The minute I saw this Sand Art Dress on Modcloth, I knew it would be the perfect for our trip to Seaside, Oregon.
Playing in the dunes, feeding the seals at the aquarium (they have a rehabilitation and breeding program), checking out the largest Candy store on the Pacific Coast - eating chocolate covered bacon and Pringles? - lunch at the best restaurant in town (for a more thorough review, I'll be writing it up in my travel blog soon).
Sand dollar earrings and ring, Forever 21
Suede sandals, Gojane
ASOS bag
Mmmm seal food
This was Charles (don't worry, their habitat is way bigger than it looks)
Octopus, though yummy, are creepy
Candy, candy, candy
Twilight Candy? This has gone too far
MMMmmm Chocolate-covered BACON!!!
Bought a shitload of Salt Water Taffy
Best combo EVOR, no?
The best seafood platter with famous chowder at Norma's Diner - so good!
DON'T FORGET TO ENTER MY GIVEAWAY FOR AN ALIX AND ANI FEATHER BANGLE - SEE HERE TO ENTER!
Thanks to DesignerApparel.com, a shopping search engine that carries hundreds of brands from Versace to Prada, to Lilly Pulitzer, I have the chance to offer one lucky Anywhere But Here reader to win this:
The gorgeous bracelet is made up of a set of 3 wire bangles in a patented expandable design. Lacquered feather at one bangle. 2.25" diameter. Gold-plated recycled metal.
A bit about Alex and Ani: Jewelry line Alex and Ani (named after creator/designer Carolyn Rafaelian's daughters) was founded on two guiding concepts: 1. Jewelry should not only adorn the wearer's body, it should also empower by connecting her to a mystical, spiritual narrative. 2. Every woman should have a perfect jewelry fit. The brand achieves this through sacred symbols and stones bedecking their offerings, and the signature expandable collection features an adjustable sliding closure mechanism, so size is never an issue.
This contest will run for one week and is open to all of my readers. To enter, all you need to do is leave a comment below.
If you tweet about this giveaway and link to it (be sure to reply @wanderlustingkh), you get an extra entry. If you blog about it you get TWO extra entries!!!
Personally, I love jewelry with a feather motif, such as these ASOS earrings I wore yesterday.
I paired them with a Forever 21 dress, Botkier bag and these snazzy new sandals from GoJane.
Aren't they devilish? They actually kind of hurt if you're the type of person who likes to cross their legs at the ankles (OW) but I love how luxe they look, despite the $15 price tag. When I got them, the zipper didn't actually zip open, so I cut the fabric underneath off to make it functional and more flattering to the leg when you zip it down. My only problem is perhaps finding the proper items to wear them with - they don't go with everything!
Look! A bunny!
Found the best Cheek Stain - Make Up Forever makes one that's not only waterproof but extremely highly-pigmented. A little (and by little I mean a tiny press of your finger) goes a long way for a sunny, coral glow on lips and cheeks.
Don't mind the boob shot - check out the ASOS tooth necklace, sorta morbid, sorta my favourite :)
Tomorrow I'm heading south to Oregon for the next few days - I'm very excited and I WILL be blogging while I'm gone. I've got so many outfits just perfect for a mini-beach vacay ;P
ANYHOO - what are you waiting for? Enter the contest today!
Well, here's an epic story I never got the chance to tell (it's long, just as the day was long):
So, the day is April 18th. The Gorillaz just finished their set to a rather confused crowd at Coachella (Cloud of Unknowing was a rather melancholic song to end on, you can read about the whole show HERE).
We moved rather swiftly out of the Empire Polo Fields, considering there was about 75 thousand of us leaving at once.
An hour later (after the walk to the car, leaving the venue in the car, fighting traffic in the Indio area) we make it back to our hotel. It's 1AM at this point.
We pack up our things and then - we are off. At 2AM. Driving from Indio, California to San Francisco.
Yes, you see we had a plane to catch at two in the afternoon. The drive is eight hours long. We originally were going to wake up at 5 AM and go but my mother - God bless her - suggested we don't sleep and pull an all-nighter. Just get in the car after the concert and drive to San Fran - that way we'll beat the crazy LA/Coachella traffic and not miss our plane.
