Everything Beautiful in its Time

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I was recently in the car with my husband and I started thinking about certain events, foods, and flowers that I enjoy throughout the year. For instance, it’s peony season!!! I love this season and I went a few days ago to check and see if they were available at my local florist shop and I was able to get a few bouquets!


 My peonies

I told my husband about a vintage Martha Stewart video that I have about weddings and how the florist in that video was talking about how he loves to WAIT for certain seasons to come for certain flowers. He said, “I don’t want lilac when it’s not in season, nor do I want roses. I love waiting for those seasons to come around so that I can enjoy those flowers in their proper season”. Now this DVD was from 2006 so I was about 23 years old.


My peonies at home




I recall thinking, “No, I don’t want to wait!” I want these flowers now! I want blueberries now, I want grapes now!


So now that 13 years have passed and I am a little older I can now appreciate why that florist said that and why it’s a wonderful thing to wait for things until it’s their season. For instance, I used to buy blueberries all the time and when it’s not their season those things tasted awful! So I would waste money! Same thing with certain flowers. They would die and I would be so mad!

My sitting room full of my faux arrangments

So now I have learned and realized that everything is beautiful in its time. Ecclesiastes 3:11, he has made everything beautiful in its time…..




Last year’s peonies

Each year I calendar in advance what events I want to attend, when is the best time to buy this or that and I enjoy doing this. Blueberries taste blissful this time (April to late September). Peonies are from now until June. Grapes are good from now until October but the peak is September. Lilies are beautiful in late summer.

During the summer I look forward to the  Lunch Break at the Symphony. I have already purchased my ticket for the first show which is music from Romeo and Juliet. This is a wonderful time for me to enjoy the symphony. I grab a salad on my way there and sit in the audience and eat my lunch while listening to the orchestra. It’s fantastic and only in June each year! 











My desk last year

I started growing peonies in 2017 and I believe I will have my first blooms in a few days! I still volunteer at Dress for Success and love doing the personal shopping during the summer because of all of the beautiful new donations we will have.


So everything is beautiful in its time and I am learning that slowly. You don’t have to have it all now. Honestly, I am still furniture shopping for a new dining room table and chairs. But I don’t want to settle and I know when it’s time it will be there in the store waiting for me.


Our bedroom 


He (God) has made EVERYTHING beautiful in its time. The blueberries, strawberries, peonies, the symphony, lilies, the weather, everything about life. And I want HIS time. That’s all I want. Enjoy your Wednesday!










(photos via Mrs. Shockley & Pinterest)

Beautiful Morning Rituals

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Rituals and routines are my favorite thing in the world. It’s how my mind operates. I live by these and I have shared them on the blog (see here and here). I believe in order and consistency. Most of you know that I reading a book by Martha Stewart and I am now in a section called “Welcome the Day”. 








Photo by judith girard-marczak on Unsplash









Martha gives lots of wonderful tips on how to start your day. The first tip is to lie quietly for a few moments before getting out of bed and give thanks for this new day. Being grateful for your life is a great way to start your day. Dab a few drops of an uplifting essential oil (grapefruit) on a cloth that you’ll use solely for this ritual, and breathe in the aroma. 



















Photo by melethril on Unsplash

The second tip is to get up and stand in front of a mirror. Smile at yourself and affirm that this will be a good day, full of blessings, opportunities, and wonder. Say aloud, “I look forward to a wonderful day, “or any affirmation with personal significance. I do this every day!!! I love saying affirmations to myself about my life. If there are difficult meetings or decisions ahead, affirm that you will tackle these with ease. “I will take the challenge of this day in stride”.  

photo via Pinterest 

And the last tip is to make a list of all family members, friends, and pets that matter the most to you. You could even include material things. By writing one or two reasons why each is important to you, you’ll clarify your thoughts and honor the people and things in your life that shouldn’t be taken for granted. 


Wonderful and pretty simple tips. It is so easy to get away from being grateful. That is always one of the things I write in my day designer. BE GRATEFUL! Once that is in your heart, I believe the Lord will honor that and bless your life. 


Have a great Monday everyone! 






(tips via Living the Good Long Life, page 176)

Chic Assignments ~ May

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Gosh, it’s the middle of May already and Jennifer L. Scott just posted her Chic Assignment Check-in for May. So what I have been doing is following along with the assignments. I do enjoy these very much and always want to update my readers on my status. 


So the first assignment was to listen to Erik Satie Gymnopedies. I listened to it and all I can say is magnifique! That YouTube video that Jennifer provided was wonderful! I saved it to my favorites and play it in my office all the time. What a great source to have for classical music. 






The second assignment was to regard the works of Pierre-Auguste Renoir. I viewed his artwork and my favorite piece of his was The Rose Garden at Wargemont, 1879. 

