champagne fizz and fruity cocktails

Happy Tuesday! How are you doing? Are you taking time to check-in with yourself and give yourself the care, love, and attention you need? If not, it’s perfectly okay to set aside time for yourself to do whatever you want/need to do during ‘me time.’ Maybe it’s yoga, meditation, running, reading, tending to a pallet garden you built, sewing some pillowcases for your home decor, making a dress to match your homemade mask, or even playing animal crossing with family and friends. Whatever you want to do during your assigned ‘me time,’ make sure you’re doing it and giving yourself a break.

If you didn’t get a chance to read yesterday’s blog post - “Super Bowl LII Champs at Wembley” - you can click right here to read all about how much fun I had watching the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Jacksonville Jaguars in London! Also, if you didn’t get the chance to cast your free daily vote for me to be the next #MaximCoverGirl, you can click here to vote or click here to read about why it’s important to me (and then vote!). You can vote once every twenty-four hours for free, and I’d be so grateful for your support! I'm still in the running and in the top 10 of my group! Voting for round 3 ends this coming Thursday night June 18th, so I’d love your support to make it through to round 4! Thank you for everything so far!! If you’re all caught up on the London travels thus far and Maxim Cover Girl voting, then buckle up!

After the Eagles beat the Jaguars, I ended up going out to a couple pubs in London with a couple Irish guys I met while watching football at Woolshed Baa and Grill in Dublin, as well as some of their friends from Philadelphia. It was such a fun way to see how two different cities I loved could come together for a night of pints and laughter. I also got to meet and have drinks with one of the owners of Brauhaus Schmitz, which is a Philadelphia restaurant I love that serves delicious German food! It was a fun night with such a random mix of people and especially great given the Birds’ victory.

Much of the next morning and afternoon was spent revisiting some places in which I wanted to spend more time and doing a little bit of light shopping. I ended up getting a cute shell-shaped mirror to keep in my purse and spent the better part of an hour browsing through the various tea collections at T2 (I ended up ordering myself a tea set later online as a birthday present I’d receive when I moved back to the USA). Having an easy day without anything big planned was a nice break from all the amazing craziness that was my fun-filled, jam-packed long weekend in London.

Monday night, however, I got to catch up with another friend of mine I enjoy so much! After grabbing a coffee, I found my way and met up with Millie at Jo Malone where I got to sample and enjoy some wonderful moisturizers and scented creams, as well as a glass of champagne while I waited. Does anyone else live for a little pampering every once in a while?! We ended up bopping into a little bar down the street to have some cocktails and catch up on life since we hadn’t seen each other since our mutual friend’s wedding a few years ago. She looked beautiful and happy and was absolutely crushing it at work, and it was so fun to chat for a couple hours over delicious drinks.

Have you ever looked around at your group of friends and realized just how lucky you are to be surrounded by such successful, kind, caring people? Sometimes I have to pinch myself when I look at all the strong, hard-working women I’m so lucky to know and call my friends. I’d love to know I’m not the only one who has those moments, so please let me know if you do, too! Subscribe in the e-mail submission box below and reach out, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and reach out to me on the “contact” page. I’m so happy you're here and that I’ve been getting a lot of really great, fun-to-read stories, questions, and feedback from a community all over the globe from all different chapters of my life (and from people I don’t know *yet*)! The other stories of people’s travels that I’ve gotten to read via e-mail, text, tweet, DM, etc. recently bring me such smiles, and I am so grateful for all of it! I hope I get to hear all about the crazy stories you’ve been thinking about as we’ve been on this virtual journey together! I couldn’t do this without you! So THANK YOU! From the bottom of my heart, truly, thank you.

And please, if you have 10-15 seconds to spare, I would really appreciate your daily vote for me to be Maxim Cover Girl 2020. Click here to vote! Voting for round three ends this coming Thursday June 18th, and I would really appreciate your help and support as I continue to try and become the next #MaximCoverGirl by moving ahead into round 4! Thank you for your support! Click here or on the photo above to vote!

Sincerely,

Johny

P.S. - If you want to catch up from the beginning on this series of adventures, here's a cheat sheet to the posts (in order in which they were published):

1. Won't you join me?

2. grateful for starbucks and sandymount strand

3. Once Upon a December in the National Gallery

4. plant a smooch for that gift of gab

5. may the 4th be with you: Dingle style

6. cinco de mayo: the best Mexican food in Dublin

7. pizza in roma

8. mussolini’s window and the philosophers’ metro stop

9. father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife

10. it's the vatican, not the vatican't

11. spoiler alert: i did not lose my hand

12. more pizza and gelato and Neptune, oh my