Prune to Bloom! Life Editing Services or My Dream Job

I'm going to jump right in here. In January's post I declared that I had found my purpose in life as an editor and then left my audience with a bit of a cliff hanger. You can let go now. I'll catch you :)

While searching for images I was reminded that there are different levels of pruning: superficial deadheading, surgical dead/diseased/crossing branches removal, and hard cutting back including suckers. 

In life deadheading is getting rid of the blooms that are spent after serving their purpose. You remove dead or diseased areas to maintain the overall health of the plant. Removing branches that are crossed and/or touching prevents harm to the plant. Suckers are offshoots from the roots that are non-producers and just take up resources. These freeloaders are also removed. And in the spring you cut back to the main stems to make ample room for new growth while maintaining a pleasing shape to the overall plant.

All of these pruning methods can be applied to life as well as rose bushes. You can think of any area but I find the easiest example (as well as my favorite) in the closet, literally.

Picture a wardrobe, perhaps your own. Imagine a very full closet with lots of items just waiting to be worn. But the space is packed to the brim which makes choosing an outfit a daunting task if what you really want to wear is anywhere beyond the first couple of layers of clean laundry. So you end up wearing the same things over and over simply because you can't reach the other options easily.

Or perhaps the closet isn't so tightly packed but you still feel overwhelmed by too many options so you still end up wearing the same things over and over again because that feels easy and safe.

And finally perhaps you have a curated closet of items that all are beautiful and waiting to be worn but you feel stymied when it comes to actually putting outfits together because you're afraid of "doing it wrong".

Do any of these feel like they are blooming?

No. To me blooming looks more like this: A well-organized space that is functional yet beautiful because everything is in harmony which also makes the process of dressing efficient and effortless. This space is full of confidence and purpose.

To achieve such a dream closet does not require more agonizing visits to a dressing room or more money spent on clothes that will only add to the mess rather than filling a void to answer the question of "what to wear".

So here's my pitch. If you dream of making the best use of your closet so that you can feel and look your best, then you simply need to follow my PRUNE method.

The idea is to take a mess, take it all out, do a hardcore sorting session, then reorganize in such a way that future maintenance should be effortless.

I'll be the first to admit that this process is not easy. You end up swimming through a mess for a while. It can take hours or days depending on your clothing volume and the time you have to commit to it. I can offer my expert services to help speed things along. I have a keen eye and a DYT background to help create an ideal wardrobe from the items already in your possession. Call me your personal Marie Kondo.

If you are familiar with Marie's work you know that any area can be organized. I'll go ahead and toot my horn to say that I can tackle just about anything. My main areas of work that I have already practiced in my own space are Wardrobes, Interior Design, Landscape Design, and Miscellaneous Organization.

Here on the blog I've already shown my hand in closets (Project 333, A Before and After, The Purge, ). My gardening exploits are here as well. To date I haven't done any interior posts but that's only because my ideas for my own home have been stuck in dream mode but I'm good on paper. It helps that I have taken design classes for interiors and landscapes. As for the misc. category, I've organized my friend's linen closet and junk drawers for fun.

So there's my credentials. This is my dream: to do one-on-one sessions with individuals at the end of their rope, ready for change, tired of dysfunction, needing a light in their tunnel. Granted, my scheduling is a bit limited since I am a mom of four small children with a hard-working teacher for a husband so available time is limited, but I can dream, can't I?

For now I can say that I can offer playdates of assistance, meaning I'll probably be bringing my posse with me but I can make the most of a couple of hours worth of time in the morning. If we're lucky I could throw in an occasional weekend naptime session too. It depends on the area being organized. Perhaps this will be a good summer job for me, but that also depends on my husband's conference schedule.

In the end, this is a dream in which I can fully use my talents as an organizer and life editor. If those skills could be of use to you then let me know and we can see how I can help. At least you have access to my method now.

Give Yourself the Gift of Productivity

Christmas is coming! You know what that means. No matter what phase of life you are in, there will be some extra length of time away from your normal schedule. Dare I suggest it, but this could be a time to create a new norm rather than let everything fall to pieces. Because, unless you are leaving your house in perfect order before going out of town, chances are you still have to function in your house over the holidays. There is also the possibility of extended house guests! In the best of holiday circumstances it can still be hard to retain your sanity, specifically as a homemaker (this is my realm and -probably- that of my audience).

