Yosemite Feat. LNBF, Gaston Luga, Baume, Boody, Krochet Kids, Blanca Flor, & Fazl Socks

I had an itching to do some wilderness exploring and shooting so I assembled a small group of creative gal pals; Stephanie (@stephanieklotzphoto), Hannah (@hannahrosesesser), and Rachel (@notrachelmcadams), and we went on a 3-day, 2-night glamping trip to Yosemite National Park.

We stayed at one of the housekeeping units in the park. It’s basically a roof, bunk beds and a full size bed, a couple power outlets, covered by curtains and a fire pit, bear storage locker for all food and anything with a scent, and a table for meals. It wasn’t much but it was the perfect set up for what we wanted. It was kinda like camping but we didn’t have to set up tents and had a little more security with the bear lockers.

Over the course of the trip we visited a lot of the popular tourist destinations in Yosemite Valley, took lots of photos, made s’mores, wandered and explored! We worked with a handful of awesome sustainable brands also on this trip including Leave Nothing But Footprints (LNBF), Boody, Gaston Luga, Baume, Krochet Kids, Blanca Flor, and Fazl Socks. It was such a great time getting to adventure with these rad gals and I can’t wait to do it again!

Mendocino - Eco Travel & Vegan Resort, The Stanford Inn by the Sea feat. Feroshchick

Over Labor Day Weekend, my dad planned an awesome family trip for us to Mendocino! There were many things to celebrate as it was my 24th birthday on the 4th, my brother, Nathan, and his wife, Deanna's, 3rd wedding anniversary on the 12th, and my mom's 60th birthday on the 13th. So it was pretty much a celebratory present for us all to have a nice trip together and see each other. My boyfriend, Zach, came as well. 

We all flew from different cities and met in San Francisco. Zach and I came from Long Beach, Nathan and Deanna from Tucson, and my parents from Phoenix. It took a while for all of us to land, get the two rental cars, and be on our way to Mendocino. 

We stopped for a lovely lunch at a cute vegan Mexican place called Gracias Madre in SF (not to be confused with the West Hollywood Gracias Madre - completely different restaurants!) that was fab. Unfortunately, San Francisco was in a heat wave with 100 degree weather and no place has AC so that was a brutal few hours in the city. Found a cute bookstore boutique with some vegan baked goods too so my dad and I got some pastries. 

We then continued on our way to Mendocino on super windy roads through the mountains, forest, and coastline. Such a beautiful drive! I'm sure a lot of you are thinking, "why would they go to Mendocino out of all places?" Well... it just so happens that Mendocino is home to North America's eco-vegan resort, The Stanford Inn by the Sea, which my mom and I have been dying to go to! 

To give a little background, I was vegetarian for seven years and went vegan over two years ago. My mom is a bit of a health nut and soon became vegan once I did after learning of all the health benefits, treatment of animals, and environmental impacts. Over the last six months, the two of us have had quite an effect on our other family members and friends. 

Nathan, Deanna, and my boyfriend, Zach, eat mostly vegan with the occasional cheat meal, and my father, Scott, eats mostly vegan as well with mainly pastries being his cheat. All pastries are "vegan" in Scotty's eyes haha. Deanna's family also has adopted a more plant-based diet as well as many of my parents' friends. 

Although it was late at night, we were welcomed at The Stanford Inn and then got settled into our rooms. The lobby was cozy with couches, a fireplace, plant-based recipe books, vegan lifestyle books, local vegan wines (I know I know, it's weird that all wines aren't vegan, it should just be grapes!), toys, nik naks, etc. I could tell this place was going to be a blast. These people get me!!

In the next couple of days, we did a lot of fun things together! We explored the resort and their facilities, the garden, went in the pool and jacuzzi, went mountain biking through the forest, explored the nearby city of Fort Bragg, went canoeing, ate sooo much delicious vegan food, and went to the little downtown area of Mendocino. We saw otters, crabs, and seals too while canoeing because it was an estuary -  it was like a river/ocean which was super cool and different! We also celebrated my birthday on the 4th! 

The drive back to San Francisco was much shorter than the drive there. Nathan, Deanna, Zach, and I left on Tuesday as we had school/work to get back to but my parents stayed a few extra days and continued their road trip up the coast to the Pacific Northwest. It was such a wonderful trip with my fam and Zach, my heart is so full from it! 