Pierre-Auguste Renoir‘s Rose Garden at Wargemont painted in 1879, is a studied game of depth and form imparting a sense of movement and energy. The artist explores the natural idiosyncrasies of plant growth and boils them down to a series of experiential dabs of color.






This is a beautiful painting and Wayfair has a reproduction on their website to purchase! I may have to think about that! 






The reproduction in someone’s dining room



The third chic assignment was to wear a piece of jewelry that you don’t normally wear. I usually don’t have a problem with this. I rotate my jewelry pretty often so each piece gets worn throughout the year. I love wearing jewelry. I feel like my jewelry pieces help me to feel more feminine. 




My jewelry at home



And the last chic assignment was to get yourself manicure and pedicure ready. I am actually scheduled for my nail appointment this Sunday and I normally give myself a pedicure every other Sunday. I have the foot rasp that is on Jennifer’s blog. I purchased mine 2 years ago and have not looked back! My heels have improved by 100%! I don’t have crusty heels any longer. 


I look forward to Jennifer’s June assignments and will do my very best to stay on top of it! If you missed my March and April assignment check-in’s you may view them here and here.


Have a great weekend and make sure that you subscribed to my Youtube channel! I will try to post new videos every Sunday. 






(photos via Mrs. Shockley & Pinterest; text via Wikipedia)





A Lovely Mind ~ Part 2

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I am still on my quest for “mental chicness”. This past December I wrote this blog post about having a “lovely mind”. I have been watching more of the news, reading more articles, and doing my best to stay abreast of the world around me without going into complete depression. 


It is not easy. There is so much going on in the world. Not to mention silly things that go on with social media. I have been so concerned about my Youtube channel and having “trolls”.  I have heard some of the other YouTubers talk about how people contact them and make horrible comments. I really don’t understand that. If you don’t like someone’s content just simply “unfollow” them. It’s so easy but then again people are crazy. 


I have been continuing to read the Living the Good Long Life by Martha Stewart. It was listed as one of my favorites a month or two ago. I have now entered the section of the book called “Accentuate the Positive”. 


I must admit I can be a negative Nancy sometimes so I am trying to work on that bad habit. Changing your thoughts can change your life and so that has turned into a life goal for me. In the book, Martha gives 3 tips from author Rick Hanson (Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love and Wisdom) on how to accentuate the positive. 


The first one is:
Turn positive events into positive experiences. All kinds of good things happen in your daily life that you hardly notice at all. (O.M.G. so true). Someone pays you a compliment- you barely pay attention to it or deflect it. Instead, take time to recognize every positive moment and experience it. 


I know for me when someone pays me a compliment, I immediately say, “thank you Lord for those kinds words”. But that is just me… 















photo credit Nicolas Fairford 







The second is:
Savor positive experiences. Once you get used to recognizing these types of experiences, take it a step further and relish each good moment: hold on to it for 20 to 30 seconds, and allow yourself to really feel it in your body. The longer you hold these moments in your awareness, the more neurons fire simultaneously so they start wiring together to form a memory. 


I like this idea of holding your moments in your thoughts. This is something I need to practice. 

















photo credit Annie Spratt 





And the third is:
Consider how the experience is sinking into you and becoming a part of you. In other words, help weave it into the fabric of your brain and yourself. 


Soak in the moments of life. I really want to work on this. With our daughter beginning high school this year soaking in moments has become a huge goal of mine. 


Well, I hope that you enjoyed this post and take some of these tips and work on them yourself. I think we all get caught up in the problems and concerns of life and that we do just ignore those lovely comments that we receive. 


No more ignoring…. take it in and be grateful. 








(tips: Living the Good Long Life, page 169)

A Stroll in Homegoods….

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Hello Everyone, it’s Monday and we are starting another week. I hope you all had a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend. I really enjoyed mine. My mother had knee surgery a few weeks ago so I have been going over checking on her and cleaning her home. It’s been a challenge for everyone but we are muddling our way through it. 


One of my favorite things that I got to do was go to Homegoods. Now it’s unfortunate that you can’t order online yet so if I find any of the items online I will provide a link of course. 


This was one of the first things I saw in the store. I absolutely adore this faux arrangement! My husband is not a fan of faux arrangements but I am! It is truly gorgeous!

The next items that I saw were these two planters. Some of you may have seen my hibiscus trees on my Instagram account and I purchased these for them. I believe they will look stunning in these planters.

I am so happy to see that the blue and white era is beginning to pick up here in Indiana. We are slower than molasses catching up with things so when we do it’s like a miracle!

This was my favorite. I may have to go back and get it!


Now I found these items in the clearance section…..


There was this large vase for $9! And yes I did purchase it.

This large blue and white bowl was calling my name but I did not purchase it. I couldn’t think of a place to put it. 


