CategoriesELEGANT TRAVEL, HIGH VIBE RECIPES, MONTHLY FAVOURITES

Mes Petits Plaisirs (My Little Pleasures) December Favourites

It’s that time again! Time to thrill you with my December Favourites! Or as I like to call them, Mes Petits Plaisirs;)

This month I have TWO favourites. The first will gift you absolute relaxation and pleasure (and romance!) and the second? Well, you will be the talk of any party or celebration with this one! Let’s dive in, shall we?

My December Favourites

Novel – Seven Letters From Paris by Samantha Verant

I discovered this novel about 2 years ago. I’m always on the look out for a great francophile novel and when I read the synopsis for this book I KNEW I had to read it.

Synopsis:

At age 40, Samantha Verant’s life is falling apart-she’s jobless, in debt, and feeling stuck… until she stumbles upon seven old love letters from Jean-Luc, the sexy Frenchman she’d met in Paris when she was 19. With a quick Google search, she finds him, and both are quick to realize that the passion they felt 20 years prior hasn’t faded with time and distance.

Samantha knows that jetting off to France to reconnect with a man that she only knew for one sun-drenched, passion-filled day is crazy-but it’s the kind of crazy she’s been waiting for her whole life.

After reading this book (in about 1 day) I just had to find the author and tell her how much I loved it (Facebook is a wonderful thing!) I told her how much her story reminded me of my own personal love story in France and she encouraged me to write about it. So I did! Samantha Verant is the inspiration behind my blog series: The Making of a Spiritual Woman: A Pilgrimage That Began in Paris.  

This blog series has been THE most watched series here on The Elegant Life. So many women tell me they see themselves in different parts of my story. ENJOY discovering yourself!

Click HERE -> Seven Letters from Paris: A Memoir to purchase: december favourites

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recipe – Best Ever Victoria Sponge Cake Recipe

This cake has such a lovely, soft flavour and a very moist texture. Best of all, it takes no more than 5 minutes to prepare. Okay, even better than that, it looks absolutely elegant and will be the showstopper of any party or celebration. Ready to learn the recipe? (Watch how in the video above at minute 4:50)

Ingredients:

160 g/5 1/4 oz. caster sugar

250 ml/8 fl oz. vegetable oil

225 ml/ 8 fl oz. natural yoghurt

2 eggs

225 g/ 8 oz. plain flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

 

250ml/8 fl oz. double cream (whipping cream)

25 g/ 1 oz. icing sugar

100 g/4 oz. fresh raspberries plus 8 same sized raspberries for the garnish

Method:

Grease 2 round bakings pans.

Preheat oven to 160°C/325°F.

In a blender or food processor, mix the sugar, oil, yoghurt, eggs, flour, baking powder, and vanilla until just mixed. Be sure not to overmix.

Evenly pour batter into the cake pans and bake in oven for approx. 30 minutes (until lightly browned and top springs up when touched).

When ready, flip both cakes onto a cooling rack. Leave until cool.

Pour cream into a medium bowl. Add icing sugar and whip until stiff peaks form.

Fold in the 100 g raspberries.

Place 1 cooled cake on a cake pedestal. Spread the raspberry cream mixture on top. Place second cooled cake on top of the cream.

Sift icing sugar on top to lightly garnish the surface. Finally, place the 8 raspberries on top to decorate.

Voila! Un beau gateau!best victoria sponge cake recipe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See you in 2018!!!

Love,

 

 

 


SHOP THIS POST – December Favourites 

I LOVE this scale! You can place one bowl on it and add all of your ingredients into that bowl, whether it be liquid or dry, metric or imperial! You just press the “zero” button after each ingredient and voila! No clean up (except the one bowl)! CLICK IMAGE TO PURCHASE


J’adore this vanilla extract! It is a full bodied vanilla that really takes your baking to a whole new level. The difference is truly distinguishable. CLICK IMAGE TO PURCHASE.


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receiving
CategoriesMANIFESTING LOVE & PLEASURE, MANIFESTING PROSPERITY

How to Connect With the Divine Through RECEIVING

“I don’t want to bother you”

“Aw thanks, but I’m okay, I’m just complaining.”

Ever said one of these statements? Ever heard another woman say them?

Yep, we women have a REALLY difficult time receiving help or pleasure. And it is one of the top reasons we don’t “receive” what our soul truly desires.

Yes, it’s time we take a much closer look at receiving and give it the attention and practise it deserves because your goals, dreams and desires depend on it.

