Blog posts that inspire

Plans for my 40th!

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Good Morning Everyone!

Boy these weekends go by so fast. We had an office picnic scheduled for Sunday, but it poured most of the day, so it was cancelled. I did go by Target, and I picked up a skeleton to place in my hostess chair at my dining room table. He does look cute there! I will share a photo later. 

Today I wanted to share my plans for my 40th! I can’t believe that this birthday is finally here. I have been looking forward to this birthday for a very long time. Why you may ask? Because I knew that in this pocket of time a few chapters in my life would be closed. 

One of them being taking care of children. Now don’t get me wrong, I LOVED it when the kids were little but there was so much drama for my husband and I because of his ex-wife. So I knew that once I hit 40 that time would be done and it is. I don’t see her no hear from her. The boys are 22 and 25, her time is up. 

Now we know that the boys could get married and have children, as they should, but certain “petty actions” and things that she can do to us is over. Chapter closed. Another chapter is confidence. I knew that once I hit my 40’s a certain amount of confidence would be granted to me. Meaning the Lord would have put me through some things, testing of some sort, that would allow me to have confidence in him and me. I could go on and on but let me get into my birthday wishlist for 40….

My first birthday request was a birthday cake and this is my very FIRST birthday cake! I know, I know now how in the world is this your first birthday cake? It’s an easy answer. My mother never threw us birthday parties. Now in her mind she did but I challenged it one year and asked her to provide photos of these “alleged” birthday parties. She could not. Also I married young and never asked for a birthday cake in my twenties or thirties because I was a little embarrassed that I never had one. So here we are and me having my first birthday cake and I could not be more excited!

 

 

This is my cake inspiration! I sent this photo to a bakery that is nearby that has great reviews. I explained what I wanted and sent multiple photos! I am so excited and terrified at the same time. I just hope that my cake is beautiful. It’s my first one. Oh please make it gorgeous! 

 

 

Next are balloons, naturally. I sent this balloon arch inspiration to my husband and my fingers are crossed that the person that he sent it to can execute it. I don’t want the flowers but I want the blue color balloons and the rose gold 40 numbers! Wish him luck!

As far as gifts, these items have been on my wishlist.

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

This perfume has been on my mind. It’s Aerin Lauder’s Rose de Grasse Pour Filles. I tried this on last month and wore it around the mall. I could not stop “sniffing” myself! The notes are pear, fresh rose and soft musk. Once it “settled” on me it had a light powder smell to it. I must have it! 

 

photo credit: Saks.com

 

Next is this stunning and limited-edition Gucci Flora Eyeshadow Palette. I saw this on Instagram and have not stop thinking about it since. I have watched numerous YouTube videos. This one and this one have been my favorites so far. I love the colors and just look at the case! Gucci had one last season and it is just as beautiful. I will be calling my local Saks store to see if they have it in stock! 

 

photo credit: SweetSavings on Instagram

 

And the last item is this beautiful shawl from Amazon. I saw it on the LTK app and had to order it. It should be arriving today. This is an actual photo of someone wearing it. It comes in several different colors and is only $40! I can’t wait to see it!

I do have a dinner planned for the Cake Bake Shop of course. Family will be joining me for that. Other than that, I just want to soak in my age and enjoy the journey. I hope you all have a great Monday!

 

Please note: some links are affiliate links and if you make a purchase through this link, I will receive a small commission for referring you to the product. Thank you so much in advance if you decide to make a purchase through my link.

 

A Beautiful Decanter

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Good Morning!

No work on Monday! I love having these 3-day weekends. I plan on going to Cincinnati tomorrow. I want to do a little bit of shopping, not too much. I think I shared that they had the best outlet mall. I just want to take a day trip, have dinner, and then return home. For Sunday, I just plan on hanging out at home. I may get caught up on my house chores. Then on Monday I just want to get caught up on some blog posts, get some inspiration, and then sit and watch a movie or two. Maybe ride my bike, or sit on the porch, there could be a lot of things that we can do. Just having the extra day is a wonderful thing. 

This is going to be a very short blog post today, but I wanted to share a recent find and new “elegant idea”.

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley

 

I was looking at my garden tub and noticed that I did not like the plastic bottle that my bubble bath liquid was in. I stared at it for a few minutes and a crystal decanter popped in my mind. I can’t explain it but that’s what happened. So, I made a mental note to look for one when I decided to go antique shopping. 

