This month’s O magazine includes a terrific article encouraging you to write your memoir in just 6 words. Oprah always has such fabulous ideas and I love this one too. Being succinct doesn’t come easy to me so each word would have to be perfect.

Then I realised that’s what we do on The Art of Style. We don’t create your memoir but we do uncover your Style Statement – a personal signature of 5 or 6 words that not only express who you really are and what you stand for and how to translate into your wardrobe. This way, not only have you written them down but they are always visible for everyone to see.  

Interested? The next Art of Style is on Friday 10th February. It’s playful and creative and fun. No rules, just a sense of discovery and many ‘aha’ moments. 

Go to Shop to book and pay. Places are limited. Those who’ve attended in the past think it’s the best £99 they’ve ever invested in themselves.

http://shop.feelfabat50.com/index.php?maincat_id=10

For more details on the article, go to

http://www.oprah.com/omagazine.html

or buy a hard copy from any branch of W H Smith

As times continue to look tough, I’m giving you all a real treat at a heavily reduced price. For JANUARY only, you can go to my stylist sites and treat yourself, or your partner, to a full e-style consultation with 30% off the usual price. So for just £87.50 you can download a hugely detailed report on all the clothing and accessories that suit YOU alongside details of where to buy. How cool is that? When you enter the site you will need to add the discount code –   2012 – to get the reduced price.

Here are the links:

www.suedonnelly.myprivatestylist.com for women www.suedonnelly.menofstyle.com  for men

Remember, this is for JANUARY ONLY

Happy Christmas.
 
As an early Christmas gift, I’m offering you the chance to receive ‘All You Need to Succeed’ for absolutely nothing i.e. totally FREE of charge. Usually retailing at £24.99, the package consists of hours of interviews with wonderfully illuminating experts covering every conceivable topic you’ll need to know about in your 50′s (and possibly before).
 

As I’m feeling super generous I’m offering my Fabulous Foundations package, also for free. Three downloads advising you on how to look your very best -using the basics. Invaluable information, whatever your age. Usual price £19.99.

As they are totally free of charge, why not offer them to your friends. It can be your gift to them. No postage and no hassle, just brilliant information they can listen to time and time again.
 

The link for both programmes is here:
 
http://shop.feelfabat50.com/index.php?maincat_id=12

(scroll down for the All You Need to Succeed package)

Have a great festive season and I hope 2012 is all you wish for.
 
Happy listening
 
Sue

Saturday 10th December Peterborough
Wardrobe Magic – £99 inc lunch – 10.30 – 4pm

Changing your wardrobe is one of the most critical elements of good style.
Knowing what to throw out and what to keep and how to keep it alive, current
and exciting is hard work for most clients. So, I’ve put together
something to help you take the stress away – and make it fun.

This one day programme will teach you easy ways to coordinate your
existing wardrobe, provide a list of any gaps and suggestions where to buy
clothing to fill them. The day will consist of fun exercises, discussion,
scrap booking, taking photographs and using simple handouts to ensure your
wardrobe fulfils all your needs at every level. The result? You look good,
feel fabulous and the greatest benefit of all – you’ll always have
something to wear, whatever the occasion. If you think about how much money
you’ve spent on mistakes in the past, the outlay of this programme will
make it an extremely good investment of your time and your money.Not only
that, I’ll teach you how to make your wardrobe far more versatile so
you’ll actually need less clothing but you’ll gain more outfits.

There are just 2 spaces left so book now to ensure you don’t miss
out. It could be an early Christmas present to yourself.

Go to http://shop.feelfabat50.com for more details and to pay for your
place

I look forward to seeing you.

In the midst of attempting to tackle a difficult asana (pose) my wise yoga teacher demonstrated how we could  sit back from it, creating more space in order to move more easily into what seems like an impossible position. Everyone, whatever their ability, tried again using this approach and everyone moved further than they had on their previous attempt. To get the most from yoga, we need to look at how to apply what we learn on the mat and introduce it into real life.   

This particular lesson was very pertinent for me as I’ve been feeling ‘stuck’ for a while in my career, my life and my choices for the future. So I decided to heed the words of my teacher and create more space in my life and my environment. I began by de-cluttering not only my wardrobe, as you’d expect, but also the rest of the house. My office was overrrun with books and old papers so much so that, at times, I felt like shutting the door and having a lie down.  My trusty old PC and laptop are both crammed with files that are years old that I was keeping ’just in case’ so I bought a new Mac Book pro on which to start afresh when my new company comes into being next year - watch this space for more details on that one (see what clearing space can do for you!) 

