nykeiko travels: A day trip to Valensole

Hi guys! It has been too long since I have had the chance to sit down and write a decent post. In fact, I am forcing myself to because I really want to write something about something and babble on and on! You probably thought that after all this time of inactivity, the blog is dead. Well, it is, but I have full intention of reviving it again one day.  Maybe some time in the near future when I am on maternity leave or when the kids are off to college. Who knows! This was my outlet to post pictures and stories but with Instagram stories, this outlet seemed like too much work. However, unlike Instagram Stories, a blog post kind of stays forever.

nykeiko travels and buys: Tokyo Japan shopping haul

This is my food shopping haul from our not-so-recent trip to Tokyo, Japan back in May 2018 :/ I know, I am super guilty for not posting regularly on this blog. I have another post drafting about our trip to South of France from  last month so I thought I should post this one before the other one goes live!

So we were in Japan for 5 days and four nights with the family. How fun! I've been to Japan before but I have always wanted to visit Tokyo and felt like I didn't visit Japan at all if I didn't visit Tokyo first. So now, I finally feel like I've been to Japan!

It was a beautiful trip and I loved every moment of it except sleeping in a double bed with a toddler sandwiched between us. That was lousy.

We visited Tsujiki market, Shibuya, Harakuju, a nice big shrine, the Imperial Palace and of course ate some local delicacies. We stayed in nice little hotel in the Ginza district and walked/metro just about everywhere. We even did a day trip to Mount Fuji plus strawberry picking which was the highlight of our trip.

Traveling with a 2 year old toddler and a 74 year old senior buddhist vegetarian (eggs allowed only) made this trip all kinds of challenging but we somehow managed to enjoy ourselves. I kept imagining how MUCH MORE I could have done, seen or eat if it wasn't for babysitting but thinking back, the goal was to spend time together as a family and that , we did!

Today's post, I wanted to share with you all the shit I bought. My rule was that it has to be MADE IN JAPAN or else there was no point of paying that $ for extra luggage. We flew budget airline SCOOT and there was a fee for checking in a bag which I made my dad pay so that I can fill it with good stuff. Scroll down...

nykeiko buys: Holiday shopping is around the corner! Here is my shopping/wish list...

Shop small first!

So, it's easy for me to shop small because in New york, I'm surrounded by awesome craft markets which explode in numbers during the holidays. So far, we have visited three markets-Renegade Craft Fair,  Brooklyn Holiday Bazar hosted by Cut and Crafted (held in The Green Building) and Phoenicia Flea (held indoors at the Williamsburg Hotel). When you shop small business and local, prices are not going to be anything close to what you pay at Target or Walmart  but that is because you're paying for items that artists spend years perfecting and give their blood, sweat and tears to creat something from scratch. We must show them some support even if it means digging dipper in your pockets.

Here are some of my recent finds/purchases:

Nykeiko shops: Sarah Flint Sample Sale August 2018 [NYC]

Hi!

I wanted to document a sample sale I attended months ago in August.  (You are now seeing the trend of me posting about things that happened months ago but at least it's slowly catching up to present date!)

The last Sarah Flint sample sale happened on August 1-3 and the sale usually happens twice a year. I want to write about it because when I was trying to find more info about pricing points, it was not possible to find anything about the sample sale.  It's a small NY brand worn by a handful of celebrities (they dedicate a whole page about it here) but the person that is most photographed in them seems to be Meghan Markle at the moment and a bunch of influencers. I first spotted the Natalie shoes worn by Meghan and I looked up the brand (got to say, paying celeb to wear a brand works #ad!). The price point was not attractive but the make of the shoes is. Meghan appears to have a whole range of their collection which always makes me wonder if she was gifted them or she flat out (pun intended) likes them and purchases them herself (doubtful). We'll never know.

When I saw that the shoes have wide toe box design to ease crowding, my heart fluttered. Due to my painful bunions, I have been avoiding wearing any type of heels because pinching my toes together in pain is just not worth the glam. I started researching and boy did I want to get my hands on a pair but at over $300 a pair, I could not do because I knew I wouldn't be wearing heels daily and they would only be worn on special occasions (although going to Trader Joe's by myself is a special occasion for me). I was also looking at their flats but I do not want to risk hating a $300 pair of shoes. I prefer my Birkenstocks more than any shoes I own but when you have an event to attend and want to be comfortable on your heels, the Birks must stay at home.

So because of the price point, I decided I would wait for a sample sale and also a chance to try the shoes on in person since they do not have a stand alone store yet. Well, I didn't end up seeing Perfect Pumps nor Natalie at the sample sale but I did get a pair of Roann heeled sandals which was not my intention but they looked so good! I asked another girl in front of me in line to pair up to get the "Buy 2, Get 1 at 1/2 off " deal but alas, she didn't use Paypal, Venmo or any other useful payment method so that we could split the cost. We both didn't carry any cash either. Her lost!

Side note: Last month, my sister and I each won a $400 gift cards from Sarah Flint via an Instagram contest. I thought I'd pick up the Perfect Pumps but we decided to go with shoes we would wear on the daily instead. Will review those in a later post (hopefully not next year!) My sister picked the Cindy Crawford X Sarah Flint jet set flats and I went with two sneakers. The Andrea and the Perfect Sneakers. I end up paying a little extra for taxes but I was able to use $25 off first order and received $24 in cashback via ebates. Please use my referral link if interested! Click here.

(See pictures from the sale after the jump!)

nykeiko travels: San Antonio Texas! Work travel diary...

Earlier this year in March (happened this year so still relevant), I went to San Antonio Texas to speak at a conference for work.  Yes, a speaker! I've done a few scientific poster presentations here and there but never an oral presentation on a non-scientific topic in front of an audience. When given the opportunity to give a talk about my department within the first year of my new job, I was like HELL YES! I was craving a challenge and this was it.

So this is not a typical travel post because it was not a vacation. In fact, I have been to a few places last year and this year and have yet to write about it (Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Shanghai, Tokyo, San Francisco...). I went to San Antonio for work and barely had time to do any sightseeing. The only free time I gained happened to be when my flight back to NYC was cancelled due to a snowstorm so I had an extra day in San Antonio to enjoy.