August 30, 2017

INSTAGRAM LATELY: AUGUST

Sisters in One One Swimwear 
(these bikinis are reversible & come in such fun prints/color combos!)
Shop: One One Swim c/o


After long, sandy days at the beach, there's nothing I love more than a refreshing shower with Olay's body wash. It has lock in moisture technology which leaves my skin feeling clean & soft. 


My favorite sneakers of the summer
See them styled here & here
Shop: Sneakers c/o


Wearing my fiesta top for a Mexican dinner date
Shop: Top (also as a dress here)


Love when we match but don't. Styled white tops & denim in totally different ways
Read the full post & shop the looks here


All black in the summer definitely works when it's as lightweight & loose as this jumpsuit
Shop: romper version


Birthday gal
Romper also styled here
Shop: similar rompers: here, here & here


Getting as much wear out of my white jeans, white shoes, white everything, before the summer ends
Shop: Jeans | similar wedges


Alaskan Views
Read my packing post here


Day 2 - Alaskan Views - Visiting Hubbard Glacier by ship
Read Travel Guide part 1 here


Day 3 - Alaska - Visiting the Bears. One of many wildlife creatures we got to see during the trip
Read Travel Guide part 1 here


Day 4 - Rainy day in Juneau couldn't stop us from exploring!
Read Travel Guide part 2 here


Day 5 - Hanging out on a glacier in Skagway! One of the coolest experiences EVER
Read Travel Guide part 2 here


Day 6 - Getting picked up by a couple of lumberjacks in Ketchikan!
Read Travel Guide part 2 here


Day 7 - Day at Sea. Missing these views!!
Read Travel Guide part 2 here


That's all for now! Follow along @michelle_orsi on Instagram!


XO
Michelle Paige

August 25, 2017

A NEW WAY TO WEAR EMBROIDERY

We finally made it to Friday! For some reason each week has been feeling EXTRA long lately. Maybe it's because I've had so much going on and feel like I haven't had a second to relax! This weekend is another busy one: we have a family BBQ, a birthday party & Jody and I have our first appointment to check out a potential wedding venue! 

Onto my outfit details! I have been wearing these sneakers NONSTOP since I got them! I love how crisp & bright the white leather is and the embroidery detailing is SO cute! Embroidery has been a huge trend lately but I feel like I mostly see it on clothing so I loved that these sneakers were a cute twist on a popular trend! They also allow me to pull off wearing a super basic outfit & still look trendy & fun!

Tee: American Eagle | Jeans: American Eagle | Sneakers: c/o Skechers | Bag: Rebecca Minkoff

Enjoy your weekends!

XO

Michelle Paige

PS. There are a bunch of great sales happening this weekend! Now is the time for fall shopping!

Get 20% off select styles at Bloomingdales with code FASHFUND

50% off active wear at Forever 21

40% off new arrivals at J Crew Factory

60% off select items at Loft with code SUMMER60

25% off at Macy's with code FRESH

60% off select items at Soludos

Buy one, Get one 50% off at Urban Outfitters

August 23, 2017

TRAVEL GUIDE: ALASKAN CRUISE PART 2

Back to share part 2 of our Alaskan cruise travel guide. I ended my last post as we were leaving Sitka (if you haven't read that post, catch up here!) Today I will be taking you through the rest of our trip - Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan & Vancouver!

After leaving Sitka, we started our journey to Juneau, Alaska. We had booked an excursion for this city to take a helicopter to Mendenhall Glacier, but we had been tracking the weather & it didn't look so great, so we were totally unsure of what was going to happen! We arrived in the port of Juneau around noon to the rainiest day ever!!! I mean, it literally just steadily rained for hours on hours on hours. (Definitely was missing my rain boots on this day in particular, but was happy to have my raincoat! Check out my full packing guide here)  For safety reasons, our helicopter/glacier tour was cancelled along with many of the other tours that were scheduled for that port. We ended up walking around the city & visiting the Alaska State Museum. It was really interesting to learn some of the history of Alaska (gold rush era, becoming a US state, etc). The museum was only a short walk from where the ships' come into port and took about an hour to walk through.


* Travel Tip: If you don't have excursions planned before you leave for your trip, don't fret! Almost every city we visited had a visitors center where you could find day trip ideas & learn about the area. Our cruise ship's excursions desk was also super helpful! They were able to advise us on timing of excursions, how streneous the activities were, what to bring/wear, etc.

