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The time has come for you guys to learn about what it is I have been working on so hard for the last 6 months. FEBRUARY 28th!

DAILY MOM

I’ve mentioned this name in passing a few times, but I doubt many of you noticed or paid attention. However it is now a huge part of my life that I am incredibly excited about. It took a lot of work and it’s almost here and you, guys, get to be the first ones to see it. A new portal that will hopefully stand out in the sea of mommy-oriented websites. I first came upon the idea for the website when I was sick of wading through hundreds of useless posts that sucked me in and wasted my time on big corporate website ( you know the ones I am talking about, those with scandalous news and celebrity gossip).  One post that has the potential of helping me as a mom and a woman among 10 posts of useless (but admittedly entertaining content). I wondered if there was a place for a website that doesn’t try to entertain, but tries to help. I instantly thought of Pinterest and how awesome of a service that is. My next thought was “I wish there was a blog like Pinterest, where all that awesomeness was delivered to me daily in a blog format into my email or RSS feed.”

DING DING DING

(that was the lightbulb over my head) Now over a year later after the initial idea and 6 months of grueling work along with my kick ass team of moms, Daily Mom is here.

So what is Daily Mom?

This is how we define it!

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This is my favorite picture post of ALL TIME!

While at Disney we booked a reservation at a Garden Tea Room at Grand Floridian resort, the fanciest resort at Disney World.

It was our one chance to do something special and princess like with Alexis that wasn’t too extensive since she was only 7.5 months.

Like I described in the recap post, we didn’t want to put her into an uncomfortable and hot princess outfit until she was old enough to want it, but did want something special for her to wear. The dress she wore c/o of Baby Beau & Belle was utter perfection! It’s kind of funny but it turns out a friend of mine had bought their dress for her little girl’s christening  a few years ago. What a small world! Really their dressesare meant for events like weddings, birthdays, christenings, but I can’t think of a more fitting place at Disney to wear such a fancy silk dress than the Garden Tea Room at Grand Floridian. Feel free to check out their website and Facebook and Twitter for frequent contests and giveaways.

When little Lexi is old enough, we will do Garden Tea Party at the same place with Princesses and Disney characters and tiaras and many special girly things, but for now we had our own PARTY.  If anyone is planning on visiting Disney, I would say it is almost a must that you visit the tea room. If you have older (loud) kids, then probably the tea party is best, but if your babies/kids can stay quiet or you’re coming on a adult only trip, there is no better place to relax and feel all “pretentious” and pampered than in a fancy room overlooking (you guessed it!) a garden, sipping the tastiest teas you’ll ever drink in the smallest cups with your pinky out, while savoring mini deserts and mini-sandwiches which are a part of 4(?) courses. Actually, I loved their tea so much, I asked if we could buy it and sure enough, at $12 per box Princess Tea was ours!

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First of all, I’d like to mention that this trip was made for Alexis. Yes, we were both DYING to go to Disney again, so that played into the decision to take her to Disneyworld, despite the fact that she is too young to take too much out of it. However, the purpose was to go there hoping she’d enjoy it as much as we do, see the sights and have a new experience. We have been Disney passholders for as long as I remember living in Florida, so we had already done our share of rides and Disney fun. This was our turn to introduce the Magical World to our daughter.

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Animal Kingdom!

My favorite park. At least, it used to be. Now with Lexi, Magic Kingdom trumps them all. Yet I was pretty excited to take Alexis to see all kinds of animals.

We arrived really early to take advantage of the Extra Magic Hours that day and raced through the whole park to Kilimanjaro Safari ( my favorite ride) to beat the crowds. We were late. While the timer was showing a 15 minute wait, we could tell by the lines that it was more like 30 minutes and they just hadn’t updated the screen yet. 30 minute was just too long to wait in the heat.  Click Continue reading below…

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DISNEY DISNEY DISNEY!!!!

THE LONG AWAITED TRIP!

We held off on going to Disneyworld for 7 months. Partially, because we always go in September, since crowds are low, partially because we wanted Lexi to somewhat enjoy the experience. So when we got into our car and made that 3.5 hour drive, we were bursting with excitement and anticipation.

The big mystery and question was how Lexi would take to being away from home for 5 nights and dealing with the parks’ heat, people and stimulation. Based on her behavior prior to that day, I expected good things from this trip and it didn’t disappoint.

