July 4th Nails: Red, Negative Space, and Blue

Yeah, I know I said this nails blog would be posted on Saturday, but GUESS WHAT, I LIED AND ALSO THERE'S NO SANTA CLAUSE. Sawry.

Last year's Independence Day nails were a patriotic spin on classic leopard print, which seemed to be well received. This year I thought I'd use some nail decals for a spin on a standard "stars and stripes" look.

I used Ruby Ruby by Sinful Colors, Blue It from the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear line, and a Crystal Silver polish from Forever21's Love & Beauty brand. I also used some of the chevron and star nail decals that I purchased from Inspired Nails last year.

After applying a base coat and allowing it to dry completely, I used the chevron decals across my pinky, ring and middle fingers. I also placed a star sticker in the center of my pointer nail. Next, working one nail at a time, I covered the chevron nails with red polish and then used tweezers to peel away the nail decal to reveal the shiny negative space beneath. The star decal was a little trickier to remove without mucking up the nail, but I got 'er done...

I covered my thumb nail with 3 coats of Crystal Silver for some patriotic sparkle. I don't know what makes it "patriotic" but if you disagree with my use of the term then you must hate your country. Yes, I'm accusing you.

And because I like to keep it real, here's what my first attempt at this year's July 4th nails looked like (a disaster I alluded to on Instagram)...

Suffice to say, that was not the look. Stripes are a real bitch, aren't they??

What will you be rocking on your nails this weekend for July 4th?
Who else is looking forward to some fireworks?!

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I'm Still Alive! So Here Are Some Pretty Pictures :)

Why hello there! DID YEW MISS ME?!

... I will interpret your silence as a "hell yes!" and just take this moment to console you and hope that my absence these past few weeks didn't take too much of a toll on your daily life and general morale.

I have finally returned to Vancouver after being away in New England since June 6, and it is good to be home! The travel between hither and yon is never (EVER) easy on me, and often stretches into two days of travel in each direction. On June 6 my day began with a 7:00 AM, 5.5-hour bus ride from Vancouver to Seattle, followed by a 2-hour wait in the SeaTac airport, followed by a 5-hour flight from Seattle to Boston which landed at around midnight EST. From there, my brother picked me up and brought me to his Danvers apartment (about 25 mins north of Boston), where I slept for the night before continuing my jaunt to Western Mass the next day. I didn't get into Pittsfield till about 2:00 PM on Saturday June 7.

Returning from Mass to Vancouver was, again, a 2-day process. I got a car service from Auburndale, MA to Boston's Logan Airport on Monday June 23, took a 1-hour flight from Boston to JFK, had a 2-hour layover there before a 6-hour flight from JFK to SeaTac. That got me into Seattle at around 9:30pm, which was too late for me to take a bus back to Vancouver, so I had a hotel room for the night in Seattle before another 7:00 AM, 5-hour bus ride back north to Vancouver... culminating in a cab ride back to my home. By the time I walked in the door, I was ready to kiss the carpet in my apartment and not move for the rest of the day.

But that was just the getting to/from nonsense. There was an AMAZING array of fun and joy and love and family and friends that were experienced in the time between!! Being with my besties and my family is rejuvenating, fo sho.

Rather than try to overwhelm you or myself with a recap of the trip just yet, I thought I'd ease back into my little blogging hobby with some photos that I snapped in Vancouver the week before leaving for my trip in early June. Enjoy!

I spent an inordinate amount of time perched above the following little scene... the colors all just seemed so lovely to me that I kept snapping away...

 

And yes, today is normally my nails day, but I'll post one of those for tomorrow instead. Stay tewnnnnned.

It's good to be back... and thanks for sticking around  :)

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Make This: Open-Faced Yogurt Parfait

Yep, "open-faced yogurt parfait." As far as I'm concerned, I just made this term up. #CoinedIt. So what is it? Well, here's what the concept looks like in practice:

Pretty, right? And no mason jars required.

Here's what I put into my open-faced yogurt parfait:

• strawberry yogurt
• almonds
• granola
• dried cranberries
• raisins
• chocolate chips

Some other shit you could throw in there:

• dried fruit
• walnuts
• fresh straw/blue/raspberries
• shredded coconut
• honey
• flax seeds
• the kitchen sink (if it's fresh)

What would you put into yours?

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Aqua Sparkle Nails

HELLLLLLO Friday! If all has gone according to plan, I am on my way to Massachusetts right now. AKA spending an entire day hating my life. (Please see here for a few reasons why traveling can bite my butt.)

Despite the "getting there" part, which sucks, so many wonderful things await me upon my arrival in MA:

• Dunkin Donuts. Nuff said.
• My brother, who will pick me up from the airport and house me for the night at his apartment
• The rest of my family, who I'll see tomorrow afternoon after I finish my trek from eastern Mass to western Mass
• Babies: People have had babies since the last time I was home. I'm gonna squeeze some cheeks.
• A wedding!! My friends Kim and Sam will be getting their nups (nuptials?) on next weekend
• A bachelorette weekend! My friend Abigail is engaaaaaged and we're celebrating with a weekend in a beachy town in Maine, the weekend after next

Anyway! On to zeeee nails!

I've been itching to use my Nicole by OPI Gumdrops Blue-Berry Sweet On You nail polish again, and just needed to choose a fabulous polish to pair it with. I chose an aqua-inspired glittery polish from Sinful Colors which had been in my stash for several months without me so much as glancing at it. WHAT'S MY PROBLEM? The glitter polish, called Nail Junkie, is a translucent teal base with a lovely amount of holographic glitter rounds in it - some small and some extra small. The polish kind of reminds me of a mermaid.

