OOTD: girls night!

My New Zealand girls and I have a little fun-time we do every once in a while, where we go to Parnell in Auckland and go to a sushi place for dinner then make our way up the street to this amazing place called Chocolate Boutique. Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like. Chocolate. And more chocolate. In a boutique. It's so great. The sushi is good too. We tend to get a bit of a chocolate buzz on though and end up doing some pretty ridiculous things.

We start off with a little (lot) sushi..

And then we make our way over to Chocolate Boutique where some photo-taking ensues..

It started off pretty normal. We were being important business-women as usual.

But we may have had one too many coffees while we waited for another friend to arrive.

Things got a little out of hand, and we accidentally (on purpose) belgian dipped. Oops. #sorrynotsorryworld.

But in all seriousness, we are all classy still. Don't worry. This is about the clearest outfit shot you can get from these photos, sorry! We were too busy being weirdos. Life is good.

 What do you and your friends do on girls night?

nz south island roadie recap #1

Most of you know that I was away for 13 days on a trip around the south island of New Zealand (which is absolutely stunning by the way). It's definitely my favorite island of the two and after that trip,  if I were to come back to live in NZ I think I would like to live in Nelson, which is at the top of the south island. It's the perfect mix of city and beach.

Me and our sweet ride

We did our whole trip via campervan, which we totally lived out of. We slept in there, ate in there, the whole shebang. Although we found this was the cheapest way to do our trip, I definitely found myself at a few points wishing for a night in a hotel. I'm no princess and I'm for sure not unfamiliar with camping, but it was a long trip and my side of the bed would fall through to the floor every time I moved in my sleep and I'd have to get up and fix it. That drove me crazy, but otherwise our van was really great (as long as we don't talk about how much gas money we spent!!!). While this was the best option for us, if you're not big on camping there are a range of vacation places that you could look into that wouldn't break the bank.

Now, because you're dying to see what New Zealand's gorgeous south island looks like... here you go! Oh and PS- I'm going to do a couple posts of this because there are tons of pictures I want to share with you guys. PPS - Yes, everywhere looks like Middle earth! Sometimes I'm scared orcs will come galavanting around a mountainside at me. Check out this article for cool LOTR/New Zealand photos.

Lake Te Anau

Milford Sound

On the way to Milford Sound, so cool 

Seal rock in Milford Sound that we saw on our tour cruise

I need to explain this one a bit. You see that monstrous rockface? We literally had to drive THROUGH it. That is a little over 1km THROUGH a giant rock face. It was petrifying to say the least...and I'm claustrophobic. So yeah. Ew. Never again please!

Blue Pools...glacier water!

Cole swimming in glacier water because he's insane like that.

Fox Glacier!

My gorgeous boyfriend and his arm-flowers. Ha.

An NZ beetle?

Me being a master chef... but not really. I just took the potato salad out of the container ;)

The gorgeous west coast!

please note: while I was compensated for links in this post, all thoughts and opinions remain my own.

life is hectic so here's how it's gonna go

Hi friends! So, I figure I owe it to everyone to give you an update on this craziness that is my life at the moment and what is going to be happening on Olive & Ivy for the next while.

Cole and I move back to Canada in three. freaking. days. Yeah, I know. Pretty much the most exciting thing of my life, seriously!!! I can't begin to describe my excitement. When we get there, we will be with my family for about 10 days, and then we are off to work at the camp that we met at. We live where we work and we work all day every day (except weekends) so if I am being totally honest, this little blog isn't going to get all the attention it deserves. 

Believe me when I say that O&I is going NOWHERE, and will be back in absolute full force like you've never seen before come November when I am doing blogging and design full-time... but until then you will all have to bear with me as both posting and design work is cut down on. For now, I am going to aim for three posts during the week, and a weekend pretties post. So hopefully four total to keep you all entertained!

I just wanted to give everyone the heads up on what is happening and I will be implementing this new schedule basically as of now--  but I sincerely hope you all stick around, and I hope that everyone is having an amazing new year!

OOTD: lazy day

Since Cole and I are off work until the end of March when we are back and settled in Canada, we have a lot of spare time on our hands. We've been filling our days with relaxation, sun and catching up with friends. The other day, we had two friends come over and we decided to go out for a hike since we live near a bunch of different trails. Laura and I, being the girls we are, hiked in our dresses and Nikes. It was all class.

