Last weekend, I spent a glorious 3 days in Narragansett with a few of my Instagram friends! I had only met two of these girls, but felt like I knew them all so well because of seeing them on Instagram every day! I cannot even begin to tell you how much fun we had! We all have our social media jobs in common so we immediately had a lot to talk about…nevermind that we are all around the same age, all have children and have many similar interests!

I’ve always had a small group of friends in Burlington, but now between going to Los Angeles in May and this recent trip, I have friends all over the country!

So I’ll start at the beginning…Isabella Thorpe (@confessionsofasuperager), invited 5 women to come to her beach home in Narragansett for a long weekend and I was honored to be one of the five! I jumped at the chance to go and immediately booked my flight! I met D’Arcy Vandenberg (@darcyvandenberg) when I went out to Los Angeles in May and knew Lisa Tamagini-Sanchez (@lisatinthecity) -I flew to NYC for 1 night to have dinner with this beauty), but it was my first time meeting Isabella, Marie (@cocktailsinbloom) and Lisa Cooper (@evolvingover50). To say we became friends immediately would be an understatement and over the course of the weekend we talked nonstop! We talked about everything from friendship to social media to products we love and literally everything in-between! I thought it would be fun to share Ten Golden Nuggets that I took away from this wonderful trip, so…read on for the nuggets!

I’ll start with the most important one and it’s a no brainer, but worth repeating…

Be the friend you want to have!

Friends are gifts and friendships must be nurtured. We all have different views on things, but respecting each other and differing opinions opens doors for important conversations and allows us to understand each other more. If everyone agreed on absolutely everything, this world would be a very boring place. Also, we all come from different backgrounds and our opinions are based on our lives up to this point and we’ve all had different experiences of life!

If you’ve decided a friendship is for you, value that friend for who they are and listen to them with respect. If they are truly a friend, they will do the same for you. Everyone is walking their own path but the mantra has to be women support each other!

But First…Coffee!

The first thing I always have in the mornings is a very large glass of water with Goop Glow Morning Skin Superpowder, Ultima Electrolyte Drink Mix, two scoops of Armra Colostrum and my Nutrafol hair supplement…it’s my morning cocktail. After I have all of that…I have coffee. More often than not, when I’m staying in someone else’s home, I’m the first one to get up. This trip was no exception…I was up at 5:30 even though I went to bed much much later than usual. The first morning, I had to figure out how to use the coffee maker…I had no idea, but I was determined and figured it out! D’Arcy had the most wonderful creamer in the refrigerator (Natural Bliss Real Milk & Cream) and I took my coffee back to bed to read and work before everyone else got up. When they were all up, I had my second cup on the porch and enjoyed the beautiful view of the ocean!

Social Media Has a Positive Side

As I said, all of us on this trip met on Instagram and that is such a cool thing! The other really positive thing about social media is that we are all obsessed with taking pictures and preserving more moments of our lives. When you’re with a group of women who are all influencers, the number of pictures taken is off the charts! I have so many memories of our trip from the pictures and videos we took and I will treasure those memories. Every time I scroll back in my pictures, I’ll see just how wonderful my life is and how blessed I am!

Sunglasses Make a Statement

We all came to the conclusion that expensive sunglasses are the ones we loose first but we love them and they can be an important statement accessory! We wore Chloe, Celine, Prada and of course, the Amazon dupes!

Laughter is Healing!

There were many times during this trip when my face hurt from laughing so hard! I laughed and listened and talked and cried just a little! It’s so wonderful to feel as if you’ve always known people, even though you just met them! Laughing with friends and being able to totally be yourself is healing!

Rose is always a good idea!

We were gifted a case of rosé from Forever Young Wines and enjoyed rosé all weekend long! Rosé is the quintessential wine of summer and it’s the best wine to sip on the beach! Forever Young is a French Rosé from Provenance…it’s light, not too sweet and so refreshing!

We Bond Over Food!

The first evening, we ate homemade pesto that I made right before I left and put in my suitcase! I was so worried that the jar would break and everything I packed would be ruined, but the pesto made it and it was delicious! We cooked gluten free and regular pasta and D’Arcy made mozzarella/tomato salad with a balsamic drizzle and Marie brought homemade focaccia bread (OMG yum)! It was a great way to start the weekend! D’Arcy also set a beautiful table for us all, complete with place cards and beautiful flowers! I’m telling you…this trip was amazing from start to finish!

We ate lunch and dinner out the next two days. I probably ate 50 oysters on the half shell while I was there and they were absolutely the best oysters I’ve ever eaten! When it comes to eating oysters, I’m a Southern girl and the only thing missing was a saltine cracker! I somehow managed without the cracker!

We Also Bond Over Makeup…

Being an influencer comes with it’s perks and we were gifted makeup and skincare products from Buxom, Perfect One Focus and Iris & Romeo. Buxom is one of my favorite brands and I’ve been using their lipgloss for years. They’ve come out with a new plumping cream blush that is just so good! I’ve been trying to master the French Girl blush look that D’Arcy showed me and it’s much easier with a creamier blush! I’m including a video below if you’re interested.

I haven’t had the opportunity to use the Perfect One Focus products or the ones from Iris & Romeo, but they are on my bathroom vanity and I’ll be trying them out this week!

An over 50 girls weekend is like a big pajama party

We were also gifted robes from Soma Intimates and we all wore our robes in the morning and when we got back to the house at night! I stayed up much later than usual because we talked and got to know each other even more in the evenings! I think one night, we even ate popcorn…someone tell me if I’m making that up haha (maybe there was also rosé involved)! There were definitely some great snacks because Lisa T stopped by Zabars in NYC on her way to Narraganset and brought the best snacks along with bagels and delicious cookies from Levain Bakery (you can order online and they have gluten free cookies too)!

It’s not about competition, it’s about building each other up

Life can be challenging some days for all of us and having friends who support me, encourage me and build me up is something I’m grateful for every day! I want to my friends to be able to count on me and know that I’m their biggest cheerleader!

Full disclosure…I had the best time ever with my friends, but I missed Amos so much! I’m not sure if this is normal but it’s just the truth! I had to love on every dog I saw and there were plenty of dogs!

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