This week’s post and video teaches you two ways to practise receiving – the Human version of receiving AND the Soul version of receiving.  Ready?

Let’s do this!

Over the past five weeks we’ve been looking at the attributes of God/Source and the reason for doing this is so that we can EMBODY these traits. We can’t become more Divine, vibrating at a high frequency, and living an exquisite life if we don’t know exactly what to focus on, can we?

Once we learn how to BE these Divine attributes we can start harnessing the power and beauty of it. Not only to create beautiful transformation in our own lives, but the lives of everyone around us.

Today is the very last post in this Series. (There are more attributes of the Divine but I’ve been guided to stop here, so I will)

The final attribute of the Divine I will share with you is…you guessed it – RECEIVING.

Two Ways to Practise & Embody RECEIVING

1. Open ourselves up to RECEIVE from ourselves and others.

When others offer you help – take it! (Even when it feels really uncomfortable to). When you do this you allow the other person to practise the art of generosity, so really it’s a win win!

I have come a long way on this. I am now able to actually ask for help, but still find it a bit of an effort to receive help that is simply offered without me asking.

It’s such an interesting phenomenon, isn’t it?

The one area I don’t struggle with is gifting myself alone time and pampering time. It is such a part of my personality that I require alone time to recharge. If I don’t gift this to myself I become resentful and angry REAL quick! Can you relate? Most ladies that follow me are introverts or ambiverts so I am sure you “get” this.

However, most of my clients, even though they are introverts deny themselves pleasure. They would never schedule regular moments of pleasure because they believe they must give first THEN receive, only there is never any time left over to receive so they just carry on giving and giving.

Until…

They blow up! They yell at their kids and husband and feel like they are depressed, but aren’t sure why.

The reason why is because it is a natural attribute of the Divine to receive, and if you aren’t regularly receiving your soul will feel out of alignment and depressed.

Or, perhaps depressed is too strong of a word, perhaps “flat” is a better word. Life is “okay”, but it’s not fulfilling or full of JOY.

Can you relate?

So, the first thing you want to practise this week is to consciously allow yourself to receive. When others offer (friends, children, family, your husband or partner) say, “Yes, Thank you!”

And schedule at least ONE pleasure for yourself this week. Tune in to your soul and ask it,

What do you require to ENJOY this week?”

Whatever comes up, whether it be quiet time to read a magazine in the bath, go to the movies with girlfriends, book a massage or begin a new novel, listen and schedule it in your diary. Trust me… you’ll be in BLISS! And in return, resonating the vibration of openness to receive to the Universe.

2.  Be still & RECEIVE downloads from the Divine.

If you are always running around, shuttling kids from class to class, working, volunteering, travelling and such you will not be able to receive the gorgeous downloads from the Divine.

The Divine has already received your requests, desires or prayers, but now it’s waiting for YOU to receive guidance!

Without stillness and silence in your life it will be much more difficult to live and manifest the kind of life you dream about.

The Elegant Life is a life where you create moments of stillness and silence so that you can hear the actions to take.

I will be teaching the elegant morning meditation and rituals that I do every morning and evening at a Retreat I’ll be telling you about shortly.

It is so very important, to turn off the radio, TV, podcasts and music and just have silence in your life.

When I drive in the car,  I sometimes just drive in silence.

When I’m doing things around the house I sometimes consciously choose not to put my lovely music on.

Remember? Spiritual women who live elegantly CHOOSE how their life flows. And yes, I know it’s not always easy. It takes practise, like building a “receiving muscle”, but you will notice a massive difference in the fulfilment you feel as well as the ease in your ability to manifest. Trust me on this one!

Have you ever?

Have you ever experienced magical benefits from receiving?

Have you ever noticed that when you’ve been generous with yourself, gifting yourself something that gives you pleasure that you experience other beautiful experiences or gifts from the Universe?

Have you ever regularly had a morning meditation or ritual and seen and felt the miracles that have transpired because of it?

I’d LOVE to hear about them in the comments!

This is the last post in this series of “How to Connect With the Divine”. If you missed any click HERE to start back at the very first post. I have absolutely LOVED showing you how to embody the attributes of the Divine!

Next week we move on to something really powerful.  See you next week!

Love,

 

 

P.S. If you enjoyed this post and can think of another woman who could benefit from it, please share it with her. Or, simply share it on your Facebook feed! That way more and more women can be touched by The Elegant Life. Thank you!