The Proper Lady: October 2011

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Art of Graciousness

Hi Darlings,

This is an article that I definitely feel needs to be written because it's about graciousness, something that I feel is too often ignored in modern society.

Many women might scoff at this statement and wonder what I'm talking about because they themselves are "gracious" and not many other people who are just as "gracious." However I feel like people do not really understand the true art of graciousness and what it entails. *smile*

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary (based on the Collegiate), "gracious" means "marked by kindness and courtesy." I find that to be a very sound definition. The New Oxford American Dictionary adds: "pleasantly indulgent." I like those two definitions together, don't you, my rare rose? :-)

I think that when we join these two definitions together, we get a definition along the lines of: "consideration for the feelings of others."

A gracious woman is one of charm and grace who uplifts those around her and gives them pleasure but humoring them and humoring what they do/enjoy doing -- sounds like a great companion, no? *smile*

I particularly like this passage from Jane Austen's novel Mansfield Park:

"Fanny turned further into the window; and Miss Crawford had only time to say, in a pleasant manner, 'I fancy Miss Price has been more used to deserve praise than to hear it'; when being earnestly invited by the Miss Bertrams to join in a glee, she tripped off to the instrument, leaving Edmund looking after her in an ecstasy of admiration of all her many virtues, from her obliging manners down to her light and graceful tread.

'There goes good-humour, I am sure,' said he presently. 'There goes a temper which would never give pain! How well she walks! and how readily she falls in with the inclination of others! joining them the moment she is asked.'" (Austen, 99)

For those who are not familiar with the novel, the character of Edmund is falling in love with the elegant Mary Crawford. He secretly loves his cousin, Fanny, as well and she returns his feelings, however they are of a different social class and he loves Mary Crawford because she's the embodiment of the values of his class during the time period.

Graciousness is about:

Grace
Manners/Etiquette/Consideration
Kindness/Warmth
An Obliging Nature

Examples of graciousness:

Accepting a gentleman's offer to help you carry your groceries or simply smiling and thanking him if he pulls out your chair or opens your door, instead of giving him a speech about how you can do it yourself

Spending time downstairs with the group despite your fatigue instead of retiring upstairs to sleep, especially if your hosts have suggested an activity

Calling your most valued vase "that old thing" after a guest knocks it over and breaks it, because their feelings are more important than your disappointment

This is just a short article to speak about *graciousness*, dove! What are other examples of graciousness that you know of? Please share them with me -- and share this post on Twitter or Facebook if you enjoyed it. :-)

Are you interested in becoming a Feminine Darling Member, dove? *smile*

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Monday, October 24, 2011

20 Sweet Things To Do for Your Man

Greetings, Dove!

Is it just me or is life just so busy that we forget about people and concentrate more on things?

I feel like these days, our minds are often occupied with things: work, school, doctor, dentist, errands, bills, etc.

In our preoccupation with things I feel like we're starting to forget about people, darling.

It's important to take time for the people in your life, sweetheart, instead of always concentrating on things. Your loved ones should *never* take a backseat to your dental appointment or to your work.

Today I was thinking to myself about other ways that women can show their men how much they care. Here is my list of 20 Sweet Things To Do for Your Man.

1. Bake for him.

2. Learn at least the basics of his family's native language, especially if members speak nothing else. (this is also a great way to impress his family *smile*).

I'm learning conversational German so I can speak with Andy's grandmother!

3. Purchase the book that he wanted to read and make it a surprise.

4. Give him a massage.

Elle Decor

5. Have a nice bubble bath waiting for him when he gets home (especially if you know he had a rough day).

6. Send him a text message just to say "I love you."

7. Just let him watch the game!

8. Not only let him have a night with the guys in your home, but also cook food for the night.

9. Go with him to his golf tournament or weekly tennis match to watch him and cheer him on -- make him feel like a man with a feminine woman behind him! :-)

10. Is he into tennis? Learn enough so that you can keep him company and hit with him when his partner's not available. Was he a lacrosse player at Amherst? Play catch with him so that he can hold onto a little piece of it since he can't get two teams together to play.

11. Don't interrupt him when he's speaking about things that are important to him, even when they are very boring or when you can't relate to them. As a matter of fact, why don't you even genuinely listen and care since those things are important to him? Embrace the things that he cares about, sweetheart!

