Coffee Break – Page 2 – Life is a Page Turner

What To Take On Your Cruise in 2019!

May 4, 2019May 1, 2019 India

It’s time for another cruise! I’ve been fortunate enough to have gone on many cruises in my life so far, so I decided to put some of my cruise essentials in a video! I have linked that video here as well has put it down below. Some of the links in this post might be affiliate links, which don’t change the cost for you, but helps to bring some extra cash (read pennies) my way, so I can keep trying new things and make more videos.

Of course one of the biggest things that I would bring in your bag and not buy it on the boat is sunscreen and bug spray. Everything gets a lot more expensive on the boat and this way you can bring on the sunscreen that works best for your skin. Also if you’re going snorkeling or planning on going in the ocean, try and get some ocean or reef safe sunscreen like this here.

One major thing that I forgot to mention in my video is to take over the counter medications with you! Things like ibuprofen, Tylenol, Alieve, Zantac, Tums, and Pepto Bismal. They have over the counter medications on the ship, but you do’t want to pay $10 for 2 pills. So go ahead and buy that $5 before you go, and that way you can take your ibuprofen first thing in the morning when you wake up with your party hang over.

Make sure to bring a beach bag. This year I will be taking this Muzmm three in one backpack that I have an unboxing for here. I always have some sort of beach bag with me, so that I have something to carry my stuff around on the ship and then I also have something that I can carry off the ship during shore excursions. I like non cloth bags because obviously there is a lot of water around you and just having the synthetic material can make or break having a soaked bag due to splashing. I like having colorful bags as well as having something with my name on it. If you Tiles, it doesn’t hurt to throw one in there.

Something that I found out recently was the magic of towel clips! These magical things help to keep your towel on your chair and keeps them from falling off! They also help to mark your chair as your own and also informs the fantastic staff on the ship that you’re still using your towels and not to pick them up for you. Of course you should drop off your towels at the towel drop off because it helps out the staff.

Seems silly to mention, but bring a hat. My poor boyfriend is as pale as it comes and so I have to make sure that he brings a hat. Me on the other hand, I don’t always have one because half the time they don’t fit on my head with all of my hair.

A reusable water bottle!! This is so big! It’s so easy to get dehydrated on vacation. Being out in sun, drinking, and having fun can lead to dehydration will lead to you feeling miserable, so bring a water bottle. It helps to get you drinking more and then you don’t have to buy water. You also don’t have to get up all the time to get more water. Just don’t put it to the actual machine!! That spreads germs and gets you sick. Use a clean cup to fill your water bottle. Also bring something you won’t be sad to loose. Don’t bring your Yeti’s and Hydroflasks just in case you leave it somewhere.

I love to bring a carry on. Whether that be a backpack or a carry on suitcase. I always have an extra pair of clothes and a bathing suit in there. I like to allow the cruise line to bring my luggage to my room. You can do it on some cruise lines where it just has to go through the security detector and then you can take it on yourself. In it I always have a change a clothes, my makeup, bathing suit, and anything I think I might need for the few hours I’ll be without my luggage. Of course that includes all of my electronics because those do not leave my side. Depending on the cruise, depends on how much luggage I’m bringing with me. Lately I’ve been traveling very backpack heavy and have been using the Peak Design backpack. There are plenty of unboxings out there, so I did not make my own. I do love the Peak Design set up and how everything goes together. It makes things really easy!

These are some of the things that I think are helpful to have on vacation! You can watch the video below and scroll through to see some examples and what else that I bring! Of course follow me on social media and you can see how I use the items in action!! Have you been on a cruise before? What are your favorite items to bring?

Coffee Break

Ultimate Kelly Moore Bag Collection

May 2, 2019May 1, 2019 India

As all of you should know I have a love/hate relationship with Kelly Moore Bags. I love the bags and my bank account hates that I have bought so many of them. I wanted to finally do a round up of all of the KMBs that I own, and the results might show a slight obsession.

This post is in no way sponsored and I have bought every single one of these bags by myself. If anyone from the Kelly Moore team sees this post and wants to gift me The Tourist, I wouldn’t be mad about it hahahaha, but seriously… please! Of course you can buy Kelly Moore bags here (not an affiliate link).

You can check out my video of all the bags here, and I’ve placed it down below as well. Some of the bags in the video have been discontinued, but you might be able to find some of them on eBay or on the used camera website KEH. I do have some individual unboxings of some of the bags, and I have blog posts on others. I will link them in the blog post as well. If you have any questions feel free to ask me in the comments, or shoot me an email, or slide into the DMs.

It’s a pretty long video, but I start off with the smallest items and I work my way up to the big ones, so let’s dig into them! Also I did not get all of these items at full price! I wait until she has a sale, some dollars off, or a percentage off, and then I pounce on them! They’re expensive bags, so I do have to save up and plan for them. Shopping around the holidays is a good time to get them.

