Hauling in the Bahamas & Norwegian Gem Cruise

Happy Friday!

Who else is beyond excited that we have a three day weekend?!?!

I don't want to think of it as the last weekend of summer, I still have so many things planned to do! Besides weather is still in the 80's where I'm at, so technically I'm still going to say we have some time before Fall is upon us! 

Today I have a little haul from when I was on the cruise. Last year when we went I hardly bought myself anything and regretted it when I came home. So this time I took my time and looked at things. 

On the second to last night on the cruise Norwegian has a big party called the "White Hot Party" where everyone wears all white and they have a dance party. It even "snows" on the dance floor. It's A LOT of fun!

In Nassau, Bahamas I went to this little shop called "My Ocean" and they had a ton of bath supplies. I picked up bath salts, a soap bar and a loofa that is suppose to be an exfoliating sponge. I'll report back once I've tried them. Check out their website here for more awesome products: My Ocean Website 

I picked up this hand made clutch from the Great Stirrup Cay (Norwegian's private island). The island has a market where they sell hand made items from locals on the island. I saw this clutch and fell in love with it, but told myself no, but then I had to, it was just too cute. Besides I can see myself using this for our honeymoon next year. 

When we were ported in Port Canaveral in Florida we went to Cocoa Beach and then to Cocoa Village. I stopped at this cute little shop that sells bath supplies and picked up this bath bomb. 

Great Stirrup Cay magnet

Earrings from Great Stirrup Cay. The fiance actually picked these out for me. :) He has such good taste sometimes haha. 

In Nassau, Bahamas they had this store called Del Sol that everything changes color in the sun, so I picked up these two nail polishes that I can't wait to try. Two colors in one? I'll take it! 

Nassau, Bahamas Bacardi store. 

And last, but not least, is my new earrings!! We went to a seminar about diamonds on the boat the one day and learned all about diamonds you can buy in the Bahamas. Before going on the cruise I knew I wanted to buy a set of diamond "flower" earrings. But I knew I wanted a certain look and size. 

The Fiance picked these up for me for such a good deal: Originally they wanted $1,400 for them, but I said absolutely not, then the manager "worked" the numbers and got it down to $550. 

I was a little weary about buying diamonds in the Bahamas but you actually get a certified certificate for your diamond purchase and you're entitled to an appraisal. We can also upgrade them at any time when and if we ever go back. The store he purchased them from in the Bahamas is called Diamonds International. They have super friendly staff and I couldn't be happier with our service.  (The pictures do not do them justice as they just sparkle so nicely, it was extremely hard to take a photo of them!)

If you're also looking for Movado's for a good deal, they had amazing deals!

Have a great night and a great Labor Day Weekend!

Wedding Wednesday: Supplying Your Own Liquor

Happy Wedding Wednesday!

At the place we decided to have our venue we have to supply our own liquor. 

It makes me nervous to supply liquor to 100+ people and have enough for every one. 

One of the things that makes me a little less nervous is our day wedding planner will make liquor runs if need be. 

 

Anyway, when we went on our cruise last week we bought liquor on board as it is duty and tax free and not to mention a lot cheaper than at your local liquor store. I'm talking we saved up to 50% on some of the alcohol. 

Unfortunately, we were limited to how much we could buy (or originally were told so). So we only ended up purchasing 5 bottles. After the fact we were told we could have bought cases and had to pay very little tax on the purchase. About .30 per every $10.00 (3%) which is very cheap in my eyes. 

Anyway, I'm happy with what we did buy. 

I have spoke with many people about stocking up your bar for your wedding and a lot say they spend close to $500, which is what we budgeted into our wedding. On the ship for everything we bought only came to less than $150. 

I apologize for the crappy picture.

We bought two bottles of Grey Goose vodka, 1 bottle of Patron, and 2 bottles of Bailey's. 

Grey Goose: $34.99 each

Patron: $43.99

Two bottles of Baileys: $34.00 total

We wanted to buy all the alcohol for our signature cocktail drink but we still have not decided on what yet.  

We're little smugglers!