I found this one. It’s pretty heavy and absolutely exquisite! I paid about $50 which was too much but it’s a very substantial decanter. Now I have had it for about a week and I have no regrets. I would encourage you to change up your items. If you use bubble bath, then why not put it in a beautiful decanter. I found some pretty reasonable ones on Amazon. See here, here, and here, if you are interested. 

Let me know what your long weekend plans are and if you already use decanters! Have a great weekend!

 

Please note: some links are affiliate links and if you make a purchase through this link, I will receive a small commission for referring you to the product. Thank you so much in advance if you decide to make a purchase through my link.

 

 

 

Lady of the House ~What is that for you?

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Good Morning All,

I had a great evening yesterday. I attended my very first Guild Meeting! It was for the new members only, so we all got to meet each other. It was nice getting to meet all of the other new members and the women in leadership. I think that I am going to like this… 

Well, I am not sure but do any of you follow Inspired by Nikki’s Youtube channel? I believe most of us do and I have been loving her “Lady of the House” series for a while. That got me thinking about what does a “lady of the house” mean to me? 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

My front porch 

 

A lady of the house kind of day for me would be getting up early, giving my silent thanks to the Lord, starting my bubble bath, and getting ready. After that I check my planner or to-do list for the day. Since I plan out my weeks in advance, I have an idea of what house chores or personal business items need to be done. 

I may go ahead and get one of the house chores done (like go out and water my plants on the front porch), then it’s off to the grocery store to get fresh flowers and food for the week. 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley

Our bedroom, love having fresh flowers in it. 

After I come home, groceries are put away and then I make self a beautiful brunch. I make my scrambled butter eggs, cinnamon bread toast, fresh grapes, orange juice, and a teapot of hot tea. I sit and enjoy my brunch, plan my week, then I start my chore list. It’s not as long anymore since I do one chore every day. I can’t stand cleaning a house all weekend now. I did it for over 15 years and will not do it again. It’s not worth it. 

 

Me playing my friend Marc’s piano

 

I think a lady of the house kind of day would include an “elegant activity”. Whatever your activity may be, whether antiquing, playing an instrument, dinner with a friend, reading or maybe going to a book club. I think we should include those in our days. 

 

My weekly salmon dinner with brown rice and sautéed spinach! I love it!

 

After everything is completed on my list, I usually love to end the day with a beautiful meal. I have shared this before. It’s one of my favorites. I love to enjoy my meals at home or out. 

 

Me after a fun day of antiquing

 

And lastly a lady of the house kind of day would not be complete without my dress, cardigan, and ballet house slippers. My hair is fixed, earrings on, and my favorite perfume has been applied. What would your lady of the house kind of day be? Make sure you share it below! 

Have a wonderful weekend!

 

Book Clubs ~ Are you in one?

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Good Morning,

I went antiquing this weekend but that really isn’t a surprise. I get these urges at the middle of the month and always make sure that I take some time to go. I found some wonderful things. If you follow me on Instagram, then you would have seen my reel about it. I did save it to my “Elegant Living” highlight. You can visit that reel to see some of my adventures and items! I will most likely be sharing those in my August favorites. Overall, it was a very quiet weekend.

This post is inspired by my supervisor. She is the Civil Chief in my division, and I love working with her! It has been great so far! There are so many things that I love about her. Her calendar is one of them. She is a bit older than me, but her calendar so inspires me!

I am in charge of it, so I get to see everything she puts on it. One of the items is her monthly pedicure. She actually goes to a spa and gets it done! Okay check! I need to do that! I have a nail salon that I go to and yesterday I decided to get a pedicure. It was terrible because the young lady who did it was NOT TRAINED AT ALL. But I am taking that as a sign to look for a new location. I have been at this location for several years, and they have new management. 

 

photo credit: Pinterest

 

The other items are her monthly dinners with friends and her book club meetings! Ohhh I am so jealous! This past Friday she told me that she was hosting it. So that got me thinking. Are any of you in a book club? Or have you ever been in a book club? If so, please share your good and bad experiences. I would LOVE to know. As you all know I have been doing a lot of networking and hope to meet a friend or two in these groups. Let me know in the comments section below if you have any experiences with one. Have a great Monday!

