It's my birthday! I'm taking the day off from blogging to enjoy my day, eat LOTS of unhealthy food and just relax! Ok, you got me. And maybe enjoy a glass of bubbly or a margarita, who knows ;) It sucks having your actual birthday in the middle of the week but at least I got to enjoy some celebrating over last weekend and this weekend is a three day weekend so I really can't complain! Hope everyone has a fabulous day!

Happy Tuesday loves! Hope everyone's week is off to a great start! I am still fighting this cold but I'm already feeling much better compared to the past few days. Thanks to Facebook's "On This Day" I was looking back and realized I get sick this week a lot. I don't know what it is but it's the fourth time since 2007 I've been sick this week with the worst being in 2009 when I got swine flu. It must be something in the air this time of year or something! I was just bragging last week about how I haven't been sick in like 6 months so I guess I really should have knocked on wood, huh?
Ok, enough about this stupid cold. Let's talk about how I'm still obsessed with all things tasseled shall we? There's something about tassels that just make me happy so when I saw this shirt I knew I had to have it. From the lace up neckline to the embroidery, everything about it was screaming me and when I saw it was on sale for under $20 I couldn't pass it up. It's flowy enough to stay cool on a hot summer day and it looks super cute with shorts or jeans. Excuse my hair in these pictures, we were out running around before taking them and of course it started raining on us so my hair is half curly, half straight and mostly frizzy but that's the joys of summer in Florida!

top {sold out, similar here, here, here and here}/ shorts / sandals / purse / sunglasses / necklace / watch / bracelet /

Happy last week of June friends! This also happens to be my birthday week, woohoo! Although I did the majority of my birthday celebrating over the weekend since my birthday falls on a Wednesday this year. Boo. Is anyone else in shock that June is already almost over? I feel like this month flew by! Although it's definitely had it's ups and downs along the way. Hopefully July has more ups than downs! Let's get down to the nitty gritty and jump into my weekend recap with Biana!

Friday I headed out to do some last minute shopping for a birthday outfit. I literally waited until the last possible second to decide what I wanted to do for my birthday so getting an outfit to wear was the last step (crazy for me, I know!). After shopping it was dinner time at home while watching the season finale of Reign with a glass of champagne (how else do you start your birthday weekend?!)

Saturday we woke up fairly early and headed over to St. Pete for the day. We started at Florida Orange Grove Winery for some key lime wine.


After the winery we grabbed some snacks at a British Pub and then started our brewery hop throughout St. Pete. We checked out 3 Daughters, Green Bench and St Pete. Brewing. 

We ended Saturday at a rooftop bar for some drinks. We had an absolutely gorgeous view of the water and the decor of the place was so cute!

Sunday I woke up sick so I spent the entire day on the couch watching movies and napping. All day Saturday I felt congested and just thought my sinuses were bothering me but turns out I was getting a lovely cold just in time for my birthday. At least I got to celebrate before I felt too bad and hopefully it will move out by Wednesday.

Hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Happy Friday lovelies! I am so ready for the weekend to start! I had a bit of an interesting day yesterday. So if you follow me on Twitter, you saw that over last weekend I got sprayed in the face at Publix with cleaner. I didn't think much of it other than to be annoyed but earlier this week my left eye started to get red and itchy. Well Wednesday night and yesterday my eyelid got super swollen to the point where I basically had no eyelid, it was one giant puffy mess. I called my doctor and she recommended I come in so I left work early and went there only to find out that I was most likely having an allergic reaction to whatever was sprayed in my face earlier. Fun times. So now I'm on a topical steroid and the swelling has already gone done but that means no makeup for a few days.  This weekend is my birthday festivities even though my actual birthday isn't until Wednesday (yuck) so it's going to be a makeup free birthday, friends. I usually wait until after my birthday to celebrate but since my birthday is in the middle of the week this year and the weekend after is 4th of July weekend, I decided to celebrate early. It doesn't really feel like anything overly special this year but it will be nice to hang out with my favorites and celebrate a little! But before I start celebrating my weekend, linking up with Amanda for our Friday Favorites!




1 // This top is so perfect for summer and would be easily transitioned into fall with a cardigan or a jacket. I love the double layers and that it's flowy without being too loose.
2 // This year Sephora allowed you to choose between two birthday gifts and after asking the employee which she would choose I ended up with the Fresh Soy Face Cleanser and Rose Face Mask. I am hooked on this mask! It smells amazing and leaves my skin feeling so hydrated. It's one of the only masks where I tried it and felt a difference the first time instead of needing to try it several times before seeing an improvement.
3 // This necklace is so fun for summer and would add an instant pop of color to any outfit! Love the mix of the neon with the turquoise, it reminds me of Islamorada Beer Co!
4 // Rebecca Minkoff gets me every. Single. Time. I clicked on an email they sent out this week and came across the sale section and this bag. I love the neutral color and that the style is a little different... oh and you can't beat the price! Also digging these sandals from the Tory Burch sale!
5 // I feel like Kate Spade really gets me with this case. But this one is also so me so I can't decide! I feel like the palm tree one is perfect for the summer but the leopard is perfect all year.

