Paris Lockdown 2 - 30 Days At Home
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Part 2: Day 30 – Plan Ahead
December 2, 2020 Day 30 is titled “Future plans” in 30 Chic Days at Home by Fiona Ferris. Fiona has made a list of fun things to look forward to for her near future. The spice of these fun activities gives her hope and the anticipation of interesting things to do even during a difficult year such 2020. Like Fiona says in this chapter, large fun things like big holiday trips are probably not in my immediate future. But I can think of several smaller fun things that would be fun to do over the next few months as France (hopefully) slowly emerges from our second national lockdown of the…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Part 2: Day 29 – To Thine Own Self Be True…
December 1, 2020 Day 29 is “Be different to everyone else” in Fiona Ferris’s book, 30 Chic Days At Home. Fiona suggests that we step aside from the news and talk shows and popular culture for a moment (only a moment! No one-way ticket to a deserted island without internet access required for this exercise.) In this moment, Fiona encourages us to choose a more positive (and interesting) way to engage with the world around us by focusing on something other than CoVid-19 and the difficult circumstances of 2020. She gives us several other things that we could use for our thoughts and our conversations – things like what books…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Part 2: Day 28 – Focus on the Positives
November 30, 2020 In Day 28 of 30 Chic Days At Home, author Fiona Ferris encourages us to “Take the wins” – focus on the positive things that we have done recently like being more patient or creative. The things that we might have done that would not fit under the “positive” heading, let’s shake those off and get back on track. Fiona writes that it’s more helpful to focus on the good things that we have done and give ourselves a pat on the back. That way we build momentum and keep heading in that positive direction. Beating ourselves up for whatever we might have done (like slacking off…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Part 2: Day 27 – Beautiful Mornings
November 29, 2020 “Luxurious mornings” is what Fiona Ferris calls Day 27 in her book, 30 Chic Days at Home. She details how a lovely morning routine starts her out on her day feeling pampered and refreshed. An interesting detail she adds is that she has a shower squeegee hanging on a hook in the shower. After she turns the water off, she can give the walls and doors a quick swipe and the shower looks (almost) effortlessly pristine. So, not only does she have a beautiful morning routine that gets her up and moving and feeing motivated and pampered, but she also has a very quick step in her…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Part 2: Day 26 – Sleep That Knits Up The Ravell’d Sleeve of Care…
November 28, 2020 Day 26 is titled “Take a nap” in Fiona Ferris’s book, 30 Chic Days At Home. She writes that she found herself more tired than usual during her home nation New Zealand’s lockdown in Spring of 2020. Interestingly, she notes that the news had reported that many people are feeling more tired than usual during this stressful period. Here in Paris, it’s day one of France’s slow walk out of a month of lockdown. In contrast to the last four weeks of sleepy quiet, my neighborhood market street and the main shopping street are hopping with masked pedestrians. Every shop seems to be decorated for the Christmas…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Part 2: Day 25 – Go For A Walk
November 27, 2020 Fiona Ferris calls Day 25, “Move it baby!” in her book, 30 Chic Days At Home. For her lockdown period in New Zealand in the Spring of 2020, she tried to keep active in some fashion each day. She writes how much better she feels, both mentally and physically, after following along with a yoga or pilates video on YouTube. I don’t do yoga or pilates (yet! I may give them a try…) but living here in Paris, I do plenty of walking each day. I wear a step counter so I can keep an eye on how active I am over time. Even in France’s second…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Part 2: Day 24 – Easy & Thankful
November 26, 2020 Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers! I have a lot to be grateful for – and I am especially thankful for you delightful readers. Talking with you through the comments and Instagram messages is a wonderful addition to my day. Day 24 in Fiona Ferris’s book, 30 Chic Days At Home, is titled “Go with the flow.” Fiona encourages us to take it easy on ourselves and follow our interests a bit – whether our interest is getting the closet in order or taking a nap. Yes, we do live in the real world and we do have responsibilities to maintain but sometimes it’s okay to take…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Part 2: Day 23 – Serenity & Changing the World
November 24, 2020 In 30 Chic Days At Home, Day 23 is titled “Create order.” Author Fiona Ferris writes about how she works at keeping her sense of inner peace and tranquility during her typical day at home when her home nation, New Zealand, was in CoVid-19 lockdown in Spring of 2020. For Fiona (and most humans,) a degree of outer order provides a calming support for a sense of inner order and serenity. Being at home with everyone in the house definitely creates more disorder as the house is being used more than is customary. Three meals a day and people and pets in all areas of the house…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Part 2: Day 22 – What Do We Choose?
November 24, 2020 Fiona Ferris talks about “self-talk” in Day 22 of her book, 30 Chic Days At Home. She specifically highlights how we talk about our current CoVid-19 situation. If we are in a national lockdown, do we call it being “stuck at home?” or do we call it “privileged to be safe?” Fiona reminds us that how we describe our situation is how we will experience it – for good or ill. Confession time: a LOT of the time I call France’s lockdowns “stuck inside.” But Fiona is right – I choose how I experience this situation by the words I use to name it and describe it.…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Part 2: Day 21 – Self-Starter
November 23, 2020 “Make do and mend” is Fiona Ferris’s title for Day 21 in her book, 30 Chic Days at Home. She writes that the activity of doing a small “fix-it” task lifts her mood. She likes the sense of control that it gives her to be able to make a small improvement or come up with a creative work-around to an issue. I used to think that dropping an item of clothing off with a tailor or at the dry-cleaners was the easiest thing to do when I found a small tear or loose button. I hated waiting around all day for a service person to come look…