My last post was in January

I'm a terrible blogger.  I could use the wedding as an excuse... but I won't, because it isn't, and I'll tell you why in a second.

So anyway- I'm married now!  That's a thing that happened.  But the reason why I won't use that as an excuse is because I started a new blog.  And I set a sort-of schedule for myself.  And I've been keeing to it (for a couple weeks which yaaaaay better than no weeks).  I've posted some of my nail things over there, but mostly it's just a blog about my life.  My DIY projects, decorating my home, posts about weddings and things I learned/craft ideas... just a bunch of stuff in general.  If you're interested, I'm calling it Happiness Unexamined.  

The important part is that I'm going to return to blogging here.  I am going to start by back-posting a couple of things from the past in order to give myself some time to catch up, but then I'm hoping to get on a regular schedule here.  So.  Long, rambly story short- I will be back to posting here, but I will also be posting over there so you can feel free to follow both, one, the other, or none.  If it's none, I'm not sure how you are here reading this. 

And since I can't make a blog post without any photos- here's a few from the wedding.

All photos were taken by our wonderful photographer, Melissa.

Shameless

I have to plug myself.  I'm sorry!  Countdown to the Praxis has reached critical levels, and I need something to clear my mind.  So... here's a shameless self promotion!  Don't fret, these won't happen too often :)

Tons of new things in my etsy shop!  Including some awesome nail polish jewelry and more on the way!

My Thrift Store Nail Polish Rack

A few weeks ago I came across this awesome... spice rack?  Not sure.  Some kind of awesome shelving unit with sweet little jungle critters hand painted on it.  So I grabbed it up with no second thoughts, came home, gave it a clean sweep and wham.  Nail polish rack for me!  Someday I will hang it up, but not now... we are moving in a few months.  For now it's stocked with my most used polishes (top coats, metallics for stamping, etc) and other supplies.

Floral Mani and Updates All Around

I've been absent for such a long time.  There's two reasons for that...
1. I started my internship.  It takes up SO MUCH of my time and is SO stressful, that I completely chewed off all my nails into tiny nubbins... and THEN I started working on the cuticles.  Not only that, but I've been super concerned with what is appropriate for work, and what isn't as far as nails/nail art.  And I have a confession: I wore the same mani for two weeks in a row.  And I'm using the term mani here very loosely- I slapped on two coats of a sheer polish with no base or topcoat and just called that good- for TWO WEEKS.  By the time I took it off last night, the polish was only in the very center of my nail, and my ridges had actually worn through in some places!  It was disgusting.
2. I lost my Seche Vite!!!!!! I don't know how that happened :(  But I kept saying to myself "no point in spending time on doing my nails if I can't use my SV.  I'll do my nails when I find it."  I hardly even looked!  Well last night I tore my house apart and there's no sign of it, so I just did my nails anyway, because I'd finally reached my limit.

So anyway, like I said, I finally hit my limit last night and said "enough is enough!"  Plus I had just seen this tutorial from Rebecca Like Nails, and was all over it like white on rice.  I love a good floral mani, and even though I was a little nervous to wear it to my internship, I figured go big or go home.

Ugh those cuticles.

Products Used:

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Wet Cement

Maybelline Express Finish in Prompt Petals

ELF nail polish in Fuchsia

Revlon Emerald City

Sally Hansen Double Duty as topcoat

Bundle Monster Plate number BM14

Polish Jewelry- Etsy Plug

I haven't posted in forever... I started my internship and BOOM!  I'm down to nubbins.  I haven't painted them all week because I've abandoned all hope, but I plan to try to jump back on the manicure/blog bandwagon this weekend.  This just won't do.

But in the meantime, I decided to finally plug my etsy here.  It's nothing super special or unique, but my internship is unpaid and takes up all my time, and crafts help me de-stress.

The link is here:  General Goods

Not only is there some polish jewelry, but some wreaths and some origami crane stuff, and also some WoW hearthstone keychains.  Check it out if you have the time, I appreciate it :)

Hopefully I'll be back this weekend with some mani photos!

Engagement Pictures!

Well this is non nail related, but I was excited and just had to share.

I can't wait for the disc to come in the mail so I can get prints and see these pictures full sized!

Forever 21 Swatch- Love & Beauty: Orchid and SUPER EXCITING NEWS!

I mentioned yesterday that I went home for a few days for a mini vacation and had some exciting news.  Well...

I'M ENGAGED!

My boyfriend (fiance!!!) proposed to me while we were visiting!  My brother and his girlfriend (Josie of Josie's Nails) and my parents were all in on it and I was COMPLETELY oblivious.  After the proposal we went back to my parents' house where there was another surprise waiting- all of my family were there for a secret surprise BBQ!  It was super awesome.  My only regret is that I had peeled off all of my nail polish (the rainbow leopard print I posted about yesterday) during the movie that we went to see, so my nails look like the above in all the photos!  So now I will be super motivated to QUIT NIBBLING!  

I knew that I needed to paint my nails for when I wanted to take photos of my ring, so I decided to put on hold the 4th of July manicure I had in mind and went instead with a super fast mani using a new polish I had gotten from Forever 21 earlier that day.  This is Love & Beauty in Orchid.

As you can see, I had a really hard time capturing the color with my camera.  It didn't help that I was in the car on the way to the airport!  Orchid is really a beautiful color, and for less than 3 dollars, a total steal!  I wasn't expecting a whole lot, to be honest, but I was really impressed and I can't wait to try the other two Love & Beauty colors that I purchased.