Weekend Recap: Spontaneous Miami Adventures

Happy Monday all! 

I hope everyone had a great weekend. After my very uneventful/ bedridden weekend last week I was really itching to get out this weekend and thank goodness the weather was beautiful... for the majority of it. Hey, for Florida, that's good enough. CM and I decided to take advantage of this and make a day trip down to Miami to visit the Vizcaya Museum that has been on our to-do list for awhile now. But before I get ahead of myself, here's the recap!

Friday:

Friday morning was spent doing the all-so-fun task of renewing my passport (more on why I had to do this later). I do not have any pictures from this glorious occasion because, well, I was quite pee-oed about it. Long story short, DO NOT smile in your passport picture, even if the lady taking it at the CVS says that it is indeed okay to do so and even confirms it by saying, "What a lovely smile you have!". You'll end up paying $12 for ugly passport photos that are completely useless and another $10 in usable yet borderline mugshot pictures at the courthouse. Ugh.  

After that glorious occasion, my sister and I treated ourselves at a local doughnut shop for breakfast. This is the coffee in which I took out my frustrations. #noshame

The rest of my day was spent outdoors with my nephew, inside cleaning, and on the couch napping with this guy. Pugs are the best sleeping buddies, am I right? 

Saturday: 

As I began to mention before, CM and I made a mini day-trip to the Vizcaya Museum in Miami. We've been trying to do different things this summer and visiting a museum was a first for us! 

The front of the house.

 My outfit included a black and white paisley sundress and hints of rosegold. 

To get the full experience we took the audio tour. (Oh, and please excuse my ugly nails xD)

The back of the house. Unforutantely, you could not take any pictures inside but it was beautiful. 

The barge in Biscayne Bay. 

The tea house. I would love to have one of those!

Decided to give the panoramic feature a try to capture the breathtaking gardens surrounding the house. This was just the center of it!

I actually liked how this selfie turned out (which is highly unusual), but please excuse the weird filter on some of these pictures, we came to realize after the fact that he had a filter set on his phone. 

After a long morning/afternoon of touring we left the magnificent gardens and ventured out into the surrounding area for lunch. We stumbled upon a cute little brunch place that CM had been to previously on a business meeting and knowing that brunch is my favorite meal of the day, we decided to stop here for a very late brunch. 

I now have a tiny little spot in my heart for Morgan's as it served the BEST french toast I have ever had. And can we just take a moment to appreciate the cinnamon butter served on top. It was heavenly. 

CM had a chicken and waffle sandwich that is going to be the next dish I order from there! (There goes that darn filter lol)

We ended the day with a stop at one of our favorite places, Lincoln Road. With a 3 story Forever 21 and the best H&M in our area it was bound that I did some damage. 

Gotta have Starbucks for the ride home. Lovin' their new vibrant green straws for the summer! 

 Sunday:

Sunday was a pretty easy day. After an eventful day before I had a lot of errands to run and cleaning to do.

Healthy grocery shopping always makes you feel good!

Made a carafe of one of my favorite summer drinks! So yummy!

And that was that! If you're in the Miami area I HIGHLY recommend visiting the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens. It is a beautiful way to learn about some Miami history. Also check out Morgan's Restaurant near Midtown, you will not be disappointed! 

Did you eat at any good restaurants this weekend? I'd love to know!

Linking Up with Bella, Lisa, and Molly! 

xox,
J

Weekend Recap: Wisdom Teeth Removal + Essentials

Happy Tuesday all!

Today's weekend recap is going up a day late, but once you read this you will probably understand why. This weekend I had the lovely experience of getting my wisdom teeth pulled! Yayyyy *cue the cheers* But in all seriousness, I was actually that excited.