12. Get close with his mom. Really, he wants to know that his mom and his feminine treasure get along and, in his biggest dreams, enjoy being in one another's company!

Some of you may embark on this just to make him happy but really, don't you see the many benefits for yourself as well, sweetheart?

You'll get to see adorable baby pictures of your man drooling and you'll also get to hear stories of the time when he rubbed raspberry jam all across the cabinets! You might also get a peek into her recipe box where she stores his childhood favorites, which leads me into the next one... ;-)

13. Cook his favorite meals (childhood meals will earn special brownie points)! :-)

Coq au Vin is my love's favorite dish.

14. Leave little notes around the house for him to find.

15. Spritz some of your signature perfume on his handkerchief.

16. Knit him a scarf in his university colors.

17. Take care of his loved ones in some way, whether it's supporting his little sister at her tennis match, attending his little brother's recital, baking cookies for a sibling's school event, picking up his father from the airport, or going to the doctor's office with his mother.

18. Let him sleep in if he wants to.

19. Surprise him with tickets to a classical concert or sports game he likes.

20. Make a donation to his undergraduate university or to his high school.

These are just a few things that one can do to sweetly show a man that you care for him, dove! I hope you acquired some inspiration from this post. :-) Please "like" or share this if you did!

Friday, October 21, 2011

Casual Daytime Dresses

Hi Darlings,

One of the elements in an elegant and feminine woman's wardrobe consists of dresses that are casual enough for everyday errands and things.

The reason why a feminine proper lady seems to have a preference for skirts and dresses is because they are, naturally, more ladylike and more feminine.

I myself rarely wear pants. *smile*

However, it is understandable that there are some women who just do not enjoy wearing skirts and dresses and prefer to wear trousers. That is okay, sweetheart, and although a woman may not necessarily be able to be as feminine, ladylike and elegant in nothing else but trousers, she can most definitely still be 100% classy!

However, I would like to give those women who like skirts and dresses examples and options. These are a few of my personal favorite examples:

These are the kinds of dresses that I myself wear to casual things, like grocery shopping, book club meetings, political speeches and rallies, lunch in a casual restaurant, walking around a museum during the day, etc.

I recommend having at least one white or cream dress (like the one on the far right), one black dress, and then one casual dress that's neither of those, either in a nice color or pattern, or perhaps an interesting fabric. I personally adore the one second from the right.

I hope you enjoyed this post on feminine casual daytime dresses, darling!

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Thursday, October 20, 2011

Elegant Pregnancy Dress

Good morning, dove! Some people believe that a woman is most beautiful when she is pregnant. I can see why this may be. After all, her face is aglow with joy as new life is about her. However, there is a difference between elegant beauty and "tasteless" beauty, and this holds true during pregnancy, darling!

Simply because one is pregnant, does not mean that they should suddenly throw all of their personal standards of dress out the window (especially not if they are aiming towards *elegance*). Pregnancy can make a woman more naturally beautiful, so with good judgment she can still be elegantly pregnant as she prepares herself for elegant motherhood. Just look at the picture of The Proper Lady's beloved Princess Mary of Denmark and try and say that she does not look beautiful! She does look just as stunning as ever in terms of dress despite being pregnant with twins!

Her outfit is feminine, elegant, radiant, and also very appropriate, especially for the German diplomatic trip that she was on when this photo was taken. *smile*

Remember that the look one desires is one of taste and elegance -- one wants to be appropriate. It becomes a bit more challenging to dress modestly when one is pregnant, that is true. After all, one's belly is becoming bigger and one's cleavage is also growing. But if one wants to be an elegant woman, one must avoid the look that Beyoncé was recently caught sporting:

Beyoncé is a very beautiful woman and she does look radiantly beautiful here, but she looks beautiful in a way that defies the standards of "good taste" with half of her cleavage showing and also the inside of her upper thighs in clear view. Although admittedly, showing a lot of skin is something that Beyoncé is known for, that does not make it elegant or appropriate!

The forever lovely Audrey Hepburn pregnant
with her first son.

Something that I feel is important if one wants to achieve true elegance and femininity is to have a sense of feminine modesty. Beyoncé is a beautiful and glamorous woman, a bombshell, definitely.

However, she is not a woman of elegance and feminine modesty, darling!