Day 1: Sunday.

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As the Florida summer heat subsides, I am planning on making many more trips to the ocean and having fun in the sand. Alexis is the ultimate water baby, and so am I. So the beach is where we both belong. In the meantime I have found a few things that have made our beach outings bearable even in the summer heat. Some of them are absolute must haves for a baby, as far as I am concerned. I have put together these items hoping they would make being at the beach pleasurable even with a young baby and to my surprise they WORKED FABULOUSLY!

1. FAMILY BEACH CABANA UPF 50+

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I wrote a little bit about our trip to Orlando a few weeks ago, but today I’d love to share with you the beauty that is Gaylord Palms Resort.

We woke up the next morning and set off to explore the humongous indoor “jungle”. It was time to get some breakfast and since our favorite Villa De Flora was closed, we settled for a really nice decaf tea and pastry in the courtyard.

In case you’re wondering, Andrew is using the non-toxic natural hand sanitizing Cleanwell wipes to disinfect the table and Lexi’s hands.

It’s really hard to describe the hotel. It’s like a mixture of Disney intricasies, whimsical decorations, country swamp decor, twinkling lights, tuscan architechture, wet green jungle and the grandeur of a glass domed greenhouse.

 Where else would you find balconies overlooking the depth of the jungle? Or  a moss covered tree in the middle of a wooden swamp restaurant?

Or an ancient vine covered castle inside a resort?

Countless waterfalls and exotic plants?

And then you walk outside through the “swampland” area of the resort, past the tranquil looking spa, down the a few steps and through the glass doors, you walk out into the clean looking Arizona style pool oasis.

We didn’t spent much time at the pool, we didn’t have our swim suit with us, but Lexi started bouncing in Andrew’s arms at the sight of these little fountains covering the shallow walk-in edges of the pool. So we tried them out.

She was so hilariously focused on grabbing one of them. Fountains are fun :)

Besides the big kid friendly pool with slides and water features, Gaylord’s had an adult only area with cabanas, lounges and a rectangular pool. That’s the area you would usually see us hanging out at, sipping drinks and laughing at each other’s jokes. Not this time though. We looked at what 1 year ago would be “our spot” and happily took our beautiful and tired daughter back to the room.

I know we will continue visiting Gaylord Palms whenever we are in the area, whether it’s to have dinner, go to the yearly ICE exhibit with Lexi, or just show off this gem to friends out of state. I don’t know if we’d stay there again. Not because it wasn’t fabulous, but because I just can’t pass up staying on Disney campus whenever in Orlando.

Hope you enjoyed the photo journey through Gaylord’s as much as we enjoyed visiting.

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We are back from Alexis’ first trip to Disneyworld!

It was definitely SOMETHING!

Different from our other trips but still so much fun.

I am cannot wait to share! It’ll have to be in several posts, though. I’ll also share some tips and things that worked for us, aside from the basic stuff that can be googled.

I’ll leave you with this adorable picture of Lexi watching the parade!

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When we were first invited to Andrew’s mom’s wedding reception in Orlando 3 months ago, our first thought was “Oh, we’d love to, but there is no way we can drive all the way to Orlando with Lexi”. That was a bummer, but it beat the prospect of a screaming baby in the car for 4 hours. As the time went on, though, and Lexi was getting more and more manageable at 4 months on, I was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, we’d be able to make that trip. We knew her problem was the carseat and we put all our hopes into the new roomy convertible car seat from Maxi Cosi. As I wrote before, the car seat worked out fabulously. The screaming fits ended as soon as we swapped our infant seat for this new cool (as in temperature-wise) and big Pria 70. So we tentatively told my MIL that it was looking like we could actually make it.

We were both super super super excited. Before Lexi, we’d take frequent trips to Orlando to just have dinner or walk around the parks, or see friends, as well as drive to Miami and other cities of interest in Florida. It’s what we did for fun. With Alexis being a very particular baby, especially in the first 4 months, and hating the car seat, we’ve put it all on hold, but we both couldn’t wait until we would go these places with our daughter.

Each one of us had our own concerns having never traveled with an infant. I was concerned about how she’d do in the car, how she’d fall asleep there, whether I’d be able to keep her entertained for the whole 4 hours. Andrew was really worried about what we’d do in the hotel, considering that at that time Alexis would only fall asleep while being rocked. But we went for it, figuring we’d play things by ear and do what we had to do.

