Big Bear Diaries ( with Farfetch )

A couple weeks ago, my friends Kristen, Claire, & I had the chance to spend a couple days outside of Los Angeles in a quaint Big Bear cabin. We were all craving some time spent away from the city, and, thankfully, we are able to make just about any trip we take work-related.

For those of you who may be new to H+H, Kristen has been one of my best friends ( who is also a blogger ) since I moved to Los Angeles after graduation. I met Claire, who is now my roommate & the exclusive photographer for all things Hustle + Halcyon, back in college when I started blogging, and we’ve been friends ever since.

As I always say, I’m SO LUCKY to be able to work with/surround myself with such hard-working, independent, inspiring people. I can’t say that enough. I still pinch myself daily to make sure I’m not dreaming.

Side, for those of you who are bloggers: do y’all want me to do a post on how we put together  trips that we make a profit off of? Some bloggers have a large enough reach to go on full-on sponsored trips where everything is taken care of by a particular brand. As smaller bloggers, we do the footwork on getting trips planned, paid for, & profited off of. I can do a little post on that, if y’all are interested!

Another Side-Note: K & I are wearing all Farfetch in this post. Farfetch is my go-to place online to shop high-end designers from Prada, to Gucci, to chic-as-hell Euro or streetwear brands you don’t hear about outside of the fashion world. Insider tip: if you’re going to splurge, you’ll find something here. See more of my love for Farfetch here & here.

Lastly: these Prada boots are 50% off rn, and they come in green & blue, just sayin’.

K, back to our Big Bear Diaries.

Shop My FarFetch Look

We booked the CUTEST freaking cabin/treehouse in Big Bear through AirBnb. It was super affordable, for those of you looking to do the same. The cabin was furnished with a throwback 60s/70s vibe, surrounded by the prettiest porch, & had a cozy fireplace situation inside.

Once we got to Big Bear, on Thursday evening, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some food/drink to have at the cabin ( in particular: skinny egg nog ingredients, recipe coming tomorrow! ), & checked into our home for the weekend.

We started shooting campaigns upon arrival, taking advantage of the last bit of light we had in the evening. Once the sun went down, we took a break to have dinner & a drink at Murray’s Saloon, which I highly recommend stopping into if you’re in Big Bear. It’s SUCH a Texas-sports-bar type of scene. Right up my alley.

K, C & I spent the rest of the night drinking ( too much wine ), playing various card games, & shooting ( using flash at night is my preferred way to live my life ). Like??? Is this my job??? For real??

Shop Kristen’s FarFetch Look

I will say that having contracted work to do ( even though it is exciting to come up with shoot concepts, IMO ) does put a damper on TOTAL vacation, chill-out mode. My perfect vacation wouldn’t exactly include shooting, nagging Claire for immediate edits, sending emails, submitting posts, signing contracts, etc. It IS, overall, a dream to be able to live in a creative mental space that I can control & that allows me organize trips like this for WORK.

Poor Claire was shooting/editing all weekend, though she did have a glass of wine in-hand the entire time. LOL. It’s half work, half play.

On Friday, we woke up ready to get to work. K & I got up and prettied in preparation to be in front of a camera all day. Claire made some early-morning edits like a champ.

We spent much of Friday morning coming up with look ideas, taking photos/video, & making sure we had everything on track to be shot in time. BTW– I’m going through these details to give y’all a realistic view of how trips for bloggers usually play out! Y’all know I like to be super transparent when it comes to blogging, so I hope this gives y’all an idea of what my life looks like!

Shop Similar from FarFetch

On Friday, we headed to lunch in town at Grizzly’s Bear Belly Deli. Yes, that’s a place. &, yes, it was phenomenal. I ordered a salad, because after all of the wine we ingested at this point, I needed some sort of vegetable in my body, LOL.

Then, as I’m sure you could’ve guessed, we headed back to the cabin to shoot some projects in the afternoon. Work, play, eat, work, play, eat, etc.

To round out the evening, we ate & sat by the fire sipping wine at 572 Social Kitchen & Lounge. It was a cold-but-cozy environment, which is EXACTLY what we were going for during our weekend away from the sunny Los Angeles weather.

Downtown Big Bear was completely decorated for the holidays, which was SO CUTE. The little souvenir & candy shops looked so festive, and the trees lining the streets were lit with christmas lights. We were in a teeny snowglobe town.

The only thing that would’ve made it more cozy/cute is snow on the ground, but we made-do without it.

Saturday morning, we got up to, yes, finish a few projects. We packed up to drive back to LA Saturday, saying goodbye to our little cabin getaway. If you’re looking for a quiet location to reset ( as an LA or SD resident ), I HIGHLY recommend booking a trip to Big Bear.

We lived THE LIFE for a few days.

Where do y’all like to get away to?? Anyone have recommendations for me?

Talk soon, beebs! xx