That night, we had planned to have dinner off the ship at a Salmon Bake. It was STILL raining, but my dad, aunt & I decided to go anyways & I was really glad we did! First of all, how often are you in Juneau with the opportunity to go to a salmon bake? Second of all, it was nice to be off the ship as much as possible since we had limited time in each port. The salmon bake dinner ended up being one of my favorite parts of the entire trip! It was a covered picnic-like area with heaters (so we did stay warm & dry despite the rain!). The food was amazing - we ate freshly cooked salmon, cornbread, salmon salad, potatoes and more. After dinner, there was supposed to be a campfire with s-mores, but because of the rain they had to cancel that part.   Before we left we walked up a short hill to the largest waterfall I'd ever seen! Because of the rain, the water was coming down in buckets (video below!)!

*Travel Tip: We learned that there were supposed to be about 500 people attending the salmon bake over the course of the night, but only about 50 showed up because of the rain! I'm here to tell you, even if it rains, go to the salmon bake (or whatever excursion you have planned for the rainy day)!! Alaska is actually considered a rain forest so many of the people & tours around the area are prepared for bad weather since it rains so often. They will cancel if the weather is bad enough or for safety reasons (like our helicopter tour).

In the middle of the night, we left Juneau and headed to our next destination: Skagway! This was definitely the most exciting day of our trip! We were supposed to go panning for gold, but instead we got SO lucky and were able to book a different helicopter tour to take us to Meade Glacier to make up for missing out on the glacier tour in Juneau. We woke up bright & early, bundled up, & headed out for an adventure! The rest of our family went rock climbing & rappelling which sounded like an awesome adventure too! We arrived at the helicopter port, got a quick safety lesson & then were loaded into our helicopters. Each helicopter held 6 people & we had 3 in total fly together to the glacier.

* Travel Tip: You can't bring any bags/backpacks/etc into the helicopter so I would advise bringing only what you absolutely need when you go on this excursion. For my family, it was scarves, hats, gloves & cameras! We were able to leave the rest of our stuff in a locked locker at the helicopter port.

We rode in the helicopter for about 15-20 minutes before landing directly on the glacier! We were left with our guides for about 40 minutes, where we got to walk around and check out different areas of the glacier. We learned so many fun facts and had lots of time to take photos!  This is definitely one excursion you can't miss; when you think Alaska, I think one of the first things that comes to mind for everyone is glaciers & walking on one was incredible! I highly, highly, highly recommend it! 
PS. Is this what you guys thought a glacier looked like? I was really surprised by how rocky & covered it in dirt it was! I had imagined much more clean snow & ice. 

* Travel Tip: In terms of what to wear for this excursion, I would recommend dressing WARMER than you think. This was one of those times that I wish I had layered more. Thick socks, warm hats, scarves & gloves are all recommended, in my opinion. Walking on ice makes your whole body feel cold & the wind is the real deal. You don't need to worry about wearing a specific type of shoe. The tour provided us with special glacier boots (they fit right over my sneakers & had spikes on the bottom to avoid slipping) as well as walking poles to help with balance.

Because we did our helicopter tour so early in the morning we had time for another tour in the afternoon (ask your excursion desk if you are able to pull off more than 1 tour per port. They know the timings of everything really well!). The afternoon was much more subdued but still fun as we rode all over the town in an old fashioned streetcar. Our tour guide was SO knowledgeable about the area; she told us stories about the gold rush era, the modern day grocery stores (food only gets delivered once a week to Skagway!!) & made a few stops along the way - one at an overlook where we could observe the entire town & one at a huge waterfall!

The next day we arrived in Ketchikan! We spent most of our day shopping for souvenirs in this port. The town was super cute & had SO many great shops! During the afternoon, we visited the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show which was a blast! These were professional or semi-pro lumberjacks (like the guys you see on ESPN) who put on a show and competed in various lumberjack events such as axe throwing, log rolling, etc. This was a great excursion for the whole family - it was entertaining, fun and super interesting to watch! We were split up in this port with some of our family members going on a hike and others going on a float plane.

Our last day was another day at sea as we made our way to Vancouver, BC, Canada where we would get off the ship & fly home.  It was pretty funny because we didn't see the sun the entire time we spent in Alaska but it seemed like as soon as we crossed over to Canadian waters, the sun came out! The ship held a BBQ on the top deck & we even got to lay out near the pool for a couple of hours. It was a relaxing way to end such an adventurous trip!

* Travel Tip: While in port, the Wifi situation was OK but while at sea, it was difficult to get a signal at times. I would recommend planning to limit your 'screen time' as much as possible while away. 

