I stayed at Mint Hotel for a staycation in Denver. This hotel was unique because it was actually also a luxury downtown Denver apartment building . Mint Hotel used beautifully furnished apartments as hotel rooms. Apartments were available to rent on the other side of the building as hotel rooms. Apartments were available to rent on the other side of the building
I had the pleasure of staying in a two bedroom hotel suite. I loved how spacious the suite was and how it had all the modern conveniences of a home including a full kitchen, dishes pots pans, wash and dryer machine in unit. The close proximity to Denver restaurants and local grocery stores were a nice bonus. The view overlooking Denver was phenomenal. I liked that the hotel is dog friendly as well!
Don’t you just love when you have a cute shopping day? Well, when I planned to move to France I knew that it was going to be difficult finding plus size clothes! My cute successful shopping days were numbered in France. In preparation I brought everything with me that I could possibly carry. I went to Nordstrom before leaving the United States and bought all my staple pieces including coats for winter, sweaters, jeans, shirts, skirts and shoes. Unfortunately carrying all my clothes with me to France was not easy. Not only was it not easy to carry physically, but with a dog, three huge suitcases and carry-on(s), it was very expensive. I had to negotiate the price of carrying my luggage to France with all my clothes but I knew if I didn’t bring all the basic then I wasn’t going to be able to travel like I wanted to and be comfortable however it was a catch 22 because I wasn’t able to travel like I wanted to as easily because it was hard to carry all of my suitcases with me!
At times I was sad that I couldn’t wear the looks I wanted to and take fancy pictures of my traveling in France because my clothes were really basic. I love basic clean classic styles but sometimes a girl just wants to have fun and “luxuriate”
I am sharing my experiences hoping that brands in Europe will expand their sizes as the sizes of women have changed. Plus size women deserve to look fashionable and feel comfortable in their current size. There is so much money that curvy girls like myself want to spend on France and all of Europe. It’s time for a change. Don’t get me started on the bra sizes in France!! I leave that for another day.
Here are some pictures I took shopping in Zara in Annecy, France below. To my disappointment nothing was remotely the correct size for me. It definitely made me feel excluded. No woman should feel that way.
in Zara in Annecy, France. I was upset the clothes were nowhere near my size
Ordering online from France and The shipping fees are more than the clothes!
So many “why-comes” why why why!!!!!
Below I’ve included a video on tips shopping for plus size clothes in France.
Check out my video about shopping for plus size clothes in France and how difficult it was! https://youtu.be/rPdWJVGugkA
When you just purchase a home, it is a great idea to clear the energy that the house may hold. Old energy may still be present even long after the house has been sold. Clearing a home’s old energy from previous owners can be good if there was a divorce that happened while a couple lived in the home, or a person living in the home had health issues, financial or emotional distress. In general, it is always a helpful option to cleanse the energy in a home.
The benefits of cleansing a home’s energy and blessing the home are to bring in new blessings, protection, and good energy to the home and all who live there. Blessing the home can help a homeowner and family to feel more relaxed, creative, and happy inside their new home. Blessing the home can bring in new financial opportunities and allow whoever enters the home to feel uplifted, safe, and the houseguests to be in better spirits than they had when they arrived. Praying over a home can also block the wrong people from entering. Take the following steps to cleanse and bless your new home:
Send Gratitude to the previous owners of the house thank the previous owners of your home for taking care of the house and also allowing you to live in the home peacefully. Metaphorically speaking you can send gratitude to the previous owners. Have gratitude for being able to live in a home that you choose.
State New Intentions for your new home and seal it with a prayer State all the intentions you have for your new house. Intentions can be to raise a happy family, create a business, create new memories, have joyful gatherings with friends and family, and feel protection. Your intention for your home can be as creative, simple, or as deep as you would like them to be. You can write your intentions down or say them out loud. If you do pray you can say: thank you for providing this house for me and my family I thank you that this home brings us the following intentions and read through your list!
Bring in Fresh air and Sage To Sage your new home correctly you want to start by opening at least one window in each room for an hour before you start the sage cleanse. Light a white candle to help bring in good energy and place it in any room if you have more than one candle to put in multiple rooms that’s even better . The best place to start the sage cleanse is at front door. Light the Sage. It’s best if you have a sage smudge stick. You want to go clockwise from the front door into every room. while you are entering the front door you can start repeating your intentions/prayer that you created for your home as you walk from room to room clockwise from the front door. Make sure you sage the closets, bathrooms, and the corners of each room as well. Keep repeating your prayers as you go. Once you have covered your entire house exit your house and walk around the perimeter of your home, clockwise, and smudge the outside of your house with the burning sage. Again state your prayers and intention for your home and ask for protection and that no one with ill intentions shall enter the home. Once you finish give gratitude for the cleansing and protection of your home and enjoy the immediate and long-lasting refreshing energy that you feel. You can use sage to cleanse your home periodically to cleanse the energy in your home. If you have a stressful discussion you can cleanse and sage the room where the discussion happened. However, once your home is blessed, it’s always blessed!
