Wind Out of My Sails

We had a yard sale today and I am pooped!! I put out soooo many clothes and sadly only 5 shirts sold. :( It was hardly worth my time, but at least I tried. Now to eBay what didn't sell. Ugh, I hate eBay.

Ooh. This week was a pretty good one because over the period of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, I was able to hang out with most of my very favorite people. Hanging out with any of them is more or less rare, and to see them all in one week was awesome.

In random news (being aware that I am OBSESSED with food), I saw this picture of a new sandwich offered at Dennys and while it looks kind of disgusting, it's also oddly appealing. Presenting the Fried Cheese Melt: "four fried mozzarella sticks and melted American cheese grilled between two slices of sourdough bread". Really, it's all about the picture.

Yes? No?

So I only have two nails pics to share, and I submitted both of them to the last two PhD's challenges. I love having some direction to start the nail design process. Here's the first mani which I actually did before I remembered the challenge, but it happened to coincide with the theme of nature so I submitted it.

Urban Outfitters Blue, m13 with Essie A-List

Next is just tips, the design of which I debated over for a while. I originally wanted to do white tips with neon pink fishnets but was moreso feeling the blue.

Essie Candy Apple Mint, m57 & m60 with

Konad white & China Glaze Awaken

Oh. A couple of weeks ago Alysia and I put highlights in my hair and I went a little crazy with the amount of time I left the goo on . . . They turned out SO blond, it was scary. The blond itself was a good color (not orange at all) but the contrast with my extremely dark brown natural color was gnarly. Here are some pics of it just for fun (and it looked even worse in person, let me assure you).

I went right away and bought some semi-permanent dye to tone it way back to normal. It's redder than my natural color but I went with the semi because my hair will fade back to bleachy. Right now it's already a lot lighter than this pic from the day I dyed it. It'll be fun to see how blond it will get again.

Well, this was an incredibly boring post. Sorry about that. Only one week left until school starts again, and I have SO-O-O-O-------OOOOO much to do before then. Despite that, I hope to blog again soon. :)

P.S. Happy birthday!

I just noticed the blog's first birthday was two days ago! Whohoo! Thanks to my followers! Knowing that even one person reads my blog motivates me to post, even if it is only once a month. :)

Home Sweet Home

I have had an amazing month!! I know I was apprehensive about camp but this year I had the best dorm I've ever had. They were so wonderful and fun. All the campers were. :) I'm thrilled I went this year. I drove to camp (in Washington) with friends and had such a great time, the day camp ended, hanging out in Portland for the afternoon with more friends from Arizona then caravaning back with them. It was a really long trip (we drove straight through back to Los Angeles) but we switched passengers and drivers between the two cars all the time which made for quite the awesome drive. I love those guys.

OK so get ready for pictures!

Alysia and me in our H&M roadtrip sunglasses:

Here was my pretty view while sitting on the soccer field at camp:

They have forests everywhere! I love the fairytale-ness of it. :) Looking up:

So the day after I got back from camp, I got back in the car -- this time with my family -- and headed out to Colorado for my best friend (and other really good friend)'s wedding. Here's a pic I snapped a pic while driving. Not sure what state we were in:

We made sure to get there a few days early so I could attend the bachelorette party. It was a fun night filled with various shenanigans. ;) Here were my nails for the occasion using my precious new Zoya Ali with Konad m3 and m57:

Bride-to-be Madeline:

Here we are at the wedding: :)

Bride and groom after the cake-cutting hamming it up for other BFF Jen and official photographer (check out some of her amazing pictures on her blog):

Me with Jen and Madeline. Love them!! I so very much wish they lived [much] closer.

Here's a picture I snapped on the drive back home. I like the colors and clouds:

For the wedding, I did my nails with Trixie by Zoya (ahh the most amazing ground-up tin foil silver!) and then on the trip home found LA Colors nail art polishes at the Dollar Tree (!) so I had to test them out. One of my very first hand painting attempts:

Here's my current manicure which I really like. Zoya Avril (agh -- the formula drives me mad but thankfully it's so nude you don't really notice the unevenness) with Konad m77 stamped with Revlon Chrome:

That's it! I'll leave you with a picture I took during a most memorable stop with my family at a rest area in Colorado (involved my mom accidentally kicking my little shih tzu into the rushing river. All ended well, thankfully, and now we find the situation rather hilarious). I only changed the overall tint of the photo to a violet color. All the variations and such were already there. It's currently my background picture. :)

Well that was a brief summery of my past few weeks! I hope you guys are having a summer as nice as mine!

July Festivities

So I leave tonight for camp (I'm driving straight through to Washington with friends) and have SO much to do before then. I wanted to leave you with a post before I left since I will be absent for 3-4 weeks (camp and best friend's wedding).

