16. The Favorite Pattern

Greetings readers!

Do any of you have a favorite pattern or style? I can say that I do! I absolutely am in love with Chevron. It is the most gorgeous, simple, yet creative style. One of my wish list items to purchase is a Chevron dress and/or shirt. Let's not joke ourselves, it will probably be both! What can I say? I'm obsessed!

Today, I was searching all over The Internets for a DIY nail tutorial. The sloppy redone job on Saturday night was chipping, so a change was definitely needed. Out of all my nail tutorials, today was probably the most successful yet. It's still not 100%, but I'm slowly getting there. My DIY creative genes are slowly bubbling... probably shouldn't go that far yet.

The Inspiration.

I'm not saying I'm a fan of these particular colors, but the Inspiration was all I needed for today.

The Pinspirable (part 1).

Essie's Penny Talk is much more in my color wheel than the Inspiration red and bright pink. Plus, the Inspiration photo seems rather Valentine's Day-esque. For your sake, I'll omit my feelings on that holiday.

The Pinspirable (part 2).

The Pinspirable (part 3).

Not too shabby, eh? The white polish is Sally Hansen's Sheerly Petal Natural White and I feel it adds that full Chevron feel. Most often when you see Chevron styles, it's either black and white, or turquoise and white, or navy and white. I'd say about 90% of the things I've seen in Chevron style, contain a white blend.

All I did for this was, make sure there was very very very little white polish on my brush. Then carefully going from left to right (on my left hand) and right to left (on my right hand), simply made zig zags. It's ok if it's not perfect... that's what I'm telling myself anyways. ;)

Till next time,
Bells

14. The Belated Weekend Post: The Friday, The Saturday, and The Sunday

Greetings readers!

Ahhh.... I need to be better at being on top of things; however, I'm catching you all up now! :)

On Friday, I was painting at a house with my dad again, made a list on my way home, got home, and then all motivation fell through. I was supposed to go to two banks, mail a contract for a freelancing position, make plans with friends, and head out for the night, but all of that came to a screeching halt when I finally got an email back about the phone interview job. Needless to say, I didn't get it. The plans went out the window along with all forms of an attempt at a healthy night (which then turned into a weekend). Out came the Snickers ice-cream, potato chips, buffalo tenders with copious amounts of bleu cheese, and 3 large slices of pizza - ya that was just Friday night... oof! No post regarding "The Friday."

In order to make up for a lack of a Friday night post, I did a double for Saturday. :) Still kind of bummed out Saturday during the day, I slept the majority of the day and watched movies to cope. At one point, I was supposed to have a phone interview, but found out at the last second it was canceled. Friday night and Saturday day were not positive.

To cheer myself up on Saturday, what did I do? Oh ya... I painted my nails per usual. I really liked all of the DIY ideas posted in the last post, so I attempted one of those.

The Inspiration.

The "Metallic" idea really caught my eye, so I decided to DIY a French manicure via Sharpie.

First off, I was being super lazy on Saturday due to frustration of a lack of a job, amongst other things, so this was kind of a rush job. For future advice, wait till about an hour or two after painting before attempting this. You want to make sure your nails are thoroughly dried before attempting it. I was being impatient and didn't wait. It was hard to make a thin line not having waited, plus it got to a point where the nail polish started lifting. It took me alternating between 3 Sharpies to finally get it done... absurd! I immediately hated this, so I took it off and repainted, keeping just the red without any type of French.

After I finished the nails, I realized it was almost time for the Bruins game to start, and I still had to get ready! I've never been more thankful to have found an Inspiration photo, so I didn't have to rummage through 32 outfits to try and find something to wear.

The Inspiration.

The Pinspirable.

It was great! Such a comfy, relaxing outfit for a party in the woods. A gray sweater, a white tank, a scarf, jeans, and black flats - very easy to assemble. I have to say this was quite a brave outfit. I'm always very conscious of my "love handles" and this white tank felt revealing, hence why I paired it with a scarf and a necklace underneath. Plus, living in New England, you need some layers, so the scarf and a necklace felt good to jazz up this outfit. Oh, and note, I'm rocking the black ring on my left hand just like the photo called for. And, of course I wore the brand new $12 bag! I still can't get over that wonderful find.

Yesterday (Sunday) was supposed to be a LOVELY relaxing day, followed by the Patriots winning. Gah!!! I refuse to relieve yesterday, so therefore Sunday will be my first official day without an actual post. Yikes....

Stay tuned for today's :)

Items:
Black flats: $60 Coach black flats from Marshall's
Jeans: $30 American Eagle outfitters
White tank: taken from Momma
Gray cardigan: $30
Scarf: Christmas gift from a friend years ago
Black ring: Christmas gift from Momma circa 2011
Unseen black/silver chain necklace: Christmas gift from a grab circa 2011

Till next time,
Bells

13. The DIY Sharpie?

Greetings readers!

