So in love with the 2021 romantic spring vibe, below you’ll find where to get this look with link. I’ve added in such an amazing perfume which has become a favorite.
Skirt and Top are from fashion nova – I linked similar pieces from other sites as well underneath the image.
Fashion nova links: https://www.fashionnova.com/products/wild-for-you-satin-midi-skirt-black-white
top:https://www.fashionnova.com/products/the-one-that-got-away-crop-top-black
Puppy Haul
My first post in 2 years, wow! Ive missed blogging.
Ive decided to dedicate my first post of 2018 on Miami. I took a trip July 2017, and it was nothing short of amazing. Miami easily became one of my favorite cities and even considering relocating there. ….Maybe, i still got NYC to explore 😉
TRIP OVERVIEW:
HOTEL: Me and a girlfriend stayed for 4 nights and stayed in South Beach Miami at the Mondrian Hotel. It was a super chic boutique style hotel but very modern. Mondrian had all the amenities , pool, free breakfast, free bikes for the day,gym,and they even had free stand up paddle and jet skis for hotel guests. There is also a free travel guide downstairs at the lobby the sold all types of tourist packages for your stay.
Heres a lovely GIF of the massive complimentary breakfast we received every morning:
droolinggggg
Room: We got upgraded to a one bedroom suite, there is a kitchen and dining room table in each room, there is also a separate living room area, and a balcony. Hands down one of the best hotel room layouts I’ve seen .
Me on the balcony. Skirt from misguided, top fashion nova, heels forever 21
Things to do:
Day one:we went to south beach ocean drive beach front, the waters were warm ! we tanned and laid out. Then we headed back to the hotel for a stand up paddle board session.
During the night we had a lot of promoters contact us for nightclubs so we went to 11even Miami, it was decent!
Day two: We ate lunch at Voodoo lounge on ocean drive in Miami, they serve really good calamari and huge drinks! There is also a big hookah menu if you’re into that.
After the voodoo lounge we hopped on a yacht and rode jet skis all day!
The weekend pretty much consisted of lounging, dinners, meeting new people,hanging out at the pool and the beach.
I would rate vacationing in Miami 10/10 and can’t wait to do it again!
Book review:
Paul Kalanithi is one of those writers that has the gift of eloquence. I was glued to his words and his story. It was both heartbreaking, filled me up with happiness and understanding at the same time. This book explained mortality in ways you could not even express. We are a thin line between life and death and what you do in that thin line really defines you as a person. What is your purpose here? Do not ask God, ask yourself. Will your life be meaningful? Or will you merely be someone who lets time pass without making your mark. Paul Kalanithi made his mark before he left, he wrote a book that touched me and many many lives. I recommend this book and would rate this book 5 stars.
If you work in the medical field I would recommend this book even more, I feel we sometimes have a habit of rushing through patients when we have a max case load. The book really gives you in detail how a neurosurgeon turned cancer patient changed his practice mind set.
Teas are essential to me.
I have always loved drinking tea, aside from tea being absolutely delicious and relaxing, it is extremely beneficial to your health. Teas can help ease symptoms of health problems or any type of symptomatic dilemma you might be having.
These are the type of teas I drink and I will add common problems that you might be having, and how tea can relieve some of those symptoms for you.
My favorite tea:
Green tea
Benefits
Green tea is loaded with anti-oxidants that can reduce formation of free radicals in the body, antioxidants protect cells and molecules from damage. Free radicals are known to play a role in aging (who doesn’t want to slow down the aging process?)
It improves brain function due to the caffeine. Look- I am all for caffeine in moderate usage. There are a lot of back and forth studies to caffeine wether it be good or bad. All I know is that I find it extremely beneficial to my health. Green tea is different from coffee is it has that amino acid called L theanine, it increases GABA, which has anti anxiety effects and increases dopamine in the brain……who needs xanax or ativan, when you can just brew yourself some delicious green tea.
It aids in weight loss, now don’t get this twisted. It does not MAKE you lose weight, you have to have proper diet and exercise to lose weight, its simple mathematics, burn more than what you consume. Green tea simply gives your metabolism a boost by mobilizing your fatty acids. If you’re trying to lose weight, please don’t order a double cheeseburger with fries and a side of green tea. LOL
My favorite brand that i recommend. This has no bitter aftertaste, it is very very sweet and i have been drinking it for years now without getting tired of it ( I purchase mine on amazon.com) They have a great deal for a 6 pack at $23 individuals are around $7.