Elegance and femininity is what we are seeking to develop on this blog (along with, of course, the things that come with those traits such as manners and etiquette, warmth, kindness, charity, and culture).

So, yes, if you are proud of your new cleavage, show it off, but not in a low-cut top that's vulgarly revealing like Beyoncé's. Instead, choose a dress or top with tailoring that enhances your cleavage without showing skin.

I do not understand why today, when a girl is proud of her body she thinks that showing skin is the only way to reflect it!

I love my figure, especially my curvy hips, small waist, firm legs and my collarbone/neck area. I enhance it with feminine pencil skirts (usually in colors and/or colorful patterns... I'm not a fan of black pencil skirts because they make me feel a bit severe) and shift dresses that nip in at the waist, are cut right at the knee, and have a wider neck to show off a bit of my collarbone and neck area.

I believe that all of the girls reading this post right now are beautiful. I truly do believe that. I believe that every single girl reading this post has a feature that, if enhanced, can make her into a complete "knockout." However, every single girl reading this post is beautiful and valuable enough to enhance that feature (or features if you're a lucky bunny!) without diminishing herself in any way. You deserve to be beautiful and valuable.

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Sunday, October 16, 2011

Inspirational Story of a Southern Hostess in a Hurricane

Hi, Lovely!

This is an excerpt from a lovely book entitled Social Graces: Manners, Conversation and Charm for Today, coauthored by Ann Platz and Susan Wales. I believe (I'm not certain) that it's out of print and I ordered a used copy from Amazon. I loved it and one day I would like to pass it down to my children!

Social graces are your invitations for others to come inside your world. Throughout American history, Southerners have lived a polite, genteel way of life. Their friendly and cordial ways have endeared them to those they meet. For instance, in Charleston, South Carolina, if you are strolling down the street and you see a gate partially open, it means that you may enter and enjoy the garden. In other parts of the country you could be arrested for trespassing if you dared to enter someone's private property. But not in the South.

We believe the charm and the legendary status of southern hospitality has remained one of the constants in American culture. Immortalized in fiction and movies, and now the latest, in web pages over the internet, good, old-fashioned southern charm is as uniquely American as apple pie and cotton candy, yet as distinctly regional as cheese grits, Brunswick Stew, fried chicken, and Virginia Ham.

Perhaps one reason for its lasting reputation is that the South is the land of tradition. Generations ago, life was observed from the viewpoint of the front porch - preferably from a tall wooden rocking chair. Conversations began and hours passed. As young children, we remember rocking on the porch after supper with our parents and our grandparents until the sun gave way to the chirping of the evening crickets. In the days before television, family stories were passed in comforting voices from relaxed parents and grandparents in wicker chairs and hammocks to the sleepy ears of children.

When you are on the receiving end of these, you feel both loved and cared for. Our traditions of grace and charming hospitality lie at the very heart of southern culture. Social grace is the South's enduring quality and most unmistakable trademark.

Visitors to the South expect to be greeted with a big smile, southern drawl, and large glass of iced tea. Why shouldn't they? It's a reputation that wasn't created by accident. Everyone knows that Southerners are renowned for their hospitality. Not everyone, however, knows to what extent Southerners will go to ensure their visitors have a truly memorable experience.

In September of 1989, my parents hosted two Russian women with the Friendship Force in their home. At the same time, Hurricane Hugo came roaring through South Carolina with full force. There are not many things in this world, either natural or man-made, that can keep a southern hostess from the duties of entertaining. When the lights went out, my mother simply lit candles and continued with the meal as if it were what she had planned from the beginning.

The morning after the storm, my mother greeted her guests with towels and bars of soap and a somewhat unusual offer. The Russian ladies were invited to go to my brother's house for a refreshing post-hurricane bath in his swimming pool. The electricity was out for three days, so she cooked the food that was thawing in the freezer on the barbecue grill. The guests were so enchanted by their southern hostess that when they returned to Russia they sent her a thank-you note stating, "Your hospitality was stronger than Hugo!"

The lesson from this story is that a good hostess will always look for special ways to make her guests feel cared for and appreciated. Quite often it's the tiniest details that do this. A truly great hostess is one who is able to think and act quickly to effortless problem-solve in the midst of even the most overwhelming difficulties.

