I was taking photos of some vintage items yesterday for a flash sale I have coming up in June and I noticed that things look completely different depending on how close-up you get.

If you zoom in too close, things will get blurry. If you zoom out too far, you lose all of the details.

But there’s a optimum distance for a picture that balances the best of these two extremes and pulls everything into focus.

And how do you find this perfect shot?

You zoom in and zoom out. Zoom in and zoom out.

The perfect shot is always easy to recognize when you see it through your camera lens.

Well, it’s important to go through this zooming in and zooming out process in life, too.

Often when we’re facing a problem or feeling stuck, it’s easy to focus on what’s sitting right in front of our noses. From this viewpoint, though, we may think that there’s no solution or that we’re in an impossible situation.

That’s when it’s time to do some zooming.

First, zoom in.

Really get up close and personal with your issue. Examine every minute detail. Ask the silliest, dumbest questions you can. Put your problem or concern under a microscope and drill down until you understand it on a cellular level.

Then, zoom out. Way out.

See how the problem relates to the whole. Where does it fit in the bigger picture?

Consider its impact on your family and friends. Its affect on your business and your customers and your industry. Its relationship to your community, your country and the planet.

Try to see your issue from a bigger proper perspective. Maybe your problem really isn’t the end of the world as you know it after all.

In fact, maybe from this zoomed out perspective the problem you’ve been wrangling with doesn’t seem so huge. Maybe now it’s clear that your obstacle is really the beginning of something new and better. Or maybe it’s not worth worrying about anymore at all. Or maybe you realize that you’ve actually been worrying about the wrong problem this whole time and now that the actual problem is clear as day you can zoom in and out on that.

Zooming in and zooming out.

It’s not just for photographers!

As for today’s VPOD, whether you zoom in close to see the pearl trim and the Indian feather print or you stand back and admire it from afar, this vintage 1980s Zandra Rhodes silk chiffon dress is simply stunning.

It’s a quite a lovely find from the perspective of a Vintage Crusader!

Available at Vintage Textile.

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“For me, philanthropy and commerce are completely interconnected.”
– Donna Karan in Oprah’s Next Chapter

Tonight’s episode of Oprah’s Next Chapter profiles Donna Karan’s humanitarian work with local artists in the still-ravaged and struggling country of Haiti.

I greatly admire Donna Karan and how she exemplifies what I think of as fashion as a spiritual path.

Fashion? As a spiritual path?

Yes!

I believe that fashion, just like anything we love and practice with devotion, can be used for good in the world and as a means to help us develop a deeper connection with our Selves.

Simon Mainwaring is another role model I admire who is also leading the charge to combine philanthropy with commerce.

About a week ago, I was lucky enough to grab a mini consultation with this Branding Guru, who is the author of We First, named Best Marketing Book of 2011 by Strategy + Business.

Simon is a social media expert who has consulted with some of the world’s biggest brands including Nike, Toyota and Motorola, and when I described what I was doing here on Zuburbia he immediately recognized the connection between the timeless qualities of vintage clothing and the timeless qualities at the core of our Selves.

He suggested the new tagline “Your Self Expressed” to symbolize how Zuburbia encourages the use of vintage clothing in the expression of personal style while simultaneously encouraging conscious, fulfilled lives through authentic Self-expression. I think I like it!

I know I LOVE Simon’s message of moving from the old Me First mentality that has informed so many business practices of the past to his proposed We First plan that allows us to buy and sell what we want and need while also building a better world.

Simon proposes that a small percentage of every dollar spent on a product or service first be contributed toward a pressing social issue.

I couldn’t agree more!

Since the beginning, Zuburbia has participated in 1% for the Planet and directed 1% of all revenues to Trees for the Future. Call me crazy but I have a goal of wanting to plant one million trees on this planet during my lifetime (and yes, I have quite a few to go!).

Why trees? you ask.

I’m not sure.

Anyone who knows me would immediately think that literacy would be my cause of choice, but right now I’m inexplicably drawn to planting trees with all the myriad benefits it brings to communities around the world.

Just imagine the world we’d share if EVERY business would allocate just 1% of revenues to their favorite causes!

It would mean when you purchased a vintage piece like today’s VPOD, a vintage Donna Karan dress previously owned by Barbra Streisand(!), 125 more trees could be planted on the globe or some other additional benefit could accrue to the world in addition to you looking smashing!

Of course, there’s nothing to stop you from donating 1% of your purchases to your own favorite causes until enough businesses join this philanthropic band wagon.

It’s just one more way for you to be a Vintage Crusader!

Available at Antique Dress.

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I’m not the biggest fan of polka dots in fashion. For me personally, I tend to find them a bit, well, polka-dotty! And the older you get the harder it becomes to pull off this whimsical print.

But don’tcha just love a challenge?

Me, too!

So with a wee bit of internet surfing, I discovered today’s VPOD. This lovely summer dress mixes dotted swiss with a bold geometric print for a combo that’s not too sweet, not too flashy, but just right.

Of course, there are other simple ways to add a few extra servings of polka dots into your fashion diet.

If you can’t bear the thought of wearing the print from from head-to-toe, try sporting a polka dot scarf for the day, grip a polka dot clutch or grab a fun piece of jewelry that will have’em seeing spots.

