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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 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 17 – What’s On The Life List?
November 19, 2020 In 30 Chic Days At Home by Fiona Ferris, Day (Chapter) 17 is “Set your goals.” In this “day,” Fiona describes her lists of things that she wants to do. There are three goal lists; “Now,” “Next,” and “Future.” The Now list has the items that she wants to achieve in the present. The Next list is comprised of those things that she wants to get started on once she finishes the items on the Now list. The Future list is for big, exciting, pie-in-the-sky type things that inspire her to plan and work on achieving big, long-term things. This is another one of Fiona’s ideas that’s…
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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 11 – Happy Memories
November 13, 2020 “Sort your phots” is what Fiona Ferris titled Day 11 in her book, 30 Chic Days At Home. She describes an excellent way to easily sort old photos and put them in an album. With her sorting method, a box full of old photos turns into a lovely and enjoyable photo album with a few hours of effort. In The Happiness Project, author Gretchen Rubin writes about how happiness can be enjoyed and amplified by happy memories. She writes that studies show that recalling happy times boosts our happiness in the present. We’ve all experienced that unexpected yet delightful giggle that results from remembering a funny episode…
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Health Values and Visiting Great Cooks
This past weekend, I picked an idea for handling “holiday” stress from one of Fiona Ferris’s other books, A Chic and Simple Christmas to try. It just so happens that on this weekend, I traveled to visit some wonderful extended family members. So, why was I reading ideas on how to handle stress, you naturally ask. Well, not only are the family members wonderful people, they are also wonderful cooks. And I am trying to follow a Keto food plan (basically, eating very low sugar/low carb.) It’s been surprisingly easy to adapt to this approach as long as I am not surrounded by delicious home-baked sweets, donuts, cakes, cookies…. all…