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! If you want a sneak peek at my birthday festivities be sure to follow along with me on Snapchat {pamelanicole84} and Instagram {sequinsandseabreezes} this weekend!

Hello friends! Happy almost Friday! Like a lot of other bloggers I'm going to be cutting back some of my blogging time this summer to get out and enjoy the sunshine and some "me" time so that's why I was absent yesterday. With that being said, the 4th of July is just around the corner and this will be the first year I'll be in town for it in 4 years! Even though I don't have any definitive plans for the 4th yet, it's never too early to start planning your outfit, right? I love sporting red, white and blue and supporting my country but I also like to get pieces I can re purpose and wear any time throughout the year. So I put together a few fun and patriotic outfits that can easily be broken down and worn separately! I definitely think the last two looks are more "me" but I'm really loving the red top and those Chloe dupes from the first look and the off the shoulder dress from the second! Which look is your favorite?

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If you've been to the Florida Keys you already know all about the sunshine, the perfect sunsets and the laid back lifestyle but what you might not know about lies nestled in between the palm trees. In fact, if you've driven to Key West in the past 2 years you've driven right by it and probably not even noticed. Just off of the Overseas Highway on Islamorada, among the palm trees in a small yellow and turquoise building is Islamorada Beer Company.

Opened in 2014, Islamorada Beer Company is home to three core beers, a few blends and an assortment of beers you can only get on tap in the tasting room.  They also have a few rotating seasonal brews you can only get there or possibly at a local restaurant in the Keys.



   

Happy Monday friends! This is already a better Monday than last Monday so I won't complain. Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend! This week has the potential to be a busy one but at least it passes the time quickly. But I'm looking forward to this upcoming weekend so that usually means the time will go by slowly. Ok, going to jump right into my weekend recap with Biana today! 

Friday night we headed out for a quick happy hour after work with an old co-worker I hadn't seen for awhile. After we headed home, made dinner and hung out on the couch before calling it a night.

Saturday morning I headed over to the mall to return a pair of shorts and pick up some things from Sephora including my birthday month gift (woohoo)! Then we headed over to Melbourne in the afternoon to attend the Intracostal Brewing Beer and Bacon Festival. I've mentioned Intracostal before a few times on the blog since it's a longtime friend's brewery so we always love going back to support him and his brewery whenever we can. Plus beer and bacon.Unfortunately it rained pretty much the entire time so I didn't take a lot of pictures but I'll definitely be back next year!

Sunday was a relaxing kind of day. I did some blogging, ran some errands and made brunch at home as well as lunches for the week. Sunday evening was the candlelight vigil for the victims of the Pulse shooting last Sunday so we headed downtown for that. It was such a breathtaking and humbling experience. I'm still amazed at how our city has really come together during our darkest hour and all the support we've seen from across the world. 50,000 people came together at Lake Eola to celebrate those lives lost and show the world that we are Orlando Strong and it was a beautiful thing.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Happy Thursday friends! I've rescheduled this post three times now so I'm just going to go ahead and post it! And since I spent 4 hours, yes you read that correctly 4 HOURS, at the salon last night I didn't have time to write anything else. You'd think after spending 4 hours at a salon you'd be doing a drastic change, right? Nope. I made the mistake of letting the stylist do whatever she wanted because I thought she'd have fun with it. No joke, 4 hours and $250 later I came out looking almost exactly like I did when I went in. I have maybe 5-6 very subtle highlights and no cut. At least she covered my grays at the top though! But yeah, to say that was the worst salon experience ever would be an understatement. I'm not one to complain so I just left after she was done but my hair desperately needs to be trimmed and I can't bring myself to spend another ridiculous amount somewhere else to get it done. Not to mention I'd really like to have my hair actual balayage instead of just a few barely lighter streaks. And she was doing a very time consuming thing to another person's hair while doing mine so I literally sat there with my hair wet, no product, no setting time, nada for 45 mins before she came back to check on me. So here's my PSA - NEVER tell a stylist to just do what she wants because she will do as little as possible and then charge you like she did a complete makeover.
Ok now on to the post... I'm having serious withdrawals of the beach and island life. I know I live close enough to the beach but I don't get there very often so I took full advantage of being barefoot on the beach as much as I could while we were in Islamorada.  Hence why I have no shoes on in this post! There's something calming about feeling the sand beneath your feet, even if the sand is pretty packed down like it was at our beach. Please tell me I'm not the only one who feels that way!
I wore this outfit out to dinner our last night out in Islamorada and it was the perfect casual outfit for dinner on the beach watching the sunset. Even though the sleeves are a bit longer on this shirt it's actually a super lightweight material and is very breathable so I never felt overly hot even before the sun went down. I love that the pattern in the fabric does a pretty good job of hiding wrinkles since I didn't have an iron with me and it had been shoved in my weekend bag for 3 days before I wore it. I paired it with a pair of simple destroyed denim shorts and my favorite tassel necklace I got last year and still wear on repeat. Everything else I kept pretty simple. In case you're wondering, yes I did wear shoes to go out to eat but I'm not going to lie, since we were on the beach I did end up taking them off and kept my toes nice and sandy!