And don’t forget about your humble abode which might also benefit from the quick style boost a few polka dots can bring. One dotted pillow, lamp or throw may be all you need to bring a smile to your face.

Plus I love this idea for making the boring, ho-hum job of storing year-end documents a little more fun. Head down to your office supply store and pick up a packet of colorful round price stickers to brighten up those plain ol’ cardboard document boxes. Who says filing can’t be fun?!

This is the power of polka dots for Vintage Crusaders.

Dress available at Great Lake Outfitters.

(Image Credit: Storage boxes discovered in Metropolis magazine. Disclosure: Zuburbia is an affiliate member of the eBay Partner Network. To receive the VPOD free via email with detailed size and price information, sign up for the growing email mailing list here. Your information will never be sold or shared and you can easily unsubscribe at any time.)

When it comes to punctuation marks, exclamation points are definitely my favorite.

I mean, commas and periods don’t strike me as particularly special. They’re just utilitarian and necessary.

Semi-colons and colons often leave me befuddled.

And while I do deliberately use a lot of question marks (which definitely come in a strong second), I still hope that when the tally is taken upon my final breath that I will have lived a life with far more exclamation points than the average gal.

Now all of us use punctuation marks as we’re creating and living our life stories, but most people limit exclamation points to the Big Moments: graduations, weddings, births, dream jobs, dream houses, long sought-after awards.

Somehow, though, I’ll bet that the guys and gals who go through life with the biggest smiles on their faces are the ones who have figured out how to add exclamation points to all their not-so-special days, too.

I mean, there’s a huge difference between

Off to work.

and

Off to work!

And while you might envy actors who are able to recite lines that have punctuation marks added in all the appropriate spots, don’t you prefer being able to PLACE THE EXCLAMATION POINTS IN YOUR OWN LIFE STORY WHEREVER YOU PLEASE?

One theory suggests that the origin of the exclamation point comes from the Latin word for joy, IO, and that the exclamation point was born when someone wrote the “O” underneath the “I”.

So just think of every exclamation point that you can add to your life story as adding an extra helping of joy.

You can think

Time to do the laundry.

or

Time(!) to do the laundry.

or

Time to do the laundry!

It’s really up to you.

Of course, you can also add quite a few exclamation points quite easily with today’s VPOD, an amazing 1950s dress that is punctuated all over with these joyous symbols.

It’s a fabulous style exclamation for a Vintage Crusader!

Available at Coldfish Vintage.

(To receive the VPOD free via email with detailed size and price information, sign up for the growing email mailing list here. Your information will never be sold or shared and you can easily unsubscribe at any time.)

One of the great pleasures of the New Year for me is cracking open a fresh journal and flipping through the blank pages while imagining the stories, adventures, and yes, even the potential trials and tribulations, that I’ll be committing to ink in the days ahead.

Before our digital age, the watch keeper on ships would keep a slate tablet near the helm on which he recorded speeds, distances and headings on the voyage. If there were no problems, when the shifts changed, the new watch keeper would simply “wipe the slate clean” and start recording all over again.

For me, my new journal every year is a clean slate just waiting for the next chapter in my story to be written.

And since I believe that we are all co-writing the script that is our lives, I believe it’s important to spend some time thinking — and dreaming — about the stories we’d like our pages to contain.

Equally important, though, as I discovered during a coaching call last week, is deciding what to put to rest now that 2011 is past. To what and to whom have you been directing your energy and attention that no longer needs, warrants or deserves your energy moving forward?

Hmmm…I’ll let you stew on that one for a moment…

Completing this introspective process of examining and dreaming is just Step One of the Clean Slate Process that a New Year brings.

The vital step, Step Two, is to actually commit your resolutions, goals, priorities, or whatever you want to call them, to paper. Write’em down ladies and you stand a much greater chance of seeing’em happen!

This poster by Jessica Patterson gives you plenty of space to do just that and it also offers a helpful reminder in its small print:

Mistakes are important sometimes, and part of this “resolution,” by nature, includes learning from and improving upon lackluster efforts and failures (should they happen to happen).

You see, the good news is that you don’t have to wait for January 1 every year to start with a Clean Slate. If you find you’ve fallen off the Resolution Wagon in March, just dust yourself off and hop back on!

Every day of your life dawns fresh and new with the opportunity to always improve upon yesterday.

Every day you exercise your creative freedom to make the same or different choices.

Every day you choose to engage in habits and activities that support and enrich you or you choose to engage in habits and activities that don’t.

Every day you interact with people who lift you up or you interact with people who bring you down.

So if you’re gonna build up one muscle this year to really change your life, forget about your triceps or quads and focus all your concentration and effort on strenghtening your Choice muscle. It will have the greatest effect in every area of your life including health, relationships, business and even style.

And should you be interested in a Clean Slate for your closet, simply let go of all the dazzle, glitz and glam for a while and step back to a more organic, pure palette like the one offered by today’s VPOD, a simple khaki cotton dress.

It’s Clean Slate dressing for a Vintage Crusader!

Available at Ramona West.

(Image Credit: Jessica Patterson, Flickr | To receive the VPOD free via email with detailed size and price information, sign up for the growing email mailing list here. Your information will never be sold or shared and you can easily unsubscribe at any time.)