Last week I took a mini trip to New York City for some Fantastic Beasts fun. I was in the city  from Wednesday evening to Sunday afternoon, but I worked from a hotel on Thursday and Friday. The trip was in two parts. Part 1: Help out a friend at the premiere. Part 2: Visit with friends in Jersey City and go see the film at Carnegie Hall with one of my best friends.

I was reminded how much I love the Harry Potter fandom. The world premiere of J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was held in New York City. While I wasn't invited to the premiere this time around, I went anyway to help MuggleNet with their social media. It was a cold evening and I spent a couple hours with my arm held up in the air recording the fans waiting for actors to arrive. When J.K. Rowling and Eddie Redmayne made there way over madness ensued. I was even interviewed by Warwick Davis for an upcoming documentary he's doing! I'm not used to being the interviewee so that was an interesting experience!

Flash forward to Saturday and a perfect New York day. My friend and I had a lazy morning and then he and I headed out to lunch at Pure Thai Cookhouse. We arrived 5 minutes after they opened and it was already almost full. The food was delicious, I had some vegetable spring rolls and chicken pad thai. YUMMM. After that we headed to Bibble & Sip to see if they had any fun desserts left, sadly they just had their famous cream puffs (which I'm not a fan of.) We ended up at another bakery where I got a french macaron and hazelnut and chocolate mousse sphere.

After that we met up with a few other friends and then took a walk through Central Park before heading to Carnegie Hall to see the movie! It. Was. FANTASTIC. I wrote a spoiler free review for my Harry Potter site.  Don’t forget to get your tickets to see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them ahead of it’s release on November 18th - or tonight in some areas!!

I didn't take any outfit photos but here are some pictures from the weekend.

Crazy purple couch in the sitting room of our hotel!

The black carpet

Warwick Davis interviewing fans for a documentary. I was next!

This is the THIRD time I've been this close to Eddie Redmayne without meeting him. I've been a fan since he modeled for Burberry YEARS ago. One day I'll be able to say Hi! Ha ha.

Taken while briskly walking off the black carpet

Room service!

Vegetable Spring Rolls at Pure Thai Cookhouse

Chicken Pad Thai at Pure Thai Cookhouse

Times Square all dressed up for the movie!

Delicious desserts!

Central Park views

Central Park views

Carnegie Hall

It's almost time!!!!!!!!

Patiently waiting in line

This past Monday I attended one day of New York Fashion week. Sadly I was in Florida for a good chunk of it and missed some events I was invited to. But Monday I went to 2 events and got a nice taste. I could never do the full week - takes a lot of energy!

For those of you that don't know me - I'm a walker when I go to the city. I like the exercise and I really really dislike taking the Subway alone because I'm afraid I'll get lost. MY first show of the day was almost 3 miles away from the other. So my choices were: run 2.7 miles, find a cab (also terrifying for someone with social anxiety) or brave the Subway; otherwise I would have missed my second event.

Luckily for me, Blacklane came to my rescue when they asked if I would like to try out their car service. I was easily able to make my reservation through their website and smartphone app. All you have to do is share your pickup location, destination and time of pickup! Easy peasy! And you can cancel up to an hour ahead of your scheduled pickup if something changes. And finding my drivers was very simple; I got a text message a couple hours before letting me know my drivers name and a second text when they arrived at the pickup location along with their phone number in case I needed to call. Stress free and you get to feel fancy for a few minutes. The fares are a bit pricey (around $50 for each) but that included tip as well and you get the peace of mind knowing your ride will be on time.


Dress: Edun (ThredUp), Sandals: Lanvin (Net-a-Porter), Bag: Emm Kuo (Roundabout Resale), Sunglasses: Chanel


Leanne Marshall: I was a huge fan of Leanne when she was on Project Runway back in 2008 (and won!) Her collection was full of flowy dresses in amethyst, tanzanite and nudes. My favorites were obviously the purples and then one really beautiful tan dress with embellishment on the bust. I also loved the final look, a tanzanite gown with bead and organza embellishment.  While simple, the dresses had beautiful braided detailing as well as a bit of sparkle thanks to sequins! Some of the dresses are available online now - shop here!