Here's the Urban Outfitters polish I mentioned in the last post. This was three coats over a white base, but next time I'll definitely try it without the white. I gave up on making it even; the consistency is so runny and streaky! Boo -- I hate sheer polishes. :(

Urban Outfitters Green 6 (Yes, that's a chunk out of the thumb. With the white underneath it reminded me of a green M&M!)

I only had this on for a day but it was cute while it lasted. Nothing too fancy!

Here's my fourth of July manicure featuring the ever-delicious (and quite American) Mike's lemonade:

Konad stars and [my first ever] freehand stripes

My friend let me use her Essie Matte About You the next day for my first ever matte mani (though I know it's hard to see a difference on here).

This is one of my favorite shots from the amazing fireworks show my friends and I saw at a high school. Mm, I love my new camera.

My birthday is July 5th (which might be why I love fireworks oh-so much!) and two of my best friends were nice enough to surprise me at 9 in the morning and take me out for breakfast! They were hoping to find me in my pajamas but thankfully I had already showered and was just getting dressed. :)

They took me to a cute little french bakery that I've been wanting to try out. We all ordered the same thing -- strawberry and banana crepes! They were garnished with DELISH and rich whipped cream and chocolate drizzles (and a tooth-shaped strawberry. haha). Yum! Thanks, ladies!

OK well that's all for now. I'll blog again in a month! I hope everyone has an amazing summer. Oh, and a huge welcome to my new followers!! It's awesome to know people actually read this thing every now and again. :) Have a good one!

Summertime Blues

Summer is flying by and I'm seemingly getting nothing done. I have to leave for a summer camp a week from today and honestly, I'm not looking forward to it! They were extremely short female counselors though so I agreed to go. Anyway, I have to start thinking about packing, which I happen to despise!!! It should be easy, but it never, ever is. Boo. Onto the nails . . .

I finally got around to participating in one of PHD's awesome nail design challenges. The challenge was any design using only analogous colors. Having taken a color theory class this semester, I was compelled to enter. I'm still such a newbie (I only get around to doing my nails about once a week and usually am in a rush) but it is fun to try! Here is my blue, blue green, and green manicure featuring green blueberry stamps (creative liberty!). I really didn't like the outcome but they did meet the challenge requirements.

And. . . . drumroll: my first Hidden Treasure mani! Mm. So flakey. I did these a week before I found this on my blogroll and freaked out when I saw! Great minds . . . The pink is actually way more me but because the flakes are very red/orange/yellow, I thought the yellow would compliment them nicely.

I liked these so much that I wore them (and they lasted!!!!) for a week.

It's funny how VERY many things around me match the exact shade of yellow, Zoya Creamy

Day 8 I cut my nails (after bowling did some major damage) and I liked the micro tips.

Anyway, eventually I got bored and now I'm wearing a new green shade from Urban Outfitters. I'm hating the formula. Mini review to come!

Oh, and I finally put in my order for the Zoya Exchange earrrrly this morning. I'm an up-to-the-deadline kind of girl. :) I can't wait to get them! Which one will I use first? Oh my.

Remember that pink camera I was lusting after in an old post? Well I ended up ordering the white version (pink isn't available in the US) which I have already nicknamed (the moment I saw it online) the Stormtrooper. It arrived yesterday! I have SOOO much to learn about it. I can't wait to start taking some great pictures!

Hey, if you're reading this, you're awesome. haha. Have a great day!

I'm on a [Blog] Roll!

Three posts in week. Awesome. Last night was that party I mentioned earlier, the "Casserole and Martini" as it was named. It was fun! Lots of good food, drinks, and friends.

Mirror shot! Me and friends after getting ready:

Matchy matchy, just the way I like it.

Mary Kay In A Flash Lightspeed, Konad m71 double stamped w/Konad Special Black

I was asked to bring peonies (which I happen to adore) and they had opened up nicely!

Finally got to sport my glam cocktail ring. I mean, ahem, my rich fiance was out of town. (Don't I wish!)

I did these a week or so back. Turns out, as you may have guessed, that Turned Up is blacklight sensitive! (Found that out after I discovered my old blacklights in a box and had to test 'em.)

China Glaze Turned Up, Konad m77

I'm still having trouble stamping the images. Lots of times the image won't fully come off of the stamper. It seems I've tried all the variations (pressing harder, rolling, working super fast, cleaning the plate after stamping vs. not, etc.) but the results are always really inconsistent. Any tips to share?

OK, off to help with the construction (well, clearing a path for the concrete cutter). Hope I don't chip my nails. ;)

Breaking Nail Polish News!!

On a whim, I visited a Walgreens after stopping at the next-door Trader Joes and you already know what I found hidden, appropriately, behind other colors and a spring-loaded wall display. $8.50 (with tax) is a lot for me to pay for nail polish, but it is the holy grail of polishes at the moment. Score!!!