polish please | it's a trap-eze

Have any of you ever had your eye on something, and wanted it so badly, but have such a hard time making it yours? This was me until last week. I had seen this amazing polish on Chalkboard Nails {one of my favorite nail blogs} and I knew that I had to have it. So the hunt began. I checked out all my local polish haunts {Ulta, JCP, Sally's Beauty Supply, Beauty Brands} to no avail. I kept checking back once two to three times a week with promises of new deliveries, but every time there was no beautiful creamy white polish with multi color glitter. 

After weeks and weeks of searching the old fashion way, I befriended technology and took my search to the web. Amazon and Ebay had the polish, but man was it pricy! Not only the cost of the polish, but the shipping as well. That is when I finally remembered that I had pinned this polish on my pinterest board from a site that had very reasonably priced polishes. So I ended up snatching up the polish here for only five bucks! Who doesn't love fast, free shipping?

I paired the glitter packed polish with my other latest obsession, OPI Atomic Orange. The polish was a little thick and clumpy from all the glitter, but after two coats of top coat it felt and looked great. What wasn't so great was the almost immediate chipping of the polish, something that I have not experienced since switching to Essie First Base Coat. The densely packed glitter three layers thick may have been the reason for the horrible chipping. Next time I try this polish, I think that I will start with the white base color.

So, do you think that the hunt was worth the find?

tutorial | paper flowers

As promised, here is my paper flower tutorial! I really wanted to make paper flowers for the wedding instead of using real flowers. I fell in L-O-V-E with the way that they look, as you can see in this post, but just didn't have the time to make them all. I did attempt to make the flowers, and have about fifteen completed flowers, but I was defeated by these beauties. I did put together a little picture tutorial using the "PicLab" app that I downloaded onto my phone.

Here is a step-by-step on how to create a Kusudama Paper Flower:

Tada! I did clip notches on the tips of the petals for some of the flowers, but not on all. I used scrapbook paper for the tutorial, but origami paper for the flowers that I was going to use for the wedding. If I had a year to plan and prepare for this wedding, I would have used the paper flowers. But, six months was not enough time to get all of this done. Oh well. I am going to use the flowers that I made for something else around this place, I will show you all when I know what it is!

Give the paper flowers a try, and let me know how they turn out!

polish please | fancy french

Oh Blogger, how I have missed you. It has been almost two weeks since my last post. My bad. There has been a lot of things going on in our lives lately. Wedding planning is actually starting to get serious. We have booked vendors, mailed invites, put down deposits. This wedding is becoming pretty legitimate. 

We also had some wonderful news yesterday. March 15th was the day that medical students around the county found out what internship/residency program they had been accepted into. The school had festivities, and celebrations. I was so excited the night before, that I did not fall asleep until 2:30 am {when I had to get up at 6!}. There has been so much build up to this moment. Four years {plus} of hard work, months of planning, weeks of interviews... and then waiting. Yesterday was match day for thousands of future doctors, and Mike matched at a program that he is completely excited about. I couldn't be happier for him.

Since this week was really all about him, when I sat down to paint my nails the other day, I asked Mike what I should do. He said, "French manicure." To which I replied, "What colors?" His response, "The regular ones." And so it was...

So I rocked this look for all of 14 hours {six of which I slept}. I started with one coat of Essie Sugar Daddy, which I have owned for a while, and have only used twice. I then used the adhesive sticker guides from Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails French Manicure Kit to mark off where I would paint the white tip. You could also use tape, but I was feeling pretty lazy that evening, and the stripes are really simple to use. For the tip color I used OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. After the white coat dried, I added another layer of Sugar Daddy, and finished with Good to Go.

The next morning I was feeling a little bored with the neutral, simple look, and wanted to jazz it up just a bit. I had just picked up some L'Oreal metallic polishes {on clearance} that I thought would work well for stamping. I used Just Jest Setting and a small striping brush to add thin lines across my nails just below the white tips. This was also a neat trick to getting all nails looking uniform. {I believe I mentioned that I was feeling lazy what I started painting my nails.}

What do you do to add some interest to s classic French manicure?

desert botanical garden

This weekend was a fun and busy one. Saturday was my bridal shower thrown by my mega best friend, and my family.

 It. Was. Wonderful. 

But more on that later. I was also lucky enough to have one of my aunts visiting, so of course we needed to do something fun, and take advantage of the beautiful weather. Today we went to the Desert Botanical Garden. I never get sick of that place. I have been maybe a dozen times in my life. A few times for school, and countless times with my family. Such a pretty way to spend a day, and the breeze that was sweeping through the valley today was just the right thing that we needed.

