Changing your stripes

On Saturday I felt like pampering myself, and considered going to get my nails done at a salon...then I remember that I'm cheap, so I decided against going out and paying to have them painted lol. I *finally* got my new and long waited for bottle of Color Club "Wild at Heart" purple holographic polish and OH MY GOD it is drop dead gorgeous!!!!
I painted two coats of Wild At Heart on to my nails, and oooohed and ahhhhed over it for about 5 minutes, then I felt like stamping again! Something I haven't done in awhile because quite frankly I have been so worn out from work and my personal life to even want to attempt to stamp my nails haha! So using my Julep polish (can't remember the name right now I'll edit when i get home) I stamped the zebra stripes over my shiny holographic nails. Then topped my mani off with a coat of SV as always.
LOOK AT ALL THE RAINBOWS! just look at this nail polish! If you don't own it, I highly suggest investing the $7 in a bottle off of ebay or amazon! Do it for me :D
These two polishes complimented each other perfectly in my opinion. I am really happy with this mani.

In other sad news, one of my classroom fish died over the weekend, I tried to get rid of it without my kiddos noticing, but of course, our Pet Patrol worker of the week ran up to me in a panic no more than 3 minutes after entering the class hyperventilating the words "MS L!! WHERES THE OTHER FISH?! I ONLY COUNTED 8! WHAT HAPPENED!" :/ kids are too observant these days! I guess tonight I go invest in my fish for my classroom haha

Welcome Home!!

Today I signed the papers for my very own apartment!!!! I am really excited about this! It is an adorable one bedroom place with the "luxury" package. I can't wait to hit up ikea :P Here is a fun holographic mani. I used the ah-may-zing Color Club Fashion Addict, in 3 coats, because lets face it, i love this polish!!
Using my BM plates I added cute floating feathers. I felt the feathers were appropriate since I am feeling free as a bird now that I have my very own home. I used Sinfuls Black on Black for the stamping and of course topped my mani with a coat of SV.

Boots and Boys Bandana Nails

Inspired by my redneck (and I mean that with all my love) of a boyfriend, and listening to Ke$ha's song Boots and Boys, I decided to go for a Southern girl bandana mani! :) I love the way it came out, I got a few compliments on it already, but mostly I like it because it reminds me of my man! ha!
I used two coats of OPI Suede in a bleu jeans color (the color tab fell off :( ) and Sinful Colors white to stamp! I finished the mani off with two coats of SV. I used my new Konad plate to stamp it :)
Josh's work in progress.....need I say more about how exactly he inspired my mani? and yes, I stole this picture off his facebook page. He just got a new off road bumper for it and he's pretty excited, also since this picture he's put a roof rack on it, and his mom and I agree that it looks like Nigel Thornberry's truck from the Wild Thornberrys! ha <3
Also, Josh came to my second grade class to talk to them about being a paramedic on Fire Safety Day on Thursday. For a writing activity, I had the students write about their favorite part of fire safety day, one of my students drew this picture of Josh, which I think is too adorable!!

Nails fit for dinner with the Boys Parents

Josh and I had a date to eat dinner with his family on Sunday, which of course always makes me nervous, when it shouldn't, but I can't help it. I love that boy and want his family to like me too :) Lucky, I took Josh to the Dentist earlier in the week and had the chance to browse through some magazines and by chance came across an interview with Essie Weingarten, the founder of Essie cosmetics. I wish I could remember which magazine it was in, but i read through sooo many waiting for him to finish with the doctor!!
Anyhoo, I know the article says "mother-in-law" but I took it's advice anyway because, well because it was sound advice. I had met Josh's family before, but I still want to do everything perfectly. Since Josh's step-mom is a super trendy lady, I took Essie's advice and went for a seasonal shade of polish, but amped it up a bit and made it almost a mock Burberry pattern. I loved this mani! I used Essence Irreplaceable as a base, and used 3 coats to get it to a nice opaque tone. I then used my new Konad plate and Butter London polish is Toff to do the stamping :) Finished it off with two coats of SV. You can sort of see in the picture above how the SV caused some shrinkage to my mani :(
I know you are dying to find out, but dinner went really well, like always. I love his family, they are incredibly nice people :)

Lights and Sirens missing my man

Today Josh is working again :( But before I get to that let me recap on our awesome day yesterday: it was amazing. Best part was getting cuddles all night long! I win :) Anyway, so since Josh was working today I figured it was the perfect time to try my new ICE Siren nail polish! I loved the formula, and used two coats. I then stamped Color Club Hey Gorgeous over it :) and finished it off with a coat of SV..
so Josh worked today as a paramedic at a pretty busy station. The guy that normally cooks dinner for him was not going to be in today-so I almost too happily offered to cook for him. I did, and was about to leave my house when he texted me to let me know he had to go out on a call..he got back an hour later and told me to come, and I did, I saw him for a total of 3 minutes before he got another call and had to go be a hero. I'm so incredibly proud of him, even though I miss him like crazy! (photo borrowed from Alex_English flickr)
Here are the polishes I used, sorry for the crappy lighting, my camera battery was dying :(

One last thing, Josh and I were keeping our relationship pretty low key for a few reasons, but finally made it facebook official tonight, I call that winning <3

How to: Stamp your nails

By reader request :) A quick picture tutorial on how to stamp your nails. Woohoo! So, first I put on 3 coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White.
I know its a little sloppy, but stamping in itself is a messy process :)
So, pick out the plate you'd like to use! I use Bundle Monster plates, and my Konad stamping system. Pictured above is the polish I chose to use for the stamping, my stamping plate, my stamper and my scrapper.
Step 1) cover the stamp you pick with your nail polish choice, it's generally best to use a deep opaque color that shows up vividly in one coat. I used Essence Just Rock it!
Using your scrapper, scrape off the nail polish, so what remains of the polish is stuck in the stamping plate etching.
Immediately roll your stamper through the nail polish so it picks up the design.
Then, roll the stamp out on your nails.
and Ta-da!! perfectly manicured nails :) As you can see from the above picture the stamp tends to get on your fingers, but its easy to clean off with some polish remover or warm water :)
The aftermath of nail stamping :)
The finished product!!

China: As in my heart is as fragile as

I promised a reader of mine that I would post a tutorial on nail stamping, but before I get to that (prefaced since this mani is in that tutorial) I wanted to take a minute to get something off my chest.

This is me. I'm 23, I'm a student in university. I've gotten my heart broken in the past, broken is an understatement. I've gotten my heart shattered. And you know, when you have your heart broken it's never fully whole again. You always leave a piece of it with the person who smashed it. But finding a guy who makes your heart feel whole even without all the pieces is what I call real love.

Some say that true love happens instantly- at first sight. Others say it grows over time. Call me a hopeless romantic, but I believe that when you find true love, it happens instantly. Picture The Notebook style love, or better yet, the Adjustment Bureau.. You may not want to acknowledge those feelings exist, but no amount of denial will change the way your heart feels. And whats more amazing than falling in love? Thinking you have known love in the past, but then the day comes when you really, and I mean really find the person you are in love with. Wow, it is practically earth stopping.

So, why am I writing this blog post? Because, well, because I can. And while I may be a strong individual, I'm still fragile. We all are, no matter how tough we think we may be. Falling in love, makes you vulnerable.