I only recently stumbled upon Fun, Cheap, or Free by Jordan Page thanks to the video that popped in my YouTube feed this morning when I went looking for an aerobic workout. I was inspired and thought it was worth a share.

The video is of Jordan's "Block Schedule". I've already been trying to loosely base my day on hour-long segments. Jordan suggests breaking your day into 3 hour blocks. Watching the video, I realized that my day is already broken into very similar blocks to the ones she describes in her day. The "ah ha" for me was the consistency of putting corresponding activities in the same parts of the day throughout the week.

I took notes on her set up, which was good, because, although her site provides a printable, it is a fill-in-yourself page (located at the bottom of the page). So here is my reproduction of Jordan's schedule which I will follow with my slightly shifted version.

(Pardon the small font.)  Jordan has school-age kids, so their activities are a big part of her day. Mine are still under school-age, which lightens my load up... for now. I must say, nap time is my favorite time. It's Me time. I'm writing during nap time right now. 

Edits aside, I'm happy to keep those couple of cleaning sessions in my schedule. This has not been my strong suit. I'm a minimal house keeper. A couple of speed cleaning sessions, when planned on, will be a great way to up my cleaning game. It's amazing what you can get done in less than a half hour. I'm going to run an experiment. I'm pretty sure if I push myself, I think I could vacuum my whole house in under 30 minutes... Stay tuned for that. I have to wait for my boys to wake up on their own first.

....

Success! Three levels, seven rooms, and two poopy post-nap diapers changed, all in less than 25 minutes! Minus stairs and switching plugs, the actual vacuuming took only 15 minutes. This is the power of the focused use of timers and simple FOCUS. This is something we're trying to teach our boys: tasks take a lot less time if you just DO them without extra wandering and playing around.

Another thing I'm happy Mrs. Page emphasized is the importance of blocking in your sleep. Even she admits to being a "night owl", which is what I naturally lean towards as well. The fact is that being a night owl doesn't mean you actually need less sleep. For me, at least, it just means that the sleep is shifted so I get the same amount. If I get to bed late, I wake up late... especially when pregnant. Fortunately, during my last pregnancy my boys sweetly let me sleep. They played quietly until I got up to feed them. If screaming happened... well, that was an effective alarm clock. So, in the last year I've tried very hard to get to bed earlier on a consistent basis, weekends exempted (Charles does breakfast those days). I've even made (small) steps toward getting up earlier to get through my opening routines before the "hangry" screaming kicks in now.

These blocks are a great way to plan your day. It ticks all the boxes while allowing plenty of individuality. The idea of using focused chunks of time instead of micromanaged hours is very freeing. Adding in some alarms is very useful for keeping on-task without wasting time watching a clock. Jordan suggests setting additional alarms for 15 minutes before the end of a block. This is great for facilitating transitions. An additional thought I had with those last 15 minutes is that if you get everything done before that timer, then those in-between minutes could be "phone check" times. Jordan makes a point of being "unplugged" for the bulk of the day. I'm fine with that, but I think using those optional couple of minutes kind of as a reward for getting things done. Delayed gratification can be a wonderful thing.

Now for the Holiday Bonus Round. Jordan showed an alternate example schedule of a working mom in her video. I feel that the following tip should be very handy for holiday prep in general. For office work, Jordan suggested using the morning working hours for the more brain-engaged tasks and the afternoon for moving/physical tasks. I'll let you decide which holiday tasks are brain vs. body oriented. The point is to use the fresh morning energy for your alert brain and then be moving in the afternoon to get through any post-lunch slump you experience.

I'd encourage you to watch the full video to gain your own insights and then use that printable to your advantage. Happy Holiday Blocking!

Don't You Wish You Were My Neighbor? Garden Report 2018

Welcome to winter! Do you miss things being green? Hopefully dreaming of my summer will help scratch that itch.

I'm not sure what the science behind this thought is, but I'm pretty sure every human enjoys seeing Before and After images. Good things you're a human (unless you're actually a robot) because here comes a whole bunch with limited commentary. Give your brain a rest and let your eye feast!

We shall begin with my inmost circle of influence of my own garden starting with my new veggie garden.

We had been talking about about some raised beds for me, but hadn't decided on a location. Once we figured out that there was a good spot along the fence, I just started digging! Maybe we'll add some brickwork and more dirt in the future, but I was happy to have my "bit of earth". And I must say it really is very nice dirt once you dig all the weeds out. My planting scheme was loosely based on "square-foot gardening". I had raspberry starts which gave me a couple of berries this year, and then I planted peppers, onions, leeks, radishes, tomatoes, and basil. The basil was on accident; I meant to plant spinach instead but must've grabbed the wrong seed packet. I forgot to take any pics when it was in full production mode, but it looks quite lovely after the fall clean-up where I moved the berry bushes from the one end to along the back edge. I'm hoping the leeks and onions to over-winter ok.

