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Author: madewithjoy

Made With Joy is a fashion, lifestyle, adventure blog featuring the latest fashion trends, travel tips, influencer tricks & DIY hacks.

Coco x Chewy

If you’ve been following my blog/journey for a while, I’m sure you know by now that I have a baby girl named, Coco. She’s the cutest, most playful dog that I love so much. It’s actually her birthday this coming Sunday so I wanted to thank Chewy for her gifts! Coco loves the outdoors so she was so excited to see that she got a chuckit! She couldn’t contain her excitement when playing! She also loved her new Frisco Pineapple Hawaiian Shirt where she can play in style! Thank you so much Chewy for her gifts. She is obsessed and in love with them.

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Lavender Festival

It’s that time again when one of my favorite festivals at Highland Springs Ranch is here, The Lavender Festival! I love that it’s a family friendly festival yet, it’s also great for a romantic date. We came on the first opening weekend and there were actually less people than we expected, so less crowds, better opps! 😉 The scenery was lovely per usual and this year we ate at the buffet dinner (make reservations here ahead of time) We came late because we were too busy taking picture at the lavender field and ended up sitting in the middle of everything and got our own sweet table. I loved the scenery and being surrounded with light and eating underneath tall trees. The food itself was just okay to me but I was obsessed with their lavender tea and lavender lemonade! I actually mix them together and it was amazing. We also visited a few shops before we had dinner and Eddie bought so much stuff for the kitchen. We are both obsessed with lavender honey and lavender mint tea! Here are few of the photos we took below. There’s also an afternoon tea which we missed this year but definitely would love to try next year!

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Hope you guys get to go this year! It’s open till June 30. Don’t miss out and treat yourself with some lavender goodness!

XO,

Joy

Two Piece Set: Made by yours truly!

Shoes: TOMS

Bag: Wish

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Ostrichland USA

Hi friends,

Have you ever been to an ostrich petting farm? I took my family to Ostrichland USA this weekend and made some new tall friends! To our surprise it was only 5 mins away from Solvang! It’s located at 610 E Hwy 246, Solvang, CA 93463. My family and I had so much fun! (even my grandparents actually) If you’re looking for a family friendly atmosphere, or even a cute date idea, Ostrichland USA is the way to go! Admission is free; however it costs $5 for each bowl of food when it comes to feeding them (totally worth it!)

TIP:  Hold on to your handle very carefully and try not to get too close so the ostriches dont bite you (because they try) but also, don’t stand too close so they dont end up hurting their necks!

Here are a few of the pics that we took. They even had cute angel wings walls!

Let me know what you think about this blog post. Is this something you’d like to add on your places to visit list?

XO,

Joy

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THINGS TO DO IN SEATTLE DURING SPRING

Hi Friends!

As you all know, I went to Seattle for Easter weekend and I absolutely loved it! I love it so much that I wanted to write a blog post about things to do, to see and eat during Spring in three days!

So if you haven’t been to Seattle and you’d like to go sometime soon, here’s a list of the most memorable places I went to that I think will make you fall in love with Seattle and some tips and tricks that can help make your trip smoother.

  1. See the Tulip Festival in Roozengaarde. For more in depth info, please see my recent blog post about the Tulip Festival for tips what to do and bring. When we went, it unfortunately rained; however, it was still completely gorgeous and magical.
  2. Fly to Paine Field Airport in Everrett, Washington to save some money. It’s only 30 mins away from Seattle and it’s a quaint and small airport filled with less people.
  3. If you fly to Tacoma International Airport in Seattle and you’re going to stay in downtown Seattle, you don’t have to rent a car. You just take the Light Link Rail and Lyft all around downtown.
  4. Pike Place Market – A MUST SEE! This has about fifty percent of all the yummy food I tried all weekend. Which ones? See below. P.S. They’re all AH-MAZING!
  • The Original Starbucks – 1912 Pike Pl, Seattle, WA 98101
  • Piroshky Piroshky – they have delicious pastries (there’s always a line)
  • Pike Clam Chowder – it’s ADDICTING!
  • Rachel’s Ginger Beer – love love love! 
  • Matt’s In The Market – one of the best seafood places!
  • Beecher’s Handmade Cheese – OBSESSED! And you get to see them make cheese!
  • The Gum Wall – You have to go!

       

5. Stay at Kimpton Palladian Hotel. I love how close they are to Pike Place. It’s a 10 min walk as they’re only a couple of blocks away. I also love their interior and the service is spectacular!

