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Lifestyle

Hiking for Wildflowers

Posted on April 17, 2017

I hope the everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend! If you follow me on any of my social media, you would have seen that I went to Las Vegas this weekend. I had so much fun! Went to the Backstreet Boys concert at Planet Hollywood (AJ is still my favorite), ate at a lot of really good restaurants, won some money (even though I could have won more if I had stopped when I should have), and did some shopping! Spending some quality time with my friends is always a plus! I did realize this weekend that I am old. Seeing all the young 21 years olds in barely there clothing, super excited about clubbing and open bars made me realize…that’s definitely not me anymore.

Anyway, a few weekends ago I dragged my boyfriend to see the wildflowers in Lake Elsinore. He refused to go to Carlsbad to see the Flower Fields and Antelope Valley to see the Poppy Preserves. Well, I got him to go see the wildflowers off the 15. When we got there, we realized that we needed to do a bit of hiking. We were both not really prepared for that and I was in flip flops. Well, there are some sacrifices you must make for some decent photos.

After a bit of complaining from him, I eventually got him to hike to the wildflowers and take some pictures. Side note – The wildflowers in Lake Elsinore off the 15 freeway are really sporadic. It’s not a beautiful hill filled with them. However, I had a lot of fun hiking up the hill and stopping by Tom’s Farms on the way home. If you haven’t stopped by there before, definitely do it when you’re on your way back from San Diego.

Enjoy the photos!

Lifestyle Style

JORD Engraving – The Perfect Gift

Posted on November 30, 2016

I have a coworker named Stephanie, who has turned into one of my very good friends. When I needed help transitioning into my new job and had a ton of questions, she was happy to answer them. When I started my blog and Instagram, she was one of the first to subscribe and like every single post. When my dad was having health issues, she was there to offer support.

When I found out JORD Wood Watches now does watch engraving, I jumped right on it. After my original JORD Wood Watch post a few months back, Stephanie always commented on how much she loved my watch. I figured, this is the perfect gift to give to thank her for all that she has done for me this past year! The wood engraving that JORD does is great. You can get it on the back plate ($35.00) or the side of the cedar wood presentation box that the watch comes in ($45.00). There are two engraving styles – block and script. It takes up to 7 business days for your watch to be ready to ship after the engraving, so make sure you order early for the holidays! This is not a last minute gift. However, it actually only took about 4 days for my watch to ship.

When it came time to pick a watch for Stephanie, I picked the Frankie 35. Why? Because she loves rose gold and has casually mentioned that the face on my watch is too big for her. Also, I love my Frankie watch. It’s lightweight and really unique because of the wood band. I decided to have Stephanie’s name engraved on the back of the watch. I mean, who hates having their name on something? NO ONE!

I got the watch in the mail and had to open it to make sure that everything was in tip top shape. I was incredibly jealous to see that JORD had updated their presentation boxes. The watch now comes with a magnetic top (instead of the sliding top), a drawer on the bottom to hold supplies, an oil pen for the wood band, and a cloth to clean the watch. WOW! If Stephanie’s name wasn’t engraved on the watch, I may have kept it for myself!!!

It’s the perfect engraved gift! Lucky for my readers, I am working with JORD Wood Watches again this holiday season. Sign up and you will instantly receive a $25 e-giftcard to use towards the purchase of one of their watches or services like engraving. I am already thinking of purchasing a few for my close friends and maybe even a new one for myself!

*This post was brought to you in collaboration with JORD Wood Watches. Thank you for supporting the brands that support this blog!*

Lifestyle Style

JORD Wood Watch Review + Giveaway

Posted on August 29, 2016

I love watches. I wear one EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. When I used to work at the big fancy, we had to look at the sales numbers every hour. Sometimes if I forgot to wear a watch, I would actually go and buy one because I couldn’t be without one! I would literally keep looking at my left wrist with nothing on it. So I guess you can say that I grew accustomed to wearing a watch and checking to see what time it is all the time. Also, I don’t like being late and I get anxious if I think I don’t have enough time so…. watches are my thing. You can guess my excitement when I was contacted by JORD to do a review of their wood watches.

