Nails Inspired By... A Rug??

Yupppp, today's nails are inspired by an Instagram photo from DesignLoveFest of a polka dot rug!

Not just the rug itself, but the colors of her shoes and jeans against the black and white polka dot rug... It made me wanna do this:

Here's the original Instagram post by DesignLoveFest, in case you lazily didn't click the link at the beginning of this blog!

For polishes I used (left to right):

• Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Fuchsia Power
• Orly - Preamp
• Ruby Kisses - Blue Pearl
• Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Blue It
• Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
• Revlon - Stiletto

I did tons of swatching to decide which colors to use for the blue and pink in these nails. In the end, I ended up layering two different polishes for each.

I bought the Fuchsia Power polish recently, thinking (foolishly) that it would be the perfect pink color for this mani. It was definitely not. The better choice to make would definitely have been Sally Hansen's Insta Dri in the color Flashy Fuschia, but for some reason I decided not to buy that one, so here we are - mixing 'n matching polishes like we're some kind of effing Bob Ross.  Perhaps you saw my swatch-a-thon on Instagram.

What I decided upon for the pink nail was a coat of Fuchsia Power followed by a coat of Preamp. (I did a whole post about Preamp here.) For the blue nail, I did a coat of Blue It topped by a coat of Blue Pearl.

Look how sparkly Preamp is when I use the flash:

.  whoooooa  .

Nothing fancy planned for me this weekend. If I can manage to get a haircut, it'll be a solid victory. I'm soooo overdue! It would also be nice to go for a hike - I haven't been into the mountains in a month or two.

What are you rocking on your nails today?
Have you picked up any new polishes yet?
Let me know what your weekend plans are!

FACEBOOK TWITTER PINTEREST INSTAGRAM

{Linking up with Friday's Fab Favorites, Beauty Buzz, and The Nail Files}

A Few Good Things

The weather is warming and people are out in Vancouver, doin' they thannnng!

Every once in awhile, a small bird will land on my balcony, but it's rare that I have my camera beside me and can snap a picture:

After reading this blog about the "Japanese Dollar Store" last week, I was thrilled to find that there's a Daiso located one town over from me! I made a trip there on Sunday...

... And picked up three very awesome but very inexpensive boxes to store 

my nail polish and nail supplies:

.  top to bottom:  $2.00, $3.00, $3.50  . 

.  left to right: colored polishes, neutrals/glitters/top coats, nail tools  .

This funny idea for a meme popped into my head the other day, so I had to create it immediately. 
I tweeted it to Nelly on St. Patrick's Day. So far he hasn't responded.

(If you didn't get that meme, you need to refresh your memory of this little gem.)

I finally stopped into The Kings Head restaurant/pub to try out their breakfast... It's right near my apartment but I'd never been there before!

.  breakfast. ain't nothing wrong with that  .

The moss on the trees around here is really beautiful...

And I never get sick of these city and mountain views!

If you couldn't already tell, the grainier photos are from my Instagram account. Are you following me there yet? I'm still sort of new to Instagram and looking to follow some eye-catching accounts, so leave me a comment with your username!

FACEBOOK TWITTER PINTEREST INSTAGRAM

50 Shades of Green

Well alright, maybe not fifty of them... but several.

Happy St. Patrick's Day errrrr'body! Did you get schwasted-face this weekend? I didn't, but I did get a nice buzz off of all the compliments I received on Friday about my St. Paddy's Day nails. Thanks to everyone who showered me with flattery - you sure know how to make a girl feel like she can use a makeup sponge to apply nail polish! #HighFivesAllAround.

Since today is typically celebrated with lots of green, and since I didn't go a traditional green route for my nails on Friday, I'm giving myself permission to jump into the sea of green that you'll no doubt be noticing on blogs across zee 'net today. It doesn't hurt that green is one of my favorite colors - from mints to kellys to sages to emeralds!

