Eva Gutowski's Blog, page 4

Finding Your Happy Place

I didn’t exactly know where I belonged for so long. Even though I grew up in Southern California, I didn’t grow up with money or with a family that traveled the world. Growing up, I’d hear my friend’s stories of their cruise trips and vacations to Europe or the Bahamas. I had never seen the world like them. I had seen Buffalo, New York, Arizona, Niagara Falls and Mammoth Mountain to be exact.

This longing for the chance to travel, to leave, to go anywhere else but where I was consumed me. I filled my mind with the thought that I didn’t know when or where I would go, but I knew that I would work so hard until I got the chance to leave my small town.

And then I fell in love.

See I fell in love with this boy who was independent. He lived on his own, was a Junior in college and was extremely smart, hilarious and caring.

I found myself mesmerized by him. And then, after just one month, he told me he was leaving America to live in Barcelona for a third of the year.

I had known him for all of maybe two months, but I knew with all my heart that I loved him. I knew that this would be worth waiting for.

Here I was, a girl presented with an opportunity to create a memory completely of her own.

So, despite hundreds of people- and even sometimes a part of myself, I decided that I would wait for him to come back for four months, and book a thousand dollar plane ticket to visit him after 3 and a half.

And so I waited.

Three and a half months went by of poor quality facetiming, and three hours a day of mutual time zone communication.

The day finally came for me to fly across the country by myself.

I boarded the plane and flew to see this boy, butterflies in my stomach. This week was one of the best weeks of my life. I saw Barcelona, Paris, London! I saw a new world! Suddenly my life changed. This boy had made me a traveler.

After Europe soon came Mexico, then New York City, then Hawaii, then Thailand, then Hong Kong. All with him. We had so much fun experiencing foreign culture together, learning new lifestyles. We took sketchy rides from Thai men in trucks to get back to our hotel. I hugged him tight while he zipped through the streets of Phuket on a scooter bike. We dove into underwater caves together in Mexico and rubbed weird sand clay on our faces.

And then it ended.

When our relationship ended, I lost not only my best friend, but my travel companion. Things felt so empty.

It took me a little, but I finally decided to travel again without him. It was odd at first, but then I realized something;

Relationships ending make you see that all the things you thought you’d only ever be able to do with one person, you can and will do with new people. People who love you. Friends, family, new crushes. It seems like it’s impossible to move on with your life when you got so used to assigning your happiness to a person.

So I surfed in Oahu. I built a snowman in Tahoe. I went on tour! I touched The Bean in Chicago!

I love to travel. My old best friend helped me find that passion. Him leaving did not take my love of traveling with him.

And so, I continue to travel as many days out of the year that I can. I still am the girl who longs to go anywhere but where I am settled. My happy place is everywhere that I have not yet explored. It brings me so much joy!

I encourage everyone to find your passion, find the places that you fall in love with, and don’t be afraid to find these places with people who fill your life with happiness right now. Don’t be afraid of making memories for the fear that one day the people you shared them with won’t be with you anymore. This is all part of the beautiful journey we call life. People come in and out of it, but memories of happy times will last forever.

XOXO,

Eva

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How To Rock a Fur Jacket! #EvaTakesTahoe

Very often, seasons decide how I dress. In the Summer, all I want to be is this natural, sun kissed, grecian surf goddess. In Fall, I want to be edgy, bold, and I want my Starbucks cups to be stained with berry lip tint. In Spring… well… I don’t know who I am in Spring. But in Winter, I definitely go for this cosy snow bunny look. I love a simple yet glam makeup look, enough to make my face pop but also look natural and flushed. If you want a makeup look break down for winter, I can do one for you!

We’re Going To Disneyland!

The other week, Teala and I were sitting on my couch in pajamas playing video games when she casually pulled out a shiny credit card-like object. I asked what it was, and she explained that it was her Disneyland pass, and that she had no one to go with. Guys. I am not kidding. In that moment I sprang into overdrive and suggested that we compiled a group of awesome people and planned an epic Disney trip as soon as possible. Now, with me, I make plans and I keep them. I don’t do any of that “lets go to the movies this weekend and then never follow up on that idea” stuff. I ain’t no flake!