 

 

 

A Fable from England…

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Good Morning All,

I am glad it is Friday! Looking forward to the weekend. I just have a little running around to do and a few house chores. Other than that, it should be a pretty light weekend. Things have been really busy at work and with Lauren beginning her senior year in high school some things have been added to my list. I also wanted to let you all know that I am trying to get new dresses for the boutique. It has been really hard to get them in. Some of the dresses won’t be available until November! Crazy! But I am trying!

I did take a risk recently and purchased something from a company that I was not familiar with. I was looking for another company when I found this one. It’s called Fable England. 

 

photo credits: Mrs. Shockley 

 

It shipped all the way from England and arrived pretty quickly. Loved the inside of the box. 

 

 

 

I loved reading the story about how the company began. That’s usually how inspiration begins. Finding something that inspires you.

 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

Now isn’t this print lovely? This is called the Toile de Jouy Vintage Blue Scarf. It’s made of silk like material and is a great size. And did you see the price? It’s under $40 with shipping included!

 

 

Look at how nice and big it is. It’s 70 cm x 70 cm. It’s the perfect size for your neck and handbags.

 

 

 

I’ve been carrying it on my bag all this week. It looks extremely chic. I hope you order one for yourself or check out their other accessories. I think the Peacock tote, Toile de Jouy messenger, and Alice blue tote are wonderful pieces from their collection. This post is not sponsored. I genuinely found them and love my scarf!

Have a great weekend!

 

 

Please note: some links are affiliate links and if you make a purchase through this link, I will receive a small commission for referring you to the product. Thank you so much in advance if you decide to make a purchase through my link.

 

 

 

 

 

The Elegant Ralph Lauren Store & Vintage Mercedes

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Good Morning Everyone,

It’s the middle of August already and we are headed toward less humidity this week! I was so excited to see the weather forecast for this week. I am breathing a sigh of relief. My husband’s grandfather’s funeral turned out okay. Everyone was nice and supportive of everyone. It actually turned into a celebration instead of a funeral. As it should be. 

I received some good news after the funeral. I talked about the Indiana Paralegal’s Association and how I just joined. I think I mentioned that they also have special interests’ groups within the association and that I applied to be a part of one. What I did not expect was an email on Friday telling me that I was going to chair the group that I applied for! Now how funny is that! We will see how things go but I thought that was interesting. 

I have also been trying to join the EARS Evaluation Program at my office for years now. I received an email the same day that I was nominated and finally will be placed on the team! This program is a team of people that go to different U.S. Attorney Offices around the country and evaluate how they are doing. I am scheduled to travel to San Diego in December and will be evaluating my first office in March of next year. I am so excited about these new journeys! 

Now on to the last portion of our trip! Once we returned from Rhode Island we stopped in New Jersey and spent two more days with our friends. With that being said, we decided to head back into New York City and see Manhattan!

 

photo credits: Mrs. Shockley 

 

This was the original Ralph Lauren Store. It is the store where everything began. 

 

 

As soon as you walk in there is a doorman that opens the door for you, and you enter right into this beautiful entryway. The flowers are real!

 

 

Now this store is the men’s store. This entire building is for men. The women’s clothing and accessories is across the street. But I must say the men’s store is the epitome of elegance. 

 

photo credits: Mrs. Shockley

 

Each room had its very own theme. I didn’t take pictures of all of the rooms. I wanted to enjoy the moment and take it all in. There was one room that was black and white, and I wanted to take a photo of that room but too many people kept coming in. 

 

 

The Ricky bag on the shelf…

After walking around the men’s store. I decided to walk on over to the women’s store. 

 

 

As soon as I walked in I was in awe again…

 

 

The women’s store had the Ralph Lauren Cafe inside. I did order a lemonade and cinnamon pastry. 

 

photo credits: Mrs. Shockley 

 

Now this store not only had the cafe, but it also had clothes, vintage jewelry and home decor! Very smart Ralph!

 

 

Fresh flowers everywhere…

 

 

I could not resist looking at the vintage jewelry collection. I can’t remember all of the details of every piece but the two that stand out to me are the two that I tried on. 

 

photo credit: Mr. Shockley 

 

I can’t remember all of the details of this bracelet, but I think it’s from the 1950s!

 

 

This one made my heart stopped! I think it’s from around the same time, had real diamonds and rubies and is from India. You could dress this down as well. Add a white crisp shirt, your favorite jeans, beautiful kitten heels, and this bracelet… sheer elegance!

