The Chic Assignments ~ April

/2 Comments/in , /by

Goodness, April is almost over. It’s going by way to fast. I hope that you all had a wonderful Easter. I always to try to make sure that we continue to teach the children what’s important about Easter. Christ has risen! 

I was able to find some baby’s breath at the store. I was not sure if I would be able to its also prom month here in Indy and the baby’s breath is always elusive.

My table at home


Okay, now let me share with you all on how I am doing on the Chic Assignments for April.
The first assignment was to listen to Schubert’s Ava Maria. After seeing the Notre Dame Cathedral burn this was hard to listen too. That was so heartbreaking to me! I immediately starting thinking about all of the beautiful, historical buildings in our country. God, please protect them! We all enjoy them and honor them! 
I did, however, watch the video that Jennifer had on her site of the father singing it with his beautiful daughter watching. That lifted my spirits after seeing the news about the cathedral. 
The second assignment was to read poetry from author Percy B. Shelley. I did listen to the poem that Jennifer read on her blog but I also love Maya Angelou’s poem called “Woman Work”. I think we can all relate to this poem. 
photo credit Pinterest 
The third assignment was to dress up for no reason. I live my life like this so it is not hard for me at all. I enjoy dressing up every day. Even on the weekends. It is truly amazing how much people pay attention to that. I wore a floral dress and cardigan to the grocery store this past weekend and people were stopping me everywhere saying how much they loved my dress. I told my daughter. People love seeing well-dressed people. I don’t care how they act. People, deep down inside, love it!
Me in my floral dress and cardigan
If you are interested in this dress you may purchase it here.


And the last assignment was getting intentional rest. I try to make sure that I do this from time to time. A few years ago I realized that I did not take any personal days from work. Then one of my good friends who was a supervisor at the time said, “Don’t worry about this place. The work will be here when you return”. So now I take more personal days and enjoy my life. 
My office at home
And I spend them at home. I’ll watch a movie with a cup of tea, read, run a few errands, visit an antique store. I really take time to relish in the things I love. 

Well, that is all from the chic assignments of Mrs. Shockley. Let me know what all you have been doing for the month of April. Being chic I hope!
Thanks for reading!!!
(photos via Mrs. Shockley)

Floral Satin Scarf

/2 Comments/in , /by
Finding a great satin scarf is a wonderful thing. I love finding a beautiful scarf each spring. This was a stupendous find! It is gorgeous and under $15! How great is that?
This is the patterned satin scarf at H&M.
The colors are tasteful and the flowers are very attractive. 
I wore this the entire time I was in D.C. It went well with all of my outfits. 
Goodness, I can’t believe that it is Friday again and Good Friday at that. I am keeping things simple for Easter dinner. I am making my crock-pot chicken with Campbell’s cream of chicken soup, buttery mashed potatoes, green beans, and some crescent rolls. I hope my store gets some stock in of baby’s breath. I love having that around this time. It gives off a light fragrant scent. I plan on having small vases of that as centerpieces for the table.  I hope that you all have a wonderful Easter and celebrate Christ. 
Enjoy!
(photos via Mrs. Shockley & H&M)

My Acrylic Chair

/in , /by
Last month one of the biggest florist companies that we have called McNamara had a garage sale. Now they do this every year and every year I try to make plans to go. Well this year I said that I am going and I made sure that I scheduled it!
They had lots of faux flowers, pictures, Christmas decor and furniture. I spotted this stack of acrylic chairs in the back. Now I wrote about this in 2017 so I was really surprised to see these there. I have always wanted an acrylic chair and just thought that they were way to expense right now. 
But they had these priced at $40 each! A steal!!!! I could not wait to get it home and get it all cleaned up. 
A good soapy towel and some Windex took all that old dust and dirt off quickly. 
It looks lovely…
I placed it in my office here at home. I looks really chic and I got a feeling that I am really going to enjoy this chair. It’s something different which is so hard to do here in Indiana. As I mentioned everyone wants the same clothes, furniture, cars, etc. It’s frustrating sometimes but no matter. I will continue to following the beat to my own drummer and move forward in the things I love. 
If you are looking for an acrylic chair or ghost chair Target has this one and this one in seven different colors. 
What are your thoughts on ghost furniture? Elegant or non? 
(photos via Mrs. Shockley)

A Little Tour…

/2 Comments/in , /by
Good Morning Monday, starting the week again is never fun. But here we are….. I wanted to start this week’s blogs with the last of my D.C. trip from last month. I did not take as many pictures on this trip. I wanted to walk around and “take” everything in. I hate being on tours or on vacations and you are behind your camera the whole time. It just drives me nuts! And also since this was our third time going I have seen most of everything that I wanted to see. So it was okay to take fewer pictures this time. 
The photo above is in the U.S. Capitol. This building is just so beautiful. I was trying to capture the peach color paint on the walls but this photo does not do it justice. 

This room is the original Senate room. It still has a majestic feel to it. 

Also apart of the original Senate rooms.

Love all of the details in the ceilings. 
You see majestic….

A little fun fact about this chandelier. The original price when this was being built was $1,500. They just had this insured for $4.2 million! WOW!
Once we finished the Capitol tour (we scheduled a private tour), our guide wanted to take us to the Speaker’s Balcony. I was so excited to see this. I used to want to be President (I still kind of do) so having this opportunity was just a dream. 

My family and I enjoyed it!
After that, we went and took another look at the Library of Congress and I was so glad that I was able to just walk around and learn a few facts about this glorious building. 

