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A Florence Family Experience

Another incredible weekend in the books, and one we’ve been looking forward to for a lonnggg time. Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m a devout Florence and the Machine fan and have been since her first album. She used to make the trek to Milwaukee to perform and even started by performing in the humble Rave/Eagles Ballroom, but these days she’s far too popular for any of that. I truly hope her Milwaukee days aren’t behind her, and every year I hold out hope that she’ll be announced as a Summerfest headliner.

Once she announced her US tour dates, it was just a matter of which show we’d end up going to and buying the tickets. My best friend Katie and I have now seen four shows together and I’ve seen five total. The fifth was a crazy trip down to Bonnaroo with Tim, Caitlin, and Sarah (who’s made an appearance or two on the blog). That was their first time seeing her perform and they’ve been hooked. We added a few other first timers to our group for round, including our brother Nick, Katie’s younger sister Sam and Caitlin’s friend Drew.

Here’s where I’ll stop and interject that our average group height was probably around 6’4. Let that sink in for a moment. We had nine of us total and Sarah was the only one under 5’11. I’ll also mention that we had standing floor section “seats.” Guess who weren’t the most popular people attending.

This might be an unpopular post/opinion but I think some people get a little confused on how concerts work, especially the standing section. Everyone logs in and pays the exact same price on Ticketmaster – or if they paid more because they got screwed by a resale price, you get the gist. Then you read the information on the site about pertinent information regarding the concert including what time it starts and what time the doors open, etc.

From there, you can make a series of choices about how your concert experience will go. The first of those being, what time you’ll arrive at said concert. You might factor in who the opening act is, and that’s a fair decision especially if you checked their music out and it didn’t appeal to you.

So let me rewind for a moment and tell you how our experience played out. Being that we all have an immense love for Florence and the Machine, we knew that we had to arrive there before the “show” began, even knowing full well we didn’t want to see the opener. We walked into the floor section and joined the back of the crowd to settle in.

As we waited patiently for her through the opener, other people continue to arrive and obviously it began to fill up. Most people had the appropriate response when arriving and filled in behind others who had arrived there first, while others took the more aggressive approach of trying to fight their way closer. Several people even went so far as to tap our group on the shoulder and ask if they could stand in front of us because their 5’2 girlfriend couldn’t see.

After several times of this happening it became clear that people feel that tall people should stand in the back of the concert. To this I reply: we paid the same amount for the ticket, and in our capitalistic society we controlled what we could control. Do not expect to have a great view of a concert when other people devoted more time to ensuring their view was better. It’s entitled thinking that you should get to walk in and move everyone else out of the way. When you woke up this morning you were aware you were 5’2 and probably at a disadvantage dealing with floor seats regardless.

We love you short and average height people – but get to the concert sooner, or at least don’t take it out on us! We got to the concert and stood in what was the current back of the crowd, and stood three people deep, we didn’t make a wide wall. This is your gentle or probably not so gentle PSA, that there will probably be at least one tall person at the concert you’re attending, and they can’t do anything about their height. They are also there to enjoy the concert.

So, onto the good stuff, the concert attire. There’s always several factors involved with dressing for a concert especially in the Midwest’s with season changes. Knowing the night would be chilly, we knew we had to grab for our leather jackets. Caitlin snagged her Y.A.S. tall leather jacket and layered it over a Rolling Stone’s t-shirt she actually found at American Eagle. She paired it with her distressed denim from Gap and some Converse to keep it comfortable as we knew we’d be standing for hours.

As you can see we pretty much stick to a “concert uniform” especially in colder weather. My version was my Long Tall Sally leather jacket I’ve referenced before, which is cut slightly different than the moto jacket versions we also have, and completely classic. I wore my highwaisted Asos ripped black denim with a leopard print crop top I found from Zara while in New York. I also stuck to the Converse because we’re all for comfort.

That’s all for story time today, let’s hear it in the comments section!

