to pursue ones passion nowadays that with the right amount of wits and persistence, many barriers that used to make things  impossible, can now be broken. 

Something else I have noticed, is that  many people try and compete with others within their industry. They become obsessed with their competitors and try so hard to copy every one of their moves, never satisfied that they can’t quite seem to catch up. But here is the problem. What they don’t understand is that it’s not a competition. When you challenge someone who is passionate with what they do, you will never stop them. Because the love for what they do is what drives them to wake up everyday and show up. 

There are many lifestyle blogs for moms, but if I get caught up on studying my competition, I will only copy what others are doing and not focus on sharing what I know.

Too many times I notice people focus on an outward result instead of being their own best version,  and pursuing their own individual passion. 

I’ll share an example. My husband is a Real Estate Broker. I also have had my license active and have worked behind the scenes with him for many years while the children were little so that I could help him out and understand what he was doing while being a stay at home mom. We loved what we did so much, that we honestly never questioned whether David my husband should be in a different industry. 

I have watched many people ask my husband who absolutely loves Real Estate how he has the life that he has. Followed by them asking what he does and how to do it themselves.

 I often remind my husband to remind everyone to ask themselves this one thing. 

Are they truly passionate about real-estate? Or do they just want a lifestyle? Because the lifestyle is only the byproduct of a well lived and pursued career. 

Do they see themselves going to house after house. Do they love it so much that they will talk about it while on vacation and research articles late at night?

 So much as to go visit vacant homes just for fun on evenings, and study every grid in the whole county during their spare time. Do they want to naturally learn every single nick and cram about a transaction?

Do they love it enough that if they donated their whole proceeds to help someone else, or split half of it with another agent they will still close the transaction and fall asleep happy knowing they did some good and move on to the next thing because they know they are doing it for the love of helping others with the knowledge they have gained?

Do they love it enough that year after year and client after client, every time a new call comes, they can’t wait to go help that person solve not just a transactional problem, but understand why they are making that life decision and knowing they have been entrusted with a person with a very complex important life who will need guidance, a listening ear, and the most knowledgable person on their side to give them the best advice for them, and not just for their own personal Real Estate bottom line as a Realtor?

That is passion. I have loved watching and learning from my husband how loving others and finding purpose each day in within ones career is very much possible and can become a whole thing. Money is often sacrificed in the process and other times is just a byproduct of everything else. The journey was the joy. 

I decided to keep pursuing my blog because  after speeding over a decade in homes, I keep going back to my childhood dreams. When I first got married to David, I remember he gave me a budget of 200$ dollars and said: “ Honey I know you love clothes, go get something nice form the mall.” We went together and found some cute things. But also felt extremely underwhelmed by the meager non fashionable stores that were available to us in our small college town. I came from
Italy, the capital world of fashion. I knew I couldn’t find here what they had there.

We were walking around, when David said to me, “Don’t worry, some day together we will do a fashion brand.” He already knew me more than I knew myself. He knew I loved clothes and that I wanted to do that. I just didn’t think it was possible at that time in my life. 

I love healthy food, motherhood, an organized home. I love to dress, care, love, teach, and raise my children. I have tamed the inner fashion monster in me so that I am not a shopaholic, and have learned to shop with purpose and pick things that I absolutely love and I want to share all of this with others. 

I have learned this because we grew up with little money and I have been a stay at home mom my whole marriage. But compromising style was never an option for me so now I want to share what I do on my journey. 

“FIND YOUR WHY TO HAVE THE COURAGE TO  PURSUE WHAT YOU LOVE”`

Next week I am going to share more about why it took me so long to start pursuing my passion and what life curve balls made it seem impossible for over a decade.

To keep reading and find out more about future posts don’t forget to subscribe at the bottom of my page.

The post WHY YOU SHOULD  PURSUE YOUR PASSION appeared first on Life At Casa.

Welcome to my Motherhood lifestyle blog. I wanted to share a quick story as to how I have been working on curating the perfect wardrobe essentials where I love everything in it. 

Five years ago I had my 4th baby and I also turned 30 just 6 days after. It was during that time that I knew I wanted to get back in shape, but more importantly I knew that I needed a new closet. 

This time I was in my adult shape and one that I knew I was going to keep and maintain. But more importantly I also knew that now that I was officially ready to consider myself an adult, I wanted to dress better. 

