Month: May 2016

~ Event Recap: Elaine Turner’s Southern Charm Bar Launch Party

/ raindropstosunshine / 1 Comment

As I am posting this, I am on our way back from an epic week-long vacation!! I flew out on 23rd May to see my sister in NYC and also spend some time with the in-laws in NJ after which I took an Amtrak to DC to spend the Memorial Day long weekend with our dear friends from Virginia Tech, where the hubby joined me on Friday. I will be sharing details on this trip soon, but for now I am recapping a recent blogging event that I attended not too long back.

On 18th May, I attended my second blogging event (first being the May Blogger Union Houston Meet-up).  This event was actually a launch party for Elaine Turner’s new jewelry collection – The Southern Charm Bar, a collection of charms and chains for us southern women to mix and match for a look that’s personally ours and expresses us perfectly!

I was very excited for this event since this was my 1st launch party with fellow Houston bloggers! A lot of my friends wanted to know more about this event so in this post I’ll be recapping the event as well as sharing more details about my outfit and this new collection that you can shop online or at any of the Elaine Turner stores around Houston.

The event was from 6-8PM at various Elaine Turner stores around town, each hosted by different bloggers. Since the one at City Centre was the closest for me; I decided to attend the event there.

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At the Elaine Turner store in City Centre, Houston.

Elaine Turner’s store in City Centre is absolutely lovely! So chic and cute! The extremely inviting decor of the store is an absolute head turner. I was greeted with drinks at the entrance. Since I am off alcohol for about 8 months now (no I am not pregnant! Haha!) I chose to have Lemonade. It was the usual store brand, Simply Lemonade, but delish and very refreshing on a hot Houston evening. In the alcoholic choices they were serving Wine, Champagne, Ginger Beer as well as cocktails made using Stoli Vodka.

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The drinks bar and finger foods.

After I grabbed my drink I was welcomed by the very sweet staff of Elaine Turner and Alice who blogs over at www.lonestarlookingglass.com. Chit chatting with Alice was a pleasure. I have been following her blog for a while now and it was absolutely wonderful meeting her in person. She is very sweet, friendly and welcoming!

After having a quick bite of the yummy Chicken Fingers and Fries, I carried on with looking around at the beautiful collection of jewelry, bags, shoes and other items on display at the store. I fell in love with way too many things for my wallet’s comfort. Haha! But I will surely be going back soon to shop some more.

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Enjoying the chic decor of the boutique.

When I lay my eyes upon the new Southern Charm Bar Collection, I was smitten! Oh my gosh! Absolutely cute! I wanted one of each of those charms, I kid you not! They were absolutely gorgeous! I ended up picking the Texan charm, since this July is my 8th anniversary of being here in Houston (I know right! Time flies!) I also got myself a 22” chain since those are always helpful to wear with any delicate pendant.

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With Alice from http://www.lonestarlookingglass.com and the super cute Southern Charm Bar collection!

These charms and chain are all double plated gold. I am linking their store below so you can go ahead and check out their collection:

https://www.elaineturner.com/southern-charm-bar/category/JLSCB

I now have my own little piece of Texas and absolutely love it! It’s gorgeous! Next on my list of charms to own is the Evil Eye Charm. I also like the Inspire and Dream Mantra Bars.

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My very own piece of Texas!!

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I love it…

Outfit Details:

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All ready for the party!!

I wanted to be comfortable yet chic so I chose Palazzo Pants, a black sleeveless top and a shrug. I stuck with black since it was an evening event. Actually in all honestly, the hubby gave me the idea to wear Palazzo Pants as I was confused about what to wear and a dress wasn’t tickling my fancy!

My top is from New York and Company. Below are some similar and super cute options:

http://www.nyandcompany.com/nyco/prod/apparel/tops/shirts-blouses/7th-avenue-design-studio-scalloped-lace-top-/A-prod6000007/?An=102782#

http://www.nyandcompany.com/nyco/prod/apparel/tops/shirts-blouses/7th-avenue-design-studio-hardware-accent-shell-solid/A-prod5500002/?An=102782#

http://www.nyandcompany.com/nyco/prod/apparel/tops/shirts-blouses/7th-avenue-design-studio-ruffle-shell/A-prod6700005/?An=102782#

Totally loving this off-shoulder top! I think I’m gonna go ahead and get this one 🙂

http://www.nyandcompany.com/nyco/prod/apparel/tops/shirts-blouses/eva-mendes-collection-ari-off-the-shoulder-blouse-/A-prod6640047/?An=102782#

My shrug is from JC Penny, and you can find similar ones here:

http://www.jcpenney.com/shop-clothing/sweaters-cardigans/shrug/_/N-1nnujbZ1z13yew/cat.jump?id=cat100210007&deptId=dept20000013&marketingSlot=true&cm_mmc=Affiliates-_-TnL5HPStwNw-_-1-_-10&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=TnL5HPStwNw&utm_campaign=1&utm_content=10&siteID=TnL5HPStwNw-5qVPLyOgGRAOwq4TcKMCEg

My Palazzo pants are from a boutique in Puerto Rico, so I do not have a direct link to it but here are some similar options:

https://www.catofashions.com/junior-misses-pants-wide-leg/browse/Color/black

https://www.dressbarn.com/pants/palazzo-and-soft-pants/black/N-1rq3p4bZfdu0hp

Necklace is from Centerpoint, Kuwait.

