in a book // Rosemary & Fern in We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. I am obsessed with this book. It has kept me up way past my bedtime.

on a blog // My go-to blog-boosting inspiration is Sarah Von Bargen. She even started her own series imagining literary characters in 2015. Obsessed.

in a song // Lorde in “Tennis Court.” She had me at Pure Heroine.

in the cinema // So proud of Emma Stone for her Oscar nom in Birdman, which is an interesting commentary on art and one’s personal story.

on netflix // I’ve plunged back into Rosewood, and Hanna Marin of all people made a Madame Dufarge reference. Unfamiliar with A Tale of Two Cities, I had to look that one up. Then it appeared in the novel I’m reading ^. Pretty Little Liars: surprisingly educational.

on youtube // J’aime the Daily Connoissuer, if you can’t already tell. I recommend her books like once a day.

on a podcast // I’m hooked on Nathalie Lussier‘s bite-sized business podcast, Off the Charts. Her Spiral Staircase concept is especially brill.

on instagram // @luxuryandopulence is exactly as ahhhh it sounds.

in a dream // I was invited to Taylor Swift’s apartment and she recited a scene from Hamlet.

Who did you meet this week? Do introduce us.

Hey there. You’re reading my first post as Fashionably Light AND Heroine Training TOGETHER. [Um. Can you tell I’m excited?]

I’d like to tell you my story.

Since departing from Boston to attend university in the UK, I have been paring down my things, bit by bit. Some people call this practice “minimalism”. I noticed that having fewer things to carry not only made it easier to travel, but also made my head feel clearer, and, strangest of all, made my wardrobe more stylish.

About a year ago, I wrote down the story in book form. When I got to the end, I faced the big question: What, for me, is the point of minimalism?

My answer: to be my own heroine.

And so the book was titled Fashionably Light: Becoming My Own Heroine.

The book was an obvious project for me. I was practically born an aspiring authoress. The next step was trickier, and one thought I just couldn’t shake was Harry Potter Life Coaching. It started as a joke: haha that would be awesome yeah right. The more I fake-laughed about it, the more I realised that I actually seriously wanted to do this. So I did.

From there, Heroine Training snowballed into Letters from Jane Austen and oh, I have so many more ideas on the horizon, just you wait.

And so I concluded my Fashionably Light journey with another form of decluttering: merging my new business with the passion project of a blog that started it all.

To the heroines in training: Remember that every step you take counts, and sometimes we take the scenic route. Bask in the luxury of having been there.

To the readers: Thank you for joining me in this adventure, for sharing your stories with me, and for being my friend.

P.S. Now that you’re here, I don’t want to lose you! Please follow Heroine Training on Facebook and Bloglovin to stay updated.

Reading The Savvy Woman’s Guide to Financial Freedom by Susan Hayes and working with the Super Awesome Ashley Wilhite have left me with the same major takeaway: I need to celebrate my successes before rushing on to my next task. 

So I went through my goals for the next few months, purposefully writing them in chart form, with the column representing my reward taking up equal space as the task itself. It seemed overwhelming at first, like my to do list had doubled. But then I rearranged things.

One of those things is taking a bath. I am one of those weird people who does not enjoy baths, even when they are full of bubbles, salts, and other goodies. I probably inherited this reluctance to bathe in luxury from my mother, from whom I also inherited chronic shoulder pain. 

So instead of making bath time a task, I turned it into a celebration for when I finish writing the week’s Letter from Jane Austen. At first it seemed silly to reward myself for completing the task, because I get so much joy from rereading Jane Austen, articulating the chapters in the context of modernity, and hitting send to deliver my little letters to my special list of heroines in training (it is never too late to sign up, by the way!). But bath time is a signal for my body to relax, and it is also an unintended pun: of course I would celebrate Jane Austen in BATH. 

Reading in the tub is difficult with foggy glasses, and the heightened stress of soaking my book cancels out the benefits of relaxation, so I brought with me instead the London Style Guide, which is more for skimming than scrutiny. So I was being doubly productive – my reward for scheduling a visit to London was to start a list of things to do.

Here is another task that seemed like it hardly deserved celebration as it was quite exciting in itself, and yet, shockingly, getting myself even more excited was not only warranted, but enjoyable. Treating this time to plan in celebration made me enjoy its full pleasure rather than the inevitable, guilty binge Googling when I’m supposed to be writing my dissertation or something. Moreover, it made even bath time bearable and pleasant!

In this new series, Heroine at Home, I reflect on the joys of spending the day in one’s own abode.

P.S. Very soon, Fashionably Light will be moving to a new home! I don’t want to lose you, so please follow Heroine Training on Facebook and Bloglovin to stay updated!

I started out as a Minimalist-Except-Books. I loved the idea of having a room full of nothing but them, spilling out of their shelves, towering in stacks towards the ceiling.

My vision has changed. I’ve gotten pickier. I no longer want just books, but a curated collection of favourites that I will want to dip into again and again. My clothbound Austens are lined up at my desk, awaiting my letter-writing project, with The Happiness Project and Madame Chic books laid on top. My hardcover American Potters have journeyed over to Scotland to cosy up by my bed, with a stack of fresh paperbacks to venture into for the first time.

I love my Potter-faced kindle, but prefer to read from real paper, supporting my favourite bookshops, and letting my eyes rest during bedtime reading. So when I finish a book that I enjoyed, but probably won’t read again, I think of a friend who might like it too…

I tuck a little note inside…

…wrap it up in Anthropologie tissue, tie with twine, and send it off to a new home.

surprise :)

P.S. more book arranging: Feng Shui for Bookworms

Here’s something I just started that you might like to do as well!

I love the arts, and learning new things, so naturally most of my friends do too. We have good intentions in common: we mean to go to things, but don’t go as often as we would like. It’s crazy, since I live in Edinburgh, which is full of beautiful things to see and do!

So I founded Culture Thursdays. A small group of us collect events suggestions and vote on our favourites to get out and experience our city each Thursday. 

The first event was “A Sycamore Sings”, a violin and piano concert at the National Portrait Gallery with poetry readings, all in memory of World War I. Even the violin itself was significant, as it was constructed from sycamore wood from Craiglockhart, which hosted a military hydropathic hospital during the war. The programme was so meaningfully organised and presented, serving as an excellent first event! I even got to browse the current exhibition, “Beauty by Design: Fashioning the Renaissance” before the concert began.

Thursday falls at the end of my academic week this semester, so each outing will be my treat for completing my work. It is so lovely to see the world from another perspective – which is what art does for me – and to share that experience with friends new and old.

I do adore being an audience member, especially with a venue like this ^ surrounding me. Culture Thursdays are my new way to relax and rejuvenate while taking a step back from myself to fit into what others have created.

P.S. Fashionably Light will have a new home very soon! Please make sure that you are following Heroine Training on Facebook and Bloglovin to continue to read!