I requested and received the Frankie Watch in Zebrawood & Champagne ($189). It has a big face which I LOVE and has my favorite metal!

Now I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical before I got the watch. Having worn metal band watches for the last 15 years, I wondered how a wood band watch would withstand every day wear. Well, I have been wearing mine for about 2 weeks now and I have to say that I am a fan now. Here are a few reason why I love this watch. It’s light weight, splash proof, and made out of really great materials. My band is made specifically out of Zebrawood, which is a luxury hardwood. The face of the watch is made out of Sapphire Glass, which is one of the hardest and scratch resistant materials on earth.

The best part? JORD has offered to sponsor a giveaway for my readers! Simply CLICK HERE to enter. One winner will be chosen randomly and win a $75 e-voucher for a JORD Wood Watch! Everyone who enters (excluding the winner) will get a $20 e-gift card that can be applied to any watch on their website! The winning e-voucher will expire after 1 month after the ending date. Giveaway ends 09.18.16.

*This post was brought to you in collaboration with JORD Wood Watches. Thank you for supporting the brands that support this blog!*

Lifestyle

Hosting Sites – Why I Chose SiteGround

Posted on March 24, 2016

I have had this website for almost 3 months and when I first started, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I spoke to quite a few people who already had blogs or websites to see which hosting service I should go with. If you go online and just google “best web hosting service” you’re going to get a ton of articles. I must have read through most of them for about 4 days and I still could not decide who to go with.

One of my coworkers told me that she had BlueHost and she thought they were pretty good and cheap. I googled them and found that WordPress recommended them as well as a few other blogs that I read. It was strange that their ratings weren’t very good but I figured, why not? It’s cheap! Well, you definitely get what you pay for. First of all, my site kept going down. Almost every other day and especially on the weekends, I would get email notices that my site was down…and then that it was back up. Then, I started having issues where things wouldn’t work on my website, so I called their Tech Support. The wait was almost always over 30 minutes. They were generally very friendly but the weird thing was that a lot of the time, the Tech Support person had to “google” or flat out said “I don’t know” when I asked a question. I found out that BlueHost hires anyone for Tech Support without experience and will teach you the basics – which explains the “I don’t know” I kept getting.

Then came the kicker … I was given advice from a Tech Support person to upgrade to a better plan and that if I was unsatisfied within 30 days, I could go back to my original cheap plan AND get the additional money back that I paid to upgrade. Well, I didn’t notice any difference in the website. It still went down multiple times. Towards the end of my 30 days, I called to cancel. Long story short, they wouldn’t do it. They basically told me that everything the Tech Support guy said about getting my money back and going back to my original plan was false and there was nothing they could do about it. Even though, their employee gave me false information that should have been recorded (since all phone calls are recorded as per the message I hear when I wait to speak to someone) they were not willing to fully refund me. So I left them and found myself a better hosting site.

If you have read this far, then good for you! It’s going to get better!

For a few dollars more a month, I have had the BEST experience in the 2 weeks that I have been with SiteGround. I was recommended to them by another co-worker, did my research and found that they have great ratings! The wait time to speak to someone on the phone or through the online chat has been less then 2 minutes. Everyone I have spoken to was incredibly knowledgable and they actually sound like they know what they’re talking about. Working at The Big Fancy for over 10 years, my customer service bar is pretty high. I know I am pretty hard to please, but their customer service is amazing! Now, transferring my site over to this hosting service was THE biggest pain in the behind, but SiteGround was as helpful as possible and I am GLAD it is OVER! Amazingly, my site has NOT gone down in the past 2 weeks *knock on wood*.

So, since this post is already longer than I would like it to be, I’m going to tell you … if you are thinking of starting a blog or website and want to go with a hosting service, go with SiteGround. Seriously, you get what you pay for and I had to learn the hard way. Dealing with incompetent people is not a fun thing and neither is losing money on something that I shouldn’t have.