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A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 14 – Wellness and the Holiday Frenzy
December 16, 2020 In A Chic and Simple Christmas, author Fiona Ferris stresses the idea of keeping ourselves healthy during the holiday season. In her case, she writes about how, during the holidays, she had the tendency to go to bed later, maybe miss some walks or workouts and, of course, eat Christmas sweets. These things combined with a busier holiday schedule can make anyone start feeling a bit physically worn out but also a bit mentally more fragile to the stress and bustle of the season. “Wellness” is a word that I see often in popular media. Usually accompanied by beautiful photographs of slim women wearing yoga clothes (in…
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A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 13 – Take A Break
December 15, 2020 In Fiona Ferris’s book, A Chic and Simple Christmas, the author mentions that it’s okay to rest when one is tired. We seem to live in a time that idolizes “busy, busy, busy.” Whenever I talk to someone and ask how are they – the answer invariably is a breathless “SO busy” with words falling over themselves at top speed. I fall into this mindset quite easily, too. Today was a good example of starting out with a lovely plan for the day only to somehow get to that breathless, stressed, “busy, busy, busy” mode by mid-afternoon. (Just to be clear here, I am not an emergency…
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A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 12 – Declutter the ‘Fridge
December 14, 2020 It’s mid-December – 10 days until Christmas Eve. There’s been a bit of drift with the investment cooking schedule. The creamy chicken chowder has moved to Wednesday. A crustless Quiche Lorraine-ish hopped onto this afternoon’s project list in its place. (I call it Lorraine-ish because there is ham and gruyere cheese in it but also there is some leftover sauteed onions and some roasted red peppers that had been hanging about in the ‘fridge for the last little while.) I make a large crustless quiche almost every other weekend. The quiche acts as a recipient for any leftover veggies and as an easy, hearty lunch during the…
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A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 11 – Sunday Progress Report #2
December 13, 2020 This is the second weekend of Holiday Season 2020. The first weekend was a tumultuous Saturday “delayed Thanksgiving” (both happy and stressful). The Sunday of that first weekend was very quiet but full of reflection on how to better maximize the fun and minimize the chaos. This second Sunday, I can see some improvement in my own feeling of calm and order. I have the “Master Schedule” posted. (My husband has taken to calling it “The One Schedule to Rule Them All”.) With regards to ensuring that we actually do fun Christmas activities, the whole family (plus a visiting friend) enjoyed watching Christmas movies both Friday and…
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A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 10 – Investment Cooking
December 12, 2020 Holidays and holiday food seem to enjoy a close relationship, at least in my traditions. If only my preferred holiday food enjoyed a good relationship with words like healthy, slimming, and EASY! Fiona Ferris proposes a good plan to manage holiday food in her book, A Chic and Simple Christmas. She does several “investment” cooking meals either right before or early in the season. She prepares a double or triple size meal (like a casserole or a meatloaf) that survives freezing and reheating deliciously. She and her husband eat their usual serving. After dinner, Fiona separates out the remainder and stores it in meal-sized containers and…
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A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 9 – Reduce Resentment
December 11, 2020 In A Chic and Simple Christmas, author Fiona Ferris briefly mentions feeling resentment when her unspoken expectations for a particular holiday experience were not met. Resentment seems like a strange topic to bring up when we are contemplating the supposedly festive and joyful holiday season. But as I look at my list of what I like about the holidays and the things that I don’t like, I can certainly remember past holidays when I felt quite a bit of irritation and resentment. I don’t like to admit even to myself that there were (many) instances when I begrudged even minimal effort for holiday activities that either were…
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A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 8 – Schedule the Fun
December 10, 2020 It’s a cold and grey day here in Paris. The temperatures hovered all day around freezing (32 F/0 C). Even though I sometimes feel like I’m a grinch-in-training when it comes to the holidays, I was positively chipper this morning on my morning coffee-gratitude walk. I was beautifully warm and I felt pretty stylish with my thick socks worn inside my tall boots (waterproof) and my spiffy heavy wool coat. I wore a pale pink, very wide scarf and my shearling gloves. Here in Paris, quite a few women wear very wide scarves (about 3 times wider than a typical scarf) wrapped almost blanket-like around their neck…
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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 18 – What Interesting Things Are We Learning This Lockdown?
November 20, 2020 Day 18 is called “Learn something” in Fiona Ferris’s book, 30 Chic Days At Home. She writes about the fun she had with her “learning projects” while her home nation of New Zealand was in its CoVid-19 lockdown, Spring, 2020. She focused on, among others, retaking/rereading on-line courses that she has purchased in the past and trying more difficult sewing patterns. She encourages us to find a project that has always interested us and take advantage of this enforced “free” time to dive in. I am definitely following Fiona’s advice right now! France is in their second national lockdown so I can’t go traipsing about exploring Paris…