Styling

I have a different definition of luxury clothing than stylists.

Mind you, I'm a coach who teaches you how to dress, I don't style you from top to toe, so that might be why.

Here are some of my luxury items.

Fluorescent pink and purple Life Jacket (Costco $44.95) which enables me the luxury of floating in the lake, early in the morning before other people turn up. I bob up and down like a brightly colored buoy. Big fun! It also allows me to stare at the mountain across from me and remember how…

I’m at the lake again. Sheer & utter bliss. My dog and I both need water to play in, sunshine, and strangers to admire us (I’m wearing the most amazing caftan by Prima Dona Studios). 

At Idylwood Park, there’s a sign that says:

“Don’t feed the ducks because it causes overcrowding for nutrition and pollution.”

Are you feeding the ducks in your wardrobe? 

Here’s what I mean by that: Are you overcrowding certain categories? 

Do a quick life circle, segmented into the activities, and then do a …

So you know how they say “physician, heal thyself?”

I was walking Joule (Frenchie) at the dog park, looked down at what I was wearing and thought, if a client sees me right now, I'm running in the other direction. 

Ah...oops.

I had forgotten my mantra. Dress for Your Vision, no matter the circumstances? What the heck had I been thinking? 

After all, it was a client of mine who told me:

"My husband just asked where I was going, because I looked like a badass."

"What did you tell him?"

"Now…

I had no idea who Nanette Lepore was. 

I was at Thrift Culture in Bellevue square, pre-Covid. It's run by LifeSpring and supports programs that feed, clothe, educate and provide emergency support for local children living in poverty. They pay $1 a year in rent, in one of the highest cost-per-square-foot locations thanks to the Kemper family who own and run the mall. Insert applause here!

I was browsing because I believe in wearable fun and part of my entertainment budget goes to thrift stores.…

I'm not a fan of virtual backgrounds on Zoom etc. though you can get really cool ones. The thing is, every time you move there's a good change you'll look really weird and we all know you're basically hiding a pile of laundry or clutter. But yes, if you have no alternative, they are much better than holding meetings where everyone can see your bed or fridge. 

A really quick and easy way to create a Zoom background without resorting to virtual is to zip down to a fabric store. Pun unintended. Ye…

The delightful Jami, who helps me with Pinterest says I should have titled this as....

Best Outfits for Short Women: 7 Wardrobe Must Haves for Petite Women

Jami, I promise you, on Pinterest, you can call it whatever you like.

Meanwhile...

If you have ever had to ask someone tall to reach things for you, read on.

Oh short ones! Pocket Venus's. Petites. Those of us under say, Five feet 4. We’ve always had to cut, fold, or sew up the ends of our clothing just to get the right fit, even if th…

When it comes to getting dressed, I cheat.

I have 4 identical tee-shirts from New Zealand.

I adore them, but they are a pain in the butt to get, one of the reasons I buy several at a time. They have NZ native birds on them, a delicate black etching on a plain white tee. Hey, didn’t it used to be a thing to say “put a bird on it.”? Or was that just in Portland? 

I used to get them from a store in Ponsonby, Auckland, where there are ton of great NZ designers who hopefully will still be there …

It’s National Checklist Day. I’ve never been a fan of checklists. I get overwhelmed and stressed out when I feel like I have an endless list of things to do.

There’s numerous time management strategy books and productivity books out there. One I enjoyed was The One Thing by Gary Keller, for which I wrote an article for Medium. To sum it up in one line, think of the one thing you can do today to get you towards the person you want to be in the life that you want. I find that much easier to deal …

I work with, among others, women solopreneurs. Not sure what that is?

A solopreneur is an entrepreneur, by like me, they don't have a business partner. We do it on our own, but together. I have an amazing community of women solopreneurs and many are my clients. 

Some are launching, some pivoting because of the "new normal," (doesn't feel very normal to me). Doors have closed, others have opened. Maybe they are relaunching, or want to up-level. Maybe, like me, they disappeared for a while and w…

For many years, my clothes were kept in multiple locations around the house.

We were (kind of still are) constantly in renovation. I moved into a house that already had my husband’s furniture in it and all his possessions. He'd been married before and had decanted a very large house into our new dwelling, I'd moved to the US with two bulging and overweight suitcases, several boxes and a couple of 70's paintings. 

Since he's not psychic, he bought the house before we were engaged, so he natural…