Ireland for A Bit of Craic.

CRAIC = FUN, HANGING OUT, or just WHAT'S UP ( Irish slang is very different from American slang )

Now that we all know what craic means I must say... Ireland was all the craic! The country is beautiful and the people are lovely. The trip was fantastic and I cannot wait to go back.

TRAVEL TIME: June 24th - July 10th

ITINERARY:

DAY 1: Meet Sean and Paul (aka two awesome Irishmen), explore Bunraty Castle, Durty Nelly's Pub and then dinner at Bunraty Castle where there was amazing food and beautiful singing of Irish history

DAY 2: Drive to Killarney, cycle through the national park, walk to a waterfall inside the national park, watched the Ireland vs. France game at Murphy's pub

DAY 3: Horseback riding through the national park, walked the Dunlow Gap

DAY 4: Walked through Derrynane National park, explored the graveyard on Abbey Island, went seaweed foraging and had a seaweed feast

DAY 5: Drive to Dingle, Kayak along the coast and saw Fungi the dolphin, Dick Mack's Pub, This is also where we found out about the band Walking on Cars

DAY 6: Went on a very wet walk and explored the Dingle Whiskey Distillery

DAY 7: Cycled to a beach for a picnic

DAY 8: Drove to Cliffs of Moher, Then drove to the Burren, then drove to Dublin

DAY 9: Guiness Museum, Jameson Distillery,  Temple Bar, O'Niels Pub

DAY 10: Drive to find distant cousin (unsuccessful), drive to Galway, The Quay Pub

DAY 11: Aran Islands biked around

DAY 12: Fish and Chips place, Front Door Pub and met some awesome people > 2 Croatian guys, a guy from Chicago, a girl from Melbourne, another girl from Perth and an Irish and New Zealand lad. They were all awesome!

DAY 13: Aran Islands round 2 and biked the whole island

DAY 14: Bus to Dublin, Trinity College, met up with a amazing friend named Claudine, and she showed me around Dublin

DAY 15: Bus to Limerick, met up with Claudine's boyfriend Sean, walked around the University, grabbed lunch and met their friend Liam, went bowling, grabbed tea/coffee and cake at Ivans, Sean cooked an amazing vegetable curry dinner

DAY 16: Headed back to the USA :(

What Makes You Smile? ft. Rocksbox

When asked what makes you smile Meryl Winslow responds with- Running, food and being outside. She talks about how these things can set up the day for her and make her feel happy and feel good in her own skin. That is why I choose to shoot this months Rocksbox set in a beautiful field in New Jersey. It is the summer and I wanted to take advantage of the natural light warmth and beauty that we have here. 

Now for those of you who don't know what Rocksbox is... well get out from under that rock cause you should. (just kidding) Rocksbox is a lot like rent the runway but for Jewelry. When you make your account on their website you get to create a style profile and you are assigned a stylist who hand picks the pieces that you get each month. In addition, to that you get to create a wish list of pieces that you really like and the great stylists usually send you at least one piece from your wish list a month. Then when the month is over all you have to do is pack all the jewelry up back into the box they sent you and stick the return label that they provide you onto the box and send it back! Its that easy! Its honestly great if you are a type of person who wants to try out all the new and fun trends because you get something different each month. However, if you do end up falling in love with a piece you can also purchase it at a discounted price if you are a member. It is really great! What makes this even greater is that Rocksbox has given me a discount code for all of you beauties out there. Try it out for a month free just use "keeksxoxo" when you checkout! Then you can decide for yourself if you like it or not.

This month Rockbox sent me a Kendra Scott bracelet, Slate double rings and Perry Street earrings. All these pieces worked really well together and I had a ton of fun styling and shooting them. 

I paired the rings and bracelet together with a fun and whimsical dress (we all know how hot its been recently so this dress is perfect when you're sweating your face off but don't want people to know). The structure of the jewelry had a great contrast to the dress and they worked perfectly together. For the earrings I paired them with a simple black tank and some jeans, because they have so much character I wanted the to be the center of the outfit.