My Beginning

My story began in central Germany in 1988, where I was born in a small town called Simmern. My father worked as a software engineering manager for Ford Aerospace. After about a year, my parents came back to California, where they were originally from, to a city named Scotts Valley. My little brother, Kevin, was born shortly after. They bought a house, settled down, and then had to leave to go back to Germany for another year. We returned to Scotts Valley when I was 4 ½ year old. Growing up in Scotts Valley was nice. I had a nice home, friends and a loving family. My interest in fashion began as a teenager. I would do different drawings of outfits in middle school and high school. I had also began learning to sew. After high school, I started working on my AA in Art at Cabrillo College. I met my future husband. A year or so later, my mother found an Apparel and Design Associates of Science Degree Program at West Valley College in Saratoga, California. During a Professional Image class, my instructor introduced me to Alyce Parsons, the creator of the Universal Style System. Through this program I discovered that my true passion wasn't designing apparel. Coordinating outfits and learning all about different people and how to help them look their best as a Personal Stylist is my true passion. During my program, Jonathan and I got married and then had our son Niko. I completed the Image Consultant Certification and graduated in June 2016 with an Associates of Science in Apparel Design and Apparel Production.

Within a couple of months, I opened StyleUp and started working immediately. I began working for family and friends then word spread. Business was good; however, rents were getting more and more expensive and our incomes could no longer keep up. We had been looking for a new place to move outside of California for over a year and we finally found Boise, Idaho, thanks to some old friends of my husband’s. We were able to buy an older home in a nice neighborhood near a good school for our son. Life was finally perfect. My husband got a job with Scentsy as a Machine Tech. Getting StyleUp going again was much harder with no network to draw from. We had bills to pay, especially with the hit of Snowmagetton. That was quite an experience, but we made it through. I got a job at Dillards for a little while to help with the extra winter costs and I enjoyed a nice wardrobe discount. That was only temporary as I had already served my time in retail. It was time for me to get back to my true purpose in life as a Professional Wardrobe Stylist.