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A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 30 – Thoughts for the New Year
January 1, 2021 Happy New Year & Bonne Année! Today was a lovely day here in Paris – very cold but bright and sunny. I took my usual morning coffee-gratitude walk past the Eiffel Tower (as you can see from the photo.) Even as early as I go out, there were a few people already walking around on the broad plaza. There were, as always, several van-loads of armed police in riot gear stationed around the plaza. I nodded and thanked them for their service as well as wishing them a happy new year (Bonne Année). (It was below freezing this morning and these guys were standing out on the…
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A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 23 – Joyeux Noël!
December 25, 2020 Joyeux Noël and Merry Christmas! My intention for today is to revel in the feeling of thankfulness. It was a lovely morning as I made my coffee and enjoyed both the quiet of puttering about in the kitchen by myself and memories of Christmases when the children were younger and they woke my husband and me up much earlier. Coffee back then happened after the noise and excitement of present opening. Today, the lure of presents drew them out of bed earlier than their usual mid-morning preferred vacation rising time. After present opening & breakfast (& more coffee), I wandered down rue Passy to get the day’s…
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A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 17 – Christmas Day Conversation Rehearsal
December 19, 2020 In A Chic and Simple Christmas, Fiona Ferris discusses how she mentally prepares for her Christmas day events. She writes that when she mentally “practices” for the day, she is able to relax and enjoy it even more. One way to “practice” is to lay out one’s outfit several days before (and make sure everything is in good condition.) Another way is to visualize how you want to behave in different social events. No matter how wonderful it is to gather with loved ones, there is always one or two participants who will say or do something that tests our “calm and chic” resolve. Having a pre-thought…
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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 20 – What Do We Talk About?
November 22, 2020 Fiona Ferris titled Day 20 “Be a bright spark” in her book, 30 Chic Days At Home. She makes a concentrated effort to focus on the positive in her day. She wants to bring cheer to herself and to the people around her. It seems natural that we would want to feel cheerful as a matter of course. It’s simply more fun to be around cheerful people than gloomy people. (And we have to be around ourselves 24-7.) Yet, have you ever been around someone who seems to positively delight in gloom and doom? That person who rushes to tell you all about the most recent shocking…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Part 2: Day 16 – The Special Occasion is Now
November 18, 2020 Fiona Ferris urges us to use our “specials” – our nice things – right now in Day 16 of her book, 30 Chic Days At Home. All of us are living through frightening and uncertain times right now. Fiona has brought out her special treasures to add beauty and a comforting sparkle to her day. She’s doing things like using her nicer china for her morning tea, burning the lovely candle that was a recent gift, and spritzing on her favorite “special occasion” perfume even though she’ll be at home all day. She writes that pulling out a few of her nicest things adds a bubble of…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Part 2: Day 8 – Add Color!
November 10, 2020 Fiona Ferris encourages us to “Welcome colour” in Day 8 of her book, 30 Chic Days At Home. Exercising our creativity by adding pops of color into our day can lift our spirits. Bringing out a set of bright table napkins or pulling out a colorful throw blanket can perk up a room and our mood. She points out that while we are home, we have the perfect opportunity to experiment with stronger colored make-up than we might ordinarily try. Another good suggestion is to add some pops of color to a salad. I implemented this one today at lunch – I “dressed up” my green salad…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Part 2: Day 7 – “Confinement” Chic
November 9, 2020 In chapter (“Day”) 7 of 30 Chic Days At Home, Fiona discusses how we care for and present ourselves as a way to keep our morale boosted. She wrote her book during New Zealand’s first “lockdown” month which started 25 March 2020 and lasted until the end of April-mid-May. This was Autumn in New Zealand so Fiona’s style preferences were directed towards cold-weather friendly clothing. The main point that she makes in this chapter is that how we dress ourselves influences our emotional setting. We want to be especially intentional in building “mood-lifters” into our day when we are going through tough times. It doesn’t really matter…
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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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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…