Taking a Break...

Hi everyone!  I wanted to share with you my decision to take a break from blogging.  I don't know if I'll ever come back, but I'm going to at least take a break for a while.  This is something that I've been thinking about for some time, and I think it is the right time now.  I can't even believe that I've been blogging regularly for over 5 years already and this is my 1265th post!  This started as something fun for me to do, and a way to keep track of everything I buy (lol).  Then it grew to be bigger than I ever thought.  Not that it is a hugely popular blog by any means, but if you were to tell me on the first day that more than one person would actually read it, I would have been shocked!  =)  For the past year or so though, this has kind of felt more like a chore than anything else to me.  I think it's partially because I've been quite busy with work, life, etc. and partially because blogging (and maybe even shopping itself) just doesn't have the same appeal to me that it used to.  You've probably been able to tell to a certain extent through both the content and diminishing frequency of my posts.  So I had to ask myself what is it I want out of it if I'm not having tons of fun posting and sharing my outfits anymore.  And I think the answer is pretty simple...

Of course it is not easy to just completely stop either!  After all, this has been a part of my life for quite a few years, and the best part is "meeting" and chatting with those of you that I never would have met otherwise.  To my long time readers... I really can't believe that you are still reading this lol!  But on a more serious note, I sincerely thank you for being with me all these years.  It's definitely been a rewarding experience for me, and we've kept each other looking sharp at the gym which is always important business!  =P

Just because I'm going to stop blogging doesn't mean I won't be reachable though!  If you ever need to contact me for anything, I will keep my blog email address open and check it often:  mysuperficialendeavors@gmail.com.  I may also continue to post some OOTD pictures from time to time on Instagram/fb (I'm just not very good at being consistent with social media so I don't want to promise too much lol).  So I won't completely disappear!  I'd love to hear from you once in a while, so please don't hesitate to reach out!  And who knows, maybe after taking a break, I'll feel rejuvenated and breathe new life to the blog.  =)

Back from Italy!

I just got back from Italy yesterday afternoon, and was pretty beat which is why I missed the Sunday Funday post!  But it's a long weekend anyway, so today is like Sunday.  =)  I'm so glad I gave myself an extra day to rest, so I didn't have to go back to work right away!  

Since I didn't really take any OOTD pictures, I'll just talk about the rest of my trip a little!  Since last week's post, we left the Amalfi Coast and headed to the Tuscany area.  We stayed in Siena as a "base" to explore the area, though looking back, Florence would have been a better base since we ended up passing Florence everyday anyway lol.  Though I loved Siena!  The location was just not ideal for the things we did.  I guess we should have done better research because we thought Siena was only about 30 min from Florence, when it was really more like 1.5 hour drive.  We also spent a day going to Cinque Terre, which is kind of a far day trip and I wouldn't really recommend it.  It was so touristy, with huge groups of day trippers.  Besides, it was pretty similar to the Amalfi Coast.  So I wish we had just explored one of the many Medieval little towns in Tuscany instead.  But I guess this just gives me a reason to go back in the future!  

Here are some pictures of Siena - it's a cute little town and everyone is sooooo nice.  I really liked the atmosphere as soon as we got there.  This is what it looks like from high up - as you can see, the whole town is the same color!

This is the main square of the town (Piazza del Campo).  We had just missed their annual horse race on this square!  I can't even imagine this square being turned into a horse race track.  It's not even a circle.  It's more like a oddly shaped triangle.  The huge tower is where I climbed up and took the first picture above. 

I climbed soooo many stairs!  Lol.  It is very tiny and claustrophobic in the tower as well.  It looks like this and goes on forever...

There's also a famous cathedral in Siena called Duomo di Siena.  It's got a distinct black and white look.  The level of detail inside is just insane.  I have visited many cathedrals and this one is definitely one of the best!

Pictures don't do it justice at all.  

The floors are covered with carvings like this and it's pretty insane:

The whole Tuscany area is just so nice.  There are rolling green hills with cute little towns perched on top.  We went wine tasting at Montepulciano which is where the Brunello wine comes from.  I wish I had done more of that!

Here are some pictures from Cinque Terre.  These are taken in the town of Vernazza.

We also spent one day exploring Florence.  Though I wish we had more time of course!  But Florence is pretty small too.  You can walk from site to site really easily.  Like 30 minutes and you've walked the whole city lol.  One of the most famous sites of Florence is of course, the Cathedral, and it's called Santa Maria del Fiore.  It looks very very cool from the outside.  You can go inside of course, and you can also go up to the dome and have a nice view of the city.  But the lines were so long for both that we opted not to.  Since we only had a day there, waiting hours in line is not ideal.  Should have reserved tickets ahead of time!  Oh well.  I'm not the best travel planner lol.  Outside looks great.  Haha.

Next time, I'll definitely go up to the dome!

