Tag: goals

#WetSeal Flower Power Bomber

Three things about me:

  1. I love flowers
  2. My favorite color of all time is pink.
  3. Bomber Jackets are always a closet staple of mine every single year

So this Blush Floral Bomber checks out for me in so many ways! When my favorite store Wet Seal reached out to me about collaborating, I immediately looked through their online store and this bomber jacket screamed my name. When they actually sent it to me, I immediately knew it’d be something I’d be wearing over and over again when the cold weather hits (because heaven forbid we wear jackets in this relentless Arizona heat). Bomber jackets are generally edgier pieces of clothing, so wearing this one definitely made me feel like one of the cool girls. But the blush satin material and floral embroidery toned down the ‘bad girl’ vibes enough for me to pull it off comfortably. So if you’re one of them girly girls who love to spice up their outfits a little, this bomber is a must have in your wardrobe. They also have it in black and military green for those who aren’t too keen about the pink!

I had loads of fun working with the talented Bree Cota (check her our on insta!) to take some cute pictures of this bomber. I even got out one of my old rainbow/floral Wet Seal reflectors to complete the look. Also, isn’t it magical how the sky is blushing pink as well? AZ sunsets never fail to impress me.

View More: http://breemariephotography.pass.us/wetseal

View More: http://breemariephotography.pass.us/wetseal
White tank from Pacsun
View More: http://breemariephotography.pass.us/wetseal
Wet Seal Mirrored Sunglasses, sorta similar here.

View More: http://breemariephotography.pass.us/wetsealView More: http://breemariephotography.pass.us/wetsealView More: http://breemariephotography.pass.us/wetseal

Photo credits: Bree Cota @BreeMariePhotography

Enjoy the rest of your summer loves! See you soon!

Adventures in the 602

I was extremely fortunate to go on my very first shoot with two lovely AZ photographers this summer.

So just a little background on how I found out about the AZ photography and creative community…

When I moved here two years ago, I found myself obsessed with the photography and content featured on instagram feeds such as the Brandy Melville, Free People and Urban Outfitter feeds. And I realized that some of the photographers and models are from Arizona and literally go to the exact same university as me. And so I followed, and followed and followed the many many accounts that I stumbled upon. And I realized that all these talented people were part of a community- everyone I followed knew each other, shot with one another, created art together. And oh my gosh, I wanted to be part of that community so bad. But I was so afraid to reach out to anyone to ask if I could work with them. I am obviously no professional model, and after a failed attempt at asking a photographer who told me I didn’t have a big enough following to benefit him, and simply not having the money to book a professional shoot with him at that time, I stopped trying and just…stayed in the sidelines and admired everyones work.

But fast forward two years later, this summer, a lovely soul and photographer, Bree (@Breemariephotography),  reached out to me and connected me with another talented photographer, Dillon (@Dillon_ivory), and just like that, I was able to model in my first shoot in Central Phoenix. And the best part about the shoot was that Bree and Dillon were one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. Which really showed me how nice the creative community in Arizona is. Here are some of the pretty pictures that they took on the first part of the shoot in which I put together a somewhat vintage, 70s-inspired outfit:

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(PC: @Dillon_Ivory)

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(PC: @Dillon_Ivory)

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(PC: @Dillon_Ivory)

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(PC: @Breemariephotography)

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(PC: @Breemariephotography)

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(PC: @Breemariephotography)

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(PC: @Breemariephotography)

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(PC: @Dillon_Ivory)

Outfit details:

-Stripped Cropped T-shirt from Pacsun (Similar here)

-Brown Suede Western Corduroy Skirt from the Kendall+Kylie line at Pacsun (Shop this skirt in Blue)

-Chokers from Forever 21

-Green Suede Hat from Forever 21 

-White Tennis shoes from Forever 21

-Sunglasses from Q Fashion

I loved shooting with Bree and Dillon and you should definitely head over to their Instagrams and check their work out! I’ll be uploading more pictures from the other parts of the shoot but you can view some of the pictures on all of our instagrams as well!

Well that concludes my first fashion/modelling/photography post. I hope you enjoyed my little back story as well:) Till next time!!

Love,

Valerie

I am Back.

I am back. And better, I hope.

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So WordPress has alerted me through email that my last post on here was a year ago, a whole freakin’ year. That’s unacceptable. Valerie, it’s time to get blogging again.

I’ve always struggled with what I should be writing about. I am passionate about so many things- music, dance, art, science, fashion, food, photography and the occasional modeling (aka self-obsessing in front of the camera for Instagram), debating about worldly issues… None of which is an area of expertise for me. So the hardest part about blogging for me (besides me being a lazy piece of sh*t) was really me being afraid of talking about something in black and white purely based on my own opinions and not backed up by actual knowledge. I didn’t want to be falsely educating someone or giving unsubstantiated advice on a certain topic that yes, I’ve read up upon and enjoyed through experience but no, I was NO expert in. And I’m still not an expert in anything, not even in the subject I attend school for and in the field that I work in. Furthermore, I was afraid of being judged for my opinions and my writing. There, I said it. It is incredulously difficult to pen down your thoughts in the world wide web, knowing that there is someone out there waiting to pick apart your every word, and make trash of what you’ve written without giving any constructive feedback. Just the thought of that still scares me.

But then I realized that, that is exactly what the blogging community is NOT about. Blogging is a platform for people to write about what they love regardless of how much they know about it because blogging is its own experience altogether- the more you write about something the more you focus on your passions and hone them, and thus the more you informed you get. It turns out that in many ways, passion is knowledge. And if I have things that I’m passionate about, should I really still be afraid of the ones who will judge? Yes. But being afraid should not stop us from doing something we love. Because we need to do things more to get better at it. So no, I will not let my fears stop me.  Though I will most definitely try my best to make informed posts so as to not mislead anyone! You have my word haha. And feel free at any point of time to leave a comment for me to let me know what I can do better. Constructive feedback is always always appreciated!

So yeah, I guess my blogging experience begins again and I’m so excited to share with you photos that I have accumulated over the summer so far from my trip to Cali, and also those from my shoots with very very talented photographers here in AZ! My header photos  for my website now are the ones from my first shoot with Bree Cota (@Breemariephotograohy) and Dillon (@Dillon_Ivory), check them out on Instagram!