Palm Beach or Bust!

Next stop on our Florida tour was Palm Beach! 

We got into Palm Beach on the 3rd, which just so happened to be my birthday! Now I had an appointment at Lilly for the following day but I couldn't help and use my birthday sway to head over to Worth Ave and check it out! (I may or may not have been reeeeeally excited)

As I've mentioned before the Worth Ave store is a dream and the girls were so nice and helpful!

Obviously we gobbled these up quick because it wasn't until the last bite that I remembered to get a photo

Afterwards we headed to my birthday dinner at a newer restaurant called "Voodoo Bayou". It may have been my birthday, but Gray was in hog heaven! He loooooves Cajun food and was dancing and singing to his food. We were both stuffed by the end of the night but still made sure to eat some fresh beignets! So good!

The next day we headed back to Worth Ave and went to Lilly for my appointment. The appointment was actually fairly quick- the shell dress I tried on fit perfectly and I loved the length. I kept the lace pretty simple and just have a single flower chain going down the middle. 

I also opted to get a purse painted. To be honest, I was a little disappointed to find that the purse paintings have become more formalized. I had been dreaming of getting a Lilly pet portrait of my girl since I discovered these custom bags but sadly they no longer due that level of customization. Instead they have themes you can choose from or you can pick from a preexisting print. I'm sure I will love the purse when it comes (right now the wait time is about 4 months) but still wish I was able to go with my original design.

After Lilly, we headed to a local dive shop to get Gray outfitted for some diving and then over to get some lunch. We tried out Guanabanas but only got some lighter dishes since Gray was following his "predive diet".... BUT it did seem like a really cool place and what we had was delicious nonetheless. 

The next day Gray meet up with his dive buddy and jumped in the ocean right by the Worth Clocktower in Palm Beach! I took the rest of the day to explore more of Palm Beach. I stopped in Lilly.... again.... and walked around all the surrounding shops. 

I found some of my favorite shops including Frances Valentine and Lycette Designs- picking up a souvenir stich to take home! I finished off with a stop at Green's Pharmacy of Palm Beach and got myself a most delicious milkshake- I can understand why they're a local favorite! 

Hello gorgeous!

A real treat getting to go into a needlepoint shop!

love. love. love.

The perfect Lilly Palm Beach canvas!

Green's Pharmacy, a local must!

When Gray got done diving he was beat, but famished and requested to go back to Voodoo Bayou. Like I said, he was in love. This was the only restaurant we went back to for a second time on the whole trip!

The beer was called a "Spearfish Amber" which became Gray's new favorite beer of the trip!

We spent our last day in Palm Beach checking out Peanut Island State Park, which was so much fun! You can take a ferry over and spend as much time as you want on the island. We went over on the ferry and jumped right into the water to snorkel. 

It. Was. Gorgeous! 

Check out all those little fish!

It was like diving into a new world- there were so many fish just schooling around. My favorites were the schools of tiny fish that paid no mind to us swimming- even when we were in the middle of the school. We also saw an eagle ray cruise on by. We were talking about all the things we were seeing when I ducked under the water AND A MANATEE SWAM RIGHT BY.  We were both shocked and amazed- definitely a memory I'm going to carry with me for the rest of my life.

Ummm yes those are my toes and how close the manatee got to us! 

Unfortunately we had to be on our way and Gray had gotten a little too much sun..... So we left and headed for our next stop, Miami! We both really enjoyed Palm Beach and I can only hope we get to visit again someday! As for now I'll be eagerly awaiting my dress and purse from the custom shift shop!

First stop... Venice!

We got back from Florida on Tuesday, picked up our boy on Wednesday and now we're both officially back to grind. 😭

I'm still riding the vacation high and holding on for as long as I can. To save everyone from a novel of a post I'm going to break vacation up into 3 separate posts of the places we visited- starting with this post; our Sarasota/Venice visit!

We took a red-eye flight out of Sacramento Friday night and landed in Sarasota at 11:30AM Saturday morning. We couldn't check into our hotel until later in the evening so we headed straight to the Siesta Key Beach! 

The beach was packed but still super beautiful. We were both exhausted from the redeye flight so it was heavenly to lay out and take a little siesta! (Note to self: stooooop booking redeye flights, you never actually sleep on those!)

In typical Florida fashion, we got chased off the beach by an afternoon storm but by that time we were able to get into our hotel. So we did a few groceries, checked in and got some dinner. 