Yogi Blueberry Slim Life Green Tea
Regular green tea
Hibiscus Tea ( anti bloating- no caffeine)
I grew up eating a lot of pasta, I’m half Italian so we always celebrated this part of me even though I grew up with the Filipino side raising me most of my life, haha. Being 25 now my body does not like gluten or any type of heavy bread carb, I know this because I’ve tried every single diet out there. I don’t feel comfortable living a high carb diet, because my body just does not like it and I gain a lot of weight. Everyone is different! I don’t eat meat but I find clean carbs to eat, such as veggies and fruit. I stay away from simple carbs like bread,rice, and pasta ( very limited in my diet) and I’m totally ok with that. There are many cleaner alternatives like quinoa and lentils and cauliflower rice. So this Zoodle recipe is perfect for me if I’m craving an Italian spaghetti dish.
I pretty much eyed all of my measurements because this was only for me. I also used all organic products.
Ingredients: (serves 1 person)
3 zucchinis
Olive oil
Raw Garlic (diced)
Garlic salt seasoning (optional)
onions (diced)
Mushrooms (I used white)
Marinara tomato sauce
Sun dried tomatoes ( optional, I love them!)
Directions:
And you’re done! Enjoy!
I am all for natural products, there seems to be a stigma circulating that if you use naturally products you stink or it doesn’t fully give you that good hygiene feel compared to using toxin packed products. We’ve been conditioned by big corporations all of our lives that there are no alternatives. Let me tell you my story.
It was about the end of Senior year of high school when I discovered a painful lump in my underarm, it was about the size of a big grape. I googled my symptoms of course, since it was painful it was nothing to worry about its probably just a cyst. I went to the doctor just to make sure and they said , it’ll go away, it’s a cyst or a swollen lymph node give it a week and try not to irritate the area. I followed all orders and it eventually went away. For about two years I would have recurring lymph node flare ups, from my neck to my underarms. I thought to myself something is up, this is not normal….I wasn’t in nursing school just yet, but I loved medicine and learning about “health” things. I educated myself on the lymph system. The lymphatic system is a vital system to the body and organs and helps get rid of toxins from the body. I’m not going to get into detail but, I thought to myself at this time something is really fucking up my lymphatic system. At this time there were some articles going around of how harmful aluminum is to the body. I thought to myself, wow my deodorant and make up products have a high amount of aluminum. Aluminum application to the body can pose risk for breast cancer and Alzheimer’s, also lymph disease due to your body not being able to circulate any toxins out of the body. Long story short, I found paraben free and aluminum free deodorant and found myself lymph node and lump free for 4 years now. Not to mention my deodorant lasts all day and I do not stink, thank you very much… I live an active lifestyle and I have not had any problems whatsoever with my choice of natural deodorant.
I love eating healthy, I am a health nut and I thought to myself when I decided to go for all natural products, why wouldn’t I care about external products absorbing into my body? I care so much about the intake but what about lotions, and soaps, and products that are also doing insidious harm? If you love to take care of yourself, look into natural products that are actually good for you.
Here are my list of items that I absolutely love, all can be bought from Whole Foods.
I love lip balm and for years I have been using lip balms that were causing more dryness than hydrating my lips, this is from trader joes and it is an organic mint lip balm. Comes in three pack for only $2.49
Paraben free lotion and all natural with jojoba seed and coconut oils, need I say more? Parabens are known to mimic estrogen in a womans body, excess estrogen can throw off hormone levels and increase your risk for breast cancer. oh and its soothing lavender. This product is 5 stars!
Read the top first paragraph, this product has changed my life.
All natural Shea butter soap in wild strawberry, leaves my skin silky smooth without drying it out after my shower. The ingredients in this soap is also all fair trade. 🙂
I was never really interested in going to this place growing up, I spent a lot on the road, with road trips to Vegas ( my mothers favorite place which she always dragged me to as a child and ironically now my favorite place on earth, yes I’m serious!) and I would always hear adult chatter about Death Valley being the hottest place on earth, yuck!. I am not going to lie Instagram gives me inspiration and roadlust (word I made up lol) I saw these white dunes on there that enthralled me, and I have always had love for the desert and things that you don’t really see everyday. I looked it up and it was only a 4 hour drive and I went on a weekend where all the national parks were celebration 100 years so free entrance to all national parks, what could beat free.99?
We left again at about midnight, this was probably the scariest road trip I have ever been on and literally had an anxiety attack when we almost got to the destination. I was sleeping until about more than halfway, we were to the entrance to the campsite. The road to our campsite was close, I woke up and all I see is pitch black with the car headlights on to illuminate only about 30 feet of dirt road and cacti. It was like a horror movie, the break light indicator kept going off and all you here is “ding ding ding” with no reason whatsoever, there was no service and we were running out of gas, we were in the middle of nowhere and if “hills have eyes” really existed , this would be a perfect way to fish for prey and ambush some clueless tourists….HAHA anyway we ended up turning back because the emptiness of the desert was freaking us out. We waited up until about 6am until the sun came up and made a return to really see where we were going and get sufficient directions to an alternate route.
