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A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 4 – Breath
December 6, 2020 In 30 Chic Days At Home, author Fiona Ferris writes “Take the Wins.” She encourages us to focus on the good things that we are doing. When we pay attention to what we are doing well and to those things that we enjoy, we enjoy them even more and, more importantly, we do more of whatever it is. Today is the day after my family’s “Thanksgiving” celebration. (We celebrated a week later than the actual American Thanksgiving holiday because my husband was traveling over the actual day.) I detail how the day actually progressed in yesterday’s post. (Hint: it had its ups and downs, as far as…
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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 13 – Double-Down on Happy
November 15, 2020 “Have things to look forward to” is the title for Day 13 in 30 Chic Days At Home by Fiona Ferris. She writes that having a list of small and large “good” things to look forward to keeps her spirits buoyant and her mindset focused on the positive. Simple things like a half-hour with a magazine before dinner as well as larger things like her writing projects add an opportunity for gratitude and a nice zing of anticipation into her daily experience. I find it enjoyable to have small “treats” to look forward to and to plan for. I like to make lists in preparation for whatever…
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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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Inspiration and Creativity as Springboards to a Beautifully-Lived Life
Want to add a sparkle to your day? Read Thirty More Chic Days: Creating an Inspired Mindset for a Magical Life by Fiona Ferris. Ferris offers a month of ideas that will turbocharge your inner Parisian chic-ster (and upgrade your daily life experience.) Each chapter represents a day in the month. And each day, the author presents an idea to “up-level” the reader’s ordinary life experience. Whether it’s an idea to free one’s creativity or an idea to set aside a little time for additional self-care, each nugget of advice is gently and persuasively described. One cannot help but be inspired by the author’s sense of enthusiasm and ingenuity! Her…
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Sleep -vs- Calm
I tried a “schedule” experiment a few weeks ago. I read Hal Elrod’s The Miracle Morning: The Not So Obvious Secret Guarenteed to Transform Your Life and decided to try his 30-day challenge. Here is Elrod’s basic message: how we START our day basically sets the course for how our day goes. Start our day by scrambling out of bed late and panic-stricken (because we hit the snooze button too many times) and we tend to continue on a scrambling, chaotic-feeling course for the whole day. Start our day with a short series of activities that brings us to a calm, focused, grateful mental state and we move through…