We took a walk around the National Mall and I found this wonderful monument of Eleanor Roosevelt. This quote has wonderful truth to it, especially now… “The structure of world peace cannot be the work of one man, or one party, or one nation. It must be a peace which rests on the cooperative effort of the whole world”.  

Well said! 



After all of the tours, we had dinner at some wonderful restaurants. This was my dish at Clyde’s in Georgetown. Some of you may have seen this on my Instagram. It was so delicious we went back a second time! This was the roast half chicken dinner with lyonnaise potatoes, madeira mushrooms, and swiss chard. Outstanding! 
Then we went to a restaurant called Due South.  This was their cornbread with rosemary butter. Oh mercy! So good!

I ended up ordering the fennel spiced salmon with beluga lentils, sauteed kale, roasted onions, heirloom tomato and spicy creole sauce. Another fantastic meal! So tasty!
This turned out to be a delightful work trip. I was able to get everything accomplished and still had a superb time with my family. The weather was perfect and so were those cherry blossoms. I thanked the Lord greatly for this trip. It turned out to be a dream. As always thank you for reading and enjoy your day!


(photos via Mrs. Shockley)

Cherry Blossom Tea

/in , /by

Along with visiting the cherry blossom trees, I had to take a second visit to the Library of Congress. While there we visited the gift shop. I love walking through there. You will find all kinds of items and gifts. One of those items was this beautiful tin of cherry blossom green tea.

I was a little on the fence about it because they did not have any samples around and I could not see inside the tin. I knew that I was taking a chance on getting it but I could not resist this beautiful pink tin and I am such a fan of green teas. I figured it could not be that bad. 
The aroma when I opened the tin…. Oh my! You can smell the vibrant and fragrant cherries. The scent is just exquisite. I purchased a tin for my supervisor and she said, “I just leave it open to smell it”. It is that wonderful!  
Now the tea is loose and placed in these appealing sachets. They look almost like silk. You can get two cups of tea from it and it is a light color but the taste is very elegant. If you are a tea lover I guarantee you that you will enjoy this tea! It is that good!
If any of you are familiar with this tea and have tried it please share your thoughts below. If any of you are thinking about purchasing it I hope that you do and share your thoughts too! Thanks for reading and enjoy your weekend!
(photos via Mrs. Shockley)

Cherry Blossom Season~ Finally

/4 Comments/in , /by

Sorry for the no-post on Monday. I have been really wiped out lately! I think my body was still tired from the trip and then I am going to be honest…. I still have not recovered from the time change. I want my hour back darn it!

But anyway I must adapt and move on…. right? It has been almost two weeks since my trip to D.C. and I have still not stopped thinking about those cherry blossoms. I have been trying for years and I do mean years to see them. This year when I was making travel plans I told myself, “okay I don’t care anymore I am not going to get upset if we miss cherry blossom season again. I am just going to enjoy my trip and that is that”. And seriously you guys I left it at that. I did not think about it nor worry anymore. It was so freeing.

And then this began to happen the day we arrived….

We arrived in D.C. on March 24 and this is what I saw. I thought, “okay, don’t get too excited. Last year it snowed”! So just calm down. 

Then we came back on Monday and some of the trees looked like this. Astonishing right? 
Then it just got better….

And better…

It turned into heaven right before your eyes. I just stood there and smiled. I could not believe how beautiful it was!

You can see the Jefferson Monument in between the branches in this one. 

It was a beautiful day and the temperature was 60 and up! We could not ask for better weather!

The magnolia trees were blooming too and so fragrant.

There was a local artist there painting. I loved this one. I wanted it so bad but someone had already purchased it. 

And the crowds were a sight to see too. My goodness, there were so many people!

No matter it did not stop us from enjoying every moment that we could. 

These were cherry blossom shortbread cookies and they were so soft and delicious! I wished I had purchased more. The cherry blossom festival was going on and there were lots of booths, tents, music, and food. 

The Washington Monument in the distance. 

It was such a magical moment for me and my family. I know that my husband and I enjoyed it. I am not sure how the kids felt about it. You know teenagers. They only give you one-word adjectives. Heaven forbid they had to express their thoughts. 
If any of you have been able to visit the cherry blossoms please let me know in the comments section below. Thanks for reading!
(photos via Mrs. Shockley, yay I took these!)

Beautiful Finds in D.C.

/in , /by

Bonjour everyone! It’s the end of the week (finally) and I am looking forward to our 70-degree weather that has been predicted for our weekend here! Yay! I have gone out to my front yard to see if there is any sign of life and my peonies are coming up!

So excited! I hope I get some great blooms this year. This will be my first year growing my very own peonies. I will update you guys on the process as things come along. Well, today I thought I would share some beautiful and elegant pieces that I purchased while on my way to D.C. last week.

I wanted to make sure that everyone had a chance to purchase these before they sold out.

First, on my list are these beautiful and sophisticated bow slingback pumps in silver sky. These are gorgeous shoes and will go with just about anything. They also come in a deep sea teal.
Another chic item that I had to purchase was this elegant boatneck top. It comes in three other colors and is only $14.99 right now. I would order this quick! 
The last two items that I wanted to share was this beautiful fireball illusion necklace in rose gold. It comes in two other colors and this ruffle trim top in winter white. These are great pieces that are very versatile and lovely. If you are like me you would wear these with skirts. But I could even see these worn with a pair of jeans. I think both tops would look lovely with a pair of jeans and the necklace. Even the pumps would add a feminine look to a casual outfit. 
Well, I hope that you enjoyed these finds and I look forward to sharing some beautiful photos next week of all of the enchanting cherry blossoms trees that I got to bask in. 
Enjoy!!
(photos via Mrs. Shockley)