Marketplace: Swimming Swans

| Leave a Reply

I’m still enjoying the beach life in Florida, and there’s plenty of wildlife around these parts. The turtles are nesting, the dolphins are jumping, and there are plenty of birds added into the mix, too.

In addition the the real life animals, I’ve spotted a couple of swan and flamingo pool/ocean toys. And this is what has inspired today’s swan-themed post. Let’s see what’s floating around the marketplace, shall we?

35044296_010_b

swan pool float, $48, Urban Outfitters

14696808193393869029

swan printed dress, $21.99, SheIn

37163334_010_b

baby’s first year journal, $38, Anthropologie

il_570xN.624124746_a8ce

swan card, $8.71, LLKCake (Etsy)

swan-purse-stella-mccartney

swan leather purse, $1585, Stella McCartney at Nordstrom

5021156_659_1-1

lady swans chemise, $78, Kate Spade

01008271

swan, $100, Lladro

Swarovski-Iconic-Swan-Ring-5250743-W600

swan ring, $89, Swarovski

Save

Save

Save

The Friday Five: White Sunnies

| Leave a Reply

Hello from sunny Florida! I’m having a grand ol’ time here doing just about nothing every day. It’s a real vacation!

You don’t need much more than a couple of bathing suits and some sunglasses when you’re here. It’s fabulous!

forever21-sunglasses

sunglasses, $7.90, Forever21

Warby-Parker-Haskell

Haskell sunglasses, starting at $95, Warby Parker

white-sunglasses

Fendi cat eye sunglasses, $765CAD, Nordstrom

sunglasses

Blanchett sunglasses, Salt Optics

sunglasses-targetwhite sunglasses, $16.99, Target

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

p.s. Just look at this gorgeous beach.

Travel: Laughing Around Pisa, Italy

| Leave a Reply

While in Italy with Expedia.ca last month, Ivo (my dad’s friend from Florence) took us to Pisa one the day. I hadn’t ever been to Pisa, so I was looking forward to seeing the tower (of course) and the town. Of course, it was wonderful to have Ivo as our tour guide while we were in Italy. It was convenient that he was the driver (driving in/out is much more chaotic than it is in North America!), but Expedia.ca also offers car rental options (in fact, I used Expedia.ca to book my current car rental in Florida – it has competitive pricing!).

The Leaning Tower of Pisa was smaller than I had thought. It’s absolutely white and beautiful and incredible. The columns that surround the tower are perfectly aligned, and the tower has been cleaned in recent years. I stared at it for so long trying to imagine how a building that leans so much remains standing. I know it’s been reinforced and all that, but it seriously leans! A lot! It’s crazy!

There were an incredible number of tourists in Pisa – surrounding the tower, the basilica and filing through the outdoor market.

White-Cabana-Pisa_Tower_4 White-Cabana-Pisa_Tower_5 White-Cabana-Pisa_Tower_1 White-Cabana-Pisa_Tower_2 White-Cabana-Pisa_Tower_3

You may have seen a bunch of photos of people posing with the Leaning Tower of Pisa to create the illusion of holding it, learning on it, or picking it up, right (if not, see this). I thought I’d give it a try, too, but things didn’t quite work out the way that they were supposed to. First, I had to try to explain to dad the whole photo illusion concept because he hadn’t seen them created before, and then when that wasn’t working out, I passed the camera over to Ivo and reexplained everything in Italian. While I may not have ended up with one of those classic amusing photos, I did end up with a really full blooper reel. Want to laugh? Keep scrolling.

White-Cabana-Pisa_9 White-Cabana-Pisa_8 White-Cabana-Pisa_6 White-Cabana-Pisa_7 White-Cabana-Pisa_11 White-Cabana-Pisa_10 White-Cabana-Pisa_12

Yup. Not. Even. Close. Sometimes, White Cabana (and Dad and Ivo) just does things differently…

Hope I made you laugh today!

Follow our father-daughter adventures in Italy on Instagram at #WhiteCabanaxExpediaCA and Twitter at #WhiteCabanaxExpediaCA. Stay tuned for a couple more Italian posts in the weeks ahead.

Other posts in this series: Booking with Expedia.ca, 5 Tips for Traveling with a Parent, Things to do in Rimini, Italy, Stay and Play in Bologna, Italy

Save

Travel: What To Pack for a Beach Vacation

| 6 Commentaries

I’m currently vacationing in sunny Florida! It’s super hot in Florida at the moment, and my friend Shannon and I have agreed that we should stick to a grueling schedule of beach-pool-beach-pool with some meals in between. Tough, yes. That’s how we roll when we’re in Florida! Of course, though, there’ll be days and nights of shopping trips, and we’re looking forward to a trip-within-a-trip to Sarasota. Oh – and we’ll be seeing two concerts while we’re here – Gwen Stefani and the Dave Matthews Band. Very cool. Good times ahead!

I’m a decent packer, and I generally have a good sense of what outfits I may need while I’m on vacation. That said, I sometimes pack more than I need and I don’t like lugging around useless weight. For this vacation, I wanted to pack light – absurdly light – because (a) I don’t wear much more than bathing suits while I’m here, (b) it’s too hot to wear more than a bathing suit, and (c) I’m hoping for a few sales which means I’ll be returning with a heavier luggage on my way home. I’m so good at supporting the American economy when I’m in Florida that I should really get a prize.

I’m (almost) ready to challenge myself to stick to a very strict colour scheme this trip. I’m starting with two navy/white bikinis that I picked up in Copenhagen last month from H&M. Most of my packing for this trip revolved around navy/white (quite a departure from the usual black and white, I know). Here’s what I considered (and just about ended up following through on) packing for this vacation (very similar items, not necessarily the exact items).

beach-vacation-White-Cabana-what-to-pack-1beach-vacation-White-Cabana-what-to-pack-2

sunglasses, sun hat, watch, dress, bikini, kaftan coverup, flip flops, white tee, white denim shorts, purse, navy shorts, dress, tank top, striped bikini, sneakers, sweatshirt, pajamas, sandals, sports bra, sports tank, running shoes, running skirt

What do you think? Could you spend two weeks in Florida with these 22 pieces?

Save

Save

Two for Tuesday: The Magnificent Magnolia

| 2 Commentaries

My friend Shannon and I are back in Madeira Beach for our annual girls’ vacation, and in between going to the beach, we’ve been catching up on some HGTV shows. Neither of us have cable at our homes, so this is a treat for us. We watched a couple episodes of Fixer Upper the other day with Chip and Joanna Gaines, and I really like their work. Generally, their makeovers are a bit more country than I generally like, but they do such a good job with the renos and styling. It’s so impressive! Via blogging, I’ve followed some of their projects, but I’ve only ever watched  a few episodes of their show. Have you seen the show?

In addition to the show, they run a bed and breakfast in Texas, and have a beautiful shop called Magnolia Market. So that’s the inspiration for today’s two-of-a-kind. Magnolia_Product_63_of_69_1024x1024

magnolia art print, Magnolia Market

Seeing the collection of magnolia art prints at Magnolia Market reminded me of the gorgeous magnolia tree I saw in Florence on the property of San Miniato al Monte.

Magnolia-flower-White-Cabana-Italy

photo by Jordana

1 … 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 … 383