weekend relaxing

This week was a little hectic at work with meetings, an event and a new delivery. All of this means one thing, I was in need of a relaxing weekend. Friday night started out with relaxation in a glass, nothing like a tropical drink!

  

 After work on Saturday was time to head out for GIRLS NIGHT! The beautiful weather that we have been having was wonderful, we were not the only ones enjoying... what an outfit! You know that these people were going to have a fun Saturday night!

Then it was off for appetizers and wine tasting... yum!

 And and nice lazy Sunday with the puppy {who just had a birthday and is now two years old}. Mike decided that she needed to be a little fancier, so now she is rocking the bandana look.

Now, I am getting into the wedding planning mood by finding any and all wedding related movies on Netflix. It is definitely working!

polish please | pink polka dot

I made it through all of 2012 without catching a single cold. Then there is 2013, one day it and I caught what was going on at work. I did manage to paint my nails in between naps, and I used some of the polishes that my mega best friend, Shawna, gifted me for the holidays. 

I used Essie Bachelorette Party as the main pink, Essie Beyond Cozy is the golden glitter, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls is the white, and the light pink is Essie A Splash of Grenadine. I used the opposite ends of a dotting tool to get the different sized dots. 

It feels a little Valentines-y to me, but I really wanted to try the new colors. Thanks mega best friend!

advent calendar

On Thanksgiving a friend gave me a great gift, and something that his really getting me into the holiday spirit, and advent calendar! The beauty of an advent calendar is that you can start counting down the twenty four days until Christmas starting on December first. 

This is where the draw back of this awesome calendar lies... it is NAIL POLISH! Ayn got me a nail polish advent calendar! I am pretty sure that there is nothing better in the whole world {that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but it is also how I feel.} I have been looking at this master piece in amazement, and trying very hard {and succeeding} not to open it. 

Here is a little taste of what I {and in-turn you} are looking forward to...

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Yes, those are adorable mini bottles of polish just waiting for December to roll around. For those of you who are not familiar, Ciaté is the genius behind the caviar manicure, and included are four different color micro beads for said manicures. December is looking good. 

This was truly such a thoughtful gift, and just goes to show how luck I am for the amazing friends that I have.  Ayn, thanks again I am so happy that you are a part of my life. 

Five days and counting...



 

baby shower

This past weekend my mega best friend Shawna threw a baby shower for our friends at her house, and I got to help! Michelle and Omer are the first of our friends to have a baby, and with that knowledge, you know that this baby is going to be spoiled rotten. 

Shawna and I came up with at theme for the shower food, kids favorites! So at this Jack-and-Jill shower we had pigs in a blanket, mac 'n' cheese, PB&J {with the crust cut off}, and cupcakes! We also had fruit salad, and an amazing salad that Omer brought.

Papa and Momma!

Since it was a co-ed shower we wanted to make sure that the boys had as much fun as the girls. We stayed away from some of the shower games that you typically see {and there was no way that I was going to eat melted candy bars out of diapers}. Shawna put together a "how many babies in the bottle" guesstimate game, like the great teacher that she is, and we decorated onesies for baby Alex. I forgot to get a picture of the onesies, but some of our friends have a sick hilarious sense of humor that thankfully Michelle and Omer appreciate {Let's just say there was a g-string, a flaming skull, and the phrase "They shake me" adorning different onesies.}

Mike got very into shopping for the baby, and  think that we went a little overboard, but baby Alex is totally worth it. The adorable theme for Alex's nursery is outer space, and we knew that we wanted to get something to help decorate the nursery. We decided on a mobile, but this was easier said than done. It seems as though one cannot find a mobile at the typical baby stores that doesn't have some sort of animal dangling from it. This is not a bad thing, but not what we were looking for.

 
So I started doing some research and the only thing that I could find that matched the theme were ones like this and this on Etsy that were beautiful but a little spendy. So I went to my new favorite store Hobby Lobby to get the raw materials to create something for Alex. {More details on how to make the mobile will pop up in a later post.}

the mobile was a hit

Congrats to Omer and Michelle! We are all so happy for you and your growing family!

