Tag: nautical

The Seafarer Phone Case by Very Troubled Child

On By careofmonIn Fashion, LifestyleLeave a comment

Hello everyone!! Recently I received my new iPhone case from Very Troubled Child! They are a great company that makes travel bags & accessories, as well as phone cases. As a brand, they seem to be increasing their digital marketing with more frequent instagram posts as well as a new affiliate program. I was so excited to be asked to embark on an affiliate partnership with them because I really like them as a brand. I will always be very upfront with you about products that I review on the blog so while this item was sent to me free of charge and links may be affiliate links, the opinions on the product are 100% my own.

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Checking to see what fruit or veggie the baby is this week before brunch with my sister. At 20 weeks, he is a banana hahaha!!!

Back to the phone case! I have an iPhone 6 and chose the Seafarer case because I loooooved the print. Being a girl who just loves the New England coast and lakes, this print just spoke to me. There are lighthouses, anchors, sailboats, and 4 point compass roses. The print is mostly red and white on a blue background….so I mean, red, white, and blue? Great color combo. ‘Merica! The phone cases from Very Troubled Child are personalized too! I got my initials on mine.

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The case came in a cute box with this little drawstring bag and a thank you card! No, thank you!

The case is stiff plastic, not the bendy/flexy plastic. It doesn’t cover all the sides of the phone equally. All the buttons on the sides are exposed, as well as the top and bottom of the phone. This can certainly be considered the downside to this case if you are looking for protection for your phone. Aesthetically, I love this case, and for the price it is an amazing deal for a personalized phone case. If you are someone who is a little rough with their phone, then something more like the Lifeproof cases might be up your alley. If you enjoy a beautiful phone case that is personalized and will certainly become the subject of many a conversation, BUT you will have to be a little more careful with your phone, then this case is for you.

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There is a cutout in the case on the bottom and top of the phone, but corners are protected
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There is a cutout on both sides where the buttons are on the phone
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Oh hey Mizpah! She is turning 7 years old this week- crazy!!!

The price of this phone case is $59, which is a similar price point to the Minnie and Emma cases here, and much more affordable than the KJP personalized leather cases here. The other VTC patterns are the Savannah which is tan and Birds of a Feather which is green, and they have a leather case too not shown in the pic below, no increase in price, without a print.

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I have gotten so many compliments on the phone case. Multiple people have told me that this case is “so me”, just because I really love those nautical seascapes. I always laugh when people who are comped items comment on the price it costs, but after checking out other companies, the price for this case is right on.

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Phone case c/o // sneakers // bracelet

The first time I saw something from Very Troubled Child was on KJP and Sarah’s instagrams a few years ago. Dave Willis aka nakednantucketer also has a beautiful collection of the VTC travel bags that he features often.

The leather luggage IS pricey, but I will say that as the company grows and adds new products, I think we will see other accessories at lower price points. The luggage might be more like an investment piece for many of us. The quality looks great, the type of thing your kids will fight over borrowing someday. Check out everything Very Troubled Child has to offer here, and definitely follow them and Very Troubled Girl on Instagram to see their fantastic world travels! Literally in the past few weeks they went from Hong Kong to United Arab Emirates to Italy….fabulous for travel inspo/ envy!

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The Move to New Hampshire!

On By careofmonIn LifestyleLeave a comment

Hello all! My humblest apologies for being missing so long on here. My husband and I bought a house in an adorable town in southeastern New Hampshire and have been crazy people unpacking and setting up and doing work on the house and yard. Every time I thought about sitting down to blog, I almost felt guilty because I knew there were like, ten other things I should have been doing. Anyone else out there ever feel like that?

Anyway, our house is a small split level, two bedrooms upstairs but a third one will end up in the finished lower level when we need it. Its on a great piece of land, almost 2 acres, that we are in the process of fencing ourselves for our little pup Mizpah. It also has a huge three car garage which is amazing for us because between hiking, biking, camping, kayaking, and fishing, we have a lot of gear to store!

Top left is one of our rock walls! I love the rock walls left behind from colonial farm boundaries in New England. We have one to the front of our house, in the back , and to the right as boundaries between us and neighbor lots. Bottom left is our very own graveyard!! The graveyard is for a family that dates back to 1788 and then into the mid 1800s. On the right is a pic from some trails at the end of our road. Yes…we have off leash trails to run on with Mizpah just down the street! High five!

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We are off a main road in a very country setting, but many stores and restaurants are just 5 minutes away. Above are some pics from my lovely rural neighborhood 🙂  There is a horse farm just across the street that I have to check out for riding and we are close to some nice rowing clubs which I might check out for next summer.

There is a lot to do- we are ripping up carpets to do hardwoods, finishing the lower level and adding a bathroom down there, painting walls- the list is never-ending. The town we are in is great and we are just a half hour from Portsmouth NH, Kittery ME, and the beaches in Hampton/Rye NH. We are also much closer to some of the mountains that we love so much, so hopefully we will get out there to hike as some of the bigger projects finish up.