When we went to Nassau Bahama's my fiance picked up 12 Cuban cigars. 

This is something the guys will do after the wedding. 

Anyway, I'm planning on doing a more in-depth blog post about supplying our own liqour but wanted to share what we bought so far. 

Have a great night!

Chevron Anchor Nail Art & Couple of Norwegian Gem Cruise Pictures

Happy Tuesday!

Today was another productive day, at work and at home. I actually got everything unpacked, both the fiance & I. The only other thing I need to do now is take pictures of things I bought while on the cruise and put them away. 

Today I'm sharing the nails I sported while on the cruise. I got the idea off of Pinterest(of course) and have been wanting to do it for quite some time now but never found a good occasion to do them like that. 

 The accent nail was actually fairly easy to do, it just took some time. The chevron was easy, the trick I found my useful is to lightly drag your brush in a zig zag motion. The anchor was also easy once you get use to the nail art brush. I used the nail art kit I got from Ulta some time ago. In there is a small brush.

I used Julie G's Cruise Collection nail polish (how fitting!) 

Left is Miami Beach and right is Tahiti (my only compliant is that the Tahiti stained my nails once I took it off, but no biggie)

I also used OPI's Alpine Snow & My Favorite Ornament (2013 Christmas Collection) 

If you can get your hands on OPI's My Favorite Ornament I highly suggest you do. It's my favorite gold glitter polish because it really covers your entire nail bed with just two coats of the polish, without any base coat too!

I also did my toenails in the same design. It was just a fun nail art to do that I typically can't do at my office job. 

Just a couple of photos I took on my phone before we departed.

This was from the Pier in New York City. Last year I didn't get to experience seeing the whole boat because other boats were ported. Norwegian Gem was the only boat ported that day!

It was sunny and 80 degrees in New York on Saturday. As you can see people were already in the pools! Last year when we disembarked it was raining and cold so it was a completely different experience for us this year.

Here I was relaxing on the lounge chairs waiting to disembark New York. As you can tell I did my toes in the same design. :)

I also got this souvenir  Norwegian "Fish Bowl". On the whole drink it says "Norwegians drink out of bowls" It was just a fun idea. 

Have a great night!

Makeup I Packed for the Cruise

Happy Monday!

First day back to work for me after being off for a week. It's always the first day that reality sets in you're no longer on vacation and you have to go back to the daily grind. But I must say, I am proud of myself. I went to work early to catch up on work, left on time, went grocery shopping, cleaned out the fridge and cleaned under the sink. It was a productive Monday!

Yesterday as I was unpacking I took pictures of all the makeup I packed. It wasn't until I started unpacking that I realized I never thought to blog about the makeup I took. Haha. Most of the makeup I packed I used, I will let you know what I did and didn't find useful.

 For eyes:
I brought a bunch of different palettes for eyeshadow:
Too Faced Chocolate Bar(never used)
NYX Caribbean Collection St. Thomas palette(used)
Lorac AfterGlo palette(used)
Too Faced Summer Eye palette(used)
These summer palettes were perfect for the cruise.

I also packed two sets of lashes and only ended up using the top pair. I used them for our pictures, which I'm happy I did.
I also packed Urban Decay primer potion(an absolute must!) The eyeshadow primer potion I found the most useful. It was perfect for those hot days when my eyeshadow would just melt.
I also brought two different color eyeliners but never used either, and I'm kind of sad I didn't. They were such pretty colors and were water-proof!

Naked Shimmer Blush(sadly I didn't use this) My whole thought process with bringing this was when I was out at night I would throw on some shimmer to my cheeks, but never found a use for it.
NYX liquid liner (my love!)
Smashbox bronzer blush. Used every single day!
Tarte powder foundation. Used every day but found it to be too light by the end of vacation.
Same goes for my Maybeline concealer, used every day.
Loreal collagen filler (I love this and I love the smell) Typically I use once or twice a day, I was using this all the time on the cruise. You're skin definitely gets dried out from all the humidity and heat, I found this to be essential!

