The Picnic Collective: My Favorite Way to Beach
The Ultimate Beach Picnic with The Picnic Collective
Want a picture-perfect picnic, the kind you see in movies or in your Instagram feed. I found the perfect way to elevate your beach picnic experience and you don’t have to lift a finger or drag a bunch of coolers and chairs through the sand. I also profiled “The Picnic Collective” for the show I work on called “California Live” which airs on NBC stations here in California.
The Picnic Collective does all the work, setting up swoon-worthy picnics on beaches from San Diego to Los Angeles.
The owner Lauren Rivard says she started her company because she is passionate about helping people experience the beauty of the world in a seamless way, and saw how helpful it could be if she packaged her expertise on event styling, planning, and gourmet food, in the form of customizable, intimate gatherings.
There are two styles of picnic settings to choose from with all types of add ons for anywhere from two to thirty people. Prices vary depending on location, amount of people, and how you customize your picnic, best to check their website for those details.
So whether it’s a birthday, an anniversary, a shower, a proposal, or any other major life milestone, The Picnic Collective can transform it into something you’ll never forget. And if you want to stay at home and enjoy this cozy experience in the comfort of your backyard, you can always order the goods to be shipped to you.
Kitchen Organization: Decluttering
Kitchen Organization: Decluttering My Pantry
Don’t get me wrong, I love my new house…the pantry, however, not so much. My previous homes all had big walk-in pantries, this was more of a tiny closet with shelves. As you can see it was pretty tough to figure out what we had, what we needed, and what was going bad. I did love this little spice rack next to the oven, but it looked pretty unorganized, to say the least.
Lucky for me my friend Amy Suddelson is a “Lifestyle Organizer”, her motto: Transforming cluttered, disorganized pantries into functional and stylish spaces. And trust me, she did that and more, the kids and I love how we actually know what’s in the pantry now.
“For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned.”
To start, Amy took measurements of what we had to work with. Then came the sorting, getting rid of what we really don’t use.
Next came a trip to The Container Store which I believe is pretty much her home away from home. Here we decided on the look we wanted to create which was a combination of wicker baskets and clear and white plastic containers.
She showed me how making everything uniform, and getting square or rectangle-shaped containers would make the most of our space. The same went for the spice rack. Amy also designed the cabinet for the active areas, those baskets would be for the things we always grab for on a daily basis. Then we organized the inactive or storage area, with bins labeled “extras” that house duplicates of items, or things that aren’t used that often such as specialty mayos and mustards. We even made a little dry-erase label so we always know what is hidden up high, and it reminds me to shop my pantry before going to the grocery store. I would definitely recommend this hack!
For the spices, just the simple act of buying glass bottles that were squared-off gave me tons more space and just looked so much nicer.
Amy has many ways to label the containers, but since I have fun handwriting I just labeled everything myself (maybe this should be my new part-time job?!? Momma’s always looking for ways to make an extra buck). Now I just need to figure out how to get Amy to perfect the rest of my life!!
The Vivace Experience®: Get Firmer & Tighter Skin
The Vivace Experience®: Get Firmer & Tighter Skin
I’ve long been a fan of Microneedling but combine it with Radio Frequency and I am sold!
I first heard about Vivace when I saw Model/Actress Molly Sims try it out. And trust me, if it’s good enough for her I am definitely going to try it out…have you seen her skin?
I received my treatment from Nurse Susana Choi at the plastic surgery offices of Dr. Charles S. Lee in Beverly Hills.
While Microneedling already helps firm skin texture, the addition of radio frequency energy takes skin tightening to another level. That means Vivace is an excellent, downtime-free option to tighten mild jowling or sagging skin around the eyelids, cheeks, or neck, while also helping reduce large pores and discoloration.
In addition to micro needling and radio frequency, Vivace also uses LED Light Therapy to help promote skin clarity and healing.
Initial results are typically seen after the first treatment. A series of treatments are recommended with new collagen and elastin forming within three to six months.
The treatment was relatively painless thanks to a good dose of numbing cream, and the whole procedure took only about 30 minutes.
If you’re in Los Angeles you can contact Dr. Lee to find out more about pricing or you check out Vivace’s website to find an office near you.
