Beach/sun essentials

During my vacation I found a handful of things to be quite essential for a hot, tropical climate or as you temperate dwellers like to call it, summer time.

My 5 indispensables are:

1. A hat is necessary if you spend as much time in the sun as I do. Unfortunately I learned this the hard way at Easter time. Not wearing a hat will result in a face of three different colours, a blackened forehead, pale eyes from a lovely sunglasses tan and a nice tan/sunburn on the remainder of your face. My personal favourite? A whale hat. Just be warned that your friends ARE going to try and steal your enviable hat. I wish the neon ones were available when I bought mine because if it's not neon it shouldn't be on!
2. Board shorts are essential for me because sailing in wet pants is pretty uncomfortable. I like running short style ones if I'm wearing them all day. The Hurley Beach riders are my favourite because they're soft, comfy and satisfy my inner hippy as they are made of recycled polyester. They are a bit on the pricey side, but you can score them for $15 or less at Hurley outlets and discount stores like Marshal's.
3. Any athlete needs a tech shirt or two, or ten. I mean,a tshirt works fine but when that heat hits you, you want something to wick away sweat. Then, when a peer pours water (or dumps a cooler full of ice water) down your back you want to dry out quickly. I have only tried the Under Armor and the Patagonia tech shirts but I find them to be quite essential.
4. It's a rarity if you catch me with something neutral or ordinary on my nails. I love bright colours and this mint polish is simply perfection. It's colourful but not bright and can match with a lot of things. Essie's First timer is a necessity for anyone!
5. My final indispensable is sunblock. Sunblock  not designed for your face can run in your eyes and block pores causing breakouts. I like the Cetaphil moisturizer with 50 SPF since I spend all day in the sun. It moisturizes and protects without leaving me oily like the Neutrogena sport (which I still like because it does somewhat prevent tan.) I can't tell you if it stops tan because I've reached the point where no sunblock prevents tan for me, only reduces it.

I hope you enjoyed my sunny time essentials!

OOTD: Anchors and Yellow

Top: Crewcuts

Skirt: Lands' End

Sandals: Lands' End

Purse: Kate Spade 

I am so fed up of wearing shorts, so anytime I'm going anywhere these days, I'm in a skirt or dress. Today I opted for this light yellow knit skirt and a tank top because it was super hot and humid. Since it was so  hot, I parted my hair to the side and swept it up into a messy side bun right behind my hair. I finished it off with  a yellow gingham Tsunami Kanzashi (flower clip). This is a go-to hair styles because it is quick but still looks cute and pollished. This tank top is one of my favourites, and I honestly believe that everyone should have it in their closets. Of course, got to have the usual navy flower sandals to complete any weekend look, because it was just too hot to wear Sperry's.

Easy daisy nail art

I came up with this über cute nail design that is reminiscent of daisies. It looks cool and is super easy to do. I can barley paint my nails on my right hand and i was still able to do the design on it without it coming out too bad. 

You will need:

a base coat

a top coat

a white/silver/light grey polish

two polishes of contrasting colours 

Turquoise: Ciate Headliner 
Silver: Revlon Aloof
Purple: Sally Hansen Be-jeweled 

white: Covergirl Outlast Snow Storm
Purple: Ciate cabaret
Pink: OPI meep meep meep

1. Start with a base coat to prevent staining and strengthen your nails.
2. Paint one to two coats of your first colour. I personally like to use a a darker or more subtle cream colour as my base colour.
3. Next you take your neutral colour and make three straight lines in one corner of your nail, a vertical, diagonal and horizontal one. Black can also be used but the lighter colour makes it look fresher in my opinion. 
4. Take your other colour, a bright one or a glitter works best, and repeat step three, this time starting slightly higher up so that you leave about 3 millimeters of the last colour exposed. If you are using a glitter, you may have to use a stippling motion or do two coats to make it opaque. 
5. Penultimately, take your neutral colour and make a dot where the three lines meet to form the centre of your flower.
6. The final step is to apply a top coat to seal in your hard work!

Don't forget to let the polish dry between each step.

Another cool combination I think would be a black base with a white and silver flower for a monochromatic look.

The sea and such

My new camera goes where I go. Lately the only place I've been going is the Sailing Association so here are just some pictures I took on Friday Funday at camp and our "down de islands" lime on Saturday. 

OOTD: Whale hat!

Sorry I haven't been posting, I've been busy with sailing and such. I'll be at camp 5 days a week until school starts back on September 2nd. Here is my OOTD from today with a bonus outfit from my brother Christian.