Now for the front beds.

It's fun planning somewhat symmetrical plantings for the sides of my front steps. The goal is to take out more of the irises (let me know if you want some next fall), but this year I was happy to rearrange my other perennials. I forgot to take a true Before pic before the pre-digging pruning session. The geraniums were trying to eat everything. That is why they are in time-out in the big pots now. I'm happy my roses survived another year and I was able to split the mini rose along the left side. I was also excited to receive my first peonies from a family friend. I look forward to splitting those in the future to spread them around in place of the irises. Those irises have been very happy. I inherited them with the house when they were in one huge clump that had clearly never been split up after its initial planting. My have they grown since I spread them out three years ago-ish.

The boys sure enjoyed the part of this process when they had free reign over one side after I had harvested my "walking onions" (not pictured). (I need to improve on the timing of my Before shots.)

Step with me to the other side of the fence, for this year I gained my own Secret Garden.

I never met my neighbor, but he has abandoned his house and the yard that he obviously had no care for. It had been hard watching become more and more overgrown, but with the hedge along the fence growing through to our side, we decided enough was enough. Charles had a friend come with a chainsaw to cut it all down. Then it was my job to chop it into manageable bits to cart away to the dump. We worked together to load the other miscellaneous trash, like the tire and garbage cans that you can see in the pictures above.

I also tamed their front beds, gifting some of my geraniums and irises to create a planting. The pavers are actually metal plates of some sort that I found back by the shed. The mulch came from the rotted bits of the wood that was found within the hedge and the wood pile in the back.

Stacking all of that wood was another job of mine.

I'm so glad Charles bought me a wheelbarrow before I did this part of the project. A full cord of wood and a bunch of free mulch for my payment.

I did not take my own After pictures of the Secret Garden because Charles made a video to brag about his amazing wife's gardening prowess. Highlights are that we moved almost 2 tons of refuse in the course of the summer.

Bonus round: I was invited to help another neighbor with their front beds.

This was extra gratifying because it was a service I had offered to them before during a previous summer. I wanted to liberate their peonies from under the tree on the left side as well as some light pruning. It took any extra year of letting the grass grow on the wrong side of the border for them to invite me to step in, which I happily did. 

This is one way I help create a more beautiful world: one garden at a time. I'm happy to employ my landscaping skills in behalf of those who either don't think they need it or don't have the skills/time themselves to make it happen.

Here's my After-After photos to help us segue back to snow....For Now We Wait For Spring.

The Continuing Journey: Maryann's Closet Round 3

Since Memorial Day, Maryann has been able to enjoy her remodeled closet. After Round 1, I had gotten most of Maryann's clothes sorted by Type. When she moved into her new closet she mixed things up a little but had her blouses sorted mostly separated into two blocks of mostly pink and blue. She called her top section of pinks her "happy clothes". 

With Round 2, I facilitated a joint sorting venture using a simple 1 to 10 rating system. Something from an old Carol Tuttle video has stuck with the me and inspires me still. She said something to the effect of we should wear clothes that make us happy. In the rating system this translates to wearing only 7s and higher, with the aim of filling your closet with mostly 10s. This is an idea that is probably in the new Carol videos, but as part of the Lifestyle subscription content that I don't have yet.

So, in this sorting phase, I did the heavy lifting and let Maryann tell me which pile to put the items into. This worked really well since she was feeling a bit under the weather anyway. Happily, we were able to find a good pile of 10s and a substantial pile of 7s in her Type 1 colors to work into a capsule wardrobe in our next round. Here are her tops. See how happy they look!

There was still a hefty pile of off-type clothes that she wasn't quite ready to part with. But we also eliminated about 50% of what she had hung up in her closet in this round. What an amazing amount of purging!

A lot of what we got rid of were Type 3 clothes. She'd already been chipping away at those in the months since Round 1 on her own which was great. She we also able to identity a lot of items that she hadn't worn in a while due to fit and whatnot. 