So that night I text Steele and ask if he would like to accompany me to Disneyland on Sunday. He says sure. I am ecstatic.

Saturday night, my best friend Alaine joins the group!

Sunday morning comes and theres an 80% chance of rain. Steele tries to back out of Disneyland. I threaten to hurt him. He backs back in.

 We begin our hour trek to Disneyland. Steele is complaining about the brooding chance of rain. I tell him I have two umbrellas stocked in my backpack and we will be okay. Teala turns up the music. We play that song that’s like “Ohhh ya ya, back up off me”.

We get to Disneyland! Everything is amazing. We grub on some Pizza Port and then begin our magical ride experience.

Disneyland was amazing yet again. I had gone with Steele before, so it was so fun being there with him again! We got our newly formed tradition of buying two churros each and sharing them. All of us rode the rocket ride where it takes you up and down, which I’m pretty sure is meant for children- but nonetheless it was so much fun! We sang old RnB tunes at the top of our lungs while waiting in line and I beat Steele by a longshot in AstroBlasters yet again. Not once did it rain.  

Can we just talk about this booty in that photo ^^

Wearing: A topshop turtleneck, lululemon high waisted leggings, Aldo booties, Disney ears!

We are so cute OHMYGAHHHHHHHHHHGFHHSKDJFGIODJFGIJDOIGJAPOGIRJGROI. 

Disneyland was amazing. I’m so glad I got to share this experience with good friends. If you’re ever able to take a Disneyland trip with friends, please do. It will bring you so much happiness!

 

XoXo,

Eva

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Finding Balance In a World of Craziness

Hello,

It’s me.

No but really though, it’s been far too long since I’ve graced you guys with an amazingly written blog post. Im kidding. We all know my blog posts are mediocre at best *lol*. So first off, I’m back. I’ll briefly explain why I was gone. Basically, I waited too long to renew my domain and once I renewed it, my website didn’t register my password for a solid month. Today was the first day it logged me in, so now I’m writing! I have SO many photos to share with you guys! Photos of Girls Night In Tour, photos of the foods I hunted down all across the country to try, photos of outfits and photos of just *stuff* I come across in my life! GUYS! I went to the bean in Chicago! That was one of my goals!!!!

I want to keep this blog post short, but I also wanted to start a bit fresh going forward now with my website. I want to leave you all with a little message; when the road ahead starts to get too crazy, look up. Sometimes we get so caught up in the things we have to get done in the now, and it often leads to us feeling like were drowning. There will always be a million little tasks we have to complete. You’ll finish homework only to have more homework piled on the next day. You’ll clean your room only to have it messy by the next week. Being 100% organized and done with your mental list is down right impossible. So next time that you feel like you’ll never be able to relax, just look up. Close your eyes and remember that your goal shouldn’t be to complete some list in your head. You’ll never be satisfied like that! Just remember to take a deep breath and keep chugging along. Find little happy things in your life and spend time on them. Spend time on things that don’t have a deadline. Things you can enjoy. That’s why I love writing on this blog! I write when I feel inspired and it allows me to almost stop time and stop my mind from thinking of all the things I “need” to get done.

Take up something fun! Sports, writing, singing, dancing- it doesn’t matter! Explore what makes time stop inside your head.

I’m heading to Tahoe tomorrow to film some fun videos for you guys. I love you all and I’ll update you with some cool photos very soon!

XOXO,

Eva

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Tour Outfits: San Fransisco!

So right now I’m on tour. It’s pretty crazy, but it’s also so much fun to be constantly hanging with some of my best youtube friends! The first stop outside of Southern California was San Fransisco. I have a ton of memories in this beautiful area, so it was really exciting to get to go back and share with the girls all my secret insider knowledge of all the fun places to see.