I actually changed my shoes between the outfit click at home and finally heading out. Thanks to my Plantar Fasciitis, heels are not my friend currently! The ballerinas are from Payless and you can follow the link below for similar options. The shoes I originally put on are peep toe pumps from Nine West and I have linked similar options below.

http://www.payless.com/womens-blaire-hardware-flat/72528.html?dwvar_72528_color=black_gold&OCID=af_ls_TnL5HPStwNw&AID=1&TYPE=10

http://www.ninewest.com/Relaxxin-Peep-Toe-Wedges/12829800,default,pd.html?variantColor=JJ198A1&cgid=8346257

Hope you enjoyed hearing about this event and are all ready to go shop for some cute chic stuff right away… I would love to hear about what you pick 🙂

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~ Summer 2016: Bucket List!

/ raindropstosunshine / 4 Comments

Every summer I come up with a Summer Bucket List – namely a list of things the hubby and I want to do over the summer while having some fun in the sun… There are things that we haven’t done before and many that we have done before and enjoyed doing them enough to repeat! This year in no different, except for the fact that I get to share my list with you!

If the hubby and I do not plan the summer in advance I feel like it creeps up on us and gets over way too quick and we haven’t swam enough, seen enough or experienced enough! So here’s our list, in no particular order:

– Swim and grill more often: The hubby and I love anything to do with water. Every year though, we feel like we didn’t do enough of swimming in the summer! So this year we plan to go swimming more often during the week (the day I have to wash my hair = go swim!) and will grill atleast once a month! It’s yummy and healthy.

– Read and relax more often by the pool: I do this pretty often, but would like to do it more! The joy of reading, and listening to the gently flowing water in the fountain by our community pool, is simply amazing.

– Go Paragliding: Hubby and I have been talking about this one for some time now, but I keep on chickening out, maybe this summer I will be brave enough?! We’ll wait and watch.

– Drive-in Movie: Been wanting to do this for a while now!

– Movie night and dinner on the patio with the hubby.

– Visit a new beach: In the running we have: Surfside Beach, Corpus Christi, Pensacola and Destin (thanks to visa issues, we can’t travel out of the country or else my top 3 choices would be Grand Cayman, Jamaica and Punta Cana – now I am in my dream world just thinking about these places…thanks!)

– Visit a new place: With the many long weekends that fall during the summer, there is ample opportunity to check this one off our list!!

– Road trip: Like every summer, we are surely going to be heading out to some place fun, still deciding where though! Stay tuned for my upcoming blog posts on road trips around Houston and if you haven’t already, do check out my post on getting Road Trip ready!

– Picnic outside: With the Houston summer being brutal, we usually end up spending the days indoors, but this time I want to go someplace nice and have a little picnic. Maybe by one of the swimming holes in Texas Hill Country 🙂

– Spend a day at the lake boating and grilling and just having some fun in the sun.

– Go tubing in Texas Hill Country: We’ve done this multiple times before, but it’s our favorite and has been repeated on the summer bucket list year after year!

– Attend a fair: I love me some rides!

– Go bowling and/or to Main Event (http://www.mainevent.com/) for some fun!

– Try out the new water park coming up in Katy, Texas: Typhoon Texas

– Try out the new water roller coaster coming up at Schlitterbahn, Galveston: http://www.schlitterbahn.com/home/galveston-island/massiv-announcement

– Climb a tree: Done just once… Just once in 30 years! I want to do this again! Silly I know, but oh well, what does living seriously achieve in life anyways!

– Run through the sprinkler: Coz why not?

– Ice-Skating: Houston has many indoor ice-skating rinks and this is one of the best ways to beat the heat if you ask me!

– Get a manicure and pedicure at Dripped! Any of my mid-town girls up for this?

– Go for a bike and hike with the hubby at one of the many parks in Houston.

– Make ice-cream or kulfi or maybe both: YES! For sure! Will share the recipe on the blog once done.

– Make homemade popsicles: Have a couple of recipes I found online, once I decide which one I want to try out, will share on the blog.

– Have ice-cream from an ice-cream truck: Like the childhood days!

– Make frozen coffee ice cubes: I think this is so cool! Definitely going to do this!

– Do Nothing for a day: Like literary, do nothing! Nothing at all. In today’s world where the technology doesn’t leave our side, it would be good to just take a day and do absolutely nothing. Look at a tree, listen to a bird, just sit and be in the moment.

Once the summer is done, I will be post an update on how many of these things we were able to check off our list! The aim is to do them all, but we’ll see!

So what’s on your list for this summer?! I would love to hear!!

Summer Bucket List