This story is on pages 12-15 of the book. If you are looking for a good manners and charm book to start with or to give as a gift, I recommend it. It's thin, precise, and an easy read. It's easy to absorb and it's filled with lovely little tidbits.

Japanese Etiquette Rules

Good day, Lovely!

In general, Japanese people are very refined, polite, neat, courteous, and also quite formal. I think that this is partly due to their system of etiquette, which is very strict yet very much a part of their culture. Etiquette and the formalities are of the utmost importance to them, darling!

I admire Japanese culture (especially the women) quite a bit -- I think that they are fantastic examples of femininity and feminine traditional womanhood. *smile*

They are almost even ideal women, darling, because they perfectly balance both adhering to traditional and extremely detailed codes of etiquette and also being femininely playful. :-)

I would like to tell you a bit about Japanese manners and etiquette rules today.

Slipper Etiquette
When entering a Japanese house, it is most proper to take off one's shoes. The host or hostess should provide house slippers for you to wear around the home.

If one enters a room with a floor made of tatami mats (see the photo above), it is most proper to take off one's slippers. According to Japanese Polite Custom, one only walks on tatami with feet that are socked or bare. *smile*

When using the toilets or the washroom, do not enter the rooms with your house slippers. There are special slippers for toilets and washrooms. House slippers are left outside. When finished using the toilets or washroom, do not forget to change back into your house slippers!

Japanese Bowing
In Japan, it is not common to see people shake hands like in the West (although in Japan they sometimes make exceptions and do this if they are greeting Westerners). In Japan, people greet one another by bowing. The Japanese also bow to say "thank you," to apologize, to make a request, or to ask someone a favor. There are different levels of bows as well. They range from a simple nod of the head to a 90-degree bend at the waist. The deeper the bow, the more respect you expect to convey and the higher status of the person you are bowing for.

For example, you would do a deeper bow (90-degree is the ultimate... you would use it to greet the Japanese Royal Family) for a professor, a teacher, an elder, a leading politician, or your boss... and anyone else you want to convey great respect towards.

Japanese Table Manners

The interior of a Japanese restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand.

If dining in Japan, before you start the meal you say: "itadakimasu" which means "I gratefully receive." At the end of the meal you should say "gochisosama deshita" which means "Thank you for the meal."

In Asian culture, it is quite often that one eats with shared dishes placed in the middle of the table.

If this is the case, move food from the serving plates to your own plates with the opposite end of your chopsticks or with serving chopsticks that may be provided.

Do not blow your nose in public in Japan. It is considered to be bad manners and this is especially true while dining.

It is considered to be bad manners to not finish your food. Empty your plates to the last grain of rice if you can.

It is bad manners to burp.

When you are finished eating, try to put all dishes and utensils back to the same place it was before the meal, such as replacing covers, putting your chopsticks back on the holder or in the paper slip, etc.

When drinking alcoholic beverages as a group, do not start drinking until all members of the party are served and all hold up their glasses in a customary "drinking salute."

In Japanese etiquette, one does not serve themselves more alcohol during a meal. It is customary to check the glasses of others and refill all other glasses for other members of the party. If someone wants to offer you more to drink, quickly drain your glass and then hold it out to them politely.

If eating rice, do not add soy sauce to it. Hold the rice bowl in one hand and hold your chopsticks in the other. Bring the bowl closer to your mouth as you eat.

When eating sushi, do your best to eat each piece in one bite - taking it apart will ruin the beautiful work that the chef spent time on for you. :-)

Pour soy sauce into the dish and if you would like wasabi, use only a little bit so as not to insult the skills of the chef. One can eat sushi with their hands, although chopsticks are preferable.

When eating Miso Soup, drink out of the bowl simply as if it were a cup. Eat the solid food inside the soup with your chopsticks.

When eating a noodle soup, use your chopsticks and try not to let the noodles splash back into the soup. Drink the broth with the ceramic spoon provided. Only lift the big bowl up if a spoon is not provided.

When eating big pieces of food, try to break it into pieces with your chopsticks. Such a skill can take practice, understandably. If you are having trouble, pick it up with your fingers and take a bit and then put the rest back into your plate.

Visiting a Temple
Japan is known for it's beautiful temples and if you are touring the nation, it is understandable that you may want to visit one or two temples. However, one must remember that these temples are not simply places for tourists but also places of worship for modern Japanese people. It is important to be respectful, darling.