Then I saw a few pieces of art…

Blue and white monkeys

This was stunning. It had a bit of shimmer to it. 

Now, this I love. I don’t know why but I do. I did not purchase it but could not stop staring at it. 
Saw this….a beautiful ghost chair. Now I already have one so I was not tempted to buy it but if you are interested the link is here. 

And finally I saw these beautiful glass and floral jewelry boxes. How chic are these?


I wish I could have found a link but I could not. These would be great for a teen daughter (if she is willing). It was a wonderful trip and I found lots of beautiful things including a new beautiful blue and white Ralph Lauren lamp (original price $105; sale price $45) and this sophisticated floral Ralph Lauren pillow (on sale for $25). Both of these items will be going to my office today. 

As always I love sharing beautiful things and finding them. Being a woman is a wonderful thing. I embrace it every day. 

My plan is to post a new video this Sunday. I am not sure what content I will present but I hope it will be fun and inspiring. 

See you all soon!
(photos via Mrs. Shockley)

My Elegance Tested…

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Friday…. oh how I have longed for this day this week. It has been one interesting week. I’ll start off with my first disaster. 













photo credit Marchioness Instagram


So most of you know about my Ainifeel quilted handbag that I purchased from Amazon two months ago. I adore this bag so much that I decided to purchase it in lavender. So last Wednesday, I place my order and decided to pay the extra price to get 2-day shipping. 
It arrived on Friday (on time) and I was so, so excited to receive a call from our receptionist desk about my package being here. So I walk to the front open it and…… it was in BLACK! My heart fell and I was sorely disappointed. I could feel the heat rise to my face. No matter I will remain calm and simply call Amazon and find out what we can do to fix this mess. 

I call Amazon to tell them of the mix-up. The customer service agent was very kind and I decided at that moment that there was no need to be rude. This could be fixed right?
photo credit Randi Garrett 
The customer service agent then sends a “replacement” the same day. All weekend I am having second thoughts about this “replacement”. I don’t have peace about it and I am already irritated. So Monday arrives and so does my package. I get a call from the front desk to come and pick it up. I pause as I hold it. Take a deep breath and gather my thoughts because I just don’t feel right. I open a corner of the package and….. it’s BLACK again!

My mind is full of anger and frustrated thoughts. My friend Melissa who is filling in for our receptionist sees my face and knows that I am MAD! I don’t say a word because I know that she is watching but boy do I want to blast off! 



photo credit Annie Spratt 


I call Amazon tell them of the situation and they apologize profusely. Sigh….. I really wanted that bag and I can’t try to order it again. Now it says that it is sold out. So disappointed. Now I will not lie. I did give them a bad rating for this but I still felt guilty for doing that. I don’t know. But oh my frustrating week did not end there….
At the time that I placed my order for my handbag, I also placed an order on the H&M website for two more purse scarfs and a cashmere scarf. That package arrived yesterday to only have what? A package of men’s underwear and T-shirts. Arrrggggh!!! Oh my gosh so not only did I not get my lavender handbag but I did not get the correct order from H&M? 

Ohhhhhh… I wanted to call H&M and blast off but I caught myself and said, listen there is no need to be rude. I am surrounded by it on a regular basis. Don’t fall into this. I never want to be an odor to people but a fragrance but it was hard…… I prayed and said Lord, I don’t remember praying for patience recently but you sure are testing it right now. I called H&M and they were also very gracious. I have to return my package before I get my refund but they were still gracious. 


Photo by Freddie Martyn on Unsplash

I am sharing this with all of you because I want to put you on notice that this is where we are headed as far as shopping. With all of the stores closing, online shopping is taking over and we will not be able to try on items nor see them in person. It’s unfortunate. I love going to stores. It is an opportunity to see items that you are interested in but it’s also an opportunity to engage in the five senses and with people. So now we must put our “patience pants” on and learn to wait. It’s going to be hard adjusting to this but we must. 

I hope you all have a great Mother’s Day weekend and enjoy your families. Be a fragrance to people not an odor. 






The Purse Scarf

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This was a such a fun find! I was so elated when I saw these on the H&M website! These are called the purse accessory scarfs and they come in a variety of patterns and colors. I purchased two in the store and ordered two online. 
The key-chain comes attached to the scarf. How great is that?

I could not tell you how many scarfs I have lost over the years because I did not tie them good enough. I mean I have been seriously heart broken because I lost a silk scarf that should have been double knotted on my bag. 
No worries with this and look at how chic it looks. I shared these on my YouTube video that I posted this past Sunday. I can’t want to see what the pink and polka-dot ones look like once they arrived.

I think Elle Woods from Legally Blonde would be very proud! Sorry but I love that movie! Well have a good hump day and stay inspired!



Do you see the purse scarf? This is where I saw it first!



(photos via Mrs. Shockley & Google)