I forgot to tell you all about last night (Wednesday)! One of my friends and I headed to a nearby movie theater where they feature movies that have been out for quite awhile, for low prices, and you can buy beer and/or wine! How awesome is that? $5.00 for a major motion flick, $3.50 for a beer, or $9.00 for a pitcher- talk about a steal! "Things are practically free here!" A phrase that escaped both my friends and I's lips. We ended up seeing Ben Affleck's, "Argo." It was absolutely wonderful. By the end, both of our hearts were palpitating at such a fast pace due to the intensity. The film is based on a true story regarding 6 refugees in Iran in 1979 - 1980. I can see why Affleck won a Golden Globe for it. Well done, Ben.

Today, my dad and I had to go paint a lady's house nearby. My dad started painting houses 30 or-so-some-odd-years-ago. He has employed at one point myself, my brother, my cousins, my uncles, my Papa, friends, etc. While painting, my nails from Tuesday had seen better days, so today I bring you a new DIY for nails!

Normally, I have 1 inspiration photo for you, but today I have 3.

 The Inspiration (part 1).

Awhile ago, I came across this nail polish, Haute as Hello by Essie. It's such a peachy, summery color. At my previous place of employment, one of my co-workers one day was selling nail polish for $1 and I managed to get Haute as Hello's look-a-like, Tart Deco by Essie.

In the past couple of weeks, via Pinterest, I've seen a lot of DIY nails from... are you ready... Sharpie's. Yes, I wrote that correctly, a Sharpie. A permanent marker. What?!

The Inspiration (part 2).

The Inspiration (part 3).

Who knew you could do so many things with a Sharpie... especially on your nails!? So, I decided to combine all 3 photos...

The Pinspirable (part 1).

The Pinspirable (part 2).

I painted on the Tart Deco by Essie, took a sharpie, and made little dots. I'm calling it the DIY Sharpie Leopardy Nails. Since I'm painting again tomorrow, you may have another tutorial tomorrow night! I may get a different color sharpie and DIY Sharpie French Manicures (seen in Inspiration part 2).

Till next time,
Bells

11. The Reversed Nails

Greetings readers!

Today was a long day, but not in a good way necessarily. I woke up and just felt extreme self doubt and defeat, with awful words/memories echoing through my head. Today, I felt as though I hit rock bottom. During my breakdown, one of my friends called, and like a good friend that she is, she tried to reassure me that 2013 was going to be unlike the past 2 years of my life; 2013 is supposed to be my year, it's going to be great. After the breakdown, I applied to jobs for probably a good 6-7 hours. Applying for jobs right now, is equivalent to a full-time job for me, except it goes beyond the normal 8:30am-5:00pm window. Seldom taking breaks, the days turn into very long emotional, draining hours.

Thankfully, my mom came home and made a delicious meal, which definitely helped with the pain. It was better than my earlier consumption of ice-cream at about noon. *Note to self: Avoid ice-cream, chocolate, sweets, and salty purchases when unemployed, for it never ends well.*

With the delicious meal in my belly, bridal shower plans underway (I finally made headway with it today!), and my Tuesday night TV about to start, I figured painting my nails would brighten my day!

As you've all probably seen, the new trend is to paint 8 nails of a certain color and have your left and right ring finger a different color. Normally, I do all 8 nails bright, and 2 dark ones; however, I saw an inspiration photo the other day via Pinterest and felt the need to follow along.

The Inspiration.

I love this color combination! Just a touch of sparkle to brighten your day- ha, no pun intended.

The Pinspirable.

Unfortunately, I don't have any silver polish like that. The silver polish is on my, "What I'm going to purchase when I have a job." And I wish I could say that list doesn't exist, but no... it does, in a Word document on my desktop. This little pick-me-up gold reminds me of how life is for me right now. The gray is the every day struggles, the hardships, the shadows, and some day I'm going to see the light at the end of the tunnel and maybe things will turn around, or maybe they won't. Oh, this journey called life... ha!

I apologize for my not-so-shiny mood today... maybe tomorrow will be my touch of gold?

Till next time,
Bells

6. The DIY Frenches

Greetings readers!

After last night's post, I realized it was quite hypocritical of me to be preaching to all of you regarding the dangers of Diet Coke, but still drink the remaining 10 in my house; therefore, I went "Cold Turkey." Today is Day #1 of "No Soda" and quite honestly, I feel like I just quit smoking. All day I've longed for the taste, not the caffeine, just the taste. To make up for the lack of taste, an over abundant amount of water has been consumed today.

