Exciting news!

I’m jetset again in just a few days and this time, it’s to the other side of the world: Gold Coast, Australia.

Beautiful, right?

To be honest, it’s not a place I know much about. Yet. [...]]]>

Exciting news!

I’m jetset again in just a few days and this time, it’s to the other side of the world: Gold Coast, Australia.

Beautiful, right?

To be honest, it’s not a place I know much about. Yet. But when a chance to go to Australia comes your way, you just say yes.

Qantas Airlines is flying me out for this press trip where I’ll be taking stand up paddling lessons, visiting the rainforest, getting up close and personal with Koalas and indulging in a few spa treatments. I’m being hosted at three Amazing-looking properties and can’t wait to share with you! Stay tuned for more details on my trip

In the meantime, it’s almost time to pack! What shall I wear??

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Images: 1/2/3/4/5/

The arrival of some swatch samples for my wedding invitations. I’m considering going the DIY invitation route so yes, this is exciting.

Penne bake for our Friday date night new recipe to try. And by new recipe I mean we make it up as we go along. [...]]]>

This weekend there was…

The arrival of some swatch samples for my wedding invitations. I’m considering going the DIY invitation route so yes, this is exciting.

Penne bake for our Friday date night new recipe to try. And by new recipe I mean we make it up as we go along. It was quite tasty.

I got a blowout with B. The Product owner, Brandon Martinez this weekend at Neiman Marcus. He sells a fabulous dry conditioner which sprays on clear instead of leaving behind a white powdery mess. At just $22, it’s reasonably priced too.

Lastly, there was Mother’s Day and a lot of shopping that happened at Target this weekend. I ended up somewhat raiding The Webster for The Shops at Target collection thinking it’s going to be oh-so-fitting for my upcoming honeymoon.

What were you up to this weekend?

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Who doesn’t like french fries? Too bad it’s hard to eat them without an avalanche of guilt coming on immediately after. I’m a total sucker for good truffle fries. Modern Steak and Zinc Bistro make some of my favorites. But it isn’t hard to make some tasty fries at home. And since this [...]]]>

Who doesn’t like french fries? Too bad it’s hard to eat them without an avalanche of guilt coming on immediately after. I’m a total sucker for good truffle fries. Modern Steak and Zinc Bistro make some of my favorites. But it isn’t hard to make some tasty fries at home. And since this recipe for parmesan garlic fries is oven-baked, it cuts the fat in half. Enjoy!

Recipe: Cooking Light

{Wedding Puzzle [...]]]>

I’m not a huge fan of wedding guestbooks. At least in the traditional sense of a book with signatures that will sit on my coffee table collecting dust for eons. But there’s a slew of creative ideas for guestbook alternatives that I could fall for.

{Wedding Puzzle Guestbook} 

{3D artwork}

{Rustic hearts}

{Wedding wishing tree}

{Message in a bottle}

{Wedding thumbprint guestbooks}

Are you planning on doing something unique for your wedding guestbook?

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What’s a hip hotel to do when they’re featured on the cover of Conde Nast Traveler’s Top 100 Hotels issue? Throw a pool party with mermaids and models of course.

We popped by The Saguaro in Scottsdale to check it out and ended up dining [...]]]>

What’s a hip hotel to do when they’re featured on the cover of Conde Nast Traveler’s Top 100 Hotels issue? Throw a pool party with mermaids and models of course.

We popped by The Saguaro in Scottsdale to check it out and ended up dining at their new restaurant, Distrito. It’s “Modern Mexican” which is just a fancy way to say dressed up Mexican favorites in tapas sizes.

We live on a resort, which means our backyard is on a lakeside golf course. Saturday morning walks and feeding the ducks is actually pretty nice.

Saturday night we celebrated my cousin’s college graduation. There also happened to be a lot of Puerto Ricans screaming in the house over the Mayweather-Cotto fight. All I saw were some hot pink trunks and a Justin Beiber-50-Cent-Mayweather gang I never thought I’d see.

Lastly, no, I didn’t get myself a little treat. I did, however, teach the fiance how to spot a fake Louis Vuitton when a way-too-glossy damier print walked into the party we were at. Hey, I can count that as a proud moment and a weekend highlight, right?

What were you up to this weekend??