My sister came up to visit for a couple days last week and we went out into Portsmouth and Kittery. It felt like a jailbreak after being in doing house stuff for so long. Both places are along the Piscataqua River which opens up to the Atlantic. So beautiful. We hit up Portsmouth Brewery for a little snack and a drink and then made our way down to Lazy Jacks to check out the beautiful waterscape on the decks, and then grabbed something sweet at Izzy’s on our way out. I got a cappuccino shake with chocolate syrup- so good.

The lobster roll on the right with those amazing curly fries is from Rudder’s in Kittery Foreside. Kittery ME has amazing outlets- all the ones you normally think of, but definitely try When Pigs Fly. There are restaurants right there amidst the outlets, but we wanted to get out of the crowded areas and go somewhere new. That is the small lobster roll and it was mostly claw meat which is my favorite, and the dressing was light and flavorful. So good. It was a smaller place, and the staff was awesome. Watching Gevvie Stone kill her semifinal in Rio was nice too that afternoon! Who has been bingewatching the Olympics!? Rowing, equestrian, swimming, gymnastics….so many exciting finishes and competition!!

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Marathon Monday & North Shore Beach/Food Adventure!

On By careofmonIn Lifestyle, Trips2 Comments

Good morning!! Happy Patriot’s Day & Happy Marathon Monday!!!! Growing up in New England always meant waking up on Patriot’s Day, which is the first day of April vacation here, and immediately tuning into the marathon coverage. Since I became a teacher just a year out of college, I have continued this tradition! I went to watch the marathon for quite a few years. One of my friends from college ran in it, and we would get a group together to watch and then meet up at a bar later. I was there in 2013. I was at mile 25 with a group watching for our friend. After she passed us, we walked down to the finish line, met up with our friend at Copley Square, and headed to a bar. She finished in 3:02. Less than an hour later, we heard someone come into the bar and say that there had been an explosion at the finish line. People thought it was a man hole cover or a pipe bursting, nobody could have even imagined that the explosions were bombs. It had to be something uncontrollable, some sort of unintentional disaster. There was no urgency at that time, but we decided we should finish our drinks and get going because the T would be packed with so many people leaving at once. None of our cell phones worked, it was so weird- did the explosion take out a cell phone tower? It didn’t make sense. I hopped on the commuter rail to head back to my car parked in Acton, and then I looked at my phone and oh my goodness, I had soooo many text messages & missed calls. When I got home and turned on the news, I saw why everyone was trying to get a hold of me!! What a week that was, the love and compassion shown in the city of Boston and all over the world for the victims and their families was incredible. I haven’t been back since, not because of the bombings though. I was away in Atlanta in 2014, and then the weather last year was terrible. Today I am happily watching at home curled up with the pup, relaxing after our hike yesterday.

Saturday, Jon and I celebrated our first week of marriage by heading to Gloucester with our dog, Mizpah. It was an even day, so Good Harbor Beach was the off leash beach. We ran around the beach for a while, and then hit up a few of my favorite North Shore spots.

LLBean Sweater // Barbour ‘Argon’ Jacket (old) // LLBean Scarf // LLBean booties // KJP bracelet (old) // Harding Lane hat

First up was Woodman’s in Essex. This was one of the traditional stops on the way home from the beach for my family. Lawrence “Chubby” Woodman is credited with the invention of the fried clam, believe it or not. They have amazing fried seafood, fries, onion rings, and chicken fingers. The one thing that’s tough is they have the milk broth clam chowder, not the thick chowder New England is known for. Woodman’s was featured in the Adam Sandler movie Grownups too! In the summer, they have an ice cream window and a little nautical gift shop; they sell KJP there!  Jon had never been, so we grabbed some fried clam strips and french fries 🙂

Then we drove by the farm where I used to ride in Essex. The new owners have really done a lot of work on the paddocks and barns. I met one of the owners a coupe years ago when she was still doing a lot of renovations, she had jumpers. It looked like a lot of her boarders were probably also jumpers- big horses, sheets in warm weather, small paddocks, haha.

From there we hit up our last stop, Richardson’s in Middleton. Richardson’s homemade ice cream was sold at Orchard Hill Ice Cream, the big ice cream spot in my hometown. They have the most amazing ice cream. I love their mocha chip with big chocolate chunks, the Tollhouse cookie, and oreo cookie. I got a chocolate frappe, and then we picked up a half gallon of oreo cookie. They have their cows right there on the premises, but Mizpah was a little freaked by them. The picture I snapped her was near the donkeys, which she was a little calmer around, but honestly, she just looks so pathetic. There’s mini golf right next door, so you can really make a day of it there.

Yesterday we hiked Mt. Moosilauke, so I will post about our hike tomorrow. I love how you can spend one day at the beach, and then the next in the mountains here in New England. It’s so nice out today, I hope this warm weather is here to stay, happy Monday!

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