 Deodorant - of course!
Dry Shampoo for those days when you don't feel like washing your hair. Besides who washes their hair every day on vacation? I certainly can't be straightening my hair everyday!
AcneFree products - used every day
Avon make up remover - a must for when you're hitting the pool or the beach and don't want raccoon eyes!
I also brought ALL of those lipsticks and only ended up using the NYX butter glosses. I absolutely love them. I need to purchase more. They're perfect and light and give you just enough color.


I hope this was helpful and informative.

Have a great night everyone!

Home from the Cruise

Happy Saturday!

I can't tell you the last time I blogged on a Saturday, I missed you guys so much I wanted to throw in a quick post! My family, fiance & I just got home about 2 hours ago from the cruise. 

We had such an amazing time - with amazing weather and temperatures. 

We got extremely lucky (again) with no rain for our whole vacation. I'm so thankful. 

We went on the Norwegian Gem for a 7 night cruise. It's the same cruise line and cruise ship we went on last year. We had such an amazing time that we did it again this year. On our way home from the cruise we were talking about going again soon (possibly next year, if time allows with the wedding). 

If you haven't been on a cruise before, I highly recommend it, it's the best thing you'll ever do. 

This morning we were all up bright and early because we had to disembark at 8:00am. The fiance & I took the opportunity to watch the sunrise. (Something I haven't done in years, who likes to get up that early anyway!?) It was well worth it, even though I'm dragging my butt at 5:30pm. Haha.

When the sun was rising we were just porting in New York so we watched the sunrise over the New York City skyline. It was so pretty!

This photo was taken with my iPhone, wait until I show you it with my actual camera!

I haven't actually had a chance to look through all my photos from my camera because I took so many(we're talking close to 500 or more), I wanted to share a photo of the fiance and I when we were in port in New York City the first day. 

(Fiance was so relaxed he didn't even want to take the photo with me, Haha) Anyway, this is on Deck 12 (poolside) on the Norwegian Gem. In the background you can see some New York City buildings. I took a couple videos on us disembarking from New York City which you can see on my Instagram (vzaleski).

Anyway, I missed you guys! Glad to be back to posting. 

Have a great Saturday night and the rest of your weekend!

What I'm Packing for Norwegian Gem Cruise: Carry On

Happy Wednesday!

Two posts in one day, unbelievable, I know. But I figured since I won't be blogging at all next week I can over-do the posts this week. Besides I really I wanted to share what I'll be packing. I hope it helps someone who is going on a cruise and isn't sure what to pack.

You're entitled to two pieces of luggage. I am taking a little carry on and my big suit case. It's what I took last year and it worked perfectly. 

  A pink Pierre Cardin carry on.

 1.) Bath & Body Works Frozen Daiquiri Body Mist & Lotion (my favorite scent for the summer)

2.) Bath & Body Works Sweet Pea shampoo and conditioner

3.) Caress body wash with loofa

4.) Cooling SPF!

5.) Fiance's Biolage gel

6.) Shaving creme and razor(not pictured)

7.) Motrin (never know when you'll get a headache!)

8.) Two pair of cheap sunnies(I'm still thinking of taking my Ray Bans but fear I'll lose them, or the cruise line will lose my luggage)

9.) Passport holder

10.) Passports!

11.) Floss

12.) Travel sized mouth wash

13.)Tooth paste and tooth brush

14.) Contact holder

15.) Mini Sweet Pea body creme (For when my skin gets real dry)

16.) Oscar Blandi dry shampoo

17.) Ear plugs (fiance snores!)

I'll also be adding my makeup to this and blow dryer and straightener. 

I love finding travel sized items. Unlike the beach, I can't bring as many bags as I want so I need to minimize what I bring and sometimes the best way to do that is to buy travel sized items that way you can fit more. I still need to pick up a travel sized hair spray as well to go along with this pile. 

As I add more I will be posting pictures. 

Ok, that's the last of the posts for today. 

See you tomorrow for outfits I'm packing!

Wedding Wednesday: Meeting with the Priest Part 2: Focus Inventory Exam

Happy Wedding Wednesday!

