The Road So Far

/

So...it’s been a while

helloagain.jpg


Since March 2018 to be precise. I had plans, y’all. Plans for posts on trips and beauty and other things for Roaming Holiday that I was initially excited about. I had changed jobs, it was exciting, I was working in a different city, I was going to have more of an insider’s insight to beauty...and then things slowly started to pile on and on and on.

My commute went from 20 minutes each way to near 90 minutes each way, I didn’t anticipate that spending my day focusing on beauty would leave me feeling creatively wrung out towards it over time, and then my partner’s father passed away suddenly, and a series of little stressful snowballs built to an avalanche and I decided to just take a break from anything extraneous that wasn’t pretty much work or relaxing. I didn’t know it was going to last two years. At the time, I had also started anti-anxiety medication and it took a while to adjust to that as well. Basically, all this say I got overwhelmed with a lot of things and lost my spark for blogging.


Now here we are in 2020 and I’ve been stuck working from home since March and with commuting no longer a factor right now and needing to throw myself creatively again at something that isn’t day job related, I’m back to blogging. And yes, I see the irony of picking things up again with a blog that’s part travel focused in a time of being basically grounded. And also yes, I really miss traveling very much. I ended cancelling a trip to Bath, UK and Tallin, Estonia this year, but better say than sorry.

Anyways, hello, hi! And wear a mask!

On Adopting a French Girl Hair Care Approach

/
On Adopting a French Girl Hair Care Approach

As I've gotten older and fallen into minimizing certain areas of my routine into a more French Girl-like approach, like every day makeup, it made sense to do the same with my hair. Here are some of the hair secrets I've pick up through extensive research aka Googling "French Girl Hair Secrets" and through my own trial and error.

Read More

A Day In Sonoma County

/
A Day In Sonoma County

My boyfriend is the type who typically isn't big on suggesting things to do but, realizing he was staring at not being home on the weekends until pretty much April, he announced last Friday evening he wanted to do something on Saturday. I wasn't feeling like going to Monterey Bay Aquarium as we'd done that for our last day trip, so then he suggested Napa. I agreed. We hadn't been in a while and hadn't really done a full day there properly in a while.

Read More

Learning to Say No & When You Don't Owe Explanations

/
Learning to Say No & When You Don't Owe Explanations

As someone with anxiety and an inherent need to not have people mad at me, saying 'no' has always been difficult and over-explaining my actions became as second nature as breathing. If a manager wanted to know if I could take on extra tasks, I would say yes and over-commit even if my bandwidth was actually full. I was afraid to refuse and this often let to me feeling quite burnt out or overworked.

Read More

A Quick Tip About Train Travel in Europe

/
A Quick Tip About Train Travel in Europe

Europe is a continent well-connected by train, making it easy to hop from city to city or country to country. Between IC trains, locals, high-speed rail or Eurostar trains, you'll find yourself fairly spoiled for choice when it comes to riding the rails. It's also a great way to catch the scenery if you aren't in a massive hurry. 

That being said, if you've never travelled by rail in Europe before and embark on this adventure, there's one quick tip I wanted to share that seems so simple on paper but can be totally overlooked.

Read More

Light Coverage Superstars

/
Light Coverage Superstars

In my twenties I was a full coverage fan; the thicker, the less of my real skin showing, the BLOCK EVERYTHING the better. And my skin still probably hates me for it. And looking back, it wasn't that I always needed the cake I just let my self-conscious, low-esteem riddled brain think so. You could swipe a finger down my face and have enough to conceal spots. I would have made NikkieTutorials proud.

Read More

Why I'm Cutting Back On Chasing Frequent Flier Miles

/
Why I'm Cutting Back On Chasing Frequent Flier Miles

Manufactured spend. Churning cards. Sign up for X card for Y bonus miles. The game of leveraging mileage earn and using miles is known as "The Hobby" to travel hackers worldwide. Countless travel blogs will cite card deals or best cards to sign up for (that they usually get an affiliate cut from) or ways to fake spend to meet card spend minimums for miles, promote mileage buying deals, etc. etc. For the past two years I've drank the Kool-Aid the Hobby is often serving and while it did get me a reduced cost trip to England and a few other places, it also helped put me into $20k of credit debt.

