A Bag Saved Is a Bauble Earned

Oh time, how do you fly by so? It's fast approaching fall, the Bauble jars are full, and that signals the changing of the orgs :) Every round gets better and better with more bags saved - over 1500 this time! - and more donations going to local non-profits. Here are the organizations chosen for the last months of the year:

Linn Benton Food Share

The regional food bank for Linn and Benton counties since 1981, Linn Benton Food Share prevents hunger by soliciting, transporting, storing, and distributing nearly 4.7 million pounds of food each year to their 74 member agencies: food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, child and senior care centers, shelter homes, and gleaning groups. Oregon's hunger rate is in the nation's top five and at 29% has the nation's highest rate of childhood food insecurity. One of every five families in Linn and Benton counties must depend on an emergency food pantry at least once each year. Each dollar donated allows them to distribute up to 15 pounds of food - thank you for helping us help our neighbors put food on their tables and into their bellies!

 Old Mill Center for Children and Families

A dream to help children with physical disabilities and emotional challenges learn how to survive and thrive in the world began with a preschool that integrated mainstream and special needs kids, providing a foundation of learning that fostered such core values as acceptance and compassion. Over the years Old Mill has brought together services that address the educational, social, emotional, and family needs of a diverse population of children. The unique range and interaction of services allows Old Mill staff to provide multi-leveled, individualized and group support to at-risk children, from birth to 18, and their families. Your support helps Old Mill break unhealthy cycles that affect entire families, encouraging positive growth and change across generations!

Heartland Humane Society

A perennial favorite of ours, and the place where we have found many of our animal soulmates over the years, Heartland Humane Society provides a host of services to ensure the best care for our furry (and sometimes not so furry!) friends. As a non-profit, they rely on donations to maintain programs like a pet food bank, emergency & safe housing, affordable adoptions, and humane education. Help us help Heartland care for Benton County’s homeless animals!

It's Our 1st Birthday!!!

Congratulations! Today is your day.

You're off to great places! You're off and away!

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself any direction you choose.

You're on your own. And you know what you know.

And YOU are the girl(s) who'll decide where to go.

...

Out there things can happen, and frequently do, to people as brainy and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen, don't worry. Don't stew. 

Just go right along. You'll start happening too.

Oh! The Places You'll Go!

You'll be on your way up! You'll be seeing great sights!

You'll join the high fliers who soar to high heights.

...

You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. 

You’ll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step. 

Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act. 

 Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)

~Dr. Seuss, Oh! The Places You'll Go! 

It's hard to believe that it's been a year since we opened our little shop, and never have the wise words of Dr. Seuss been more appropriate. And since there's no competing with his gloriously practical prose, we'll keep our text to a minimum :) Take a short walk down memory lane with us, won't you please?

We went from that...

...to this..

...and this!

And then from that...

...to this, which is waaaay thisier than that.

There are some things that will just never ever change, like this:

Come visit the shop this Friday and Saturday to help us celebrate our one year anniversary and enter for a chance to win either $100 in store credit or one of two $25 store credit prizes*! There’s no purchase necessary, so tell your friends, family, co-workers, and anyone else who might be interested. If you do decide to shop, we’ll take 15% off your entire purchase (clearance included). There will be EXTRA snacks (of course!) and loads of merry cheer! 

Think left and think right and think low and think high.

Oh, the THINKS you can think up if only you try!

~Dr. Seuss, Oh! The THINKS You Can Think!

*Limit one entry per person. Winners will be contacted by phone or email and announced on Facebook. Store credit good for one year from issue date.

 

It's That Time Again...

Thanks to all of you, we kept nearly 1400 plastic bags out of the community's wastestream in the last round of Baubles That Benefit! We appreciate the support of our 2-pronged effort to benefit our amazing community - reducing waste and supporting local non-profits. Here are the three organizations chosen for this round:

SAGE: Starker Arts Garden for Education

A piece of the Edible Corvallis Initiative, SAGE is a unique, community-based garden operated by the Corvallis Environmental Center. Community volunteers are the heart of the garden and help to farm their one-acre plot. The food they grow together is donated to local food banks and soup kitchens, providing access to fresh, organically grown fruits and vegetables to families in our community. In 2011, SAGE supplied almost 7000 pounds of produce to agencies all over Corvallis and this year, with your support, they're hoping to give even more. Your decision to forgo a bag can help make that happen!

CARDV: Center Against Rape and Domestic Violence

Started in 1981 after providing hotline services since 1977 under the name Corvallis Women Against Rape, CARDV has grown to provide a host of services for sexually assaulted and battered women and children in our area. The mission of CARDV is two-fold: To provide services and support to those affected by sexual and domestic violence, and to provide education and leadership within the community to change the societal conditions that cultivate these forms of violence. CARDV's absolute commitment to creating the social change necessary to end violence against women has evidenced itself since its inception - here's to helping them inch closer to that reality!