With it being our first overnight trip and hotel stay, we packed everything imaginable, and his mom promised us a portable foldable rocker (which worked out FABULOUSLY, btw).

So after a pretty uneventful and totally manageable drive to Orlando where I completely went through my whole repertoire of songs, books and games, we checked into the hotel and brought in a million of our bags. It was time to put Lexi down for a nap, if we had any prayer of her surviving the reception that started at 6-7pm.

After doing her nap routine and some nursing, I handed her over to Andrew to rock, while I prepared our clothes for the reception. Of course, like expected, she was more interested in the room and all the new fun things to look at, rather than sleep which is what she desperately needed. The blackout blinds didn’t help, because they still left a bit of light for her to stare at.  He had to go into the bathroom to completely block out the light for our curious little baby girl.

In the meantime, I discovered the biggest fail of the trip ( cuz there’s always gotta be one): out of all the *crap* we brought with us, Andrew somehow left the bag with MY clothes at home. I am talking: all my clothes, reception dress and shoes – everything! The only thing I had was what I was wearing, which was yoga leggings and an organic Whole Foods tee. LOL.

I was at a loss. We didn’t have time to drive to the mall or a store, I didn’t have much hope for the hotel’s touristy shops, but I figured I’d go check them out, anyways. As I was walking through the expansive and magnificent Gaylord Palms, I suddenly remembered grabbing my new Hollister dress out of the dryer and throwing it in the trunk of the car, thinking  I might  get a chance to wear it the next day.

OMG! I couldn’t believe my luck! I ran to the car and sure enough, the dress was there! Granted, it wasn’t the dress I expected to wear, but it still worked for a laid back reception better than yoga pants.

{I have to admit that I have really enjoyed the challenges that having a new baby has thrown into our life, because we were way too used to being relaxed and laid back, never rushing anywhere, just the two of us for many years. This, the excitement, the lack of time, is so much more interesting to deal with. We were getting really boring there for a while before Lexi came along and flipped our lives upside down.  Now, I cannot help it but smile thinking about all the little “screw ups” we’ve had at every turn, as we learn to deal with our “new situation” }

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I saw this awesome link up on Gina’s blog, called Places I Love. I couldn’t NOT participate.
One of my favorite things to do is go through older photos and reminisce and this is a perfect opportunity. Feel free to join in.

I can’t say I’ve traveled A LOT, but I am very happy with where I’ve been and the turns my life took to get me there. My modeling allowed me to travel a bit, our love for tropical places and islands made sure we explored almost every Caribbean Island out there, my friends from all over the world gave me an opportunity to visit places I would have never gone to on my own.

The places I included on this list are the destinations that I would go back to in a heartbeat or places that I regularly visit or enjoy daily.

So in no particular order:

{Note: All photos were taken by me, except for Courchevel. Some photos OF me might have been taken by my husband}

BARBADOS:

One of my favorite Caribbean Islands. If you’ve never been to the Caribbean , it’s amazing how every single island is SO different and, while it’s hard to pick a favorite, I’ve always had a soft spot for Barbados. I love their British accent and attitude, the most amazing diversity in nature on all 4 sides of the island, its gorgeous Botanical Garden and cageless zoo, it’s southside beaches with their white sand and perfectly teal water, castle like cliffs and  the BEST and most dramatic landscape I’ve ever seen. I’ve been there twice, and planning on going over and over again.

OUR BACKYARD:

I’ve always been a backyard girl. I love fresh air so I always make sure that our backyard area is as pretty and comfy as I can make it (one day I’ll share a picture of our previous home in Jacksonville with the pool and patio area I designed myself). While at Key West, I saw these colorful hammock chairs and just HAD to have them. These hammocks completed our little tiny patio. I do have plans on extending the patio and planting a ton of gardenias and flowers, but for now I’m pretty happy with it. Being outside especially in the winter and spring always makes me feel better.
Note: At this point the patio looks nothing like this, because I am not gardening and  hubby doesn’t even let me go water them ( dirt and pesticides issues), so while the plants are surviving with him watering them sporadically, they’re definitely not blooming or looking like this :) I can’t wait till I can make it pretty again.

