Elegant Living Archives - Page 2 of 50

A New Book ~ Bridgerton Guide to Entertaining

February 17, 2024/2 Comments/in Elegant Living, Inspiring Books /by mrs.sshockley

And it is the weekend…. the NBA All Star Game is here, and I am trying my hardest to stay away from downtown. I am working from home today and will enjoy every minute of it. I am looking forward to making some time to read the latest copy of Victoria magazine. I had a hard time finding it in my stores! A little scary.

For Valentine’s Day Rick and I kept it simple. He got me a beautiful bouquet of roses and took a Hershey chocolate bar bouquet to Lauren! She was so surprised. It was so sweet!

I really want to make some time to sit and watch Three Coins in a Fountain and read the newest book that I just found!

photo credits: Mrs. Shockley

Can you all believe that I found this? It was a treasure for sure. I found it while we were waiting for our table for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. We always go into the Barnes and Noble bookstore that is attached. It’s a great place to read and relax. While we were there, I stumbled on this The Official Bridgerton Guide to Entertaining and it is truly a treat!

As soon as I opened the book, I audible gasped. The photography was so beautiful! Just look at this, the first chapter is called “A Breakfast Visit with the Bridgerton’s”. I mean, come on, who would not be curious about this? In this chapter, they give you recipes for crumpets with salted honey butter, Meyer lemon & poppy seed tea biscuits, crustless quiche with leeks, ham, and English cheddar, kippers on toast, and London Fog lattes! Oh my!

Here is the table of contents. Each party is divided into chapters. We have the Queens Lawn Party, Afternoon Tea with the Sharmas, Dinner at Featherington Ball and Lady Danbury’s Den of Iniquity.

photo credits: Mrs. Shockley

Not only will you be inspired by the recipes, but the photography is inspiring as well. I love these elegant glimpses into the family home, clothes, and decor.

This is truly a beautiful book and I hope that if you are a Bridgerton fan that you will order a copy for yourself. It is priced quite well on Amazon so don’t feel bad about ordering this treat of a book! If you do order it and make one of the recipes I would LOVE to know! I will be sharing my recent afternoon tea adventure next week!

I hope you got to see the recent Instagram story from the Little Pink Casa sharing the blush Cameo earrings! They look so lovely on her. Please feel free to use her code: PinkCasa20 for 20% off the entire boutique. Enjoy!

Affiliated link attached.

A Candle Project…

February 13, 2024/2 Comments/in Elegant Living /by mrs.sshockley

Good Morning,

The weather here in Indy was great this past weekend. We had lots of sunshine on Sunday. It was so needed. I attended a ladies afternoon tea that I can’t wait to share with you soon. Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and we intend on spending it at home. What I do want is a beautifully scented bouquet. Something with lots of beautiful greenery and blush colors. So we will see!

Now I want to share something with you that was absolutely spectacular to me! As you all know I am a part of the St. Margaret’s Guild and we are about to gear up for the 2024 Showhouse. I am really looking forward to seeing how the rooms will be transformed. This year a special project has been added.

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley

We are working on a signature candle scent for this year’s showhouse, and I am so excited to be a part of this project. I can’t go into details about our specific process, but I can share that working with Penn & Beech candle company was a phenomenal experience!

The process was so simple and exciting. I have ALWAYS wanted to create my own signature scent and I so glad that I got to experience this process with the Guild.

These were some of my favorite oils. I am a floral girl to my core and wanted nothing but floral and clean scents. I can’t wait to share with you all the final product and I will be making an appointment myself to perhaps create a signature candle for A Home for Elegance. I am working with a consultant at this time and hope to start the process soon! I will keep you posted!

This post is not sponsored.

January Favorites ~ 2024

January 30, 2024/in Elegant Living, Monthly Favorites /by mrs.sshockley

Good Morning,

Oh my goodness everyone, I had a good weekend, but I sure do feel like I was hit by a truck this week! I don’t feel sick but I am emotional and physically drained. I had lunch earlier last week with some of my Guild friends to work on a special project for the showhouse this year. During our lunch we started talking menopause and perimenopause which I think I am in the thick of.

I talked about how I loss 18 pounds during Covid and then last year it ALL came back within a few months. My friends shared a doctor with me that has a podcast, and I have started watching some of her videos regarding symptoms of perimenopause. I am on a journey right now to figure things out, but I will be SURE to share with you all what I am learning and supplements that I have started to take.

I also binged watched Operation Niki’s organizing videos on Instagram. Oh my goodness! I love them all. I have so many items in my Amazon cart. Lord! I have also joined TikTok! My handle names are of course @ahomeforelegance and @mrs..shockley. I hope you can find me and follow along. Now let’s get into my favorites for the first month of 2024!