So that was the plan. I was tired beyond hell, but I was armed with snacks, Faith No More blaring from the speakers and two giant cans of Red Bull. In the back, Mike slept, preparing to take over the drive in about four hours.
Surprisingly, there was a lot of traffic on the 10 heading West. Not surprisingly, I took a wrong turn - the signs come up so fast and by the time you realize it, you don't have time to cross over four lanes of traffic. So I ended up going to Riverside, which ironically, we accidently drove through when we came down to Coachella days earlier.
After Riverside, I hooked on to another highway that was heading North and again missed the turn off to Pasedena. I am normally a VERY good navigator but at the point in the night, it's three AM and I am freaking hallucinating at the lights on the road. Also, you know, I wasn't able to read the map, it was dark and I've never driven myself in this area before. But I knew that if I just headed North to San Bernadino, I could turn West somewhere around there.
Well, I overshot San Bernadino, kept driving up some dark mountain pass and freaking out in an increasing manner. The Red Bull wasn't keeping me alert, it was keeping me paranoid and scared.
Finally I decided to pull over in Victorville and figure out where the fuck we were.
I'm glad I did because I probably would have ended up in Las Vegas had I kept driving North. Anyway, I made Mike take over because I was in NO form to drive at this point. I tried to sleep in the back while Mike took us on the West heading highway.
I barely slept... the highway was two-lane, deserted, going through a blackened desert, with barely anyone else on the road. How did we know we were going the right way.
Finally I raised my head at 5AM after 45 minutes of shoddy sleep. The sun was coming up on the dry hills where pricey suburban homes perched. Traffic was increasing and I got the feeling we were heading... South.
Yup. The sign told us there was only so many hours till Los Angeles.
LOS ANGELES? We needed to go to San Francisco!
There was a minor freakout from both of us as we thought we had driven in a circle. Luckily, again, though the highway branched onto our beloved I-5. We headed North, not South, this time. I breathed a sigh of relief, fell asleep for maybe another hour.
I woke up somewhere in some town just outside of the LA outskirts, after the "Grapevine" hills that leave Valencia. We had breakfast at McDonalds. I felt like shit and Mike was done with driving. It was my turn again and I did not know how I was going to pull this off. See, I don't do well without sleep. I don't even speak or walk properly. DRIVING? Crazy.
But somehow, I got in that SUV and piloted it North on the I-5, all the way to San Francisco. OK, I accidently went through Oakland which robbed me of more time and patience (traffic, holy hell), but we eventually made it to San Fran and to the airport with time to spare.
At this point, we were both zonked but managing. Some yummy clam chowder at the SF airport did us some good.
Then we got on the plane for Seattle - that's where my actual car was parked and we had tickets to see Conan O'Brien that night. WHEW! What a day, am I right?
We parked at a well-priced parking garage near Seattle centre, then had dinner at a nearby bar before the show.
My comfy travel outfit. Ignore our zero sleep faces. We just drove from Palm Springs, OK?
Conan was an amazing way to end our somewhat miserable, somewhat brilliant vacation. He put on such a good show. I'm sure you all know about the show and what he does, etc, but the highlights were definitely Reggie Watts, the Meatloaf Bat, Jimmy Levino and his band, Andy and Conan's beautiful repetoire, the Chuck Norris clips, Conan serenading us in the audience and the special guests - Eddie Vedder and that other dude from Pearl Jam... they did a cover of The Who's Baba O'Reilly which was brilliant, check it out below.
Eddie Vedder...
YA GOTTA WATCH! Eddie Vedder @ Conan O Brien's Prohibited Tour covering The Who's Baba O'Reilly
Conan high-fives Vedder (waving) and proclaims to us that was the most awesome thing he has ever seen. He meant it!
Conan is inspired by Vedder... and Elvis, I guess
Coolest Conan ever
Epic ending!
After the show we were elated, despite not having slept for 36 HOURS. I've watched Conan O'Brien since 1995!!! 1995, peeps. What a great way to end our vacay, right?