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360 Ways to Enjoy Fall

Y’all the fall fun keeps rolling and we’re just along for the ride! As we mentioned in this post, we had a chance to try out some new to us brands in this last post and ended up making some really fun, yummy drinks. We wanted to share with you how we put together a fun little Moscow mule with 360 Vodka.

Our family has loved Moscow mules in different variations for many years now. They’re always such a refreshing drink and the super cute copper mugs are always a plus to drink out of. We mixed these as the original to really get the feel of the 360 Vodka, as we’d never tried it before. What we were most excited about was the cap of the bottle, because they have a program where you can request a prepaid envelope and return the cap of the bottle to be reused. They’re attempting to reduce waste and conserve energy and we love companies that are creative in ways to improve their footprint!

The vodka itself made a smooth addition to the mule, which is unsurprising considering it’s distilled six times and filtered six as well. We actually hadn’t heard of 360 Vodka before this, so we were happy to discover a great new brand to look for on the shelves. We had a beautiful day to sit out in the backyard and enjoy the fall weather before it turns nasty, so we took complete advantage. Our Aunt was sweet enough to help us set up a cute little tablescape to enjoy our drinks (Hi Aunt Susan and thank you).

As for the outfits, I was excited to read that burnt orange is one of the new “in colors” – mainly because I bought this shirt earlier in the summer on clearance and was going to wear it anyway. I was browsing Nordstrom Rack and it seemed like the sleeves were plenty long, so I tried it on and was gratified to find out that was not an illusion. I love me a good lace top and this Free People find fit the bill. Obviously Free People doesn’t make tall clothing but they definitely have been a tall friendly retailer. Their clothing is notorious for being oversized and that includes length, for our benefit.

I threw on some mid-rise distressed Express denim with it and my favorite beige booties. Both of these pieces have been big players in my closet that I can count on. Also, the Free People long sleeve is layered over a nude cami, which is definitely an unspoken hero in my closet. Does anyone else still wear camis? I’m all about having them tucked in, to never worry about my buttcrack showing when I sit down.

Caitlin last styled this black bodysuit here, in one of our very first posts! It is a tall girls dream, with the plenty long sleeves and long enough body length. I don’t think either of us believe in too many bodysuits, especially when the price is good too. They are just so sleek and make you look put together, with minimal effort.

She paired it with her highest waist jeans because the cut of the bodysuit is pretty high up. I know some people are rocking that look with your hips peeking out in between your bodysuit and pant line, but it sure ain’t for us. That’s an area we’d like to keep covered thankyouverymuch. She threw on these loafers because obviously we don’t need to go all out when we’re having a drink at home and voila a super cute look.

Tell us, are you interested in bodysuits at all?

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Falling for Five Farms Irish Cream

We have mentioned in the past that one of our happy places is our Lake up north. Our family has been spent a lot of time up there throughout our entire lives and I am personally always filled with nostalgia immediately as the up north air fills my nose. This drive up was better than my friends and I could have imagined. I don’t think we went more than 20 minutes without someone mentioning the beauty of the fall leaves lining the back roads. We even pulled over at point to take it all in and snap a few pictures to share with family back home.

I was extremely excited to have some friends in tow this weekend as we haven’t had the opportunity to head up with friends very often. There has been a series of remodeling/family time, that has thwarted our efforts. We were all bummed that our camping trip got rained out but this was by no means considered less worthy especially since it was cranberry fest. A few of us got up there on Friday afternoon and snagged my grandma to head to one of our favorite local spots – Club 45. They have a pizza called house of Payne and it is out of this world. Once we finished we headed back to meet the rest of the crew, enjoy some craft beers and hit the hay.

I don’t know if its the weather changing or something else but we were all pretty exhausted throughout the weekend but we had a busy day planned and knew we needed to obtain some energy one way or another. So two pots of coffee in we started to move a little quicker. As we got dressed and checked the weather I thought we might want something a little extra to warm us up so I whipped out my Five Farms Irish Cream Liqueur and suddenly there was a line formed behind me. This stuff is GOOD. I am not typically a cream in my coffee type of gal but some things are worth pushing your comfort zone for.  

