Pre-Panama Neon Pastel Nails

There's really just no time for chit-chat today, so we're jumping RIGHT INTO THIS THING. Friday. Nails. Possible polka dot sightings. You know the drill.

Oh, look, yup. We got some polka dots after all. Shocking!! The color combo here was inspired by this Ingrid Nilsen video on YouTube...

Her neon-pastel-minty shirt with neon yellow details, paired with the hot pink lipstick AND the pastel-minty-turquoise nails?! It was all so much for me to take in. I had to make it a mani!

.  notice that i still haven't cleaned off this mint bottle of polish after the august 2014 moving incident  .

I used 2 coats of Love & Beauty Mint on my pinky, middle and pointer fingers, and 2 coats of Revlon's Fuchsia Fever on my thumb and ring fingers. I used Sally Hansen's Mellow Yellow and a dotting tool for the polka dots.

Like it? I HEWPE SEW.

Alright, with that out of the way, I've gotta go... lots to do!! Besides needing to work all day today, I have a dental cleaning this morning, plus there's still packing to complete for my trip to Panamaaaaaaaaaaaaa!! AHHHH. By this time tomorrow, I'll be en route! #Buggin. I'm still preparing, mentally and physically.

Wish  me luck - and send me your sunniest vibes because the weather in Panama is nawwwt looking so hawwwt for the next week haha! I'll be damned if a little bit of "all-day thunderstorms" keeps me from getting into a bikini, though.

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Remembering Lilacs, Playing with Purples, Game of Thrones, and More!

I'm not an enormous fan of the color purple. Well, I mean, the book was fantastic, but the color itself never seems to be one of my go-to's. Something about springtime, however, makes me rethink all of that.

In the springtime, purple makes me recall the beautiful lilac bush that stood in the front yard of my grandparents' house for most of my life - and how you couldn't walk near it in the spring without your nostrils being completely filled with the fragrance of the blossoms. To this day, I have a special place in my heart for lilacs because of the childhood memories they evoke.

So when I spotted some lilacs over the Easter weekend, I knew I wanted to run with that theme and do a purple mani this week with lots of different purple hues - starting with Lacy Lilac by Sally Hansen as the lightest hue.

Using 2 coats of each, I applied:  Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac (pinky), Revlon Diamond Texture (ring), Love & Beauty Orchid (middle),  Sally Hansen Royal Romance (pointer) , Sinful Colors Amethyst (thumb).

The result might have had a more prominent gradient effect had I not thrown in a random silver accent nail, but these are the lessons we learn in retrospect, hm? We'll be alright.

Elsewhere in my life, I've been doing some very serious binge-watching of Game of Thrones. And by "very serious," I mean that I started watching Season 1 in mid-February, watched about one episode a night of all four available seasons, then immediately went back and started watching the show again from Season 1, often watching more than one episode a night - until just completing Season 4 for the second time last night. 

So. I guess you could say things are getting pretty serious. Season 5 premieres on Sunday night, so you know you can catch me up in front of someone's TV like:

This week, I've been waiting out a very-rare-for-me cold, featuring your boys Sneeze, Mucus and Cough. It's kept me from going to the gym, since I know how much of a disgusting trap it can feel like when you're working out while someone near you is wet-coughing. (Fecking gross, guys. Keep your ass home with all of that.) Aside from not being able to workout, the cold isn't actually bothering me too terribly much, if I'm being honest. I've been drinking a ton of lemon honey tea and wearing lots of cozy sweatshirts, which has been just lovely. Plus all of the coughing I'm doing is probably doubling as a marathon core workout.

Tonight I'm meeting up with my cousin Catherine to eat pizza while we plan out our upcoming trip to Panama. I cannot cannot cannottttttttt believe it, but we are leaving NEXT Saturday. I have so many feels about it all. I'm super nervous, because I've never been to a place so different from the US. (The only other country I've ever been to is Canada.) But on the other hand... I'm super excited because I've never been to a place so different from the US! It will be an adventure no matter what - and that's something we can all use in our lives.With any luck, it will also be a warm, sunny adventure wherein I also acquire some tasteful, but not painful, color on my fair skin. SPF 40? SPF 30? I DUNNO, IVE NEVER BEEN SO CLOSE TO THE EQUATOR BEFORE! HALP.

Have any awesome Central America travel tips to share?
Who else is a Game of Thrones fan? Who's your favorite character?
Whatcha rockin' on dose nails doe?

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Easy Aqua Spots Dotticure

God knows how my mind travels to the places that it does, but after typing the title of this blog post, my brain jumped to the Snorks.

... so that's just a small glimpse into the random-childhood-pop-culture-references-attuned mass that is my brain. I hope that was exciting for you. Moving on!

My nails today were inspired by an Instagrammer who I just started following yesterday - Cute.Passion. The dotted nails she did here made me want to do something similar in my own color scheme. HENCE, DEEZ:

The light blue is Dreamer by Revlon, and the turquoise is Bailamos by Orly. I used two coats of each, and added the dual-sized dots using my double-ended dotting tool.

