Cleopatra’s Gold – Featuring Sydney’s Closet

This post is completely and utterly inspired by a legacy of beauty, Cleopatra.  When I saw the dress for this post from Sydney’s Closet, I knew I just had to have it and I had to embody the full look we see so often of Cleopatra, head piece and all .  It’s very rare for me to see a full ensemble just from seeing 1 piece – a dress – but this gold beauty inspired me at first sight.   

Now if I’m being honest, the only thing I really knew about Cleopatra was that she has been known through time as a symbol of beauty.  But, how could I write a blog about being inspired by her look without knowing anything about her.  So, with a quick little look online I discovered that she actually had a pretty crazy life.  She was a strong woman who co-ruled amongst a world of men and eventually became the sole ruler.  She fought and lost many battles and after one of those battles committed suicide.  Pretty tragic if you ask me, yet we have this fascination with this woman. 

At some point, this woman was defying the odds of women in a period of time that was dominated by men.  Now, before you think I’m a feminist and anti-men, I’m not.  I actually am probably really uneducated when it comes to the feminist movement and the work that women over the generations have put in to allow the women of our generation to live so freely in society today.  But, here’s what I do know….

We get decide who we want to be.  We get to choose our careers, our passions, our leisure activities, who we associate with and we get to choose what we wear.  For most of my life I allowed what I thought people wanted me to do and what people wanted me to be to dictate those choices I made.  I also allowed society’s views and the bullies in my life dictate my self-expression in my style – I’d say that I used to be ‘clothed’ but I never allowed myself to express myself with style.  I realized along the way though that it was time to stop living my life for other people. 

As I have picked up the pieces of my life over the last 4 years and started re-building from the ground up, I was sure to build up my ‘inner woman’.  That is, it was time to build a new identity.  Who I was became more important than what I did.  This defied everything I knew, did and embodied the previous 28 years of my life as I was often ‘working for love’.  The relationships in my life were not always healthy and I always felt that I was never good enough.  But at a young age I learned that if I worked for your love, I could maybe, just maybe, make you happy and make you just like me.  But if I couldn’t work hard enough (which is what is always seemed like), I was left just feeling empty.  The cycle just repeated over the years and I’d hustle for love only to feel still empty. 

I used to think that the goal in life was to meet a man, who would then complete me and make me feel like I was enough.  I thought that I would never feel content unless I had a wonderful man in my life – hey at one point it didn’t even matter if he was wonderful, just having a man seemed like enough.   But what I didn’t realize (until the last couple years) is that I need to love me and that being whole would leave me feeling satisfied, fulfilled and complete.  You bet your bottom dollar that I can’t wait to have an amazing man in my life and build our lives together.  But also bet your bottom dollar that I will live an amazing life whether I have one in my life or not. 

It’s time for us (women and men) to love who we are (not what we do), to be content with our lives and to pursue our dreams.  It is when we can do all of those things that we live our lives in peace and joy.  When it comes to deciding the type of person we want to be, there are no rules.  But, it is really important to consider the legacy and impression you want to leave with people.  Do you want to be known as kind, compassionate, generous, loving, giving, strong, courageous, a dreamer, an influencer, or something else entirely different?  Here’s the thing – you get to decide that and then you get to live it out.  If you have no idea who you want to be, why don’t you take the time to think about.  If you’ve already started to figure out who you want to be and the legacy you want to leave behind, that’s amazing – keep building on that.  I used to think that I had to figure out all I wanted to do with my life and all I wanted to be all at once so I could live my life out of that, but there is so much joy and so much to learn in the journey to discovering all that and as each season in your life starts and ends, things will shift and change and you will re-adjust. 

The last few months I have been digging into deeper healing within my heart and learning so much and it’s such an honor to be able to share that with you and others.  I don’t take it for granted, so thank you for allowing me to share my journey and speak into your life.  When I named my blog “Sarah Taylor’s Journey” I really thought I was just going to be sharing about the past and what I’ve journey’ed through, but it wasn’t until this week that I realized that I will continue to share my learnings on this journey and that I will continually be growing.  Season after season. I am grateful for the times of pain that lead me to greater healing.  I’m grateful for each day, each season and each lesson, because without them all, I wouldn’t be who I am but because of them, I am who I am. 

Now, are you ready to see the dress that inspired this blog?  Say hello to the Good as Gold Dress by Sydney’s Closet.  This is another one of their dresses from their Celebrations line.  As soon as I put this dress on I really felt like a true goddess.  I was excited to get this dress but when it arrived in person it was even better than I thought!  It is full of Gold, Silver and Black Sequins, it hugged my curves in all the right places, has a v in the front and the back and shows of my legs (my fav part of my body).  I kind of just went big when I styled this dress too – I found this epic head chain from Ardene to support my Cleopatra vision and paired with gold chandelier earrings, gold ring and black pumps.  This dress is my choice for New Year’s Eve this year and I can’t wait to wear it out with the girls!

​Stay Beautiful,