What made it even better is that we I got to enjoy it with my best friend, in my favorite place, overlooking the lake that I love. I love when drinks/scents/songs can take you back to a memory and I think going forward, drinking Five Farms will take me back to one of my many happy places. I digress.

The rest of the weekend was fantastic. We hit the road for Cranberry fest and none of us realized how big of a deal this was in Eagle River, WI. We rolled into town and we were all overwhelmed with the amount of traffic for this tiny Up North town. Once we got into the festival we procured some cranberry beer and began perusing all of the fun craft/vendor booths. We saw so many wonderful homemade goods and food items. The amount of dips we sampled was unreal! Some of us bought dip, cookies, crafts, etc. But I think my roommate won the day with a brand new pair of homemade wool mittens. If you have spent a winter in the Midwest you would understand why this is such a victory. With full stomachs and lots of fun behind us we headed home and hopped in the UTV to head back to my grandmas house to watch the Wisconsin Badgers and enjoy some brats (how Wisconsin of us).

The UTV ride back was a blast, as I took them off roading and it was muddy and quite the adventure! We got back and began speed puzzling and playing other various card games. This weekend really was the ideal laid back weekend filled with so much laughter and memories.

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I just need you to know I am not kidding when I say it made our morning more fun…

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New York Guide

Whew, this week is flying by after arriving back from New York late Monday night. This is my mom and my fourth year in a row visiting and I still haven’t even cracked the surface of everything there is to do and see. I know some of you have no interest in hearing about travel guides, so if that’s you either skip this post or just skim down to see any outfit pictures! I didn’t get the best shots, as we forgot between scurrying around but the weather was way warmer than we have experienced when visiting.

Friday

We flew in Friday morning, Milwaukee usually has reasonable nonstop flights and good flight times as well. We landed at 8:30 a.m. and took a cab to our hotel. We stayed at The Watson, which we found off Southwest’s hotel finder option. It is on 57th street in between 9th and 10th Avenue. We’ve stayed close to Central Park the last couple of years, as my mom usually wants to run at least once there during our trip.

We were pleasantly surprised to find out our room was ready, so we were able to unpack and settle in before we headed out for the day – that was clutch. We then found a spot for a breakfast sandwich, called Rex which was around the corner. It was super tiny so we took it to go and found a Starbucks so we could sit down and eat and get caffeinated. From there we did some scrolling through my Mom’s app she has to find tickets to shows. We had a couple in mind but ended up spontaneously grabbing tickets to see Golden Girls Live, because the tickets were so reasonable for later that night!

In the meantime, we grabbed tickets to a hop on hop off bus for an Uptown tour that basically took us from Times Square area up around the west side of Central Park into Harlem and looped back down the east side and all of the museums. It was a beautiful day to sit on top of the bus in the open air and very relaxing way to see a lot and take in a few fun facts from the tour guide on the bus.

We then went to a cute bar called The Ivy, which is near Columbus Circle and had drinks with Kelsey, one of Caitlin’s best friends from high school who moved to New York years ago. It was so much fun catching up with her and she took us over to this really cool rooftop called PHD which has views of Times Square.

We were having such a fun time with her that we ended up showing up to Golden Girls Live a little late but just in time for it to start. Be warned that they do not have a huge sign like other shows so pay attention if you’re navigating on your own, it’s just the address and a sign on the ground. This show was a hoot! It is a drag show version of Golden Girls and I loved it! They’ve been doing it for fifteen years together and they were all SO GOOD together. It was a Halloween special version and you could tell they just love to perform it. They had everyone laughing, and they impromptu would add little wisecracks which only made it better! Totally recommend it.

We grabbed sushi after the show, just up the road at a place called Ageha Sushi, which was good. From there, we called it a night because it had been such an early morning, but it was an awesome first day.

