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Notes from Chic Blogging Challenge over Paris’s CoVid-19 Lockdown (4)
June 18, 2020 For the Paris Spring 2020 CoVid-19 Lockdown, I followed Fiona Ferris’s 2 books (30 Chic Days and 30 More Chic Days) day-by-day and tried to implement each day’s recommendation. For the next several posts, I will write about what I learned through my 60-day assignment: Exercising our creativity is both more fun and more important to the quality of our daily experience than I originally thought. During lockdown, I would read one of Fiona’s chapters each night at bedtime. Then I would start my next day thinking about the concept and how I could apply it. What I learned is that thinking about how some idea might…
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Notes from Chic Blogging Challenge over Paris’s CoVid-19 Lockdown (1)
May 31, 2020 For the Paris Spring 2020 CoVid-19 Lockdown, I followed Fiona Ferris’s 2 books (30 Chic Days and 30 More Chic Days) day-by-day and tried to implement each day’s recommendation. For the next several posts, I will write about what I learned through my 60-day assignment: 30 Chic Days, Day 4 is titled “Make-up Your Eyes.” This chapter has good insight into human nature. Fiona’s suggestion is that we make just a bit of extra effort with something that we do every day, first thing in the day. This small physical action is an outward expression (& helpful reminder to us) that we value ourselves. I’m completely on-board…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Day 30 – What Our Feelings May Be Telling Us
May 19, 2020 Day 30 is titled “Focus On Creating Your Own Beautiful Life” in 30 More Chic Days by Fiona Ferris. In this chapter, Fiona discusses that not-so-delightful feeling of envy that can occur when we start comparing our life, activities and/or possessions with someone else’s life, activities and stuff. Fiona mentions this dynamic in her first book, 30 Chic Days, (which I reviewed here.) In this chapter, Fiona approaches the topic of envy from a slightly different angle. She writes about how she started comparing her life with someone else and felt that her own life seemed a bit boring. She began to feel unmotivated and that everything…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Day 29 – Chic or Foe?
May 18, 2020 “Incorporate Chic Anchors Throughout Your Home and Life” is the title of Day 29 of Fiona Ferris’s book, 30 More Chic Days. Fiona encourages us to quietly add small habits of beauty into our daily experience. Not only are these small rituals beautiful in and of themselves but they serve to support the chic elements of our lives. It’s all too easy in the rush of a busy life to lose focus of our sincere desire to live an elegant life and drift into … less beautiful and fulfilling ways of living. Our chic anchors serve as the guardians of our heart’s desire. Having only smaller, luncheon-sized…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Day 28 – Travel Chic
May 17, 2020 Fiona Ferris calls Day 28 “Get Your Chic Travel Game On” in her book 30 More Chic Days. She shares some of her favorite traveling tips and how they help make her travel experience easy and enjoyable. She has found that planning everything out in advance – using a packing list, a travel checklist plus laying her prospective travel wardrobe out on her bed a week in advance of her travel date – makes packing for her trip much easier. With her travel capsule wardrobe carefully thought out and everything in tip-top condition, she is free to enjoy her trip from start to finish. My family and…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Day 27 – Our Strengths Can Help
May 16, 2020 Day 27 is “Choose To Look and Feel Amazing” in 30 More Chic Days by Fiona Ferris. Fiona writes about her efforts to make the habit of healthy eating feel fun and exciting. She also wanted to find a way to make eating junky food much less attractive. She used several mental tools to accomplish her goal: reframing, creating a positive future vision for herself and leveraging an already developed mindset. “Choose to look and feel amazing” is a good title for today – I write this tongue-in-cheek – because I do NOT look nor feel amazing right at this moment. My hair is pulled back into…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Day 26 – Own Your Space
May 15, 2020 Fiona Ferris calls Day 26 “Create Your Own Designer Decor Look For Less” in her book, 30 More Chic Days. In this Day, Fiona talks to us about our home space. She discusses how she has developed her own look using inspiration from magazine articles, Pinterest and advertisements. She admires the sensibility of Ralph Lauren’s home product line – an English country house style and comfortable and layered. (The layered look, she describes, as something that combines high-quality pieces with rich colors and textures so that the room looks like it has had items added to it over years or even generations.) She does confess that she…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Day 25 – Own Your Star
May 14, 2020 Fiona Ferris calls Day 25 “Cultivate Your Own Star Quality” in her book, 30 More Chic Days. Fiona encourages us to recognize and enjoy the fact that we are the stars of our own lives. We are the only ones living inside our heads. Fiona is writing about how we see ourselves in our minds. Whatever our personal style, when we accept and honor our qualities that make us unique, we radiate the confidence of a “star.” We are able to see ourselves as distinct and interesting people. With this vision, we feel free to look at our own specific strengths and see what we can do…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Day 24 – Bloom in Place
May 13, 2020 “How To Love Where You Live” is Day 24 in Fiona Ferris’s 30 More Chic Days. Fiona discusses how we can make the most of our present location even if it not our “forever” place. She advises us to take our “dream” location and really analyze what is it that resonates with us. If we can describe both the particular attributes and the emotions that the “dream” location evokes in us, it may be possible to incorporate some of the list items in our present experience. This chapter has some good ideas. Even if we are feeling “stuck” in a geographic location that feels as inhospitable and…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Day 23 – Those “Grey” Days
May 12, 2020 “Know How To Lift Your Mood” is Day 23 in Fiona Ferris’s book, 30 More Chic Days. Fiona discusses how to approach those “grey” times in our lives when we don’t feel dreadful, don’t feel good, just feel sort-of “blah.” We’re not struggling to survive WW2 and we’re not feeling that “singing in the rain” buoyant joyfulness. We’re not battling clinical depression (that’s something much more serious) yet the day seems to be just dreary. Everything seems like a bit too much effort and who really cares, anyway? When our friends ask us where our positive spin on the world has gone, we are more likely to…