I also recently collaborated with vegan-friendly bohemian boutique, @feroshchick, so many of my outfits pictured are thanks to them! Shop my looks here: Sleeveless Midi Dress with Lace Detail, Matilda Lace Tank, Sleeveless Ruffles and Lace Dress (sold out - sorry babes!),  Draped Ribbed Sweater Poncho,  & Boho Striped Ribbed Cardigan.

Sequoia National Park

A few weeks ago, I went on a day trip to Sequoia National Park. The trip was organized by one of my very talented photographer friends, Daniel Woods. We carpooled to Bakersfield where Dan lives, which is the halfway point between Los Angeles and Sequoia. We had a big group but unfortunately most of the models bailed last minute so it was mostly photographers. This did not stop the fun though! 

We then caravanned through the canyons and forest to get to Sequoia where we continued on the windy roads. We were supposed to meet up with another car full of people there as well, but as luck would have it - there was no phone service! Our group of four cars got split up and since no one could call or text anyone we just did our own thing. The park was pretty packed since it was peak season and on a weekend so that didn’t help either. Thankfully, a couple hours later we ended up finding each other at the Giant Forest shuttle station! Tip for next time: BRING WALKIE TALKIES - or you’ll lose each other haha. 

Once the group had been reunited, we wandered through some meadows and a forest path that led us to the most beautiful lookout of the mountains during sunset. We took so many photos but we also took the time to appreciate our surroundings and how incredible it all was. 

After dark, some stayed to get starry Milky Way photos until dawn (they turned out so good!), some drove back to Los Angeles, some drove back to San Diego (I know, I know.. don't know how they didn't fall asleep!), etc. and I drove back to Bakersfield and stayed the night with a college friend of mine, also named Allison, who just moved there. :)

It's hard to put into words how creative trips like this make me feel, but I saw a quote today that really resonated with me. It said, "jobs fill our pockets, adventures fill our souls." - pretty much spot on. I've been so busy with my job lately that it's really been the weekends and adventures like this that have been keeping me sane. Anyway, can't wait for more amazing days like this one!

Models: 

@jessicagjurashaj @jessicagunzs @_markohhpolo @sosodrunk 

If you want to see other photos from the trip, be sure to check out the hashtag #DWxSNF! 

San Francisco Girls Trip

I recently went on a girls’ trip with Autumn (@grlwithbangs), Nicole (@nicoleliolie), and Kaitlyn (@kallme.kaitlyn) to San Francisco and it was such a blast! I’ve only been to SF once or twice before this when I was younger so everything was pretty new to me!

Day 1:

We drove from Long Beach to San Francisco – if you aren’t familiar with this drive you can do it a few ways. In order to get there by lunchtime, we took the inland route on the interstate 5. We made a couple pit stops, one of which was a photo-shoot on the side of the road rocking our GRLFRND Denim in the middle of nowhere haha but it’s chill. After lunch, we stopped by the Mosiac steps overlooking the city and explored around in my car. We then got settled in at Hotel Fusion where we were staying and started getting ready for dinner.  The hotel was in a touristy area but the staff weren’t all that friendly and our room was a little cramped. But hey, I guess that’s San Francisco – everything is squished! We decided to go to trendy Asian restaurant/bar Hakkasan (yes the same one in Las Vegas but this one people actually eat at and there isn’t a dance floor). The girls and I decided to have a little fun and once we had a drink or two our fake British accents came out for about two hours on and off but we were convinced we had the bartender, waiter, and restaurant staff fooled. FYI we didn’t haha. The waiter came and apologized at the end of our meal (he thought he was being rude in his response to my vegan questions haha) and ended up bringing us some complimentary sorbet because of it! It was so nice of him!

