A Florida Orange

Over Christmas break, the hubby and I decided to spend a night away across the state in the historic town of St. Petersburg. (Apparently Florida has a thing for towns named after famous towns in other countries...) It's a very cute area with a great arts district and tons of yummy restaurants. And, of course, lots of shopping!

Our first stop was a quick trip gulf side for a few hours on the beach. The water was actually a bit chilly and the beach was very busy! Our local beaches are usually quite quiet so we weren't prepared for that.

Thankfully, there was a cute pier and shopping area nearby so we walked around there first. Lots of touristy type shops. We didn't buy anything (except for some yummy ice cream) but I've gotten fonder of window shopping.

The evening was spent window shopping in downtown St. Petersburg with some yummy Italian food for dinner. We did a lot of walking around and it was quite nice to just hang out together and relax.

The next day, we hit up more of the arts district. Alas, we forgot that many small businesses are closed on Mondays. So much of our window shopping was actually just looking at shop windows.

 I also got to wear my new prescription sunglasses! The sun really is much brighter in Florida and sunglasses are a must.

So I decided to get some prescription sunglasses after my last eye exam. It was actually a lot easier to find cool retro style sunglasses than regular glasses.

At any rate, they pretty much look fabulous with everything including this great orange ensemble. Lots of people really liked this skirt! Floridians love their oranges.

Then we found this great colorful mural and I had to get some outfit shots in front of it. Sometimes it's just so fun to pick a background that is very modern with a retro outfit. Plus, it was very orange!

And right next to it was a huge orange wall with a green door so we shot there too! It was so much fun to be shooting in an urban setting again. I love where we live now but I do miss the downtown living.

 It was so great to be able to walk everywhere and there were quite a few bicyclers out and about too! Unfortunately, our town isn't very bike or pedestrian friendly and I had forgotten how much I really enjoyed walking and biking to work everyday!

 Guess I need to make walking and biking more one of my resolutions for 2016!

Disney Day!

I was lucky enough to spend my birthday at Epcot this year!

I'm a huge Disney nerd but even at 25, there's no place better to spend your birthday than the happiest place on earth.

Epcot is my favorite Disney park because I love the countries! I've always wanted to travel to Europe.

Not to mention that you get to eat all of this amazing food! nom nom nom.

I opted to wear this great vintage dress since it was light weight and cool. It was 90F the day we went.

I purchased the parasol in China and it was great for keeping the sun off of my face.

We had such a blast running around like big kids all day!

For dinner, we ate at Chefs de France and had yummy French food.

It's the less fancy of the two French sit down restaurants but it is still really nice.

I just love Disney!

Around St. Augustine

There's loads to do in St. Augustine which makes it a great vacation spot.

There are several alcohol tasting options but we chose to go to the newly opened St. Augustine Distillery. They work hard to use only locally sourced ingredients and purchase American made equipment. Currently, they only have vodka but they are working on bourbon, rum and gin (which are all aging as we speak.)

They give free tours and tastings. We ended up going fairly early (around ten) but you know, it's five o'clock somewhere!

Located in the same building is the Ice Plant Bar (and restaurant) where we grabbed some lunch. It was fabulous in side. They did an amazing job of restoring the original brick walls of the old ice plant and giving the whole place a very vintage feel. Even the waitresses and bar tenders were dressed retro!

There was also an antique mall in the Lightner Museum building. The entrance is on the left side more towards the back and you have to walk through a restaurant to find it. Alas, most of the shops were closed when we stopped by.

 

The next adventure of the day was sailing!

I'd been on a boat before but never a sail boat!

So I just had to wear an appropriately nautical outfit!

We went sailing with St. Augustine Eco Tours and it was amazing! While they can't promise seeing wild animals, we saw dolphins, birds and even a manatee on our trip! It was just fabulous!

One of the really cool things about the Eco Tours company is that the proceeds go to fund marine research, conservation and education in the St. Augustine area to help preserve the safe habitat for dolphins and other animals.

Photography by Will Thorpe Photography willthorpe.com

Of Lighthouses and Sea Urchins

Phew! I've got a backlog of vacation photos to share so expect extra outfit posts this week!

One thing I really wanted to bring on vacation was my playsuit so you'll get a sneak peak of it today! I still have a few pieces to finish before the end of the sew along though.

 I made the blouse from Advance 8511. It's super comfortable and easy to sew up!

 The shorts are ones I made a few years ago as part of the Wearing History sailor playsuit. They just happened to be the perfect color to go with my new playsuit!

We took these shots at the St. Augustine light house. The view from the top was phenominal!

 Of course, to get to the view, you have to climb stairs and stairs and stairs.....

 Thank goodness, we took outfit photos at the lighthouse keeper's house before climbing to the top.

 This outfit was just perfect! Can't wait till the rest of my playsuit is complete!

Photography by Will Thorpe Photography willthorpe.com

Florida Vacation Haul

With all of the end of semester craziness and then vacation, I've been slacking on the Youtube videos! But I've whipped up a quick haul video to show you what I purchased on vacation!