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Catch me on Extra TV Sharing all the Music Festival Must-Haves!

Lara Eurdolian of @prettyconnected sharing Music Festival Must-Haves for Extra TV

EXTRA, EXTRA! Music festivals are back, and I’m breaking down all the must-have pieces you need to complete your look with Extra TV! After an amazing weekend at Coachella, we have so many amazing festivals to look forward to. Here’s what you need to know…

When it comes to sunnies, Sunglass Hut has you covered. This season it’s all about good classics like the Clubmasters Classics from Ray-Ban or white frames like the one featured in the segment from Burberry’s.

SJP Rocks Pretty Connected Mask Chain Opposite these Epic SJP Collection Heels + Gucci Socks

Photo Credit: Mega

It doesn’t get more Carrie Bradshaw then Sarah Jessica Parker rocking our Pretty Connected Mask Chain Necklace, $30, opposite these amazing Gucci socks and SJP Collection red heel combo.

The SATC star has rocked our chain in every major appearance since September and renders me speechless every time! We’re beyond inspired by her style, business sense and commitment to female entrepreneurs and supporting small businesses.

Pretty Connected Mask Chains Featured on PIX11

It was such a pleasure talking about small business trends as we gear up for the holiday season and Pretty Connected Mask Chains and accessories with Pix11’s Jennifer Bisram. With everyone shopping online it’s important to be on top of your inventory, packaging, mailers, and make sure you have enough supplies and manpower to maximize your sales.

Pretty Connected Mask Chain and accessories

Keeping up with demand was a huge challenge when our mask chains went viral. And one thing that helped was creating a pre-order button if anything went out of stock and offering an accurate timeline so that customers could order in advance and then receive the parcel later. Simply saying ‘out of stock’ reduces the chances they will check back to purchase.

We’re still navigating the best way to perform on Etsy has been an incredible support for us. It offers a ton of control and an amazing community to be a part of. For any small business’ even if you run your own site, I highly recommend still joining!

SEQUIN x PRETTY CONNECTED Charmed Necklace to Mask Chains are Here!

It’s here!!!!!!! The Pretty Connected x Sequin Good Vibes Mask and Chain set! With four different charm options, each Talisman charm was inspired by an ancient symbol and designed as a reminder of our potential to dream, heal and thrive.

  • Elephant – Represents strength, stability and longevity
  • Evil Eye – Repels negativity and attracts good luck
  • Moon – Calm, illuminating energy to soothe the soul
  • Night Sky – Starry nights inspire infinite possibility

I’ve been a huge Sequin fan for as long as I can remember so to collaborate with them on a charm set for our mask to necklace chains has been incredible! Wear it as a necklace, mask chain, bag strap… the charm can be clipped to any part of the chain.

Prices range from $58-$78, shop them at shop.prettyconnected.com

What do we do about our Wedding? As seen in The New York Times!

Like many, the dream of having my wedding be in the New York Times, felt just like that, a dream. And today, it happened for me. Well sort of. Instead of covering the soon to be ‘best day of my life’, it’s about the subject that keeps me up at night. Figuring out what to do and how to celebrate this amazing 14 year relationship I’ve been in and commemorate our love. In over a decade we’ve accumulated a lot of friends. Whether or not we’re now just Facebook friend or acquaintances, many of these people are a part of our love story, and as someone who is always of the ‘more the merrier’ mindset, I want every special human, that’s ever touched my/our lives to be a part of my big day.

TONIGHT at 7pm EST! Join our FB Live Shopping Event with Century 21!

I’m so excited to announce I’ll be LIVE with Century 21 department store at 7pm EST on their Facebook page! I shopped legendary NYC department store with Irene, Century 21’s Resident Fashion Insider to score some amazing deals and designer must haves of the season.

The store is currently running a 75% off in store promotion off the lowest red tag items so expect crazy designer deals at never before seen prices all from the convenience of home.

To tune in head to Facebook.com/century21stores tonight, Thursday 8/6 at 7pm to shop our picks! These are exclusive styles direct from the NYC store you can shop via comments using c21stores.commentsold.com, their super cool platform which lets you request items that get automatically added to your cart while we’re live!

See you there!

Happy National Sunglasses Day!

It’s hard to believe that 3 years ago, I made my debut as an on-air for National Sunglass Day for Sunglass Hut doing a segment for Extra. Today holds a special day for me.

Photo Credit: Jessica Andrews of Glamazons Blog

While our annual shoot was canceled this year due to Covid, we did partner on the cutest #NationalSunglassesDay mailer that I’m so excited my Mask Chains got to be a part of.

