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Best Drive of 2019!

I have shared before that I live in a small town.  Living far from places I like to visit has turned me into quite the driver.  Give me a destination and I am there! 

Desert Babe
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I have really grown to cherish my time on the road, I love being alone with my thoughts and of course my music! When I travel, I always make sure to rent a car to get around. Some of my most memorable drives have been around Hawaii and most recently on my trip to the Grand Canyon.

Surprisingly the drive from Phoenix to the Grand Canyon is less than 4 hours and the route goes straight through one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE cities of Sedona.  I had good company (my kids) and good music to go along with the scenic views. 

Road Trip

Check out our ride and some of the landscape in the video below.

Grand Canyon

At the Grand Canyon we signed up for a jeep tour with Grand Canyon Jeep Tours and Safaris.  Although we enjoyed the tour, I recommend skipping the pricey jeep tours and heading straight for the Visitors Center where you can easily build an itinerary according to your time available and personal preferences.  There are hikes and view points to accommodate all ages and interests.  They also have a cute and FREE Junior Rangers program for the kids to keep them engaged!  Two things to keep in mind when visiting the Grand Canyon: it’s COLD, you are between 7000 and 9000 feet high, bring layers, it was 41 degrees the day we went in October. Secondly be sure to catch the sunrises and sunsets, they are breathtaking.  Whether you watch the canyon light up in the morning or turn down for the night, the overwhelming beauty that is the canyon is really captured at these hours. 

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Sedona

On our way back we stopped for a while in Sedona.  This incredibly beautiful and unique city has had my heart since I first visited ten years ago.  Something about its isolation, desert landscape, and tall red rocks just captivates me.  Unlike in the Grand Canyon, in Sedona I HIGHLY recommend a jeep tour.  Getting up and around these rock structures is not easy, but with the Pink Jeep tours its fun and scenic! We had lunch at the tasty Oaxaca Restaurant that has the most beautiful view in the city.  Be sure to swing by the Fine Arts and Crafts Square where there are interesting boutiques and art galleries, live music, cafes, and more!

In The Desert

This drive was truly one for the books and with the beautiful Arizona sun on our side. We enjoyed every minute we spent on the road.  Now, I am off to plan my next #RoadTrip.

Your Chick,

Rina

Desert Babe
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SPF 30, 50, 80…What does it all mean?

Ahhhh, the summer heat is upon us and Lake Sinclair is looking like the perfect getaway!  Nothing beats when the sun hits your skin and the breeze tosses your hair.  But to keep comfortable in this kind of heat, we all need to take some precaution with helpful skin care designed for #LakeLife.

Taking care of your skin does not have to come with an expensive price tag.  We have great drugstore brands that you can scoop up anywhere as long as you know the key ingredients you are looking for. 

Understanding SPF

Waterproof, sweatproof, UVB, UVA, SPF 30, 50, or 100, what does it all mean?  I asked several people to explain this to me and I was alarmed how many people don’t exactly understand what it all means! 

SPF stands for ‘sun protection factor’ and is designed specifically to protect against ultraviolet B (UVB) rays. UVB is what causes sunburn.  Suppose that your skin would normally start to burn after 10 minutes without any protection — with SPF 30, you would get 30 TIMES the protection…that’s 300 minutes (10min x 30 SPF)! 

BUT the Center for Disease Control (CDC) warns that reapplying sunscreen does NOT reset the clock, it just provides continuity of the existing protection.  So using the example above, if you go for a swim about an hour (60 minutes) after applying your SPF 30 sunscreen, then you need to re-apply and will still only get the remaining 240 minutes of protection. 

So what is UVA? These ultraviolet rays don’t generally cause visible sunburn, but can cause damage to tissue that causes wrinkles which means they penetrate deeper into the skin.  

The Takeaway

As someone who is particular about my skin care and of course style.  I love to pile on my protection with a moisturizing sunscreen, make up with SPF in it, and a cute hat or sunglasses just to keep my face out of direct sunlight for a prolonged period of time. 

Sun Essentials
Chicks #LakeLife Essentials

I hope that you found this information helpful next time you stop by CVS or Walgreens before you head to the lake. 

Lather up!

Your Chick,

Rina

**This piece was published in Milledgeville Scene Magazine May/June 2019**

Sunscreen

Going Green: 4 Easy Things You Can Do To Do Your Part

Do you feel that…the urge to start Spring cleaning? Yeah, me too.  Between the Netflix series Tidying Up and my kids outgrowing their clothes faster than I can clear them out…it’s about that time!  But before you start throwing things into piles, consider re-purposing your denim (and your kids denim and leggings too!)

Before you know it, it’s going to be HOT, like REALLY HOT here in Georgia, so why not up-cycle your old jeans into a cute new pair of jean shorts?  To help you get the look that is right for you, here are a few helpful tips.

Start off with a pair of shorts that you wear regularly and lay them on top of an old pair of jeans that you are considering getting rid of (visit our Pinterest page).

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Grab some chalk and a pair of scissors and carefully draw a line across the front and along the back of the jeans.  You will need to lay the shorts upside down on the back since the measurements around the back tend to be longer. 

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Cut the front part of the legs off first and THEN cut off the backside of the leg to accommodate for different lengths.   For a distressed look like I am doing, throw the shorts into the washer and they are ready to go!

For a more polished or hemmed look you will want to add about two inches to your length to make room for the folds. 

Do More

There are so many easy ways to do your part in helping save the environment.  In addition to up-cycling, here are three easy things I have done as part of my 2019 new year’s resolution are:

1- Use more hand towels and less paper towels. I have found that if the paper towels are NOT on the counter, my family looks for and uses the alternative.

