Posts that inspiring an elegant life

Trying to Live Well

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We are about to embark on the holiday season and this can be a very hard time of year for some of us. I was running some errands yesterday and people were just everywhere. I became very frustrated. I must confess…. I have been “people struggling” lately.


I told my husband that and he said, “what do you mean”? And I said, ” I have been finding myself recently not wanting to be around people”. And it’s not everyone. It’s just the rude ones. Yesterday in the store I was having an internal fit about some of the rude women around. I literally had to calm myself down because I felt as if I was going to explode!




I find myself not wanting to go to restaurants anymore because I have been so disgusted by the attitude of the waiter or how dirty the bathrooms are or the restaurant itself. I feel like if me asking you for a refill on bread is such an inconvenience for you then why are you serving? Why are you working in the service industry? Find a career where you don’t feel forced to engage with people. I don’t know maybe I am asking too much. 

Even at the office. For the most part, I do enjoy the people I work with but those few “bad apples” that are continuously rude get really old to me. Now that I have expressed my frustration at two of the meetings that we have had now they want to suddenly “act right” when they have been venomous for the last 10 years!  They also expect me to just “get over it” and basically pretend that they have not trashed me all these years. Not a chance…. 


Now I am for forgiveness but only when I know that the person is genuine in their apology and for the individuals in my office (which they have NOT apologized), they are not. So moving on….


For the last several months I have been asking myself. How do I want to live? The answer is I want to live well. So I have to realize and know that not everyone is going to believe in the same things that I believe in. Not everyone is going to be polite, not everyone is going to give respect, not everyone is going to do their part. Dealing with very difficult people or situations requires patience, resolve and restraint.

I can’t change people but I can pray. And that is what I do on a regular basis. I have to. I must. Have my prayers been answered? In most cases, yes! When I pray and ask the Lord to help me be a “light” in the grocery store or wherever I am, he then gives me an opportunity to be respectful or helpful to someone. Then they “light up” and respond to me in the same way. So that to me is apart of living well. I just keep telling myself. We have a goal and living well and beautifully is going to require a lot of you Mrs. Shockley but we can do this because we choose to. Being respectful, dressing respectfully, working respectfully and loving respectfully, always.

We can do this for this upcoming holiday season. We must be a “light” for people and maybe, just maybe we may even show them the way. I tell myself that all the time. Don’t give up. We are making progress. Live well….



(photos via Pinterest)

Learning Bach

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Back in 2015 I started taking piano lessons with a private teacher. I am sad to report that earlier this year she had to close her studio due to renting issues. I am hoping that she will reopen but she is so close to retirement and has been so busy at work that she has not had the time to teach.

I have been really sad but nevertheless I have continued with my studies in piano playing and have stayed in touch with my teacher. We had lunch last week and were able to catch up on life and discuss her maybe doing private lessons in her home (fingers crossed).

Me with my teacher, I miss it so much
Each week I like to use my planner and get things on my list to do and make goals. I was thinking about personal goals that I could set and I thought about my piano lessons. There is one thing that I would love to be able to do and that is to play at least one song by heart. 
The piece that I have chosen is called ” I Preludium” by Johann Sebastian Bach. This was one of my favorite pieces to play while I was taking my lessons. 
So my goal is to practice once a week and learn it group by group. I am hoping that within six months to a year I can play this entire piece from memory. 
I love setting goals and I love playing the piano. I am happy that I decided to include this in my weekly goals and lifetime accomplishments. Find something that will challenge you….

(photos via Mrs. Shockley & Pinterest)

Victoria Magazine New Card Bundles

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I think most of us are Victoria magazine fans but I was extremely excited we I received my email about their new note card bundles. I am a huge believer in having note cards around and keeping them handy for unexpected gifts or parties.

Oh my goodness, aren’t these lovely? I have to admit I think that this set is my favorite. 

Or maybe these….
Oh it’s so hard to decide. All of the sets are lovely. I think that these would make lovely Christmas gifts to.
Just simple, elegant and delicate. 
I had to share these with everyone today. I hope that you are able to order some and if so please share on your Instagram page or send me an email. I would love to see them!
Enjoy!
(photos via Victoria magazine.com)

The Dream of Consistency and Discipline

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 A few weeks ago I received a lovely comment from a reader. It stated….

“Hi Mrs. Shockley, I really do love your blog posts. Would you consider doing a post on staying consistent & having discipline? Your posts are a constant source of beauty, happiness & elegance, you appear to be a really positive lady so I just wondered if you could share any tips. 

Loving your blog. 

Maria (UK) xx” 




First of all, I just want to say thank you to Maria for this lovely compliment. It is always a privilege to receive wonderful notes from readers. Well, Maria, I will try to fulfill your request. Having discipline and being consistent is very hard sometimes.

photo credit Annie Spratt





But I would say that the first thing you have to do is know who you are and how you want to live. You must know that first! Then and only then you can begin to make decisions on how to organize your life. 


I remember back in high school I was dating a young man. He was about two grades higher than I was and even back then I wanted to wear polka dot scarves, dresses, pumps, and huge vintage earrings. Well, those things bothered him. So I stopped wearing them and I became very miserable. I was smothering who I was for someone else. I remember telling him that I was unhappy and that I no longer cared what he thought and I returned to my “old lady” ways of dressing. So sure enough he began to see that this was me and that I was not going to change. At that moment I know that I was coming into “my own”. 



photo credit Larisa Birta 

I also knew at a very young age that I wanted a beautiful home. So I began to buy items that I loved for my bedroom and that habit has stayed with me until now. I stayed consistent with this. Even if you buy one home item at a time, over time you will build your home into something beautiful. You can just buy one item at a time…

(An inspiring post from my blog in January 2017) 




Once you have figured out how you want to live and began to slowly cultivate your home, just be consistent with it and you will have to be bold. It is unbelievable to me the number of people (women, honestly) who I have to fight off or explain my way of living to. It truly is incredible. 