Day 2:

We ate breakfast at this cute vegan café called Nourish. Autumn had picked it out and I had no idea it was vegan so when we showed up I got super excited! I had a yummy green juice and a breakfast toast sampler. The rest of the day was jam-packed – I felt like we did so many activities. We went to Chinatown, saw the Painted Ladies (from Full House), and went to Haight & Ashburry- the mecca of hippie town and LSD. We stopped at two places for lunch – Veganburg for Autumn and I and a café across the street for Kaitlin and Nicole. Probs the best vegan burger I’ve ever had. They also had loaded fries that were bomb – 10/10 would recommend. We later visited the Palace of Fine Arts, which was pretty much just a beautiful park, small lake, with huge palace-looking structures. We had attempted to go see the Golden Gate bridge after but traffic was so bad and I made a wrong turn which cost us about 30 minutes to an hour so we decided to save the bridge for day 3.  Nicole has some cousins about an hour outside from SF, so they came to have dinner with us at Boudin at Fisherman’s Wharf. As we were finishing up dinner, two of my old Industrial Design classmates from college got seated at the table behind us with a friend of theirs. Such a small world! I had actually been messaging one of them earlier that day to meet up but as you can tell from our busy schedule that it was difficult.  We let them finish dinner, parted ways with Nicole’s cousins, and the four of us went back to our hotel. My college buddies came over after and had some drinks at the downstairs bar, Club Fusion, with Katilin and I.  Supposedly SF doesn’t have much of a club/bar scene, but low-key it was rager down there! Overall, it was such a fun and busy day exploring the city!

Day 3:

We checked out of our hotel and went to the Golden Gate Bridge. We didn’t actually cross it; we just went to a nearby coastline park to hangout for a little and get some photos. We were really looking forward to finding some swing that overlooks the bridge but we were already running late on getting home and it would have been a mile or so hike to get to so we decided to save it for the next trip. We also kind of messed up for breakfast today. We were all doing some research on our phones and I found this cute café to go to in the financial district. Not only was trying to find parking that wasn’t $25 the most stressful and time-consuming thing but once we did find parking and walked 15 mins to get to this café they were closed. I guess businesses aren’t open on July 3rd for the holiday the next day. So we ended up doing the most basic option there is and just grabbed some breakfast items at the nearby Starbucks.  We then started on our drive back home to Long Beach. Because of recent mudslides the route on the coast home is closed around Big Sur, so we drove as long as we could on the coast until we had to cut over inland. We had to stop a few times for photos (of course) haha but it was a nice (but long!!) drive home.

I think next time I’d like to make it a four-day trip, or maybe fly if we’re going to do it in three – we all felt a bit rushed to see everything. Overall though, this trip was so much fun and I can’t wait to have more girls’ trips like this in the future. 

Big Bear, California feat. DeLezhen & StyleWe

I recently went on a trip to Big Bear, California with some of my creative peeps! Originally the group was supposed to be pretty big but it narrowed down to just four of us: @koltinsullivan (early bday boy and group organizer, yay!), @snow.fox_, and @rex.dude. We all met up at Koltin's house and carpooled from there. It was only about an hour and a half drive to the airbnb in Big Bear. We explored the area and shot at a few different locations until dark. There weren't many options for dinner haha but we ended up finding a nice Chinese restaurant called Dynasty where we all chowed down. We relaxed at the cabin and Koltin continued shooting some artsy indoor stuff with Rex and Cindy until bed. The airbnb was huge and could have fit like ten people, so it was super spacious with just us four!

We had a lazy morning the next day and then began to scope out some more good places to shoot. We were later accompanied by @lisajstarrett and @elliepanger and shot two looks for each of them. We had originally planned to stay until sunset, however we were getting tired and a little pictured-out from the weekend and decided to head home a little earlier. Koltin was a superstar driver and drove the whole way (again) while the rest of us (maybe just me haha?) instantly fell asleep for the drive. We arrived at his house and said our goodbyes and parted ways. 

I also partnered with a few brands on our little excursion: DeLezhen and StyleWe. Delezhen is a USA-made small jewelry company that makes the cutest dainty pieces! They sent me a white and gold druzy necklace (pictured in photos 3-5). It's super versatile and can go with so many outfits! Love love love it!!

As for StyleWe, this is my third time partnering with them on a shoot - yay! They sent me two pieces as usual for me to style, one of these is the Blue Lace Up 3/4 Sleeve Stand Collar Denim Mini Dress and the other is the White Vintage V Neck Floral-embroidered Midi Dress. Honestly, I was kinda up in the air about what type of setting I wanted to shoot these in because they could both totally work for a beach theme too haha but I like how the nature vibes from Big Bear turned out even better! I joked on my Instagram that the maxi dress could have gone one of four ways: 1. beachy 2. pregnant lady 3. mariachi band or 4. a super unrealistic (yet totally cute) adventure in nature with it.. obviously I chose option four lol. Needless to say, this trip was a blast! I'm so thankful for the memories as well as DeLezhen and StyleWe for the goodies! 

