Posted on January 30, 2018 in Uncategorized
Navy Tie-Front Maxi Dress (only $55, available in different prints) / Chloe ‘Marcie’ Crossbody Bag / Rose Gold Sandals / NARS Satin Lip Pencil in ‘Rikugien’
I know there are a lot of sensational headlines being thrown around these days, but I promise you this: if you’re going on vacation in the near future, this is the only dress you’re going to want to wear.
Posted on January 26, 2018 in Life
Sneak Peek for Next Week
A pretty, preppy summer dress for a cute little beach town in Queensland, Australia.
Need to Have
Love is in the air. With Valentine’s Day a little over two weeks away, I’m feeling all heart eyes over this graphic sweater, which is 40% off right now!
Editor’s Note
I’m trying a new format to wrap up the week, inspired by Blair’s weekly email newsletter! I love the idea of sharing a few of my favorite finds for the week and random thoughts on my mind that might not fit nicely into an outfit post. Hopefully, you’ll like this format too and as always, if there’s anything you’d like to see covered in the blog, let me know in the comments below or email me at [email protected].
The first week following a vacation is always the hardest. James and I flew back into NYC early Monday morning and went straight to work. Oof. Surprisingly, I didn’t suffer from jetlag much. With two 10-hour flights (first SYD to HNL, then HNL to JFK), I had enough time to adapt my body to the 16-hour time difference. Melatonin, an eye mask and travel blanket are my best friends when it comes to red-eye flights.
To fully recover from my vacation hangover, I’m playing things a little low key this week. I’m completely abstaining from makeup or curling my hair all week (thankfully I don’t have any major meetings at work right now) and returning to my routine of cooking healthy at home. I had some amazing acai bowls and quinoa salads while in Sydney, so I’m weaving that into our meals for the week.
James and I were originally planning to head out of town again today, but decided we really needed a weekend at home to unwind and unpack (yes, all of my clothes from our trip is still in my suitcase or strewn about the floor right now). Plus, I’m sticking around to celebrate my favorite boss babe Roxy and her brother, who have a brand new home renovation pilot premiering on HGTV this weekend! Tell all your friends and tune in at 2:00 PM ET to watch!
Sale Alert
Take an extra 50% off sale items at J.Crew. There are plenty of winter styles to keep you warm, but if warm weather is in your cards, there’s also a bunch of swimsuits on major sale like this lace-up one piece and this scalloped bikini top.
Posted on January 25, 2018 in Outfits, Travel
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I surprised the world (okay, mostly just me) by only packing a carry-on for our recent vacation to Australia. It was a departure from my norm of usually packing three times more than amount of outfits that a normal person would need for a trip, so this one required a bit more restraint. So I thought I’d show you every single thing I packed in my hard-shell suitcase that I ended up wearing during our week-long trip.
ON THE PLANE
It was tricky going from the dead of winter in NYC to the peak of summer in Australia. Lucky for us, the day we left happened to be warmer than normal so we ditched our winter coats and I ended up wearing a long cardigan, a comfortable t-shirt and my favorite pair of leggings. I recently got a new leather tote to store all of my personal items, like my laptop, my travel blanket and vacation reading material.
“STUCK” IN HAWAII
If you followed my Instagram stories (which you can still see archived on my profile), you know that we had an unexpected overnight layover in Honolulu. The joys of flying standby. Obviously, there are worse places to be stuck and we made our most of it by hanging out on Waikiki Beach, watching a hula dance performance and meeting up with friends who were coincidentally in town. We landed only a few hours after the false alarm missile alert, so it was fascinating to hear about the experience from some locals we met!
EXPLORING SYDNEY HARBOUR
We spent most of our full day in Sydney near the harbor. I wore this navy tie front dress and these rose gold sandals (you’ll be seeing them a lot in upcoming outfit photos). Surprisingly, these sandals are super comfortable to walk in. We walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge twice, around the Circular Quay and over to the Opera House for drinks. Side note: that Australian sun is no joke. We forgot to put on sun block during our first day there and I’m still peeling from sunburn! If you’re planning a visit, use lots of sunscreen!
COASTAL WALK FROM COOGEE TO BONDI
There’s an absolutely stunning coastal trail known as the walk from Bondi to Coogee. It’s about 4.6 km long (2.8 miles) and took us nearly three hours to complete (we stopped a lot for photos, breaks and reapplying sunscreen!). Knowing that we wanted to end up at Bondi Beach, we actually did the reverse and started from Coogee. There are a lot of amazing cliffs and a few more beaches in between that are way less crowded than Bondi. Once we got to Bondi Beach, I changed into this triangle bikini with high-waisted bottoms and we hit the Icebergs — a popular pool club — to relax.
A QUICK TRIP TO AIRLIE BEACH
One of the things on our bucket list was to visit the Great Barrier Reef, so we flew up north to Airlie Beach in Queensland. Airlie is one of the few great entryways to the reefs. From there, we took a three-hour ferry ride to Hardy Reef, where we snorkeled all afternoon. It was probably one of the most incredible experiences ever.
DATE NIGHT IN DOWNTOWN SYDNEY
You saw this outfit already and honestly, there’s nothing really special about it. It’s just an easy white, summery dress (for under $50!) that you can wear out during the day or to a dinner date night. One of the highlights of our trip was all of the incredible food we ate while we were there. A lot of Sydney’s cuisine has Southeast Asian influence, so we had everything from Thai to Malaysian to some sort of modern fusion that would make any hipster foodie proud. I’ll be sharing more about that in a Sydney travel guide coming soon!
HANGING WITH KANGAROOS AT TARONGA ZOO
On our last full day in Sydney, we visited the zoo. It was the only chance we would get to some animals native to the country since we weren’t going to explore the Outback. We got up close with koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, tigers and penguins! It was also blistering hot outside, so a flowy crop top (on sale for $25!) and high-waisted shorts was about all I could handle. We ended the day with a stroll through the Royal Botanic Gardens where we took these outfit photos.
And that’s it! I pretty much wore everything I packed, with the exception of an extra shirt or two. I’m pretty proud of myself for not getting too bogged down with clothes and luggage because it let me enjoy our trip to the fullest.
More to come about our Australia trip — including more outfits and travel tips about everything we did and ate during our time there. If there’s anything specific you’d like to see, let me know in the comments below!