How to Live Well eBook

I am excited to share with you a little project I’ve been working on lately.  It’s my first eBook!

‘How to Live Well’ is a compilation of favourite posts from this blog.  They are put together in chapters and I have tweaked and updated some of them.  It’s priced really inexpensively so you can enjoy portable inspiration on your Kindle eReader, and if you are a member of Amazon Prime you can read it for free.

If you don't have a Kindle eReader and would like to read my eBook, you can download a Free Kindle Reading App to your computer from Amazon.  I did this a while back since I don't have an eReader, and it's been great to be able to download eBooks that I couldn't have read otherwise as they are not in print.

You can see my Ebook and the link to download a Free Kindle Reading App on Amazon here.

I have plans to release more blog eBooks on different and yummy topics, and I am also working on ‘actual’ books, I have at least two in mind and these will be written with original content that is not already on my blog.

I am nervous and excited all at the same time.  Writing is my first love and I know I want to do more of it.  Thank you for being here with me on this journey.

Q&A Time

Me thinking I'm all that when my brother took me out in his Audi convertible last week.  Driving open-top on a lovely day does feel really good!

I love it when bloggers host Q&A sessions.  It’s so interesting the kinds of questions asked, plus of course their answers.  I’m totally nosy!  So I thought it would be fun to do one myself.

If you’ve ever felt curious about anything or have a question, ask away.  You can email me at howtobechic at gmail dot com or leave a comment under this post.

I will answer your questions in a Q&A post to come, and if there are questions about something I’d like to answer more in depth, they may even become a blog post.

Fun!  I’m excited about this.  And a bit scared.  But that’s what life is about, taking a chance.

Please, please let at one person ask a question… otherwise I'll have to organise some ring-ins.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

I watched Breakfast at Tiffany's again recently.  Le sigh.  What a beautiful and fun movie, and Holly Golightly's small wardrobe is to die for.  Forget the fact that Audrey Hepburn is tiny and all the clothing is by Givenchy, it really makes me crave simple and classic choices.  I knew someone in the blogosphere must have catalogued each outfit and I wasn't wrong.  There is a great roundup here and I also love this WikiHow:

Watching this movie re-inspired me to make my life more glamorous and simple.  So I asked myself some ways I could do this:

- The first thing that came to mind was to get rid of my fuchsia pink fleece winter robe (even though it's less than two years old).  I just feel frumpy in it even though it is cosy.  If it isn't there I won't wear it.  Instead, I can use the brand new white cotton robe that is lined in terry which my mother bought me at my request as a gift.  I'm worried about getting body cream on it so it stays in my wardrobe unused!  That's for winter, in summer I have a chic robe already - silky and satiny in deep grey with a floral print (stylish not old lady).

- Go back to really classic clothing combinations and don't be afraid of black.

- Be more easygoing and don't get het up over little things that don't matter in the long run.  Be carefree.

- Play around with my hair more and not rely so much on the ponytail.  Work on my chignon technique!

- Take inspiration from the way Holly Golightly speaks.  She calls people darling and cajoles them along in a charming way.  I don't want to sound affected but I could be less practical and more whimsical in my speech just for fun.  At least loosen up a little!  She is also always smiling and happy for most of the movie.  Nothing weighs heavy on her shoulders.

What made me want to re-watch Breakfast at Tiffany's was a book I just finished called Being Audrey Hepburn by Michell Kriegman.  It was an impulse order from the library and the main character is a 19 year old from Jersey.  I didn't hold high hopes for it but was prepared to give it the 100-page go.  Well, I was very pleasantly surprised - such a delightful book to read and full of references to Audrey Hepburn and Breakfast at Tiffany's.  The author is obviously a major fan.  I now want to watch/re-watch all her other movies!

Here are two inspiring quotes I noted down from Being Audrey Hepburn:

Nan’s door opened and there she was, dressed in a fluffy lavender bathrobe, her cheeks rosy, her silver hair pulled into a chic knot.

“Nan, you’re ok!’” I said.

“Of course, dear, I was just taking a bubble bath.”  She stretched her arms out to hug me.  “Like liquid Prozac, isn’t it?”

“It’s so lovely to see you,” she said from her bedroom as she changed into her clothes.

“I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to interrupt your bath.”

“Oh, not a problem.  I’m quite shrivelled up and wrinkled as it is,” she said with a laugh.  “Although the sea salts were soothing.”

I heard the distinctive snap of her Chanel compact, the one she still had from the sixties that she continuously refilled herself.  Don’t ask why, but to me that little click had the definitive sound of luxury.  It always summoned the smiling, elegant image of Nan.

She entered the room all bright and shiny, with a light blush highlighting her cheeks, an absolute minimum of makeup, totally put together in seconds.  I marvelled at how she did that.

--

(on the designer stores on Fifth Avenue):

Judging by these stores, the world was an intelligent, exquisitely tasteful place, with no detail too small to refine.  Here, designers and craftspeople infused mere everyday garments – a shirt, a skirt, a pair of flats – with creativity and perfection.

Bonjour

Mum and I visited Sydney last month and it was fabulous, as you'd imagine!

Bonjour dear friends,

I am so pleased to be back from my blogging break, and thank you for the lovely comments and emails I received since I was last here.  I really, really appreciate them.