You all know that I have been on an organizational kick recently and finding this bag was a part of it! I get stopped non-stop about this bag and the trolley that it comes with! I mean even men stop me about it! This has been a game changer. I normally carry two totes to the office every day and having this tote that I am able to put on the trolley and pull it into my office has been wonderful. Now my particular color is quite expensive but there are other colors that are a little less. Let me know if you get one!

The second was a crazy find! So for Christmas last year I really wanted a Christian Dior advent calendar but at $1,000 (with products) I could not stomach spending that. Also, with products it could be hit or miss with if you like them or not. I really just wanted the calendar part and then it dawned on me, “hey I wonder if anyone will just sell the calendar on Poshmark”. So I checked and found one! This particular seller was selling hers for just $40 and I quickly added it to my cart and purchased it. It is so elegant, and I cannot wait to use it this upcoming holiday season!

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley

Now with these shoes I understood the power of an influencer. These shoes were posted on the LTK app. There were about 4 pairs left in my city and I thought I would just pop by one and pick up a pair. Wrong! By the time the evening came there was only ONE pair left and I had to call the Target which took them 2 hours to answer the phone, to find out if the pair was still there! I was able to put them on hold and pick them up but oh my goodness! My city was filling online orders because of the demand! It was incredible! So glad I got a pair but sadly they are sold out!

My fourth favorite is a table full of wonder. While I was putting away all of my Christmas decor, I decided to change my floral arrangements around my home as well. I put all of the arrangements on my dining room table and saw this. It was so wonderful! I left it like this for a few hours and just enjoyed it.

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley

Speaking of flowers doesn’t this pink bouquet look wonderful in this vintage vase? This was one of my antique finds during my shopping in January. It is stunning and looks wonderful on my dresser. It is from FrenChic in Franklin, Indiana.

My sixth favorite was my very first avocado toast! Yep that is right! My very first avocado toast. This had avocado, poached eggs, bacon, and was marvelous! This was what I ordered at a place called the Garden Table with my Guild friends.

My last favorite is a newly discovered YouTube channel…

This channel is called American Viscountess and it is spectacular if you love touring historical castles and properties! You could seriously binge watch her channel. It is quite enjoyable!

I hope you all enjoyed my favorites for this month. I will have some more organizational finds and decor ideas coming soon!

The Soul of Civility ~ Author Meet & Greet

January 16, 2024/2 Comments/in Elegant Living, Inspiring Posts /by mrs.sshockley

Good Morning Everyone,

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. My weekend was a tad bit longer. We got MLK day off so having that extra day was so helpful. I finished taking down all my Christmas decorations and was able to purge more items! I always feel good when I am able to drop off stuff at the Goodwill. Always a good feeling.

I am now in deep 2024 planning. I discussed a few things on my recently recorded YouTube video. I will link it below if I have it finished by the time, I share this blog post.

In my video I talked about my word of the year and how I was letting myself become frustrated with things and how I was beginning to pull back and allow myself to think and stay composed. That got me thinking about my recent meet and greet with author Alexandra Hudson and her book called the Soul of Civility.

In the first chapter, Alexandra mentions Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and begins to talk about the difference between civility and politeness. She said, “King wrote that racist laws gave the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Like segregation, incivility deforms the soul of both the abuser and the abused. Also, like segregation, incivility often originates from an inaccurately low view of personhood. Often, people lash out at others because of their own inaccurate view of self. This can manifest in their deriving their validation in abusing others; but harming others only makes them feel lesser. Appreciating the gift of being human and realizing that when we hurt others with our incivility, we hurt ourselves – is central to reclaiming basic decency in our world.”

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley

Alexandra said, “Civility- the motivation behind our conduct that sees other persons as our moral equals and worthy of basic respect- is much deeper, richer, and of greater import than politeness, or external compliance with rules of etiquette. Politeness and manners are the form, the technique, of an act, but civility is more.”

I could tell that Alexandra was genuinely interested in each person that came up to her during our meet and greet. Before signing a copy of her book, she asked me what I loved in life and what I did. I told her and this is what she wrote in my book, “Thank you for your passion for beauty! It will heal our broken world”. Love Lexi…

Her words on civility truly had me thinking about how I think of others and treat them. Am I just being polite, or do I look at them with dignity and inherently valuable?

photo credit: K. Cuppy

Alexandra had a very elegant bearing about her when I met her, and you can tell that she does see others with dignity and value. I hope that you can order her book and let it inspire you as well as educate you.

this post is not sponsored.

“And Why are We Living this Way?”