Last night I went to my first real yoga class! The only other time I've taken a yoga class was about 5 years ago when I lived on Cape Cod, but it was a "restore & renew" yoga class that focused primarily on breathing and stretching. I didn't even break a sweat, which is why I don't really consider it as a having been a true "first yoga class" experience.

The class I went to last night was a special Vinyasa Yoga class being held at the House of Blues in Boston, and it was the kind of physical yoga that I'd really been interested in trying. I had no idea what I was doing, but luckily you can kind of pick up the moves just by watching everyone else. My friend Kara came too, and we both really enjoyed it. There were about 15-20 people in the dimly-lit room, and the teacher was awesome. That kind of yoga could really be right up my alley!

At some point this weekend I'm going to drive west to Pittsfield to visit with my family for the Easter holiday. We're not religious, but if I can catch my niece and nephew participating in some sort of an Easter egg hunt, then my mission will be complete. Experiences like that are things that I've been missing, having been living away and out of the state for the last several years.

Are you doing anything with your family for Easter or Passover this weekend?
Anyone else trying out yoga for the first time?
What are yooooou rockin' on your nailseses?!

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St. Patrick's Day Nails: Matte Green & Layers of Gold

As a nod to my Irish heritage, I've got some green St. Patrick's Day nails today. But let's be honest - even if I weren't Irish, I'd be celebrating, right? That's how we do things in America. And on May 5th, we'll all be Mexican. #Freedom.

Here's how my nails are getting in on the holiday action:

The green is Balsam Fir by Revlon and the gold is a combo of Big Spender by Nina Ultra Pro and Crystal Gold from Forever21's Love & Beauty line.

I used two coats of Big Spender on my ring and thumb nails and topped that with 2 coats of Crystal Gold, which is a fairly sparse yellow-gold glitter in a clear base. It would have been way cooler if it was more jam-packed with glitter, but you can't win them all! Do you have a favorite gold glitter that's pretty opaque? Give me the deets!

I used 2 coats of Balsam Fir on all my other nails and finished those nails off with a matte top coat. I topped the gold nails with Seche Vite, to make them really shine and contrast with the green.

I'll be doing a bit of St. Patty's celebrating tomorrow with my friends at some Irish pubs around town. I can't stand the taste of beer, so no Guinness for me, but there may very well be some Bailey's Irish Cream in my future.

There's also a slight chance that I'll check out the (in)famous Southie St. Patrick's Day parade on Sunday... though that may be biting off more than I can chew, since Southie is known for becoming pretty chaotic on parade day. We'll see!

What are you going to be up to this weekend?
Are you wearing any green on your nails to celebrate?

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Boston Snow, Pretty Valentine's Nails... and Annie Lennox

Happy Friday the 13th y'alllllllllll!

Don't mind my lack of posts this week. I'm somehow going to blame it on the snow. We've got lots of that up here in Boston these days. Apparently it's a record amount of snowfall in a 30-day period, and the city is kind of losing its shit. They don't know where to put all this snow, so streets have become narrower, snowbanks have gotten higher, and malcontent has juuuuust about reached its saturation point. Personally, I take my life into my hands each time I creep my car - inch by inch - out of my building's parking lot, because the snowbanks are so high that there's absolutely no way to know if there's a car coming or not. It's a real gamble every time - one that may soon cause me to experience either a car accident or a heart attack. I'm hoping for neither... wish me luck.

Obligatory weather-talk aside, guess what else I've been doing like a champ this week that's kept me from blogging...

Working out! HEYO! #BetterFasterStronger.

It's been so long since I've been able to have a normal-ish gym routine, thanks to the many aches, pains, ailments, troubles, et ceteras that I've been bitching about since the summer. With physical therapy now in my rear view and the numbness gone from my arm, I'm back to taking advantage of my Gold's Gym membership. It feels amazing, and I can't wait to see myself tone up again! It's been hard to eat whatever the hell I want and maintain my girlish figure at the same time these last few months. ;)

Anycrap. [Insert normal segue.] I know last week's nail polish blog was rife with grumpiness about Valentine's Day, but something inside me insisted upon an official VDay mani after all. Whatever. Shut up. Here it is:

No hearts though. Eff that.

The red is A List from Essie, silver is Diamond Texture from Revlon, and the middle finger is Snow Me White by Sinful Colors topped with Clearly Spotted from Maybelline.

The red nails all required 3 coats, and they're still not totally opaque. The formula of A List is really beautiful... but it's thin. Much like Giuliana Rancic.

Speaking of her and that (hey look, a relevant segue!), I didn't watch the Grammys last week because I don't have cable, but I have watched some of the highlights online. Two damn words y'all:  Annie. Lennox. Two more words: SHE TOOK ME TO CHURCH 'N PUT A SPELL ON ME, FOR REALSIES. If you don't know what I'm talking about, please behold:

Mmmmmmhmm. Spectacular.

This weekend I'm going home to Pittsfield to visit my family - seemed like a nice way to spend Valentine's Day, plus it's my little sister's 23rd birthday. Yeah, my baby sister is turning 23. Time, AMIRIGHT? Shit marches on.

