augustyniakemily@yahoo.com

This past weekend the weather was sooooo warm which made me quite excited for the spring weather ahead. I took advantage of that warm weather and made a visit to the Detroit Institute of Arts. My favorite exhibit in the DIA is the European and Fashionable Living exhibits. Their resemblance to European museums is why I enjoy them the most.  I have always had a passion for the arts whether it is creating my own art, seeing someone else’s, or just having a creative mind.

Jacket: Galeries Lafayette // Jeans: Tory Burch // Top: Banana Republic // Shoes: Nordstrom // Purse: Tory Burch

I was so excited to return to Europe again this summer and bring my sister with me this time. I wanted  to show her why I am so obsessed with everything about Europe from the culture, architecture, food, and most importantly the shopping! We both picked out a few cities that we would love to visit and then chose Milan, Santorini, and London based on flight costs and the schedules. Throughout my posts you will see me ranting about how amazing European food is. Let me tell you there is such a difference between the quality of ingredients  they use in the States compared to Europe. Overall it was a wonderful trip we will always remember and cannot wait to return. Make  sure to look in my travel section for more of my pictures! 

Being a fashionista it was imperative I visit another fashion capital of the world.  I have been to Italy several times and the culture and atmosphere excite me every time.  I love love love Italy and being surrounded by everything Italian. Milan was quite different than all of the other Italian cities I have traveled too, yet it was still unique and enjoyable to visit. There were so many churches and museums we explored. If I’m being honest we also had a day devoted to shopping.  Our first night we ventured out to the Grand Canal for dinner and found dozens of restaurants back to back on both sides of the river with thousands of people congregated everywhere. We had not seen so many people though out all of Milan! All of the hype had us venturing out there every night for dinner.

We had an extra day in Milan  planned for a day trip so we took the train to Lugano, Switzerland.  This city is beyond beautiful! Completely serene with an upscale charming town and  gorgeous scenery. When doing research on what to do in the city we intended to hike the mountains and relax  by the lake. Once we arrived we ate breakfast followed by a little shopping which made our bags heavier and our desire to climb a mountain to a zero.  We walked around the town a little more and then headed to lay out at the beach, overlooking the mountainesqe view.  Lugano is a city I would love to return to for a day or so if I am ever nearby again. 

You hear about how beautiful the sunsets are in Santorini and I complete agree with everyone who I’ve heard that from. All of the Cyclades are completely beautiful and pictures cannot even do them justice.  The blue waters and bleached white villas make everything pop with color each way you turn.  The beaches were amazing, however you would always have to walk down a couple hundred steps to reach  them and then back up those same steps. At a few of the popular beaches they have donkeys you can ride back up. We did that once and it was completely terrifying as the donkeys were wobbling up these stone steps with no ledges, yet completely exhilarating at the same time as you looked out over the horizon with the white villas up ahead.  Now don’t even get me started on how mouthwatering authentic Greek food is. Every day we averaged about 15 miles of walking, with all that walking meant we were always hungry. We definitely took advantage of that and stopped for food constantly throughout the day for snacks because everything we passed just looked so delicious.  No joke we ate what we felt was our weight in food every day. 

London, the modern day Paris, that’s how I like to think of it anyways. London was everything I dreamt it would be! Paris is one of my favorite cities and London resembled it in so many ways. With London being so big with literally hundreds of  things to see and do we were glad we had a week to spend there. I’m not quite sure where to start on what my favorite experiences were: from tea parties, working on our British accents,  touring the Buckingham Palace, attending a play with  Rebel Wilson, visiting castles, visiting markets and the list goes on.  I hope to return to London in the near future to finish all the sight seeing I didn’t get to, as well as visit everything I loved again. When traveling in foreign countries it can be difficult if there is a language barrier, thankfully we had it easy in England since English is their native tongue. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, I know I sure did! I’m sure many of you love Thanksgiving for all of the amazing food. My favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal is of course the dessert! Dessert is one of the MANY things I am thankful for this year. You should always remember to give thanks for all the blessings in your life. I truly have been blessed in so many ways and am thankful for everything. 

Sweater: Banana Republic // Skirt: J. Crew // Shoes: Lord & Taylor // Purse: Cambridge Satchel Co // Watch: Kate Spade

Hi everyone! I am just starting this blog as an extra hobby for fun.  I have been inspired by many other bloggers and hope I can do the same. I would love for you all to follow along with me.