 I have been dealing with having my wisdom teeth coming in for an entire year now, and, in case you couldn't guess... no it was not fun... one bit. I knew I needed to get them out, but kept putting off the procedure because I couldn't afford to lose those few days while in school. The more they came in, the more it sucked. My diet slowly became that of a teething toddler, the thought of certain foods (carrots, almonds, even gum) made me cringe with pain, and eating became a painstaking task and no longer and enjoyable experience. I was even at the point where I couldn't close my mouth all of the way because of my top teeth pressing on to the sensitive, surrounding gums. MORAL OF THE STORY, and the reason why I am saying of all of this, is to get your wisdom teeth removed at the first sight, if not before, of them emerging! Trust me, you CAN afford to spend those 2-3 bedridden days Netflix binging if it means being able to live a normal life again. I was clearly too stubborn and in the end had to endure a year of annoying pain. Ugh.

Well, enough of my insignificant sob story and on to my not-so-exciting weekend:

Thursday:

CM took me out Thursday night for what he liked to call, "My Last Meal". So cute, right? -_- At least I got to pick where we went and I was in the mood for sushi so sushi it was! 

After a mean thunderstorm that afternoon, a beautiful rainbow appeared! A promising sign for the procedure the next day.

The Blurry Days:

After that my weekend was pretty much a blur. Friday I had my appointment at 10am, a lovely nurse woke me up sometime around 11am and I was home and in bed by noon. From there I slept the day away (I don't think I've ever said those words!) and it was nice. I'm so grateful for my family who were so great and were there for me. 

Due to my lack of pictures for this post I'll share with you some pictures about wisdom teeth I found pretty funny, even though I couldn't physically laugh at them, and very much so accurate. 

 Yup, That was me. 

Accurate. 

Mine weren't impacted, but I thought this was pretty funny still. 

                               

My friend shared this video with me before my procedure and I couldn't stop laughing!

Essentials:

Soft "Basically Liquid" Foods

It's common sense to say that you're not going to want to be eating steak the night of your procedure, but I found that I wasn't even wanting to venture into soft foods in fear that something would get stuck in the newly formed hole. Protein smoothies like the ones pictures above were great for when I needed to take medicine, but didn't really feel up to "chewing". The cream of wheat was a blast from my childhood diet and was great for breakfast! Oh and can't forget the ice cream!

Netflix 

A huge thanks to season 4 of PLL that helped me stay entertained this weekend. A good show/movie and a nice comfy bed, maybe throw in a little ice cream and you'll recover in no time! 

Salt Water Rinse

One of the many things the doctor will advise you to do is rinse post-procedure with warm salt-water 4-6 times a day starting 24 hours and you will definitely want to follow this. It helps to stop the bleeding and overall helped my mouth feel cleaner (since you can't use commercial mouth washes right after).

So that was my exciting weekend. I hope I didn't bore you all too much! 

Have you ever had your wisdom teeth or any teeth removed? How was your experience? I'd love to know!

xox, 

J 

June Birchbox vs. Ipsy Showdown

Happy Wednesday all! I hope your week is going good! I recently received both my June Birchbox and Ipsy bag (how I managed to get both packages to come on the same day every month? No idea, but I love it!). I have been a subscriber to both of these subscription services for over a year now and I have yet to choose a favorite! I love the variety of products I receive from both services and I love comparing the two every month, so I figured I'd start a month to month comparison between the two here on my blog. So here goes our little showdown for the month of June!

Ipsy's "Pretty in Paradise"

This month's Ipsy bag's theme is "Pretty in Paradise", a great theme to transition into the summer! The bag has already made it's way into my summer tote as it's super cute (Well, of course, it's designed by Rebecca Minkoff! Extra points, Ipsy!) and perfect to add a little "summer" to your style.

The Products

Marc Anthony "Dream Waves" Beach Spray: I'm really excited to try this. I'm totally into the whole "no heat hair" and sea salt sprays for the summer so this is right up my alley right now.

Realtree for Her Fragrance: I'm not a fan of receiving fragrance samples (from either of the two services) since I feel like I can get those for free, but never the less this fragrance smells very sophisticated yet sweet. And I also appreciate the bottle and how it is not your typical "mini glass tube" fragrance samples usually come in.

NYX Buttergloss in Creme Brulee: I LOVE the butterglosses. I mean who doesn't? I'm glad I got a shade that I do not have and even though it is on the nude side, which I don't normally go for, I actually really like it!

