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Showing posts with label beauty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beauty. Show all posts

Monday, October 1

october is breast cancer awareness month

As many of you may or may not be aware, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  We are so lucky to have amazing medical advances and support on hand for a lot of these women, but there is still a great need to support the cause and foundation.

There are so many great ways now available to get involved and show your support for your loved ones, as well as learn more about the disease. It's really important to take this time to read about ways to prevent it and how to check yourself at home. We are so lucky to have so much information right here at our fingertips so make sure to take advantage of every piece of it!

And what better way to donate a little money for a great cause and get a little something special for you? I have put together a couple of easy ways you can buy something and the company will donate a portion of the proceeds to the foundation - so happy shopping my friends!

 Pura Vida- Breast Cancer Bracelet - $5.00

I love ta-ta's Bracelet - $5.00

Save the ta-ta's Recycle Bag - $9.99



Coach for a Cure - Price varies


There is also a great website called, Fab, Fit, Fun - if you haven't heard of it then you will be glad you have now! This great website was started by Guliana Rancic who also is a breast cancer survivor and they will be providing a lot of great articles about health and prevention and nutrition, you can check it out over here.

And remember friends to take care of yourself, not only for you but your family and friends or even your dog :)


X x

Monday, August 27

mykonos never sleeps, no seriously

Mykonos is one of the hottest summer destinations for people from all over the world who want to relax on white sandy beaches and party until the sunrises. This place puts Vegas to shame, but more on that later.

We took another ferry from Paros to Mykonos, it was only about 45 minutes because the islands are so close together. We were staying on the southern end of the island, about 15 minutes from the port and main town. Our hotel was adorable with an all white exterior and little blue doors. It was the perfect "Mediterranean style" I was hoping for! Also, it was only steps from the beach and a few restaurants.
First of all, we were so overwhelmed when we arrived into Mykonos. It was much busier than Paros, there were people walking and driving all over the place on these little windy roads. Luckily our hotel had a shuttle and picked us up so we didn't have to figure it out on our own. We spent our first day and night there just looking at maps and walking around everywhere to figure out what our surroundings were. There was a bus that would come every 15 minutes to take you into town. There were also taxi boats that would ferry you around all the coves from one beach to the other; it was perfect. We spent most of our time during the days on the beach and playing in the water.

The nightlife just exploded from there, everything revolved around the night - eating, drinking, shopping and clubbing took place all night and into the early morning. Restaurants and shops were packed from 10pm until about 1am, it was such a strange feeling to be in a restaurant eating a full dinner at midnight, but at the same time it felt so right. Makes sense, doesn't it? Anyway the three most famous and biggest clubs in Mykonos are: Space, Scandanavian Bar and any of the three clubs in Paradise Beach. Of course we went to all three. :] However, no one actually came to the clubs until about 4am, seriously. We tried, we really did to keep up.. but by 4am I was just so tired {Brett too} that we had to just get back to our hotel and crawl into bed. I really don't know how they can do it, I mean honestly what do you do until 4am anyways?! It beats me, but basically Mykonos won this time.

Of course not everything was party, beach, party, beach, repeat. We spent a little time walking through the town in the afternoon, while there was no one else around and I was able to get some great pictures. Mykonos is also known for a couple of other things, one being their windmills. There are 5 of them grouped together in the main town up on a little hill and they are beautiful. They can be seen from pretty much any point in the town and from the harbor. There is also a local "celebrity" of the town. His name is Petros and he is a pelican. He is beloved by his town and he is extremely friendly. You can easily find him just wandering through the town because there is a group of people chasing after him with their cameras. He even let me pet him one afternoon. :] I also could not get enough of the beautiful bright white buildings with its deep blue roof. I think when a lot of people image the Greek Islands, that is what they picture {because that's what I pictured} but those beautiful little buildings are all small churches and they have them almost every couple hundred feet! I even read somewhere that there are 365 churches on the islands of Mykonos alone. That is a pretty huge number for such a tiny little island, don't you think?

 We also lucked out and while we were wandering through the town there were tables set up with local Greek food that had just been cooked by the local women, selling them for a euro or two a piece. It was perfect! We were able to try homemade treats cooked by these women who were selling them to raise some money for a cause. My favorite, of course was baklava, which is a very sweet, flaky pastry. Oh it was so good to have it fresh & homemade. 

Mykonos definitely had a completely different style and vibe from Paros, so we had no idea what to expect for our quick day visit to Santorini, but we were ready to move on. It was great while we were there, but I think if I were to do it again, I would choose to stay on a different side of the island. By the time we had to checkout all we wanted to do was sleep. The hotel shuttle took us back to the port where we waited for the ferry to take us to our next destination. Let the adventures continue.

X x

Thursday, July 26

twenty-four


Today I turn 24.