I'm not a foodie (unless we're talking about dessert) and I'm definitely not a seafood eater. However, Gray is both, so a lot of the restaurants we picked out had a heavy focus on seafood for him. And this is how we ended up at the Crow's Nest. We were lucky enough to get a window seat to take in the harbor which was really nice to take in the scenery.

The next day we got up and drove up to Bradenton to meet up with my college bestie, Anna! Anna is a Marine Mammal Biologist for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (phew that's a mouthful- just know she's a badass). My one job for Anna was I wanted to see some manatees- and oh my did she deliver! 

This time of the year it's harder to predict where the manatees will be because as the waters warm up the manatees move out and around more. Thankfully our personal marine mammal biologist had the intel on a "breeding herd" so we headed over to check it out. Sure enough, we arrived to find 10 plus manatees hanging out!  IT WAS AMAZING! 

This was my first time ever seeing them out in the wild and I was soooo excited! I made poor Anna work overtime and answer alllll of my questions. It also brought me so much joy to see her in her field working! Anna and I got our degrees in Zoology together, rescued and rehabilitated sea lions together, and performed soooo many necropsies together. Manatees were ALWAYS Anna's favorite animal and to see that she's become a leading marine mammal biologist working with them is amazing!

I could have stood there all day watching the manatees but peeled away to get lunch in Anna Marie and then down to Venice Beach and on the hunt for shark teeth! 

Back in CA, Anna and I used to walk the beaches hunting for agates and this was just like that! 

I was blown away by how many teeth we were able to find and it's no wonder why Venice Beach is known as the "Shark Tooth Capital of the World". It was soooo good to spend a day just hanging out with Anna. We had not seen each other in years but it felt as if it was just yesterday when I last saw her. 

That night for dinner I snuck in a trip to  Joey D'S Chicago Style Eatery & Pizzeria- because you can take the girl out of Chicago, but you can't take the Chicago out of the girl. 🍕

The next day, Gray and I checked out Venice Ave. The shops were really cute and I had the BEST croissant from the bakery there. 

Seriously- the last time I had a croissant that good was in Italy! Also, how cute is this alligator bread?! 🐊

Then we spent our last day in Venice back at the beach hunting for shark teeth and snorkeling around the little reefs. (and getting more sun 🥵️)

We got dinner at the Waterside Grill, checked out the pier for the sunset, and then got ice cream in town. It was the perfect last day. 

We both really liked Venice and the surrounding area and can't wait to visit again! Hopefully sooner rather than later!

Next stop- Palm Beach! 

Lilly new arrivals… and a dressing room diaries!

 I am writing this from cloud 9 because for the first time ever I was actually able to see the Lilly new arrivals in person! We’re on vacation and just happen to be in Palm Beach AKA the Lilly capital of the world! I will definitely share more about the flagship store and Palm Beach soon but let’s jump into some new arrivals and try ons! 

This is the Pollie Midi Dress in “Pink Shandy Invest A Gator” and it was the my #1 must from this release! It has little hearts all over it so it will be a great Valentine’s dress next year.

Up next is the Mila Shift in “Multi Reflections Engineered”. Truthfully, I thought this looked terrible online and it really wasn’t on my radar. However, when I went in for my appointment the SA had it on and I was totally sold! The colors are bright and neon, which is great for summer and compliment this hard earned vacation tan! 

Also the zipper has the cutest little seahorse charm! 

 I was a little disappointed to see that anything in the print “Calla Yellow Floral Coral” for adults has been delayed. They did have the little girl’s Violet dress in this print and I am happy to say it was just as vibrant and bright as I was hoping. 

The rest of the try ons I did were from older releases but still fun to see in person!

Cuter in person but still not great for my body type.

Liked this print more in person than online but still not a love match (though I have a 🐅 purse I’d love to pair it with!)

Loved the colors but not a need for me.

This was a print I loved but not sure about the silhouettes that were offered. Happy to report I loved this one and will put on my APS wishlist 

Went home with this Donna 🥰

Loved the Eyelet but not the pricetag- this is a APS dress 🤞

Being able to see pieces and try them on was awesome but also a little dangerous! I found myself liking more things in person than I did online and was also influenced by what the SAs were wearing. You can definitely say that I put my birthday coupon to good use 😉 

What are your favorite pieces from the first Lilly drop of summer?

From the bookshelf

One New Year's Resolution I can say that I really have accomplished was to read more this year. I joined the Goodreads 2022 reading challenge and have just finished book 25/52! 