6. Spend the afternoon in Volunteer Park. They have a gorgeous Green House!

  1. Check out Pioneer Square and it’s cute stores and restaurants.
  2. Try the Fried oysters and Dungenees Crab at Taylor Shellfish Oyster at Pioneer Square. 
  3. Get happy hour at Girin Korean Ssam Bar – also at Pioneer Square. Try their original korean beer – it is sooo good! It looks like rice milk and you drink it from a bowl but it’s actually really good. The restaurant looks super fancy on the inside and the service is amazing!
  4. Go bar hopping at Capitol Hill. My fave is the Unicorn Bar. It’s like a Disneyland for adults and they have super cute and instagrammable drinks! So colorful.
  5. Then sober up at Big Mario’s New York Pizza just around the corner. This pizza was amazing! It was delicious, light and crispy! Perfect way to end the night!
  6. Hang out with the cool cats at NEKO: A Cat Cafe. This cafe is so cute and cozy that Eddie and I actually want to build our own cat cafe in LA. It’s definitely on top of my favorite things to do in Seattle. I had so much fun playing with the cats while having coffee + dessert.
  7. Get brunch or din din at Matt’s in the Market. It’s on the second floor in front of the Pike Place Market sign. BEST SEAFOOD with a delicate touch! 
  8. Grab some ice cream at Molly Moon’s Ice Cream! Hands down the best ice cream i’ve ever had! Please get the honey lavender drizzled with lemon custard. It’s heaven in your mouth!
  9. Try the Seattle Dog in the Park. I cant believe I’m saying this but it’s actually better than the LA dog. It has some kind of cream cheese and veggies that makes it mouthwatering!
  10. Visit the Chihuly Garden and Glass – if there’s one thing you HAVE TO DO in Seattle, it’s this! I fell in love with this place and the artist Chihuly. The amount of work and dedication and creativity that was put into all his masterpieces were just so out of this world!! 
  11. Go see the cherry blossoms at the University of Washington and visit the Suzzallo Library. There’s also super cool thrift stores around the area that are worth seeing! Unfortunately, with the amount of time I had left, I only got to go Crossroads Trading and boy, did I get a lot of treasures!
  12. Grab a late night drink at Jarr Bar! It’s the best little bar in Seattle.I love that the place is so small and intimate and they have the yummiest late night snacks!
  13. See the Fremont Troll! LOL. If you want to be extra touristy and into Pop Culture – this troll was in Once Upon a Time and I had to go see it!

Hope you enjoyed this things to see/do/eat list and fall in love with Seattle as much as I did!

XO,

Joy

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Tulip Festival

Happy Earth Day!!

Last Friday I went to the Roozengaarde Tulip Festival and I fell in love!!! I made a beautiful red two piece dress and took pictures with the flowers. Roozengarde is located at Skagit Valley in Washington. I was so excited about this festival that I flew all the way from Los Angeles. One of my blogger friends Sera from Sera Stardust actually lives close by at the Tulip Festival and was the one that informed me about it. I was super stoked that we decided to meet up and do a collab. Unfortunately, it rained when we went so it was a bit muddy but we still tried to make the most out of it. P.S. We both made our outfits! 😉

If you’d like to visit the festival, here’s a few tips I have for you:

  1. Check the weather. It’s always raining in Seattle and we forgot to bring an umbrella. My boyfriend and I had to stop by at Walmart and buy an umbrella before heading to the festival.
  2. Wear rain boots! I wasnt ready for the rain and the mud is real!!! I couldnt get close to the flowers and it was muddy everywhere that my shoes got ruined.
  3. Bring cash. There’s food trucks and festival food being sold and having cash is important!
  4. Rain or shine, choose to have fun!
  5. Do not pick the flowers and enjoy nature!

Here’s a few of the photos that were taken at the festival.

I highly suggest going and I hope you enjoy your visit.

XO,

Joy

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California Blooms

California is blooming and she is magnificent. I’m sure by now you’ve seen all the wildflowers everywhere. Spring has got to be one of my favorite seasons at all time. The other week ago, I finally got a chance to stop by and see the beautiful poppies in Lake Elsinore.

It was so relaxing to be surrounded by nature with thousands of poppies. I made this one shoulder floral dress for the beginning of the spring season. What do you like most about spring? Have you seen any of the super bloom yet?