Prior to our sweaty hike, Cole and I went out for lunch, hence the dress-wearing. The purse I'm carrying was sent to me by Chicnova, and I am in love with it. It has quickly become my everyday purse and holds just enough that I don't have to dig through my bag like a crazy woman every time I want to find something.

weekend pretties #5

I have been super busy (and behind) with the blog and life lately after our two week vacation without internet and then us getting ready to move back to Canada (WOO!) in just a few days now..so I totally put this post up without realizing I hadn't made a set of pretties to go along with. In all honesty, today is our going away party so I just don't have time to do a set of pretties for you..so just enjoy this color palette!! xoxo

the skinny on skin

Isn't my post title just so catchy? Okay on second thought, maybe not. Whatevs. Today I wanted to have a little chat about skin. Mine is pale and freckly. No, I'm kidding, that's not what we're here to talk about. I want to talk about getting all up in that skin. This is making NO sense, I realize. I'm sorry, but I'm just going with it.

My skin, other than being Casper-the-friendly-ghost-white, has actually done me fairly well over the years. I've very fortunately never had much of a problem with acne, and when I do get a pimple it's a very rare occasion (but let's not talk about how when I do get them they are usually dead center of the tip of my nose or somewhere equally obnoxious).

I do, however, get crazy dry skin. It's always been a tolerable issue that is easily fixed with a heavy moisturizer once or twice a day. Since I have moved to live in New Zealand though, my skin has succumbed to it's apparent environmental allergies and I have been covered in eczema ever since. I have become known as an "itcher", which honestly is a really gross thing. I am constantly itchy and itching. I can't wait to move back to Canada JUST to have my own normal dry skin back! I didn't want to turn this into an eczema post though, because I've already had an eczema rant on here before, but I do want to quickly add that Aveeno Skin Relief moisturizer is the only product (besides steroid creams, but I avoid using those as much as possible) that stops the itching and gets rid of my eczema temporarily, and I have tried EVERYTHING. So if you have it, seriously try that.

Now, I was thinking last night about how much wear and tear my skin has taken this year with all the eczema and sunburns I've had in NZ, and I decided that when I move home and all my eczema clears up (here's to praying that it actually does), I want to implement a good skin care routine. That being said, I don't have much of an idea where to start! Here is a bunch of products that I've been interested in trying:

Olay Age Defying Day Serum  // Garnier Moisture Rescue // Kate Somerville Exfoliant // CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser // L'oreal Youth Code Bb Cream Illuminator

I'm sure a sponsor of mine, Bonnie, would have a few suggestions for me! Bonnie is an independent consultant for Rodan + Fields Dermatologists, a company that sells affordale skin care products for all types of skin.

Bonnie loves to help entrepreneurs and MOMpreneurs (clever, right?!) create their own successful and legitimate businesses from home working with Rodan + Fields, so if that sounds like it's up your alley then you should definitely be checking out Bonnie's R+F site. Be sure to follow Bonnie's Twitter account as well, @boatingBonnieC, as he is always posting helpful articles on working from home and the like!

Do you have any product suggestions for dry skin, or have you tried any of the above?

europe recap #1: france

Many of you may not know that before I came to New Zealand, my boyfriend and I backpacked all over Europe for nearly two months together. I have never done a recap of this amazing trip, but I have always wanted to. There is WAY too much to cover in one post, so I'll be doing a little series of Europe recaps! Welcome to recap numero uno.

I don't feel like doing this in order of where we went, so I'm just going to do it in order or whichever lovely country I feel like talking about at the time. Today I am feeling France-y. We didn't spend a ton of time in France, maybe a week total. We first stayed in eastern Paris in a very homey hostel, but the area wasn't the greatest and we felt very uncomfortable and unsafe coming back to our hostel at night. I would definitely recommend staying in the city centre, you'd probably have a much better opinion of Paris than I do if you did so.

Me being all class and apparently walking with my eyes closed at the Arc de Triomphe

We did the mandatory stroll down Champs-Élysées, a street full of luxury shops and crazy expensive cafes that we could never afford! It was cool to see nonetheless. And obviously went and checked out the Eiffel Tower...not that we have any good photos of that though because my memory card decided to delete them all. Thanks memory card. We also went to the Arc de Triomphe, which the memory card decided to save. Lucky!

We did have way better pictures than this, but no thanks to the memory card they are gone forever...

I think my favorite thing about Paris was eating baguettes full of delicious and cheap - but gourmet to us - European cheeses and meats (who am I kidding, that's all I ate our whole time in Europe!), and this amazing night cruise we did along the River Seine. Paris is so alive at night, it's seriously incredible. The Eiffel Tower is all lit up, the city is all lit up, people gather along spots on the river's edge and dance. It's so cool. I would recommend, a million times over, to do a night cruise in Paris if you go.

The night time River Seine cruise!

I should mention that we started our trip on September 1st, so it was still summery weather everywhere we went. Judging by the photos in this article, Paris in winter could be pretty darn beautiful. The next stop on our trip was Nice, which is actually pronounced like niece. It totally made up for how disappointed we were that Paris didn't meet the expectations of our wildest french dreams. Nice was nice, that's for sure.