2- Use a reusable water bottle (check out our gift guides).  Not only does this actually make me drink more water, but I also feel good about not piling up all that unnecessary plastic in our landfills.

3- Use reusable bags. Our local Aldi has really been a catalyst for driving this behavior. By not giving groceries in plastic bags, they have forced me to keep bags in my car.  I find that I use them when I got to Kroger and Wal-Mart too!

Sometimes it’s the little things that can make a big difference.  Which one of these behaviors can you commit to trying out in order to do a little bit to make this community and the world a little bit better?

Thanks for being a part of Chicks And Salsa!

Your Chick,

Rina

Save up to 50% off during our Spring Sale! Now through April 22 at NORDSTROM.

PRESS

UpJourney Asks – How does one figure out what to do with their life?

On The Scene With Chicks And Salsa

Gluconfidence Podcast

Press Event with Guru Randhawa


An Inside Look at ‘Digital Chicks Media’

Hey Ladies! Today, we are introducing you to the beautiful and talented Rina Puri from Milledgeville, GA. She co-writes for an amazing lifestyle blog with her sister and is founder of Digital Chicks Media, a social media management company. Enjoy the read & cheers to feeling inspired!

Thanks for chatting with us today Rina, so you are well-known for your blog, Chicks and Salsa. Could you give us a little more background on the content you write about and how you got started with it?

My sister, Sonia, and I value “girl talk” above all else – it’s a way for us to blow off steam about our day and have an outlet that keeps us calm for the other people in our lives -most importantly our spouses and kids! More than two years ago, over chips and salsa, we decided to create a platform where we can share things that we talk about and love with others. The blog gives us a creative outlet and helps us to be more balanced as women and mothers.

Amazing! So how did ‘Digital Chicks Media’ come about? What were your goals when first starting out?

It was a natural progression from working on the blog and having worked for non profits for ten years. Creating Digital Chicks Media seemed like the next step in bringing all my skill sets together under one roof.

With Digital Chicks Media, we truly strive to match a brand with its true fans. There are so many amazing products and services out there with inspiring background stories, and we want to tell that story in a way that is meaningful and beautiful.

What services do you offer clients?

We can do everything from photography, content creation, social media integration across platforms, and engagement with your audience on a daily basis. Maintaining an active social media presence is absolutely essential in today’s market, but can also be very time consuming. We tell our clients to let us run their social media so that they can run their business!

“We tell our clients to let us run their social media so that they can run their business!”

How does your company promote female empowerment? Why is this important?

As a mom of two young children, I have made many excuses to not “shake things up” at home and in my personal life. Thanks to many strong women who have come before me, I have taken the steps to ‘do me’ in a way that has defined my present and future in ways I never anticipated. I am grateful for that push and hope that with my journey I can also inspire others to just – go for it!

What final thoughts would you like to leave with our readers today?

Ordinary women can do extraordinary things. I would love to work with female entrepreneurs wanting to share their ideas online. Digital Chicks Media has your back, feel free to email me [email protected]


Meet Trailblazers Rina Puri and Sonia Shah

 

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rina Puri and Sonia Shah.

Two years ago, Rina and Sonia (sisters) sought to empower women, especially Moms, and South Asian females to get more out of life through fashion, friendship, and fun! They built a team of stay at home Moms to each share their journey on a platform called Chicks And Salsa – named after their favorite snack and also the symbolism that it came with. “We always have chips and salsa when we are hanging out with our friends and having a great time, those are the best nights!” Rina said. Today, they talk about everything from fashion, beauty, travel, and more and have created an actual lifestyle blog that hopefully speaks to all kinds of women!

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The “Empowered South Asian Female” is kind of a new phenomenon. Our Mom has been a housewife for most of her life and she did a great job raising a family with four kids AND grandparents at home. Our Mom made constant sacrifices for others always putting herself last; her dreams and her personal ambitions. Our generation sees family a little differently; we prioritize ourselves a little bit more and carve out time from our lives to do things that make us happy – whether that is a girls night out a visit to the spa! This has, of course, comes with a little judgment for being “selfish” from our community from time to time, but sharing how making time for ourselves has made us better partners and mothers have helped change the discussion and perception.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Chicks And Salsa – what should we know?
We love sharing what we are doing with our followers, it is our hope that when they see us doing something fun or wearing something unique that they are inspired to get up and do something themselves. We love making the most of what we have and live life with the glass half full, even when things are tough!

As longtime Chicago girls, Rina and Sonia have been around for a while! “We love this city and all of its diversity we are proud to represent Mothers and South Asian from this great place!” Says Sonia.

We’re interested to hear your thoughts on female leadership – in particular, what do you feel are the biggest barriers or obstacles?
Generally, women have been supportive of our efforts and we are grateful for that! When it comes to blogging, there is truly space for everyone so the community in Chicago at large has been generous with their ideas and compliments. We would love to see more ethnic bloggers take the scene in Chicago in the future.

We think that the most challenging thing this day in age is changing the way we see each other on social media and accepting what we see for what it is – a moment in time captured by someone who wanted to share something. It is easier to be happy for each other than to cut each other down. We are all one – we need to cut each other some slack over insecurities, judgment, and fear and celebrate one another as often as possible! We have found that positive energy can manifest in the same way negative energy does, so we all have to make that choice!


Podcast: The Chicks Chat with Ami of AmyTuckeredOut


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Milledgeville Scene May/June 2019