SafeHaven Humane Society

SafeHaven Humane Society, a private non-profit organization, has been a part of the Linn-Benton community for 35 years. Over those years, the shelter has been a place of compassion and happy endings for more than 20,000 homeless, lost, abandoned, and injured animals. As a dedicated no-kill shelter, SafeHaven has outgrown its current home and is now in the remodeling stages of a larger facility so that it can serve much greater numbers of animals. With your support, we can help them get closer to their dream of providing improved services with room to grow for at least another 35 years!

If you have a favorite non-profit that we should know about, please leave a comment or email us at mail@revolveresale.com so that we can expand our pool of organizations. Cheers!

Too Special

Oh the dungeon (or treasure trove!) that is many of our closets…the never or once-worn garments, the oft-worn and threadbare, the holey and pilled. And then there are the garments that are what we have called since childhood, “too special.” This term encompasses all host of meaning: gifts from grama that smell of her perfume, shirts that were awesome in the store fitting room but not so much out in the world, sweaters that are a long sought color but feel icky on. So why do we keep them, guard them almost by hiding them in the depths and behind the others, when they’re only taking up space? We use the excuse that they are just too special – can’t wear ‘em, can’t get rid of ‘em.

For many women, ourselves included, the contents of our closets are a study in history – a sort of archive if you will. Silly as it sounds, our closets tell a story and to get rid of things that we don’t wear anymore can feel like a betrayal of memory. Yep, clothes are inanimate but the memories certainly are not…

There are also garments purchased on a whim or with good intentions, tags still attached, that never saw the light of day. Clothes that we hope will fit again, clothes that we hope will cycle back into style. In the meantime, however, they are cluttering and distracting us from what we actually have and wear, and also what we might need for where we are at this particular time in our lives. It can be tremendously cathartic to clear out our closets – it’s really quite liberating! If the prospect is overwhelming, start one section at a time and see how you do. We’ve found that with each successful purge momentum builds, and before we know it our closets have been rid of the unnecessary. And when it’s time to do it again, the task is not nearly as daunting! Also, it’s okay to hang onto a few items that are soaked with happy memories – we’re big on sentiment, so yeah, we’ll give you permission. :)

So if you’re feeling inspired to thin the clothing herd of those items that are just “too special,” keep in mind that re•volve would love to partner with you to sell the clothing, shoes, and accessories that are in excellent condition but didn’t make the cut. We’re now accepting Spring items – think lightweight cardigans, garments that look great layered, colors and prints. We’re trying to go by the unpredictable Willamette Valley seasons while looking forward to the styles that suit the warmth and sun to come, so keep transitional pieces in mind in case that doesn’t happen until June (as we all know is often the case!). Happy purging!

Tricks of the Trade: Dress For Your Shape

We didn’t want to leave you hanging after the last post on women’s clothing sizing madness, so below are links to an amazing resource to learn how to dress for your particular body type and shape (yep, there’s a difference!). Three of the ladies who work at the shop are the same “size,” but when they all try on the same garment it typically only works on one of them. Now we know the how and why, phew!

The author breaks body types into four broad categories – standard, fuller, petite, and tall – and within the four further categorizes by identifying five shapes – slender, top heavy, curvaceous, apple, and pear. The clickable links below will take you to the main category pages and once you’ve found the closest approximation to your type and shape, click the corresponding ebook cover to view its contents.

Standard: If you’re of average height and weight, these ebooks will help you learn how to balance your body shape by understanding your symmetry, using prints and patterns to your advantage, and knowing which styles and cuts will flatter and which to avoid.

Fuller: If you’re fuller-figured, find your shape to find out how the right clothes can streamline your silhouette, learn the visual features of clothes that can enhance your strengths, and take away tips to help disguise lumps and bumps.

Petite: If you’re of shorter stature, read up on which prints and patterns work best for your smaller frame, discover ways to create the illusion of height and how to avoid clothes that foreshorten your body.

Tall: If you’re taller, learn how to enjoy your height and show off your body to its best advantage. If you’ve always dreamed of being shorter, understand how to create a foreshortening effect with color, styles and proportions.

Voila! It’s kinda like having a pro stylist whispering tips and tricks in your ear to help increase your odds of success in the fitting room. Cheers to that!

It’s Not You, It’s the Clothes…No, Really!!!

We’ve all, at one time or another, gone into a fitting room with an armload of clothes in our “size” and sulked out with nothing that fit right. And for some it starts a nasty spiral of self-loathing and bitter frustration… Well, it turns out that the madness of women’s clothing sizing is what we ought to be directing our loathsome feelings toward, not our bodies! Click here for a great article that takes on the history of and failed efforts at standardizing women’s clothing sizes as well as the wacky world of vanity sizing.

re•volve is a smed and marge friendly shop – we take the time to put the size that is on the garment’s tag and what that might actually translate to on our sales tag to help take some of the guesswork and frustration out of clothes shopping. See? It truly IS the clothes, not your body!