Hello and happy TWOsday (2/22/22 Tuesday) to you! Amalia and I got home last night from a little gal’s trip we took with my sister and niece to visit our aunts in Cape Coral, FL. I announced it on Instagram, but I am thrilled to finally be able to share that my sister is pregnant with a second girl and I get to become an auntie again this spring! She is doing great and little Helen is going to be the sweetest big sister.
My pride and joy moment with my niece (14 months) over the weekend was teaching her to say “Ju Ju” which she pronounced as “Zshu Zshu” and melted my heart.
Amalia had the time of her life swimming in the pool and ocean. She is such a water bug and one day we spent literally 6 hours in the pool with one break. It was so so nice to get one-on-one time with my girl and see her really thrive in the water. You can see a little photo dump from the trip here.
After two years of limited travel, it’s been so nice to head south twice in the last month. And I’m trying to convince Anel to do it again as a family in March or April.
Before we left, I’d been cooking a lot which feels good, and these are the recipes I’m cycling through lately. On social, I’ve been playing around with Reels and having a lot of fun! I especially love this Reel I made about my beloved 2009-era bubble necklaces.
Pictured above: Victoria Dunn Dress / Lemon Stripes x Chappywrap Blanket
WHAT I’M READING & WATCHING
Books – Whisper Network by Chandler Baker: I finished this on vacation and while it was entertaining and interesting, I’d give it a B… B+ max. It was a nice easy read and I was curious as to what would happen but it wasn’t a super-duper page-turner. The book is about four women who work for Truviv (a made-up company). When their CEO dies, a man they all work directly for is set to take over. Each of them has a different relationship with him but decides to team up to expose his actions toward women which sets off a chain of events that ends in someone’s death (you find this out in the first chapter).
I think if I still worked in a corporate office, I’d be a lot more into the story as it touches on a lot of workplace sexism and other issues.
Find Your Unicorn Space: Reclaim Your Creative Life in a Too-Busy World by Eve Rodsky: By now we all know how strongly I feel about Rodsky’s first book, Fair Play. It truly changed my marriage. I’m hoping her second book hits the same way to give my creativity a little spark per what I said above. I’m still at the beginning of it but already feel inspired by her words and am working towards changes to light a fire under my creative a**.
TV Shows – Inventing Anna (Netflix): After reading My Friend Anna last year, I was beyond excited to hear that Shonda Rhimes was coming out with a show around the faux German heiress who scammed hundreds of thousands of dollars off of Manhattan’s elite. I’m on episode five and kind of love-hate it. I am super into the story but the storytelling falls a little flat IMO. That said, I adore Julia Garner and think she does a great job. Although I’ll never see her as anything besides Ruth from Ozark!
Tinder Swindler (Netflix): In other con-artist news, this documentary on Leviev (aka the Tinder Swindler) was a quick must-watch. I was literally screaming at the TV because I was so mad at him. He posed as an Israeli billionaire and would meet women on, you guessed it, Tinder, and con them out of their life savings. It was truly bananas.
Ozark Season 4 (Netflix): So far this is my favorite season since the first. I cannot get enough of the Byrde family and their shady antics.
And Just Like That (HBO): Ok still feeling mixed on this. I do love that they brought Sex and The City into 2022 with more diverse characters and topics, but there were also so many cringe-worthy moments that I sometimes felt it was hard to watch. Weirdly my favorite episode was the behind-the-scenes one they showed on HBO after the series ended. I loved watching the process, especially the fashion.
Yellowjackets (Showtime): Anel and I finished season one and it just got weirder and darker as it went on. I heard someone describe it as Lost meets Lord of the Flies meets Mean Girls and that is exactly correct. There are no words really for what happened after a high school soccer team’s plane crashes in the wilderness. You just have to watch and see. Heads up, it’s very graphic so if blood and gore isn’t your cup of tea, perhaps skip this one.
5 THINGS I’M LOVING
1. Solawave: Instagram targeted me for an ad with this celeb-favorite facial beauty tool and (shocker) I fell for it hard. But I’m glad I did because it makes good on its promise to reduce the appearance of wrinkles, fine lines, acne, and dark circles. And it gives your skin a serious glow.
Before I bought it I searched for reviews and it was hard to come across a bad one. I read this page in detail before pulling the trigger and agree that it’s worth every penny.
The tool itself is the size of a Sharpie but packs a punch with LED light therapy, microcurrent, facial massage, and therapeutic warmth to help your skin absorb product more effectively.
They encourage you to take before pics of your skin and then use it every day for 5-10 minutes with a promise of lifted, more glowing skin in 14 days.
I’ve been using the Solawave for over two weeks and I can safely say that my skin is more glowing and it’s helped my under-eye darkness and puffiness too.
2. CBD drinks: I am almost done with my Dry February (I’ll share a full post about the experience at the end of the month) and have been feeling great swapping in CBD drinks for alcohol. To the point where I think this will change my weeknight habits for some time. These drinks help me calm down when I’m stressed but give me no hangover and no dehydration. Instead of feeling garbage the morning after, I feel great. They take the edge off when needed and give me the feeling of pouring myself a cocktail…without any of the side effects I get from alcohol.
I have two that I use and love- Aplos and Equilibria Drink Drops. Aplos is a hemp-infused, plant-based, non-alcoholic spirit that tastes incredible. You use it in a similar way to a traditional spirit, by mixing it with seltzer, tonic, or whatever you want. It’s flavored with citrus, herbs (rosemary and basil), yuzu, and cucumber, and it’s delightfully refreshing. My go-to is mixing it with seltzer and a squeeze of lemon. The branding is beautiful too. I keep the bottle on my bar cart because it looks so good.
The Equilibria drink drops are another great (portable!) option. If you missed my IG story on these, I mix them into whatever I’m drinking… usually also just seltzer and lime/lemon. All it takes is one squeeze of their berry, citrus, or peach drops into a drink and it gives it flavor, a pretty color, and calms you down in 10 minutes.
I get asked a lot if it makes you feel high or weird at all and the answer is no. For me personally, CBD just takes me from anxiety or stress to calm. That said, you might have to play around with dosing to find what is right for you. I can only do one or two drops (5 or 10 mg) and if I take more, I do feel kind of funny. But I’m also very sensitive to any kind of drug so play around with it for yourself.
Transparency note: I worked with Equilibria on a campaign about these drops a few weeks ago on Instagram. This post is not a part of that partnership.
3. Victoria Dunn Dresses: I saw one of these beautiful block-print dresses in a shop window in Palm Beach last month but it was sold out in my size. I ended up getting the same one online in the pink colorway (pictured above) and it’s making me excited for spring. Also on my wishlist is this blue and white dress.
4. Ripple glasses ($45 for 4): Speaking of mock and cocktails, I bought a set of these gorgeous mouthblown glasses at the MoMa gift shop during a day in the city with some girlfriends. I love how delicate and beautiful they are. They’re not big glasses even though they’re advertised at tumblers, but they’re perfect as a juice glass or for my nightly mocktail. Pretty little things like this make me so happy.
5. Happily Eva After Collection sweatshirt ($110): I am so proud of my friend Eva for launching her second collection last week. I’ve watched her work tirelessly on this and it has paid off. I got to try on every piece and my favorites by far are the Talullah sweatshirt (it runs small, size up) and the matching Ruby sweatpants.
Eva puts so much thought into all of her designs and it shows in the final product. The fabric is nice and soft but also thick, the fit is just perfect, and you know I love the color. I’ve been living in this sweatshirt and had a hard time trying to hide it on social before she launched it! Check out her entire spring collection.
Photo by Julia Dags.
