About Celeste's Styles 4 Lessย โ€”

"Hello and thank you for visiting! I'm Celeste and I love styling my life for less. Living a life styled for less entails living creatively. I pride myself on being a creative not just in styling my wardrobe but also in styling our home and in doing life in general from dining to traveling.

Celeste happens to be my middle name and is perfect because it rhymes with one of my favorite pastimes, and that dear friends is finding great deals for LESS! I do not like spending alot of $$$ unnecessarily so I love looking for items and deals that cost less than what you would ordinarily expect to pay for them.

Within this blog, I will share my great finds, tips and hacks, motivations, and whatever else I think may be helpful as well as enjoyable.

In addition to affordable shopping, I enjoy DIYs, anything craft related, writing, dancing, singing, staying motivated, and spending time with my husband of 15 years and our two tweenage daughters, ages 11 and 12.

A few fun facts about me: I am a 44 year old native Georgian/military B.R.A.T. I have lived in Georgia, Hawaii, Colorado, Tennessee, and Texas. When my dad was stationed in Germany, my parents left me in Tennessee to attend college there. I attended both undergraduate and graduate school at the University of Tennessee: Chattanooga. I have a B.S. in General Management and one in Human Resources, and an M.B.A. in General Management. Even as a young child, I wanted a career in fashion and I desired to go to school for Fashion Design but....... business prevailed; but my love for fashion still remains. Presently, I am in Education because I love, love, love children so much so that at church I lead children's ministry. We recently moved from Atlanta to San Antonio for my husband's job. I am homesick most days but Texas is home for now so I am delighted to make our Texas house a home. I love God and all of His creations, my favorite color is hot pink, I could eat salads every day for every meal, I really enjoy our family taco Tuesdays and family movie nights, party/event planning/decorating is my jam, I live for motivational books/speeches, music is my jam, and I am a true logophile; I love words.

Thank you again for stopping by and browsing. I love being inspired and sharing so I hope that you enjoy the content and that you are also inspired to style your life for less!"

๐Ÿ’•CS4L

I love bright fresh flowers, but .......

This is a collage of my favorite blooms that I have purchased primarily from Trader Joe's.

Have you ever had an arrangement of flowers that was soooo beautiful you wanted them to last forever! There is nothing better than fresh flowers; they are truly the best, but sadly they die. Yes, some are very reasonably priced, (especially at Trader Joe's), but if you ever find that you are wanting to shake things up a bit and switch out your florals more often than not annnddd have them for a lifetime; well I have an inexpensive long term solution.

01

DIY: Realistic Faux Floral arrangements!

For a summery look, I recently made this arrangement with $3.00 flowers from my local Wal-Mart. The bouquet of orange ranunculus was $3.00, the large hot pink dahlia was $3.00, and so were the yellow roses and the bouquet of pink roses. I added a little water to the vase and sprayed the flowers with a long-lasting Kate Spade floral scented perfume and voila a realistically smelling bouquet! Best part is that you can change them out everyday and they never die!

HELPFUL TIP: The bouquets can be cut apart with wire cutters (I purchased mine from the Dollartree for $1.00!) The hot pink roses were part of a larger $3.00 bouquet, but I cut them apart for easier arranging. You can also just pull off the flower heads and reattach them to a different stem!

These ivory hydrangeas were half off at Hobby Lobby! I got two steams for a total of $7.00.

This $3.00 bouquet of roses is what I use when the kiddos and I have our impromptu tea parties. The colors and roses perfectly match our tea set.

If you want to add a little happiness to your closet, add faux florals! The white rose bouquet in my closet was only $3.00 from Wal-Mart!

Guest bedrooms are a great place for fresh flowers but if you don't have any when your guests arrive, just have some faux ones on hand! I have had for ages these pink and white peonies from Pottery Barn; I just keep them in our guest room.

I love affordable looks for less so flowers are no exception. I know silk flowers are not for everyone. I still purchase and prefer real flowers but if I don't happen to have any on hand or desire a long lasting look, these arrangements are my go to. There are so many faux floral options available online and in stores. Some of the pricier ones look very realistic and are great investment because you won't have to replace them as often as real ones!

๐Ÿ’•CS4L

H&M Jewelry Haul

.50ยข to $3.00 earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and ring

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love me some accessories. Accessories can change the look of any outfit for a fraction of what a brand new outfit would cost. My love for accessories coupled with a good sale makes for a really good time! H&M never disappoints with their markdowns. I ALWAYS find the best priced clothing and accessories during their sales. I scored this little haul a few months ago; 15 pieces for $22.50. The $2.00 ring and $2.00 double necklaces are my favorites! And yes, I have already worn most of it. How can you beat earrings for .50ยข?!! You just can't! The quality is good and the styles are on trend. So when outside reopens ๐Ÿ˜Š and you want to spruce up your accessories, definitely hit up H&M for their markdowns.

๐Ÿ’•CS4L

DIY SERVING PLATTER

Not only did I make sushi, but I also made this serving platter!

In this post I share a little hack about how to make a serving platter and a countertop tray with one simple household item that you may already have laying around the house!

My oldest girl and I made sushi last night!

I love the art of food plating and presentation so I wanted a nice serving platter similar to the ones at sushi houses.

I searched online for ideas and platters and I found this porcelain flat plate for $37.25 a case online at Webstaraunt!

Webstaraunt Store

After seeing Webstaraunt's platters online, my creative juices started flowing! The builders of our home had left us extra boxes of tile just in case....

I really loved the beveled look and length of this excess tile that we had from the kids restroom so I flipped one over and painted the back and sides with acrylic paint, washed it up real good....

And voila, I had my very own serving platter to plate our sushi...but my creative juices did not stop there! We also had extra kitchen tile.....

I was inspired by West Elm; so I glued together 3 pieces of our kitchen backsplash tile to simulate......

West Elm's Foundation Tray in small for $30.00

West Elm Foundation Tray

Ta-da! I made a FREE countertop tray for my salt and pepper mills and olive oil!

Hope you enjoyed this little hack!

๐Ÿ’•CS4L

OH HEY, FOR BEST VIEWING, YOU'LL NEED TO TURN YOUR PHONE