Read More

How to Pack Light (And Still Feel Like You Have Everything You Need)

/
How to Pack Light (And Still Feel Like You Have Everything You Need)

I had asked on Instagram what followers would like to see as travel topics for future IG Stories, and my friend Marni of the excellent baking blog Happy Go Marni commented she would love to see the topic of how to pack light and feel like you have all the things you need. So naturally, as this topic is near and dear to me, I jumped on it and thought not only would it be great for a quick IG Story, but also a great blog post.

Read More

Going On the Keto Diet

/
Going On the Keto Diet

As someone who loves pasta and bagels and is Italian-American and grew up on the Standard American, carb-heavy diet, attempting a low-carb, ketogenic diet seems like quite the hurdle. But I did dabble with really trying to be better at it in 2017, though for various reasons my approach was on again-off again and while I overall lost about 11 pounds, it wasn't where I wanted to be and some of that was on me and not being consistent.

So this year, for 2018, one of my goals was to improve my overall health and that includes my weight and diet and overall general wellness. I've noticed the older I get the more bloated and sluggish I feel after large, carb-heavy meals and since I didn't want to spend every day in digestive discomfort and actually make progress in losing weight, I need to better commit to keeping calm and keto on.

Read More

Meandering In Munich (Germany Diaries Pt 4)

/
Meandering In Munich (Germany Diaries Pt 4)

We arrived after our brief Alpine adventure to Munich, staying at Schiller5 Hotel, a rather great and affordable option on a side street across from the main train station in an area that is, frankly, not great. It's just a bit shabby and a bit too modern is a brutally ugly way. But needs (and budgets) must and despite the neighborhood not being utterly idyllic, the hotel itself was really nice and the staff really friendly. So if you're looking for budget, convenience to public transport (which LOL WE WILL GET TO IN A BIT), but without sacrificing quality, then Schiller5 is a good bet.

Anyways, I'm not sure what I expected of fair München. Maybe it was being based in a less historical, kind of iffy neighborhood. Maybe it was that Rothenberg, Heidelberg, and the Alps were so freaking charming and quaint, but I found myself a bit disenchanted with Munich, maybe unfairly so.

Read More

Afternoon By the Alps (Germany Diaries Pt 3)

/
Afternoon By the Alps (Germany Diaries Pt 3)

We departed lovely Rothenberg after a brief overnight and decided to help for the Alps to go look at the very famous Neuwanschtein Castle. My bestie is a big Disney fan, so really, when in Germany...you take the Romantic Road there of course! Maybe it's hyped up marketing, maybe it's cliched, but I liked the drive as we buzzed along surface roads and took a break from the Autobahn. 

Read More

Bathroom Shelfie #1

/
Bathroom Shelfie #1

I got inspired as most things happen these days, in the bathroom sitting down and staring at my shelves aimlessly. As I noticed that I have a tendency to line up my skincare there fairly neatly (one of the only times I'm that organized with my home), I thought it would make more a neat Instagram photo. Then I thought, "well, I need more blog content so why don't I do a sporadic bathroom shelfie series?"

Read More

Hello Heidelberg: Part 1 of the Germany Diaries

/
Hello Heidelberg: Part 1 of the Germany Diaries

It was, literally, planes, trains, and automobiles for me to get from San Francisco to Heidelberg. After some mixups with Air Berlin where they had eliminated a leg in my outbound itinerary and never actually told me, I changed my routing and instead of landing in Frankfurt and taking an easy train ride or hour-long shuttle, I ended up landing in Dusseldorf and taking 3 train connections without a seat. Fun times! 

But getting to Heidelberg was worth it. Once I got to the main station and on the bus taking me the short drive over to the Aldstadt area, I was pleased to find the routing takes you along the Neckar River. Once I got off the bus, I was in love.

Read More