Be A Bombshell "Lash Out" Mascara: Not a fan. The packaging is very cheap feeling. The wand is just an ordinary shape, but it's the smell of the formula that really turned me away. It's a really strong odor that actually made my eyes water when I tried to apply it the first time.

OFRA Universal Eyebrow Pencil: Although I am really excited to use this because I am super into doing my brows right now, I can't help but feel a little bored with this since this is probably my 4th eyebrow pencil from Ipsy.

Birchbox's "Away We Go" 

This month's Birchbox theme was "Away We Go", inspired by JetBlue. In honor of this partnership they included a "Where to Travel Next" mini quiz card (I got San Francisco because I just know you were dying to know). I love when Birch Box throws in cute, little extras like that! 

The Products

Laqa & Co. Lip Lube Pencil in "Bees Knees": This mini pencil is so cute! I love receiving lip products because I firmly believe that you can never have too many lip products. I was a little intimidated by the bright coral at first, but it applies very sheer, as the description says, so on the lips it is actually a beautiful light peachy-coral, which I love!

Egyptian Magic All-Purpose Skin Cream: This product really intrigues me. I can't wait to start using it on my cuticles, elbow, and heels. The description also says that you can use it on bruises, burns, and wrinkles. Yay for multi-purpose things!

Vasanti BrightenUp! Face Rejuvenator: You can never have enough face wash/ exfoliators and I am always attracted to products that claim to "brighten" your skin since I have a lot of acne scaring. Can't wait to try!

Coastal Scents Revealed 2 Palette Set: LOVE this mini quad. I used it to get ready this morning and I fell in love with all of the colors. There are two satin shadows, a glitter shadow, and a matte shadow. Great to bring on it's own for an on-the-go look.

Harvey Prince "Hello" Fragrance Sample: Like I mentioned before, I don't really like to receive typical fragrance sample in either services so I wasn't so excited when finding this sample. But I fell in love with packaging and the scent is amazingly fresh!

The Verdict:

For the month of June I'm going to have to go with....Birchbox! It was a nice variety of products, each of which I found unique and exciting. I did love Ipsy's bag as well, especially the bag itself, but the mascara is what turned me away in the end. 

Are you subscribed to a monthly subscription service? If so, I'd love to know your thoughts! 

Weekend Recap!

 Happy Monday! I hope you had a wonderful weekend. Mine was pretty eventful, for once, so I wanted to share, plus I took a lot of pictures so I figured this would justify it. 

 Friday:

After a week full of thunderstorms and gross humidity, I lucked out and was able to spend my morning off soaking up the saltwater and sunshine at the beach. Turns out I really lucked out because within two hours after I left a huge thunderstorm rolled in, complete within terrifying thunder and lightening and enough rain to overflow my pool. Gotta love summer weather in Florida!

Friday night we welcomed home my grandma and aunt who spent the past month visiting our family in Italy. And what better way to welcome them home from their Italian excursions than homemade Fettuccine Alfredo! Like they needed more pasta, lol. My grandma surprised me by bringing back this beautiful silver Madonna that she made sure to get blessed while on her retreat. Such a thoughtful gift that will always remind me of her as you will never see my grandma without her own Madonna around her neck. 

Saturday:

Saturday morning cleaning, as per usual, but thanks to this ah-mazing candle I just bought at the B&BW Semi-annual sale this past week, my chores suck a little less!

Saturday night date night at PF Chang's, our absolute favorite. Ever since we discovered the Chang's 2 for $40 menu over 2 years ago (excuse me while I stare blankly at the screen wondering how 2 years have gone by so fast) PF Chang's has become our most visited restaurant, and we have no shame!

I steered away from my usual sesame chicken with brown rice and went with the chicken lo mein. Delicious, no doubt!

We always upgrade on the dessert to get one full size rather than two small individual, again no shame. While the Great Wall of Chocolate is our go-to because, I mean, the name says it all, but this time we went with the "Chocolate Dome", sounds almost as awesome as "The Great Wall".  Essentially it was a chocolate mousse cake with raspberry syrup, but realistically it was a heavenly dome of thick, creamy chocolate that is currently making my mouth water as I type this at 9am, no less. 