 

 

After looking at the jewelry and some of the accessories I went upstairs to take a look at some of the home decor. All I kept saying was “oh my”. 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

 

This will be the inspo behind my next blue and white arrangement! 

 

 

All of this was Ralph Lauren….

 

 

This has some serious boutique inspiration for me! It would be a dream for me. 

 

photo credit: Mr. Shockley 

 

Look at these stairs! I believe the sale associate told me that these came from Italy and were about $5 million!! It looks like something from the original Chanel store. 

 

 

Had to take at least one….

 

 

 

That store was truly a dream, and I could not leave with buying something. Both my husband and I really loved this Ralph Lauren scent. It’s called Round Hill. I love the lavender, and musk notes that it has. My second favorite scent was the Pied-A-Terre. It had notes of jasmine. 

Before I end this post, I did want to quickly share our visit to the Newport Car Museum. 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

My husband and stepson were so excited walking into this museum. I was hoping to see one of my dream cars and I did. 

 

 

 

There were about 80 cars in this musem, and the staff was tremendously nice! 

 

 

And then I saw it. A vintage Mercedes…

 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley

 

This is a 1963 Mercedes Benz 300 SL.

 

 

It really is a beautiful car. I could see myself driving it with my sunglasses and hair scarf! Such a classic car. I hope you all enjoyed this last post from our summer vacation. It truly was a perfect vacation this year and I could not ask for a more wonderful experience. I hope you all have a wonderful Monday! 

 

 

 

Things to Master in my 40s

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Good Morning Everyone!

I have returned from Rhode Island, and I must say that I am really sad. I LOVED it so much!! If you follow me on Instagram, then you have already seen my photos. My goodness… the Victorian homes were everywhere, and everyone had blue hydrangeas.

I don’t know how or why they have blue hydrangeas, but they were everywhere and I mean everywhere! I wonder if the climate has something to do with it. Our hydrangeas here are white and pink only. It is rare to see blue hydrangeas here.

I can’t wait to share my photos and the mansion tours here on my blog. I also filmed a little while I was there. I will be putting together a video for Youtube. I hope to post it at the end of the month. It will take me that long to edit it.

In today’s post I wanted to share a list that I heard on a podcast recently. I listen to the John Maxwell Leadership podcasts every morning during my morning walks and a few weeks ago he gave a list of 10 things that one should do before 40. I wanted to share it….

 

photo credit: Pinterest

 

  1. Know Yourself! Know your strengths and weaknesses. Know what you do well and what you don’t do well. Hopefully by this time you are working in your strength zone and not your weaknesses. 
  2. Settle your family life. Know what the issues are in your family and know how to deal with those issues. Marriage is constant work. It’s sad when couples are still fighting over the same issues. (HELLO!) 
  3. Determine your priorities; know what you want to give your time to and what you need to give your life to. Add certain things to your life and subtract certain things from your life. Get centered. 
  4.  Develop your philosophy for life. I hope by 40 that you have a vision and attitude for your life. Settle who you are and what you believe in. Settle things that you would die for and things that are optional in your life. 
  5. Get physically fit. Exercise and get healthy. Early in life people give up their health for wealth and later they give up their wealth for health. 
  6. Learn your trade whatever it may be. Learn, earn, and return. Always learning and always earning but make sure that you return. Give back to people. 
  7. Pay the price. Pay it on the front end. There is no success without sacrifice. If you have succeeded without sacrifice, it’s because someone on the front end paid first. If you sacrifice without success then someone after you will reap the benefits. 
  8. Develop solid relationships. Life’s greatest experiences involve people. 
  9. Prepare for the future. Options are the most precious commodity. 
  10. Find purpose for your life. Knowing my purpose in life, maximize my potential, and sowing seeds in life. Growing, going, and sowing. 

 

I hope you all enjoyed this list. I think for the most part we all are aware of these tips. Keep these as reminders and set goals for yourself. I will be 40 in about 2 months, and I can’t believe it! I do have a few things that I want to “settle” in my life, and I hope that the Lord will allow me to do so this year. I do have a fun day planned today. I took the day off to give myself an extra day at home. I wanted a little more time to get things done. Today I am going to be meeting a potential new upholster! I will let you all know how things go. I found a tufted stool that I want to change the fabric on. I also found out about a new antique store. I plan on visiting it today! I will share how things went on Wednesday. 

 

 

I found this for $35 at the antique store! I see blue and white fabric. What do you think?