Refresh for Spring!

The arrival of spring is also a time to renew your resolutions for self-care. Here are my tips for refreshing your look and your perspective as you head into the sunshine.

Ready Your Closet

Clean out your closet to be ready for spring. Bring forward the clothes you’ll wear in spring and summer, and move back (or out!) the winter wear.

Need help? I’ll come to your home and help you with your spring closet cleanse and  make suggestions on how to freshen up your look.

Shoes and Bags

If you have some favorite footwear that's still in style, consider bringing them to the shoe repair to make them like new. While you're there, drop off your favorite totes for some TLC as well.

Makeup

Go refresh your colors. Find your style with on-trend looks. The smoking cat eye with nude lips offers a dramatic look, and the simple cat eye with red lips is a great day look.

When you’re current with makeup, you glow. 

Don’t forget to take care of your eyebrows this spring.

Hair Tips and Styles to Look For

Bigger curls and bangs (if you like them). If you wear a ponytail, put some volume on top, with a couple of curls (not all straight hair). Messy is the look, but clean, healthy and well-maintained is the style!

Winter hair can be very dry. You can visit your salon for a deep conditioning and maybe even a clear gloss. If you’re coloring your hair, ask for a clear glaze to be put in with your color, to give your hair that healthy shine. 

Undergarments

Don’t overlook your undergarments. Spring is a great time to make an appointment at Nordstrom for a fitting to make sure you’re wearing the right size. If you have a larger bust, you’ll wear out your bras more often. Keep several in your closet, so you can switch them often and they’ll last longer.

Self Care

Don’t forget a facial. You should have one every season: your skin changes from winter to spring, from dry air into moisture. Get the new skin shining through and enjoy your glow.

Get a pedicure. Grey or greige are on trend, or go with the colors of the season.

Exercise! If it isn’t your routine, try 10 minutes a day. Barre3 offers great online classes. Ride your bike to run your nearby errands or visit friends. 

Have fun with your girlfriends. Be spontaneous. Meet them for lunch along the water, take a walk or get a pedicure together.

Wear Sunglasses

Go big this season, and SMILE!

--Keri

Why WOULDN’T You Wear That?

I work with so many beautiful women. It surprises me when I hear them say, “I wouldn’t wear that. I have no reason to dress that way.” 

I’m not referring to evening gowns or impractical styles: I’m talking about wearing styles that flatter us, dressing well, or stepping out of our sweats (or yoga gear) and into something that makes us feel beautiful, pretty, or pulled together. Why wouldn’t you wear that? 

I can remember as a very little girl wanting to be beautiful and girly. One of my most cherished memories is from when I was about 8 years old: my dad took me to Goldwater’s to pick out any dress I wanted. I truly felt like a princess. 

We all have that princess in us—that desire to share the best of ourselves in every way—but sometimes we lose sight of her. We might be in a season of life that we box ourselves in and think we shouldn’t dress well. Why shouldn’t we?

Looking good helps you to bring out the best in yourself, and enables others to see the best in you. As women, we have so much to offer! The more confidence we have in the way we look, the more we’ll notice a difference in the way we meet people and the way they respond to us. 

When you roll out of bed and race out to the store in your sweats, or if you do the same to drop your kids off at school, do you find that you reach out to others? Do you engage in conversations, or are you holding back—even avoiding contact—because you don’t feel put together, prepared, and ready to step out? When I leave the house this way, I adopt this behavior because I don’t feel ready to engage. 

We each represent something unique and special. It’s not wrong to have good self-care. It’s how we’re made as women, a part of our design. There is beauty in every creature, and looking good can open us to stepping out and sharing our gifts.

Reveal your inner shine through all forms of self-presentation! You will notice a change in how you glow, inside and out.   

--Keri

 

Gain a Happier You

If you’re one who knows you need to lose weight, know what you’re missing if you delay: You’re missing out on you. It’s not just about healthy weight, it’s about a happy and honest mind: “I am worth this.”

This short video says it all. In just one minute you will be inspired: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6ePreQwIq0 

It’s the third week of January. Are you in week three of your New Year’s Resolution, or did you decide to drop it and wait until next year? Treat yourself to a great 2013 with a careful look at who you are and how you’re living. It has changed me; I am confident it will change you. 

Thank you, Cindi Marrinan, my friend and health coach, for sharing.

--Keri

Ephphatha! Be Open.

“Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.” - Mark 7:34-37

When I heard this verse, it caused me to pause, and I knew I needed to go deeper than the literal words. I wanted to be open and present to everything around me: my family, my community, my circumstances. When we’re “open”, we notice more about our surroundings and respond accordingly.

This is a great time of year to be open! Take the season and embrace an opportunity you haven’t explored before. Look at something differently than you did last year. It’s nice to have traditions, things we do every Christmas season, but sometimes the logistics of making them happen take over the peaceful joy of experiencing the people involved. Take time to listen carefully, engage wholeheartedly and, with a different perspective, there might be something more for you to see.

People may notice you are happy and pause to think that they can be happy, too.

I find that I enjoy this season, so much more when I take my time, and consciously choose to not rush through. Here are some ways we probably all encounter where we can try to “be open”:

• When you’re at the store, enjoy this time of preparation and giving. Be present. Choose to enjoy the season and let your disposition inspire others as well.
• Appreciate what you have and what you can give. Don’t worry. Be open to what the true meaning of this season is.
• Be open to generosity. When someone reaches out to you, such as offering to help or giving a gift, let them. Be vulnerable. Receive unconditionally. Be open to receiving and opening yourself to their love
• Try to not worry about the details of what needs to happen. Enjoy this time. Try not to rush through it. Slow down.
• Spend time with your family, friends and community (the people in your surroundings).
• Take time with your girlfriends.
• Reach out to the elderly. Honor your mother and father by sharing a special time or memory.

In life, we should always be open. Be open to God’s plan. Be open to other people; be vulnerable; be kind.

As women, being open to others is to reveal their inner shine. Listen. Be open to the possibilities that are best for them. We should approach our own selves that way, too!

When we’re open, we’re living life more fully. It’s a great feeling, and I am so eager to embrace it this season. When we consciously open our eyes and ears, there are unexpected surprises and that makes life more meaningful.

--Keri

House Calls for Hostesses

When you walk into your closet, everything there should be what you want and what you should be wearing. Ladies, this is a must if you want to feel good about your clothes, what you’re wearing and simply opening your closet door daily.

It can be difficult to take control of our closet or gain perspective. That’s why I offer a Closet Cleanse service to every show hostess. Every time I spend an hour helping a hostess with her closet, the results are fun and surprising. 

The Closet Cleanse is a custom service where I schedule an hour with a show hostess to review her closet. “Custom” means the service is different for every hostess, based on her interests and needs:

- Some women have so many items stored in their closet, they don’t remember exactly what’s in there or have simply lost interest. You may just need me to help you clear the floor and put clothes on hangars. We approach the organization and create a plan to make it inviting for you to go into your closet.

- Some women have organized closets but way too much stuff. Their request? To go through their clothes and help them choose which items they should be wearing and those they shouldn’t be wearing. This Closet Cleanse helps you to find your style and gives you a fresh new look that still reflects your fashion personality. It also offers direction for future purchases, because you identify your style and what you should be looking for.

Here’s one client’s experience:

Keri offered to help me with my closet, and I took her up on it. I wanted to be more purposeful, and wanted a clothes consultation to know what looks best on me. 

I had lots of old clothes that I needed someone to tell me to get rid of! When we were done, my closet held fewer clothes, but clothes that fit and look good on me. I learned that women should just get rid of clothes that don’t fit, have holes, that don’t fit our body type, that don’t make us feel good.

My attitude about my clothes changed, too. I feel BETTER about my closet and what I’m wearing. Before, my closet was too overwhelming; I never knew what to wear. Now I have a stronger sense of styles that look best on me. I’m more confident in my style, and my closet is simplified, making it easier to find outfits to wear.

For me, the greatest benefit of Keri’s house call was knowing what looks best on me and my body type. Something I learned that I wasn’t expecting was how to wear items I already have, in different ways. 

The experience was so worthwhile. It’s like “What Not to Wear” and HGTV Closet Makeover!  How fun is that?!

When you feel good about walking into your closet, you feel better about yourself. Then, when you go to the stores, you’ll know what you want and can make better choices about what you’ll really wear. A Closet Cleanse builds confidence; in each woman that’s going to mean something different. That’s why it is a custom house call: I hope to ask the right questions to create a closet that tells what’s important to YOU.

Contact me to book a show to shop my women’s clothing line for you and your friends, and you can book a complimentary 1-hour closet cleanse session as well. If you’re a distance customer, you’re included! I offer phone consultations as well. Contact me and we’ll start planning!

--Keri