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I know, I never shop there. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve entered into Kohl’s a total of two times in my life. The first was when the store first opened in Arizona. I remember it vividly because the anticipation was huge; people lined up [...]]]>

I went to Kohl’s this week. (Pausing for your reaction.)

I know, I never shop there. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve entered into Kohl’s a total of two times in my life. The first was when the store first opened in Arizona. I remember it vividly because the anticipation was huge; people lined up to get in at 6 am and for weeks before the opening, I remember hearing that The Great Kohl’s would soon open its doors in our desert. My mom and I went with great anticipation. We went, we saw and I looked at her and said, “Feels like a giant Mervyn’s to me.”

This week, however, I was a little early to a meeting and the Kohl’s was next door so I decided to stop in. I’ve been on the hunt for some new glasses and lo and behold, there was a giant sale on all Food Network kitchen items.

Maybe it’s the Bride to Be in me, but I’m suddenly obsessed with collecting all sorts of cute entertaining dinnerware.

The woman in front of me was as well and she stocked up on $500 worth of goodies.

As for me? My total savings was $114. I scored a condiment set and a 16-piece glassware set for a whopping $27. Total steal.

Kohl’s, I may be having second thoughts about you. At least for kitchen items, that is.

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After getting the perfect engagement ring, it’s been really hard to consider what I would pair this halo with. I’m not sure I’m feeling the matching band and to be honest, [...]]]>

Too lazy to go to the store to buy an engagement ring? It’s cool, there’s a few apps for that.

After getting the perfect engagement ring, it’s been really hard to consider what I would pair this halo with. I’m not sure I’m feeling the matching band and to be honest, am considering leaving it as a standalone piece, a trend some brides who are also equally obsessed with their engagement rings are doing.

And after shopping forever for the perfect engagement ring for me, I can’t exactly drag the future hubby to a million stores. I can, however, send him pics of me trying on rings right from my iPhone. Because, of course, there’s an app for that.

Simon G. jeweler has a really cool iPhone app that lets you browse their designs and virtually try on rings. Just take a pic of your hand and adjust the ring image to fit! It’s pretty entertaining and the best part is, it’s not just engagement rings; there’s anniversary rings and fashion rings, too.

You can easily email and share the photos with friends, which makes it super easy to drop hints. There’s also a “find ring size” tool but when I tried using it, it was off by about a size and a half.

There’s a Tiffany & Co. Engagement Ring Finder app too, but it’s limited only to their engagement ring selection. And while you can virtually try on rings by selecting a ring and choosing a skin tone for the model hand, it isn’t actually yours. And there’s no way to share the look with anyone unless they are there with you.

I can already see this becoming a total time suck.

What do you think of virtually trying on jewelry??

 For constant style and beauty chatter, connect with me on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, too.

I’m sure [...]]]>

Oh how I wish I was able to go to this year’s #LuckyFABB event in L.A.  Lucky for me, I’ve been able to feel like I haven’t missed out on many blogger conferences thanks to a steady stream of tweets pouring through my Tweetdeck. It’s my very own digest.

I’m sure there were lots of interesting points that came up but one that particularly caught my eye, and one I’ve seen circulating the net a few times, is whether bloggers are journalists and if they should be considered so.

I am first and foremost a journalist and a blogger second. So, I’m particularly drawn to this discussion. Here goes

The Blogger

Bloggers have many faces. Some of them resemble those of The Journalist. Some bloggers post pretty outfit photos with a sentence or two about their weekend. Some post DIY tutorials. Some post full-on reviews of a product or place they’ve been to. Some post news. And many post a blend of the above and more. That is the beauty in blogging, there’s something out there for everyone and just about everything. 

That being said, my editor would never let me send her a post of the pretty flower pot I found over the weekend and call it worthy of magazine editorial. That doesn’t make blogging any less than journalism, it’s just different. The medium itself dictates that.

The Journalist

The journalist’s job is to tell a story, plain and simple. Usually through words, pictures, sometimes videos and other interactive elements. As a storyteller, your job generally involves plenty of research, interviews, discussion with your editor on ways to tell the story and how best to engage the audience. You’re talking to publicists, finding sources and then there’s revisions, revisions (and sometimes) more revisions.