We were also able to identify a lot of themes in what she likes to shop for so she can continue to find those things in her bright happy colors. Maryann is a big fan of paisley, lace overlays, stitched embellishments, tie dye, and the colors pink, purple, and oceany shades of blue and green. The styles she gravitates toward include peasant tops, button-ups (for riding horses), and blouses with the high-low feature.

 

It was fortunate that I had all four Style Guides to show Maryann so that she could see what I see when I differentiate between the different color families. She was also able to read the backs of them and get more familiar​ with the styles that will support her Type 1 nature.

We found a lot of great basic pieces along with a lot of fun patterns that will be really fun to mix and match. I hope Maryann will have a lot of fun exploring these options. I was able to show her a couple of combinations that she hadn't thought of before that got her excited about this next phase of utilizing her clothes in new ways. I think she's even interested in buying her own DYT course so she can have her own copy of the color cards to shop with. 

In the couple of weeks since this latest transformation, Maryann has been in a very normal regrouping phase. She lost a lot of her old outfit combinations, so she's had to stretch a bit in putting new looks together. As a Type 1, she feels the loss of that 50% decrease in items, but she also feels lighter. Plus, some of the 7s have become new 10s.

To help her feel better about the purging process, I told her about the 80/20 rule (Pareto Principle). In closet terms, this means we wear 20% of the items 80% of the time. What we did was eliminate a chunk of the unworn 80% so she could have better access to the 20%.

If you are interested in buying your own DYT course and feel that I have helped inspire that, please use my referral link to start that process. 

In the meantime I'd encourage you to "shop" in your own closets and sift out the items that don't make you happy for whatever reason. Why spend any time in clothes that don't make you feel great? Who knows, you may even rediscover pieces that can be worn in new and exciting ways that you hadn't thought of before. That almost feels the same as getting something brand new from a store right there. 

Bonus Feature: Remember those Type 3 clothes Maryann was able to release? I took a bunch of them for another friend. Once I got them home I played with them and made a capsule out of what was there.

This capsule is more like a 10 Item Wardrobe, but it would be a great base for a Project 333 wardrobe. It has 3 skirts, 2 vests, and 4 blouses. Just add some jeans, a couple more tops, and accessories and it is set.

Adventures in Polyvore: Illustrating My Project 333 Capsule Wardrobe

Well, it's been so much fun doing the full capsule wardrobe experience the last couple of months that I thought I'd go another round of talking about it. My first three month round of the Project 333 system is almost up. This has been a rather freeing experience. I love everything in my closet, I wear everything in my closet, and everything in my closet works quite well together. You usually can't say that about a normal closet full of clothes, especially if you find yourself complaining that you "have nothing to wear".

I think my biggest secret to having the capsule wardrobe work so well is starting with a pretty tight selection of colors that you know work well together. Here's my color palette from this round.

As a Type 4, black and white will probably always be the base of my wardrobe, and I'm ok with that. But playing with the accent colors is where I get to have fun changing it up and giving spice to a wardrobe that might seem rather one-note otherwise.

Another trick is being able to have all the levels of dress represented in the capsule. From casual all the way up to dressed up, you want to feel like you are ready for any circumstance. This does mean having some understanding of the levels of dress that are appropriate to your life style. I'm a church-going stay-at-home mom, so my capsule might lean more to the casual side. But I also have comfortable items to look amazing in on Sunday's too.

Even though I have worn everything I selected for this capsule, there are of course combinations that I noticed that I wore a lot. These are they. The striped pencil skirt is actually a LuLa Roe maxi, so I actually wore that as "lounge wear" when I didn't feel like wearing jeans (read: jeans were in the laundry), but I still make a point of getting dressed everyday. (I feel like I really don't get anything done otherwise.)

The following are several slides showing just how many different combinations you can make with a capsule wardrobe using items I actually have. Mostly I think the theme here is to pick great basic pieces with a healthy dose of accessories so you can have fun mixing and matching to find new combinations to fall in love with.

The rules of the Project 333 system call for you to include outerwear in the 33 items. Since it is winter here in southeastern Idaho, I have a heavier coat and snow boots out. The lighter jacket is for when I'm just running out to the garage for something or when I'm sitting in our almost unheated computer room working on the blog and such. Plus it wasn't completely freezing when I put this capsule together back at the beginning of November. 

Another awesome bonus that I discovered was the fact that for three months I had one purse out and never felt a need to switch it up. Raise your hand if you are a woman with more than one purse. (Guilty as charged.) Before doing the capsule wardrobe I think I'd change purses on almost a monthly basis because I knew the current purse didn't match the outfit I was wearing one day. With the capsule wardrobe and having a limited color palette with a purse to match, I never had to worry about that.