top / shorts / necklace {old, similar here} / lips in nude / sunglasses / bracelet / flash tattoos

*Linking up with The Mix*

Happy Humpday! Thank you all for the sweet words on Monday! I'm trying to get back into the normal swing of things since the tragedy that occurred here over the weekend and it didn't feel right to post yesterday so I rescheduled some things and well, here we are. Even though my heart it still hurting for my community I do know that life must go on and we cannot let this stop us from living and we cannot live in fear. My birthday is in exactly two weeks and I have gone back and forth about not only how I want to celebrate it but whether or not I even should. Not just because of the events that unfolded last weekend but because June is already a somber month for me due to other personal reasons. While I still haven't decided what I'm going to do I did decide that even if I keep it small, I should still celebrate. So I figured I'd put together a little wish list of things I'm loving lately and wouldn't mind getting for my birthday ;)

Three words I never thought I'd write. Pray for Orlando. Yet here I am, writing those words on the day of the deadliest mass shooting on US soil and the deadliest terror attack in the United States since 9/11; while watching President Obama's speech with tears in my eyes. I had plans on doing things today but instead I've been sitting here, glued to my tv and Facebook, since I woke up around 6:30 am and heard the news. Waiting for more information and watching my notifications on Facebook to pop up confirming my friends are safe and sound.
You see stuff like this on the news and your heart hurts for the community, the people, family and friends involved but you never think it will happen to you. I never thought that I'd be using the Facebook Safety Check to let my family and friends know I was safe and I never thought I'd be habitually watching it as if my life depended on it to make sure my friends were all ok as well. If you think it can't happen to you, you are wrong. It can.
Saturday night Kerri, the boys and I were sitting downtown just under 2 miles from the club where the shooting took place, just mere hours before it all went down, talking about the shooting that had happened here the night before. It never once crossed my mind that it could get any worse than the shooting that happened Friday night. It never occurred to me that something this devastating could happen in my city. Sitting here now, watching the coverage and hearing more and more of what happened I am still in shock. This not only happened in my city but it happened at place I have frequented, a place many of my friends still do. This happened in my backyard. Witnessing a terrorist attack around the world is troubling and saddening, witnessing a terrorist attack on your home is heartbreaking. It's the weirdest feeling in the world scrolling through social media and seeing celebrities and major companies telling people to pray for the city you're sitting in. No matter how hard you try to get away from it, you can't. While the rest of the world just woke up to the tragedy, we had to relive it over and over all day. It was so disappointing to see my Facebook and Instagram feeds filled with pictures of my friends out drinking and celebrating while we were here mourning. It's been even more disappointing to see how many people changed their Facebook profile pictures to stand with France during their terrorist attack but not their own country.
  As I sit here in a fog you can't help but to wonder "why?" Sadly, that will most likely be a question that will never be answered. The lives of at least fifty sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, friends, parents and children were taken senselessly because of hatred and ignorance. We must teach and project love and understanding, we mustn't rush to judge others and spew hatred for something you don't understand.
We will not be defined from the hate of one person. We will stand behind our community and provide support. Today my heart is full of sadness but it is also full of love. We are Orlando Strong, we are The City Beautiful. One city. One family. One love. One heart. One Pulse.

Linking up with Biana today as this is part of my weekend, not just part but the most important part. I want to remind as many people as possible that tomorrow is not promised. Tell your loved ones that you love them often, you never know when will be the last chance. Please excuse any grammatical errors in this post as well as if this post seems a bit all over the place. These are my thoughts and feelings during a moment of extreme frustration, sadness and confusion.

Happy Friday loves! I don't know about you but I am so ready for the weekend. This week seemed to drag on and with Tropical Storm Colin hitting early in the week it threw off my schedule in general. I actually don't have a ton planned this weekend so it should be a nice one to get some relaxing in. I just realized my birthday weekend is two weekends away and I haven't planned anything so maybe I'll work on that! But for now, linking up with Amanda for our Friday Favorites!

1 // These shorts are so fun and perfect for summer! I love the neutral animal print and they are so easily dressed up or down. The length is perfect too!

2 // I'm all about the hats during the summer to protect my face and hair from the sun. This hat is so cute! The pom poms and tassels are perfect and you can't beat the price!
3 // White eyeliner is perfect for summer. A little white eyeliner in the inner corners of your eyes can instantly make you look more awake and looks great with a tan. I love that this one is cheap and has the tiniest bit of shimmer to it.
4 // I'm also all about lip stains for the summer! The Becca Beach Tint is the perfect creamy stain for lips and cheeks and it's enriched with antioxidant vitamin E to help smooth and nourish your skin. I'm loving the Grapefruit color right now!
5 // These espadrilles are so cute and perfect for summer! And you all already know how much I love stripes :)

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!