At about 9am it was very hot at 100 degrees, the high of the day was 118 degrees and we were soon regretting the idea of camping outside, nobody was camping, all campsites were empty. So we decided to get a hotel at Stovepipe Wells, a cute little stop before furnace creek. The rooms were really nice considering it being in the middle of nowhere, it was at the cheapest supposedly due to that weekend being empty at 120 dollars a night. We made a really great decision buying a hotel for the night, it was really hot that day. We hiked all day and needed to shower and have a nice cool room and bed at the end of the day.
Hiking
Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes
Make sure your legs are in good shape, this is legit a hard hike due to you walking up hill in sand! This was fun and definitely beautiful. Please do not forget to bring water.
Must see
Badwater Salt Basin, known to be the lowest point of earth. How cool is it to be in the supposed lowest part of earth? You must go to this, it is definitely interesting!
Sequoia National Park
Sequoia really is beautiful, it is the perfect getaway from Los Angeles if you are short on time. Its about a 4.5 hour drive(the switchback mountains and getting to your camp site already factored in) Sequoia National park offers a lot of options for hiking, so many hiking trails that I was a bit overwhelmed ( a good type of overwhelmed). I was there for only a day and a half; I was not able to do it all, so I did 3 famous hikes, all three will be listed and reviewed below.
Camping:
I made a very last minute reservation for camping so I stayed at Sunset Campground which is in Kings Canyon National park, both parks kind of intertwine and is a short drive from Sequoia. I had loop 99 which is a smaller than usual camp sites, but it was sufficient as I do not tend to stay at the camp ground all day long, I only use it to eat my meals and sleeping. There was a grill and a table so that is a plus, less to pack. There are no showers but there was a bathroom with flushable toilets and that was a double plus! Sunset campground had a gorgeous sunset the time I was there which is probably why its named the way it is. I do recommend this camp ground .
Hiking.
Moro Rock:
It is a 1.7 hike to the rock from the Giant Museum,plus a hike up a lot of stairs and incline to get to the top of the rock, it is absolutely breath taking when you get up top, but the hike itself was gorgeous as well. You have an option to hike or to take the shuttle directly to Moro Rock, I do not recommend taking a shuttle to Moro rock because you lose a lot of the experience that goes with being outdoors. On the hike to Moro rock you see a lot of gorgeous trees and wild life, we even saw a deer and its fawn! Below are some photos of the gorgeous scenery while on the hike.
During the hike:
On top of Moro rock:
Crescent Meadow:
This hike was short but you have an option to kind of wander off into the surrounding parts of the meadow. This hike was very lush and green. We took the shuttle to crescent meadow because we were short on time as it was a Sunday and I had work the following day. Anyway, the shuttle offered to stop at tunnel log, it was a tree that fell in the middle of the road and was converted into a tunnel in the great depression days. We stopped there and took some awesome photos, I was just in awe at the size of the tree. We then waited for the shuttle again to drop us off at crescent meadows, its about 1.5 miles from tunnel log. Crescent meadows is a part of the high sierra trail, there are sequoias and random trees that have fallen which gives it that really gritty feel and makes you feel as if your an explorer from the 1800s. There was this really cool tree that fell and was completely hollow and you can walk into! This was just one of many little details that make your trip memorable because you don’t see things like this everyday.
Closing thoughts:
If you have the weekend off and live in Los Angeles this is a must do, I work Monday through Friday 8-5, I left to be on the road at around 930pm and got to my camp site at 3am Friday night, and STILL had time to do these many hikes and experience nature. NO EXCUSES haha, if you love to explore you will do anything to get to the destination. Anything is possible when you use your time wisely. Happy exploring!
Horseshoe bend is a splendid sight to see, its located in Page,Az. It about an 8 hour drive from Los Angeles and I did it over the weekend. There is a very very small uphill hike to horseshoe bend, also I did find it hard to get a perfect photo, and I feel like you need a long “selfie-stick” to really get a good shot of the horseshoe overlook. The photographer that took the photo above had to stand on a really tall rock to get this photo. Anyway, from Las Vegas, we passed Zion National Park, so if youre planning to go to Zion might as well keep going and make a stop in page for a photo opportunity with this majestic beauty.
hungrybrunette.com 