Hope you enjoyed this travel guide! It was lots of fun to put together!!

If you have any specific questions, let me know!

XO

Michelle Paige

August 21, 2017

TRANSITIONAL SWEATSHIRT DRESS

It's almost that time...fall clothing time! I don't love the end of summer, but I do love the start of fall outfits! So many options & the chance to buy and wear so many fun styles. I bought this lace up sweatshirt dress during the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale and after a couple of weeks of waiting, I couldn't wait any longer & decided to style it in a transitional, end of summer way.  





This blush pink sweatshirt dress is the perfect piece for the upcoming early fall days. It's not too heavy but does have sleeves so it's a bit warmer than your typical summer dress. I love the color for early fall too! Blush pink (or millennial pink, as the kids like to call it) has been popular for months & is sticking around for months to come, so I definitely recommend investing in something in this shade if you haven't already!  I absolutely adore this shade: I think it is so flattering on so many people & it pairs great with a bunch of other colors for endless outfit options. This time, I went for more of a fall look & paired the dress with my black embroidered sneakers & black feed bag, but it really can be styled with any color or neutral.


Dress: Nordstrom | Sneakers: Rebecca Minkoff (love this season's print & these) | Bag: Rebecca Minkoff




XO
Michelle Paige

August 18, 2017

SURPRISE! WE'RE ENGAGED

In case you missed my posts for the last week, I have been sharing mentions of Jody & I getting engaged & today I am SO excited to share the full story of the proposal! It was truly one of the biggest shocks of my life thus far & a week and a half later, I'm just beginning to believe that this is all real!

Jody had told me that we were going to go to dinner on Wednesday night, the night of our 4 year dating anniversary. I hadn't felt too great during that workday so I wasn't really in the mood to be going out to eat, but I knew we had plans to meet a few friends for the meal & I didn't want to be a baby about it, so I sucked it up. Jody told me: 'it'll be really nice, we can take a boat to the restaurant.' I changed my outfit and Jody picked me up to go to dinner. We drove to his house, got on the boat & headed the 3 minutes down the canal to a restaurant on the water. 

As we pulled up to the restaurant, I noticed the largest balloons ever spelling out 'Marry Me?' My first thought was 'oh how nice, someone is getting engaged.' At the same time, Jody walked to the front of the boat & got down on one knee. 

Here's our actual conversation at that point:

M: 'Are you proposing?'

J: 'yup!'

M: 'No you're not.'

J: 'yeah'

M: 'no you're not.'

J: 'I am...'

M: 'No you're NOT! Stop it right NOW!'

J: 'Can you come up here?'

M: 'I'm gonna throw up!' 

It doesn't sound very sweet when it's typed out like this but it's pretty funny to watch on camera & I really was in shock. I mean, it was a Wednesday night & Jody has made jokes over & over & over to me about how long I was going to need to wait before we got engaged. We had a running joke that every time I mentioned weddings, he would push back our engagement by another 6 months, and here he was, down on one knee!!!!

It took me a few seconds but I finally got myself together & was saying 'yes' to spending my life with him before he could even get the words out. 

At that same time, I heard screams coming from the dock & turned around to see our family and friends cheering & waving at us! I was shocked all over again! I later found out Jody had been planning this proposal for close to a month & EVERYONE had known about it, except for me! 

A few realizations that I had after the night was over:

1. No wonder my sister had wanted me to stay in my workday outfit - I had been wearing a white jumpsuit! I was adamant that I change since I would be on a boat & I didn't want it to get dirty. When I put on the black jumpsuit, she tried her best to make me change my mind (obviously, I did not & obviously I did not know that all of this would be happening that night!)

2. I had noticed that Jody's parents weren't home when we stopped by his house but hadn't thought anything of it. Just figured they were out to eat also. Turns out, they were waiting for us at the restaurant! I'm still amazed by how quickly my own family got dressed & how they managed to arrive at the dock before us! 

3. Jody had mounted two Go-Pros on his boat and a drone followed us to the restaurant! I thought he was just being his weird self with the Go-Pros & thought a neighbor was playing around with the drone! Both ended up being for us!

We spent the rest of our night enjoying dinner with our friends & family and calling, texting & face timing the rest of them! What a night! I'm excited to start planning our wedding & am still in the researching phase right now, but will definitely be creating some 'wedding-centric' posts over the coming months. Let me know if there is anything specific that you want to see!

XO

Michelle Paige

Photography: Elizabeth Kristin Photography