My 2 week stay at the Moxy hotel was overall lovely.❤
Pros:
Centrally located hotel in the 11arr.
Chic hotel stylish and clean
Friendly and helpful accommodating staff!
New technology big screen TV USB outlets by bed and TV to charge phone
Nice fun events for guest from mixology classes to running events for active guest!
Spacious room options and unique storage options for baggage
Beautiful balcony in rooms and open terrace on top floor
Great lounge/ working space area for guest, I met some Amazing people in the resturant area. Great spot for solo/business travellers to be social.
Dog friendly (*but for a unfriendly price)
Without sounding like a full lush the drink selection and bartenders were the best!!
Cons:
Wish there was more diversity in their advertising and partnerships
Bed was hard on the back but to be fair not many hotels in Europe have good beds. It was at least a Real bed. I’ve stayed in a lot this was among the better of the hard beds. Do yoga
Limited menu but everything I tried was good
Despite the bed I wanted to stay longer 2 weeks was not enough!
All my bags and a fabulous first meal from The Moxy Resturant
A Racist Incident Led This Black Man To Launch Noirbnb
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Stefan Grant | Founder, Noirbnb
Black travelers could probably tell you about that time when.
That time when you were mistaken as a celebrity. Or that time when people rushed to take a picture like you’re a prop, touch your skin and hair without your permission because they’ve never seen a person of color.
There are times when people nearly fall over with their blatant stares. Or that time when you were delayed or even refused service in a country because of the color of your skin.
For Stefan Grant, he would tell you about the time when neighbors from an Airbnb he was renting in Atlanta called the police on him and his housemates.
“One of the homies came and woke me up, and I’m thinking he wants to ask me about breakfast or something, but he tells me, ‘the cops are here,’” said Grant to Travel Noire. “I go outside and see these two police officers with their guns drawn, and they’re aiming them at us. They were trying to figure out what we’re doing there.”
This happened in 2015 – one year after police officers killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Grant says he was struggling with that, but his whole mindset was deescalating the situation. He and his housemates had to prove to the cops they were occupying the house legally.
Grant posted the situation on his social media with the caption: “Yo! The Airbnb we’re staying at is so nice, the neighbors thought we were robbing the place & called the cops!”
His next post on Twitter was from an audacious neighbor.
“After that happened, one of the neighbors knocked on the door asking what we were doing there, and he tries to walk in the house,” Grant added.
The posts went viral, and soon after, Grant started getting messages from people around the world sharing their similar experiences of discrimination while using Airbnb or other platforms.
“People were saying how they would try to rent a spot but get denied so, would have to change their profile photo to a white person to get approved. I heard stories about how people would book a place, show up, and when the host saw they were Black, would close the door on guests,” he stated.
These stories made him realize there was a problem needing solving.
Launching Noirbnb
Following the incident in Atlanta, Grant said he first pitched his idea of Noirbnb to Airbnb.
“I remember telling the people at Airbnb that there is clearly a racism issue and at the same time there’s a booming Black travel movement, so let’s do something about it.”
Airbnb flew him to San Francisco, where he met with the team to talk about his concept of building the Black travel community through renting and experiences.
Grant said nothing took off after the discussion with Airbnb, so he decided to do it himself after a Harvard study was released explaining how Black hosts also have challenges with using Airbnb – not just guests. The study explained that Black hosts made 12 to 15% less than White hosts.
“Noirbnb is two-faceted. The first side of it is home-sharing for someone who wants to become a host, and then there are the guests. Guests can go on the site, type how many they are staying with, and our platform will return the results from our database,” said Torrence Reed, the chief technology officer.
Torrence Reed | Chief Technology Officer, Noirbnb
Reed added the newest feature on the home-sharing platform is Noirbnb Concierge, providing guests with a “personal assistant experience” where the platform serves as your travel agent and city guide to help find the perfect place to stay, the coolest things to see, as well we curating an overall dope travel experience.
The platform has more than 1,000 hosts and are currently looking for more.
As for what’s next for the Noirbnb team, they are looking into venture capital opportunities to expand their services.