Sherri Hill: Admittedly I hadn't heard of Sherri before getting my invite to the show but I always enjoy discovering new designers so I was excited to attend. The show is definitely geared toward the younger crowd with prom-type dresses so it wasn't totally my style but it was a really fun show. There were some adorable child models as well and the crowd cheered every time one walked out. Unfortunately I didn't get any good photos from the show due to people standing up and blocking the view.

I also got to meet Aly Raisman and Nick Fradiani which was pretty darn exciting! For those of you that don't know, I was a gymnast for 13 years so being able to meet an Olympic gymnast I admire was amazing! And Nick was the winner of American Idol season 14 and is from Connecticut! I rarely voted on American Idol but I voted for him, super talented!

As promised here's a quick behind the scenes look at my Star Wars photoshoot with Kohl's! I had such a fun day with Megan, Amiyrah and Lillian! I wish I took some more photos of the three of us having fun backstage, but we were a little too excited! Megan was kind enough to send over a bunch of her photos so I am sharing some of them as well.

Outfit #1: R2D2 Sweatshirt, LC Lauren Conrad Runway Collection Velvet Skirt, Candie's Ankle Boot,  R2D2 Necklace
Outfit #2: Empire Strikes Back Thermal Tee, Simply Vera Vera Wang vest, Star Wars Studded Leggings, Simply Vera Vera Wang Mary Jane Pumps

The fabulous four/force of fashion gals!

The rain didn't dampen our spirits!

Getting my hair done, teasing is insane! (I'm shielding you from the super crazy teased hair photo)

View from the studio

Smile for the camera!

Watching Lillian get her photos taken

Battle of the hair!

We couldn't stop laughing even though we were supposed to be serious.

Action shot!

Super cute Star Wars cupcakes! I ate C3P0

Hair and Makeup for look 2

Getting ready...

I am a Sith Lord! BOOM!

Makeup touch-up before the group shot!

At the end of the day Kohl's had printed some photos and wrote us little notes! So nice

By now all my regular readers know that I LOVE Harry Potter. What many of you may not know is that one of my first fandoms was Star Wars, back when I didn't even know what a fandom was.  When I was younger my brother, sister and I would watch the original trilogy on VHS all the time.  Then when my youngest brother started watching tv/movies he would watch one pretty much every day. Needless to say I can quote the movies with dialogue, music and sound effects without missing a beat.

When Kohl's asked me to be part of their Force of Fashion YES Moment, I had to accept! A day with fellow Star Wars fans styling outfits: what could be better than that?! The day was so much fun, especially when spent with girls who loved Star Wars as much as I did. The Kohl's team was amazing and so fun to work with. We had a long day of shooting and a video interview session talking about our love of the series.  Below are some of the official photos and the video, I'll share behind the scenes stuff separately since there are so many photos!




(Cheesy glow on lightsabers Photoshopped on by me, ha ha)


For my first outfit I dressed up an adorable R2D2 sweatshirt! R2 is one of my favorite characters (along with C3P0) so I HAD to pick this piece. With my second look I went a bit edgier with the leggings and vest. Normally I don't wear leggings as pants, but with the vest it covers up everything I want to hide.  The other girls also did an amazing job styling up the Star Wars collection. I think we've proved that you can be a fashionable geek, yes?! Kohl's was nice enough to let us take home the clothes we modeled, so I can't wait to wear all these pieces in the coming months.

If you want to follow the other lades, find them here: Megan, Amiyrah and Lillian!

P.S. Who else is SUPER excited for The Force Awakens (plus the new theme park at Disney!)

Outfit #1: R2D2 Sweatshirt, LC Lauren Conrad Runway Collection Velvet Skirt, Candie's Ankle Boot,  R2D2 Necklace
Outfit #2: Empire Strikes Back Thermal Tee, Simply Vera Vera Wang vest, Star Wars Studded Leggings, Simply Vera Vera Wang Mary Jane Pumps