NYC II - What to Wear

Here is my part II to the post about NYC. Make sure you check out my previous post on my favourite spots in New York.

Summers in Canada are full of vacations and festivals and parties. Presently I am enduring the heat and sweating even in AC because I know this will only last a couple of months and then it's back to cold!

For some reason in the past I've always found it difficult to know what to wear in the summer. I would think it should be easier because you don't need to wear as many layers and you tend to wear less. For some reason I always I find it much easier and more fun making my outfits in the fall and winter where I can play with layers.

Truthfully it takes a little more confidence in the summer as you can't hide behind the layers. :) So travelling to New York in the summer took a little planning as I wanted to only take the necessities on a carry on. But fortunately it ended up being not too stressful and a lot of fun. Looking back I wouldn't change much with what I brought.

So if you're having trouble finding what is proper to wear in the summer or what to bring when you're going on a vacation maybe looking at what I packed for my New York trip can help. These are also outfits that happen to be my favourites now for the summer.

The following outfits are practical, summery and also fashionable.

The first one: There's nothing that speaks of summer fun and classes an outfit more than anything white. And this pair of white shorts from American Eagle are so comfy and sit at a comfortable length. And the t-shirt as well. It's cropped but not too short, it's casual and comfy, but this color paired with the white shorts and the necklace, (swoon) is perfect for a summer day touring the streets of New York or any other streets for that matter!

The focus here is Time Square! I'm not necessarily trying to convert you. :)

Louis Vuitton - I didn't quite have enough in my account to get this bag. :) But one could dream!

Second day: 

White (again) lace pattern sleeveless crop top and high waisted shorts (with a rose gold button may I add!)

Oh the ever changing trends - buying high waisted shorts can be a little scary, and I'm not saying you must do it. But just like you swore you would never wear skinny jeans, but then it became completely normal and fashionable for you - may I gently break it to you that the same will happen with the high waisted stuff. :) I think the high waist can be elegant if worn right as it defines the small of your waist. But the problem I find is that they always are designed  short so that your cheeks fall out.  I prefer mine inside my shorts, so the good news is that you can find ones with more coverage. I got mine at forever 21. These shorts usually have the bottoms folded up. But with my lower assets I can use all the help I can get so I unfold the bottom of the shorts. This adds length and it doesn't compromise the look at all.

And like I said, white always adds to the summery feel and somehow always makes the outfit more classy.

Central Park

Shakespeare's Castle in Central Park

Night Out...

It's always good to have outfits for going out in the evening when you want to be a little more classy and when it's often a little chillier. One's a  typical but cute little black dress and the other is leather leggings with a flowy long Navy top. I was going to bring these two outfits with me to New York to choose from. But unfortunately I put the black dress in the wrong suitcase. The leggings outfit worked fine for the Broadway show we went to because it was quite cold in the building. But since I got my makeup done quite dramatically just before, I think the black dress would have gone with it much better. So that was my only regret in how I packed, even though my planning was right on!

I didn't get a proper picture of the outfit, but that eye makeup though! Isn't it fabulous! Complimentary eye makeup by Mac Cosmetics.

Night out in Time Square Baby!

Waiting at Lyric Theatre for our show

And of course my favourite night was our dinner cruise on the night of our first anniversary. The reason for the whole trip. What could be better then a gourmet buffet, followed by lounging on the deck, sipping our drinks and eating cheesecake and seeing the gorgeous city line of Manhattan, Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty followed by a fireworks show at night and enjoying that all in the arms of my husband. Ok that was a really long sentence. And it sounded mushy, but that's pretty much how I felt! All that to say it was a great reason to dress up.
Here I wore a mini shimmery sequin skirt balanced with, again, a dressy white top. I feel like the formal top balanced out the party skirt in a perfect dinner cruise-like way! I brought heels for this occasion. And it's the only time I wore heels on the trip, but it was worth it. I'll be talking more about shoes later.

 

Almost done!

On the third day of the trip, which was still quite hot, I wore this summer dress. I think everyone should own at least one comfy summer dress. With most you can dress up or dress down by either putting on some heels and dressy sweater or blazer or in my case I dressed down and wore white sneakers because I was going to do a lot of walking. And I wore the little denim vest for an extra layer in the morning when it was a little cooler.

World Trade Centre monument


And Lastly! It's always good to bring at least one pair of jeans you like even though it is summer. There can always be an off day where it's cooler and you'll be happy you packed them. On our last day there, it was a little cooler because it had rained during the night. It was actually refreshing to have the air cool off a bit and I got to wear my favourite jeans!

Just because...

Grand Central Station... Sad that this is our last day!

Just had to add one selfie!

                                                                                          And voila!

