Mexico! | Travel

Hey guys! Sorry I've been on a bit of a hiatus lately, work has been crazy. I'm back now though, so look forward to lots of posts. This is a post all about my work trip to Mexico. We mostly stayed in the hotel, because that was our shoot location - but it was still a beautiful trip. It really makes me want to go back to Cancun and see what else the city has to offer. We stayed at the Secrets - The Vine, resort, and I have to say it was incredible. It's all inclusive, and the beach is right outside your door! It was an amazing trip, and I really recommend that resort if you're thinking of going there. Hope you guys had a great weekend and I'll speak to you soon! xx

Travel | Hamburg!

Hey dolls! A couple weeks ago when I was in London, I decided to take a day trip to Hamburg, Germany to see some German agencies. It was a super short flight, about 2 hours! I didn't get to see too much because I was only in the actual city for about 8 hours - but what I did see was lovely and so I thought I'd share it with you all.

Hamburg is a beautiful city with lots of water, which makes it really tranquil. It's quite a calm city, definitely not as busy as London so I wasn't used to being so relaxed in between castings! Unfortunately I didn't get to see much, but most of the agencies I saw were right in the centre so I did get a good feel of the city.

One thing I love about Hamburg is how environmentally-friendly the city is. It's so clean, there's literally not one piece of paper or any type of litter on the ground. Not only that, people ride bikes everywhere. There are bike lanes everywhere and there seems to b an ease of communication between the bikers and cars, which is something a lot of countries struggle with.

Hamburg also has lots of beautiful old buildings. I didn't take too many pictures because I was also VLOGGING - yes that's right I'm bringin' it back! So, soon you'll see a proper blog up and I'll link it here when it's all done. For now though here are some of the pictures I did take:

Didn't I tell you there was beautiful water and bikes everywhere?! There really is. It's such an awesome atmosphere to be around. Very calm, cool and collected.

Travels | Tenerife!

Hey guys! Back in December I took a quick trip to Tenerife, one of the most beautiful of the Canary Islands in Spain. Here are some highlights of my trip! 

Travels | Scotland: Part 2!

On my second day in Edinburgh, my friend and I decided to take the time to explore the city and some Scottish traditions. Don't forget - I have a quick vlog of this trip at youtube.com/liveshiv! Although we were exhausted from an 18 hour day the day before, we got an early start and began roaming the streets of Scotland around 10AM. 

Travels | Scotland DAY 1: The Highlands and Edinburgh at night!

Hi everyone! I promised myself that this time I went to London for work, I would take more advantage of the fact that I was in Europe and actually travel for fun! (And not just for work!) So my first little trip this time around was to Scotland. I can honestly say my friend Shirley and I just wanted to go on a little trip for fun, but we chose Scotland mostly because it was somewhere close and easy to get to. After travelling there I realized how underrated it is! It's such an amazing country with so much culture and so much to see. I hope you get a taste of it from my post and maybe one day you get a change to go! 

Shirley and I stayed in an adorable Airbnb apartment, which ended up being awesome. The place had so much character, the host was awesome and it had everything we needed. I strongly recommend using Airbnb if your'e going to Edinburgh because there are some amazing places all very close to the downtown core and so much cheaper than a hotel. 

Packing for a short trip!

Hey guys! As you know, with my job I get to travel a lot! Sometimes it's for very short periods of time, so I've gotten into a routine of packing that's efficient, fast and easy - so I thought I'd share it with you all. along with some tips I've learned about packing! 

First things first (I'm the realest..JOKES I DESPISE THAT SONG!) haha, but seriously first things first this is my carry-on sized suitcase that I use for short trips. This particular trip I'm packing for is for a four day stay in Montreal. I've had this suitcase for YEARS. It's not necessarily the newest, but it's an awesome size and it does the job.

Travels | Montreal: Part II

Hey dolls! Here are some highlights from the second half of my short Montreal trip! I was only there for a week, I didn't even get to go to any of the museums or anything! Maybe next time, anyways I hope you enjoy!

Travels | Montreal: Part I

Hey dolls,
I recently went on a trip to Montreal for work, and it was SO AWESOME! I didn't even realize that there was so much culture and so much going on so CLOSE to me! Naturally, I took a lot of pictures and I vlogged - so look forward to that! But for now, I'll share with you some pictures from my trip and any advice or suggestions I can give about travelling to Montreal..I hope you enjoy :)

One of my favourite attractions in Montreal is the park and trail to the top of Mount Royal. The man who designed this park and trail is the same guy who designed Central Park in New York City! As well, the city of Montreal got it's name from this mountain, as you can see the entire city of Montreal from the top. 