 Tech shirt: Patagonia

Board shorts: Hurley

Hat: Vineyard Vines (new best friend!) 

*BONUS*

Tshirt: Nautica

Shorts: J.Crew

Love this photo of us!

Hey, did you notice a difference in picture quality? These photos were taken with a Nikon 1 J2, my new baby and gift to myself

P.S. Follow me on Instagram to see more of my crazy antics @mimmyums

OOTD: Highlighter pink!

Tank top: Target
Shorts: J.Crew

Sandals: Birkenstock (similar colour)

Cardigan: Talbots (similar)
Bag: Roxy (they have great, cheap totes)

Flower clip was DIY-ed

Watch: Timex Ironman
Bracelet: DIY-ed (want a tutorial?)

Necklace: Forever 21 

Today I went back to my primary school just to help out for the day. I was being a rebel since I actually still have school (it ends on Thursday), but I exams are done and we really don't do anything. Plus I like it a lot more there. I was glad to see that my legacy of the socks has lived on and surprisingly a lot of the kids remembered me. Needless to say, I only remembered a handful of them. I want to go back to primary school days...

OOTD: pants?!?!

What sorcery is this? I'm wearing actual pants without complaining in today's OOTD.

Top: Lilly Pulitzer (keep your eye open for it on Rue La La)

Polka dot chinos: Lands' End

Shoes: Sperry Top-Sider

Sally Hansen nail strips Check it out, Ciate Headliner layered under Sally Hansen HD spectrum 

Jewellry: All DIY-ed 

Purse: Kate Spade

Key chain: Lilly Pulitzer free gift

Surprise! I went to the cinema, with friends. Who would have seen that coming. I had on jeans (GASP!) and a stripe top. I was waiting on Mum, then gave in to the discomfort and ran upstairs to change into something more comfortable. I hate pants because they never fit me right, thighs too tight, waist too big and sometimes too short. These pants are the closest thing to fitting i have ever owned. I like the length, fit and best of all, they are super duper comfy. Of course the waist is still too big but it's smaller than most. I paired it with a go-to Lilly top that's super comfy and my grey Patagonia since I am always freezing.

OOTD: Orange and aqua

Hey girl hey! I have another OOTD and as you can see, Bella snuck into it. 

Dress: Roxy
Cardigan: Talbots (similar)

Sandals: Lands' End

Belt: Lands' End

Bracelets: DIY-ed and Forever 21

Purse: Kate Spade

This dress has sat in my cupboard for maybe the past few years and I only started wearing it this year. I must say, I absolutely love it! It cute, comfy and breezy! Roxy makes, in my opinion, the best casual dresses. I have 4 Roxy girls dresses and love them all. Much more affordable than Lilly Pulitzer as well. It just had to be paired with my staple navy sandals and my new everyday purse from Kate Spade, I love it. 

Latest obsession: necklaces

I go through "phases" in my style. I have obsessions with a certain kind of bracelet, wearing t-shirts or maybe buying only one print. This time it's these simple necklaces.

There's something about that uniform line of charms resting delicately around your neck that I just love the look of. For me, these necklaces just complete an outfit. Sometimes, it's the only piece of jewellery I'm wearing and I just feel complete.

I only have two, but I feel almost like they are the only two I need.

Dress: Roxy girls
Necklace: Forever 21 (similar, but I think I actually prefer this one!)

 This first one I got at Forever 21. It's a simple strand of daisies. The necklace itself is gold, the petals for the flowers are a pearly sort of bead and the centre is made with a little rhinestone. It's dainty, girly and looks great with plain tops, v-necks and spaghetti strap style tops as shown in the picture. This necklace is pretty dressy, and can transform a look from day to night. This was a steal at $6.80.

Top: Lilly Pulitzer
Necklace: Francesca's (similar at forever 21)

This one was purchased at Francesca's. I didn't love it as much when I bought it as I do now. Again, it's gold   with a row of pink triangles. The triangles alternate between a hot pink and a paler shade of pink. Meggyums is convinced that if I fall with this necklace on, the tip of the triangles might stab me, but they are far from sharp so that is very unlikely! I feel like this necklace goes with anything, and also gives a slightly edgy look to an outfit. I found this on sale for $10, which for me is slightly pricey for costume, but it feels like a much better quality than Forever 21 and I love it, so it was more than worth it.

P.S. Big up to Big Ben in the background of the second picture