MY DESK

We have a full home office, where we both work and I have done a bit to make my space beautiful. Most of the time you’ll see papers all over our desks, credenzas, hutches and floor, but in this photo I managed to get it all cleaned up. I love working and by extension I love my work space. It is so uniquely mine: my Kleen Kanteen, my Canon lens, a Kodak Digital picture frame, my colored pens (lol) and a Disney figurine holding the business cards.

NEW YORK

Oh that place holds a VERY special place in my heart! I’m very grateful that I had an opportunity to live, work and play there ( though I wouldn’t want to live there permanently). I cannot describe the feelings that arise when I just look through my NYC pictures. I had so much fun there, but it was hard being away from my husband. I still remember what it feels like running around downtown always late for castings because my bookers scheduled them too close together, meeting new people EVERY SINGLE DAY, doing shows, going out with friends after shows and getting dinner, going from exclusive restaurants to exclusive clubs, not realizing that people have to stand in line for hours in hopes that they would get it, taking it all for granted, but loving it all the same. I remember freezing my ass off and hoping that I could go home that weekend, but then getting the news that I got booked or put on hold for the weekend and having to buy yet another warmer coat since I moved there with my Florida wardrobe. I remember first snow and how we would all text each other at the first sight of it, I remember sitting in the subway playing TapTap on my iphone, going to Brooklyn and being terrified to walk the streets at night after another fitting or test shoot. I had been to NYC before that, but living and modeling there was something else. It was an amazing time and I will never think of New York the same way.

ECUADOR

Ecuador is a very special place to me. I’ve gone there 3 times to visit a friend of mine: first two times with girlfriends, and the last time with hubby for our anniversary. Each time the experience was different, but unforgettable nonetheless. There’s still a lot to explore in Ecuador though. We hadn’t gotten around to going to Galapagos or to Quito and the famous market, or to the mouth of the Amazon river. We did get a chance to explore Guayaquil and everything it has to offer, we spent a few days in a little known amazing surf town of Montanita that hosts a world surf competition yearly and is known to be one of the world’s best surfing spot by surfers in the know. We spent a week in a beach house on a cliff in a resort town of Salinas, where my husband got food poisoning at 3 am from a beer bought on the side of the road, with the closest normal hospital being 2 hours away (all part of the experience, however I was terrified for him). I love going to Ecuador because of the opportunity it gives me to speak Spanish exclusively without resorting to English. It was also hilarious to witness all the attention we ( the girls)  received from the locals, since super tall, skinny blonde girls don’t really exist in the world of authentic Ecuatorianos. They were all very sweet and welcoming which made the experience even better. ” Buenas Americanaaaaaas!!!” was yelled out wherever we showed up. haha

MIAMI

Less exotic but still special for me. Miami is the place we’d always travel to, when we lived in Ohio. It was the epitome of Floridian tropics for us before we actually lived in Florida. At this point Miami is the place where a lot f my friends live, a few of my NYC friends come to for the season ( those who are still modeling), it’s a place to go clubbing ( the real way), a place to celebrate New Year’s, a place to get away without having to fly anywhere or drive for too long. I love Miami area hotels: Mondrian, the Standard, Delano, Loews, ShoreClub and their mid-day brunches and cook outs. The picture below is one of my favorites, Mondrian Hotel, I stay there whenever I have a chance because they give sweet model rates ( yeah I’m still getting some perks from modeling days lol)

GUEST ROOM

Ok, it might be a little weird but I love hanging out in our guest room. It’s not even close to being finished decorwise ( as isn’t the rest of our house), but the peach walls make me insanely, unreasonably happy :) So I go there once in a while to read or blog or just nap.

DISNEYWORLD

I don’t think this one needs an explanation but for those who have never been ( and I am sorry “once when you were a kid” doesn’t count), it is TRULY a magical place! You do have to go there under the right circumstances to experience the magic the right way ( i.e. not rushing trying to squeeze Magic Kingdom into one day and fly out the next). It’s a place where you feel true happiness, where , as cliche as it sounds, you’re a kid again, where just walking around the parks, taking it in, is all that you need to be content. We live 3 hours away from Disney and we go there any chance we get. Every other year we buy season passes ( we do one year of  Disney, one of Universal) and literally drive up every other weekend. Both my husband and I CRAVE Disney and this pregnancy has been the longest we’ve ever stayed away from the parks.