Apart from the "No Soda," partaking in 2 exercise classes probably helped with the copious water consumption. The first class was supposed to be "Power Yoga," but ended up being "Yoga Challenge." Sorry, but standing on my head for excessive lengths of time is not on my wish list. After all of the head stands, I zoomed off to a Live P90X class. Hands down, I'll take the ridiculous ab workouts versus head stands, any day of the week. Definitely feeling good today! A motivator was needed after last night testing out my "BMI Count" and finding 3-4 points (how much in pounds? no clue!) is what it will take for me to be "Normal" and not "Obese." Really?! Anyways....

So last night while reading the Anti-Soda article, my nails started chipping and then due to a more anxious nature that came from the article, they were almost all chipped off by the end. So today, I bring you another DIY nail tutorial.

The Inspiration.

Today, while browsing Pinterests "Hair and Beauty" boards, out came "The Blush," which brought me to this "Bold Violet and Gold Manicure" look. After finding this, another Pinterest pin came about (here), so deciding to combine the two seemed necessary. Thanks to Fleur DeForce's guide to DIY French Manicures, I took the plunge.

The Pinspirable.

I painted on my Insta-Dri "Pronto Purple" before leaving for workout session number 1. After coming home, eating, showering and the like, I then went on to do "The French" part using Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails Extreme Wear "Golden-I." I wanted to make sure the purple was completely dried before undertaking the gold part. When painting the gold, I used Fleur DeForce's idea, simply by having as very little paint on the brush as possible, and then rolling it onto my finger, turning my nail as need be. After letting it dry, I tried to go back and make the lines smaller and it turned out to be a disaster. *Today's Fun Fact: This look was on my nails about an hour ago and now it isn't. :)* It's going to be awhile before I go back to the "DIY Frenches."

Have you ever tried a DIY French? If so, do you have any tips to share?

Items:
Insta-Dri "Pronto Purple" - $4 purchased at CVS
Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails Extreme Wear "Golden-I" - $4 purchased at CVS

Till next time,
Bells

3. The Marble Nails

Greetings readers!

Sunday's are normally such a gloomy day for following them is the inevitable Monday, along with the start of the week; however, today was an extraordinary Sunday. I woke up to hear some spectacular news regarding the NHL Lockout having gone away! Now that the NHL Lockout is over, you'll soon learn that I am a *huge* hockey fan, particularly the Boston Bruins. Today's post is in partially honor of the glorious news.

One of the many reasons I love "The Internets," is that it helps me get in touch with my feminine side. Having grown up in a neighborhood of predominantly all males, I tend to prefer sports over things like doing my hair, nails, and the like. You all are probably shaking your heads since I've been posting fashion-like things, but it's the truth. If you came up to me and proposed me with a trip to the mall or the option to go to a sporting event, hands down, I'm picking the sporting event 10 times out of 10. It doesn't even matter if the sporting event proposed does not consist of the Red Sox, the Patriots, the Celtics, or even the Bruins, I will forever choose a sporting event over a girly activity. *Fun fact: Earlier this year I volunteered at a Spartan race just because it was at Fenway.* Yup, die hard sports fanatic.

So today, I decided to embrace "The Internets" and paint my nails using this "Marble Nails" technique I found via Pinterest.

The Inspiration.

I thought this technique was rather interesting. If you click the link attached to the caption, it gives you step-by-step directions to achieving this look from the original source.

The Pinspiration.

So in the spirit of the NHL Lockout being over, I decided to do a Bruins Pinspirable Marble look. I used my Insta Dri "Lightening" nail polish as the base (the yellow), awaited it to completely dry, and then used my Sally Hansen Diamond Strength "Black Diamond" as my top coat. To do the top coat, I started with my pinky, painting it all black, and immediately taking my saran wrap in a ball and simply and lightly dabbing. Repeat the "immediate" step with all 10 nails. My advice to you would be to let one hand totally dry after doing the marble layer before doing the next hand to make things easier. Oh, and at first I just had my saran wrap laid out and was dabbing it that way, but as I progressed, I found it easier to dab when it was crumpled up in a ball. Obviously, I have to go back and get rid of the excess nail polish on my hands, for marbling makes it a bit messy. To get rid of the excess nail polish on your hands, fill your Nail Polish Remover cap with some of the remover, dip a Q-tip inside the filled cap, and slowly work your way around each nail. Voila!

Would you do the marble look to your nails? If so, which colors would you choose?

Items:
Yellow nail polish - $4.00 Insta Dri "Lightening"  (found at CVS, Walgreens, Target, etc.)
Black nail polish -  $4.00 Sally Hansen Diamond Strength "Black Diamond" (found at CVS, Walgreens, Target, etc.)
Saran wrap - $7.00 Stretch Tite Plastic Wrap (found at any supermarket)

Till next time,
Bells