~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #188 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio "But I love New Year's Day, because I can never get over the generosity of the fact that we all get a BRAND NEW YEAR, totally for FREE — with no dents, or dinks, or mistakes yet. It's the ultimate REFRESH button." — Elizabeth Gilbert With 2018 just two weeks away, I am, as I am with each new years, inclined to be quite excited for a fresh start. No matter what the current year shared wi...
Dec 18, 2017•36 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #187 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio ~The following episode/post is part of the year-long series Welcoming in the Quality in 2017, One Month at a Time . To view other monthly topics touching on all arenas of our lives from style to money to eating well, click here . Upon stepping off the plane at Heathrow last month and wandering into the Devon countryside for a week, I also drastically limited my access to American news. ...
Dec 11, 2017•37 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #186 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio "It is paradoxical, yet true, to say, that the more we know, the more ignorant we become in the absolute sense, for it is only through enlightenment that we become conscious of our limitations. Precisely one of the most gratifying results of intellectual evolution is the continuous opening up of new and greater prospects." —Nikola Tesla Have you heard someone else or maybe yourself say ...
Dec 04, 2017•25 min
By default we choose comfort over a better life, but we don’t think that is what we’re doing. We think we are choosing the better life. Why? We don’t know what or how the “better life” will unfold, but we do at least know what is somewhat okay. For example, we may have gathered up the gumption to let go of a partner because the person we were becoming or the life that was evolving was shrinking or limiting or unhealthy in a myriad of ways, but after a few weeks or months or maybe even a few year...
Nov 27, 2017•25 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #184 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio | YouTube ~ Natural History Museum Ice Rink , London~ The holidays can be glorious and overwhelming at the same time, magnificent and demanding, joy-filled and draining. And since the holidays of Thanksgiving for Americans and a handful of religious and non-religious commemorations will take place in December for people around the globe each year, it is best to navigate an approach that...
Nov 20, 2017•31 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #183 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio The arrival of the holiday issue of The English Home in my mailbox brought a larger smile to my face than previous years. As I flipped through the pages of recommendations by the editors of special holiday events in which to partake in London and around the city (Liberty London holiday windows, visiting the Borough Market, and strolling down Regent's street), I immediately began to add ...
Nov 13, 2017•33 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #182 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio "Paris was always Paris, and the French were . . . well, the French. But because of what happened — j'avais mûri , I had 'ripened,' as they say." —David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home (released Tuesday November 7, 2017) In today's episode of the podcast, food blogger, renowned pastry chef (having worked for 13 years at Alice Waters' Chez Panisse )...
Nov 06, 2017•36 min
“There is no end of craving. Hence contentment alone is the best way to happiness. Therefore, acquire contentment.” —Swami Sivananda Recently I overheard someone describe their weekend as boring, using the descriptor in a negative tone (remember this post on my thoughts about being boring?). Being someone who revels in what outsiders consider boring behavior such as reveling in the responsibilities of the tasks I have chosen for my life (doggie mama, tender to my sanctuary, chef of my appetite, ...
Oct 30, 2017•26 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #180 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio The year 2017 has been dedicated to living a year of quality here on TSLL . While at the core of living simply luxuriously is to focus on quality rather than quantity, I wanted to take time each month this year to focus on one aspect in our lives in which we could amplify the quality and eliminate the extra. Each month we've addressed one area in which to amp up the quality in your life...
Oct 23, 2017•29 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #179 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio The desire to share our lives with a partner can be a different vision in each of our minds, but at the core of a strong, healthy, worthwhile relationship is something that is often dismissed as important, but not vital. Too often we are looking in the wrong place, seeking out the wrong traits and even presenting a false self in order to be chosen or to choose a person to potentially be...
Oct 16, 2017•34 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #178 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio “If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it's not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That's why it's your path.” ― Joseph Campbell Have you ever thought or uttered this statement, "If only there was someone's journey I could follow, model my life after, then I would be more at ease" ? At ease with knowing which step to take when,...
Oct 09, 2017•20 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #177 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio “October knew, of course, that the action of turning a page, of ending a chapter or shutting a book, did not end the tale . . . " —Neil Gaiman The journey of each of our lives meanders and sometimes jet-lines through seasons. As children we are in the spring of our youth, emerging, learning, exploring and stretching our wings to experience all that is unknown. During our summer we inves...
Oct 02, 2017•29 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #176 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio " . . . bring women to the front of their own stories, and make them the hero of their own stories." —Reese Witherspoon at the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards ~Spoiler Alert: The ending of Hallie Meyers-Shyer's new film Home Again will be shared. The power of a Hollywood script which makes it to the silver screen as well as to the small screen, better known as our television sets, is unconsc...
Sep 25, 2017•25 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #175 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio "How you eat, when you eat, for how long you eat, and with whom you eat might be more important than what you eat. Eating and enjoying real food is what matters, not tracking calories." — Johnny Adamic As reported by Time magazine last year , while the United States unfortunately has been found to describe 34% of its population as obese, France is ten percentage points fewer. The Britis...
Sep 18, 2017•34 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #174 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio At the age of eleven, now U.S. Tennis Open Champion Sloane Stephens' mom was told by one of the directors at the tennis academy she was attending "that [she'd] be lucky if [she] was a Division II player and I got a scholarship". She didn't believe them. Her mom didn't believe them and now she is only the third woman (which includes the Williams sisters) to win the US Open in the past 15...