The Minimalist Slim Wallet – $39
The Passport Wallet – $79
The Gadget Clutch – $69
The Wearable Wallet – $89
The Riverdale – Recently Discontinued
The Riva – Discontinued
The Luna – $179 (the yellow color has been discontinued)
The B-Hobo – Discontinued
The Scout – $219
The Kate 2.0 – $199
The Libby 2.0 – $249
The A Beautiful Mess and Kelly Moore Collaboration Briefcase – Special Edition Discontinued

I know! Way too many bags, don’t even know what to do with them. Most of the time, I don’t and they’re hanging up, but often times each different bag has their own purpose. I’ve traveled as a carry on with The Libby and the B-Hobo bag and the Luna bag have been my go to for years!

Of course I didn’t get all of these bags in a day, and have been shopping for Kelly Moore bags for what feels like 10 years. My camera set ups have changed over the years, but these bags have stayed the same. They always have so many pockets and protect my gear like a champ. They’ve been all over the world and none of them have broken down on me. To get my opinion on each bag check out my video on my youtube channel, which I’ve posted down below! Let me know what you think and tell me if you own any! Until next time,

Keep turning the Pages

India

Coffee Break

Kelly Moore Wearable Wallet and Gadget Clutch

December 5, 2018 India

I did it. I bought another Kelly Moore bag. I believe that it is going to be my last one for awhile. I bought the two smallest bags and most affordable ones on the website. Let’s get into it and talk about the Gadget Clutch first.

First, let’s talk about price. The Gadget Clutch comes in at $69. I definitely believe that there are cheaper and better options out there, like the one here, but if you have a Kelly Moore problem like I do you might want to buy it.

The Gadget Clutch, GC, can be carried by itself as a clutch, for a night out or an afternoon walking around, but its main purpose is to organize your items. It is best for your extra cords, hard drives, and other items. I don’t really like the loop aspect of the cords, it doesn’t keep them in well when moving it around.

If you start to add too much stuff in it, it does get hard to close. It is a good size though to slide into any other bags or backpacks that you might carry around. Because I don’t use it as a wallet I only put business cards in the card slots mainly because I don’t see me just carrying this around on a day to day basis. As one of the more affordable items I couldn’t pass up getting them to try and add to my organization because I do love pouches.

I’m not very good at looping the cords around those snaps and I haven’t figured out a better way, so everything still seems like a mess to me and doesn’t hold as many cords as I need it to. On top of having my Apple Mouse on one side I often times have my external hard drive on the other. You can see my battery pack hiding in the back that I keep on me as well. It is a good place to store extra memory cards and filters for your lenses as well. As I mentioned earlier I do believe that there are better alternatives that fit my needs that I linked above.

Other organizational alternatives found on Amazon

If you like Kelly Moore bags then this might be a great present for yourself or for a loved one. It gets the job done and fits the Kelly Moore aesthetic completely. With its leather and canvas material it is sure to last for a long time.

Now moving on the to the Wearable Wallet. The Wearable Wallet is in essence a fanny pack, an $89 fanny pack. I very nice fanny pack, but could possibly even not be as practical as a fanny pack because you can’t dump nearly as much stuff into it. It looks almost like the Gadget Clutch, but it has a strap that you can either wear cross body or around your waist. I like to wear it around my waist and slide it into one of my belt loops if I’m wearing jeans. The strap is adjustable, so that it can fit any size waist.

It is made with leather and canvas just like the Gadget Clutch, but it doesn’t open all the way, so that you can keep whatever contents inside of the bag. It just has the top flap and a zipper with an outside pocket that you can slide small thing in as well.

The front of the Wearable Wallet by Kelly Moore

The inside of the fanny pack also has the card slots that we see in so many Kelly Moore bags. There’s a small mesh pocket with a zipper that I have kept chapstick and lipstick in before. The inside is large enough for me to carry my phone and an external battery pack as well as my GoPro and a kindle. If you have any sort of point and shoot camera like a Sony RX100 or a Canon G7X those will fit nicely inside as well.

The inside of the Wearable Wallet by Kelly Moore

Both of these bags would be great gifts for anyone. They’re a good introduction to the Kelly Moore brand and their quality of bags. I would definitely recommend these as gifts or something to treat yourself with. I’m not going to say that they’re the most economically friendly option because they’re not, and there are other options out there, but they are made with great quality and look good while using or wearing them. Below you’ll find an unboxing of these items where you can see them in some more detail. What did you think of these items? Anything to add to your wishlist? Have you tried any other Kelly Moore products? Let me know down in the comments! Until next time,

Keep Turning the Pages

India

Coffee Break, travel

Spending One Day In New York

November 7, 2018November 7, 2018 India

If you only had one day to spend in New York what would you do? Would you go to the Empire State Building, see the Statue of Liberty, stroll through Central Park, or maybe enjoy a show on Broadway. There’s so much to see in New York that only having one day is not enough at all, but of course you have to do something, so what do you do?