I completely forgot that today was Wednesday, isn't that weird? I was sitting in my office and thinking about today and things I have to get done and what popped into my head but Wedding Wednesday! :) 

On Monday August 11, 2014 the fiance & I had another meeting with the priest. That day we were scheduled for a hour and a half meeting. We were scheduled to do an "inventory" exam. I had no clue what this would entail and I also had no clue what an "inventory" exam was!

So there Fiance and I go, after driving early in the morning from our home town to where we work (hour and a half away), worked from 8-5, and then drove home another half hour to get ready to meet with the priest for a hour and a half. Needless to say I was not looking forward to it! 

So basically the Focus Inventory exam for Catholics is like any standardized test you would take in school. It consisted of 200 questions that were fill in the bubble. We were placed in a room (together) and given this booklet of questions and an answer sheet. Of course the fiance and I conversed (quietly) about some of the questions. Some of them were just odd. Anyway, here's a list of the top three types of questions you should expect to see on the Focus Inventory exam if you're having a Catholic wedding:

1.) Have you and your fiance discussed fiances for your future? (so many of these questions and for good reason, it's the main arguments most couples have!)

2.) How do you and your fiance plan to raise your children? (a lot of variations of this questions)

3.) How will religion have an effect on your relationship? 

The priest said that he will need to send in our answers and we would need to schedule another meeting to meet with him in 2 weeks to discuss our answers and issues he may see in our relationship. 

Needless to say, I was not expecting that! I had no clue I would be questioned on some things (like intimacy) and how we would raise our children, etc. But I think they have it in place for a reason so I'll keep my thoughts to myself. Haha. 

Anyway, here's the outfit I wore to have the meeting with the priest:

Stripped Blazer: Kohls/Ruffle Tank: Forever 21/Black skinny pants: Forever 21/Flats: Tory Burch/Watch: Michael Kors

The fiance and I have been doing a lot of packing tonight, so this is my break away from it. He is all packed and ready to go, tomorrow I will finish my packing. Isn't it always harder for a girl to pack than a guy? A guy just puts together a couple outfits and is fine with it. Not me, I need to try things on. It's a process!

Recent Outfits: Atlantic City, 1st Birthday Party & Work Office Outfits

Happy Tuesday!

I currently have hair dye on the top portion of my hair to cover my roots for my ombre hair. Ombre hair can seriously last you forever, all you need to do is a couple touch ups here and there. Basically maintenance free! 

Anyway, I didn't have time to take photos of what I wanted to (recent purchases) so I'm settling for recent outfits I've worn these past two weeks. Some are work/office outfits, others are my outfits from the weekends. 

Tomorrow the fiance and I will be packing for our upcoming cruise on Saturday (as if you didn't already know that we were going, haha) so I'm hoping to do a post of what I'm packing on Thursday! So look forward to that. :)

 

Ruffle Tank Top: Forever 21/Pink Cardigan: Charlotte Russe/Skirt: Ross/Shoes: DSW Blowfish/Watch: Michael Kors/Bow Bracelet:Charming Charlies

 Weekend trip to Atlantic City

Dress: Target/Jean Jacket: Adam Levine for Kmart/Hair Band:Wal-Mart/Flip Flops: JCPenney

 

Button Up Dress: Tommy Hilfiger/Shoes: DSW Blowfish

For my best friend's son's 1st birthday party

Dress: Kohls/Jean Jacket: Ross

 Feeling professional with my hair pulled back.

 

Blazer: K-Mart/Tank Top: JCPenney/Black Pants: New York & Company/Shoes: Target

 Blazer, shirt, maxi skirt: JCPenney/Sandals: New York & Company/Necklace: Ebay

 Ebay Necklace!

I'm getting in a rut again with work outfits, unfortunately. 

What do you do when you're in a rut with outfits? 

I'm finding that I continue to go to dress slacks and it's boring with the same old shirts and pants. Do you change up your style with shoes or accessories? I need some help, honestly!

Thanks!

Have a great night.