I hope you'll enjoy browsing my random green picks in this Boutique widget - you can click on any of the images to browse/shop directly:

What are some green thaaaangs you're loving on today?
Do you wear green on St. Patrick's Day, or do you shy away from it?
What's your favorite hue of green? Mine is probably sage or mint!

p.s. If you can't see the widget above, click on the little grey shield icon in your address bar and choose to "load" the script!

FACEBOOK TWITTER PINTEREST INSTAGRAM

{Linking with Monday Must Haves}

Workouts of the Week + Digging Into Netflix

We finally finished watching Breaking Bad last week, so this weekend was one for digging deeper into the bowels of Netflix to see what else we could discover in there. This resulted in us watching Lost In Translation (Friday night), The Peacemaker (Saturday afternoon), and even a little bit of The Emperor's New Groove (Saturday night in bed).

I didn't care for Lost In Translation at all - it was terribly boring for me. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, nothing happened in the entire movie. To boot, Scarlett Johansson's character's voice was ultra-annoying - she gave a meek-yet-breathless delivery of all of her lines, which kind of made me want to punch her in the stomach. Hard.

The Peacemaker with George Clooney and Nicole Kidman was decent - in a timely "Isn't Russia terrifying?" type of way. I like action movies, so this was more my speed than the movie we'd watched the night before.

We watched about a half hour of The Emperor's New Groove in bed last night. I've been trying to make Dave watch this movie forever.  I liked it so much when it came out originally (back in 2000) that I went and saw it in the theaters twice at the time! It's terribly hard to get Dave to ever watch a Disney movie, so having him agree to watching even 30 minutes of it was a win for me ;)

.  saturday morning breakfast instagram  .

In addition to watching movies this weekend, we also took a beach walk in the pouring rain yesterday afternoon near Dave's UBC campus. It was nice to take a walk on a beach we hadn't been on before, and we even got to see a bunch of seals playing in the water! I wanted to bring my camera so badly, but I knew that the pouring rain was just not going to be conducive to taking pictures.

In other news, I was pretty much killin' it at the gym this week. My shoulders are soooo sore right now! Hopefully I didn't pull something... Here's an outline of my workouts from the past week:

3/9 (lower body and core)

10 mins rowing machine

2x:

   - 12 squats, holding 25 lbs

   - 20 Russian get ups holding 8 lbs

   - 40 calf raises, 15 lbs each hand

   - 20 weighted v-sit twists holding 15 lbs

   - 60 bridges

   - 50 Brazilian crunches

   - 40 side lunges + plyometric pushoff (each side)

3/10 (upper body and core)

5 mins biking 

3x:

   - 12 chest press on exercise ball, 15 lbs each hand

   - 20 weighted crunches on exercise ball, 15 lbs

   - 12 bent over rows each arm, 15 lbs

   - 20 weighted v-sit twists, holding 15 lbs

   - 12 Arnold press, 10 lbs each hand

   - 30 reverse crunch + leg raise

12 squats, holding 10 lbs

12 squats holding 15 lbs

12 squats holding 20 lbs

3/11 (cardio)

10 mins rowing machine

25 mins bicycle

3/13 (lower body and core)

5 mins elliptical

2x:

   - 30 alternating side step squats, holding 15 lbs

   - 30 weighted v-sit twists, holding 15 lbs

   - 40 calf raises, 15 lbs each hand

   - 30 plank knee to elbow

   - 30 diamond clamshells on each leg

   -  30 reverse crunch + leg raise

   - 15 deadlifts, 15 lbs each hand

   - 30 cobras

12 squats, holding 15 lbs

12 squats, holding 20 lbs

12 squats, holding 25 lbs

12 lat pulldowns, 30 lbs

12 lat pulldowns, 40 lbs

12 lat pulldowns, 50 lbs

3/14 (upper body and core)

5 mins biking

4x:

   - 12 deltoid flys, 5 lbs each hand

   - 20 weighted v-sit twists, holding 12.5 lbs

   - 12 deltoid raises, 5 lbs each hand

   - 20 alternating weighted side bends, 12.5 lbs each hand

   - 12 tricep kickbacks each arm, 5 lbs

   - 20 lying overhead raise + double crunch, holding 5 lbs

   - 24 alternating medicine ball flys with 8 lb medicine ball

   - 30 cobras

12 squats, holding 15 lbs

12 squats, holding 20 lbs

12 squats, holding 25 lbs

That last arm workout was a doozie... I don't normally do 4 sets of exercises! Stopping after 3 sets was the original plan but then I thought that I could handle another round. That's probably why I'm so sore today!