XO,

Joy

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Hotel Z – Stay Pineapple

Hi Friends,

It feels like it’s been years since I last wrote a blog post… as life has been crazy and I had to take a break on blogging… the past month, a few things have changed and I finally caught my breath and I feel like I actually have a chance to get back to it! *squeals from excitement* Last week, Eddie and I went to San Diego and stayed at Hotel Z – Stay Pineapple and we absolutely loved it! It’s soo cute and it’s literally in the heart of Gaslamp! They also offer free shuttles anywhere in Downtown San Diego, Balboa Park and Little Italy.

They also have bikes that you can rent! We strolled all the way down Balboa Park and visited the cute little Spanish Village.

Each room is designed with pineapple – everything!

Even their bathrooms!

But one of my ultimate faves is the afternoon delights!!! They serve little pineapple cupcakes in their lobby around 3 pm with pineapple infused water!

Do you ever see yourself staying in one of the Pineapple Hotels? I definitely would love to come back at this sweet hotel! They are also pet friendly 🙂

Till our next adventure,

Joy

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Fallin In Love With Big Bear

Last weekend, my boyfriend and I stayed at Cabins4Less and we woke up to snow falling! Growing up in California, I’ve never experienced snow falling so you can probably see how excited I was that I got to dance around with my glitter tutu in the snow. After eating breakfast, we headed to the Alpine Slide Magic Mountain and went tubing! It was sooo fun and probably one of my favorite things that we did in Big Bear.

We then headed to their cute little town village – Big Bear Lake Village. It was filled with cute little shops and restaurants and everything is so close to each other.

For the rest of the night, we decided to to dine in and stay warm with our fire place. The next morning, we attempted to hike the Castle Rock Trail and casually failed. We ended up just having a snow ball fight and finding sliding down the hills.

We had so much fun our Big Bear Weekend Trip that we cannot wait to go to the next one hopefully this year’s winter again later this year or next year. We also loved staying in our cute little cabin and we will probably stay here again.

I could not believe that Big Bear is only 2 hours away from my house! This will definitely one of my winter get aways. Do you have any travel plans any time soon? or even mini road trips?

Xo,

Joy

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Christmas Games For Family & Friends

Hi Friends,

Hope y’all had a fun and amazing Christmas. Every year, my family & friends have a get together and celebrate Jesus’ birth – and a huge part of this celebration is playing games & competing with each other. Therefore, I wanted to share a compilation of games that you can play with your own family and friends next year!

 

  1. Candy Cane Game – Opponents must transfer as much candy canes as they can using one candy candy with their mouths from one bowl to the other. Whoever has the most candy canes in the set time – wins! 

  2. Magic Carpet Ride – Two teams compete against each other. They must go from one station to the next only using the carpet to move them. You cannot use your hands and feet outside the carpet. We played this version with my friends and family and it was the party favorite!

     

  3. Ornament Twerking Competition – Using two empty tissue boxes filled with many christmas ornaments (the same amount on each box), opponents must twerk their butts off until most of the ornaments are out or whoever has the least ornaments inside the box wins. You will also need lots of tape and a rope to tie the tissue box around the competitors waist.
  4. Santa’s Reindeers Sweat Shop – Two teams pick their “reindeer” and must try their best to make their reindeer look like an actual reindeer with antlers. You will need stockings and balloons. Cut the end of the stocking so that the team will be able to insert the balloons inside. You can either time them or they can keep going until whoever finishes first.

  5. Rudolph’s Nose – Each players has the same amount of strings with glued pom pom at the very end of the string. Whoever gets to make their pom pom touch their nose and make it stay there for at least 3 seconds win!
  6.  A Penny For Your Thoughts – Each player puts a coin on the top of their forehead – whoever gets the coin into their mouth without using their hands, wins! (this can also be played with oreos; but my family has become an expert with the oreos (we decided to make it tougher)

    Hope you had fun watching our Christmas games and we hope that you’ll be able to play these games next year!

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How this interior stylist and blogger is juggling her career and “passion project” and shares her do’s and don’ts along the way

Who are you and where are you from?

My name is Katherine, I am an interior stylist and blogger.  I am from Pittsburgh, but recently moved to Raleigh, NC!

What is your brand about and what made you start it?

My brand, My Eclectic Grace, encompasses a lot of things. I started it because I was struggling with all my creative pursuits; writing, content creation, photography, art, and interior design..I wanted to put it all into one thing and I wanted to reach a lot of people, which is how the blog was created!