Our date night continued as we went this adorable art studio where you can either paint ceramics or create mosaics. Yay for fun, artsy dates!

He ended up going thing a surfboard ceramic and I chose to mosaic my initial. Here are the before's....

 

It is of utmost important to pause mid-project to take a happy selfie.

The evolution of my design. I'd have to say I'm quite pleased with myself as my creative skills since graduating high school have dropped to an embarrassing low. Overall it was a very therapeutic experience in many ways. From being in a laid back environment, creating something individually, but also together at the same time to letting my aggression out cutting the tiles, it was overall a really fun and different from the norm date! Highly recommend! 

I didn't have time to grout my piece that night and he has to wait three days for them to fire(?), I think that's what it's called, his piece so I will keep you updated on the after's!

The coffee menu that was on the table. I thought it was hilarious!

Sunday:

                   

Sunday morning was spent rummaging through old shes boxes for pictures of me and my dad. Loved walking through memory lane.... and also hated did not love cringing through my awkward years. xD

Since my dad was out of town visiting his dad Sunday morning we had his favorite once-a-year breakfast of biscuits 'n gravy for dinner Sunday night! Yes I am a toddler still and make smiley faces with my food #20goingon2 

I'm doing my first link-up and I'm so excited! Thank you Bella and Lisa! 

Thanks for reading!

My Top Lily Pulitzer Agenda Picks!

This is kind of an unplanned and random post, but given the urgency of this matter, I needed to get this posted. What is this urgent matter I am speaking of? Lily Pulitzer planners are officially for pre-order. I wish I could say this the "urgent" is total sarcasm...but I'd be kind of lying. These babies go fast!

You may be thinking how silly it is to pre-order a planner, trust me I still can't believe that I did too, but after having a Lily planner this past year I can now say that pre-ordering is totally worth it, if you fall in love with a specific print. I'm sure I'll go into more detail of how obsessed I am with my  why I love my Lily planner, and all other planner related things, in future posts. So why pre-order? Well of course to make sure you can pick your favorite print because, yes, certain prints do sell out. Also, preordering allows you to start using and decorating your planner as soon as it starts, which is August 2014 by the way. So I just wanted to get this post out to share my fav pics from this year's planner prints.

Here are my top picks: 

Peelin' Out 

As a Florida girl I have an innate love for oranges so I had a tough time not choosing this one. Such a fun and bright print that could make it feel like Summer everyday.

Hot Spot 

Don't really know why I fell in love this this print other than it is just so beautiful and fun. 

Trippin' and Sippin'

If I was going for a Jumbo planner I would so go for this super pretty floral design. 

And the winner is....

Let's Cha Cha

First off, how could you not fall in love with the name?? Although I don't think that this particular print will be as popular as some of the others, I just fell in love with the shades of blue and green. Needless to say I am SO excited for this baby to come.

Which Lily planner print was your favorite? I'd love to know! 

XOXO, 

Julia 

A New Month, A New Start

Hello! Thanks so much for stopping by my blog. Naturally, I become really shy when introducing myself (apparently even in front of a computer screen too), but I'm sure you'll get to know me soon enough! 

There's just something about a new month. A fresh start. A chance of attitude. I believe in treating every first of the month like the first of January. So here is a list of goals for the next beautiful month of June!

1. More pool days! 

Can't wait to get my behind in the pool more this summer and take advantage of the blessing that is having a pool!

2. Clean out my room.

Summer is always the time for me to do a total room purge and I love it. I've actually been excited to have the time to do this and can't wait to begin. 

3. Journal. 

I've been inspired a lot recently to get back into daily journaling. I love being able to look back on my thoughts and experiences and I feel that I am at a point in my life that I would really want to look back on in the future. 

and last but not least...

4. Blog!

Blogging is something I have been wanting to do for a looong time and couldn't be more excited to begin the journey. 

Wishing you all a happy and productive June!

-Julia