“Create your life as your design” — Gems from Tiffany Pratt + A giveaway

Ah, those Tiffany Pratt hugs. If you’ve been lucky enough to get one like Jessica Levasseur here (snapped by Laura Benn of LLB Creative at this month’s BlogPodium conference in Toronto), you know how warm and soul-lifting they are. The rainbow-tressed stylist, designer, HGTV star and author (her first book, This Can Be Beautiful: Simple DIY Projects to Style Your Home and Redesign Your Life, comes out October 11) shared all kinds of inspiration (and love!) as BlogPodium’s keynote speaker, and had me writing furiously to get some of it down to share with you. Well, to share with you and the Twitterverse, since there were 20 copies of Tiffany’s book to win for anyone who tweeted highlights of her talk and you know I was all over that. “Everything I do, I do with love,” Tiffany says. “Whatever I’m thrown into, I just think, ‘make it work’. I like to hustle hard, find solutions, and be totally happy doing it all.” How does she do it? Maybe by following her own advice. 

Some of Tiffany’s gems:

• Your first choice is the best one. Go with your gut. Your gut knows the answer.

• Comparison is noise. Find what feels good to you and don’t look at anything else other than your heart and what you love. We’re all on a creative journey and we need to be able to quiet the noise to get that message.

• You don’t need to say yes just because something comes your way.

• You know who you are, you know what makes you tick, so just do that. And share the love.

• Don’t be afraid to go the extra mile. I’ll hustle all day if I get my way.

• We all have our own secret sauce — you just have to figure out what flavour it is.

• Negativity doesn’t come my way. Because I don’t give it. Watch what you give, ’cause that’s what you’ll get.

If you get into your life and rip things apart and learn how things are created, then you’re the master of your work. Ask questions, get dirty, and don’t be afraid to use your own hands. Put your hands on your life. — Tiffany Pratt

• There is perfection in the imperfection.

• Create your life as your design. Everybody will be like, ‘I want a piece of that pie’.

• It’s not about have the best of everything, it’s about doing the best with what you have.

• Know that everything is everything — how you write a letter, how you dress, how you grocery shop, how you talk to your friends, how you decide you’re going to talk to the man from Bell, what pajamas you wear, how you live your life is everything.

• Don’t let the days go by and think that it’s all going to be given to you tomorrow, because it’s not. Go forth, be creative, be yourself, and the rest will follow.

And there’s more!

GIVEAWAY!

Foxy Originals is sharing these lovely gems with one lucky reader, the multi diamond earrings from Tiffany’s collection for Foxy Originals. (That’s my copy of the book – I did win! – but I’m working on getting one to share with you.) I wrote about Foxy Originals this summer — each piece from the Toronto company is cast from pewter and hand-dipped in genuine gold, silver or copper. Foxy uses eco-friendly materials and processes and has a jewellery recycling program (the first of its kind in North America!) and supports a number of local and national organizations and causes. The collections are affordable, cute and trendy (in addition to Tiffany’s, I love the new Harmony collection they just launched.)

To enter to win, visit Foxy Originals and tell me another item you love in the comments below. This entry is mandatory.

For an additional entry, follow try small things on Facebook and share this post, then tell me you did so and your name on Facebook in the comments below.

You may also tweet the following once per day and leave the url for your tweet in the comments below (one entry per tweet).

Sparkle with earrings from the Tiffany Pratt for Foxy Originals collection from @trysmallthings http://wp.me/p4xBed-3aI CAN 10/21 #TPFORFOXY

The giveaway is open to Canadian residents (excluding Quebec) 18+ and ends at 11:59 p.m. EST on October 21, 2016. The potential winner must respond to prize notification within 48 hours, including the correct answer to a skill-testing question, otherwise another winner will be selected.

Update October 23, 2016: Congratulations Suzanne B!

Foxy Originals sent me items from the Tiffany Pratt collection to facilitate this post. All opinions are my own.