January 12, 2024/2 Comments/in Elegant Living, Home Organization /by mrs.sshockley

Good Morning Everyone,

I have had a very busy week! Lots of meetings and Zoom calls! I am looking forward to the extended weekend. I plan on finally taking down all of my Christmas decor. I have been so ready to get everything put up but with my recent closet organization project, I knew that it would take up my entire weekend and it did!

I also need to stop by Bath and Body Works. I want to get some spring scents for my home but I may need to check my cabinets. I think I already have a stash of candles waiting. I also need to film a YouTube video or maybe post a short. We will see what I can get done.

Now what is the deal with this title you may ask? Well, I will be glad to tell you.

For the last few weeks, I have been doing things around the home and to my frustration things have been broken, I can’t find it, it’s not organized, and so on and so on. So, the phrase, “why am I living like this”, came out of my mouth. As soon as those words came out it was like a revelation. My mind said, “well why are we”? There are so many tools, tips and tricks out there that honestly, we are without excuse not to bring order to our lives.

I will start with these few things…

First is my new battery organizer from Amazon. So my husband had a giant sandwich bag of batteries, and they were just stuffed in one of our drawers in the kitchen. Every time we opened that drawer to look for something the bag of batteries would be in the way, some would come out, and I just said out loud, “why are we living this way”! So, I ordered this. Easy fix! And you know what? I had been dealing with that for over a year! A year people! Ridiculous!

photo credits: Mrs. Shockley

Next was my mouse. I have been wanting a white mouse for years for my downtown office and other staff kept saying, “can’t the office just order you one”? Well, a few months ago I had a “why am I living like this” moment and I just decided to order one myself from Amazon. Then when I would take my laptop home to work from home the next day, I would stuff my mouse in my laptop case. I then thought, “why don’t I just order my mouse its own case”? So, I ordered this case from Amazon. Problem solved!

Now we move to my car. Now I shared a few things that I purchased for my car last year, but there were still some things that I wanted to get for it. I loved my other purchases so much that I decided to finish my list. I went ahead and ordered this car trash can. I absolutely LOVE this thing! Oh my goodness! It’s a great addition to my car. It comes in a set of 2.

Then I moved on to my closet. I have been wanting to re-organize my closet for months. I will be honest; this is what it looked like before I got to work on it. This is the worst it has ever been! I sort of just let my shelves go for a few weeks until my new organizational items came.

photo credits: Mrs. Shockley

Here is the end result! I felt like I was not using my space in the proper way. I wanted my shelving system to have more of a boutique feel. So I just and looked at it and figured out what I needed. I knew that I wanted to see my sunglasses, so I ordered this sunglass display, and it looks so much better! I also put my sunglass cases in a box next to them for easy access.

I also purchased these purse organizers to separate my cosmetic bags and wallets.

Next were my totes. I have been wondering about these tote hangers from Amazon for a while now. So I decided to order one pack and I could not be happier! Oh my goodness! I love them!

And last on my list were my robes. Now I only have a few but I wanted them in a more centralized area. They were on hangers in a different section in my closet and I never saw most of them. I want to be able to see them and use them so I purchased this over the door hanger rack. It has worked our marvelously!

I now feel like I have a better system going on in my closet. I am using my space in a way that benefits me and it looks beautiful. Since I did a closet purge, I am selling some of my items on my Poshmark closet. Take a look and make an offer if you want!

Oh and I almost forgot! My boutique has a new arrival. The Gatsby pearl necklace is available for purchase. It would look lovely with a pair of the blush Cameo earrings! Have a great weekend!

Post contains affiliate links

My Word of the Year…

January 9, 2024/7 Comments/in Elegant Living, Inspiring Posts /by mrs.sshockley

Good Morning Everyone,

It is the first full week of 2024 and I have my word of the year. Well, I have my phrase of the year and it is “radiate calm”. My post from 2018 popped in my head a few days ago. That quote, “radiate calm” really spoke to me. I have had several moments in 2023 where I felt like becoming unhinged. I let things really get to me instead of maintaining a quiet spirit. Maybe that should be my phrase for the year.

I went back to my post. I still can’t believe that I read the book and wrote this post 6 years ago. The book provided four ways to radiate calm under any circumstance. 1) Stay composed, 2) Avoid drama, 3) Find common ground and 4) Maintain perspective.

I can recall several moments where I should have used those tips! I have decided to take these four tips and for every week for this entire year I will write one of those tips for the week in my Day Designer to remind me what to focus on.

Another tip or thing that I do is pray and try to breathe deeply. I want to keep my mind and emotions in order. Last year was so full of changes that I felt like I did not have perspective. As I get older that has become very important to me.

photo credit: L. Shockley

As I begin 2024, I am trying to remain hopeful that staying composed, praying, and keeping perspective will help me to radiate calm this year.

Enjoy your week!