Something I’ve been thinking about lately is that I’ve always told myself I’m a quiet person who values their own company, and it’s true.   But hearing the phrase recently ‘fear of being seen’ or ‘fear of visibility’ really rang true for me.  When I first started this blog I only told two people about it and they were my only readers for quite a while.  That felt comfortable to me.

Then others found me, as we do, by searching around the internet for our passions, hobbies and interests, and even though readers of this blog are nothing but the kindest, loveliest and most fun people I’ve ever had the good fortune to interact with, I felt afraid when my blog got too big.  And it’s not even that big!  I saw the stat counters of how many people read each day and how many page views and it freaked me out.

Instead of having my blog be a fun and happy place to be, I felt responsible and under pressure.  I know, I know, it was all me, and completely unnecessary.  But the mind is a powerful thing.  So I stopped my blog.  Then after a few years I restarted it because I really missed it.  And even though my readership had dropped off because of  my break, it still felt too open.  I never considered taking the blog down though so it can’t have been that, so just what was I afraid of?

It’s something I am actively working on, working out why I want to hide away sometimes.  It feels like self-imposed exile because it is.  It’s the fear of people thinking what I’ve written is shallow or dumb.  When really, it’s not the law that someone reads my blog, it’s an option they can take or not take.  Just as I have the option to feel happy writing on my blog for fun, or feel frozen with anxiety over writing/not writing.

I know.  Nutter!  So I’m putting my negative mind chatter to one side, and look forward to continuing the sharing of thoughts and conversation on living a chic life.  I hope you will join me.

See you Friday!

Blogging Break

Me and my girls - Jessica at the top and Nina below (yes it's two cats)

Bonjour! 

I am calling in to let you know I am taking a blogging break.  The simple reason being that I much prefer living life than writing about it at the moment.  My days are so simple and routine that I am having a hard time coming up with anything new.  If you want to know what I’m up to, I have already written about it previously!

Living, working, cooking, eating, loving, knitting, reading and being - all the simple yet divine moments life is made of.

Please know I so appreciate your reading and commenting.  I have read every comment and am grateful that you took the time to stop and share your thoughts.  Thank you for being a part of my blog.

Fiona

Summer Holiday

Hydrangeas in our garden - I grew them from cuttings - so proud!

Even though I have been back at work for three weeks now, my mind is still on holiday.  I’ve not been able to string three words together to form a post!  Instead I’ve just been enjoying… being.  Our weather is stunningly beautiful – one blue-skied warm-breeze day after another.  I’m sorry if I’m showing off if you are in the depths of winter where you are – you can pay me back in July.

It’s nice to feel like we are still on holiday whilst still going to work.  And one thing I forget about January is that it’s our business’s second busiest month of the year after December.  For some reason I think that after we’ve gotten December sorted I can relax.  And I can, but not until February.

So January is one long stretch of work and relaxation with the backdrop of a sub-tropical paradise.  I’ve been reading all my glorious library books which I have overstocked myself with.  There is one whole bookshelf at home filled with them and I’m loving working my way through the queue.

Plus I’ve started a knitting project and that’s fun, even though it’s slightly out-of-season.  It will be in-season when it is completed.

Something I have re-remembered lately has been thrilling me too – it’s the transformative quality of finishing little tasks.  All those half-done things that get you down, and sometimes they don’t even take that long to do.  But when it’s busy it is all too easy to notice them (yet again) and pass them on by.

One big thing that has been on my back for several months is getting together all our tax stuff.  Because it’s big and once a year it’s hard to get started.  I know I’m not alone here.  And even though I am relatively organised it is still an ordeal.  And now that I’ve completed it and handed it in to our accountant, I wonder what I was putting it off for since it doesn’t seem that bad.  But I do the same year after year.  I will have to remember the empowering feeling of accomplishment and freedom when it’s done so I don’t let the torture of it hanging over me go on for too long next time.

And simple tidying of cluttery piles makes you feel amazing too.  Since we came back from holiday and launched ourselves into January at work, home has been a little neglected (on the inside anyway, outside is going good, with lovely watered and happy growing things).  Yesterday I came home early from work and tidied and vacuumed and I feel like a new person.  I slept so well last night!

And that leads me onto another thing.  I’ve been having late (for me) nights lately and I’m craving early nights.  I heard today that ‘sleep makes you skinny’ and that it makes you crave sugar less and therefore you lose weight when you get 7-8 hours’ sleep minimum.  And if it’s one thing I could do with, it’s craving sugar less.  So I’m off to wash my face and potter ideally at 9pm, definitely no later than 9.30pm so I have time to read before lights out at 10pm.

So I really just wanted to call in and say hi, in this Seinfeld-esque post about nothing.  And for the season I’m in, that’s probably exactly what I need - nothing, to ‘just be’ (when at home anyway).

Before I go, if you haven’t already heard about TonyaLeigh’s French Kiss Life Club, I’d definitely recommend you to sign up (it’s free to join).  Since being introduced to Tonya’s website several months ago by two of my very dear international blog friends, I’ve been entranced by her rose-tinted view on the world. 

I even joined Tonya for her ‘Slim, Chic and Savvy’ programme late last year and it was truly fabulous, well worth the money spent.  I’ve already joined the FKL Club and the first newsletter had so many good ideas in it.  #frenchkisslife

See you next week!