For us we only had a few hours. Literally an afternoon in New York City. It’s been years since I’ve been to New York, but I didn’t feel like I had to do some of the big attractions. There are tons of tours on Trip Advisor and Expedia if you’re trying to find some, but they all leave in the morning, which is why we didn’t end up taking any because we were arriving mid afternoon. My mom and I settled for a stroll the Central Park, which is huge, and I still don’t understand what makes it iconic, but it is, so we stopped by. Being from Atlanta we have Piedmont Park, which is our giant park that I don’t believe has an ice rink in it and does not have the MET, but it does have the Botanical Gardens and a dog park that my dog likes to play in.

On our way there we stopped by “Famous Amadeus Pizza” and had an amazing slice of New York pizza. It was literally SO GOOD. If you’re in Manhattan definitely stop by there.

What I didn’t like about being in the park were all of the people trying to get you to ride basically a rickshaw ride through the park because that was something we did not want to do. They were everywhere and they wouldn’t let you breathe. It was probably my fault for having my camera in my hand, so I looked like a tourist, but honestly a park is a park is a park. I just wanted to enjoy the green space. It’s one of the reasons that I remain down south because we are not short of trees and greenery anywhere in the city. We did not walk the entire park because I’m pretty sure you could do that for days and still not see everything, but we felt like we saw enough. If you’re looking to take wedding pictures there you would not be alone. We saw 4 bridal parties in the park alone all trying to be in the same spaces.

Next we took a stroll down 5th Avenue so we could pretend like we have money and can shop at some of the stores that are there. I can definitely shop at the MAC store that’s on 5th Avenue, but I definitely wasn’t going to have breakfast at Tiffany’s.

After getting some well deserved rest after flying all day and then walking miles around the city we were able to take in a show as the saying goes. We saw The Lion King and it was FABULOUS!! Oh my goodness I can go see that again and again and again. The costumes were amazing and the way they made the safari come to life was absolutely phenomenal. I liked the original songs that were done to fill the production out and of course I sang along to my childhood favorites. I can’t wait for it to come back around to Atlanta and I know I will be seeing it again. There are so many productions going on you have to pick something because that is its own experience.

Seeing The Lion King on Broadway was amazing!

We stayed at the Marriott Marquis in Manhattan and it was wonderful. We were so high up we could see a lot of Times Square. Oh yeah, the location was fantastic. We were very central to anything that we wanted to see and we barely had to leave the hotel to go see The Lion King. I will say that if you want to go to their rotating restaurant “The View” book a dinner reservation in advance or get ready to wait in line to go be in the lounge to see what it’s all about. We did not get to do this, but I’m not sure we were missing much other than the views of the river going around Manhattan, but it’s something you can do in the hotel if you really want a birds eye view of the city.

We enjoyed our time in New York because it felt like its own separate vacation instead of a one night stay. We felt like we experienced New York City, but we definitely could have used a couple of more days to see it all, but New York City is way too expensive for all of that lol. I’m glad we got to do it and we had fun exploring! Have you ever been to NYC? What are some of your favorite places to go or activities to do? I need a reason to go back, and BEA and BookCon are not it lol. Let me know in the comments! Until next time,

Keep turning the Pages

India

Coffee Break, travel

Gatta, Christie Tan Review

September 29, 2018April 21, 2019 India

I have a new favorite travel bag. The Gatta Christie Tan! I love this bag because of it’s size and the fact that it’s a backpack. I’ve now taken it on two trips and I have loved having it. It surprisingly carries a lot more than I thought it could. You can check it out on their website here!

This backpack is definitely a day pack. It’s not meant to carry a whole arsenal of camera gear. You can definitely carry a mirrorless camera and an extra lens, and definitely a point a shoot. If you have a larger DSLR you can probably carry just the body and an attached lens. While I was traveling I was able to carry my Canon EOS M6 with my GorillaPod attached, my wallet, a water bottle, and then all of the normal girl things like chapstick, lipgloss, sunglasses, and some more random stuff I throw in there.

Gatta Christie in Tan with some of the items that I keep in it!

Now let’s talk about the bag. The backpack is definitely a bucket bag. I got the beautiful tan color of course, but they do have a black version as well. It is crafted with Napa Leather and has a suede flap. It has a zipper closure as well as a snap closure as well.

It has straps that can have you carry it as a backpack or as a purse. The inside is this soft peach fabric, but it doesn’t have any dividers. They do sell a divider for the bags on their website, but it’s kind of annoying that they’re not included. Just about every camera bag comes with dividers because the point of them is to keep your gear organized. The peach fabric forms some pockets on the inside that can carry your extra batteries and lipstick, or at least that’s what I keep in there.

There’s a pocket on the back of the backpack that I keep my business cards in, lens wipes, and other random pieces of paper.

If you’re looking for a small camera bag/ day pack this is a great one for you! I loved carrying it around Disney World and Universal Studios. It helped me carry everything I needed, and even some things that my boyfriend needed as well.

This backpack is becoming a great item to travel with for site seeing while keeping both of my hands free and holding everything I need to during the day. I have my unboxing of it down below where you can see some more of the bag, and some more details! You can also click here to check it out online! What do you like to travel with and keep your camera gear in? Until next time,

Keep turning the Pages

India

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