One thing I'm really glad we were able to see, is Michelangelo's David!  It's probably one of the most famous sculptures in the world, if not the most?  It's housed in an art school (Accademia Gallery) in a very unassuming building.  The line to get in was long too, but we were able to pay a guide and skip the line.  I love skip the line options and take it whenever I can lol.

It's a lot bigger than I thought it would be!  As my guide said (and I completely agree!), that is the total opposite of the Mona Lisa lol.  Here's a photo of David from down the long hall way, to give some perspective of how big he is:

And of course, the back side lol:

So the last 2 days of my trip, I spent in Rome.  It was a bit of a whirlwind!  I saw a lot of the major sites in this time lol.  My hotel location was very good, right outside of the Trevi Fountain.  So I saw that many times, and it was always suuuuper crowded with tourists.

It's not a far walk from the Colosseum either.  For this part, we were finally smart for once and got tickets online the night before!  Then showed up not long after it opened the next morning so we didn't really have to wait at all to get in.

The forum:

Then the Pantheon, which is free to visit so there is no line either.  People just go in and out.  It's great!  

One thing we didn't know was happening was the Banksy Exhibit.  We were able to get tickets online for it too, and skipped the hour long wait.  Pretty happy we caught it!  They had over 150 pieces.  Here are some examples:

Then, we accidentally went to the Vatican too!  Lol.  Didn't have plans for this at all, and I knew it would be insanely crowded.  But we were just strolling and decided to just take some pictures at the square and call it a day.  However, we ran into some dude (there are so many people offering to be your guide everywhere in the city) who offered us a pretty low fee (20 euro) to join the last tour group of the day which would skip the long wait.  So we decided to do it and see the Sistine Chapel and St. Peters Basilica.  This is the only way I would have gone inside.  The line looked insane.

They don't allow pictures inside the Sistine Chapel, and the lighting condition was pretty bad inside St. Peters so my pictures there were crap.  But they are definitely impressive to visit, and I'm glad I saw them!  When we were there, they were preparing for Mother Teresa's Canonization which would take place on the following day.  I'm so glad we didn't accidentally wander over a day late, because we actually happened to drive past the Vatican the next morning on the way to the airport and the crowd was already insane at around 7 am!  I read online that over 120,000 people showed up.

They already had Mother Teresa's picture hanging up on the day before when we were there:

And soooo many chairs:

Anyway.... so that was pretty much the end of my trip!  The Amalfi part was chill, but the last bit there got a little crazy.  But I would totally want to go back to Italy and spend more time to relax and drink wine, now that I got so many touristy things out of the way.  Food there was so good too, I'm gonna have to spend a lot of time to work off what I ate lol.  I think I had some form of pasta and/or pizza everyday.  Total carbo load!  Probably gained like 10 pounds but I don't regret it one bit hehe!

Vince Mixed Media V-Neck Tee in New Buff & Coastal Blue!

Ever since I got the Vince Mixed Media V-Neck Tee in white in my last order, I went back and got the new buff and coastal blue colors as well!  Now I have all 3 colors in this tee!  Hehe.  I think it's just such a nice basic to have, and I've been wearing them everywhere.  They are very soft and I love the chiffon detail on the bottom which makes a plain tee a little bit more special.

I got New Buff color in XS which is the same size as my white one, and I got the Coastal Blue color in S since they were out of XS.  To be honest, the XS and S fit exactly the same.  Maybe S is a tiny bit longer, I don't know.  They really look identical to me.

Here's the coastal blue in S:

And new buff in XS:

Totally recommend these shirts now that they are on sale for such a good price!

Amazing Dress from Lulus!

I made another order from Lulus after a successful first order.  This time, I ordered this amazing dress, Final Stretch Dress.  It's only $44 but it's awesome!  Super flattering and nice thick material too.  Totally worth the money!

The description says that this dress runs large, and I ordered size S the first time.  But I had to exchange it for size M, because I found the S to be too tight in the chest.  I tend to have this issue with a lot of dresses and tops though.  I think my shoulder to waist ratio is wider than standard lol.  So while I found the S to be good in the waist, the chest didn't work for me.  The M feels very comfortable, and since the material is the stretchy kind, the waist is not too big either so I think it's perfect!

I think this dress could work for so many occasions.  Definitely one to have in the arsenal.

In fact, I got it in white too!  Since the material is thick, the white is not see-through or anything at all.  I love it.

I also ordered another Handle My Business Sleeveless Top, in light blue this time.  The white one from last time was so cute so I got another!  The white one I got was size M since they were out of size S.  I find it to be pretty loose, so I went with S in the light blue.  I think it fits slightly better in the body, though not a huge difference since it's so loose fitting anyways.

This top is very versatile as well.  I've worn it to work under a blazer as well as to a night out on the town.  

I gotta say, I'm pretty happy with Lulus!  The return shipping was free as well and the process was very smooth.  I got my refund pretty fast.  So I'll be on the lookout for more from them in the future!