My Obsession

Well i think it is time to admit (to the world) that i have an obsession with nail polish and i just cant help myself. I love nail polish. Once i laid it all out i realized if i am going to keep buying it i need to expand my colors. There seems to be more then enough shades of pink, red and blue. Oh and the side opposite of the pink is mostly glitter.

Just seeing this makes me want to go out and buy lots of nice dark colors for the fall.

Purple is not my color, as you can see i only have 1 purple and i just don't like how any color of purple looks on my fingers or my toes so i don't buy it, but Kendall loves purple so that's why I haven't got rid of that one yet.

I love Essie polish but can't make myself go out and spend $9 on a bottle of polish since i am buying it so often, it is great polish and good quality but i am more of a bargain shopper. My go to brand right now is Sinful Creations, it is $1.99 a bottle and is really good polish. I haven't had many problems with it and now paired with the new Essie No Chips Ahead top coat, i will be having fabulous nails all winter long.

I repainted my nails last night. I needed to paint my toenails so while i had the time i did my fingernails as well. Tonight will be the ultimate test for them because i am going to be making a very hands-on dinner and then having to hand wash all the dishes when we are done. I am hoping that i get it to at least last until Monday.

A couple things you may not know about me is:

~I have my toes painted all winter long even though no one ever sees them cause i have my shoes or slippers on.

~ I have to keep my fingernails short. I cannot stand when they are long, it makes my hands feel dirty. Don't ask me why, it is weird i know, but i just don't like it. I see people with long beautiful nails and i am envious but i just can't grow mine that long. Having acrylic nails is different though, i would have them but it is an expense i would rather not pay.

I have one other obsession that I will go into another day, recipes and cookbooks. They are also amazing and i love them!

Happy Friday!

Ah Thursday!

Today I am going to dedicate to crocheting and probably a couple other random things i got going on in my head. 

I have been one busy busy bee and i LOVE it! When i decided that i was going to turn this into more then a hobby I had no idea how busy i was going to get. I originally decided to start selling because well i love to crochet but can only crochet so many things for myself and my family before we are over run with yarn. I was looking for something i could do to supplement my income since Christmas was coming up.

I have had several people tell me i need to increase my prices but i don't want to. I have more then covered my expenses and i want to keep my items priced so they are more affordable. I would rather have a higher volume of orders at a lower price then the other way around where i only have a few orders but charge an arm and a leg.

I literally have to crochet every single day or i fall behind. Occasionally there are times when life happens and i don't get as much done as i would like. This week Kendall has been sick so i have been very unproductive and haven't been able to get through as many orders this week as i have the past few weeks. But this weekend I will be able to catch up and get a few things done.

This is what it looks like from my view, although i hardly actually "watch" what is on TV i mostly just am listening so i can concentrate on what i am making. 

Just in the short time i have really pursued making the hats my skills have greatly improved. There are so many things i was scared to try before cause i didn't really know how to make them because i didn't take the extra time to learn more then just the basics. But now that i know i am unstoppable!

Click HERE if you want to go check out my Facebook page where i am posting pics of all the items i am making

***An update for the Essie No Chips Ahead top coat. I am impressed! I painted my nails Sunday and 4 days later i only have 2 spots where it chipped off and they are just little spots. I even have glitter polish on and we all know that usually peels off practically the next day. I highly recommend everyone to try this.

*** I am almost too my goal. This week since K has been sick i only went to the gym once and next week is going to be hard cause they have holiday hours. However I did lose another pound so i only have 4 pounds to go until i reach my goal!

Happy Thursday!

A day of Randoms

Kendall has caught an illness. And it is the cutest but at the same time saddest thing when she is sick and not feeling well. She has something like laryngitis, its not really a cold other then she has a little runny nose but she croaks like a frog and when she talk she squeaks. The unfortunate part for her is that she doesn't realize that if she doesn't talk it will get better but since she has a million questions she talks non stop. She even talks in her sleep. We will have to try and see if she will drink some tea with honey in it.

This is my latest nail polish trial. I hate buying all these different products to try cause they may not be super expensive but when you keep buying new things they start to add up. 

So far i really like it, it is holding up well. I painted my nails Sunday evening and there are a couple flaws but there are no chips, woohoo! The one thing i am learning though is that after it works really well a few times it starts to not work as well which is a big bummer. I am hoping that is not the case for the No Chips Ahead because i really like to paint my nails and there are so many fun fall ideas i am wanting to try on my nails.

For a while there i was feeling a real lack of motivation for the gym, it was just hard to go. By the time i get there after work it is dark outside and it has been so busy that it has been frustrating going and having to switch up your routine because there are so many people using the same things you want to use. So i made a new routine for myself and although other people are getting in my way still i am trying to work around it and be a little more flexible.