It's another rainy, grey day today, so there might be some more Netflix movies in my future. Do you have any random movie recommendations?

Have a great Sunday!

FACEBOOK TWITTER PINTEREST INSTAGRAM

St. Patrick's Day Rainbow & Pot o' Gold Nails

Rather than going a standard "green nails" route for some St. Patrick's Day themed nails, I thought I'd take things in a more rainbow/pot of gold direction. HOPE THAT'S COOL WITH YOU!

Colors used:
Snow Me White - Sinful Colors (white)
Ruby Ruby - Sinful Colors (red)
Fuzzy Navel - Ruby Kisses (orange)
Lightening - Sally Hansen Insta Dri (yellow)
Envy - Sinful Colors (green)
Midnight Blue - Sinful Colors (blue)
Amethyst - Sinful Colors (purple)
Stiletto - Revlon (black)
Big Spender - Nina Ultra Pro (gold)
Crystal Gold - Love & Beauty (gold)
#077 - Color Club (gold)

I started off with a coat of Snow Me White on all my nails, and followed that up by taping all of my fingers the same way you may have seen me do in this nail tutorial. That step isn't totally necessary, but it most definitely cuts down on clean-up time later.

Next I grabbed a makeup sponge and painted a stripe of each color of the rainbow onto the sponge before quickly dabbing the sponge on my nails. I reapplied the rainbow colors to the sponge between each nail. For the thumb I painted the bottom half of the nail black and then used mixed coats of all 3 gold polishes to cover the top half of the nail. Update tip: I find it's a good idea to twist all of your nail polish bottles open (while still leaving the cap on) and line them up, ready to swipe onto the makeup sponge. It's a pain in the butt to have to twist them each open right before you swipe them onto the sponge, especially because you don't want the polishes to dry on the sponge before it gets to your nail!

 To finish off, I gave the rainbow nails a top coat to help smooth the colors together better.

Are you going to do anything crazy this weekend for St. Patrick's Day? I actually don't even know if Canadians celebrate this holiday... I'll have to find out. Anyway - whatever you're doing this weekend - keep it real and have funnnnn!

FACEBOOK TWITTER PINTEREST INSTAGRAM

{Linking with Beauty Buzz, The Nail Files, Friday's Fab Favorites 

and What I'm Loving Fridays}

Lovin' On Vintage T-Shirts

Pay no attention to the lack of blogs this week... A touch of mental laziness has come over me recently.

Let me start this blog about vintage t-shirts by telling you a little about my dad. My dad is a multi-talented musician (singer, guitarist, pianist, banjoist, harmonica..ist... etc!!). He played in several bands with his friends in high school and beyond - and to this day still performs and plays out at bars around Berkshire County back in Massachusetts.

Some of his cool band names include Bad Habits, The Moore Hill Gang, LYNX, and The Prohibition. There are definitely several more, but those are the ones I can name off the top of my head.

Alright so what does any of that have to do with awesome vintage t-shirts? Well AS EVERYONE KNOWS, every good band has a great t-shirt. And that means there was a pretty sweet stash of old awesome t-shirts in boxes at my parents' house... which I inevitably got my hands on, as teenage daughters do. And then I wore the shit out of them!