If one is visiting a temple, it is important to be quiet and calm. If one has children, it is best not to visit. It is best not to visit if there is even the slightest chances of making noise and distracting others who are there to worship and reflect. :-)

Upon arriving, make a small donation by throwing a coin or two into the offering box and bowing your head for a few seconds.

When entering some temples, you may be required to take off your shoes.

Photography is forbidden at certain temples so watch for signs.

Do not visit a shrine if you are sick, have an open wound, or are in mourning.

At the offering hall, throw a coin or two into the offering box, bow deeply twice, clap your hands twice, bow deeply once more, and then bow your head in prayer for a few seconds.

Well, that's all for my article, "Japanese Etiquette Rules," dove!

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Friday, October 14, 2011

Feminine Hairstyles

Hi there, sweetheart!

Throughout my time on this blog, I have always been a firm believer in the concept that elegance, at least the brand of elegance that The Proper Lady seeks to promote, is not directly correlated with one's physical appearance or material/financial wealth.

One does not need to carry an Hermes purse to be considered an elegant woman. One does not need to marry a Vanderbilt to be a lady. Elegance is about the warmth, kindness, and charity that radiates from within and lights up one's whole being into something wholesomely beautiful. *smile*

However, I have sought to write articles on feminine beauty here on The Proper Lady because I feel that although true feminine energy is about care, thought, and consideration and although the way one holds oneself is more important than the physical, the physical can help to *emphasize*.

Like Anna Karenina's back dress, darling, it can act as a frame to hold the beautiful painting of an elegant and feminine persona!

Holding yourself in a more feminine manner will help you to become more elegant and more high-value.

That's why I'm hoping to help you achieve a feminine look.

This article is devoted to giving you examples of elegant hairstyles. Choose the length that's most suitable for you and talk to your hairstylist about which one will best suit your face shape (good hairstylists can often even altar a hairstyle you like so that it can suit your face shape).

Health reasons aside, please try not to go shorter than the examples I have in the short section. Shorter hair is not seen as being very feminine and the examples I give aren't very short, either! They are almost shoulder-length.

Short

Medium

Long

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Inspirational Story: Japanese Quake Mother

The Proper Lady Writer Note: I copied this article word for word and all grammar mistakes and spelling mistakes are a part of the original piece and not my own.

This is a true story of a Mother's Sacrifice during the Japan Earthquake.

After the Earthquake had subsided, when the rescuers reached the ruins of a young woman's house, they saw her dead body through the cracks. But her pose was someone strange that she knelt on her knees like a person who was worshipping; her body was leaning forward, and her two hands were supporting by an object. The collapsed house had crashed her back and her head.

With so many difficulties, the leader of the rescuer team put his hand through a narrow gap on the wall to reach the woman's body. He was hoping that this woman could still be alive. However, the cold and stiff body told him that she had passed away for sure.

He and the rest of the team left this house and were going to search the next collapsed building. For some reasons, the team leader was driven by a compelling force to go back to the ruin house of the dead woman. Again, he knelt down and used his had through the narrow cracks to search the little space under the dead body. Suddenly, he screamed with excitement, "A child! There is a child!"

The whole team worked together; carefully they removed the piles of ruined objects around the dead woman. There was a 3 months old little boy wrapped in a flowery blanket under his mother's dead body. Obviously, the woman had made an ultimate sacrifice for saving her son. When her house was falling, she used her body to make a cover to protect her son. The little boy was still sleeping peacefully when the team leader picked him up.

The medical doctor came quickly to exam the little boy. After he opened the blanket, he saw a cell phone inside the blanket. There was a text message on the screen. It said, "If you can survive, you must remember that I love you." This cell phone was passing around from one hand to another. Every body that read the message wept. "If you can survive, you must remember that I love you." Such is the mother's love for her child!

Thank you so much for reading this inspirational story, darling -- please share it or "like" it if it inspired you as much as it inspired me.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

The Elegance of Modesty

Those who have gotten to know Laura Bush personally
agree that she is a woman full of modesty and humility.

Good afternoon, darling!

In the past few weeks, I have been thinking about the idea of modesty and how it may contribute to our pursuit of elegance. I am disappointed in that I have not yet thoroughly covered this topic despite the fact that modesty and humility are both important things to master if one wants to be elegant or feminine. *smile*

Elegance to me is about taste and a consideration for the feelings of others. I feel like caring for the feelings of others is the most important trait of elegance and class.