“Bloggers are the New Editors” 

Image: Flowtown – Social Media Marketing Application

Editors are style and content curators. When I was a full-time magazine editor, my job was to sift through a million pitches and pick my favorite things to feature. In that sense, bloggers really are much like editors. Their job is to find and feature the next great thing and cultivate a sense of style that people love to follow.

But a blog is your own publication, it’s your voice and you have creative control to write how you please and write about what you see fit. As a journalist, you adhere to the voice of the publication that you are writing for and their needs, not your own.

Online editorial doesn’t need to fulfill the same need as a print magazine does so the content you find online is naturally different. It’s more visual and more interactive because that’s what people crave.

Bloggers are also expected to be transparent in everything that they recommend and endorse. The FTC is now mandating this. Magazines, however, do not. In fact, there are TONS of publications that appease their advertisers by running “editorial” content. That luxury travel piece you’re reading about in your favorite magazine? The writer was likely hosted a stay there for free and doesn’t have to tell you (though that isn’t the case for every publication).

So there are some bloggers that treat their outlet like a publication and report like journalists. And there are some journalists who also blog. But not all are both because they are, in fact, two totally different animals and saying they are the same is a generalization.

There are many ways in which bloggers and journos are similar and different but, that would be more of a magazine article, and not a short snappy blog post, “wink wink”

I feel like this discussion most often comes up because bloggers are demanding more respect out of the work they do, the kind of respect a journalist automatically gets. And, I can see why: even though I couldn’t get a byline with the photo of the pretty flower pot, I’m not saying it’s not hard work to take those photos and share it…because it is. The industry is so new, some people still don’t know how to treat it. But it is hard work to make something look so easy, and that should be respected, like the work of journos is.

As a writer, I can say that one of the things I love MOST about blogs is how lovely they are in creating conversation. You can engage with your audience in a way you just can’t do offline. I wish I could get immediate feedback on a magazine story I poured my heart and soul into writing as quickly as I can a blog post.

So, let’s chat. Tell me, how do you feel about the Blogger v. Journalist debate?? Leave a comment below!

Related articles

• Modifying the Rules of PR to Reach Bloggers (contentmarketinginstitute.com)
• Are All Bloggers Journalists? (NYTimes.com)
• Seven Warning Signs of Journalism (Forbes.com)
• NYC Now Considers Bloggers “Real” Journalists (sixestate.com)

A bit of a hair makeover, courtesy of Rolf’s Salon at Gainey Village. More details to share on that later so stay tuned!

Bowling for a birthday party at Dave and Buster’s at Desert Ridge. We had no idea there was even a bowling alley/bar there! It’s been [...]]]>

This weekend there was…

A bit of a hair makeover, courtesy of Rolf’s Salon at Gainey Village. More details to share on that later so stay tuned!

Bowling for a birthday party at Dave and Buster’s at Desert Ridge. We had no idea there was even a bowling alley/bar there! It’s been about 10 years and yes, I totally suck.

Sunday morning brunch at Kierland Commons, we stumbled upon this huge crowd! Turns out, it was a special appearance by Food Network’s Giada De Laurentiis!

Photos: Darrylee Cohen, Perfect Party Pictures

She is just as petite and beautiful in real life as on her show. She was at Sur La Table at Kierland Commons signing her new book, Weeknights with Giada. What a fortunate accident to have bumped into her.

Back to brunch, we had truffle fries at Zinc Bistro because they’re my absolute fave. There’s just something magical about a weekend brunch where there’s Prosecco and truffle fries involved. They also have this amazing crab-stuffed truffle omelet that’s oh-so-tasty, it makes me consider actually learning to cook breakfast. Consider=keyword.

Finally, we wrapped up the weekend poolside. Summer is here. Which means it’s time for us to start taking advantage of the fact that we live on a resort. That means pool time for him and umbrella time for me.

What were you up to this weekend??

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{Love}

Sometimes, pictures is all you really need.

We spent a lovely Sunday shooting these at 

{Love}

Sometimes, pictures is all you really need.

We spent a lovely Sunday shooting these at McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park.

It was such a fun place to shoot! I can’t wait until our next photo session which, of course, will be our wedding.

Until then this is our first, and our last, photo session before we are husband and wife.

I can’t wait.

Special thanks to the lovely and talented Jane at Jane Z Photography for capturing this moment in our lives.