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Monday/100 Things Wrap Up

November 30th, 2009 Kristi Leave a comment Go to comments

006Thanks for all the well wishes and nice comments the past few days.

Outfit:
oatmeal colored tee * Target
Levis
black boots
silver hoops, white gold necklace with diamond
Menu:
Breakfast: small dish pasta fagioli leftovers from last night; cafe au lait
Lunch: banana and peanut butter sandwich
Dinner: quesadilla (no wine on antibiotics)
Finances:
 *$6 on clearance shirt at Target while picking up:
$21 from prescription yesterday

100 Things Wrap Up

63. Aqua cardigan (too light, doesn’t coordinate well with rest of wardrobe)
64. A too tight Banana Republic LBD. I can’t even sell this  because it has a rip in a place that only a seamstress could repair and I’m not going to pay for the repair and then sell it for only a bit more
65.  A broken tripod for my camera
66 -70. Four pasta bowls. I have been using these with chipped edges for months until this weekend when my husband found a piece of the porcelain that had chipped and was in my KID’S BOWL!!! Yikes. I threw them in the trash. Now I need to replace them, since we use them constantly.
71-77. six plastic placements I don’t use
78.  A nylon sports jacket I would never wear but held onto for sentimental reasons
79-80. Old picture frames I will not use again.
81. A tablecloth I never use
82, 83. Two old scarves 
84 -86. Three wine glasses (inspired by The French Corner I will exclusively return to using juice glasses and stemless glasses for my wine. I only started using the stemmed wine glasses when I received them as a gift. I really don’t like them and have broken several.) I will replace them with more stemless ones like the one I have in the photo above.
87-97. Miscellaneous Toys.  My poor kids are cursed with a minimalist mother who declutters for them.
98, 99, 100. three more books

Categories: Frugal Chic, Mangia! Mangia!, Style Tags:
  1. Marsi
    December 1st, 2009 at 09:18 | #1

    I’ve fallen a bit short on my 100 in November; I only got to 65. But it remains a work in progress.

    Hope you all are starting to feel better.

  2. December 1st, 2009 at 09:42 | #2

    Thank you everyone for the prayers and well wishes!!

  3. December 1st, 2009 at 18:26 | #3

    Way to go finishing your 100!

  4. December 1st, 2009 at 21:41 | #4

    Even though oatmeal is a plain color, I think it looks very good on you. You look great too–very fit and trim in your picture! Congrats on finishing your 100. I am looking to get to get rid of at least 35 items of clothing in the upcoming weeks. I hope to have as much success as you!!

  5. December 2nd, 2009 at 02:01 | #5

    Well done on the 100 challenge! I love that top on you too.

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What is it about those Italian women? You know the ones I’m talking about: beautiful, sexy, dressed to the nines just to take the kids to the park. They have a certain something that is indefinable. It is in the way they dress, the way they prepare their meals, the way they spend their leisure time.

It is because they know the importance of la bella figura. Roughly translated from Italian, it means putting you best foot forward in everything you do. It means cutting a beautiful figura. The opposite of la bella figura is la brutta figura, which is what someone might say about the falling down drunken guy at the party or the super tackily dressed woman at church. It means ugly figure.

La bella figura is much more than your appearance. It goes much deeper than that. It is about how you act. It is about how you treat others. It is about how you care for yourself, your home and your family. Living a life in line with la bella figura doesn’t take money. In fact, it is more about how to have class without a lot of money.

Someone who exudes la bella figura will have clean, pressed clothes and be well groomed. They will not be rude or sloppy. Their fingernails will be impeccably groomed. Their hair shiny and clean and their shoes will be polished. They will not have stray threads hanging from their suit hems. They will not be driving a car in need of the car wash.

La bella figura means driving that 15 year old car and meticulously cleaning it and caring for it. It means keeping your belongings in good repair. It means taking time to clean your house and not cluttering it up with meaningless objects.

When you focus all your spare energy, time and money on the things that bring you the most amount of pleasure, then you are truly living a life in line with la bella figura. The best part about it is that you don’t have to be Italian to do so. You just have to think like an Italian.

Italian children are raised to present la bella figura in whatever they do. From the time they are small and are groomed perfectly to attend church or school, they know that appearances count. They count because it is the first thing people judge about you. That first impression does matter. Appearances are also important because when you take the time to look nice, you are showing that you care about yourself. When you care enough to look good, it shows you have good healthy self esteem. Nothing is more attractive than self confidence.

In addition, dressing nice also shows respect for others. If you invite people over for dinner and greet them in flip flops, baggy sweats and a stained shirt, it is really disrespectful to them. The same if you dress sloppy to go to church or even to the market. By dressing nicely and being well groomed, you show respect for everyone in your world.

Having la bella figura means presenting yourself in the best light possible in all your interactions.