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December 3, 2021
And now we finally start the official season of celebration and gifts. So not to be left behind, I have two things as gifts to celebrate and enjoy. (See below)
These goodies will be free till the end of the year, so you special people who follow me here are the only people to get this.
There's method to my madness because these will be instrumental in the new year when I have something fun coming up. In the meantime enjoy these.
It's fun to go through
Snoop Shopping & Croquis Template
Here's the amazing thing about this tool and our brain. Sometimes a simple squiggle is enough to remind of something we've seen or noticed about a garment, and it brings back the total look. I've used this for decades when I'm in a large metro area, and have the opportunity to mess around in local boutiques and major designers' stores. The truth is that I can get so overloaded with ideas and notes that if I don't do this, there's no way to keep
all that stuff in my brain, and I don't expect my brain to do that.
That's what the templates are for. They are easy to print out so the next time you have the opportunity to go snoop shopping, print this out and take it with you.
There are some etiquette rules I use when I do this. I'm not so brazen as to get out my sketch pad and sketch the design right there in front of the clerk, so I will often schedule regular breaks, and take off to the ladies room to run down a few designs. With the plethora of smart phones, taking a pic isn't so much an affront so that's another option for recording the look.
Pinterest is probably the best thing invented for this kind of things. Who of us isn't perusing on the internet minding our own business when over on the column is a top that looks delicious - grab it and put it up on and "Idea Board" on Pinterest. I've divided my Idea Board into sections: Collars, Body &Silhouette, Cuffs, Graphics & Embroidery. But that's just an example - you might like pants, tops, dresses - or whatever floats your
boat!
How to Clean Out Your Closet
OK - no groaning and yes this is the season of celebrating, but you don't have to do this immediately. Enjoy the season first, cause we're going full hog at the first of the year. And while you're enjoying the season, notice what works and what you choose out of your closet and what seems to be left behind. This is really valuable information.
There's more to cleaning out your closet other than dragging everything out and making difficult culling decisions. Yes, it can take some time, and yes it's a reminder of some mistakes in buying, making and other guilt trips you can play on yourself. But please don't go there. Realize that we are all not perfect; not perfect in size nor shape (whatever that is, cause believe me it changes a lot), nor are we perfect as resisting professional, time-tested
and extremely alluring sales, buying lures and attractions that are studied more than any diets! The point is, that the minute you step into a buying environment, often your mind is not your own, and it takes incredible awareness and will to resist the profession tricks, ambushes, seductions and traps that are set for you. Without complete understanding of what's going on, you can end up with a mish-mash of mess of purchases.
So no guilt trips on the closet thing! Please!
What this is about is culling out the unused from the used and leaving you with a clear understanding of what you have in your closet. The download on Closet Cleaning will help you.
But let's go beyond that, because there's more information here that we can glean that will help us understand not only what's in your closet, but what's not in your closet! And that's what we're really after.
We all love white blouses, we all love dark and black pants, and those are constant staples in our closet. But what happens when we find out that we don't have those thing or that we have 5 pairs of black pants?
And we're not only talking about black pants here, we're talking about all the other things we need in our day-to-day wardrobe needs. How can we keep from being caught unaware - an event is coming up and we have to find something immediately and don't have time to make it up. Or we've been selected to lead a group for our company - what to wear to show our professional yet modern character? Or our kid is being honored as the best kid in the world (well we
already know that, but it's the honor that counts!) and we need to make our kids proud or grandkids - but what do we wear to do that?
There's a way to plan this out, and I've loved using this guide to do that. It's thorough and will take you through most of your needs, and even has space for needs that are once-in-a-lifetime but still necessary.
Most of all, don't let this be one more thing on your list of things you must do before the holidays. This is only for a start and for those moments, and I hope you take moments like this, when you rest and gather with those very dear to you. I think we forget that the holidays should be not only a celebration of light but of those closest around us and a time to express our love and affection.
For the Christmas season here are a few gifts to get you started for what's coming in the New Year. You can take a look at them, and use them like you want right now, but we will really build on these resources starting the first of the year. You can also wait till the first of the year, but they are a great way to start the
New Year, AND they are free right now. The first of the year, they won't be available for free anymore.
A Croquis
Sketching is wonderful and a really great way to start is with your own figure, but how do you trace your own figure? In a mirror? Well, no. You can make what the pros call a croquis (crow-key). This is an outline of your own figure that you can use to trace different looks and styles and ideas before you make them up. I love mind and it has saved me many, many fruitless hours with some pretty ideas I thought were pretty neat at the beginning. The more I
sketched them out they didn't work out so well. But this is exactly what the pros do and what they hope to discover in working through all their design issues.
A Scoop Book - Pages in Order Form and Booklet Form
I love scoop shopping. When every I'm in a big city, the first thing I do is hit the exclusive, high-end boutiques and department stores and take notes like crazy. For that, I developed a "scoop book". In this book are very lightly printed mannequins that you can use to sketch your ideas on. Often a simple squiggle or mark can recall the exact look or idea that you were excited about. The other page is about written ideas that will help you
recall the garment or the part of the outfit that you liked.
There are two forms of this. One is with the pages in order and the other is with the pages in "booklet" form. The booklet form needs to be printed in order and on both sides flipping on the short side of the page. If that seems too complicated, use the form with the pages in order. Either one with will for you!
Well-Edited Wardrobe Ebook and Workbook (Interactive, Print-out)
I know, I can hear it now......."NOOOOOO, not the dreaded make me clean out my closet workbook!!!!!!!" Yes, that's what this is, but it's really worth it, and from where we're going to start in January, this is not only a must but makes such a fabulous way to begin what we're going to do in January. The fun thing about getting this before January is that you have plenty of time to attack this.
The Workbook is a gem and there are two formats here. One is interactive so if you want to put this on your tablet, and work with it that way, you can fill in everything in the pdf interactive version. If you simply want to print out the workbook and fill out the pages, there is this form too. You choose which one is simplest. The E-book is an explanation of how great it is to have a well-edited closet. And there are other benefits that you can start with in
January!
On the Blog
From the time I started my design company, I was sketching designs for clients. It was the only way that ...
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It's fascinating to listen to this discussion of How Much Clothing Do I Really Need? for me because I don't ...
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What has happened to fashion? There was a day when well-dressed and even not-so-wealthy women looked to the latest in ...
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