Blog
Thoughts from the day.
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Day 14 – Elegant and Active At All Ages
May 3, 2020 Fiona Ferris titles Day 14 “Grow Better Every Year” in her book, 30 More Chic Days. She writes about aging as “growing better each year.” Fiona definitely has a good point about how our attitude and our actions have a great deal with determining how we experience any of our years. Our later years are likewise heavily influenced by our mental perspective and habits. We’ve all seen inspiring examples of people who move with grace and vitality through different stages of life. And we’ve seen the sad opposite. Our best option, as Fiona writes, is to create a chic vision of the people we want to be…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Day 13 – How To Be a “Lockdown” Chic Success
May 2, 2020 “Become A Chic Success” is Fiona Ferris’s Day 13 in her book, 30 More Chic Days. Fiona encourages us to really think about what our personal vision of a chic and successful life would be. Whatever springs to mind, write it down. With the list, we now have a motivating individualized blueprint of how we wanted to live our lives. I love the idea of it! Our question, according to Fiona, would be “If I was a chic success, what would my life look like?” I’m definitely interested in discovering what my picture of “chic success'” is with regard to my overall life. At the moment, however,…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Day 12 – Easy Does It
May 1, 2020 “Be Easy To Get Along With” is Day 12 in 30 More Chic Days by Fiona Ferris. Fiona writes that she wants to become “an easy-going, pleasant and positive person who travels lightly through life and enjoys a happy-go-lucky disposition.” She found that she was happier herself when she chose to see the world in an optimistic, upbeat way and to act in kind and down-to-earth ways. Even though things are often not perfect, she has found how to keep her internal setting at a positive level which allows her to enjoy her day. We are all getting a lesson on how to be calm and easy-going…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Day 11 – Rest & Recharge
April 30, 2020 Fiona Ferris calls Day 11 “Honour Your Feminine Heart” in her book, 30 More Chic Days. In this chapter, Fiona writes about the need to take a break from our daily to-do list and do an activity that feeds our souls. Or to be more accurate, schedule a little time as part of our to-do list to do something purely for joy. It seems as if modern life adores busy, busy, busy. I sometimes wonder within my own, American culture if the cult of “busy” and “over-scheduled” is considered to be a mark of pride. If you ask someone how are they doing, the answer is…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Day 10 – How to Use That La Vacance Feeling!
April 29, 2020 Day 10 is “From Paris to the South of France” in 30 More Chic Days by Fiona Ferris. When Fiona moved from the city to a more rural village in New Zealand, she used the idea of being a Parisian who had moved to the South of France to help her adjust to and enjoy the transition to her new location. Transition can be difficult even if it’s a hoped-for and planned change. By using her imagination and framing the transition in a uniquely inspiring way, Fiona was able to have fun with the process. Living here in lockdown Paris, transition seems to be the…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Day 9 – Channel Chanel
April 28, 2020 “Have a Closet Like Coco” is the title for Day 9 in Fiona Ferris’s book, 30 More Chic Days. Fiona writes that Coco Chanel can give us a few pointers for living the chic life of our dreams. Coco created a unique, specific style vision for herself and she lived according to that vision. What the rest of the world was doing and wearing was not important to her. Coco’s style was comfortable, distinctive and timeless. Her color palette was flattering and consistent. She created a style that suited her preferences and her lifestyle and stuck with it throughout her life. What can we learn from…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Day 8 – Summer Style
April 27, 2020 Fiona Ferris calls Day 8 “Be Chic In The Summer” in her book, 30 More Chic Days. Fiona writes about how she keeps her “chic” when temperatures and humidity are high. She addresses wardrobe, hair and skincare. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, this “Day” is particularly appropriate because summer is rapidly approaching. I looked at two parts of this chapter: clothes and hair. When I live in the US, I’m in a very hot, humid Southern state. To compound the challenge, most indoor spaces like grocery stores or department stores have the air-conditioning temperature set very low. I kid you not, I keep…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Day 7 – Dream Filter
April 26, 2020 Day 7 is titled “Find Your Dream Life Filter” in Fiona Ferris’s book, 30 More Chic Days. She writes about having a quick and effective way of knowing when some thing, person or activity is a good match for our chic lives. This helps us zero in on all the things that support and nourish our dreams as well as avoid things, people and activities that bring us down. The wonderful thing about having a clear and descriptive filter is that it adds fun to your life. Every purchase or activity, person or thought can be evaluated by how they match up to our chic dreams. …
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Day 6 – What Does Your Very Chic Future Self Do?
April 25, 2020 Fiona Ferris calls Day 6 “Be Your Own Chic Mentor” in her book, 30 More Chic Days. Fiona writes about our vision of our “dream” life can inspire ourselves to more fun and living with more authenticity. But first, we have to know our dream vision! Fiona advises us to sit down with pen and paper and brainstorm what we would really like to see in a “perfect” mentor. If we could describe someone who would be our perfect chic mentor, what would that person be like in terms of inner character, appearance, dress, activities, self-care, home decor, reading list… whatever we can think of! Fiona is…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Day 5 – What is Sexy?
April 24, 2020 “Get Your Sexy Back” is Day 5 in Fiona Ferris’s book, 30 More Chic Days. How do we go through our normal lives as adults of whatever age, taking care of whatever daily responsibilities that we have and keep the grim specter of “dowdiness” from sneaking in our door? Dowdiness is not only just a few pieces of overly “frumpy+comfort=frumpfort” (from Day 1) clothes. Translation: “shapeless, baggy, faded, stretched-out elastic waistbands, worn thin spots and a few small holes”. Maybe even a petit stain here and there? The type of clothes that we might throw on without thinking, yet if we see of photo of us wearing…