Last week i was frustrated cause i didn't lose any weight even though I stuck to the diet and worked out like normal. I came to the conclusion that even though i was eating good i really wasn't eating enough. I just never felt REALLY hungry so I didn't eat my usual morning snack. So this week I have been making myself eat the snack and just like that bam, down 1 pound. I have 5 lbs to go and my deadline for my goal is next week for Thanksgiving, I am determined to meet my goal.

Major Accomplishment!

I am so excited! 

To my surprise when i logged in today i now officially have over 10,000 page views on the ol' blog. I love blogging. I may have taken a few REALLY long breaks from it but i always come back to it.

This weekend went the same as the last few, crocheting and filling orders as fast as i can. As soon as i think i am going to run out of stuff to do a bunch of more orders come in. As of right now I have enough orders to do to last me the next 3 weeks. When i think about it, it overwhelms me so i try to take it one order at a time.

Here is the latest thing i thought i was going to be obsessed with by turns out i am thoroughly disappointed in it. 

This bottle is full of lies!!! It tastes NOTHING like pumpkin spice. I am not even really sure what it tastes like but i can tell you that it does not taste good.

I was so bummed after i took my first sip of coffee this morning. I didn't even finish it and that is a huge thing for me because I LOVE my morning coffee. Our store has been carrying this for about a month and every time i went in they were always out. So when finally they had some yesterday i grabbed a bottle with high hopes of having that amazing pumpkiny flavor in my coffee in the morning. My coffee doesn't even taste like coffee anymore. It was horrible. Now i get to make a special trip to the store to buy a new creamer cause there is no way i am going to use this until its gone, its going straight down the drain when i get home. It was not a good start to my Monday.

Camouflage Accessories

If you are a country girl and don't like camo, something has got to be wrong with  you (not really) but who doesn't love some camo. Last night i was between orders so i decided i would make one of the ideas i have had floating around in my head. I really need to start writing more of them down.

I made some camo beanies the other day and I have TONS of camo yarn left so i need to use it somehow and this is what i came up with? What lady doesn't want to accessorize while they are hunting? Yea you don't really need to wear camo when you are rifle hunting but a lot of people still do.

I am thinking of making another version of this except it will have hot pink instead of orange for the REALLY girly hunters out there.

I know i was going to talk about Kendall's flu shot experience the other day. She did really well. She sat in my lap and she looked like she was about to cry but then it was over with and she was like "That's it?" It was pretty funny. She got a sticker and a piece of candy for being tough. Later that night after we got home and took the band-aid off is when she decided it really hurt and she would walk around the house and every step she took she would say ouch.

Her attitude has been much better these last few days. We really struggled last week with getting her to listen and do things like put her coat and shoes on, it was a hard week. She has really taken a liking to playing games on the Kindle and she now knows that if she isn't good and doesn't do what she is supposed to then she gets it taken away. So far it has worked well and she is being better about listening and we have had almost no tantrums but have had to have several reminders, which seem to change her attitude around real quick.

The nail polish trial seems to be holding up ok. There are a few small chips but i am trying not to look at them. I got a couple other suggestions from people i am going to be trying out.

We are in the home stretch to the weekend, yahoo!

Nail polish battle

I love painting my nails, however, I hate that literally the next day it is already starting to chip. I cannot stand chipped nail polish, it makes me feel self conscience and i can't help but think people are staring at my chipped nails. 

I have tried many ways to keep them nice for at least a couple days before i have to take it off and give up. 

The other day i had a revelation that i think may work but it does have one flaw. IBD Intense seal is a product that you put on your acrylic nails to make them shiny (it has to be dried with a UV nail light). The flaw....you have to file it off. Nail polish remover or acetone will not get it off. Regardless of that i wanted to try it and see if it would make my polish last longer.

So last night around 9pm after i finished an order that i was working on, i decided to give it a shot and see if it will work better then just a regular top coat.

Here is the polish i used. I did 2 coats of polish (i did not use a base coat).

Once that was dry i put on a thin layer of the IBD Intense Seal. I only do 1 hand at a time cause i have the smaller light. Plus since this stuff does not dry unless its put under the light it would be running all over your fingers if you tried to do both hands at once.

This is what my little light looks like. You have to let each hand cure under the light for about a minute. It is only 9Watts so it will not work with gel products. You have to have at least a 36Watt light for that. ( I tried that and failed at it)

Here is the finished product. I think they turned out pretty good. All in all it took me about 35 minutes from start to finish and when i was done i didn't have to worry about not doing anything because the IBD makes the outside like a hard shell so there is no chance of smudging.

So far today they are holding up nicely, there are no chips and they are still very shiny.

IBD also makes a product that is a UV Top Coat that is just as durable as the Intense Seal but it does come off with acetone. I am going to invest in one of those, but will have to order online. I will let you know how the nails hold up. Hopefully they last longer then just a couple of days.

Happy Hump Day!