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Saturday

We had a slow start, but got up and went for a run through Central Park right away. That’s typically been a priority for our trips, as our mom is an avid runner. It’s a great way for us to spend time in the park and get some exercise! We grabbed coffee on the way back. Once we were showered and ready for the day, we headed over to 5th Avenue to brave the crowds and do some shopping! We wove in and out of stores and did some major trying on sessions. We came away with some good pieces, stay tuned to see them on here!

From there we were starving, so we headed over to grab an early dinner at Totto Ramen. My mom had never had ramen before, so it was fun to have it with her for the first time. There was  a crazy crowd waiting, but there are two shops there and people didn’t seem to realize you could go next door and not really wait. The only difference was chicken broth or pork broth. We were uncomfortably full after dinner, and went back to our hotel with the intention of cleaning up and heading back out. We ended up staying in for the night and watching a couple of movies on HBO, which was all good by me!

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Sunday

After our slower Saturday, we were ready to make the most of our Sunday. We headed down to Tribeca to meet up for brunch at Sarabeth’s with another friend who made the move to New York after college. Derek is my college roommate Stephanie’s younger brother and we had such a great time catching up with him! He was nice enough to walk us over to the High Line, and we walked past the “Friends” apartment building on our way. We hadn’t been up on the High Line before and it was definitely a cool stop to make, as descriptions hadn’t really done it justice for people who come from Wisconsin.

From there, we were pretty uncomfortable in the heat, as we didn’t bring appropriate stuff to wear. We ended up hopping in a cab to get over to Soho and we had to buy cheap tank tops from H&M to get through the rest of the day. We stopped in some stores but probably spent the bulk of our time in & Other Stories. I was semi-familiar with the brand but had never seen their stuff in person and we were all over it! Stayed tuned for more about them!

Once we had our fill of shopping we walked over towards Greenwich, which has such beautiful streets to just amble through. We found a happy hour advertising margaritas which sounded like the best idea ever in that heat and sat on their sidewalk seating drinking margs and eating some guacamole. We scrolled through the tickets app one more time but waited too long and no shows were intriguing enough to us to buy tickets.

From there we took the subway back to our hotel and got cleaned up. We had some wine and snacks and then decided to go get some pizza for a late dinner. We’ve eaten at a place near Times Square twice now, called Angelo’s Pizza. I think it’s pretty good pizza, especially for not leaving Times Square area. From there we called it a night.

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Monday

We slept in, and then ran in Central Park again, but this time we made it up and around the Reservoir which we hadn’t done yet. It was misting out but still beautiful to be in the park. We stopped and grabbed a yummy Bagel and Lox sandwich on our way back to our hotel at a hole in the wall called Lunch Box. From there we showered and packed up to check out of the hotel. We gave them our bags to hold for the afternoon and headed down to find a Nordstrom Rack. We usually try to stop there when we’re in New York because they have more of a large shoe size collection in the city.

We got off the subway at Union Square and were pleasantly surprised to see a fresh air market set up. We strolled through and then headed to the Rack, where we did have some luck finding shoes – stay tuned to see what we found there! We wanted to explore areas we hadn’t previously so we kept heading south from there and made our way to Katz’s Deli, which is pretty well known. Even though it was 2 p.m. at this point there was still a line out the door. We grabbed a pastrami Reuben to split and it was plenty big!

We were wanting cheesecake but Katz’s didn’t look like the answer so we walked down toward Nolita and found Eileen’s Special Cheesecake. Totally recommend this spot – they are mini round cheesecakes and completely delicious. We were walking a bit more and ended up back in the Soho shopping area but only stopped in one place. I realized we were going right past Dominique Ansel’s Bakery and mentioned it to my Mom. We had just enough time to stop in and grab an almond pastry to eat in the airport. We hopped on the subway to get back to the hotel and had our only creepy experience of an old man blatantly trying to take pictures of us.

We brushed that off and made it to the hotel where they had our transportation to the airport waiting for us, which happened to be a limo. It was a completely unexpected fun ending to our awesome girls trip! Plus on our flight home, I ended up getting the exit row for my mom and I, with the bonus inner seat that has no seat in front of it. Tall person victory!

