Day 18: Dressing Your Truth 30 Day Challenge

The orange Ralph Lauren tee  came out kind of coral in the photo and the navy top doesn’t exactly pop but the former was a Goodwill find and the latter from my mother’s closet so the price was right.  Together with the jangly, light, gold circle necklace I feel super pretty even though I’m gardening. Or maybe it’s the tangerine lipstick?

It feel great to have these as “throw ons” instead of the grey yoga pants and the slouchy maroon sweaters.

New items from the Dressing Your Truth Type 1 store on the way.

 

 

Day 17: Dressing Your Truth 30 Day Challenge

Despite the lack of posts, I have been dressing my Type 1 truth since my visit to help my father go through my mother’s clothes. Facing your mother’s dressing habits and the messages one receives from that is intense. (Pix and observations to come.) And helping my Type 4 father to deal with fashion as well as a job that requires more intuitive organizing was a blessing – you can’t decide beforehand how to responsibly lighten the load. It is the kind of organizing that unfolds. That was a true blessing, to see him respect my innate gifts rather than judge me for being flaky.

May is here, and with it some extra income. So I went shopping for Type 1 fashion in places other than consignment shops. I chose an outlet center about 35 minutes away. Knowing what colors to look for make shopping so much easier. Rather than load up on Type 1 outfits, I used my intuition. I would suss out a store, take a walk, suss out another store, repeat the process. Then I stood still and used my personal technique for accessing my intuition. This process yielded one fantastic shirt and jewelry combo and one of those gold circle necklaces (Old Navy in case you’re looking too) that I had been coveting ever since I saw it in a Dressing Your Truth Type 1 list of suggestions.

I think the way to build this wardrobe – for me – is to only purchase at a “real” store what I love. For day-to-day activities, the bright colors from thrift shops is working. I now have 4 go-out-to-play outfits. This J. Crew shirt and necklace made me so happy to wear. Yesterday, along with my newly dyed chocolate brown pants, I wore them to Symphony Space’s Wall-to-Wall cabaret with a friend.

Pretty spiffy, dontcha think?

Our objective was to see Barbara Cook teach. Barbara Cook, a Type 1, was born in 1927 and sported a rhinestone studded baseball cap.  She digs down deep into the truth of a lyric making her interpretations of song some of the most definitive. Despite her technical perfection (still singing as she nears 87) I would listen to Barbara’s recordings over and over simply for the revelations. And she generously shares that gift with the next generation.

So I’m putting it out there: Dear Barbara, please offer another master class and please have your scout accept one woman of “a certain age” to sing for you.

Days 11 & 12: Dressing Your Truth 30 Day Challenge

Above you see a photo of what I now consider my grubbies. I’m off to northwest Connecticut to help my 80+ year old father what is euphemistically called decluttering. I call it decrappifying. I was astonished to see how the hot pink thrift shop shirt made my old Roma tee look great on me. The purple is a Type 1 purple, the heart is a Type 1 shape although it’s a deep red rather than a bright red. But I do (heart) Roma which is very Type one of me, in my mind’s eye I am tootling around on a Vespa, exploring side streets and museums, and having prosecco on a terrace overlooking this ancient city.  But I will be in Litchfield County, Connecticut, going through closets, drawers, and making car trips to the dump. It will be just fine for those activities. And it’s a lot better than this old closet find.

I don’t think this is an energy I want around me anymore – even ironically.

As for Tuesday’s colorful grubbies, who knows what I might find in the stacks of clothing we’ll be sorting up in New England – and then there is one of the absolute best Goodwill Stores right down Route 202.

Here’s how the buttons on the lime green crinkle shirt came out.

and another hot pink thrift shop find was Type one-i-fied with a few buttons.

Before …..

 

after: 

Day 11: Dressing Your Truth 30 Day Challenge

Repeats are inevitable – even four- and five-peats. (I’m skipping three because I do not want to be beholden to Lakers coach Pat Riley.)  And I am clearly in need of more necklace bling.  But I did find these bird and dragonfly buttons to Type 1-up my thrift shop crinkly blouse.

One of the many things I love about Dressing Your Truth is it explains why I cannot wear blouses that go down to the cuff. For one year I attended a school with uniforms: grey blazer and skirt with a muted orange insignia patch, buttoned blouses or boy’s shirts with the cuff buttoned. You could take the blazer off but heaven help you if you were wearing a full-length sleeve and it wasn’t buttoned or rolled up!

What was that about? Control? Or some odd class issue. Only manual laborers roll up their sleeves and this school does not produce manual laborers. (The school’s loss in this new culture of makers.)

DYT also explains so many things about my nature that I was taught to judge. One is the free spirit aspect. I’ve been out turning over compost, planting peonies rescued from a tear-down on my block (on Earth Day – they tore down a perfectly lovely home on Earth Day, salvaging nothing!). And of course I do this work barefoot – barefootin’ is my theme song.

So my toenails at the end of the day are a mess. Soaking in baking soda helps. Scrubbing with luxurious soap – I’m particularly fond of Daybreak Lavender Farm’s soaps and unguents and…sigh…I’m getting palpitations.

But the most effective beauty hack I’ve found is to keep a container of whitening toothpaste or a hydrogen peroxide paste in the shower and let it do it’s work on my toes. My father taught us to save water by taking “Navy Showers”.  Get yourself wet, turn the water off, scrub with abandon, then turn the shower back on to rinse. Eco-geek that I am, I still take the Navy Showers. Once I’m wet, the first thing I do is scrub the toes for some natural bleaching. Summertime the minty smell is very cooling.