To be honest, before I made my first visit to Disney I was very skeptical, but I instantly fell in love with it. I’ve had a few friends, who were concerned they weren’t gonna like it, because it’s “for kids” ( Michelle, sounds familiar?) and but as soon as we went there, it became one of the fondest memories they have of being in Florida.

DISNEY RESORTS

For us a part of Disney magic is staying “on campus”. As Florida residents we get discounted rates and sometimes drive up there just to stay at one of the Disney resorts and maybe walk around the parks for half a day. Staying on Disney property is like being in the parks themselves and it sort of brings that feeling of vacation that we no longer get from just going to the parks. At this point, we’ve been to and dined at all the Disney resorts and stayed at about half of them, with my favorite being Animal Kingdom Logde ( when my sis was visiting from Russia with her two kiddos, we booked two rooms there for 2 weeks- it was glorious). It looks like…well… a lodge, an African themed lodge, with balconies and windows overlooking a preserve with all kinds of animals roaming free. We had the giraffe rooms and actually witnessed two giraffes doing the nasty in the rain (lol)
But even the cheapy value resorts are really magical, especially for kids.

UNIVERSAL

Well, no post about places I love can be without Universal Studios Parks ( yeah we’re a little bit crazy about the park thing). It’s our “adult disney”, with coasters and awesome 3D rides and shows. And now that Harry Potter land is there- maaaaan, it just can’t get any better.

COURCHEVEL, FRANCE

Ok, this one is a bit out of left field, since I am a self-proclaimed summer beach girl, but I LOVE skiing. I was first introduced to skiing when I was booked for a job in Courchevel for some hotel. They flew us to Zurich and then we crossed the border to France and drove to Courchevel, a very famous ski resort there ( I later found out it’s very popular with filthy rich Russians-ha!). We shot for about a day and a half and the rest of the week were allowed to ski, sled, and have fun apres ski. I think I was the only one in our group ( there were 4 other girls there) that had never skied before ( cross country doesn’t count- different technique), so I even had a personal trainer ( a HOT Frenchie to boot). I spent the rest of the week skiing non-stop, even when other girls would go back to the hotel. I had bruises everywhere and muscle pain, but I was loving every minute of it. Since that trip I’ve been asking my husband to go there again, but after his first miserable skiing experience in Vail in February, I don’t think that’s ever happening. (I’ll keep working on him). Aside from the area being beautiful and …hello… FRENCH, I absolutely loved the ski runs, the chalet we stayed at was INCREDIBLE ( rents for $100,000/week with a personal chef), the partying could rival New York’s (almost) and come on, it was the Alpes! How much better can that be?

TORTOLA

Ok, back to the beach girl in me!

Tortola is another Caribbean island I’m in love with. I can’t decide whether I like more than Barbados since I’ve been there only once. But that one time left a huge impression on me. It’s the quietest big island you’ll ever find in the Caribbean. People are INSANELY nice, beaches are ABSOLUTELY UNTOUCHED and they didn’t even have traffic lights until 2001. Some of the most beautiful beaches I’ve seen in my life have been on Tortola.

BOK TOWER GARDENS

This is a new favorite place on my list. The gardens are located in central Florida and are  honestly the most beautiful setting I’ve ever seen here in Florida. They sprawl for miles and have gorgeous manicured orange tree gardens and fields with native vegetations, an old mansion, huge oak trees, ponds and lots and lots of color. I did our anniversary photoshoot there and the photos turned out gorgeous (It also helped that since the area is so large, not many people were staring at us with a tripod ad taking pictures of ourselves, like they always do)

OUR BEACHES

While I love going to tropical places and islands, we really do have it pretty good here. The sand, the water, the sunsets ( see below), the palm trees- it’s all a tropical paradise right here under our nose. Whenever I get a chance, I always run to the beach ( used to before pregnancy)

SOUTHWEST FLORIDA

The place where I live is the place I truly love most. It’s very rare that a person is truly happy with where they live and I can say we both are. There are things I would change, of course, but overall, I ain’t going anywhere. This is it! With its sunsets and laid back attitude, upscale shops, manicured streets, tropical vegetation and flowers all year round, hot sun, liquid sunshine, torrential rains, Tuscan architecture, expensive homes, millions of golf courses, amazing restaurants… I’m a very visual person and this place fully satisfies my need for beauty. After many moves and much research we picked this place and we couldn’t be happier.

Have you been to any of the places above? If yes, what was your impression?