Our show in San Fransisco was at The Regency, which was this beautiful old building built in the 20’s that featured amazing architecture. Im writing up a post solely about all the beautiful details of the venue, but for now, let’s focus on fashion.

You guys know that I’m all about that 60’s fashion. I’m a total sucker for mod mini dresses, turtlenecks and texture. I love getting inspiration from people like Brigitte Bardot, and girls from old James Bond movies. Thats my ish’. For some reason, I was feeling so 60’s at the San Fransisco show, so of course I had to pull out my turtleneck striped sweater dress from Topshop. When I found this, It looked down right hideous on the rack, and the girls shopping with me made fun of the dress almost enough to where I was about to put it down. But- I brought it to the dressing room, pulled the dress over my head and watched as the turtleneck hole wrecked my already half-tangled mess of hair extensions. It was worth it.

I emerged from the dressing room and watched as all my girlfriends “ooh”ed and “ahh”ed at the sight of the perfectly snug fitting article. It was a total buy.

I’d say this dress has become one of my favorite pieces of clothing, because it was a total find and was completely out of the store by the next day. It makes me feel like my true self, and every time I put it on, I take on this cool girl persona of what I want to be.

I paired this look with a total 60’s hairstyle; a pouffed top pulled back, and added some converse to modernize the look.

      

Who’s your style icon? Where do you get inspiration from?? Let me know!

XOXO, Eva

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Fall Back To School Outfits! : Boho Casual

There’s something about school style that is so exciting, yet so scary. It’s hard to achieve that perfect balance between looking super stylish, yet super effortless! There are a lot of different ways to execute your personal style for school, but one of my go to ways is by going boho.

Boho is comfortable. It’s “flowy”, breezy and cool. The thing I love about boho looks is that you can basically take any outfit and turn it into something more bohemian. This really cute outfit I put together is a great example!

I’m wearing a loose lilac tee with some white high waisted lace shorts. To make it more stylish, I wore an old rust color felt hat and piled on jewelry that had a boho feel to it, like chunky coin necklaces and pendants.

I layered on a jean jacket to toughen up the look and give it a “cool girl” vibe. I love how the jean jacket is a fashion staple, but also keeps my breezy outfit underneath covered up in the perfect amount. Playing with texture is so much fun, and I’m loving how the dainty, scalloped lace shorts look against the denim.

      

 

For shoes, I wore faded brown boots with a thick buckle, to match my hats suede and wool fabric.

 

    

Overall, I think this outfit embodies a super cool way to take a simple look and make it a bit more stylish for a school day! What is your go to look for school? Let me know in the comments below!

XOXO,

Eva

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How To Make Your Own Wall Art for Cheap!

Let’s talk about art. It’s actually ridiculous how expensive some wall art is. Since the good old days, art has always been looked to as “fancy” or something only for the rich to enjoy. I know this is true, because I’ve been forced to take too many history classes growing up.

Now, I am 21 years of age, and like quite a few 21 year olds, I’ve been through my fair share of apartments. Usually the first place you move into is decorated solely with Ikea furniture. Seriously, I could walk into most college freshmen’s dorms and pick things out like “That right there is Malm 3389, and that’s a Hemnes coffee table”.

Ikea pretty much owns your furniture budget, until you get a job that can afford more than a diet of ramen noodles and the oh so occasional celebratory ice cream sandwich that you buy for yourself after acing your general education finals. As a young adult, you will most likely at one point own, or see a friend own, the standard canvas of Audrey Hepburn and/or the generic black and white landscape photo of Paris that Ikea sells for a hefty $39.99.

Now I had moved around three times, and on the third time I was finally fed up with my Ikea furniture. Sure, I loved it’s ever so affordable price and it’s cute Russian-meets American instruction manual that let’s be honest, no one understands- but It was time for something new. I needed adult furniture. Furniture that I would actually mind if Paris, my cat, pooped on. Thus, I started to look.

