The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style

Let's escape to France for a moment, at least for the duration of today's episode. :) Today's episode is a re-airing of one of, if not the top downloaded, read and listened to episodes if including YouTube and Pinterest . More new readers learn of TSLL blog and the podcast through this episode than any other source. And since the next new episode of The Simple Sophisticate is scheduled to air on M...

"Most people are in a constant state of falling for whatever the most interesting thing is. Falling for whatever the most popular person is doing . . . This introduces the endless cycle of constantly 'shopping' for experiences. An endless search for novelty, hedonism, and just a dash of escapism. Because they do not conduct the orchestra of their own lives, they search out the best possible maestr...

"Never decorate all at once. 'When you do it all at once, you make mistakes,' explains Fredéric Amico. Take your time trying out different pieces, and never settle." — Architectural Digest' s Clever (new online destination for decor ideas, quoting French actor and artist Fredéric Amico (view his Paris loft here ) Our wardrobe, our mind, our relationships all ebb and flow, grow, migrate, wander and...

Oprah : What is a lesson that took you the longest to learn that you kept repeating and it kept showing up wearing a different something, but was the same lesson? Julia Roberts: I think we as people, or as women, or me just myself who I am in this world that I make myself less for someone else to feel more of whatever that "thing" was. View this post on Instagram Juuuulia! Our forever pretty woman...

Over the years I have recommended, reviewed and shared a long list of French films or films set in France either as Petit Plaisirs in previous podcast episodes, in the weekly This & That under the Francophile Finds category or during the annual TSLL French Week the past three years in August. And as someone who appreciates simplicity and organization, I realized I didn't have one destination where...

In today's episode I had the opportunity to chat with Portland, Oregon, based stylist Scarlet Chamberlin who has styled women and men as their lives begin to evolve along their journeys. Having styled clients for the red carpet - the Academy Awards and Golden Globes - she works with everyday individuals seeking a style that aligns with where they are and where they want to go in their lives. In to...

"A well-designed life is a life that makes sense . . . a marvelous portfolio of experiences, of adventures, of failures that taught you important lessons, of hardships that made you stronger and helped you know yourself better, and of achievements and satisfactions."  — Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life  by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans At the heart of choosing and the acti...

"Resilence is more than bouncing back from adversity. People who are resilient keep pursuing their goals in the face of challenges. Consequently, learning how to regulate your brain's motivational machinery is a key aspect of resilence." —Rick Hanson, Ph. D, author of Resilient: How to Grown an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength and Happiness Living well and successfully reaching our fullest potent...

"Finding an ease with what you are thinking, feeling, the world as it is, not necessarily accepting it, but not resisting it. This is contentment." —Andy Puddicombe The truth about contentment is that it is different than being happy. We cannot know what it feels like to be happy if we have not been sad, so therefore we cannot feel both simultaneously. The argument may be made that, feeling sad an...

"When you take control of your mornings, you take control of your days. You get to engage with the world under your terms. You can act, instead of react ." —Hal Elrod, Miracle Morning Millionaires Reflect on those mornings in which you eagerly step out of bed regardless of the early hour. What was to happen in that day? Most likely, it was something you were excited to enjoy or partake in. Most li...

If you Google "self-care", more than two billion posts, articles, books and videos pop up. For a variety of reasons, many valid, self-care is topic of discussion in the world, and the reality that stress levels in America have increased for the first time in 10 years is evidence that perhaps we all would benefit from understanding the value of proper self-care. The topic is something that is indir...

"In bringing about genuine inner transformation and change, the Dalai Lama emphasizes the importance of making a sustained effort. It is a gradual process." — The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living by The Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D. The resolutions whether you have concretely written them down or potential ideas of what you wish could improve in this new year are dancing about in yo...

Season 5 of The Simple Sophisticate podcast kicked off earlier this year in September. Just prior to beginning, I shared the schedule of the season (see below) so that listeners would know for sure which Mondays they could tune in to find new and inspiring content. But I must admit, as today approached, it was odd not to offer listeners something to begin their week (as only two new episodes were...

"Things in their original simplicity contain their own natural power, power that is easily spoiled and lost when that simplicity is changed." —Benjamin Hoff, author of The Tao of Pooh ~Below is a list of the life lessons shared on today's podcast episode. For detailed conversation about each point, be sure to listen to the audio version as Shannon elaborates on each point.  ~Correction 12/11/2018:...

"You should read this." "You should do this." "You shouldn't be wasting your time doing . . . " Over the past couple years I have been wrestling with the uncomfortability that piques me any time a friend, family member or even complete stranger states something including the word "should" in the declaration. And after much grappling, I discovered the root of my uneasiness each time the word would...

"There is nothing that makes me happier than sitting around the dinner table and talking until the candles are burned down." ― Madeleine L'Engle, author of A Circle of Quiet Dinner parties. I would love to ask the question of what comes to mind when the phrase "dinner party" is expressed because depending upon so many factors - culture, familial experience, region of the country in which you live...

"Heat is the element of transformation. It is was takes raw to cooked, flabby to firm. Pale to golden brown. " — Salt, Fat, Heat, Acid , documentary, Samin Nosrat The topic of butterflies has been abundant here on TSLL blog - in 2011,  What Butterflies Have Taught Me ; in 2016 - The Butterfly Moment in Life: Don't Wait, Just Live Well, episode #160; in 2010 - With Balance and Determination - and a...

"I see inspiration everywhere - from the fashion flitting past as I am crossing 7th Avenue to the overgrown flowers exploding from the window boxes of the brownstones of the West Village to the monkeys blinking back at my son and me as we wander through the tropical zone of The Central Park Zoo. It is all waiting to be painted. I often feel giddy, dizzy, overwhelmed by all that there is to paint."...

"Becoming Parisian is possible, but remaining Parisian is an art." —Nathalie Peigney, author of Sophie the Parisian: Style Tips from a True Parisian Woman To spend time in Paris is to spend time in a city with a feminine energy. Simply the proper article spoken when saying the city of Paris is  la ville de Paris which is feminine. But what exactly does that mean? And we should ask, does it mean an...

"Just by being a strong and kind, ambitious and likeable, empathetic and decisive, confident and flexible woman, you can help turn around the double standards we all face and permanently change the way women at work are perceived." —Fran Hauser, author of The Myth of the Nice Girl: Achieving a Career You Love Without Becoming a Person You Hate Authenticity is crucial for success, but for some reas...

Faith Salie's recent commentary on Breaking News and its meandering into becoming of lesser and lesser importance for the viewers to be interrupted sparked my attention when Salie offered a simple suggestion: more depth, less drama.  As soon as she said it, my ears and mind perked up.  What a simple approach to living well. An approach to welcome more substance, less stress, more enjoyment, less u...

Autumn brings many revelations and rewards. From the harvest of bountiful fruits and vegetables that have been waiting for months to reach their peak of flavor to the brilliant turning of colors seen in the leaves and needles from deciduous and the rare deciduous conifer trees (American Larch or Tamarack).  Autumn also reveals how well taken care of, how attentive we have been, to said crops and w...

Home sweet Parisian home, whether you live in Paris or not.  Ines de la Fressange is stepping into the sanctuary with her new book Maison: Parisian Chic at Home (see my profile posts of her previous style books here , here and here ), and along with her co-author Marin Montagut, they are both taking readers inside their own homes in Paris as well as inside 13 other Parisian apartments (the founder...