Excluding my ring fingers, I applied two coats of the Gumdrops polish to all of my nails - a dusty, periwinkle blue textured polish which is also chock-full of blue-leaning holographic glitter specks. I absolutely LOVE this polish - it applies gorgeously and has a thick brush head for easy application. It dries to a rough, sandpapery finish, but not rough enough that it catches on anything.

On my ring fingers I started with two coats of Moonlit Woods, a periwinkle blue Revlon Parfumerie polish that is essentially identical to Blue-Berry Sweet On You, minus the holo glitter and texture. Over Moonlit, I applied two coats of the Nail Junkie glitter. Sidebar:  Nail Junkie, I just realized, looks a bit like Mermaid Tale by ORLY - which Jennie just showed off last week on her blog, if you want to check that out!

I hope you don't mind, but I may just go radio silent for the next couple of weeks while I'm home. You will survive my absence though - I totally promise.

What are you rocking on your nails today?
Have you tried any of these Gumdrops polishes?
Any trips in your near future?

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It's Almost Summer Around Here!

The beautiful spring-turning-summer stuff that's happening around Vancouver lately is making me slightly bummed to be leaving the area for Massachusetts later this week. I mean, obviously I'm ultra psyched to be seeing my family and friends - but the weather in Vancouver has just been spoiling me rotten. The temperatures around here are almost always comfortable - even in the wintertime, generally. I've experienced less than a handful of thunderstorms since moving to the Pacific Northwest in January 2012. Massachusetts summers, on the other hand, are hot, humid, and peppered with thunder and lightning storms. Mostly I'm worried about the humidity... it can really make me a cranky (and sweaty) biatch.

All that to say that I've been soaking up the outdoors around Vancouver lately and really appreciating the beautiful area that I live in - perhaps more so because I know that it will be in my rearview in a week.

Last Sunday, in lieu of taking a hike (as I'd mentioned we might) Dave and I went for a nice long walk through Pacific Spirit Regional Park near his UBC campus. The park is a nature reserve on the west side of town, with miles and miles of trails and woods, but somehow it was my first time checking it out.

It was a grey day, but our 5-mile walking through the park's winding trails was full of lush, green trees.

The moss on many of the trees in the park had a distinctly mint-and-kelly green ombre effect, 

which I loved... 

There were some tallllllllllll trees in that park...

And we even ran into a few big-ass slugs along the way...

Another recent walk around my neighborhood revealed that the Kitsilano Public Pool is open and starting to see some action:

And elsewhere, I continue to randomly enjoy all of the plant-life surrounding me...

Yesterday was GORGEOUS outside - not a single complaint to be had. Spectacular blue sky and a light breeze that kept you from getting too hot in the sun. Dave and I spent an hour just lying out on a blanket on the Kits Beach lawn, soaking it in. Such a relaxing way to spend an hour.

Any signs of summer sprouting up around your hood?
What does summer weather feel like for you in your area?
Hope you're all breaking out your sunscreens!!!

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My Workouts of the Week

Since I'll be leaving for a trip to Massachusetts at the end of this week, I'm trying to get in as much gym time as possible before I go, because chances are good there'll be no working out in MA. My eating and exercising habits tend to go completely awry every time I go home, despite good intentions for that not to happen... Oh well.

Here are my workouts from this past week:

5/25 (core)

5 mins elliptical

3x:  20 lying overhead raise + double crunch, holding 5 lbs

3x:  40 Brazilian crunches

3x:  40 weighted v-sit twists holding 15 lbs

3x:  20 leg raise + reverse crunch

3x:  20 cobras

5/26 (lower body)

5 mins elliptical

3x:  15 deadlifts, 15 lbs each hand

3x:  40 side lunges + plyometric pushoff each leg

3x:  40 calf raises, 15 lbs each hand

3x:  40 diamond clamshells each leg

15 sumo squats, 15 lbs

15 sumo squats, 20 lbs

15 sumo squats, 25 lbs

3x:  40 single leg bridges each leg

5/28 (upper body and core)

3:10 jumping jacks

3x:  12 bent over rows each arm, holding 12.5 lbs

3x:  12 deltoid flys holding 7.5 lbs each hand

3x:  12 chest press on exercise ball, 12.5 lbs each hand

3x:  24 alternating shoulder raises on exercise ball, 7.5 lbs each hand

3x:  12 close grip chest press on exercise ball, 12.5 lbs each hand

3x:  12 deltoid raises, 7.5 lbs each hand

12 lat pulldowns, 40 lbs

12 lat pulldowns, 50 lbs

12 lat pulldowns, 60 lbs

10 mins biking

40 weighted v-sit twists, 20 lbs

40 leg raise + reverse crunch

40 side-to-side oblique crunches

40 alternating weighted side bends, 12.5 lbs each hand

40 lying overhead raise + double crunch, holding 5 lbs

40 Brazilian crunches

5/29 (cardio)

20 mins elliptical

5/30 (lower body)

3x:  40 calf raises, 15 lbs each hand

3x:  40 bridges

3x:  40 alternating split lunges, 7.5 lbs each hand

3x:  40 diamond clamshells each leg

3x:  15 deadlifts, 15 lbs each hand

40 side lunges + plyometric push off

15 squats, 15 lbs

15 squats, 20 lbs

15 squats, 25 lbs

3x:  20 crab bridges + alternating arm reach

The sun is shining today so I'm going to head outside soon for some Vitamin D. I also need to head to the gym at some point to work off this little shameful situation that went down yesterday afternoon:

... So, let's pretend that didn't happen, mmk? 

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