This clearly explains why the night cruise was so worth it!

We stayed in Nice for two or three nights, most of our time spent floating around in the Mediterranean. Honestly, when you find water that warm you just don't want to get out! The ocean water was crystal clear and like hanging out in a lukewarm bathtub. It was the best. There were lots of great options of places to stay - we chose a hostel close to the city centre - and you could easily find hotels in Nice on a site like this. 

I love the Mediterranean. SO WARM. HOW!?

Walking through the windy little alleys in the shopping/cafe area was so pretty and eating out here was far more affordable than in Paris. I loved Nice, not only because the city itself is so wonderful but because you are a mere bus ride (just a simple city bus, not some crazy cross-country bus) from the amazingness that is the principality of Monaco - the second smallest and most densely populated country in the world. 

The windy alleyways of Nice full of cute cafes and boutiques.

I know, you're super intrigued now, but I'm going to leave it at that and come back to Monaco another day. Have sweet French dreams, and if you are planning a trip yourself, feel free to ask me any questions about where to go, what to do and doing it cheap!

please note: while I was compensated for links included in this post, all thoughts and opinions remain my own.

jan/feb group giveaway

I was a bit slow on organizing the group giveaway for January so it's kind of a mix of my lovely January and February sponsors for this one. That's totally acceptable though, cause who can complain about free stuff? No one, that's right ;) Thank you my wonderful sponsors, and enjoy readers!

You can win:

- a custom post signature OR blog header from Rachel at lalaLists

- 2 months small ad space & ad design from Kristen at KV's Confessions

- 4 in-post ad spots from Sylvia at Sweet Pea Sylvie

- a $25 e-giftcard to Amazon from Jess at Jess is More

- t-shirt with original artwork printed on it from Kelly at Blart Blog

- an 8x8 embroidered pillow with your choice of phrase on it from Tabetha at A Closet Intellectual

- a $10 e-giftcard to Amazon from Sybil at Peace it all Together

- a month of large ad space from Daryl at Unlost

- a pair of handmade fabric button earrings from Tyler at Rays of Purple (US only)

- a $15 Target giftcard from Kayla at Close Encounters

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pursuit of pretty

Hey Ladies! I'm back! (If you missed me earlier, Hi! I'm Rachel, I blog over at lala Lists, I've been filling in a bit round here while Chels is road tripping! You can see my earlier posts here and here).

Chelsea is back soon so this will my last post on O&I for a bit. So I thought I would go out with a little bit of a bang!

As a graphic design student I am always trying to find the pretty in things. I am that girl whose has bookmarks and screenshots and magazine tear-outs of things that I love and find inspiring. One thing that I really love to look at are typographic prints and posters. I love the combinations of letters and imagery to make something so simple, become a work of art. One place that I can never find exactly what I want, however, is phone wallpapers. I can never find the perfect quote or right design to suite my needs. So I thought I would come to blogland to ask for help!

A few weeks ago I started asking for bloggers to submit quotes for a mystery project, and boy did they come through! I got almost 100 quotes, and let me tell you, narrowing it down was no easy feat! Well I took the quotes and and a little design magic to bring you six iPhone wallpapers!

Available for iPhone 4 & iPhone 5. To download the wallpapers click here.

I had so much fun with this little project, I hope you all enjoy them as much as I do, and I really hope I get to see you around lala soon!

The floral elements are from the Ink Nest

cutting out the middle man

The internet and shopping are two of my favorite things. Like, VERY favorite things. So a combination of the two is just pure gold. And also big cash money out of my wallet. It's only in the past year or so that I have started shopping online. As long as you are sure of your sizes in things, it's a great way to score deals! In fact, I did a post a while back about how to save money by shopping online. Because I'm frugal like that.

Anyways, another tip that I didn't include in that post was to check out your option of shopping wholesale. This doesn't necessarily mean that you need to be buying twenty of the same shirt to get the deal, some websites just offer the opportunity to cut out the middle man and buy your clothing for pennies (almost literally).

There are a few good options for wholesale purchase that I am familiar with or have heard good things about: SammyDress, City Goddess and WholesaleDress. There are tons and tons more if you do Google searches as well. Buying directly from these sites gives you the opportunity to get trendy pieces at super cheap prices, in case you decide after finally buying those crazy aztec or galaxy leggings you've been lusting over that you just cannot rock them.

