Friday Favorites #146: Week of 6/17

Good morning and Happy Friday to you!

It’s been one heck of a busy and exciting week for me, and that makes me really happy. Every day that goes by has me falling more in love with living in such a big city with opportunities that only exist here. There’s so much to do and so little time to cover it all!

I have a lot of fun things to share in this week’s edition of Friday Favorites, so let’s get right to it. As always, feel free to comment below with something(s) you’ve been loving this week, and, of course, link up your favorites posts at the bottom!

 

Friday Favorites #146: Week of 6/17

 

• 2016 Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Contest

A big highlight of my week was getting the opportunity to play dress up and model yesterday!

The 12th Annual Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Contest hosted by Cheap Chic Weddings and Charmin took place on the Haven Rooftop at the Sanctuary Hotel in Midtown. It’s a very unique event where over 1,500 contestants enter wedding dresses made out of toilet paper for a contest that takes place months before. The Top 10 Finalists are flown out to New York City each year to showcase their dresses down a runway where the judges name the winner in-person shortly after!

My extremely talented friend, Susan, has won the contest three times! Her work has always blown my mind, so I was really excited when she asked me to model her dress this year.

This dress, headpiece, and purse outfit is only made out of toilet paper, glue, tape and thread!

Can you believe it?

The detail and work put into these dresses is unreal.

You can actually watch the full 30-minute live stream feed of the event here. The mic goes in and out, but you can see me twirl starting right before the 7:00 mark – ha – and check out all of the beautiful dresses! (Clearly I didn’t realize that I would be up there that long. If so, I would have thought of more poses beforehand. Rookie mistake.)

(See some of the official press shots of Susan’s dress here, here, here, and here.)

While Susan’s dress didn’t place this year, I thought it was stunning and very unique with the bohemian, festival-like design. Thank you for the amazing opportunity to model your dress, Susan. I can’t wait to see what you come up with next year!

 

• Dooney & Bourke Summer Collections

I’ve been sporting a new backpack on my adventures and commutes into the City, courtesy of my friends at Atelier.

They originally reached out to share the new that features playful prints with team logos.

While I appreciated them, I was really drawn to the !

I love the bright colors, but I went with a traditional black and brown color combo. I figured that would be my best bet in keeping it clean on my days of slinging my bag around New York City!

I really love the backpack, the zipper pockets inside, and the fact that it buckles on the outside. It can be a pain to access, but I like it that way when I’m walking the streets and don’t know who is behind me.

Thank you for the adorable backpack, Atilier. It’s perfect!

 

• gel nail polish

I’ve gotten gel manicures before, and I have requested gel nail polish at nail salons, but I just recently bought my first gel nail polish to use at home. Why did I just now pick up on doing this? I have no idea.

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Since I got a manicure a few weeks ago, I took my nail polish off and wanted to repaint my nails with something that would last longer than the normal couple of days. I was in CVS picking up something totally unrelated when it dawned on me that I don’t own gel nail polish. I actually notice a difference in how long it lasts when I get my nails done, so I figured I’d give it a go.

There are several brands out there that sell gel polish, but for whatever reason, I was drawn to and a gel top coat from the Sally Hansen line. I only applied a fresh coat yesterday, but I am already a fan of the extra thickness and shine!

While some lines require UV/LED light dryers, the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel line doesn’t, and it suggests you pair the gel polish with a gel top coat (no base coat needed). The colors claim to last up to 14 days, so I’ll be back to report how accurate it is!

 

• Rockettes New York Spectacular (Summer 2016)

Growing up, I had a serious dream of becoming a Radio City Rockette. (Didn’t every girl who took dance classes at one point or another?)

I thought about auditioning several years ago, but I got discouraged when I heard that the height requirements were between 5’6″and 5’10½” in stocking feet. (I’m just under 5’5″.)  Also, I didn’t live in New York. Now that I do live here, I live vicariously through my best friend all the way back from middle school, Lauren! She’s danced in shows On Broadway and has been a part of The Rockettes for several seasons now. (No big deal.)

I’ve seen her on tour before, but this week was the first time I actually visited the Radio City Music Hall for their New York Spectacular. It’s a beautiful venue, and it felt magical sitting there in the audience.

Lauren treated Scott and I to tickets to their Opening Night show this week, and it was so good!

For those of you who have seen the Christmas Spectacular, the structure and story of this show is completely different. So You Think You Can Dance choreographer Mia Michaels did a wonderful job choreographing numbers throughout the show. It was a fun to see a new spin on the traditional kicklines that you expect to see.

Also, the music, the costumes, and the sets were amazing! I was really impressed. I’d highly recommend this show to anyone in town visiting, especially if you’ve never been to New York before. The storyline takes you through all of the classic must-see spots!

Thanks so much for inviting us to the premier, Lauren.

I am so proud of you!

 

• pumpkin milk (in my iced tea)

Those of you who follow LIL on Snapchat might be familiar with this new phenomenon I discovered this week. Pumpkin milk. It exists, and you can substitute it for regular, almond, or soy milk in coffee or iced tea.

Actually, I owe this discovery to my blogging friend, Arielle!

After running into her at an event on Tuesday (<- meeting Michael Strahan could totally be another Friday Favorite bullet point), we caught up on a walk down to Union Square. She mentioned going into Irving Farm Coffee Roasters to grab an iced tea while I used the restroom and surprised me with a raspberry iced tea when I returned. She asked for almond milk, but they didn’t have any, so they suggested pumpkin milk instead. It was delicious!

And, yes, those of you who don’t already know will quickly learn that I am one hundred percent basic for loving pumpkin everything. #comeonfall #allthepumpkinthings

 

• favorite LIL posts

» Big Apple BBQ & Rebelution Concert

» Weekly Workouts (You Can Do At Home)

» Summer Health & Fitness Tips (Workout and Interview With Michael Strahan)

 

• Friday funnies

All about the eats today … what can I say. I love food, and these are great!

source

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Guilty.

😉

 

Your Turn

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Have a great weekend!

 

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. While the Dooney & Bourke bag highlighted above was sent to me (complimentary), all opinions remain my own. Friday Favorites is a series of posts that features items I genuinely want to share with you, and affiliate links may appear from time to time. As always, any support is much appreciated! <3