So with the house, the wardrobe and the technology cleared of unwanted excess  it was time to do the hardest of all – de-clutter my body. I’ve been making healthy changes to my diet all year but I felt the time was right to take it one step further and so I make the huge decision to stop drinking alcohol.  Not just for this week or this month but for good. I’ve realised that while I love alcohol (I’ve been drinking regularly since I was in my early teens) it’s not a reciprocal relationship. Having alcohol in my life  is like having a best friend who, in reality, is actually stabbing  me in the back.  I gave up smoking, also a fear based addiction, over 4 years ago and have no desire to go back so I’m pretty confident that this too will work out fine. So far I feel terrific -  clearer headed, slimmer, more flexible, more joyful, softer skin and shinier hair and, best of all, I’m sleeping like a baby for the first time in over 5 years.

One book has really helped me. Jason Vale’s ‘Kick the Drink Easily’ is such an inspirational read, you wonder how you’ve been brainwashed into thinking drink is enjoyable. It takes a much more positive approach than most other methods where you count every day you’ve managed to not succumb to temptation. This book advocates a celebration of freedom and the end of tyranny. It’s certainly working for me. Cheers!!

Sharon Gless is absolutely amazing as the author Jane Jusqa. If you don’t know who she is, she’s the brave lady that advertised that she wanted to have sex with a man she liked before she was 67. The play, at Riverside Studios, was so good it received standing ovations yesterday. I loved it. Oh to have Sharon Gless’s energy. A fabulous and inspirational role model, both now and in her Cagney and Lacy days.  Go see it. It’s fantastic.

Just finished reading the first novel by the wonderfully talented Jo Parfitt. Sunshine Soup resonated with me on so many levels that it has inspired me to go out of my comfort zone. I’ve signed up for a belly dancing workshop to release my kundalini! Not sure what I mean? Then read the book for yourself. It’s FABULOUS. Plus, if you love to cook, there are some fantastic recipes included. This is a book that every woman should read.  Buy from Amazon £7.99

Intuition is a strange thing but very powerful indeed. I needed to go into the city today to finish off some last minute details for the Glamour Galore fashion show on Sunday (see Calendar for more details). For some reason I felt I needed to look at lipsticks. As I’ve just come back from Amsterdam with 4 new ones in my bag, this was totally unnecessary. However, I stopped at one of the cosmetic counters to look at buying a red one – something that has alluded me all year. The girl that served me was so charming, I took to her straightaway. She helped me choose a colour and as she was applying it to my lips she told me it was her first day and I was her very first customer. She apologised for being nervous and that she couldn’t find the mirror so I could see what I looked like. In the middle of all of this, we had a conversation about her life and what I did for a living and it seemed to me that there was a definite link. Long story short, I bought a lipstick – not red but ORANGE ( those of you following me for a while will realise this significance) and she is hopefully coming along to one of my courses.  Both of us had a lovely experience and I’m hoping she is less nervous when her second customer appears.  The lure of a lipstick is obviously more than just looking good!

I have an array of fascinating women on my workshops and it’s such a thrill to be able to found out more about what they do and their success stories since their attendance on my programme. I’m focussing on the work of the lovely Irene Brankin and her first book ‘The Visible Woman’. It’s a fantastic read and something you can dip into time and time again. She asks “Which of these are you – a confident and mature woman who is still growing and learning or someone who feels middle aged and miserable?”  Her book helps you to recognise just how much wisdom and experience you’ve already gained from your life thus far. She inspires you, by skilful exercises and real life stores, to reclaim the qualities that make you who you are, enabling you to increase your visibility and confidence. Irene, who is an established psychologist, coach, supervisor and facilitator writes in a warm and witty way enabling you to appreciate and believe in yourself and to rekindle your passion for life. Let’s not forget, some of us may have another 40 years or more to live, so we’re only half way there! So, if you want to start a new adventure or your life isn’t quite as it should be, go out and buy the book immediately.   

www.irenebranking.co.uk for more information on the lady herself and her work to entice us to show up in the world.

To purchase, price £9.99 go to:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=irene+brankin   

I’ve feel privileged to have been invited to not one but two book launches. Jo Parfitt and Jae De Wylde (formerly know as Jane Minshall) were both highly instrumental in helping me kick start my career. Jo taught me how to write articles and found me my first book publisher. Without her, I would never have gone into print. Jane Minshall did something for me that I only imagined in my dreams. As a magazine editor, not only did she ask me to model for a couple of very glamorous fashion shoots but she put my face on a magazine cover! It was hilarious to sit in a packed café surrounded by a pile of magazines with my face on the cover with the surrounding customers knudging each other to see if it was the same face drinking my coffee. Oh to be famous! That was something really special that I’ll never forget. I was so delighted to be meet up with them again and can’t wait to read their novels – a first for both. Jo is a prolific author of 27 non fiction books (www.joparfitt.com) but this is her first foray into fiction. Both books can be found on Amazon in print with The Thinking Tank also on kindle £7.99. Both are so relevant to women everywhere so take a look. I know you’ll enjoy them. Sunshine Soup – Jo Parfitt and The Thinking Tank – Jae De Wylde