Black Lives Matter: National Resources List

With a heavy heart, I write this blog post. Like many of you I feel an overwhelming weight of sadness over the state of our country. I’m sad that it’s 2020 and racism still exists. I’m sad that we’re in a pandemic, and families are struggling, kids are out of school, hunger relief programs need our support, small business are going under and our economy is at the brink of collapsing, the planet is deteriorating and we are only now having a serious conversation around Black Lives Matter and that police brutality is not okay. So here’s a quick list:

The other note I’ll make is to ask your black friends questions. The amount of fear to speak up out of the potential to be attacked is breeding silence. So ask questions. If you don’t feel comfortable talking to one of your friend then Instagram is an amazing tool as well, DM someone you admire in the black community. Open up. Say something along the lines of I admire your you and your posts, I’m trying to have more conversations with my community, is this statement okay? Or I don’t understand x, y, z can you help explain it to me, I’m working to educate myself and be a bigger ally.

Other ways to help!

Pretty Connected launches the Face Mask Chain Holder

Pretty Connected Lara Silver Mini Face Mask Chain, $30 worn by Julianna wearing @remixbysofia tie dye hoodie, mask by @viktorluna available at viktorluna.com/shop

It was a very exciting weekend with the launch or rather rebrand of our strap as the first chain mask holder. Like many small business’ out there my shop has struggled. I closed the office for a few months and while we still got some orders through our waitlist, the future looked grim.

Damian wearing the Pretty Connected Lara mini silver chain, $30

Over the weekend I was texted a photo of my Pretty Connected Lara Mulit-Use chain being used as a mask holder. Last year when I was in Vietnam and South Korea, where masks are a norm due to pollution I thought about this idea, but returning to the US where we rarely see anyone in a mask I didn’t put to much thought into it. The chain, which started as a camera strap turned into the true multi-purpose chain when I started using it as the first water bottle strap last year and my readers started to explode with creativity. I was getting posts of them wearing it as a necklace, bag strap, necklace… and beyond. I think this video does a great job of showing all the fun ways my straps can be used.

While I thought this was the year of the flip flop strap, the universe had other plans. And the irony is I opened the office back up May 1st not just for the accessories line but to fund raise for various covid-related causes. I donated 100 beauty products to front line workers/nurses/teachers and then did a beauty sale of 50 items to raise funds. All the while I’ve been speaking out regularly on social media about my disappointment over the lack of NYer’s not wearing masks and also my friend/influencers posting photos without theirs on or at least in their hands to show/encourage their audience to wear them. The universe really listened and gave me a stronger message in asking the world to wear their mask, and also a new outlet to raise money. 10% of all sales will be donated to covid-related causes. Since the start Pretty Connected has made donations to No Kid Hungry, Feeding America, Social Tees, masks for medical workers. Our latest fundraiser has been for hunger relief in Queens through a group of friends organizing the effort.

6 Things You Can Do Right Now To Better Yourself From Home

To everyone that spent the past decade telling me I’m so lucky I get to work from home, welcome to my world. Grass is always greener, hair flip for keeping my sanity. If you’re feeling a big stir crazy, take a moment and use this time as an opportunity. Here’s 5 things you can do right now to better yourself:

6 Things You Can Do Right Now:

Outfit details: Veronica Sheaffer bow headband, Eliza J Jumpsuit, Valentino Sunglasses c/o Sunglass Hut, Lagos Apple Watch, Roxanne Assoulin bracelets, LarAllan bag
  1. Try on everything in your wardrobe, see what fits and figure out what you want to keep, donate or sell – maybe it’s time to start that @ebay + @poshmark account. Also playing dress up is really fun! The only people that saw this outfit were on the balcony with me. Balcony fashion show for party of 2 anyone?
  2. Try a new workout. @toniquemethod, @janedo, @305fitness, @dancebody, @rumble and most every other studio is creating some type of at home option. Free trials galore right now. Also @womenshealthmag is doing live workouts as well! Get in on it! Also a fun activity with kids.
  3. Make a vision board/to do list. Include big goals like create a media kit, update your resume, start a business, podcast… or in my case research the children’s book world – agents, publishers, and general people in my network I can reach out to for advice. Considering everyone for the most part is self quarantined this is a great time to DM strangers or reach out over linkedin for help. Phone calls are the new ask a stranger to coffee.
  4. Organize your taxes – I’m mostly talking to myself with this one because I need to get the ball rolling. But make that to do list of everything you’ve been trying to accomplish and take advantage of the downtime to do it.
  5. Call/FaceTime your friends and family. Text people you’d love to reconnect with and check in on them. I’ve never had a ton of free time to do this and catching up with old friends and calling my parents everyday has been such a blessing. For me this is a morning activity as I have my coffee and a great way to start my day.
  6. Enhance yourself! Take a class, Brit.co/learn (code SELFCARE) is comping all classes on their site, painting, photography, investing courses… So much to choose from! Join a book club, both Book Babes and Marie Claire have virtual ones, download a podcast, mediate (@calm @journey @headspace all come recommended also spotify has a ton for free. Take a cooking class off YouTube. The world is your oyster, or at least the internet makes it feel that way.

Ask for recommendations. I’m currently accepting all TV, podcast, and general fun/life enhancing recommendations. Leave a comment or DM me @prettyconnected, would love your advice!