Make Mommy Chic: travel

Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts

Thursday, August 11, 2011

The Beach House

Hello Friends:

So we finally made it to the cottage this week:

And even though cottage country frowns upon fashion labels, I still wanted to glam it up, just a tiny, tiny bit:

Bikini: Calvin Klein
Cover-up: Elan
Shoes: Mephisto

And I just couldn't leave the city without my bling bling:

So what does a city girl do for a week on the lake?

Well, as I have two young boys and a very active husband, fishing seemed to be the activity of the week. As I am always up for being a good sport, I decided to try it:

F*******ck, I seriously hate worms. I wanted to throw up in this shot.

Just in case you're wondering, I didn't catch anything. It didn't help that I was using my son's Diego fishing rod.

Then, I thought that it would be fun to chop up some wood for the campfire later that night:

Crazy ax woman on the loose. CRAZY AX WOMAN ON THE LOOSE!!!!!

And when I needed a time-out from the kids, I was found relaxing in the sunroom with an intellectually stimulating magazine:

Those 50 sex tips in the magazine were very interesting. Used some of them this week (just joking- kind of)

And when I wasn't fishing/chopping wood/ reading thought-provoking material I was out with the camera snapping away at my adorable subjects:

This was taken during an impromtu game of hide and seek. Don't you love the linens in the background? Classy!

Every single kid that I know loves to blow these. There is such happiness found in the smallest things.

I just love my son's face in this shot. He is such a goof ball,

One of my favorite moments at the cottage. My husband was so proud of that fish.

This shot is self-explanatory.

I really hoped that you enjoyed the post! Thanks so much for reading and hope that you are all had a most wonderful Friday!

Monday, April 11, 2011

New York City, Day 2

Hello Friends:

If you missed Day 1 of my trip to NYC please click here.

So day two of my exciting trip to NYC started off a little lonely as hubby had to attend an all day work conference but I quicky perked up with a visit to Bloomingdales. To those who are not familiar with this iconic New York city department store let me tell you that it is like 9 floors of pure fashion heaven. Almost every high-end designer label that you have ever heard is housed right here and it's almost impossible to leave without a gift for yourself:

So after doing some minor damage on my credit card (on a gorgeous Diane Von Furstenburg dress) I realized that it might be nice to grab a souvenir for the kids. And what better place to do that then at F.A.O Schwartz, which is one of the largest toy stores in the world. This place is every child's biggest dream (and every parents biggest nightmare as the kids NEVER want to leave). One of the most notable features in the store is the giant piano (used in the movie BIG with Tom Hanks) that they let you jump around on. So of course, I couldn't resist striking a pose! Check out the pics for other highlights of the store:

After carefully selecting my goodies for the kids (a lego empire state building set for J. and an overpriced 'authentic' NYC taxi car for K.) I decided to head down Fifth avenue. The thing that I love about New York city is that you can walk almost anywhere, it's such a pedestrian city. I never looked at a map and found New Yorkers to be so friendly when I would ask them for directions (half of the time I didn't know where North and South was, there were skyscrapers everywhere). The only problem I encountered was how faced paced everyone walked and I almost got run over several times by people, not cars. However, when not being trampled over I was able to get a few city shots:

I have to say that Fifth Avenue was a blast, it was so fun to drool over stuff that I will never be able to afford. With that in mind I decided to head over to Soho, a shopping area that was a little more my price range. Not only was it a quick subway ride away but as a fan of the Kardashian's (I don't know whether to be proud of admitting that or if I should be deeply ashamed and should have kept my mouth shut), I had to visit their newly opened store Dash. My heart pounded with anticipation as I approached the store, secretely hoping that I would run into one of the 'famous for doing nothing' sisters. So what did I think when I walked in?

Honestly I was met with great disappointment. The store was TINY, and literally had maybe 100 articles in the whole store. People think that DASH has it's own clothing line but it does not. The clothes were overpriced with such little selection, and I love the fact that they charge $10 for a bottle of probably tap water with their faces all over it (as per pic above). I literally dashed (no pun intended) in and out without spending a penny. After perusing popular stores in Soho such as Scoop NYC (they had great Alexander Wang T-shirts and tanks) and All Saints (known for their distressed cardigan look) I finally settled for this really cute top that I found at Top Shop:

So after 7 hours of walking virtually non-stop my body was aching and demanding to be pampered. Seeing as the popular Bliss Spa was conveniently located in the W hotel I decided to treat myself to their 'blissage', which is described as a 75 minute massage with a foot parafin treatment. I purposely booked the appt. for 8:00pm so that I could enjoy my treatment and then go pass out in my room. When I arrived at the spa I couldn't believe how cheery it was. The walls were all colored a light blue to ressemble the sky and big fluffy white clouds greeted you everywhere you went. Even the treatment room was purposely made to look like the sun was rising.