Southwest Road Trip: CA > AZ > UT > NV > CA

This year both my boyfriend, Zach, and my brother, Nathan, had the same spring break - yay!! My brother is in medical school at the University of Arizona and Zach is in physical therapy school at California State University Long Beach, so you can imagine our family's excitement that they would be out of school at the same time! When schedules align, my dad loves to plan family trips so this time we made it a southwest road trip!

Zach and I drove out from Long Beach to Scottsdale, AZ where my parents live and stayed a couple nights. Nathan and his wife, Deanna, drove up from Tucson and met us in Scottsdale a day later. We then caravanned in two cars (mine and Nathan's) to Sedona/Oak Creek Canyon for two nights. We stayed in the cutest lodge right on the creek and it was super roomy for our group of six. While in Sedona, we hiked, explored and shopped around downtown Sedona, went to Tlaquepaque, etc.

On day three of our trip, we ventured north to Flagstaff and stayed at my aunt and uncle's cabin in Forest Highlands. We did a little bit of hiking, explored downtown Flag, etc. We also went to one of my fave restaurants, Whyld Ass - literally the best vegan mac and cheese and baked goods omg. unreal. 

We continued north on day four and drove up to Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend in Page, AZ. My dad booked us on a tour of Upper Antelope Canyon which was pretty cool! I had seen the Lower Antelope Canyon before but this was my first time seeing the Upper one. The main difference is that the Upper one is more expensive, there aren't any stairs or climbing that you have to do, you get driven in, and you walk through it there and back. After Antelope Canyon, we stopped by Horseshoe Bend. It was really windy and people were getting way too close to the edge it looked like some of them were going to blow off the edge! Serious anxiety there haha but the view was worth it! Nathan and Deanna parted ways with us here and drove back down to Flagstaff for the night as we continued the trip to Utah. 

Once we left Page, we drove into south Utah and made it to our cabin in Duck Creek Village around dusk. It was such a cozy place but every restaurant nearby was closed so we ended up scrounging up some food from the cooler to put together dinner. It was super cold and snowing out too which we didn't prepare for either. 

On Day five, we drove through Bryce Canyon National Park which was spectacular! There is one main road and many lookouts and places to stop along the way. We didn't bother hiking much here because it was snowing, my dad has a bad hip, and Zach recently hurt his ankle. We ended the day at a hidden gem of a restaurant that was super nice! We drove back to our lodge in Duck Creek and stayed for a second evening. 

In the morning, we packed up our stuff and got ready to go to Zion National Park. Because I was so cold the day before, I thought it would be a good idea to wear four pairs of pants (three leggings and one pair of loose fitting jeans over lol). This was a new record for me, but Zion was surprisingly much warmer than Bryce Canyon so I ended up taking off most of my layers. Zion was much more crowded than I was expecting and it made for a less relaxing time there than Bryce. It was still very beautiful and scenic though! Once we were done driving through the park, we started making our way to Las Vegas!

We checked into the Mirage and got settled. They got both of our room arrangements wrong and my dad through a fit haha but they wouldn't do anything to fix it - pretty bad customer service if you ask me. Anywho... we ended up finding this super vegan-friendly steakhouse (lol, weird I know) at the Wynn and ate dinner there! This was probably one of the most expensive menus I've ever seen but everything was amazing and they really catered to vegans so my mom and I were super happy. After dinner, we went back to our hotel and got ready for the late showing of the Cirque du Soleil show Beatles Love. It was very 70's and hippie vibes - pretty cool tricks and acrobatics as well! We finished off our night in Vegas drinking at a cocktail lounge and hanging around the casino. 

We ended the last morning of our trip eating at a buffet at the Mirage for breakfast. Zach and I parted ways with my parents and drove back to Long Beach. It was such a great trip and even better times with my fave people! Can't wait for our next family vacay :)

NOW ENTERING...

LAST STOP... VEGAS!