Dr Charles Lee
Enhance Medical Center
462 N Linden Dr #350, Beverly Hills, CA 90212
https://www.enhanceplasticsurgery.com
To find Vivace near you:
https://www.vivaceexperience.com
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Box Your Way To A Better Body
Box Your Way To A Better Body
You’ve probably heard the phrase “Fight like a Girl”…well that’s exactly what I did at BoxUnion! This is one tough workout where you box to the beat of the music and I absolutely loved it.
Each class is 45 minutes of high-Intensity Interval training, and you’re constantly moving to the music. During a class, the coaches combine shadow boxing, cardio, plyometrics, core work, and heavy bag training, all to hip-hop anthems. Even though boxing is an incredible core workout, the trainers still get in 5 minutes of really targeted ab exercises.
At BoxUnion they say the average workout burns between 600-800 calories per hour, and it’s really great for toning muscles without gaining any bulk. Another benefit is improving your hand-eye coordination and core stability. Plus it’s basically like therapy, I gotta tell you punching that bag feels really really good!
Felicia Alexander is the Co-Founder, President & Chief Empowerment Officer of BoxUnion and explained why she decided to open up a boxing gym this way: “I put on boxing gloves for the first time after my father died suddenly when I was 16. I loved the stress release, the empowerment, the workout, and the mind/body connection. After finding success in the corporate world, I maintained my love of fitness and dream of opening a fitness studio. I wanted to open BoxUnion (with my business partner Todd Wadler) to create a welcoming place where everyone could experience the benefits of boxing without feeling intimidated to walk in the door.”
There are three locations in Los Angeles, two of which offer socially distanced outdoor classes in Santa Monica and West Hollywood. Plus now you can take the classes online, choosing from hundreds of LIVE and On-Demand classes for all levels. In addition to the signature boxing class, the online and outdoor classes now span Boxing, Sculpt, Strength, HIIT, Yoga, and Stretching so you have everything you need to achieve your goals in just one place.
BOX UNION LOCATIONS:
1755 Ocean Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 882-5508
120 N. Robertson Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90048
(424) 477-2698
14006 Riverside Dr, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423
(818) 946-1196
Flatten and Tone Those Abs Minus the Gym With Karyn Grossman
Flatten and Tone Those Abs Minus the Gym With Karyn Grossman
Giving birth to twins is the greatest accomplishment of my life… it however was not the greatest for my stomach! Yes, I am petite, and soaking wet I weigh under 110 pounds. Losing the baby weight wasn’t hard, but my abs/stomach have never been the same. And while I am not opposed to plastic surgery at all, I haven’t pulled the trigger on getting a tummy tuck to get rid of the excess skin, but I’d love to feel better about my mid-section. So I turned to my trusted Dermatologist and dear friend Dr. Karyn Grossman for some help.
She suggested a combination of two lasers to get rid of any stubborn fat pockets and tighten up the skin. CoolSculpting, to freeze fat cells away permanently without any surgery or downtime, and Thermage, which heats just underneath the surface of the skin to stimulate the production of collagen to jump-start your body’s natural healing system. The combination results in skin that is smoother and tighter.
But as she told me when you put two babies in my tiny tummy, that skin is going to stretch and there’s no way to completely get it back, but this is definitely helping. She says: “Having twins can present more difficulty in treating patients. You are very lucky that your belly looks more like a singlet. Some patients with twins have so much extra skin, that minimally invasive and/or non-invasive treatments just won’t do very much.
Again, that first laser is called CoolSculpting. After marking the areas to be treated, I am hooked up to a machine for about 30 minutes. I felt a cold crampy sensation that eventually got somewhat comfortable. Dr. Grossman’s Nurse then used another tool to cover the treated area, kinda like a mini jackhammer, to break up the fat.
As Dr. Grossman explained to me: “Coolsculpting works by freezing the fat cells, causing them to die and slowly resolve. Thus one sees a slow loss of fat over about 3-6 weeks. The downside to cool sculpting is that patients normally need several cycles, and maybe several treatment sessions, to see the best results. But, there is no downtime, no scar, and minimal discomfort after. So many patients are happy to go this route. The procedure actually kills the fat cells – so if you don’t gain weight, it will last.”