It's amazing to see what these past 365 days have brought me . I have already accomplished so much that I never thought imaginable; became full time employed at my work, took Brett to meet my family in Scotland, got an iPhone, went to my first basketball game, went for an all day hike through Yosemite, visited Chicago and Indiana. But what am I telling you this for? You've been sitting along side me while I blog about it all, right? :]

Even though I am working for a bit today, I will be heading off to Greece in just a few days with Brett for two whole weeks! I am beyond excited for our adventure together and to have some quality time away from everything and just enjoying all that the islands have to offer.


X x

Friday, June 8

stop and smell the roses


We have had some rain on and off the past couple weeks here in northern california, so the flowers here have been bright and beautiful; spring is definitely in full bloom now. And also after being in Yosemite for the long weekend & not having any cell reception, it really allowed me to connect with the people and things around you. This inspired me to, excuse the cliche but stop and smell the roses. Why not take a moment or two for yourself to really take a look around at the beauty that is right in front of you? You never know what you may find.. :]

x X

Monday, May 21

exploring uncharted territory

I have lived in California my entire life, grew up in the bay area and went to LA for college, but I think you already knew that. From there I have ventured elsewhere, San Diego - Santa Barbara - San Luis Obispo - Napa - Sacramento - Tahoe - Kirkwood... you get the idea. But I have actually never been to Davis! Which, in case you aren't familiar, it is just south of Sacramento.. like 20 minutes south. I guess I have never really had a reason to go, it was always just a little dot on the freeway as I drove past it. Well this weekend Brett and I drove up after work because one of his friends just graduated from UC Davis with his Law degree. We arrived later in the evening and went to dinner and bar hopped a little, celebrating and toasting every step of the way- it was really a great evening. The next morning we woke up and I wanted to explore the area a bit more since it was dark last night. I am pretty much just in love with Davis right now. It is the perfect quaint-but-not-so-quaint town at the same time. Everyone is riding their bikes and walking to the town, there are fabulous little restaurants everywhere all with out door seating available. I thought I was in love then, until I came across the most amazing frozen yogurt place {although really it was a candy shop with frozen yogurt on the side} There were six different kind of frozen yogurt followed by an entire wall dedicated to different kinds of candy. Then they had jars full of  chocolate, peanut butter, caramel sauces, jars of cookies and then tons of fresh fruit to choose from. You can see the pictures below, it was incredible. After that we found our way back to the car to hit the road.


As we are driving back in the direction of home, we decide to swing by Berkley and visit a another friend of Brett's and his girlfriend who live there. Surprise!! I have never been to Berkley before. I am sure most of you where where it is, but it is just north of Oakland and across the bay from San Francisco. It was a nice day but there was fog so you couldn't really see much of the city :[ But we got a tour of the campus, it was absolutely amazing and the huge clock tower that is in the middle was a sight to be seen. After walking through it all, we ended up on the main downtown area and had a bite to eat. There were all kind of restaurants and shops of course in true Berkley fashion "organic" "all natural" signs everywhere :] but it was still so much fun.



After leaving Berkley we had to quickly head home to do a quick clothing change and then go to a family friend's house to celebrate their daughter who just graduated from USC. The weekend was pretty non-stop but I really enjoyed getting to see two new places in California as well as celebrate the accomplishments of others!

X x

Thursday, May 17

hair chalking

I have been wanting to try hair chalking ever since I saw the post about it on Lauren Conrad's  The Beauty Department a couple months ago and I have finally worked up the courage to give it a try!

I have naturally blonde hair and have never died, bleached or done anything like that to my hair. This is really the first thing I have done to it besides the usual shampoo, hair spray, or what have you. I was a little nervous at first but forged ahead. I took a small piece of hair and kind of twisted it up together a little, then just took the chalk and started to almost "brush" it into my hair. I tried out most of the colors since it was my first time and I wanted to see what it would look like.

Unfortunately the pink did not turn out at all. Blue and green was very strong and dominant. The purple was also pretty light & you could hardly see it. I then did end up giving the red a hair and it kind of turned into a pink-ish/red-ish color so I guess that worked out pretty well.

The only problem I seemed to have was that after I took the chalk through the section of my hair, it made it very tangled and almost kind of frizzy, like if you were to tease your hair.. so then when I used to brush to smooth it out, half the chalk came out with it.. that was a little disappointing / frustrating.

After working on this for about 20 minutes, I decided the best way to show off the colors was to put it into a braid to see the different colors come through my hair. Once it was in the braid, in person you cold definitely see it well, although the picture at the bottom doesn't quite show it off.


the chalk

Anyway, this was my first experience with the chalking! It was fun to do and I think I will definitely give it another try. Has anyone else given this a try & had a good or bad experience? Share below in the comments, I would love to hear about your trials and errors. :]

X x