This past read was a "The Song of Achilles". This was a "BookTok" recommendation and to be honest I really didn't know anything about it before I picked it up. It seemed to be really popular on Tiktok and I thought this would be a good chance to step out of my normal genre. 

From the back cover: 

Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful, irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods' wrath.

My thoughts:

Meh. It was ok I guess but maybe not worth the hype. To be fair, this book is not my typical genre and also revolves around Greek Mythology- which I can appreciate but not that into. 

This book took me about 5 days-ish to read, I just wasn't reaching for it, hooked into the story line, or eager to know what came next. I did get a little teary eyed at the end but was not as emotionally devastated as other readers reviewed. Not a book I'll be reaching for again but not a book I couldn't finish.

Up next:
I reeeeally planned to bring "It Ends With Us" on vacation with me- it's literally sitting in my suitcase right now.  I bought this book way back in December but still haven't read it yet. Buuuut I just got a notification that I had a book become available at the library. 

Annnnnd when I got to the library I found out that I actually I had TWO books available, including this behemoth 798 page book 😳😳😳 I'll get to reading "It Ends With Us" eventually... probably... 

What's on your reading list?

Kate Spade New Releases... Summer 2022!

 Summer is here! At least in the fashion world anyway. Kate Spade just dropped the first part of their Summer 2022 Collection and y’all it’s sooo good! 🍊

I don’t think I’ve been this excited about Kate Spade new arrivals in quite some time! The only thing stopping me from adding everything to my cart is that I’m about to head out of town. Lord help me if I find a Kate Spade store to stop in while on vacation!

Ooooh, cabana boy!

This collection is giving me alllll the heart eyes! I am loving all the beautiful details, bright colors, and all the fun novelty pieces! 😻😻😻😻😻

Perfection. I’m a sucker for seersucker

These are my absolute favorites! I think whoever the new creative director is really hit this collection out of the park! I’m so happy with all the new novelty. Fingers crossed there’s a buy more, save more event soon because I'm like Veruca Salt, I. WANT. IT. ALL. 

Which ones are your favorite?

Love your mother

 

Happy Earth Day! 

Have you used google at all today? Usually google has fun widgets and sometimes games celebrating holidays and events. However, today's google widget was much more somber. Instead of a game of cute doodle, google shared side by side images of the very real, on going climate crisis. 

Earth Day is a great time to reflect about how the choices we make can help the bigger picture. And the best part? It's never to late to start!

If you're like me, you grew up with the motto "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle" and the first type of products that come to mind are papers and plastics. But what about clothing?

It's no secret that the fashion industry has a part to play in the climate crisis going on. The ugly truth is BILLIONS of products are created each year to keep up with the fashion world and the production of these items come with a heavy cost. Billions of trees are cut down and used, billions cubic metres of water are used, and even millions of these garments created end up in landfills or incinerated. 

So what can you do? Vote. 

Vote with not only your voice but also your dollars. Here are three of the easiest ways you can start voting:

1. Choose brands that are transparent about their practices, ethical and using sustainable practices. Now more than ever brands are listening to what their customers want- and we're not settling for green washing. 

2. Say goodbye to fast fashion and choose quality over quantity. I grew up with the rise of stores like Forever21 and did my fair share of shopping at them. And while Forever21 isn't the queen bee she once was, others have stepped up to take her place. Now there's online retailers that have unbelievably low prices and thousands of options, not to mention a world of influencers showing your their newest "haul"- it's hard not to get swept up! But what's the quality like? And many times can you wear that item without it falling apart (that's if it gets to you without holes already in it from poor construction!)? When look at the pieces in my closet that I've had for YEARS and refuse to let go of- I don't see any fast fashion labels. I see good quality pieces that are not only versatile, but have also held up over time because the quality is there. 

Once upon a time I overheard a conversation in a craft store and it has STUCK with me. An older lady was telling her friend about an expensive coat that she bought. The way she considered this higher priced item was by buying with the mindset of "Cost per wear". It's as simple as that. The more you wear an item, the cheaper (to you) it becomes and this ties right back into quality over quantity. 

3.Get thrifty! I have always loved a good thrift and now thrifting is a win-win for everyone involved. Not only are you getting a great deal on an item but you are also keeping that item from ending up in a landfill. There are more options now than ever for you to thrift your favorite brands with websites like Poshmark, Mercari, ThredUp, Ebay, Ect! The Lilly community really seems to take this practice to heart. There are soooo many facebook groups that are solely dedicated to the resale of Lilly. 

What are some of the other ways you are going from fast fashion to green fashion?