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A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 24 – Treats for After the Big Day?
December 26, 2020 Fiona Ferris encourages us to have something to look forward to in her book, A Chic and Simple Christmas. The idea is that we have all of the holiday excitement and build-up to experience but we might also enjoy some type of treat after the actual Christmas Day festivities. Ordinarily, I would have some kind of trip planned. Here in France with the nation still watching rising CoVid-19 case numbers, a quick trip is not really on my possibilities list. Instead of having a bigger treat to look forward to, I am building a list of smaller treats to enjoy for the period between Christmas day and…
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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 22 – Counting Down to Christmas Day – Intention
December 24, 2020 In A Chic & Simple Christmas, Fiona Ferris encourages us to do a mental walk-through of our Christmas celebrations so that we mentally prepare ourselves to experience the day as we choose to do. When we set our intention and our mental attitude, we are more in control of how we interpret and react to the events of the day. I’ve been practicing with “setting my intention” for the past few days. Not to practice for handling comments or difficult family members but to see if I can collect myself even before the day begins and set a peaceful, calm mood (that can hopefully last through the…
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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 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…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Day 1 – Let Our Imagination Take The Lead
April 19, 2020 I skipped Days 1, 2 & 3 from Fiona’s Ferris’s book, 30 Chic Days, when I started blogging each day of Paris’s CoVid-19 lockdown. (I started writing on Day 4 of Paris’s lockdown so wanted to start on Day 4 of Fiona’s book.) When I went back and reread those days in the book, however, I found too much valuable insight in each day to just cavalierly skip them. Let’s take a look at those first three days of 30 Chic Days before we close the book. . Day 1 is titled “Have a Paris State of Mind” in Fiona Ferris’s book 30 Chic Days. Fiona lays…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Day 2 – Food Is Life
April 18, 2020 I skipped Days 1, 2 & 3 from Fiona’s Ferris’s book, 30 Chic Days, when I started blogging each day of Paris’s CoVid-19 lockdown. (I started writing on Day 4 of Paris’s lockdown so wanted to start on Day 4 of Fiona’s book.) When I went back and reread those days in the book, however, I found too much valuable insight in each day to just cavalierly skip them. Let’s take a look at those first three days of 30 Chic Days before we close the book. Fiona Ferris calls Day 2 “Eat Real Food” in her book 30 Chic Days. In this chapter, she writes about…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Day 3 – We Are What We Talk About
April 17, 2020 I skipped Days 1, 2 & 3 from Fiona’s Ferris’s book, 30 Chic Days, when I started blogging each day of Paris’s CoVid-19 lockdown. (I started writing on Day 4 of Paris’s lockdown so wanted to start on Day 4 of Fiona’s book.) When I went back and reread those days in the book, however, I found too much valuable insight in each day to just cavalierly skip them. Let’s take a look at those first three days of 30 Chic Days before we close the book. In Fiona Ferris’s book, 30 Chic Days, Day 3 is titled “Bathe Yourself in Mystique”. In this chapter, Fiona is…