Here are some of my favorite vintage t-shirts from my dad's current stash:

The two LYNX t-shirts and the Moore Hill Gang shirt were on heeeeavy heavy heavy rotation for me in college. The lighter-grey LYNX tee (which I favored because it was more worn-in than the other) has a trillion holes in it at this point, and the Moore Hill shirt has faded quiiiiite a bit since college. Here I am rocking that one 10 years ago back in early 2004:

.  #tbt  .

See how much brighter it used to be?! Imagine how much better it must have looked when it was in its prime...

You can see from the first picture that band t-shirts were not the only vintage tee I was interested in owning. The old school Orioles shirt is one of my absolute favorites. That one also has special meaning because it is from the era in which my late uncle Mark played for the Orioles.

There were many more of my dad's t-shirts that I used to wear over the years, but I literally wore them out to the point that they were filled with holes and no longer salvageable. I mean, even the ones I've still got are filled with holes, as you can see. My dad acted irritated that I was swiping his shirts, but I have a feeling he was also a little proud that his daughter thought his t-shirts were cool enough to steal and wear. Or at least that's what I tell myself to feel better about destroying his precious memories.

Here's an honorable mention vintage tee...

This awesome Science t-shirt was given to Dave by his good friend Joey. Dave's enormous muscles and general manly bulk prevented him from fitting into it comfortably, but lucky for me - it's just my size! I don't know the story behind this shirt - where it came from or how old it is. But it's got a totally vintage feel, and for me it's special because David is a scientist, so it's kind of like I'm reppin' my man when I wear it.

Now, I realize that not everyone is lucky enough to have a dad with awesomely personalized old band t-shirts, so here are my top tips for getting your hands on a great vintage tee yourself:

1.  Ask your parents/aunts/uncles if they have any old t-shirts in a random storage box somewhere. I mean, might as well start with them, right?

2.  Don't shy away from the t-shirt sections of the thrift shop. Check the women's and men's sections, and be sure to browse through all of the sizes - not just the one you think is your size. You just never know what you will find!

3.  Browse eBay.

4.  Fake it till you make it. If you can't find an actual vintage tee that suits you, tons of stores/sites sell shirts that they've made to look vintage. Look for intentionally faded logos of iconic brands, bands, or teams, and you can't go wrong! If you can't find any that you like, and want to DIY a vintage feel, try following this Pinterest tutorial that I've seen all over the place.

In terms of caring for your vintage tees, I have a few big tips... not all of which I follow myself. #DoAsISayNotAsIDo.

1. Keep them in a cedar chest or use some other form of cedar-esque protection to guard your shit. Moths want to eat your vintage t-shirts SO bad, you have no idea. They are really connoisseurs of finely aged cotton goods. Those little bastards.

2. Wash your shirts inside out, in cold water. This will help protect both the logo and the fabric color.

3. Don't put your t-shirts into the dryer. Just don't.

Do you love vintage tees as much as I do?

If you have a favorite vintage tee of your own, what is on it?

How do you like to style your t-shirts?

FACEBOOK TWITTER PINTEREST INSTAGRAM

{Linking with The Style File}

Workouts of the Week + An Indulgent Weekend

Well I didn't exactly get into a Disney marathon this weekend, but I did get into plenty of other things! I mentioned on Friday morning that Dave was going to be away in Massachusetts till Monday night, so I've been entertaining myself like a champ.

On Friday night after work I walked downtown to get my brows done and do some shopping! Once again, I went to 4 Angels Beauty Care, where Navkiran (one of the co-owners of the spa) gave me a perfectly manicured set of brows.  I've also been so sore/achy lately, in addition to the weird spasmodic twitching that's been occurring in my forehead since Wednesday... I've just felt off.  So in an act of pure #TreatYoSelf I also had Navkiran give me a shoulder and neck massage while I was there. Didn't regret it, either. If you like deep-tissue shoulder massages, Navkiran is your homegirl. She also gave me lots of compliments on my eyelashes, which earned her extra bonus points.

