Weekend Trip to Palm Springs

top (on sale) // jeans // sandals // purse // sunglasses

There's no question that California has a lot to offer-great weather, mountains, beaches, deserts. I really could go on and one about my home state. But with so much to see and do, it's true that I haven't made it to some of the most visited spots. One of those was Palm Springs. I've spent plenty of time in the desert in Arizona in the past, but somehow never found a reason to make a trip to the very Instagrammable Palm Springs. A few months back my girlfriends and I got exciting news about one of them telling us she was pregnant! MY FIRST GOOD FRIEND IS MAKING A HUMAN! So we decided to celebrate with a girl's trip in August to Palm Springs. Did I mention Palm Springs is a desert and it's Summer still? Clearly, we were overcome by the baby announcement. Life lesson: don't start booking things after your friend tells you she's pregnant. The chances are no one is thinking straight.

Because I was mostly hopping from AC to car to hotel to car to food (aka I was not ready for that heat) I'm listing this out for you. Possible tips:

-Palm Springs is good for those who enjoy lounging by the pool with a drink or book in hand.

-Don't go in the middle of the Summer if you're not into sweating much

-Whatever you do, make sure your rental car has tinted windows because hot desert heat and no shaded parking.

-Do go to the Moorten Botanical Garden! And don't be scared off by their less up-to-date looking website. In person, it's a beautiful cacti and succulent dream. Not very big, but nice in the morning before it's too hot.

-Most of the hotel pools you see on Instagram are either for guests or some are possible to pay a fee to use.

-The downtown strip does have it all, but unless you do your research of where to eat you can easily fall into mediocre spots.

-You can forget about trying to take your picture in front of that house with the pink door. The owners have put up signs prohibiting photos.

-So many of the good bars and restaurants that were recommended were closed for vacation. Another reason not to go the end of August.

-Do NOT order a margarita at The Parker. That's $17 for a margarita that I'm sure was premixed. It will go down as the most unsatisfying and overpriced drink of all times.

While I learned a thing or two of mainly what not to do in Palm Springs, we had plenty of laughs at our decision on the timing of this trip. Would we do it again? Yes! Will it be in August again? Not a chance! But there's already talk you'll see us visit early Spring or Fall (with a baby!)

Have you visited Palm Springs?

What I Learned At the Simply LA Conference

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen I went to the Simply LA conference two weekends ago. While I got super lucky with winning tickets the last minute, I wanted to pass along the information I got to those who couldn't make it. If you're wondering what it's all about, it's a conference for influencers/bloggers and those who work with influencers/bloggers. I actually fall into both, so you can just imagine how much I geek out at these things! There are two tracks and I did half and half because I won two tickets. Personally, I found the marketing track to be more helpful when you've been working/blogging for sometime.

From the Influencer track, I sat in on two panels-one on increasing engagement and one on working with brands. Here are my take aways:

-Being consistent + being real = growth
-Don't expect overnight success (a little obvious, but good reminder)
-Do it because you love it (on what you blog about)
-Break down your big goal into short term goals and break those into micro goals (advice that came from Sazan who seems to know what she's talking about)
-Ask yourself "What would your audience actually want?" when posting on social or planning content
-They found the more personal milestones they shared, the more growth they experienced (moving, having a baby, etc.)
-Reach out to a brand a week just to introduce yourself with your media kit and content you featured them in
-If a brand throws out a number, it's not their best offer. You should negotiate reasons why you are worth more.

From the Marketing track, I might have seen 3-4 panels and really loved all the women they had on the panels. We're talking women behind WhoWhatWear, Ban.do, Revolve. Even if you are only creating content, I find it helpful to understand what brands are talking and doing. It's all good information. Here's my key take aways:

-Have fun and explore making content engaging
-More planning out allows you to add in live, in-the-moment content when it comes to InstaStories
-People want to be part of the brand. Brands should talk to followers as their friends.
-Make your community #1! Asking for community feedback. What do you like, hate and how can we make it better?
-Regramming re-enforces the behavior.
-Brands are understanding that micro-influencers here so important. They interesting thing is they had different ideas about the size of micro-influencers. One person said it's 5K-50K, but collectively they said 50K-100K is a micro-influencer.

Truly, my favorite part of the event was the networking possibilities. The panelists were extremely nice about staying afterwards to answer any of your questions. Overall, I love hearing the latest news in this area. Hopefully, this helps you! Feel free to ask me any questions.

Simplifying

top (size 00) // jeans // sandals // sunglasses

As I stand here (my current place in life), I can stay this is what I longed for and it's a good place to be in. Is it perfect? No, but there is a lot of good and for that I'm grateful. The funny thing is during that time that I was longing for presently, I can't help but realize how I miss that period too. That period that was somewhat mundane and rocky. It is where I learned so much about simplifying how I filled my time. I took time for myself and developed myself from within. As I reflect back, it's so much of the simple things in life that really are what fill us up. It's not our status. It's not our jobs. It's not our titles. And now that I have less time, I still tap into that time where I learned so much about who I am and making time to keep developing myself in ways that truly satisfy myself. Sometimes I think all that's going on in my mind stays there. But then I have these images staring back at me with an outfit that reflects exactly my mental state. 

Are there times where you unintentionally have outfits that match what's going on mentally?

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