May 14, 2018

Throwing Baby Showers: It’s a Girl!!

You know what it turns out is really fun?  Throwing baby showers! What? I’m serious.  Hear me out. First of all, it turns out baby showers are very American.  As with all US-related holidays, I enjoy a certain, heightened patriotism when I get to celebrate overseas and fabricate embellish upon the importance of various customs.  Like celebrating the 4th of July in New Zealand, when I convinced all the Kiwi’s we had to wear towel capes and salute each other each time we spoke.   (In my defense I was 22, and everybody was totally into the towel capes.  I think.) Anyway, it turns out that people in other countries (or at…

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written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in randomly fabulous

May 12, 2017

The Joy of Visitors

 four people toasting with wine glasses

Is there any greater joy than the joy of visitors? I know house guests get a bad rap, but this week I fall firmly on the pro side. Why, you ask? This week, my dad and his girlfriend have been visiting me in Madrid.  (Hi, Dad!)  While they’ve been here, I’ve been thinking about the issue of houseguests. It’s a complicated question. Sometimes, it’s difficult to host people. When done correctly, it requires revising a regular schedule, creating interesting diversions and a lot of talking. However, for the right company it’s 100% worth it. Here’s a short list of the things I did this week while I normally would have…

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written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in live fabulous

October 3, 2015

How to Deal with Grief

 Ceremonies of remembrance

How to deal with grief varies from person to person. There’s no magic cure for the weight of sadness. But telling stories helps. So here goes.  My best friend growing up was Polly Noble.  We met on the first day of nursery school.  We both had adorable bowl haircuts.  Our apartments were 4 blocks apart.  The rest, as they say, was history. We spent years of our childhoods laying on the floors of each other’s bedrooms, playing Uno and Guess Who.  We have seen the movie Grease together 2,659 times.  At her apartment, we would play tag in the hall with her dog and have juice out of these endlessly…

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written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in live fabulous

June 7, 2015

The Art of Oversharing

I’m no Picasso, but I must say I’m quite good at the art of oversharing. (pause for hysterical laughter) The reason is simple: I have no filter. A lack of filter/talent for the art of oversharing is different from not being able to keep secrets.  I’m actually quite good at keeping secrets BUT I need to be told explicitly to keep my mouth shut.  Why?  Because in regards to my own information, I will happily discuss the insertion of IUD devices with everyone on the whole internet or my latest thyroid maladies with my cleaning lady (she doesn’t speak English so who know what she thinks I’m talking about anyway,…

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written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in live fabulous

May 25, 2015

Living Abroad

 Sometimes living abroad is hard

There are some difficult things about living abroad. In fact, recently I have been in a sort of anti-fabulous funk.  It might even be referred to as feeling…ordinary. Gross.  The kryptonite of fabulous.  I work, I cook dinner, I desperately try to make time to exercise….boring, Boring, BORING. Deep in the wallows of self-pity and trying to consider things that may make me feel more fabulous, my mind wondered to living abroad.  The question of the day: Is living abroad really all that fabulous? Travelling is fabulous.  Exciting flights, new people, duty-free shopping important cultural experiences, etc.  But in order for actually living abroad to be fabulous you need to…

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written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in live fabulous

February 23, 2014

How to Be Interesting

It is the constant lament of young adulthood–how can you and your friends be more interesting? Once you’ve cycled through the normal schedule of alcoholic painting classes, Thursday happy hours and Sunday brunch, how do you keep your friendships absorbing and enjoyable without hitting a wall of total exhaustion?   Sometimes, at the end of a day of work, I don’t want to go to a restaurant and discuss my feelings and sound interesting. I want to sit in a room by myself, reading People magazine and judging the life decisions of imperfect strangers. But at the end of the day, I’m always happy if I put down the Ben and…

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written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in deep fabulous, live fabulous

January 28, 2014

Friends are Fabulous

 friends

One of the things I love most about being a woman is the amount of honest thought I put into my friendships. I consider them, I nurture them, I treasure them and I watch them grow (or wither and die) with huge amounts of purpose and satisfaction.  Many aspects of my life are better when I am putting significant thought into selecting friends that are fabulous. As I was researching for this post I realized there has already been a tremendous amount written about the different types of friends women have.  Springboards, mirrors, toxic friends, peanut butter friends, cheerleaders, Lamborgihinis, Volkswagons, bicycles, etc etc, whatever. So instead of restating the…

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written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in live fabulous

January 11, 2014

How to Give Great Advice

 puppies

People who give great advice are fabulous. Brush up on your skills below: 1. LISTEN. Most of the time people can come up with their own advice/plan of action.  What they really need is someone to listen.  When your friend is upset about a fight with their boyfriend, don’t spend 25 minutes talking about how much you hate their stupid boyfriend anyway.  Simply say, “I’m sorry that happened to you.  Tell me about it.”  Then put away your iPhone and actually pay attention for 10 minutes. Also, offer to make tea. 2. BLANKET ADVICE. When you speak, there are a few, well-chosen sayings and questions that are applicable in almost…

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written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in live fabulous