Restaurant Review | A Little Pizza Heaven

Hiiii everyone ! 

It's been while! I'm currently visiting family in Winnipeg, and at midnight on a Wednesday, I was obviously looking for something to eat. Hoping there was something other than a fast food place open, we stumbled upon A Little Pizza Heaven. 

Travels | Paris Day Two

On the second day, I decided to stop sulking around and just be happy that I was lucky enough to be in the gorgeous city! It’s really inexpensive to travel around so I thought I should try to hit up as many spots as I could before I had to catch my train again. The hotel receptionist gave me a pamphlet and on it had all the tourist sites and the nearest metro stations, so then it was just a matter of looking at the map and seeing where was easiest to go to in the time that I had.

Again it was horrible rain and wind, which sucked – but I tried to make the most of it. It was hard walking around with my luggage everywhere too, but I had to check out of the hotel so I had no choice. Again making me want to go back for a longer time where I could actually explore without lugging 3 bags around.

Travels | Another quick trip, this time à Paris!

Hello friends! Yet again, I went on a little trip somewhere! (Modeling seems to be good for that..) This time though, it wasn’t to work! Last week I found out my temporary work Visa was expiring, and I had to leave England for 24 hours in order to get an extension, since I’m scheduled to be here for longer. One of my agents suggested going to Paris on the train, and I thought: why not?

I speak French and I had never been to Paris before. Also, I’m not yet represented in Paris so I also contacted my mother agency and got them to set up appointments for me with agencies there who wanted to see me. So I made sure I was being productive while being there as well!

Travels | My short trip to Spain!

Travels | A quick trip to Spain!

Hi guys! I went to Spain a while ago, and I did a vlog about it but I didn’t do a blogpost – so I figured I’d do one :). I was in Spain shooting for a UK company called Littlewoods. They’re a huge awesome company in the UK and they’ve been around for decades. In Spain we were shooting for their catalogue and I shot all sportswear. It was awesome!

To be specific we shot in the island of Mallorca, which is the biggest island of Spain. I had never been to Spain before at all, so I was super excited to be there for work where everything was paid for! I had never been on this kind of job before so I felt very blessed to have the opportunity.

Travels | New York, New York: Day Two!

     Hello again loves! This is part two of our two-day weekend in the beautiful city of NYC!

     After waking up from the previous night out, we grabbed some much needed coffee and tea and headed for the 9/11 memorial. It wasn’t far from our hotel, so we took the opportunity to walk through the city. Once we got there, we went through a few security check points, and were let in.  The memorial was absolutely beautiful. Seeing the two waterfalls, and the surrounding metal plates engraved with the names of every person who lost their lives that day evoked an indescribable feeling. Despite being in the middle of the bustling city, the area that contained the memorial was quietly calm. On certain names we saw white roses, which we later found out, meant it was that person’s birthday. I thought that was such a beautiful thing. If you’re in New York, this is definitely a place to visit. To be in a place of such historical significance to not only Americans, but to people around the world, was amazing.

   Once we left the memorial, we opted to do more sight seeing and hit the places everyone in the group wanted to see. First stop, Wall Street. It was crazy being on the infamous Wall Street, and looking at the actual New York Stock Exchange.  We went looking for the famous Wall Street bull, but it was nowhere to be found (in our vicinity at least). After Wall Street we went to see the Brooklyn Bridge, and from there made it to Grand Central Station. That place was absolutely beautiful. The lighting, the amazing artwork on the high ceilings, the marble, everything about it was breathtaking. Seeing the famous clock in the center was pretty awesome too. I wanted to find the whispering corner, a corner where you can whisper and have someone hear you on the other side, but didn’t. So if you’re ever at Grand Central, find the whispering corner!

Travels | New York, New York!

    Hello, Hello! Welcome to another installment of our travel series. This one’s a bit late, but better late than never!

    Last month, a group of friends and I took a lovely little weekend trip to NYC. It’s my best friend’s dream city, and I’ve always wanted to go, so considering her birthday had just passed, we decided to round up some of our friends and take a little vacay!

    We left on the night of October 11^th, by Greyhound, and after 12 hours of stories, sleep, unflattering pictures, one late night truck stop bathroom run (which seemed more like a prison bathroom), one stop over, and one bus driver exchange, we finally got to the city.

London Fashion Week | My first show ever!