So how can one be truly elegant without developing humility and modesty?

Where is the elegance in showing off one's wealth, darling, in purposely picking up a financially-troubled friend with your new Jaguar, in gloating about high grades at Dartmouth, one's legacy at Andover or one's Junior year abroad at Cambridge? There is no elegance in such things.

I have been fortunate enough to be able to read a few books and articles and listen to a few interviews, all concerning Mrs. Laura Bush, America's past First Lady. I have been greatly impressed with both her intelligence and her modesty. In just the same book about her (Ann Gerhart's The Perfect Wife: The Life and Choices of Laura Bush), I have been fortunate enough to get these quotes:

"She treats everyone the same way - very intelligent, very human, but she doesn't make a job of throwing it in your face."
   -David Heymann

"She had a certain modesty to her, a quality that seemed almost quaint in an era of public egomania."
   -The Perfect Wife: The Life and Choices of Laura Bush. By Ann Gerhart

"As always, Laura could betray a depth of historical knowledge about the White House and its appurtenances, but only if you really pushed. 'She can tell you about every piece and the history behind it and the president who was there at the time,' said Mary Margaret Farabee, Laura's colleague from the Texas Book Festival. 'It's pretty remarkable, but it's never her showing off.'"
   -The Perfect Wife: The Life and Choices of Laura Bush. By Ann Gerhart.

"I don't think I could take all the credit."
   -Laura Bush

Wow! I was inspired to read the book because I was always impressed by Laura's soft way and her love of literature and children, but this book made me admire her even more. I knew that she was intelligent, but I did not know just how intelligent and knowledgable she was, how often she read (and what kind of books she chose to read), and how selfless she was, always putting her husband and her children before herself. Such an intelligent and strong woman with so much to offer, yet so modest and humble.

I feel like modesty is an important part of elegance, dove, and I hope that we can all take a page out of Mrs. Bush's book!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

The Role that Finery Plays in Elegance

Hi Darlings,

Those of you who have been with me on this blog for awhile know that part of the reason why I created this site was because I felt that the other sites and blogs put too much emphasis on luxury and designer goods.

Sometimes this emphasis would be more blatant, such as them openly saying that elegant women love name brands.

Sometimes the emphasis would be indirect, such as using a Chanel ad to illustrate an article unrelated to such things.

I personally disagree with such emphasis which is something that I kept in mind when I started to write The Proper Lady. I do not personally subscribe to the brand of elegance that worships fashion runways, Ferragamo shoes, Burberry umbrellas, Chanel skirt suits and Hermes scarves. *smile*

The brand of elegance that I choose to promote and write about here on The Proper Lady is about warmth, kindness, consideration, tact/manners, charity work, good wives, good mothers and good citizens. It's about the person, not the person's paycheck or what they choose to wear or what bag they choose to carry, sweetheart. :-)

I personally believe that a woman who's truly elegant will still be elegant even in a potato sac.

Elegance to The Proper Lady is an inner beauty built on kindness which can and will radiate through her skin and her clothes and light up her entire being. I've met many women dressed in designer outfits who were anything but elegant and tasteful.

One does not need to own luxury in order to be elegant. As a matter of fact, I think that it might even be easier to be elegant without such luxury and designer goods! Flaunting one's wealth and success is one of the most vulgar things that someone can do. I think that an important part of elegance is modesty and humility, dove!

Go onto a name brand's website and look at their goods. Not many designers make very conservative and subtle/restrained pieces. If you want a purse from Dolce and Gabbana, good luck on finding one without a letter "D" or a letter "G" on it!

Most designer brands make their goods look very rich and lavish, very luxurious.

Even without the logos or the brand symbols (although it's rare to find one without), you can still tell that the piece is expensive. It's hard to treat oneself to a luxury purse or pair of shoes without flaunting one's wealth.

In other words, it's hard to treat oneself to luxury while staying elegant! It's almost easier to remain "safe" when it comes to avoiding vulgarity when one just never pays for luxury designer goods.

But is there a role that such finery can play when it comes to the development of elegance? I guess so. We know that elegant women appreciate quality and oftentimes designer goods are high quality (keep in mind, though, that the truly elegant woman can find quality for less expensive prices).