I knew I had a few items in my closet that I loved and reached for all the time. And then I also had many items I really disliked but kept out of pity. That’s when its occurred me, what if I could slowly work on creating a closet where everything in it was something I loved. 

I wanted a more elegant closet. I was ready to finally embrace fur, leather, sequins, glitter, pinks, and heels. 

My ideal closet is one that is a bit minimalistic but not quite a capsule closet because that is not enough clothes for me haha. A MINIMALIST ELEGANT WARDROBE.

I also knew I still wanted to be warm during winter, comfortable and light during summer, and own clothes that I could easily wash and maintain. Not to mention I wanted to keep a little bit of young and hip and vibrancy with my clothes. 

I went onto a journey to find the perfect wardrobe essentials. 

 I am from Italy and I go there once a year where I spend weeks walking around different cities and studying all the latest trends, colors of the year, how to put things together. Italians love to be super chic but also comfortable.

Because they walk a lot their goal is to be warm, cozy, elegant, but also still very comfortable. They also live in smaller homes so they need to be able to fit in their smaller closets their clothes. But Italians like to own the best of the best.

When selecting clothes they look at the materials, where they are made, and the quality of the zippers, buttons, stitching, and craftsmanships. 

Even when starting my own closet evolution I knew that the Italian and the mom in me still needed these elements in my closet. 

So I went on a slow journey to master what pieces I wanted to own and which styles would accomplish every check box on my impossible fashion list. Slowly I started building a really fun closet and no longer needing other’s peoples advice and opinions to select what I knew was good. But not only for my self, but also for others.

I read books on fashion. Books on how to dress, how to color match, skin tone matching to our clothes, the history of clothes and sustainability. Clothing construction. I also got my professional makeup artist license, floral design license. They may seem random but they are all arts that revolve so much around the world of fashion and beauty. 

 I know often am stopped at stores by other women who hear me talking and start asking me fashion opinions. So I decided to transfer my knowledge and my favorite picks on to this digital platform. To start today here is a super fun easy closet few staples and top favorite picks that I selected for you. 

An elegant street sneaker in nude colors. Perfect for winter and also very versatile since it’s a neutral color that will match so many outfits. A winter wide leg would pant, and the perfect lipstick meant to match every skin tone, plus a few more. Here are my top picks for today: 

When purchasing from one of my links it doesn’t change pricing or anything, but by purchasing from one of my lists I make a super small kick back which in return compensates me for the time I put into putting these items together.

I would love for you to help me by using one of these links if you decide to purchase any of these.

Also coming next week,  I will talk more about finding my why. After listening to many podcasts, praying, reading books, how I have decided to write my lifestyle blog and how others can also apply that for their own journey and personal decisions. 

The post How to create the perfect wardrobe  appeared first on Life At Casa.

I describe depression as feeling like a person that wants to walk, and has done it their whole life and now can only crawl to their destination. It is extremely debilitating mentally. Being depressed is like watching a person on a wheel chair, or someone that has gone through a major tragedy, and to think, I understand I can feel your pain even though I don’t have the trial that you have that may make you feel that way every day of your life. It’s like waking up one day and feeling like you are having to bear a load and carry a punishment for a crime you never committed.

I am also a bit of a different person when it comes to the average depressed person. That’s why I like others describing it, because I tend to become more on the OCD side whenever I am depressed.

I realized over the years that whenever I have been depressed I would actually get out of bed and make sure my house was spotless and take care of the basic necessities for our household, because it would be the one thing I had and the only thing that would make me feel that I still had some sort of control in my life.

For me having a clean house would at least allow me to know that I had order in my home and that when I would feel better, at I wouldn’t have to be left picking up the pieces and feeling like I was too overwhelmed with the amount of cleaning or house work I would have to do now to get back on our tracks.

Aside from that there were also my kids. For me it would be taking care of my home, and taking care of our kids. Making sure they were dressed, making sure they were fed, making sure they got adequate sleep, making sure they were loved, making sure they were read to, making sure they had some sort of fun.

I guess it all kind of worked with baby steps. After that there would be room for lots of other things if my mental health permitted it. But for when things were really hard, starting the day knowing that I at least my environment was clean, helped me to cope and get up, and know that I was still in control, and that when I would be ready to walk again, at least the giant piles of things wouldn’t be covering me all over the house.

The post Things to do when depressed, to be ready to go once you feel better appeared first on Life At Casa.