For the second installment in my Living La Belle Vie (the Good Life) series I’d like to talk about all the stuff in our lives. I think it’s fair to say most of us have way more stuff than we need and we’re constantly bombarded with messages to acquire even more.  As a design blogger, I’m well aware that I’m responsible for some of this myself!  You also know I love my share of pretty things so I’m clearly not here to preach about an ascetic lifestyle or anything like that. But. I do believe that one way to live la belle vie is to buy and use only the best quality that you can afford. This is another observation I made while living in Paris and even though I’m not all the way there, I have been trying to embrace this approach more fully.

This can apply to so many areas of our lives from our homes to our wardrobes to what we eat to how we spend our free time. For example, how many of you “save” certain clothes because you’re afraid of ruining them? I know I used to do that.  Most of us also save things around the house that we consider “good” or “fancy” for special occasions and ninety percent of the time we use something else. But what if we only lived with the best and got rid of everything else? Think of how luxurious it would feel to love everything we used every day not to mention how much less clutter we would have. Wouldn’t each day feel just a little nicer?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!

Thanks for another fun week of blogging and all the kind comments. Have a great weekend and I’ll see you Monday!

(Photos: 1.by Polly Wreford 2.by Richard Powers, from Sarah Kaye)

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So I started making a list of all the ways we can live la belle vie (the good life) as I defined it last week. As I filled up page after page, I thought of doing one long epic post but concluded it would be better in small doses because none of this is earth-shattering stuff which is precisely why you could read it all in one go then promptly forget them. So, I think a weekly reminder of how to make each day just a little nicer is how this series will unfold.

As I was making my list, I thought the notebook I was writing in was a great example of taking an ordinary task and making it a little more pleasant so let’s start there.

I write down all my ideas for the blog in this notebook:

Yes, it’s filled with all kinds of brilliance! Ha! Anyway, it’s a plain kraft paper hardcover sketchbook from Ecojot. (I just pasted one of my calling cards on the cover.) These are my favorite because I can personalize them and I love the heavyweight, acid-free paper that I can use thick pens and Sharpies on. They also hold up well to to glue and paste so it’s good for the moodboards I make in them like this one (which I posted before):

I also keep a separate book for daily to do’s/schedule, a travel journal and a personal journal.

I know some people are 100% paperless but I just can’t give up paper. So if you’re like me and you’re always jotting down notes, reminders, to do lists, etc., do yourself a favor and ditch those ugly spiral notebooks and legal pads. Instead, pick up a nice notebook or journal that’s pretty to look at and has paper with a texture you like writing on. Use a great pen too while you’re at it! I like ones that either bleed tons of ink or write super fine.

Writing lists and notes may be a mundane task but doing it in a nice little notebook turns it into something enjoyable. Plus, it’ll look cute on your desk and we all like cute desks, don’t we? So, are you a list keeper? Do you journal? Do you have any favorite supplies?

Thanks again for all the feedback on the new blog design this week. Have a wonderful weekend and I’ll see you on Monday!

(The first set of notebooks is from Designers Guild; The last set is from Kate’s Paperie.)

Note: This is a special post for me and it’s wordier than usual.
I hope you’ll have time to read it all the way through.

La belle vie. The good life. It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. What does it mean? I think luxury is one of the first things that comes to mind for most people and I’m certainly not one to argue! But beyond that, I think the truly good life happens when we appreciate the everyday, when we celebrate the ordinary and when we put care and thought into our daily routine. I’ve been conscious of this concept for some time. (Long before this blog, I kept a daily photoblog with the purpose of documenting the beauty in everyday life. These days I share daily snapshots on Twitter, Instagram and Flickr. You’ll also note that my Flickr name is “ode to everyday.”)

Anyway, while this notion wasn’t new, it really crystallized for me while living in Paris and witnessing how the French live. What I saw was that it all comes down to the little things: lingering over and savoring even a very simple meal, one perfect accessory, soaking up the arts in all its forms….. While the French have definitely perfected the art of living, the good life is not limited to France. Whenever I travel nowadays, I take note of how other cultures elevate everyday rituals into something special and in turn, how they live the good life.

I’d now like to start sharing what I’ve learned from my time in France as well as my travels around the world because I’m really passionate about living la belle vie and would love to help you do the same. Naturally I’ll be bringing you a lot of ideas for your home but because the good life encompasses so much more, I’ll cover other aspects of life such as how and what we eat, how we nourish our minds, how we present ourselves and more. So FTRB will be stretching into some new territory but it’ll all be in this context. I’ll also share with you how I try to incorporate these ideas in my own life.

I’m so, so excited about this new series and hope you’ll get a lot out of it. I’m thinking it’ll be on Fridays – something to leave you with on weekends – but don’t hold me to it just yet. In the meantime, tell me, what does the good life mean to you? I’d love to know!

(Photos: FROM THE RIGHT BANK)