Now I'm looking forward to creating a new capsule for the next three months, purse and all ;)

My Project 333 wardrobe Winter 2016-2017 by heather-horikami on polyvore.com

Time to Try Minimalism: A Project 333 Experiment

As a Type 4, minimalism is something that is supposed to come naturally in theory. In practice, the habits and accumulations of life lead to stuff building up.

I've read the purging challenges of the Mary and Martha book. Sarah Mae doesn't go into any depth about purging your wardrobe, but I felt that was a natural place for me to begin anyway.

I've had thoughts of doing a capsule wardrobe percolating in the back of my mind for some time now, and so I have now begun. I've heard of the 10 Item Wardrobe, but my lifestyle doesn't match wanting to do laundry more than twice a week and my little bit of Type 1 balks at having so few options to rotate through. And as I've looked more at this system, it seems a little confusing to me to only have 10 core items and then extras. So I've settled on an extended version of the Project 333 format. Project 333 means going 3 months with only 33 items, including clothing, accessories, and outerwear. This seems easier than deciding what constitutes a core item or an extra. Project 333 kind of lumps things together and counts everything (except pajamas, workout clothes, and lounge wear, which are all the same for me). I've stretched it a tad. I may be closer to 40 items. I justify this by saying it's winter, so I have an extra coat to count and then I had a hard time narrowing down my jewelry choices.

In choosing my items I used the Vivienne Files All Seasons Packing format as a starting point keeping this post about color schemes in mind. I kept to a concise selection of black, white, cobalt, teal, and red. It's a beautiful thing really. I'm only a week into my 3 months, but I'm still having fun making different outfit combinations.

Here is my new closet and the color palette broken down.

 

So simple and so Type 4. I'm sure more refining will happen and there are some gaps I'd like to fill while keeping a "one in, one out" mindset. But already I'm loving how streamlined my outfit making has become. Dressing Your Truth got me to one level of clarity with keeping only one color family on hand, but Project 333 and pared it down even more.

I really like the Project 333 motto of "Be more with less". I'm hoping to carry that through more of my life in the coming months as I follow through on doing the Martha challenges.

Let me know what you think and Enjoy this holiday season!

Something is Different!

Happy Birthday to Me! In honor of my 25th birthday I made a big change.

I've actually been looking forward to this for about two years. That's about how long I've known about Dressing Your Truth. This is not a total coincidence. Part of having my own DYT course is having a personalized Fashion 101 class, basically. The Type 4 course provides guidelines for what will look best on my Type 4 body to match and express my Type 4 personality in a beautiful way.

These guidelines are actually quite thorough. Everything including clothing, makeup, accessories, and hair are seen in terms of design line, texture, fabrication, pattern, and color and many examples are shown. Now, all Types can have long or short hair. I've had long hair for most of my life. I've even cut and donated it a couple of times. But I'd never gone this short. After DYT, I had the confidence and knowledge to know that I really could do a pixie cut.

So two years ago, I decided that I wanted to give it a try when I turned 25.

Unfortunately, the place I went to get my hair done doesn't have WiFi (weird, I know), so I wasn't able to show them the Pintrest picture of the exact cut I wanted, so I'm not fully in love with the details of the cut that I got. Fortunately I am very familiar with the fact that hair grows and I can get it fixed in a couple of months. Here is the picture of what I really wanted:

Gorgeous, right? The cut, not the color. Sorry, but I don't think I'll ever go blonde. I did however also die my hair when I got it cut. I went darker to an ash-based brown a couple of shades darker than my natural brunette and I LOVE it!!

For such a big change, I've only gotten positive feedback. My babies didn't freak out. Charles didn't really care other than he was happy that I was happy. And everyone else has been really supportive as well. All the compliments are right on point with what I was going for.

The whole point behind changing my look was to turn up the dial on my Type 4-ness and the compliments I've gotten just prove that I got it right. Each Type has a list of great descriptive words and you'd think that people were just reading off my list. my favorites have been, "Chic" and "Stunning". Stunning is actually the "Beauty Code Word" for Type 4 as a whole.

Another reaction I got a lot at the beginning was remarks at how brave I was for going through with such a big change. I don't feel like "brave" is the right word. I feel that I've been "bold" (another T4 word). I think that is the power of the empowerment of the Dressing Your Truth program. They give you all the guidelines and then you are left to follow your (more informed) "Beauty Sixth Sense" in creating your own style.

