Cruising the Keys, Key Largo

After 3 days in Key West we shoved off and headed to our last destination, Key Largo.

The drive on Overseas Highway was just as beautiful as it was coming down.  We stopped off on the side of the road just before getting on the Seven Mile Bridge to get a few pictures.

The last place we stayed was Point of View RV Resort in Key Largo.  We had a beautiful bay side spot overlooking the marina.  During low tide there was a little tide pool right outside our campsite so naturally I made a few starfish friends.  The resort is brand new and very clean. 

The best part about Key Largo was the snorkeling! The last day of the trip we visited John Pennenkamp Coral Reef State Park and went on a snorkeling tour. The tour was 2 ½ hours and visited the Grecian Rocks Coral Reef.

We were able to rent all the equipment right from the park which was convenient. Since it was the winter and water temps were under 70 degrees they were highly suggesting renting a wet suit. I thought under 70! I’m used to water temps in the 50's, maybe 60's in the height of the summer at New England Beaches. I reluctantly listened to their recommendation and in the end I was glad I did. We were in the water for about an hour and a half and it kept me toasty the whole time. I’m not sure I would've lasted as long in the water if I didn't have a wetsuit.

There are several different reefs that the snorkel tours visit. The captain makes the decision which location you go to based on the conditions that day. I was really hoping we would go to Dry Docks Reef so we could see the Christ of the Abyss statue but the captain advised it was too windy to have seen it that day, bummer!

When we got to the reef the first thing you notice is the gorgeous, vibrant color contrast in the water. There are stripes of turquoise and deep blue. The turquoise is a sandy bottom and the deep blue was sea grass.

The coolest thing was how shallow the reefs were! The depths range from 20ft at their deepest to as low as zero in some spots at low tide. It puts you right up close so you get a great view of all the sea life and coral. It does give you the sensation that you can stand up and touch the bottom, which is strongly prohibited. The reefs are protected sanctuaries and you would be potentially killing the life below you if you stood on it. So make sure you keep that in mind. My favorite thing we saw was the schools of colorful Parrot Fish.

Although we only did the snorkeling, the park also offers camping, two beaches, glass bottom boat, scuba tours and boat rentals.



After snorkeling we cleaned up and went to dinner at Sundowners where we enjoyed Key Lime cocktails on the patio and our last sunset on the keys.  We had a great time on the Florida Keys and definately have plans to return!



Cruising the Keys, Key West

After 3 days in Big Pine, we packed up the RV and caravanned to our next location, Key West! We camped at Boyd's Campground.  This time we had a beautiful waterfront spot on the harbor.   

We arrived in Key West early enough that we decided to take a ride on the Conch Train, which takes you on a tour around old Key West.  It was nice because we got an overview of the area, learned some history and were able to decide how we wanted to spend the rest of our time there.

The next day we went to Smathers Beach.  This was another beautiful white sand beach.  There were chairs and umbrellas available for rent along with Hobie Cats. 

After the beach we cleaned up, had dinner and then headed to Mallory Square for the sunset celebration! The sunset celebration was my favorite part of Key West.  Each night about two hours prior to sunset there is a festival on the sea wall behind Mallory Square consisting of street performers, artists, musicians, food and drinks.  It is a gathering place for both tourist and locals to see the most amazing sunset on the keys.  This night was a bit disappointing because it was really cloudy there wasn't a sunset.  We did stay for a drink and watched some of the street performers. 

After that we walked to the famous Duval Street, aka the main drag that contains shops, restaurants and bars.  It is basically pub crawl mecca.  They have a very "relaxed" open container law.  Many of the bars have souvenir to-go cups.  My favorite was Fat Tuesday which had an entire wall of frozen drinks.  Miami Vice, please!

The next day we did the most touristy thing and visited the Southernmost Point! I had always seen people on facebook posting pictures in front of this thing.  When we got there there was literally a line down the street to take a picture with it.  Kind of ridiculous but we did it anyways. One of those pictures you want to have.

Since the previous night was a bust in the sunset department, we went back to Mallory Square for a do-over.  We then encountered the most amazing sunset celebration act, the Key West Cat Man.  He is French and you can hardly understand what he is saying as he tells jokes and his cats are jumping through tambourines and rings of fire but trust me, this is a Key West MUST-SEE!  He is located all the way down at the end of the pier in front of the Westin.