Another thing is that sometimes, dressing well and elegantly can help to emphasize one's elegance. The truly elegant woman can look elegant in a potato sac, but really if she were also dressing like Audrey Hepburn more people would notice her elegance. True elegance is about warmth, kindness, charity, and your beautiful heart and it should radiate out from you when you speak to others. Looking elegant simply draws attention to that and pulls people in to experience it.

However, if you are elegant in personality and choose to dress like the above outfit, remember that your elegant clothes should not be the definer of your elegance, but should instead be the frame to your warmth and elegant personality. Anyone with money can dress elegantly, but only proper ladies can hold themselves in such a way.

Anyway, that's all for this article, darling -- I hope you liked it! :-)

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Sunday, October 9, 2011

Southern Belle Flirting Tips: How Southern Belles Flirt

In the movie My One and Only, Renée Zellweger plays a Southern belle who
becomes a New York socialite after leaving her philandering husband.

Hi Dove!

At the risk of sounding like your grandmother, oh, goodness me, the way that girls flirt today! Or go about getting a man in general.

Ladies are too forward with men. Although yes, we live in a modern society and women can ask men out and pursue men now without being seen as tasteless, men will still lose interest in what they can get easily.

Just think about it, darling: if you stepped over a pile of diamonds every single day when you went out your front door to go to work or school, would you appreciate getting a gift of diamonds as much as a gift of, say, rubies or emeralds, a stone that you don't have a pile of?

Feminine Beauty Tips: Charlotte York Makeup

Hello, my loves!

Here on The Proper Lady, I believe that femininity can help us greatly in achieving elegance. One of the best and easiest ways to display a sense of femininity is in the way one upholds their physical appearance. Your hair and your makeup can do a world of difference when it comes to the development of femininity. *smile*

For one to become truly and completely feminine, one has to develop both their carriage and their physical appearance.

The character of Charlotte York from Sex and the City is always a great example of the essence of femininity. Her makeup is natural yet it makes her look very radiant, healthy, happy and feminine.

That is really what we are aiming for in The Proper Lady articles on beauty.

Let's start with how Charlotte York always looks so healthy.

If I had to decide on the specifics of how she looks so healthy, I would say that it revolves around her clear skin, her figure, her shiny hair, and her rosy cheeks. *smile*

Charlotte seems to be a perfectionist and that is just as true when it comes to her makeup! Her makeup always looks perfect yet natural, but I think that having great skin really helps that "perfect makeup" look. With clear skin, your powder and/or foundation will be more even and seem more flawless. It will lie smoother on your skin.

See Article: Achieving Healthy Skin.

Another way in which she always looks very healthy is through her hair. Charlotte has beautiful hair, sweetheart!

It's shiny, healthy, and luscious. Take care of your hair, lovely! Keep them clean and keep them strong.

See Feminine Hair - Part I and Feminine Hair - Part II

Another way in which Charlotte looks healthy is through her figure. She is physically fit yet she's not skinny or frail. She is on the slender side but she doesn't look fragile or too thin. She maintains her figure through daily exercise. She's passionate about jogging and she goes jogging every day.

Charlotte York's femininity is really displayed in her makeup. She prefers a more natural look.

How to get Charlotte's makeup look?

Use a powder that matches your skin tone and using a puffy powder brush, brush it evenly on your skin.

Use a natural blush, either in a light pink or light peach (depends on your lip color), and apply it to the apples of your cheeks.

An application of natural-looking mascara will give you feminine and fluttery lashes. I recommend Maybelline's Full n' Soft Mascara for such a job. :)

Now on your lips, apply natural looking lip-color that matches your blush. Either natural looking pink or natural looking peach. Gloss or lip stain is most desirable, however lipstick also works. It's the color that's most important. You want it to give your face some color without jumping out at people who speak to you.

Well, darling, that's all for this article. I hope you liked it! :)

If you want to be a *total* feminine woman, lovely, become one of my Feminine Darlings here!

If you enjoyed this article, you might enjoy these products (all of which can be accessed with a Feminine Darling Membership):

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Pages

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Wednesday, October 12, 2011

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Tuesday, October 11, 2011

The Role that Finery Plays in Elegance

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Southern Belle Flirting Tips: How Southern Belles Flirt

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Feminine Beauty Tips: Charlotte York Makeup