Soon the May checks come in and I can buy a few extras at the DYT Type 1 store – woot!

 

Day 10: Dressing Your Truth 30 Day Challenge

Saturday: record a selfie a video for my guitar class, a new video of an Easter song for The Calendar Song, do some gardening, tidying up.  It’s fun to take a moment and throw colorful tops on top of my jeans, some home-made jewelry for color. Before the Dressing Your Truth challenge it was “whatever”, inevitably black or grey. One of the earrings got misplaced between this shot and getting dressed so embracing my innate randomness, it’s been replaced with a different home-made earring made from star beads.

Day 9: Dressing Your Truth 30 Day Challenge

The mint green polka dot shirt is the second polka dot item I have ever owned – in my life. What prevented me from ever considering polka dots on my person all these years? Was it my childhood antipathy towards such passive Harvey comic book characters like Lil’ Dot and my  preference for the high energy of D.C. comic books? Did I internalize my mother’s judgmental voice about polka dots being “silly” or in “bad taste”? Is it some irrational judgment about the polka itself?  Because that is ancient news. I’ve even co-written a great polka (Pony Polka) with my friend George Wurzbach and bands like Polkastra are taking the polka form to new creative places.

The first item I bought with polka dots was in November, 2013.  A pair of knitted grey leggins with jumbo black polka dots. Grey and black my go-to colors because while the polka dots might rain down some imaginary judgment about my character, the non-colors would show everyone I was actually a very serious person.

I was shopping with my daughter – a rarity. We both dislike recreational shopping. I muttered to myself “I’ve never owned anything with polka dots before.” Her response: “Then I think it’s about time, mom.”

The chocolate brown jeans are my first Dressing Your Truth clothing hack. They were a Type 2 muted brown, so I threw them in a pot along with a skirt that had an upward design but was also muted. Here are the jeans and the skirt sinking into the vat o’ dye.

Type 1 MP3 Happy Playlist

I just took a walk with Rosie the Rotty, my new “Happy” playlist on the Creative Zen MP3.

Top of the list, Bob Marley singing “One Love/People Get Ready”. Second, Katrina and the Waves, “Walking on Sunshine”. Third, Keb’ Mo”s “God Trying to Get Your Attention”.

This does for me every time I hear it. Usually I start listening in Advent, just to add a little spice to that contemplative season.

What do I love about it? It’s the simple up-tempo, gospel, two-step. It’s the format of the list song. It’s the fact I can put it on, dance and pray at the same time. And it’s the call to look around joyfully for vocation and intentional living in every moment.

“It might be a plan or a coalition – or it might be God trying to get your attention.”

 

 

Day 8: Dressing Your Truth 30 Day Challenge

It’s time to recycle some wardrobe items. One of the many good things about this challenge is that I actually look in the mirror when I get dressed. No black yoga pants and any old top that goes with them. Even on teaching days, I was dressing to be part of the wallpaper.

Once the dog is walked, practicing done, class lesson written up and scanned, I have a few do-it-yourself projects on the horizon. Tomorrow’s post!

As for workout clothes, I’m afraid for now I will have to go with what’s in the closet. I have on some torn khaki pants, my red Vibram five-fingers, and a subdued red tee that reads “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.” The phrase only will have to get me by for my Type 1 workout and the goofiness of the Vibrams will have to do for bright and animated. My walking companion will be Rosie the Rottie – a type one playful puppy at age 4 1/2 if there ever was one.

 

My next “Imagine” tee will look more like this.

Rosie isn’t only playful, she’s a good actress. She actually appears to be a solid canine citizen in this picture which is not the case at all.

Day 7: Dressing Your Truth 30 Day challenge

This is indeed a challenge for me. I have resorted to this teal tee and matching circle earrings from Target. Not necessarily bright, but not black or grey – and the earrings get complements.

Hair is next. Several years ago I gave up sitting in a salon chair – I was the puppet of the stylist. “Whatever,” I’d say. “It’s just hair – hair grows.” I have thick hair which takes to being blown straight, the ideal in the fashion magazines. ( “I hate your hair” women would say to me. On the pendulum  of passive-aggressive complements, that’s a pretty far swing way, way, way past the middle. Also – why so much energy into hating hair? Particularly my hair?)

Stylists loved my hair – so much to play with. If a stylist wasn’t cutting it to suit his or her professional curiosity, I was told that women my age needed to go blonder and shorter. But from what I’m reading about Type 1 hair styles, I think I can just go. Go with movement, randomness, easy maitenance. And a little fun – highlights maybe?

So I tried a little woo woo. A few days ago I “put it out there” that I would like to find a stylist who was fun, open to Dressing Your Truth, worked from home to keep costs down and relationships high.

Last night I received a text from this unique young woman from France who once worked on my hair but who also did my daughter’s hair for her senior prom. Clara did not look like any a cookie-cutter prom girls in her long Grecian purple/indogo gown (price, under $100 and it can be hand washed), copper sandals (flat!), and fun corkscrew curls with flowers.

This stylist sings, designs, cooks – she has dreams which include symbols that she’s never seen but are turn out to be images from cave paintings. She has some tattoos reflecting the images. A truly free spirit!

Back to the text. She had found my card and was now working from home. Go figure.

 

Day 6: Dressing Your Truth 30 Day Challenge

Well look what I found in the back of the closet yesterday! Type 1 shoes – chocolate brown, fun, circles.

Today’s outfit courtesy of the Dressing Your Truth store (tee, flowered over-blouse, and earrings), Salvation Army (pants), and craft store (necklace)