Holy crap let me tell you that my massage was absolute bliss. The treatment bed was heated, my masseuse took care of every single knot in my body that resulted in walking over 100 blocks in 24 hours and I left feeling extremely relaxed and rejuvenated. Even though the treatment wasn't cheap it was such a luxury that I think every woman should allow herself at least once every few months. Those are Make Mommy Chic rules.

And just like that , the next day it was time to go home. The trip seemed like it passed by so quickly and in a new york minute we were headed in taxi back to the airport where we were met with more cancellation/delays and arrived home 5 hours later than originally planned. As much as I enjoyed my vacation away from the little monkeys I couldn't wait to get back home to feel their grubby little hands all over my face. Can't wait to plan the next trip :)

I hope that you enjoyed my little travel story. What about you? Do you have any fun trips coming up soon?

Sunday, April 10, 2011

New York, New York - DAY 1

Hello Friends,

I cannot wait to tell you about my trip to New York city. First of all, it was a trip 'sans kids', meaning that for the next 48 hours I didn't have to worry about wiping little munchkin ~~asses~~ cute bottoms or picking their half-chewed/spit out food off of the floor. This was an 'adults' trip, filled with adult things like shopping, dining at adult restaurants where you do not trip over high chairs and staying in adult hotels that do not offer crayons at check-in. Truth be told as much as I love my kids sometimes mommy and daddy need a break, and what better place to take it then one of the most fashionable, exciting places in the world? Unfortunately there is no way that I could describe our fun-filed adventure in one post, so I've decided to break it up into 2. And here's how our fabulous vacation went:

Day 1:

Upon arriving at the airport we found out that our flight was cancelled and that the re-booked flight was an hour delayed. Did Air Canada realize that these delays were cutting into my shopping time? Anyways, 6 hours and one ativan later we found ourselves in a NYC cab heading over to our very chic hotel. And any type of stress that I had regarding our flight was let go once I stepped into a truly magical place that is, the W hotel:

I mean, look at how cute the ceiling is. It's got birds suspended from the ceiling and the lobby is just so sophisticated and stylish. And our room was just amazing:

The motto at this hotel is 'whatever, whenever' and although the room was small it made up for in amenities (such as the bliss spa products and rain showerhead in the bathroom). We also had a view of the famous Waldorf Astoria from our room and you could literally see into the rooms across from you. The voyeuristic side of me was very happy.

So literally seconds after we settled into the hotel hubby and I decide to be adventurous and to go and visit a store called 'Obscura and Oddities' which is a reality based show on The Discovery Channel.

Truthfully this store is really f**ked up. True to it's name it sells nothing but the weirdest stuff that you have ever seen, like mummified cats, real human kidney stones and plaques with a two headed stuffed cow head on it. They also like sell anything related to death, like pictures of dead people and tons of taxidermy. Don't believe me, take a look:

My favorite item in the store was the rectal dilator (last pic). Did you know that this handy item claims to help with insomnia, eczema and malnutrition? Yeah, I'm not ready to test that theory out quite yet. This store is really off the beaten path, but really is a must see if you are ever looking for that one of a kind gift that you know you won't find anywhere else. So after picking up some souvenirs, (don't worry, nothing dead although that fox in the first pic did look very similar to the fur on my jacket) it was time to walk 50 blocks back to the hotel for dinner.

Since hubby and I hadn't had a date night in what seemed like forever I decided to sex it up with my $35 Rodarte for target dress (pictured below) and we headed to a nice romantic italian restaurant called Pescatore's.

Yum..... doesn't all that food look so good! I know that the dish (pictured second from left) looks like a big pile of black worms but it's actually black squid ink linguini sauteed in a spicy tomato sauce with shrimp and calamari. If you have never had black ink linguini I highly suggest you try some. With our first day in the big apple drawing to a close hubby and I decided to cheers over happiness and being grateful for our life and everything that we had.

So stay tuned for my next post, where we'll visit some of the most iconic stores in the world and what I thought of the Kardashians' store 'Dash'. Can't wait to share!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Why I miss Florida (and the photos to prove it!)

I've been back from my vacation for the past week now and I've gotta say that I really do miss that sunny paradise. We spent the week doing nothing but playing in the sand and eating wayyyy too many crabcakes and key lime pie topped with mounds of whipped cream. You know that it's a good vacation when your cardio only consists of walking from your ocean front condo to the beach. We also had my in-laws as built in babysitters so hubby and I had some well-deserved alone time. Needless to say we had a fantastic vacation and here are some highlights of the trip: