Travel Tuesday: Chicago

While I was working at Walt Disney World, the plan was always to explore the country as much as possible during that year. In April 2011, I went to Chicago with a couple of people and we powered through the city and it’s sights in three days flat. Between the three of us we had decided on what we wanted to see and jacked up a plan. The Bean, Wrigley Field, Navy Pier and a huge authentic deep dish pizza were among the essentials during the quick trip.

{Wrigley Square & Millennium Monument}

{The Bean} 

{Cloud Gate}

{Giordano's deep dish pizza acquired!}

 {Navy Pier}

{Navy Pier ferris wheel} 

{Never too old for the zoo!} 

 

{Such an awesome view}

{Sweating on the Skydeck Ledge in the Sears Tower (Willis Tower) - 103 floors up!}

{But the view was worth it!}

{Strawberry daiquiris at The Signature Lounge to calm down after standing in that glass box 412m in the air}

{This is the view from The Signature Lounge bathrooms at the top of the John Hancock Centre!}

I’d definitely go back to explore more of the city!

Love times infinity,

Justine x

March Favourites

Watch my newest video below to see my favourite picks for this month.

Enjoy!

Love times infinity,

Justine x

FBF: Minnesota

{"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page."}

About mid-January, it all of a sudden dawned on me that it had been ten years since I talked my parents into letting me move around the world on a year long school exchange. TEN. YEARS. The realisation hit me like a ton of bricks. 

The Flashback:

I was sitting in assembly one day, hardly paying attention (as per usual) and my ears perked up at a women making a speech about being able to travel to somewhere foreign and immersing yourself in a completely different culture through an organisation called AFS. I was 15 when I heard this, and I preceeded to pester my parents until I was finally able to drag them out to an AFS meeting. I have no idea how, but when I was 16 (the minimum age you could be to go) I got my parents to agree to let me go… for a year. I submitted all the paperwork, and a family from South Dakota picked me. It was just a husband and wife, with a dog, cat and parrot. That last bit kind of freaked me out! But they ended up dropping out of the program, and my future Minnesotan family chose me out of the pool of applicants. Two parents, and three girls (sounded familiar to me). I reckon it was fate. My new dad was a teacher at the school I attended, which had 350 kids from kindergarten up to the seniors. It was bizarre being in a town that small, coming from an all girls high school of 1200 and a city of 400,000 at the time. The culture shock was pretty intense. I could speak English, but we still had some serious issues understanding each other! My new family were all I could ask for and so much more. Not only did they take me in and treat me like one of their own, taking me on trips and immersing me in their lives, but they took on my family too. I went back mid 2006 to walk in graduation with my class (wore the cap and gown too!). My parents, my two younger sisters and I stayed in the same house for the duration.

{With my most baby sister, Tayler, at my graduation}

All these years later, I still consider myself to have two sets of parents, and five sisters. And no matter how long we go without talking, it’s always as if we just spoke yesterday!

That experience, ten years ago, sparked the wanderlust in me. I was bitten with the bug. It was so worth it!

If I was asked to be that woman to make the speech in front of all those uninterested girls in assembly today, I’d do it without (too much) hesitation. Well... that's possibly a lie, I hate public speaking. But it would be worth it if just one of those kids could get that same feeling that I did. In the pit of my stomach, I knew it was the right thing to do! I made lifelong friends and got a brand new extended family to boot.

I’m wondering, when were you bitten by the travel bug?

Thank you so much for reading!

Love times infinity,

Justine x

Cleaning Out My Closet

When I was younger, my mum used to make my sisters and I go through our wardrobes every six months or so. We would have to pull everything out, and then separate it into stuff that we were going to keep and stuff to get rid of. Then the debates would start over why we wanted to keep things even though we couldn’t remember the last time we wore them. That lead to more things being purged. I used to hate doing it, but I think we always felt better once we dropped off all of our perfectly good cast offs to the Women’s Refuge. When we would hear stories about how excited they were about a pair of jeans that didn’t fit any of us anymore or labelled shoes that they coveted.

I still do it the same way Mum made me. Pull everything out and separate into a keep pile and a donate pile. Except I try to go through the keep pile twice (even though it’s still hard!). These days I also give away make up and toiletries that I’ve never opened or barely used (it always depends on whether or not it’s hygienic). The good stories and good karma always make it worth it.

If you’re interested in helping the Women’s Refuge in Christchurch, click here (They’ll also take men’s stuff and non-perishable food too). Otherwise jump on Google and look up your nearest Women’s Refuge, church, or city mission. Also Do Something have just started a new campaign for recycling clothing.

If you want a bit of inspiration for cleaning out your own wardrobe, watch Ingrid’s video. It’s what made me decide to spend a Sunday afternoon clearing mine out and reorganising.

Good luck and good karma!

Love times infinity,

Justine x

Nume Curling Wands

Last year I feel like all the beauty gurus were using NuMe products on YouTube or featuring them on their blogs. I really wanted to get a set but, being a normal person with a bit of a tight budget, I just had to keep watching those girls use them instead. Don’t get me wrong, every one of them had coupon codes for the website! But being that they were basically all American gurus, the deals were most accommodating to American customers.

Cut to Shannon Harris (aka Shaaanxo) doing a couple of tutorials with sets she had been sent. She finally had a deal to share with us Kiwi and Aussie girls that saved us some serious money.

{The Lustrum Set}

I ended up getting the Lustrum set. It comes with the base, five detachable barrels, a heatproof pouch (so you can pack the barrels away while they're still hot if you need to) and a heat resistant glove. These barrels are awesome, they always leave my hair looking really shiny and the curls hold for yonks. You have to use the glove though, one little touch can sizzle your poor skin (you have been warned!). Mine was so popular with my sister that my Mum ordered her a set for Christmas last year, lucky duck (using a coupon code -- good on her!)!

Love times infinity,

Justine x

P.S. – best tip I can give you is to jump on YouTube or Google and just search for NuMe coupon codes. There’s bound to be new ones up that help you get the best bang for your buck!

Travel Tuesday: Wellington

Not long after I got home from Disney, I spent a long weekend with my friend Tara (pretty much the best roomie ever!) up in Wellington. I’d never been before so we decided to be a bit touristy. 

{Proper touristy picture}

We jumped on the bus to go into town for one of the days. We spent the day in Te Papa and had a wander round the shops. Is there anything more touristy than public transport and museums?!

 {Carlucci Land}

 {Hole in one!}

 {Beetle? Bug? Spider?}

{Awesome view}

Another fun thing we did was going to a sculpture farm that also had mini golf called Carlucci Land. It sounds strange but it was actually a pretty cool place. A couple of hole-in-ones later we got to see some sweet sculptures and a pretty awesome view.

{Pretty cool fireworks display}

Wellington is a hipsters paradise, but I still enjoyed myself! And the random fireworks display.

Love times infinity,

Justine x

P.S. - Tara has a freakin' hilarious blog too! Go visit her and laugh until you cry here.

50 Facts

Last Saturday (read: Monday just before midnight) I posted my first Youtube video that was just me talking to the camera. I thought the best thing to start out with was a bunch of facts about me. It was awkward to say the least. But I still had a bit of fun (it’s definitely easier to do when there’s no one else in the house!).

Don’t forget to subscribe to my channel, I’m going to try to upload a video every Saturday (we’ll see how I go…).

Love times infinity,

Justine x

FBF: Flying to America

My family went overseas for a wedding and a roadie in the US a couple of years ago. My parents and sister went early, and my youngest sister and I had to fly together a few days later. 

{Broken suitcase. Nothing a little electrical tape can't fix}

{San Francisco bound via a few-hour layover in Honolulu airport}

 {Losing our minds waiting for our flight and we still had an hour before the gate even opened}

{Made it to Honolulu!}

It was a pretty big mission getting the two of us there. Adventures and mischief and broken suitcases were the name of the game (but let’s be honest, it was mostly a string of layovers all stuck together!). My already fragile suitcase broke in Auckland, after only the first hour-long flight. Then we were stuck in Auckland International for hours waiting on the flight to Honolulu and we started to go a bit loopy!

{Abby doing what she does best... finding us cheap booze!}

But at least we had Abby to update us and keep our hopes high!

Love times infinity,

Justine x

Wedding Wear

{Dress: Charlotte Russe (old, similar) | Blazer: Glassons (old, similar versions here, and here) | Wedges: Shoe Warehouse | Clutch: Colette | Necklace: Pascoes | Ring: Pascoes (gift, similar) | Diamond & knot rings: Once It | Bangle: Pascoes (similar) |Bracelet: Marion McKellow (gift, similar) | Black bracelet: Swarovski | Nails: OPI ‘In My Back Pocket’ and ‘Haven’t the Foggiest’ | Lips: Maybelline Colour Sensation ‘Pink Sand’ and Maybelline Colour Elixir ‘Rose Redefined’}

I recently went to my Aunty’s wedding. It was a beautiful day outside and it was such a good time! Family, fun, food and photo booths. Just as life should be.

I even got to share a special bit of pavlova with the bride!

Love times infinity,

Justine x

Pen Hearts Paper

I discovered this awesome art on Instagram a few weeks ago. Sarah Staunton is a chick based in Bondi Beach who has turned her hobby into a full time job. 

{The first #PeaceofSydney}

After some pretty scary events happening in Sydney a few months ago, Sarah and some of her friends hand painted tons of little flags with peace signs. Then they created a huge wall of them that they called a peace bomb. They’ve done loads of them since, they install them overnight so that people can take 'a piece of peace'. The message is unity, and I reckon that’s pretty frickin cool.

To check out her work, head over to her website or her Instagram.

Love times infinity,

Justine x

Travel Tuesday: Tauranga

{View of the Mount from the top of Te Puna Quarry Park}

Tauranga is a cool place. We only stayed for two days but wanted to make sure we could squeeze in a bit of an adventure and the beach, as well as a bit of relaxation time before heading home. I hadn’t heard much of anything about the area except that we should go to Maunganui Beach.

It was a nice place to sunbathe (BYO shade because it’s all open!). I didn’t die over the ocean though, the surf was wicked but the seaweed was excessive! I’d still give it a go again though, especially if the weather was the same as it was when we were there!

{Pre-trip coffee stop & photoshoot #lovedowntownTauranga}

{Ginormous waterfall situation!} 

{The water was FREEZING!}

If you’ve got a car, travel out to the Kaiate Falls. They aren’t huge, but it was really pretty and quite peaceful with no one else there. The walk there is maybe ten minutes, so you probably don’t need to dress like you’re going on an intense walk! (Tip: if you’re using GPS, type in Kaiate Falls Rd, Waitao 3175, don’t just search for it!).

{Hiding in the shade by the pool}

If you’re looking to relax and unwind, go to Fernland Spa. You can chill out in the main pool, which is a natural hotspring, and get a 30 minute massage all for $40! It was worth every cent, I swear!

{Te Puna Quarry sculptures}

{Giant jandals} 

{Pretty flowers in the park} 

{Dragon in the playground}

On our last morning we had a couple of hours to kill so we went to Te Puna Quarry Park. It was a really cool place to chuck our shoes on for a walk and there were some really interesting and interactive sculptures. There was a whole section of sculptures that were basically giant musical instruments. You better believe I played the giant xylophone and bashed the gong!

I’m glad I got to cross another awesome place off my list of spots to see in my own backyard.

Love times infinity,

Justine x