After the cat man performance was the most amazing sunset.  A funny thing about this boat picture.  When we were on our Honeymoon, Mike had taken this beautiful picture of a catamaran in front of the sun as it was setting. There were a few sunset tour boats out in front of us and the woman next to me was complaining the whole time that the boat was in the way of the sun.  I felt like shaking her and saying "Its going to be an amazing picture!" As the sun crept closer and closer to the Gulf it got quiet on the Pier and then when it finally set everyone erupted into cheers and clapping.  Such a cool experience.

Stay tuned for next week when I'll wrap up the series with our experiences in Key Largo!

Cruising the Keys, Fort Lauderdale to Big Pine Key

For the past few years my parents have driven their RV from Massachusetts to Florida and spent a few weeks "Cruising the Keys".  This year they invited Mike and I down to join them.  While our jobs kept us from the cross country RV trip, we flew down to Fort Lauderdale, rented a car and met up with them for a week.  We camped in three different places on the Keys.  Since I took so many pictures and we had such a great time I decided to make a little mini-series about our trip. First up was Big Pine Key.

 

 

The drive from Fort Lauderdale to the Keys was beautiful. Tons and tons of bridges with turquoise water on both sides.  There was so much to look at.  It had been so cold at home, driving with the windows down was pure heaven.

 

 

 

 

The first stop on our trip was Sunshine Key RV Resort (which is technically part of Big Pine Key). 

 

The campground is basically its own island and we had a beach-side site. Mike and I love camping but have only camped in New England. It was really awesome to have a Palm Tree in our camp site!

 

 

One of the things on our Big Pine Key to-do list was to get a glimpse of the Key Deer! Key Deer are an endangered small species of deer that only live on the Keys.  We drove around for a while and were lucky enough to spot this little guy! You can't really tell from the picture but they are probably about half the size of a normal deer. Adorable, mission accomplished.

 

Next up was a visit to Bahia Honda State Park. Home to an incredible beach and the famous Old Bahia Honda Bridge.

 

The Keys aren't particularly known for their beaches, but this one is worth the trip! In fact, it was voted #1 Beach in the US in 1992! Woot! They are very proud of that. But really, I can see why. White sand, warm turquoise water, snorkeling, kayaking. Paradise.

 

 

 

We spent the day at the beach and then took a walk to the bridge. The famous Henry Flagler railroad bridge once ran through the park.  A portion of it was preserved and opened to the public. 

 

 

 

 

From the Bridge you get beautiful views of both sides of the park.  Definitely take the hike up there if you get a chance!

 

Stay tuned for part two of our trip which I'll be posting soon all about our experiences in Key West!

 

Nyx Butter Lipsticks Review

As a follow-up to Nyx's wildly successful "Butter" lip products, Nyx has come out with Butter Lipstick.  I am absolutely obsessed with the Butter Glosses, so I was psyched to try these.

There are 22 shades in the line. The shades I picked up were Bit of Honey, Gumdrop, Razzle and Sweet Tart.

Bit of Honey: Nude with Peachy Coral Undertones

Gumdrop: Bubblegum Pink

Razzle: Bright, Vibrant Fuchsia Pink

Sweet Tart: Deep Cool-Toned Pink

My Thoughts:

Overall, the brighter shades were very pigmented while the lighter and nude shades were less so.  To achieve full color on the lips I needed to bring it around town a few more times which is annoying to me.  I wish that the pigmentation was the same across the board.  That being said, these do have a smooth and creamy formula which is comfortable on the lips with fairly good staying power.  The darker shades definitely have better staying power and even produce a slight staining effect on the lips.

One last thing, if you haven't heard Nyx is now available at CVS!  But...these lipsticks were not in the display.  Not sure if they will be getting them. The CVS display was small and limited to only the permanent range items, so head on over to Ulta or the Nyx website to get your hands on these.

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush Review

Over the past year or so I've really fallen in love with the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powders so I was thrilled when I heard they were releasing Ambient Lighting Blushes for spring! The idea behind these is that they are a mixture of Ambient Lighting Powder and cheek color.

For a little background, the Ambient Lighting Powders are finishing powders that transform the way light reflects on your skin. There are 6 different colors of these powders, each shade gives you a different glow. Hourglass has taken each Ambient Lighting Powder and swirled it with a different shade of blush to give you a multidimensional cheek color thats not flat. 

