perfectly pleated.

Dress. (on sale.) Sweater.(on sale.) Similar Shoes. Bag. Sunglasses. Necklace. Ring. Lipstick.(Color: SNOB)

I want to tell you a story about this perfectly pleated dress, how it changed my weekend and why I don’t think pretty clothes are frivolous.

I, like lots of people deal with a semi-ridiculous amount of self-doubt.  It comes with the territory of being an over-thinker, and I am a terrible over-thinker.  (Just ask my husband.)

Last week I was writing out answers to an interview for a blog project and one of them asked how I got started blogging and why.  It kind of made me stop and think a bit.  Saturday was one of those days where I was questioning all the things in my life, especially my work.  Call it a “living in a hotel for the last month funk,” I was kind of internally freaking out.  As before mentioned, I’m a chronic over-thinker and I find myself over-analyzing myself as a mother, my life, and my work way too often without just having made a major life-change/living out of my element, etc.

Yesterday, some really nice new friends invited us over for dinner after church.  Their house, you guys… its amazing.  A modern Victorian farmhouse.  Like a grown-up doll house.  Gorgeous but livable.  It’s amazing.  And they built it themselves, like literally built it themselves.  She was talking about her passion for victorian home design and his for wood-working and all kinds of amazing and inspiring things.

It got me thinking about what inspires me, my family-especially motherhood, books, home design, and that led me also to thinking back to the question about why I started this blog.  It took me a few hours and I realized that at the core of it, was something that my mom used to say to us.

She told us to get up every morning, put on something you felt good in, fix your hair and put on a little make-up.  She said, when you feel your best you do your best.  You treat people kinder, you think clearer, work harder, and are more successful.  My dad always praised my mom for teaching us this.  And you know what, it’s so true.  Even when I’m sick, (unless I’m on my deathbed) I try to take a shower, and fix my hair/put on a little makeup.  I feel better, faster when I do that.

Somewhere in my mid-twenties I realized that I didn’t like the way I dressed.  My clothes made me feel blah, even frumpy.  And they weren’t serving me the way they should.  I decided to dig into my style, and really figure out who I was sartorially.  It was my little private challenge that turned into a passion project.  Because I discovered something.

Clothes that make you feel pretty have a power.  They can change your day, make you feel like the best you.  Inspire creativity, tap into hidden confidence.

So I might have felt a little cruddy on Saturday, but Sunday morning I slipped on this beautiful ikat print twirly pleated dress and suddenly, the day seemed like it was going to be a really good one.  I felt pretty and feminine and springy.  I love embracing my femininity.  It made it easier for me to talk to people I had never met before, to get out of my comfort zone without feeling self-conscious.  I love feeling good in my own skin.  I want every woman to feel that way, to embrace herself.  It’s not my only passion, but its a big one, and it’s why I think it does matter how you dress yourself.

Because your clothes should make you feel confident and powerful.  And like the best you.

So who is the best you?

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