Events


Chico’s 35 Years Bold trip recap day one

cheese and fruit platter chicos 35 years bold event chicos 35 years bold eventchicos 35 years bold event

Last week was so amazing! Chico’s sent eleven bloggers, minus Dawn from Fashion Should be Fun who was supposed to be number twelve but had to stay home due to her real job (those pesky jobs!), to Fort Myers, Florida for a fabulous bloggers event: Chico’s 35 Years Bold.

Chico’s was celebrating 35 years in business. In order to help celebrate, they flew us out to Florida so we could check out their beautiful, enviable headquarters, and visit the very first Chico’s store on Sanibel Island. I’ll fill you in on all the juicy details in my next post, today we are talking about the very first day of the trip!

what to wear to a formal beach partyhow to dress for a cocktail party on the beach

Wearing: medium silver hoops / lipstick / tropical print dress / blue nail polish / necklace c/o Chico’s (3 tier-wore third tier alone) / black handbag / black wedge espadrilles /

For my flight, I took a red eye in from San Francisco and landed in Fort Myers at 9:30am-ish. I got to the hotel around 10am and was stunned at the beauty! We stayed at the Pink Shell Beach Resort & Marina on Fort Myers Beach in Florida. It was so beautiful! Aside from the fabulous view of the beach, the resort itself was incredible. It’s on the beach, decorated with a fun, beachy vibe, and features a beautiful swimming pool and deck.

Chico’s set us up in our  own suites which featured bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, and balconies. My room overlooked the beach and was up on the seventh floor. The view was insanely beautiful! We were all gifted a fabulous beach bag, beach towel, and beautiful sun hat with our Instagram handle embroidered on it by Chico’s. I couldn’t believe it!

After taking a million insta-stories to share with you on Instagram, I relaxed on the sofa and took a tiny nap to catch up on the sleep I lost from my flight. Then, it was time for our first event of the week; a beach cocktail reception. Love!

The cocktail reception was so much fun. I was able to meet the PR team from Chico’s, SOMA Intimates, and White House | Black Market in person. It was so nice to meet everyone in person who I had been emailing for months. Chico’s gave us a beautiful location complete with live music, an open bar, and a delicious cheese and fruit table. There were also yummy passed appetizers. So good!

I really enjoyed being able to talk about fashion, shopping, style, blogging, business, and more with both the PR teams, and other bloggers on the trip. It was also really nice to meet bloggers I had never met before! I already knew Alison from Wardrobe Oxygen. We met last year at the rewardStyle conference and became instant friends. She is so amazing! It was so much fun to see her in person again. I also enjoyed seeing Sheree from SheSheShow again in person. Last time we saw each other was at fashion week, a few years ago! My girl Jamie from More Than Turquoise was there. Last time I saw her was at NYFW in February, so it was fun seeing her again in person. I knew Barbi from Southern Blond Chic and Tonya from The Real Chic from Instagram, but had never met them in real life before. It was great to meet Instagram friends in person, they are so nice!

The new blogger friends I made on the trip included Tanya from Tanya Foster Blog, Romy from Romy Raves, Chic Over 50, Nikki from I Am Nikki Free, and Lisa from The Silver Stylist. They were all incredible, inspiring, bold women who work hard and produce amazing blogs. I am so grateful to Chico’s for putting us all together for this event so we could meet each other, and help Chico’s celebrate 35 Years Bold!

Shop my beach cocktail party outfit:

Stay tuned! Recap of my visit to headquarter’s, the very first Chico’s store, and a beautiful boat cruise, are coming up next on the blog. Also-there will be some sneak peeks at what Chicos’ is offering in the future!

Thank you so much for all your support!

XOXO

Cathy

Photo credits: Arista Collective /

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Brahmin summer 2018 blogger event San Francisco

summer 2018 it bag

Last week, I was invited to attend an event hosted by Brahmin at the Presidio Social Club. So what do you wear to a handbag event in San Francisco? A handbag made by Brahmin of course! You can see my bag of the night placed carefully on the passenger seat of my car above. I wore my favorite denim dress and brought a pale grey pashmina with me just in case the fog showed up and froze me to death.

My outfit turned out to be perfect because the fog never came in! Imagine that?! The event started with a cocktail hour outside on the back patio of the Presidio Social Club. The deck was so pretty! I wish I took more pictures, but I was having so much fun I forgot to snap photos!