I did want to leave everyone with a bingo sheet filled out by Shawna's husband, a game that we played as the gifts were opened. Needless to say, Shawna is NOT letting Dan register for baby gifts on his own when the time comes...

I don't know why, but the "cordless power drill" really cracks me up.

 

pumpkins and pizza

My mega best friend invited us over on Friday in honor of Halloween where we all got together for some pizza and pumpkin craving. It was a blast. Halloween is always such a fun holiday for me. I have very fond memories of trick-or-treating with my whole Arizona family. My brother's birthday is Halloween {He will be 21 this year, I may write the phone number to a cab company on his forehead, backwards}. When he was born my sister, cousin and I visited him and my mom in the hospital, and we got candy {I was five when he was born, so the candy was almost as important as the baby brother}. My mom always made the best cakes for his birthday, and craved the neatest pumpkins!

Well anyways, Friday was so much fun. Here is a little peak at what we all ended up with!

There is a reason why this post is late, and more details about the weekend... but with that teaser, I am going to save the rest for Wednesday!

Happy Halloween!

polish please | arizona art

I was hoping to post about the mani that I gave myself for my friends wedding that I attended this weekend, but it turned out to be an EPIC fail. I am having SOOOO much fun with the striping tape that finally arrived from China, but I am by no means a pro yet.

I wanted to do something subtle and classic for the wedding {any pic that I am in will be around for quite a while}. I wanted to recreate this mani, it was perfect; mine was not. It all started out great, and looked very good. It dried, and everything was staying put, until I took a shower. After that, the mani was coming apart at the seams. The tape buckled and pulled up on all nails, but the middle fingers {the nail gods were trying to tell me something}. Fortunately my mega best friend Shawna came to the rescue, and I borrowed her black to go over the peeled off mess. 

Here is Mike and I just after the quick polish fix.

And my mega best friend who saved the day!

I thought that I should leave you all with a successful mani, and a tribute to the great state of Arizona. I love my stamping plates, and metallic polishes transfer VERY well.  

friendship bracelet

Now here is a blast from the past! I don't know if you all were like me, but I was a friendship bracelet addict growing up. It seemed like I was making a new one every week, giving them away and wearing them where ever I could tie the things on. Well this is a little revisit of the classic friendship bracelet, with a little twist.

I started by going to my new favorite store Hobby Lobby, we have only had them in Arizona for a few years, but my family in the mid-west have been talking about this place for years. I wish that they were open seven days a week, but other than that, I am in LOVE. I picked out a variety pack of embroidery floss, and brought my 40% off coupon. 

I picked colors inspired by a patterned dress from my place of employment, I figured that I could wear the bracelet with the newest collection that came in. I chose a bright blue, deep pink, orange, and purple, cutting each strand to 60" lengths. Take the four strands and folded them in half, tying a knot at the end creating a loop just big enough for my {peace sign} bead to pass through.

The easiest way to do this is to attach your bracelet to something stable. You could tape it to a table, use a safety pin to tack it to a pillow, a clipboard, or whatever works for you to keep it still while working. I taped mine to a lap desk, fired up netflix, and got started.

Arrange the stands in the order that you want the stripes to appear. I wanted to have consistent stripes so I put both sets of colors in the same order. For the "ombre" effect, place the first four strands from lightest to darkest, and the next four strands from darkest to lightest.

Now to the actual making of the bracelet. Take the first strand and place it over the second, creating a "4" shape like seen above. Hold the second strand tight, and pull up the first strand creating an overhand knot. Repeat same thing with the same two strands. Then take the first strand and repeat the steps on the third strand. Continue this with all remaining strands, and make sure to create two over hand knots on each strand.

When you get to the end of the row, start over with the next color. Easy as that. Once you get going it is easier to see what color comes next, and you get into a rhythm that makes it go by pretty fast. Once the bracelet is the desired length, tie a knot at the end, and braid the tail to make a closure. Add the bead of your choice, and you are ready to go. 

 After some trial and error, I did find that I liked the way the closure looked better if I braided the center of the four strands before making a loop, and attached the bead with a piece of embroidery floss into the final knot.

I kept one for myself, and have given the rest away to my friends, just like in the sixth grade!