Do you have another job outside of being a (blogger/influencer/entrepreneur)?

I work for a start up interior design company, Modsy. I have been a stylist for them for a little over a year.

Is it difficult to balance your work life and passion project(s)?

Because my work and my “passion project” go so hand in hand, it really has been an easy balance and transition! Of course I always wish there were more hours in the day to do more, but i’m lucky that I have the job I do.

What do you love the most about being an influencer?

I love getting to meet so many people! I am quite introverted, so making friends is challenging for me. I’ve made so many amazing friends through blogging and with Instagram, and they are friends that I actually hang out with now on a regular basis!

What do you think is the hardest thing about being an influencer?

I think it’s an untraveled path. There is no guide book. You can’t go to school and learn how to do it..you’d have to take business classes, marketing, photography, communication, journalism..I mean it encompasses it all and most people do not understand that.

That is awesome! Have you taken these classes yourself and how did they help you as an influencer?

I have not taken any classes like that, my degree is in interior architecture, so all of my classes were art based! I have taken a few Instagram strategy classes. I just finished Cynthia Harpers and it was by far the best investment for my influencer platform.

What are three tips you can give to someone who also wants to be an influencer like you?

I would say that it’s going to be challenging at first, but you will learn every day. It’s a lot of trial and error..and most importantly, don’t go it alone. I ask for help all the time, wether it’s someone proof reading my blog, asking for a shoutout on Instagram or having my fiancé help with taking pictures!

LOL. Yes, having a finance that takes pictures is definitely awesome. Can you talk to us more about shout outs on instagram? For readers that don’t know what that means, how does that work? Also, can you share a few things that DID NOT work for you? This might help some upcoming influencers to not make the same mistake!

Shout outs are when you tell your followers about another account. For instance I will share a few photos from an account I admire and why I like them and why my followers should check them out – in turn they do this for me (most of the time!) It’s a prearranged thing – I always reach out to these accounts first to talk it over. It gets you seen in front of a whole new audience – but if it’s in your niche then it’s even more powerful. Things that DID not work for me was copying. And I don’t mean I copy and pasted others, I mean that I used to look at others and how they edited photos, what they talked about, how their bio was set up and would do the same thing. I didn’t carve out an identity for myself and that was not healthy – you have to be authentic and confident in who you are and what you’re promoting or you will get sucked into the rabbit hole of social media!

What are your goals and where do you see yourself a year from now? & where do you hope to be in 3 – 5 years?

My goal is to make this my full time career. I want to start a family in the next 3-5 years, so I want to be established by then. It’s a great career for flexibility and creativity!

Sounds like an amazing goal! What kind of niche are you thinking and what’s your focus going to be?

My niche is DIY and home decor. I through in a little lifestyle and hope to do more of that as I get established.

Who/what inspires you or keeps you motivated to do what you do?

It’s not so much who or what motivates me, it’s more the feeling of being on the other spectrum. I had a 9-5 for years, and I felt like it just leeched creativity from me, and my time was not my own. Doing what i’m doing, I’m able to travel whenever I feel like it, and it’s me who choses how high I rank. The only limit it myself!

What’s your favorite app aside from instagram?

I’ve recently become really interested in photography and editing. I downloaded Lightroom and have been playing around with it a lot!

What’s your next project and how can we support you?

I don’t have anything big coming down the pipeline – this time of year I like to be gracious with my time and take it easy. After the new year however, I will be starting a new business with my fiancé, and we are really excited about that!

That’s so exciting! Can you tell us a little bit more about your business with your fiancé?

I wish I could say more, but it’s a surprise for everyone! All I can say is it has to do with coffee! 😉

How important is it to you to make genuine connections/friendships through social media/in our industry & why?

It’s extremely important. I am a firm believer in being authentic and genuine..I can not relate, nor really communicate with people who are doing this for the wrong reasons. I’m all about supporting others and community over competition.

What does female empowerment and girls supporting girls mean to you?

It’s everything!! Especially in this field, jealousy is real. But when you support other women in their pursuits, you push that positive energy out into the world. It makes a difference.

Where can we find you in social media?(state your social media handles/blog/website)

You can find me on IG at @myeclecticgrace

my blog is www.myeclecticgrace.com

What are you looking forward to the most from Influencer Girl Gang and what do you hope to acquire from joining us?

I look forward to seeing other girl’s journeys and supporting them in their dreams! I hope to acquire an uplifting and empowering community of like minded people!

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