Although I would totally wear (and hopefully rock) these!
source: SammyDress

You need to be careful when purchasing from wholesale sites, as a lot of them are Asia-based companies - like WholesaleDress and SammyDress - and therefore often cater to Asian sizing. You will often find that clothing is listed as "one size" or "free size", do not be fooled into thinking that this means one size fits all, because it most definitely doesn't! Make sure you know your measurements, because you will nearly always need to check measurements of each item to make sure it'll fit you properly. 

Another tip with wholesale shopping that I think is important to mention (and a tactic I use when browsing through the thousands of items available) is to read the reviews of products if they are available. The reviews will often let you know what the sizing is like and the quality of the products so you know whether you're making a good buy or wasting your money.

You can definitely buy me this maxi "in the style of Jessica Alba" from City Goddess if you want, I don't mind.

Hopefully these tips end up being useful for you if you check out purchasing wholesale (or if you have in the past and were disappointed). The savings can definitely be worth the effort if you have the time to spare! Have you ever shopped wholesale?

disclosure: while I was compensated for links in this post, all thoughts and opinions remain my own.

weekend pretties #4

Hello lovely ladies! Rachel of lala Lists again. So if you have been round these parts lately you would know that Chelsea is road-tripping her way across New Zealand and I am picking up some slack this week.

Now I realize that Chelsea usually picks products and such for her Weekend Pretties, but that is just not how I roll. I am a much bigger fan of the style board. So for this amazing Spring Time palette that Chels pulled together I created an equally pretty (at least in my opinion) spring time outfit! I am loving the mix of the super bold cobalt and gold mixed with the paler blue, pink, and yellow. Perfect for shaking us all out of that mid-winter funk!

image source: publicdomainpictures.net by Petr Kratochvil

Enjoy and see ya around!

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P.S.: Did you see the amazing giveaway I had up here on Wednesday? If not you should hop on over and try to win one of 4 awesome prizes!

OOTD: auckland seafood festival

A couple of weekends ago, my work gave Cole and I tickets to go to the Auckland Seafood Festival. I am not the hugest seafood fan, but I really enjoyed myself! It was a nice excuse for Cole and I to wander the viaduct and spend time together. I gave scallops a try (and I still don't like them), and had a couple pieces of kalamari, but otherwise I had a greek salad and a brownie. Because that's what you do at seafood festivals.

And because it wouldn't be appropriate for me to wear anything but nautical-themed attire to a seafood festival...

spring trends with lauren

Hi Olive & Ivy readers!  I'm Lauren from Pink on the Cheek. and I am taking over Chelsea's blog. By her request. I can't say enough good words about Chelsea.  Words like: Hilarious. Supportive. Inspiring. Design-Obsessive. That last one is the reason we get along so well.  We both go crazy for fonts, layouts, color schemes... it makes me feel pretty good that I am not alone in this! With spring right around the corner, I am looking forward to a few trends that I have seen in magazines.
Bold black and white patterns

I love black and white patterns. It can be very simple to add these pieces to your wardrobe then if you want a pop of color I would pair it with a statement necklace!
Flowers and Bermuda Shorts

I am a fan of Bermuda shorts but since I'm just 5ft tall, they make me look short. But in hot weather, I cannot wear short shorts to work.  So I would pair my Bermuda shorts with wedges to lengthen my legs. 

Tribal Prints

I am looking forward to this trend the most. I love bold colors and patterns. If you want to incorporate this trend into your spring wardrobe, you can do something easy like tribal Toms. But I am LOVING this aztec sweater! It's perfect for bonfires on the beach late at night.

So, thanks Chelsea for allowing me to take over your blog!  You are such a sweetheart and I know you are having a blast on your break!

Well thank YOU Lauren for guest posting when I asked you to the day before I left, HA. I have the worst timing, I know. See you all in six more days!!

Time to Relax

Hi all you pretty people! My name is Rachel and I blog over at lala Lists. 

You may have heard me mentioned a bit round here... Chels vlogged about our friendship and my indecisiveness a few weeks ago... then I shared embarrassing photos of her! Well as you know Chelsea is traveling for the next little bit, so I am going to be pop in and out for the next week or so to lend a hand!

But because I now how super busy, crazy, and maddening our lives can be I thought we would take it slow - I don't want to overwhelm you of course! Quite the opposite in fact. I want ya'll to relax.

Which is why for today I am not going to convince you why you should visit me. In fact, instead of 1293 reason why you should follow me all I brought along with me today is a little giveaway. The Grand Prize winner will win a giveaway box (explained here) as well as a month of large ad space on my blog. The three runner ups will recieve two months of medium ad space each! So enter away, stay relaxed, and say hi, because I would love to meet you!

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To go with the giveaway, you use the code LOVELALA on Latika Soap's Etsy shop to get 20% off. And every purchase over $20 from their website will receive a pink cupcake as a gift! 

See y'all around!

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