Here is a little peek at what we got to see today...

 Closest I have ever been to a roadrunner. He really put on a show for us, posing for pictures and everything.

Then there was a very interesting art installation; the four seasons were represented by these sculptures.

 Winter

 Spring

 Summer

 Autumn

They sure were interesting, and let me tell you... EVERYONE was taking pictures for these guys. 

Diane, I had so much fun while you were here. So happy that I got to spend the day with you and my mom!

polish please | hands off my kielbasa

I know I have been slacking on the blogging front lately, but today I have some beautiful polish to share with you. I was feeling MEGA a little bit stressed the other day and the only real way to combat stress in my life is brand new nail polish. 

The new OPI Euro Centrale collection has really beautiful colors. I did have to settle on just one (although I really wanted to get all of them). Here is what Hands Off my Kielbasa looks like.

I added an Essie flakie topper to my ring finger as a accent nail. The rosy color has a pretty iridescent shimmer, so lovely. What do you all think of my latest shade?

getting closer

I broke the rule that I had set for myself when I started this blog. I missed a week of posting! Boo. I was sick last week, and did not feel motivated to do anything. {Of course I did paint my nails a few times, but I don't feel like any of these manis were blog worthy.} I am working on a little tutorial that I hope I can have posted shortly. 

So, I just wanted to share with the blogging world that Mike and I got our marriage license the other day! I didn't really have any expectations going in, but man that was easy! We were in and out in fifteen minutes. I double checked with Mike when the guy there asked, "Are you going to be getting married here?" Apparently an elopement is off the table for suresies. I guess I should get this show on the road then, and really start planning. 

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 | valentines

I went a little crazy this year, and put my Valentines decorations up two days after I took down the Christmas ones. This year you know I had to do more than just red nails. So I did some nail art to wear this week to help celebrate. I have used all of these colors before in a mani that could have been worn for Valentines, but I really wanted to make this scream love, romance, and all that crap. 

Here is what I have been wearing this week...

Like other manis from the past {like this, this and this} I used tape to create both the stripes and hearts on my digits. Instead of using scotch tape like I usually do, I opted for washi tape after viewing a tutorial on The Beauty Department, and I really liked the way it worked out. The great thing about washi tape {masking tape would work just the same} is that I could use the same heart "stencil" multiple times without having to worry about it ripping. I also cut small strips of washi tape for the stripes. I wanted bigger stripes than what striping tape can offer. 

After it was all said and done, I liked it, but would do it differently. In really life, as opposed to blog life, the heart on my ring finger does not show up well unless it is in the right light. My thumb on the other hand {who talks about a thumb like this?}, my thumb heart is AWESOME! I think that I would have painted light pink and dark pink stripes with a glitter heart for better contrast. Oh well, there is always next year! 

Tomorrow Mike and I actually have the same evening off at the same time! Nothing big this year, just dinner and greeting cards, we are saving for a wedding after all. 

What are you doing this year to celebrate?

wedding planning | cake tasting

Last Saturday Mike, my mom and I tried out some delicious cakes at A.J.'s Fine Foods, and we decided on the best three awesome choices. 

Marita is the cake decorator at the A.J.'s that we went to, and she was the best! Super friendly, excited, and talented. She also... got me. Something that I think may be very hard to find. Through this process, I have found a lot of different people with a lot of different attitudes. Thankfully there have been a few more good experiences than bad ones {a win in my book}. Marita, and the cake tasting was a great experience.

We ended up deciding on not one giant wedding cake, but three delicious cakes. Let me tell you all about them:

1. Raspberry Champagne: white cake, light and fruity, covered in a butter cream and whip cream frosting blend.
2. Cannoli: white cake, cannoli filling with mini chocolate chips, same frosting.
3. Chocolate Cannoli: chocolate cake with the same cannoli fillingm and same frosting. 

The amazing thing is the cost of three cakes is much less than the price of one "wedding cake." Who says you need to have just one traditional wedding cake? As with all things "wedding" cake is no exception, you get charged more, because you'll pay it. For those wanting a traditional cake, A.J.'s really did have excellent pricing, but Mike and I were looking for something a little more informal, and non-traditional. The three cakes that we picked were a third of the cost of a traditional cake. 

Here are some inspiration images for the style of cakes Marita is going to create for us.

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