While some skin tightening occurs with Coolsculpting… Dr. Grossman says more improvement is seen when you add a skin tightening procedure like Thermage. Here energy, RF, is put onto the skin to build collagen and to tighten the skin as well. Combining both will typically give a better result than either one alone. If the patient has stretch marks, adding Fraxel or Fractora to the treatment will help with these as well. Luckily I didn’t get stretch marks, but we wanted to tighten the skin. So Thermage was the next step for me.
After Dr. Grossman’s Nurse transferred a grid to my stomach, she then worked the wand back and forth across the pattern, this one definitely hurts a bit. It can take a few weeks for the body to produce new collagen, visible improvements are often seen after just one treatment and can last for up to six months.
Dr. Karyn Grossman
2001 Santa Monica Blvd #1250W, Santa Monica, CA 90404
(310) 998-0040
Belize Travel Guide: From the Rainforest to the Beach
Belize Travel Guide: Rainforest to the Beach
Welcome to Belize! From the jungle to the Caribbean Sea…I’ve got you covered! First up, beach time! We stayed at Las Terrazas Resort right on the white sandy beach of the Caribbean Sea. It was magical and oh-so-relaxing! If you’re not familiar with Belize it’s bordered on the north by Mexico, on the south and west by Guatemala, and of course the Caribbean Sea on the east. It’s a gorgeous place to vacation. The Belize Barrier Reef is the second largest in the world, after Australia’s. Maybe next time we’ll try scuba diving, but for this trip, we stuck to kayaking, stand-up paddleboarding, and snorkeling and we weren’t disappointed!
One of the highlights was the day spent at Hol Chan Marine Reserve with its sharks and stingrays. Trust me, this is no fish tale, our underwater disposable cameras failed us, we were surrounded by 20 Nurse sharks and stingrays, it was truly a crazy experience! San Pedro Town itself is where you’ll find all types of seafood restaurants and bars. The kids and I of course found the Belize Chocolate Company, a really cute family-owned bean-to-bar artisan chocolate maker. Even the ice tea tasted like chocolate!
I also really loved all the brightly colored buildings…so cue the shots of me posing in front of a bunch of them!
The basic way to get around the island of Ambergris Caye is by golf carts. The roads are a bit bumpy but we had a blast exploring all the cool little areas, including the Secret Beach. We also made a couple of stops by The Truck Stop which is this funky little outdoor food court on the side of the road, consisting of shipping containers instead of food trucks. There’s a bar, of course, and you can choose from ice cream, pizza, South American-inspired cuisine, and spicy Asian fusion dishes. But I have to say, one of our favorite nights was spent walking down the beach not far from our hotel where we found this cute bar and restaurant complete with a volleyball court. It definitely kept the kids entertained!
Now onto the Rainforest…Let me just get this part out of the way: there are bugs, really really big bugs, the kind of bugs you’ve never seen before! Having said that, we loved exploring the dense rainforest of Belize. It was such a contrast from the time we spent by the beach. We stayed at The Sleeping Giant Rainforest Lodge which is a luxury resort dedicated to sustainable tourism. The rooms have air conditioning which was amazing, but no TV and no Wifi so it was truly a chance to disconnect for my entire family. Which is really something when you’ve got twins about to turn 13! Our rooms were at the top of the longest and steepest stairway we’d ever seen. It was kind of like staying in a treehouse, with beautiful views of the Sleeping Giant mountain range.
Elsie and I decided to explore St. Herman’s Ceremonial Cave. This is where Mayan Shamans came to enter the underworld and perform their sacrifices. It felt like we were stepping into a scene from an “Indiana Jones” movie. I highly recommend a guide for this excursion as it’s beyond dark, steep and slippery. Be careful! And as long as you don’t mind dark places, completely filled with bats, this truly is a magical expedition as you float amongst the stalagmites and stalactites. Another magical part from this corner of the world: the people. From those who worked at the resort, who are truly the friendliest people I’ve ever met, to the families living without electricity on the outskirts of the rainforest…this is one adventure we’ll never forget.