(Beauty in Waiting, my blog post from May of 2017 about beautiful things that I am waiting for)


Being discipline with routines is important also. I mentioned that in this blog post here about my daily routine. Being disciplined with your life will and can bring great happiness. Write a list of weekly dinners and rotate them, pick the same day to wash and fold laundry, I know for me I have kept the same weekly cleaning schedule for over 10 years. One weekend is the upstairs and the next weekend is the downstairs. I recently added classical music to my weekend cleaning schedule. I know that family secretly enjoys it.

One quote that I wanted to share is from one of my favorite Christian teachers, Joyce Meyer she stated… “Getting organized in the normal routines of life and finishing little projects you’ve started is an important first step toward realizing larger goals. If you can’t get a handle on the small things, how will you ever get it together to focus on the big things?” 


There is so much truth in this one statement. If you can’t wash your dishes, vacuum your floors, get to work on time, then how in the world are you going to lose weight, cook meals, and look presentable. It’s all connected and I learned that from a few mentors. Another great article to read about discipline is 15 Inspirational Ideas on How to Stay Consistent and Realize Your Dreams.   This article gives more ideas and tips on how to accomplish your goals. 


Well I hope that you enjoyed this post and have found inspiration on moving forward and setting new goals in your life and home. 


Enjoy your day!!!

(photos via Pinterest)

Elegant Herbal Teas

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Happy Hump Day all! Since Monday was a holiday I find that keeping track of what day it is can really be hard sometimes! The week can really slip away from you if you are not aware of your days! 
Last week I promised that I would share some of the herbal teas that my husband purchased for me from David’s Tea.

I love how organized this little box was. 
Love all of the colorful tea packets. It looks like a rainbow. This is the sachet tea wheel.
And on the sides they have the teas labeled by flavor. 
Now I just wanted to share a few of my favorites. 
This is honeycrisp apple tea. Oh can you imagine having this on a crisp autumn morning with warm buttery bread and buttery scrambled eggs? I can!

It has apple, sweet blackberry leaf, green tea, hibiscus, apple pomace, pear and natural and apple flavoring. 

This is cherry blossom tea.

This has white tea, green tea, cherries, coconut chips, rosebuds (you can smell those), natural and artificial cherry flavoring. Now this was good but not one of my favorites. I am not a huge coconut fan. 

This is one of my favorites!! It smells wonderful! I gave a few to my co-workers to taste and that’s all they raved about. 
Forever nuts

This has apple, almonds, cinnamon, beetroot, and artificial flavoring. It does contain almonds so be careful if you have a peanut allergy. 
My husband also purchased teas for the office for me. Most of those have been really good! I love the “just beet it” flavor. The smell of the elderberries is a wonderful scent in the mornings.
Well I hope that you enjoyed this post and check out David’s Tea in person if you can.  I enjoy having my small pot of tea in the morning with my breakfast at my desk. It is a wonderful getaway. 
(photos via Mrs. Shockley)

My Monique Lhuillier Dinner Plates

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Earlier this year I shared on my facebook page about how I wanted some of Monique Lhuillier’s dinner plates. I went to our local Pottery Barn that weekend and they were sold out! Not a huge surprise because they are so beautiful. I had the urge to go again a few weekends ago. I did not know that Pottery Barn was having an awesome sale and that those garden plates were going to be half off!

Eureka!!!!!

These are called the meadow dinner plates and I managed to get them for $4.77 per plate! Can you believe?! So thrilled!

These are so chic. Just enough design and color. I love the beautiful simplicity of them.  
I think that these are so chinoiserie inspired. 

And of course they are microwavable and dishwasher safe. 
I have used these a few times already and just enjoy pulling them out of my cabinet and staring at them. I believe that you can have small beautiful things in your life. Even if they are just a few pretty dishes. 
Au revoir!
(photos via Mrs. Shockley)

Simplicity ~ Tea for One

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When we left Talbots a few weekends ago we passed a lovely store in the mall called David’s Tea. So we decided to go in and take a look around.

It was a lovely store and the staff was very friendly. I looked at all of their teas (I will share what I received for my birthday in another post) and accessories. I sampled one of the herbal teas and enjoyed it.

But there was one thing that caught my eye and it was their tea for one set.

This is called the White Simplicity Tea for One set. When I saw this I just knew that I had to have it. It has the strainer on the inside so that you can have a tea bag or your loose herbal tea. It is just wonderful! I have been using it at work all week and just love that I can have more than one cup of my herbal tea. 
The pot is just big enough for one person. I place my tea bag inside the metal strainer and just pour my hot water in. With the lid on top my water stays hot and I can let my herbal tea just sit and simmer inside the pot. This was me this past weekend. I had breakfast in my bedroom. 
My breakfast this weekend. My cup is the Royal Albert English Roses print (see here), my plates are blue and white (see here) and my breakfast tray is from Walmart (see here)
It has been such a joy to have this weekend. I am very grateful to my husband who purchased this for me for my birthday. It is a lovely gift. Now, I do not use the small cup that came with it. It does not have a handle and I love having my china cup with saucer to enjoy instead. I may use the cup to put my fresh fruit in.  Now, next week I plan on sharing all the herbal teas that I received as well. 
I hope you enjoyed this post! Au revoir! 
(photos via Mrs. Shockley)