Joshua Tree & Salton Sea Feat. Peoples Project LA

I went to a photography meet-up a few weeks ago hosted by @rubyjamesphoto, @irenerudnykphoto, and @jessicakobeissi. I found out about it through another photographer friend @messinaphotos. The meet-up was at 6pm in Echo Park... so by that time it was already dark and surprisingly windy and cold. Sounds kinda sketchy to meet a bunch of random people you don't know in a public park when it's dark outside haha but it all worked out okay. I was talking in a big group and we all thought it would be a good idea to do a day trip to Joshua Tree and the Salton Sea and started a group message. Our group of 7 or 8 people turned into just 3 of us,  @koltinsullivan, and myself!

Koltin and I planned the meet-up for his place and started reaching out to models, photographers and other creatives! We ended up getting a group of 7 (@serenalisaa, @juliaamotta, @exit_the_minute, @photosby_laurence, @asantov, @koltinsullivan, and myself) leaving from Glendora and met another group of 4 (@brittneyborowski, @heysalem, @sarahwaseaton, & @justinomega) at Joshua Tree.

Big shout out to @peoplesprojectla for some of the goods I shot with in Joshua Tree! I love working with local brands and love even more when they are committed to philanthropy and the environment. Peoples Project LA is partnered with Heal The Bay,  which is a non-profit organization dedicated to making our coastal oceans safe, healthy, and clean. Ten percent of the proceeds from Peoples Project LA go to Heal The Bay - YAY! Their stuff is so cute too! I'm wearing a gray top, light blue floral dress, and denim jacket from them. 

After Joshua Tree, we went to this random Mexican restaurant  for lunch that was actually pretty good. There we met another one of Brittney's friends, @gregkantra. Lunch was pretty fun with all of us but then the group split up after and the original 7 of us continued to the Salton Sea!

The Salton Sea area was pretty much deserted but we surprisingly found 2 people living around there and lots of puppies haha. The sand was more just like crushed fish bones and your shoes would sink into this salty toxic mud.. honestly pretty gross and smelled kinda bad. We were there around sunset and the sea was so serene, it looked like glass and was almost an optical illusion because there was no movement in the water!

We shot until it was dark and then did the long drive back to Koltin's (about 2-3 hours) and everyone went their separate ways! This was probably one of my favorite shoots to date because I met so many awesome creative people, went on an fun day trip, and got a lot of good content! Can't wait to do a shoot something like this again!

AZ Road Trip

I went on a road trip around Arizona with some of my girlfriends (Courtney, Blake, Alex, Tiffany, and Brooke) and it was such a blast!

Driving from Scottsdale, we went to Sedona on Day 1, hiked around Bell Rock, went to the downtown, saw Christmas carolers, and ate at a bomb Mexican place for lunch. We then spent the night at Alex's family's cabin in Munds Park, just a little north of Sedona. Alex's parents were SO nice and went up there earlier that day to set everything up for us. Her mom even left dinner in the fridge. So sweet.

On Day 2, we drove through Williams, had lunch and explored the area, then got to the Grand Canyon around 3pm. The Grand Canyon was FREEZING! We got some good photos (and laughs) there but we were not prepared for how cold it was. We were originally trying to spend the night in the Grand Canyon, but they have little lodging around the area and we didn't want to get hotel rooms. We ended up finding an amazing Air Bnb in Page about two hours north. It was way better than we were expecting!

On Day 3, we went to a crepe place for breakfast (I got vegan creme brûlée oatmeal with berries!) and then were on our way to Antelope Canyon. We decided to go to the lower part of Antelope Canyon from the reviews I saw online. It was cheaper (I think $28 or something), less crowded (supposedly), there was more climbing and stairs, and you didn't need to make a reservation. However, the tours did have a good amount of people and it was difficult to capture photos without strangers in the background. We left Antelope Canyon to travel to the instal-famous Horseshoe Bend on Lake Powell. The views were gorgeous and Courtney was giving us all heart attacks with how close she got to the edge (smh). We then began the drive back to Scottsdale (about 5 hours) and Alex dropped us off at our places. It was such a great trip with such great people. 

KEEP READING...  :)

I also partnered with a brand called Kastlfel for this trip and we got some really cool photos of their merchandise! Part of the reason I was so drawn to Kastlfel was their commitment to sustainability. As you guys know, I'm secretly suuuuper granola/hippie when it comes to the environment and ethically/sustainably sourced products. Their clothing is made from recycled plastic bottles and is actually so practical and soft! You could say I'm a HUGE fan.