Furniture shopping went relatively well. I discovered tons of adorable and classy things from places like West Elm and Crate&Barrel. My apartment was truly coming together- that is, until I needed wall art.

Wall art is such a challenge. I feel like more than anything, wall art is the last thing a person lingers on when decorating their new space, simply because they don’t want to mess it up. Wall art can make or break the perfect apartment! After two months of living in case-de-la Eva, I finally went on a venture to find wall art that wasn’t from Ikea. To my surprise, nearly every single place I looked was selling paintings for hundreds and often even thousands of dollars! Like…. WHAT?!

I had always toyed in my mind the idea of making my own art and saving ton of money, but it wasn’t until I saw the most simple purple paint scribble framed in gold selling for $2800, that I got in my car and drove to Michaels.

At Michaels, I bought two large canvases, two large frames and a whole bunch of paint. I laid it all down on my floor and got to being Picasso. I found some art that I loved on etsy that sold for around $400, and began to recreate it on my canvases as closely as I could. In the end, I spent $240 at Michaels and came out with some amazing artwork. I have yet to start painting the framed art, but I can already tell it will look great! Here are my creations. 

At Michaels, I bought two large canvases, two large frames and a whole bunch of paint. I laid it all down on my floor and got to being Picasso. I found some art that I loved on etsy that sold for around $400, and began to recreate it on my canvases as closely as I could. In the end, I spent $240 at Michaels and came out with some amazing artwork. I have yet to start painting the framed art, but I can already tell it will look great! Here are my creations.

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And here is just part of the giant mess I made. #WorthIt

All in all, going with making my own wall art was totally worth it. I saved a ton of money and now I have something to talk… okay lets be honest- brag about for when people come over and ask about the pieces. If you’re a little nervous about attacking art by yourself, here are my tips:

Buy a cheap canvas, and only buy one! You don’t want to fail miserably then be stuck wasting your money on three $75 dollar canvases you will never ever use again.
Pick art that is easy to create. i.e. If you have never “arted” before, maybe stay away from faces, landscapes, realism, fruit bowls or just about anything with detail in it. Keep it easy, like lines and shapes.
Pick your art idea and color schemes before you go and get supplies, that way you don’t leave the store with 110 colors of paint when you only need 5 shades of green.
Do your art on a clean surface, or a surface you don’t mind getting messy. You will get messy.
Have fun and don’t take it too seriously! Use broad, musical strokes and let your hands roam free. Remember: anything is art, and art has no rules. If you want to paint yourself and lay on your canvas then roll around- guess what, that’s still art. Hang your masterpiece proudly and show it off to the haters! Just make sure you have a very artistic name and meaning behind it to back it up. 

Have you ever painted before? Send me photos of your own DIY wall art! Until next time,

XOXO, Eva

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Taco Stops and Hot Surfer Boys

When you see a taco stand on the side of the road, you stop. Still, all the way in Hawaii, I still managed to find myself enjoying chain food establishments. Wahoo’s is in no way a local gem. Regardless, Alaine and I pulled over and ordered plates of fish and chicken tacos with sides of rice and beans. We looked for a place to eat these kind of delicious, kind of cold, pre made tacos, and settled upon a dusty and sandy car parking bumper overlooking the ocean. Through the trees, as we devoured our meals, we watched a few surfers get ready to dive into the ocean. They stretched and zipped up their wetsuits, and Alaine and I stared at their butts. Here’s what I wore and ordered;

 

 

Alaine snapped photos of me as I awkwardly ordered my tacos, while a line of locals glared at us from behind. This is me nervously telling her to stop.

 

 

This is us having an impromptu photoshoot in front of the taco truck, while the lady inside was preoccupied with other people’s orders.

          

Im wearing a super cute and super affordable floral tie halter top from Forever 21 and a white American Apparel school skirt, along with my new favorite shoes; my low top converse.

 

  

 

Ooh, swag.

 

What’s your favorite type of food? Let me know in the comments!!

XOXO, Eva

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