Hi friends! This post is going to be all about my first experience walking in LONDON FASHION WEEK! If you haven't been following my vlogs -- YOU SHOULD: youtube.com/liveshiv

Recently, I was booked for a show just a couple hours before it started. The clothing line is called PPQ (ppqlondon.com), and it's an awesome high end brand here in London. I've never walked in a fashion week show before, and I had only done one runway show before this so I was SUPER nervous.

I never saw myself as a runway girl, but I started going to the castings here in London just to try it out, and before I knew it my agency told me I had more options than any girl in the agency! I was super excited about this show because it was an ON SCHEDULE show, which means it was for a big designer. There are also OFF SCHEDULE shows which showcase smaller designers or collections.

I have a vlog that I filmed during this experience, but I thought I'd share some tidbits of photos here! :)

Save Up the Bucks!

Hello lovelies!
 
      In the upcoming months & years Sonia and I want to take a lot of trips! I am going to New York City with friends for my best friends birthday in October, we of course want to visit our sister in LONDON (check out her vlogs here! miss you shiv!), go to disneyland, and then VEGA$ with the girls for Sonia's 21st birthday!

      Needless to say, that's going to cost a LOT of money. a lot. and with us being students, and also loving to go out with friends & online shop, keeping our money can be kind of a hard task sometimes LOL! THEREFORE, we have resorted a little old school trick that we think will help us, and maybe you guys as well.

I MOVED TO LONDON! + Just started vlogging!

Hey darlings,

Guess what? I MOVED TO LONDON! Very sudden, I know. I got this amazing opportunity through my modelling agency, as well as an agency here in London, to come here and model for a while! I'm so excited to be here and I'm so sorry I didn't post sooner. I've already been very busy so I haven't had a tonne of time to take good pictures but I'll add the ones that I've had so far, and I'll always be updating with new posts.

In other news, I STARTED VLOGGING! I thought, what better way to capture all of my memories and also be able to share them with everyone! This way I don't need to update everyone separately and you guys can actually experience it with me! I know that I'm so lucky to have this opportunity, and I want to be able to take everyone on this journey with me! I'll try to always do blog posts along with each video, or at least update vlogs where I can also post the videos here to make them easy to find.

Travels | Hawaii Part II

    Hello Loves! Sorry this post is so late, but I ended up getting sick for a week :( But I'm better now, so here is the second instalment of the Travel Series: Hawaii.

    Day Four: VARSHA’S 21^ST BIRTHDAY! Today, after breakfast in bed, we planned to go to a lu’au held at Paradise Cove.  So in the afternoon, we boarded a coach bus and headed to the venue. We got (shell) lei’d, and got free mai tai’s upon entering. After watching an introductory performance and the bringing out of the pig, we got traditional Polynesian tattoos, watched a fishing ceremony, made flower bands, and drank! We even saw a man climb a palm tree and release traditional Hawaiian flowers, which was a beautiful sight. By the time all of the events were done, we’d worked up an appetite so we sat down to fried chicken, macaroni salad, mahi mahi, and a taro roll while watching a show of Hula Girls and Samoan Fire Dancers. We both went up on stage and got hula certified! J After a long night, we headed back on the bus to the hotel. It was a great way to end Varsha’s birthday.

Travel | Hawaii Part I

     Hello Loves, It’s Varsha AND Sonia here! Welcome to our new Travel Series. All of us are going to be travelling to interesting places in the next couple of months, so we've come up with the series to not only share our time with you, but to also give you guys some ideas if you ever decide to go to these destinations :)

     Varsha recently turned 21 (we have no clue where the time went…), and as a birthday gift our family took her on a trip to Hawaii! The two of us, our parents, and our aunt went to the island of Oahu for seven days and it was beautiful! 

     On day one, after a twelve hour trip from Toronto, to Vancouver, to Oahu, we got to the hotel, grabbed some food and decided to do what Varsha wanted to do. Everyone knew what this would be: go to the zoo and the aquarium. The Waikiki strip is filled with hotels and tourists. So we figured the zoo would be a ways away. NOPE. The waiter at the restaurant said it was a five-minute walk down the street. It was crazy to think that in the middle of all of the hotels and two minutes away from the beach there would be a ZOO. So, we strolled five minutes down the street and there it was. Most of the animals were sleeping, so we finished the tour and headed to the aquarium. This was SUPER cool. There were indoor and outdoor portions, which was made for an interesting visit. After a long day of walking and seeing animals of the land and the sea, we headed to the hotel restaurant “Moana Terrace”.

flight, honolulu airport, and view from our room!