Monday Madness

This weekend went very much the same as the last few weekends have gone. I have been crocheting and when i am done with one project i start another and try to fit in loads of laundry and cleaning in between. I am loving all the items i am getting to make for people. There are a few things i have up my sleeve that i want to try out and surprise people with but i have to work on orders first before i can do any of those things. I am trying to fit in a few here and there like this cute Bears beanie. My model wasn't wanting to model for me and out of lots of pictures we only got a couple of good ones.

 The Packers beanie i made is such a huge hit that I had to counteract it with The Bears beanie. Jason is a huge bears fan so of course i had to make one for Kendall, who knows maybe i will even make him one for Christmas.

I was totally surprised with this BEAUTIFUL birthday cake last night made by my friend Toni. Her and my mom got together and collaborated on this idea. I love nail polish and have a slight obsession with it. Like I can't go to the store without buying a nail polish. I have more pink nail polishes then i care to admit, they are all different shades though which makes it OK.

Not only did the cake look awesome, it tasted fantastic. It was chocolate with caramel filling. It is amazing. Just thinking about it is making my mouth water. Her timing was perfect when she showed up I had literally just finished this Hello Kitty beanie I was making for her daughter. 

 

Here is to another productive week and to getting lots of projects done. Wish us luck tomorrow as Kendall is going to be getting her flu shot. Right now she doesn't exactly remember what a shot is so she is probably not going to be happy when we get there and they stick a needle in her.

It's my Birthday product review!!

Happy Birthday to me!!!

My little seester got me this loot for my birthday. I was pretty stoked about it since just yesterday i was browsing their website trying to figure out what I wanted to buy. We only have a couple stores around here that sell it and their options are very limited, plus they are both an hour away so most of the shopping for it consists of doing it online. 

I love e.l.f they offer such a wide variety of products ranging from $1 each to $6 each and that you cannot beat! I have pretty sensitive skin to some products but i have had no problems with e.l.f i don't break out from it. I still do use my regular foundation which i believe is Covergirl and i use Maybeline mascara cause those are 2 things that once you find the one you like you don't change, especially since its so hard to find a good mascara.

I am not receiving any kickback from e.l.f for posting this, i just really love their products and especially for the price. Go check out their website!

What's your favorite makeup product?

Hungry Girl Diet

I found this gem of a book on our local Facebook yard sale page and had to have it. Most of my meals i eat are right at around 250 calories, I do eat about 5 meals a day and sometimes still don't reach the 1200 calories My Fitness Pal says I am supposed to eat in a day.

I like this book but at the same time i am slightly disappointed in it. Seems like literally half of it is dessert recipes. The first half is all great recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks but there are so many dessert recipes. And to tell the truth if i am going to eat a cupcake it's not going to be a healthy one. There are some great healthy alternatives to some dips that we all love but that are sooooo bad for us.

It has also given me some good ideas that i came up with on my own for meals. I find myself eating a lot of the same healthy food over and over because i really don't know much about all of it.

I am pretty proud of myself  after this past week/weekend. I usually tend to not eat as good on weekends and then Monday when i get back on the scale i am disappointed. I didn't get to work out much last week and yesterday when i got on the scale i was pleasantly surprised to see that my sort of being good over the weekend really paid off. I think it helps that I am crocheting so much on weekends and evenings that i don't have time to sit around and snack or do any bored eating. I have 3 weeks to lose 5 more lbs and i really hope i can do it. I need to step up my cardio and do a little more then i have been doing. Its been a long journey but i am ready to finally reach my goal.

In other news, we are supposed to hear something about our house tomorrow. They were going to escalate the paperwork and hopefully get it done so we could set a closing date tomorrow. If all goes according to plan and they finish the paperwork tomorrow, after a 45 day closing period we should be moving into our house around Christmas.

Halloween!!!

Kendall had a little bit of a hard time getting into Halloween. She loved that she got to dress up and loved being Minnie Mouse, but when it came time to play the games she wasn't having any of it. All she wanted to do was be held and eat the candy.

  She was very curious about what was going on.

 It took lots of coaxing from Auntie but after a little while she was running around like she owned the place going back and forth between the bounce house and games.

Contemplating what to do next.

After she went in the bounce house a few times all she would do was hop around instead of walking. This carnival is put on by our church, they have done it the last 18 years and it is all free. There is food, tons of candy and lots of games to play. Last year when we went it was WAY to crowded so we didn't stay long at all. This year I wanted to beat the crowd so i told Jason we needed to get there as soon as it opened since people don't tend to show up until a little later. She got to eat some food, play several games and by 6:30 we were home. 

I had to make it a short night mostly cause i had 3 beanies i needed to finish last night, which didn't end up happening since Kendall decided to throw a terrible fit and it took me forever to get her to bed. I still have to finish up one hat but should be able to do it this afternoon.

I have lots of orders i will be catching up on this weekend and am looking forward to getting a larger variety of things made up so i can create a FB page so i can show them off.

Happy Friday!