 But we couldn't quite be finished without taking a look at shoes to bring. I brought 4 pairs! I could have been ok with the 3 pairs though. I already said I brought the heels for the dinner cruise. And I wore the leather sandals for another night out. But other then that I wore the white walking flip flops and the white sneakers the whole time. I debated buying new shoes but decided against it and I'm so glad I did. We did a LOT of walking. I mean a lot! And those streets are not clean. So I mean for New York I'm glad I brought good walking shoes but they were not so new that I would be sad if they got  worn and dirty. 

And bring a cross body bag because New York is crowded. You want to keep your valuables close to you. And this is usually a good idea when you're travelling anywhere.

And that's about all. Have fun this summer. Stay cool, comfy and confident as you're going about the festivities of summer. 

NYC I - Enjoying New York Inexpensively!

I love summer. It's so full of vacations, camping, weddings, family and friends. Everyone is trying to make the most of it while it's here. And that makes everything seem a buzz. Summers are times I could get completely carried away and not have time for blogging. But I've been missing New York. We took a road trip up to TO for a wedding. But in the midst of it we slipped to New York for the weekend for our 1st anniversary. It was worth it! Even though we had to go on a student budget, it was fun finding ways to enjoy NYC quite inexpensively. And it is completely possible!

We found a quality dinner cruise on groupon, and we got to see the city from a zoomed out view, the city line, brooklyn bridge, statue of liberty all in one. You can pay lots of money to go up tall buildings to get a view of the city, but this view was even better in many ways.

But even after seeing all the typical New York things like, time square, 5th ave (where all the designer shops are located), empire state building etc. I wanted to rather share just a couple of the more hidden gems of New York that we discovered that I would totally go back to. And again these were all very student friendly spots. So here goes...

First one up is Magnolia Bakery... Best banana pudding. I didn't know I needed or wanted banana pudding until I had Magnolia banana pudding. It's heavenly. Banana pudding for breakfast? Yes please!

Another great little breakfast place was Angela's Sandwich Shop. It was quick, decent price and amazing food! It gave us the energy for a long walk through central park!

Ansel Dominique Bakery - Here you'll find the most unique and even more tasty desserts. They are famous for their cronuts which is a cross between a doughnut and a croissant. We came in the morning but they were already gone. Apparently they are too popular for us! So I had Penny the Pig and Earl had a Cookie Shot. And again, I could not believe something so "silly" would beg for me to come back for more. I still dream of the taste of these desserts.

Cookie Shot

Penny the Pig

Shake Shack - Amazing burger and shake place. You will have to wait in a long line every time, but it's worth it. I had their black and white shake. It's a great place to go to late at night.

Momofuku Milk Bar - You know the milk that is left over after having cereal and milk? That's the flavour of their shakes and things. I had their cereal milk shake with some corn flake crunch. So good!

Amish Market - We stopped here after our walking around in the financial district and wall street of NYC and the World Trade Centers Monument. This market was so refreshing. It had at least 5 cafes in different corners. It had everything you could want, including so much fresh fruits and produce and meats. I'd definitely come back.

And just to prove we didn't just eat, we also went to the Metropolitan Museum. It's donation priced. There is so much to see in here but we went straight to the exhibition called "Fashion in an Age of Technology." I've always looked at fashion as an art, a way of expressing yourself creatively. And you definitely see that here where famous designers show some of their pieces; and we're told how these pieces have been made using today's technology. It's incredible. I can't describe how I felt in there. Every detail in these pieces are thought out and handcrafted or otherwise used today's technology to bring to life what was in their minds. Here's just a couple of the pieces.

Some other really inexpensive things we did was take a stroll through Central Park, stopped in a lot of the designer stores including the Tiffany flagship store and Louis Vuitton and Mac and others where the prices of these items would make one go bankrupt pretty quickly!

It was fun stopping by the original Mac store and letting them do some complimentary makeup on me just before going to a Broadway show. (By the way, you can enter the lottery to win vip seats for super cheap. We didn't win but we still got in for a great discount and got really good seats.) But the makeup artists were having way too much fun. Again, the art as well as precision in makeup is quite incredible. This look of blues and greens you'll see starting to trend on the runways. And it went well with the show we were about to watch - Cirque de Soleil.

We also saw the place where the two world trade centre towers were. You can take an actual tour, which I hear is quite an emotional experience, but we were happy just seeing the spot. They have a monument there and we took a look at the sheer height of the new one world tower.

So these were few of the spots we visited. And if you ever decide to go make sure you check these places out. 

Some things I learned about going to New York, it's totally worth it to do your research of some of the things to do in New York otherwise it can get super overwhelming. But at the same time, I'm so glad we didn't go with the mindset of being pressured to do every typical tourist thing. It's easy to get carried away with the sightseeing and checking everything off the list so we can say that we saw it and be more frazzled after the trip then refreshed. We spent so much time just enjoying being together, and just learning about each other and discovering what our priorities were with what we wanted to do. And all in all just enjoying the adventure, like finding the right subways, and sitting in a taxi that wasn't moving in congested traffic hoping we'd make it to our cruise on time.

Make sure you also check out NYC part II where I talk about what to wear in summer in New York!