I know I listed a lot of stuff, but if anyone has any questions about anything else New York related, I’d love to hear them and see if I can answer! We’d also love to hear your New York recommendations, sound off below!

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Time to Camouflage your Athleisure

I can’t believe it’s the first week of October and I am leaving for New York tomorrow with my Mom! I have been looking forward to this trip, but really anytime I have an excuse to get back to New York you can count me in. This will be the fourth year in a row that I’ve made the trip in the fall and I’m nowhere near sick of it. There is just an indescribable allure to the city and I find it so exciting but surprisingly not intimidating.

We really don’t have much planned ahead for the weekend but we are meeting up with several friends we know who live in the city and we’re probably going to see Waitress on Broadway. We’ve looked at it every year in the past and we’re finally seeing it this time, can’t wait! I know our New York friends would disagree, but half the fun is conquering the subway system for us. We do SO much more walking than we typically do, so by the time we’re done for the day we have no problem sleeping through the sounds of the city.

Caitlin will be heading camping in the South Central part of the state. There are some wonderful hiking trails where they’re camping that will be perfect to catch some beautiful changing fall colors. Tall people everywhere, don’t sleep on this fold up chair, she takes with her wherever she goes. You will sit up at the appropriate height and not feel like you’re unfolding eight different ways like getting out of a normal sized folding chair.

Growing up as athletes, we are no strangers to a good pair of sweatpants. Anyone who knew me in high school or college can attest to that. The sweatpants of my high school and college years frankly were pretty sloppy and incomparable to today’s athleisure options. You’re telling me that we can now look put together but still be wearing the equivalent to pajamas in comfort level? And all the (tall) women rejoiced!

More and more of my old style sweatpants are disappearing either to be relegated to be worn solely in the comfort of my home or being donated or tossed. There was something to be said for wearing the oversize sweat look when I had my basketball shorts underneath so they would fit and not look bulky, but considering I rarely have basketball shorts on anymore they’re a somewhat antiquated option to choose.

Enter the jogger style, which we’re sure most of you are familiar with by now. Both sweats and joggers have the elastic pulled in ankle look but while the sweats look can be likened more to a harem pant bagginess, the jogger is cut closer to the leg and has a wide bottom cuff that lays flatter. It gives a sleeker look to the leg, instead of looking like a bag lady (even though sometimes we all want to have our days of looking like bag ladies thank you very much).

We’ve got two different options for you, one tall and the other not, but both are Caitlin’s. The pair I’m wearing are from Gap and are RIDICULOUSLY comfortable. There is some witchcraft in the fabric because they are so lightweight and soft. As you can tell for 6’4 they don’t quite reach my ankles, but they aren’t heavy enough weight to matter to me. I wouldn’t only worry about that if they were winter weight material, when I need my ankles covered. We both also own sweatshirts made from this exact material and are obsessed. I even ordered a second one once I had a chance to wear my first one!

Caitlin’s pair are from Express and she was smitten at first sight with them. Obviously the length was a major concern before she ordered them. (Express we are still waiting for you to be more tall inclusive). She figured she would try them out and could always return if they didn’t work. The length isn’t quite long enough to wear as pants, but because of the tight cuff, she can wear them pushed up as capri length. The rips add another layer of fun beyond your average jogger.

As for the t-shirts, Adidas is having a major moment. If you ask me they were just sitting quietly waiting for the right time to surface and now its like people everywhere live to wear their logo plastered across their chest. Caitlin is no exception in loving to throw on a high quality trefoil T to complete her athleisure look. My tank is from Asos’ tall line and is a great high neck tank to layer.

Joggers are another option beyond your basic leggings to grab. Sometimes they’re preferred, especially if you don’t feel like forcing tight leggings on as you’re headed to the movies to gorge yourself on popcorn. OK maybe that’s just us, but joggers are definitely more forgiving than leggings.

Tell us below, do you prefer joggers or leggings? What is your go to lounge wear?

And as usual when we’ve got them-your dose of Real Reel below

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