I don't think you should have to be "brave" to live and dress your truth. That makes it sound that most people are in fact scared to do so. Admittedly, I know that without the DYT program most people are left to guess their truth in a world that doesn't give us great tools to navigate a trend-driven fashion industry. That's why I'm so passionate about sharing this "makeover system" that goes far beyond just the surface appearance.

Currently there is a very exciting sale going on. Until Nov. 22 the courses for all 4 courses are being sold as a bundle for only $100. What an investment! Please use my link to get registered and start learning what Type you are before you buy it so I can get some referral benefits. I'm here if you have any questions or if you want a closet makeover. I'm particularly gifted in being able to sort clothes by Type.

I want everyone to feel empowered to look amazing in their own special way.

Closet Before and After: Maryann

As a DYT veteran, I can't help but try to share this knowledge with everyone I know. Of course I do try to be tactful and wait for "opportune moments".

One such opportune moment came this Memorial weekend. I'll admit I only briefly mentioned this part of our big road trip in my post about it, but for me this was kind of a big deal. Being the catalyst of someone's journey of self-awareness through this program is exciting. And to have this gift so well-received was much appreciated.

Maryann is my father-in-law's wife and we have become friends. During that weekend we bonded over gardening and how cute my boys are. In fact, I can attribute the "opportune moment" to them.

We were discussing how similar yet different Jon and David are. To me, this of course makes sense because of their shared genetics and different Types. So, yes, I approached Dressing Your Truth through The Child Whisperer.

Explaining about how I can approach parenting my babies differently with the intent to honor their true natures segues quite nicely into introducing others to how they can discover their own natures in turn.

Plus I was able to point Maryann to my own experience as recorded here because I was also finishing the post about my closet purge while we were there.

The bonus for me was that Maryann was very open to watching the free Beauty Profiling course while I went through her closet. How nice of her to let me scratch my organization itch.

After viewing the course she decided that she is a dominant Type 1 with a secondary Type 4.

The course is fairly short and I wasn't done in her closet yet, so I pulled up some YouTube videos I had compiled to give some more context for the program.

Now, we know how I love makeovers but Carol had gone the next step of having members of her crew try on all the Types and share how they feel when not dressing their truth. Watching these was where Maryann got her big "Ah ha!" moment in seeing what a difference dressing your truth can make in your attitude, demeanor and confidence.

Unfortunately, there seems to have been a major pruning session in the online realms and those videos are now private. Furthermore, the Carol Tuttle online space recently went through a major consolidation as well and I cannot kind those videos anywhere.

Fortunately my angels listened to my frustrations and there is a new version of Carol in the other three Types. I just hope they will do the same for the other Types because I recall that each Type reacts to the other Types differently.

There are still plenty of makeover videos to watch at liveyourtruth.com. (Real Women, Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, Type 4) For those not already in the program, seeing these women's stories can be a great first step to be able to say, "That sounds just like me!"

Now, back to Maryann's closet.

This was her closet when I first walked in.

A fairly ordinary closet with straightforward organization but not much by way of cohesion or theme. most of us would be familiar with such a closet.

And here's her closet after my first go-through.

I was able to get it all sorted by Type and then the blouses by rainbow order within the Types.

Since then, they have finished a big closet remodel and Maryann has done some eliminating of her own. Here is her new closet or at least the sections of tops.

I can tell that Maryann is doing more to embrace her truth because the colors seem much brighter and happier to reflect her Type 1 nature. (I also suspect there is better natural lighting in the new closet.) She is still at the beginning of her journey but she can recognize what items aren't really her colors and being okay with the fact that she isn't quite ready to let go of all of those off-Type pieces. It took me a while to get rid of everything not Type 4 as well, so that is very normal. Just the awareness of what is truly right for you is a big first step.

With (DYT) I am more aware what is better for me inside and out. And now I see happy colors in my closet associated with my personality. What an education now to being clued in! With this new knowledge I am able to shop for who I am. It is really strengthening. -Maryann 

I wish Maryann all the best in her future journey and extend my assistance to anyone else who would like help in starting their DYT journeys. I can do the closet sorting but the true first step is figuring out what Type you are. My personal referral link is heatherh1.dressingyourtruth.com. It takes you to a login page so you can get signed in the system before viewing the Free Beauty Profiling course. I think my referral benefits kick in once you buy your Type's course.