The Times of the Day, 1899, Alphonse Mucha

Folding my hands in my lap when I sit. Don’t wring your hands, just place them gently in your lap. Think how a queen or princess sits

Smirk. Just a little bit. Not good at keeping a small smile on your face? Think of something that you know, that no one else in the room knows. You’ve got a secret and it’s worth smiling over

Keeping a portable hobby in my bag so that I never am sitting there waiting. Doesn’t matter if it’s a book, a journal, sketchbook embroidery, knitting work, ect… Anything that makes you happy and can keep you busy, but is also easy to take with you everywhere

Lowering the volume of my voice. What you have to say is worth hearing, so make people actually listen. One of my favorite feelings is when I lower my voice and everyone turns to pay attention, and leans in to listen

-Send off letters/invitations on beautiful stationery with elaborate wax seals

-Bake desserts for loved ones

-Make homemade organic soaps

-Knit/crochet blankets and other things to gift to people, heavily pray over the items as I make them

-Embroider beautiful patterns onto different canvases

-Grow a small vegetable and herb garden, cook with those ingridients often

-Collect small devotionals, bibles and notebooks from thrift stores to gift to people

-Make jams/jellies/preserves out of fresh in season fruit

-Bake bread

-Aromatherapy

-Give my partner proper massages

-Make baskets out of the items I make and give them to others on special occasions or just to show them I love them

-Cook a large, hearty meal for my friends and family

-Put together small events for local charities

- smile at strangers

- avoid cursing

- be kind to others, but especially other women! nobody likes a girl who is constantly putting other girls down

- try to incorporate more dresses & skirts into your everyday outfits if you don’t already

- write thank you notes

- sit with your knees together and your ankles crossed

- don’t gossip, it’s unkind

- be positive & look for beauty in everything. don’t put yourself, or others, down.

- always choose dressing up over dressing down

- focus on your posture

- say please and thank you

- keep your voice gentle (and especially try not to speak over others)

- avoid being attention seeking

you’re in your late-20’s, early-30’s; you’re married and have two young kids. together, you live in a large house in the countryside. the house could use renovating, but it doesn’t need it.

wildflowers grow all over your large property. bees buzz by, but never sting. they make honey for your family to sell and enjoy.

in your backyard is a garden. you and your spouse wear overalls and bandanas while you harvest the fruits and vegetables you’ve worked so hard on; you sell whatever you don’t eat.

next to the garden is a pasture: you raise cows, bunnies, sheep, and chickens. you’ve taught your children to collect eggs every morning, while you and your spouse milk the cows.

although you have technology, wifi, and service, your family doesn’t rely on it for entertainment and communication. you play board games, read books, and write letters.

your house is your own. you fall asleep in the arms of the person you love, happily content with life.

eating vegetable stew out of little wooden bowls, sitting outside as the weather grows colder and a snail inches towards you

walking through the dirt barefoot, growing pumpkin plants that twist their stems around themselves in a self-embrace

collecting acorns and listening to the west wind