So this was really spontaneous on my part, but as I left 4 Angels that night, it occurred to me that I absolutely hated the jeans I was wearing and needed to cease wearing them ASAP. Solution: Stop into Old Navy to take advantage of the massive store-wide sale they were having and finally pick up a pair of Rock Star jeans to change into immediately. Yup - bought a pair of jeans and then changed into them in the dressing room to wear them right out of the store. Have you ever done that? I don't think I had before, so you can imagine how serious my "I need to get out of these jeans" feeling must have been. Whatever - the Rock Stars were on sale for $25 and they fit like a dream.

Next I bopped across the street from Old Navy to enjoy a solo dinner at the Lennox Pub on Granville St. in Vancouver. This was my third time at Lennox Pub, and I'm a little obsessed with their Stuffed Avocado Halves. I ordered one as an appetizer and followed it up with their chicken pesto quesadilla. I ended my night with two THRILLING episodes of Breaking Bad and about 30 minutes of The Rescuers Down Under (Disney finally makes an appearance in my weekend) before falling asleep.

Saturday morning started with a lovely hour-long phone chat with my friend Jenna, a trip to the gym, and a quick lunch at Corduroy before I took a rainy bus ride downtown to do - yup - more shopping. This time I had a real purpose though - heading to Sephora to pick up an Origins charcoal mask and a 100-point VIB perk of an Urban Decay Naked lip gloss (which is AMAZING, by the way).

The real triumph of my Saturday had to be the spaghetti squash pizza crust that I made that night. If you follow me on Instagram then you practically got to follow along with me from start to finish. The recipe was featured on A Beautiful Mess last week and it sounded like such a great idea - who knew you could make pizza crust out of spaghetti squash??? So after following the directions to the letter (and making three separate trips to the market to finally get all of my necessary ingredients and materials), I successfully recreated the recipe and was enjoying my first spaghetti squash pizza crust by 9pm. Whoohoo!



My Sunday is shaping up to be a fairly useless one, thanks to the freaking Daylight Savings time jump that NO ONE EVEN WARNED ME ABOUT. What the heck guys?? No one could have given me a heads up?? Do you have ANY IDEA how confused I was this morning?? Ugh. Anyway, hopefully a trip to the gym is in my future, to make sure that today isn't a complete and total waste.

Speaking of the gym, here are the workouts I did this past week... only three... womp womp.

3/3 (upper body)

5 mins elliptical

3x:

   - 12 overhead tricep extensions each arm, holding 5 lbs

   - 1:00 plank

   - 30 alternating medicine ball flys with a 6 lb medicine ball

   - 1:00 plank

   - 12 deltoid flys, 5 lbs each hand

   - 1:00 plank

   - 12 deltoid raises, 5 lbs each hand

   - 1:00 plank

15 squats, holding 25 lbs

3/5 (lower body and core)

15 mins rowing machine

2x:

   - 15 squats, 25 lbs

   - 30 Russian get ups holding 5 lbs

   - 40 calf raises, 15 lbs each hand

   - 20 alternating weighted side bends, 15 lbs each hand

   - 40 side lunges + plyometric pushoff (each side)

   - 30 lying overhead raise + double crunch, holding 5 lbs

40 bridges

12 lat pulldowns, 30 lbs

12 lat pulldowns, 40 lbs

12 lat pulldowns, 50 lbs

3/8 (upper body)

10 mins elliptical

3x:

   - 15 overhead tricep extensions each arm, holding 5 lbs

   - 1:00 plank

   - 30 alternating medicine ball flys with a 6 lb medicine ball

   - 1:00 plank

   - 15 deltoid flys, 5 lbs each hand

   - 1:00 plank

   - 15 deltoid raises, 5 lbs each hand

   - 1:00 plank

15 squats, holding 25 lbs

This blog has certainly gotten long enough, so I'll end it here. Also, the sun looks like it's sorrrrt of shining outside, so I need to go soak some of that up before it disappears again! Have a great rest of your weekend errrr'body!

FACEBOOK TWITTER PINTEREST INSTAGRAM