Happy smiles - Coachella wrist band still intact
NOPE. Turns out the car lot we parked in locked up only minutes before we got there. Mike, running high on no sleep and adrenaline, somehow scaled the wall and got into the parking lot and tried to open the gate from the inside. NO LUCK. But man, was I proud of his monkey ability!
SO, we had to call the tow truck who charged us FIFTY BUCKS to open the gate. MOTHER F*CKERS. So, it seemed like our bad luck on this disaster trip wasn't over yet...
Once we got our car out and got past the injustice of it all, we STILL weren't done. It was 11PM and we had a 2 and a bit hour drive from Seattle to our home in Vancouver. SIGH.
Mike drove at first until he started veering off the road (just a tad) and then I took over. I was kinda hallucinating while praying I didn't kill us, but by the time we got through the border crossing and into British Columbia, I started to relax a little.
We finally got back to the city at about 2 AM. I am not sure how I managed to get us there in one piece, but it happened.
You know that scene in Almost Famous when William Miller finally gets home, he sees his bed and throws himself on it with open arms? That's pretty much how I felt to a tee.
Luckily, we had just done a little bit of cleaning up and redecorating before we left, so it was even more welcoming than ever.
Speaking of, I have the honour of doing a review for AllModern.com and other CSN stores - something I am really excited about because our apartment still needs some fixing up. I'm not sure what I'm going to pick...headboards for our bed, wine glasses, wine racks, cool wall art decor, kitchenware, new snazzy pillows for our ugly couch? I'm very excited, they have so many cool, quality items!
I'll be sure to tell you all about it though AND - better news - I'll be doing ANOTHER giveaway with this company sometime in the near future, a treat for all you readers :P Vegas Princess won the pricey gift certificate last time - who will it be this time?
OH RIGHT - I have a new layout. I've had the Classic Template for four years now but Blogger has made some annoying changes. For one, I can only have three posts on one page and there was NO way to link to older or newer posts. So basically I was missing half of my blog. Anyway, I had to change to the new template - something maybe I should have done a while ago - and luckily, though it will still only show 3 posts, least I can link to previous posts at the bottom. Anyway, change is good. Hope you like it!
Anyhoo, sorry for being a tease in the last post. I actually have a post that shares all my good news all written up but I'm just waiting on one more thing to seal the deal. If it doesn't happen soon though, I won't leave you hanging, so no worries!
Well, what's new with me?
I mean, what else besides all those other things that I'm not talking about yet, is new with me?
Let's see... I've started spinning like crazy. Had to drop my personal training classes due to financial issues but hope to resume them in August. In the meantime I have my month pass to spinning and I've been going pretty much every day. Was actually going to make it 6 days straight but I'm on day 4 and decided day 5 ain't going to happen. I can't feel my legs! Besides they say the work happens when you're "recovering."
I'm spinning like crazy because I'm on crunch time to lose 10 pounds in 6 weeks. Sounds ridiculous, I know, but I've done it before. I work best when the goal is near and I really push myself. All or nothing!
Also, would like to look good in that sexy monokini I bought - the bf and I are road tripping it to Seaside and Portland Oregon next week for our three-year anniversary. Not that I'll look sexy enough in one week, but you know. Anyway - expect lots of pictures... not of me in the bikini though, sorry :P
What else? Oh yes.
Totally forgot that I went to see The Eagles last month with my dad. The Eagles have always been one of my favourite bands and I was just blown away at how brilliant they were live. Like, flawless. Amazing how well the band has held up, their voices are as good as they were back in the day and MAN is Don Henley one talented Mo-Fo or what? I had NO clue that he sang AND did the drums on Hotel California! That is some supreme coordination, I tell you what. All Hail Don Henley!
Plus they played Henley's Boys of Summer... LOVE that song!
Trying to be in the 70's, Eagles type of mood, this is what I wore to the concert:
Top: Forever21; Skirt: ASOS; Jacket: Clothing swap - Express; Necklace: Gorjana; Scarf: Ellen Tracy; Bag: Mieli Bianco; Boots: Jeffrey Campbell
Actually, looking back at my Photos from May, I ended up doing a lot stuff! I promise to share with you in the next post. Have a great weekend everyone!