Sep 11, 2017•37 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #173 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio “To be a teacher. And to be known for inspiring my students to be more than they thought they could be.” —Oprah Winfrey's mission statement The first time I sat down to write my personal mission statement after reading Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People , it took some time. I was in my early twenties, and while I had what I thought was a very clear vision, when I ha...
Sep 04, 2017•22 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #172 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio "For me, style is zee whole package: how you dress, talk, move and behave. It all goes together into that first-impression equation. It shouldn't be confused with chic; an extremely chic or well-dressed woman may have zero sense of style. Style is definitely more about who the person is inside. Confidence and individuality are two strong assets for developing your personal style. Can it...
Aug 28, 2017•23 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #171 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio Introverts are finding their voice, and one author and blogger who is helping to make this possible is Jenn Granneman. With her new book which was just released on August 1st, The Secret Lives of Introverts: Inside Our Hidden World and her internationally enjoyed blog Introvert, Dear , she shares the science, conversations with multiple introverts as well the insights gained from sittin...
Aug 21, 2017•42 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #170 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio {As always, I encourage you to listen to the audio version as much more is talked about beyond the transcript below: more anecdotes, examples and ideas about how this episode is really about enjoying our time alone whether we are coupled or single.} Having lived on my own most of my adult life, but significantly so these past five years, without hesitation I can say, I've loved every mi...
Aug 14, 2017•34 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #169 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio The French language guide for anyone who is curious about the French culture, will be traveling to Paris anytime soon or perhaps moving there to call it home, will find a wealth of a resource at the website created by today's guest on the podcast: Géraldine Lepere. Her website, blog and YouTube channel Comme une Française will help you learn to speak French and feel French. Because we k...
Aug 12, 2017•40 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #168 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio A returning guest to the podcast, author and blogger Sharon Santoni joins me to talk about her new book My French Country Home: Entertaining Through the Seasons . Her book offers a beautiful glimpse into her everyday life as readers will discover inspiration for each season as they go about hosting formal and casual gatherings, using what the yard and market give them, all the while bei...
Aug 09, 2017•34 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #167 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio Author and now full-time resident French blogger Janine Marsh joined me on The Simple Sophisticate podcast today, and I must say, it was a most enjoyable conversation. I could have easily talked another hour or so just asking more questions about her life in France. But the good news is I can hop over to her blog The Good Life France at any time which is a wealth of a resource for all t...
Aug 07, 2017•39 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #166 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio "If you want to change your partner, change yourself." —Esther Perel, relationship psychotherapist and best-selling author ~Enjoy TSLL's first book Choosing The Simply Luxurious Life: A Modern Woman's Guide in audio format on Audible, iTunes, and Amazon . The unexpected adventure you embark upon when you step into a relationship with a potential life partner is that you embark on a jour...
Jul 31, 2017•34 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #165 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio "Right food, right place, right time. It is my belief . . . that this is the best recipe of all. A crab sandwich by the sea on a June afternoon; a slice of roast goose with applesauce and roast potatoes on Christmas Day; hot sausages and a chuck of roast pumpkin on a frost-sparkling night in November. These are meals who success relies not on the expertise of the cook but on the more ba...
Jul 24, 2017•29 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #164 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio "With a healthy lifestyle, it's not at all unreasonable to expect ninety or one hundred exceptionally healthy years of life, years in which we will be of sound body, mind and spirit." —Dr. John D. Day, author of The Longevity Plan: 7 Life-Transforming Lessons from Ancient China In Benjamin Franklin's autobiography , a man who lived from 1706-1790, in Part Two along with his well-known 1...
Jul 17, 2017•33 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #163 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio "Growing your inner strengths through taking in the good is like deepening the keel of a sailboat so that it's less jostled by the worldly winds, it recovers more quickly from big storms, and you can now safely head out into deeper waters in pursuit of your dreams." —Rick Hanson, author of Hardwiring Happiness The founding premise of the book Hardwiring Happiness is change your brain, c...
Jul 10, 2017•26 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #162 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio "Focusing on happiness as our ultimate goal is self-defeating; being in a constant state of happiness is, simply put, impossible."—Paul Hudson Place the word happiness on the cover of a self-help book and it will sell more times than it won't (Amazon has over 40,000 book titles with the word). The concept of happiness has a mass following as once we've experienced the feeling of our hap...
Jul 03, 2017•27 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #161 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio In the first annual "Ask Shannon" episode of the podcast, listeners and readers have sent in their questions. With an episode full of the answers, this extra full episode (75 minutes) will address the topics of eating well, traveling to Paris: where to say and what to do, adhering and refreshing your signature style, my personal strength training routine, how to get your "mojo" back aft...
Jun 26, 2017•1 hr 18 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #160 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio "'How does one become a butterfly?' she asked pensively. You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar." — Trina Paulus In a blink of an eye, in an unexpected, ordinary moment, the unimaginable can materialize before our eyes. And in such a moment, due to its magnificence, a feeling of surreality washes over us and we stand confounded, yet buoyant as i...
Jun 19, 2017•23 min
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #159 ~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate : iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio "Style trickles into everything you do, who you are, and who and what you attract in life. Whittle down your style to what matters and project what's meaningful to the world: Be the lighthouse. Be honest. Be real." —Kate Schelter Settling on a style that is our own can be overwhelming. Beginning with the style that adorns our bodies, but also the style with which we approach life, our r...
Jun 12, 2017•31 min
