August 2016

The Summer of the Swimsuit

Hi Lovies,

It's hard to believe that the summer is coming to a close, this weekend is the unofficial end with Labor Day quickly approaching. I have to say this has been one of the quickest one ever for me. I will chuck that up to having way too much fun and I am ok with that. I did promise myself that this summer I would make it my business to enjoy myself. Besides doing fun things here with friends and family like BBQ's, pools, etc, I was able to get away for a weekend with my Beau to Puerto Rico (see here). Then literally 2 days later I was off to LA with my Instagram Wives. Besides making a promise to myself to have fun this season, I also promised myself that I wasn't going to get hung up on being beach body ready. As we women we tend to stress all year long about bodies being ready for the summer. While yes some women do achieve their "Beach Body" and that's great, I on the other hand said "to hell with it!" I threw caution to the wind, put on as many swimsuits that I could this summer and strutted my stuff with the utmost confidence. And you know what? It felt fantastic!

Swimsuit - Forever 21 + (similar here, here, here, here)

Wake Me When It's Friday

Hi Lovies,

I am still on a high over the fact that I was in LA just a few weeks ago. Also to be able to experience my first time there with my Instagram Wives was so awesome. I totally fell in love with the city and I'm already planning my return in my head. The flight was long and exhausting for us since we had such an early flight but it was totally worth it. When we arrived we were so hungry, so we searched for the nearest In and Out Burger, put the address into Waze and headed on over. This was definitely one of the spots on my list to visit, I had to see what all the hype was about. I've seen so many of my fellow LA bloggers on snapchat going there to eat and it looked really good. There was a pretty big line when we got there but thankfully it was moving fast. We were also lucky to find seats quickly as well because I couldn't' wait to sink my teeth into my burger. Honestly I have to say that the burger wasn't as life altering as I thought it would be. It was good don't get me wrong but nothing I haven't had before here in NYC. But at least I can say I was there, tried the food and cross it off my list of places to visit.

TeeJeans, Sunglasses c/o Torrid//Shoes

IG Wives Take Over Part 3 - California Dreaming with Avenue

Hi Lovies,

I hope you have been enjoying The Instagram Wives LA takeover posts so far. If you missed the first two, you can see them here and here. This whole trip could not be possible if it wasn't for our generous sponsor The Avenue. They are such an awesome brand and we are extremely grateful for them believing in The Instagram Wives. So to show our appreciation, on our last day in LA, we drove up to Santa Monica Beach and did one last shoot showcasing the outfits they sent us for the trip to create a look book. We knew while we were in sunny California, visiting one of the many beautiful beaches was a must. Since Lizza, our photographer, lives in Santa Monica she suggested me go by there for some shots. It was definitely worth the ride, it's a beautiful beach with amazing views, and not to mention the Santa Monica Pier which holds an amusement park as well. We didn't have time to check out the action at the pier but from the beach it sure did look like a lot of fun. I'll just have to add that to my list when I come back to visit. To say we had fun doing this shoot is an understatement, it was the perfect day and with Lizza keeping us on our toes the photos came out amazing.

Dress c/o Avenue

IG Wives Take Over Part 2 - LACMA

Hi Lovies,

Hopefully you have been keeping up with me and The IG Wives LA Takeover posts, last week was about us slaying the Paul Smith Pink Wall (read here). In today's post, the IG wives decided to visit the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). We couldn't visit LA and not capture some shots at the infamous Chris Burden's "Urban Lights" display. I've always been in awe of this light installation and how beautiful it was in pictures, which didn't do it any justice. Actually seeing them in person and standing in all their glory is the only way to appreciate this form of art work. Who would've thought 202 vintage lamp post painted a uniform gray and arranged symmetrically could be so breath taking. I wish I could've came back in the evening to see all of them lit up, I'm sure it would have been a totally whole different experience.

Top & Skirt c/o Lane Bryant//Shoes

IG Wives Takeover Part 1 - The Pink Wall

Hi Lovies,

As I mentioned in my previous post, the Instagram Wives, me, Darlene and Jami were in sunny LA recently. We were there to attended the annual Blogher conference in the JW Marriott Hotel. We definitely had a ton of fun and did a bunch of things, which I will be posting about in the upcoming weeks. Since this was my first time in LA, I was going to take every opportunity to hit up some of the iconic spots. On our last day in LA, we decided to take our blog photos with an amazing photographer named Lizza of Fabulizza. The first location on our list was the infamous Paul Smith Pink Wall. In the blogger world this wall is pretty popular for taking awesome blog photos. To our disappointment, when we arrived, there was a list of rules you had to abide by in order to actual take pics there. The worst one was you could only use a cellphone to take pics, which sucked! But we made the best of it and Lizza was able to get some great shots of us with my Samsung Galaxy Note 5.

Dress - c/o Eloquii//Shoes//Bag//Sunnies
 

Palm Trees

Hi Lovies,

The last 3 weeks for have been a little hectic, I went to Puerto Rico and then literally 2 days later I was on a plane to LA. I'm not complaining at all, it has definitely been a fun summer and I've been enjoying it to the fullest. Now that my life is getting back to some normalcy and I can start to get back into my routine with life and blogging. In the coming weeks I will be blogging about my trip to LA with my Instagram Wives Darlene and Jami. We had such a great time while we were out there and I just fell in love with the city of dreams. One of the things I was most fascinated with were the beautiful palm trees. Now I had just came from Puerto Rico (see post here) and they have some great ones too but there's something about the ones in California that are just so different. They had so many different kinds, big and super tall ones, short and full ones, I just fell on love. So it was very fitting for me to wear this Palm Print Dress from Fullbeauty while I was there.

Dress & Shoes c/o Fullbeauty

#MySwimBody

Hi Lovies,

A few weeks ago I was approached by Swimsuits for All to be a part of their newest campaign called #MySwimBody. They are calling on women from around the world to show off their swim bodies this summer by participating in the #MySwimBody movement. It encourages women, regardless of age, shape and size, to make a powerful statement about body positivity by tossing their cover-ups and unveiling their curves! Sports Illustrated model, Ashley Graham kicked off the campaign earlier this month by posting a selfie of her swim body with fellow models Philomena Kwao and Nicola Griffin, photographer Jessica Lavoie, as well as professional athlete Amanda Bingson. Now, Ashley is inviting you to join the movement and share a swimsuit selfie on Instagram with the tag #MySwimBody and to challenge a friend to do the same by tagging her in your caption. The goal is to have 10,000 women show off their unique swim bodies as a united front, celebrating female empowerment and body appreciation. 

Paradise in Puerto Rico

Hi Lovies,

If you follow me on social media or snap chat, then you know I was in Puerto Rico this weekend. Me and my Beau decided to do a quick little weekend getaway and it was one of the best times I've ever had. My fellow Instagram Wife Darlene was already there for work so I got to spend the vacation with her, her boyfriend and her parents. It was great because it was like having our own personal tour guides, she knows the island very well and her parents live there. Even though it was a short trip, we were able to do a lot while we where there. We stayed at the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel in San Juan, which is an amazing 5 star hotel. I can't say enough about this place, from the customer service to the room and all the amenities, it was top notch all the way. I got a great deal through Hotels.com and got upgraded to a one bedroom Biltmore Suite which was just jaw dropping. I seriously didn't want to leave the hotel at all. They had several pools within the hotel, and also easy access to the beach. It was truly paradise...

 
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