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!

Pumpkin Carving

I originally wasn't going to carve a pumpkin with Kendall because when my sister came to visit she had brought some of hers from her garden for Kendall to paint. Well Sunday night for some reason Kendall was having a REALLY hard time going to sleep. It was stormy outside and really windy and i think the sounds were scaring her. So in one of my attempts to get her to fall asleep I was laying in her bed with her when she asked if we could carve a jack-o-lantern.

It was really hard to resist the sad, scared face of a toddler. So I gave in and said yes.

We cut out gym time short on Monday so we could make it home early enough to be able to fit carving a pumpkin into our evening schedule.

This is the only picture i got of her doing any work. One touch of the pumpkin guts and she was disgusted and didn't want anything to do with it.

I ended up doing all the work. She took my phone and walked around and took pictures and when she got bored with that she went in the other room to play games on the Kindle.

I am not a huge fan of pumpkin carving, it's a lot of work. She did tell me though once it was finished and had a candle in it that it looked "pretty neat" so i guess she is impressed with my carving skills. Thank goodness it only comes around 1 time a year. I think i would rather bake Christmas cookies with her instead.

Happy Hump Day!

Dedication

This will totally be me after tonight's workout. Last night i had to cut it short because i needed extra time at home for Kendall and I to be able to carve a pumpkin. As it turns out though she isn't so much into carving pumpkins and i ended up doing most of it as she walked around with my phone and took a lot of random pictures of the floor. More on that tomorrow.

As of today, i have lost 3 more lbs for a grand total of 13 lbs lost since February when i started the zumba challenge. I am glad i set a goal for myself. And it goes to show that clean eating is really the way to go for everyday eating. 

My Fitness Pal is still telling me that i am not eating enough but other then adding an insane amount of veggies into my diet i am not sure what else to eat. I do get hungry at times but it's mostly before meals. There has been zero snacking before bedtime and a lot of that probably has to do with the fact that i am so busy crocheting to get up and go find a snack. Plus i haven't had that hungry urge to snack so when it prompts me to eat more at the end of the day i just kind of brush it off and don't worry about it. 

It is amazing the difference 3 lbs makes. Well and the fact that i cut out almost all carbs. My clothes fit better, i don't have the wonderful tummy pooch and over all my body just feels good because it isn't weighed down with the heavy starchy foods. I will admit i have tried lots of pills to help aid with my diet and i have yet to find one that actually works. My journey this year has gone to prove to me personally that putting in the work at the gym and the extra time it takes to cook a clean meal is more then worth it to me. Now if only i could get my 2 year old to not be so picky and want to eat the good stuff too :)