The restaurant passed appetizers, which were amazing, and I met a few new bloggers, a writer for the style section of The Chronicle, and the Brahmin team. Everyone was so nice, and so much fun to talk to!

brahmin summer 2018 collection event

The amazing bartender pictured above gave a  drink demonstration, and then the restaurant passed around mini-drinks for us to taste. I tried to stay away from the mixed drinks since I don’t drink very much, and I knew I would be driving back to the south bay later that evening; but they looked good!

brahmin summer 2018 launch event san francisco

The table settings were so cute, and there were place cards at all of the seats. I was seated close to a few of my blogger friends, so that worked out well! The ladies I met on the patio were at a different table, but I am so glad I got to meet them at the beginning of the night, I definitely made some new friends. I met a few new ladies at my table too, so it was a great opportunity to meet new people.

The Presidio Social Club prides itself on farm to table cuisine. The chef has his own farm and much of the food raised and grown on it is served at the restaurant. I enjoyed a vegan soup to start, followed by an amazing swordfish dish. The dessert was fabulous too. If you are ever in the city, definitely enjoy a meal at the Presidio Social Club, the food is to-die-for! Plus, they have a parking lot! That’s golden for us suburbanites coming into the city with our cars!

brahmin summer 2018 launch event san francisco

My seat was on the corner of the table, so sometimes it was hard to hear people talking further down the table. That’s OK though, because this was the view from my seat. Do you see that black satchel? It is now number one on my wish list. I was staring at it all night long; and it is so chic and beautiful in person. I need one in my life! I wish this was a better photo so you could really see how beautiful it was. Alas, I only had my iPhone that night, so my photos are not as good as they could be.

Now, onto the summer 2018 collection by Brahmin! The collection is beautiful, hands-down beautiful. The brown hue in the collection is rich, and will easily flow from summer into fall. It is also dark enough to be worn in lieu of black. I would love to get my hands on a bag from the collection in brown! For summer, Brahmin also has on-trend styles which include a belt bag, a small backpack which is great for travel, various tote bags which will work for the office, the beach, or day to day summer life. The famous circle bag, known as the Lane Melbourne, is also being shown in a few new colors for the summer season. There are also basketweave leathers, and smooth leathers which compliment the predominately stamped croc collection. All of the summer fabrications are very pretty in person. You will love it!

You can view the entire summer 2018 collection online here. I curated my favorites from the Brahmin summer 2018 collection and placed them in the shopping widget below for you to see. Which bag is your favorite?

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO

Cathy

*special thank you to Brahmin for hosting this event and gifting us with a tote bag and goodie bag filled with local artisan foods. all thoughts and opinions in their article are my own.

*all photos taken with my iPhone, apologies for any quality issues

brahmin summer 2018 launch event san francisco


Signs of a heart attack in women

Beautiful silent auction prior to the lunch. I bid on the Kendra Scott lot, but ultimately got outbid.

Yesterday I had the honor of being a guest of the American Heart Association at their annual “Go Red” luncheon in San Jose, California. It’s an amazing fundraising lunch which features education about heart disease, survivor speeches, and tear-jerking moments. Yes, I did well up with tears during one speech a survivor delivered.

Pretty table setting at the lunch.

A woman dies every 80 seconds from heart-related illnesses. Sadly, roughly 80% of those deaths are preventable. While men tend to have more text-book symptoms of a heart attack, women often think they are suffering from the flu, stress, acid reflux, or exhaustion. Therefore, it is so important for women to know and understand the symptoms of a heart attack.

Donation cards from the tables

The following symptoms are signs that a woman could be suffering from a heart attack. These are the symptoms, detailed on heart.org.

  1. Uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain in the center of the chest which lasts for more than a few minutes, or goes away and comes back.
  2. Pain or discomfort in one or both of your arms, back, neck, jaw or your stomach.
  3. Shortness of breath, with or without chest discomfort.
  4. Other signs such as breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness.
  5. As with men, women’s most common heart attack symptom is heart.org or discomfort. Some women are somewhat more likely than men to experience some additional common symptoms, such as shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting, and back or jaw pain.

If you ever feel any of these symptoms, don’t be afraid to call 9-1-1. Every second counts when you are having a heart attack, so calling 9-1-1 can significantly help your recovery if indeed you are suffering from a heart attack.

 

Please help spread the word to other women, so they too will know what to watch out for. Together, we can help increase awareness and reduce the annual deaths in women due to heart attacks. For more information, please visit heart.org

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO

Cathy

Laura Adney from Have Need Want and myself after the lunch. I won’ 49er tickets from the silent auction!

*Please excuse the photo quality, all pictures were taken with my iPhone.