hip tranquil chick podcast #115: the paris apartment

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Bonjour! Welcome to the 115th edition of the Hip Tranquil Chick podcast: a guide to life on and off the yoga mat.

Today’s menu features a must-have pose in On the Mat, an interview with Claudia Strasser of The Paris Apartment in Off the Mat, and we’ve got Omwork and Savvy Sources for you too. View our shownotes at hiptranquilchick.com/blog.

On the Mat: Down dog split with hip opener:



Check out Hip Tranquil Chick on YouTube!

Off the Mat: Today’s podcast is an interview with Claudia Strasser. In 1993 Claudia Strasser wanted to leave the corporate world of incentive planning to open a shop. She stumbled across a store for rent on a then rundown street in New York's East Village. With $800 and a handshake she opened a boutique. In contrast to the seedy neighborhood, it overflowed with French boudoir furniture and accessories she’d find at the flea markets. She worked outdoors painting and repairing her finds, turning them into sparkling treasures. For 3 months the store went unnamed. One day a slipper chair inspired The Paris Apartment, and the brand was born.

The shop drew celebrities and designers, generating the attention of magazines and newspapers such as Metropolitan Home, House Beautiful, The New York Times, Esquire, Elle and others. The publicity caught the attention of Judith Regan of Regan Books, who asked Claudia to write a book on her unique style and decorating ideas.

In her book, The Paris Apartment, Romantic Décor on a Fleamarket Budget, Claudia shares resources and concepts for creating fantasy boudoirs. She offers tips for making any bedroom glamorous within your means by making valances, upholstering benches, adding moldings, refinishing furniture and restoring chandeliers.

The Paris Apartment’s decorating style transforms any home into a custom, personal world. Claudia’s demonstrated her techniques on The Discovery Channel, The Christopher Lowell Show, Lifetime, NBC, ABC & many others. She also produced shows for The Travel Channel with her designs in before and after settings.

The Paris Apartment produces a product line that is sumptuous and modern. It includes mirrored and lucite furniture, pillows, blankets, and curtains. Each piece is made to order, by hand, and is signed and numbered. The website theparisapartment.com features these original heirlooms as well as imports from Paris.

Claudia travels to Paris through the year, taking group to shop the markets and sharing resources. She's now working on other books as well as magazine articles and decorating projects.

Yoga Bio
In 1994, one of the other merchants on the street introduced Claudia to her neighbors at Jivamukti Yoga studios. She studied with a passion and learned about the world of yoga, health and inner peace.

In 1996 Claudia had a diving accident while away on vacation in Jamaica. She shattered C4 and C5 and remained there in the hospital for the next 4 days. Her years of yoga study and the books she’d acquired aided in keeping her focused, centered and still.

When she was ultimately flown to Philadelphia and put in a halo, her yoga experience was put to the ultimate test. Her first question to the surgeon was whether she’d ever be able to do a headstand again. He laughed and said he wouldn’t recommend it.

During those months in the halo, Claudia practiced simple poses, read from ancient texts and listened to healing music inspired by yogis.

Within 3 months she was out of the halo with full mobility, no pain. 10 years later she is still pain free and is happily doing headstands daily!

Omwork: To encourage a sense of diving deeper into today’s podcast, I will post Omwork relating to this segment on our HTC forum. Please connect with fellow HTCs there and play with the following:

1. How can you create a Parisian theme in chez moi?
2. Do you long to transition?
3. How can you create some transition time in your current routine?

Savvy Sources:
The Paris Apartment
dailyom.com
Deepak Chopra

Signature Style: Grecian Tunic - the must-have tunic.

Soirees, Chats, Booksignings & Retreats: Come our next 1-day retreat in DC this Saturday, January 12 and a weekend of all things hip and tranquil in the Catskills of NY in March, plus a WHOLE week in Costa Rica August 30-September 6. I’ll be leading workshops and hosting book signings in Charleston, WV, Charlotte and Asheville NC in February; back to Denver and Aspen in April. Details for all special events at kimberlywilson.com. I hope our paths will cross.

Join us for our next le chic teleclass chat focused on "New Year, New You" on Monday, January 7 at 8:30ET. Details here.

Mentoring: Interested in diving deeper into hip and tranquil topics 1:1 with moi? If so, view all the scoop here.

Chic Community: Mingle with fellow HTCs on our forums. We’re on MySpace and Facebook, so please connect with the community virtually there, too! If you have a product you’d like reviewed on the blog – send a sample to me at 2024 p street, nw dc, 20036. sending a sample does not guarantee placement but I’d love to support our growing community! Make sure you're getting the hip tranquil times by signing up at the bottom of any page on hiptranquilchick.com. Check out our new YouTube page at youtube.com/hiptranquilchick. More fun stuff coming soon!

Au Revoir: To close out the show, we’re playing L'Anamore by Ivy . You can learn more this week's featured artist, including how to get more of their music at thebandivy.com. Thanks to Andy at Unfiltered Records for permission to use the track!

Thanks for joining me for the 115th edition of the HTC podcast. Bon soir.

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