The blushes themselves are beautiful to look at. They sort of remind me of a mineralize skin finish the way the colors are swirled together. 

The shades I have are Dim Infusion and Radiant Magenta.

Dim Infusion:

This shade is described as a "subdued coral".  It is mixed with the Dim Light powder which is "A neutral soft beige that provides a perfect balance of warm and cool tones to blur imperfections." This is a nice soft coral, really perfect for my skin, especially for this time of year when I am on the paler side.

Radiant Magenta:

This shade is described as a "golden fuchsia".  It is mixed with the Radiant Light powder which is "A sun-kissed golden beige that enhances the overall complexion with believable, subtle warmth."  This is a nice bright pink which I think will be really pretty for summer.

These colors are both absolutely beautiful.  On the cheeks they give a lit from within finish to the skin.  They are swatched heavily in the photos above but can definitely be sheered out for a more natural look. Overall they look really healthy and natural, perfect for transitioning into the warmer months.

DIY project - Refinishing a Bedside Table

Last summer I scored this cute little 3 drawer dresser at a yard sale for $10. It was completely unfinished just waiting to be redone! I was originally thinking I was going to paint it or just add some polyurethane. I wasn't sure so I just left it as-is for a while. I had been using it in my upstairs guest room as a bedside table.



Later in the summer I found an even more perfect table for the guest room so I decided to refinish this one and use it as my bedside table.

All our bedroom furniture is Mahogany so I decided on the Red Mahogany wood stain. The stain says that you get the desired color in one coat, but I ended up doing three so it would be darker and would more closely match my furniture. 

The next step was the Polyurethane. I applied 3 coats of this, which was the recommended application on the can. I waited a day between each application.

  

 

Heres what it looked like after I applied the final coat of polyurethane.

 

 

 

Lastly I added some Mercury Glass Knobs from Anthropologie. The dresser came with wooden knobs but I wanted to make it a little more special. Turns out they were the perfect finishing touch!

  

 

 

 

All in all this was a pretty easy project, it was just time consuming between all the stain and polyurethane applications.  The dresser has moved to its new home in my bedroom and I'm loving it there!

 

Details:

 

Mercury Glass Melon Knob

Varathane Semi Gloss Polyurethane

Varathane Red Mahogany Wood Stain

  

Laura Geller Baked Stackable Macaroons

You had me at macaroons! This is a holiday set of macaroon inspired baked products from Laura Geller featuring highlighters, eyeshadows and blushes.

 

 

 

 

I'm going to go ahead and say it. The packaging is adorable! I'll admit it drew me in! I do have a few of Laura's other baked products which are amazing and I had been wanting to try her blushes and highlighters for a while so this was a no-brainer.

 

 

The set comes with 3 highlighters, 3 eyeshadows and 3 blushes.  These are all new shades that aren't sold individually at this point.

Each item is 0.06 oz in size. That might not sound like alot but these are actually a fairly generous size for a mini product. They are the same size as her Baked Highlighters which retail for $24.

 

First up is the highligters. Colors are: Honey Lavender, Toasted Coconut & Dulce de Leche.

 

 

 

he highlighters did not disappoint.  They're not showing up as vibrant in the picture as they did in person. They are smooth, silky and had great pigmentation.  They all have a shimmer finish that give you a nice glow.  Its not too much to the point where you're looking like a disco ball.

 

Next up is the eyeshadows. Colors are: Orange Blossom, Mocha Latte & Chestnut.

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately these were disappointing.  Orange Blossom was very flaky. Chestnut was better but not great. I do like Mocha Latte. It is the most matte of the bunch and it had the best color payoff.

 

Lastly, the blushes. Colors are: Gingerbread, Lychee Rose & Oasis Violet.

 

 

 

 

  

Like the highlighters, the blushes are another win.  Great texture and pigmentation. Lychee Rose and Oasis Violet are my favorites and have made it into my everyday rotation.  Gingerbread isn't my favorite color.  I feel its too dark to be a blush on me. I may try it as a bronzer.



All in all I think this is a great set and a good value. The only miss for me was the eyeshadows.  I haven't tried any other Laura Geller eyeshadows but to me these shades weren't up to par with her other baked products.

I believe this set was first launched on QVC but is now available on the Ulta website for $49. It says that this is an "online only" exclusive. It was launched for Holiday 2013 so I'm not sure how much longer it will be available.  I'd suggest picking it up now if you are interested before its gone!