Wish me luck in my travels this weekend because there is another round of snow/blizzard coming our way. I have a feeling the 2.5-hour drive from Pittsfield back to Boston may be closer to a 5-hour drive through the snow on Sunday! Eesh.

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Super Bowl Nails: New England Patriots!

WELL WELL WELL, if it isn't Super Bowl weekend! It's been a dreary, stay-at-home, snow-filled week here in the Boston area - and it started snowing again this morning - so the game on Sunday is a perfect thing to be able to look forward to. Naturally, as a Massachusetts girl, I felt compelled to do some Patriots-inspired nail art this week - and I actually busted out my practice rounds and toothpicks for the occasion.

Colors used:

• Ruby Ruby by Sinful Colors
• Blue It by Sally Hansen
• Diamond Texture by Revlon
• Posh by Revlon
• Snow Me White by Sinful Colors
• Also used a couple of white star nail decals from Inspired Nails

My thumbnail has two coats of Ruby Ruby, pointer and pinky have two coats of Blue It, middle finger has two coats of Diamond Texture, and ring finger has two coats of Posh. I put a few drops of Snow Me White onto a piece of scrap paper and used a stippling motion with a toothpick to dab on the 50-yard line. Usually stippling is your best friend when using a toothpick, but it obviously left my numbers a little bumpy. But, as they say in eastern Massachusetts, "WHATEVAH."

I carefully placed the white star decals on the center of my pointer nails and then topped everything with a coat of Seche Vite. (Is it uncouth to name-drop a top coat? Just let me know.) The star decals are holding up surprisingly well so far - no peeling or budging, despite several hand washes and showers.

In other big weekend news, there's a new roommate moving into my apartment tomorrow! It's a guy named Nick who is moving here from NYC and who seems entirely normal. Fingers crossed for me that everything goes smoothly. Please. Please!!!!!!!!

I hope you have a fun weekend planned. Will you be watching ZEE SEWPER BEWL? Did you do any football nails this week?

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A Few Good Things

DAT PRICE OF GAS DOE. Guys - I paid $1.95/gallon the other day. It's costing me less than $25 to fill my gas tank these days. Unheard of! And by that I mean.... not heard of since I was in college!

.  excuse me while i go swim in a pool of all my extra money  .

For my part in backing the Teachers Lounge webseries Kickstarter project, I recently received a cute t-shirt in the mail. Go watch the series on the Thundershorts YouTube channel now, if you haven't seen it already, or if you - like me - just want to watch it again. It's jam-packed with cameos from some fabulous comedians, and I believe they are trying to produce even more episodes now.

And on a note related to the above photo, I've been loooooving the Revlon Kissable Balm Stains lately. They were an old favorite but I started playing around with them again this past month. My current favorite colors are Honey (a natural, rosy pink) and Smitten (a beautifully bright, blue-toned berry). In the above photo I'm wearing a combo of Smitten and a Revlon ColorBurst Lacquer Balm in the color Flirtatious Charmeuse.

.  smitten and honey  .

What are some good things going on in your life these days?
Have you tried the Kissable Balm Stains?

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Navy-Teal and Emerald Nails

It's been a little bit quiet around here these last few weeks, nails-wise. I bet you forgot I even had fingernails, didn't you? DIDN'T YOU!?!

Well good news - my fingernails are still in tact, though I did have to file them down quite a bit this week to get rid of some breakage. If my itty-bitty fingernails offend you or make you think me unworthy of keeping a nail blog, please shoo. Go on, shoo. Git! #Scram.

For the rest of you, perhaps you'd care to know that this nail polish combo was loosely inspired by an outfit I was wearing just yesterday. I was donning a navy blue Boston t-shirt with a teal-emerald cardigan and rather enjoyed the pairing, so into my nail polish box I went, emerging with these two polishes:

A dark, teal-leaning navy from Love & Beauty (Forever 21) and my trusty Balsam Fir Parfumerie polish from Revlon. I really like the way the subtle green-hue of the navy polish plays off of the Balsam polish.

Other places you've seen me use Balsam Fir:

Festive Nails
Matte and Scented
Minty Emerald Ombre Nails
Army Nails

Oh, and as for the wrist-brace shaped elephant in these pictures... just the latest in the long, storied history of random pains that my body has been experiencing since the summer.

I started feeling pain in my left wrist on Wednesday, which grew more painful by the hour. By the end of my workday, I was actually yelping in pain and typing with one hand, so I had to make a trip through the wind and snow to buy this wrist brace from CVS. Every time I think it's safe to take it off, I am immediately shouting in pain again. My physical therapist (who is seeing me for my neck/arm/shoulder pains) thoroughly inspected my wrist yesterday and said that it was a flare up of tendonitis. GREAT. So! The brace is my newest accessory, and soon all of the hottest nail bloggers will be sporting them. You heard it hear first!

What are you up to this weekend?
Any bodily aches got YOU down?
Whatcha rockin' on your nails?
TALK TO ME.

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Festive Nails (that I Should Have Posted Last Week)

Heyoooo! This week has been chock-full of me doing Christmas prep in the form of buying and wrapping presents, so I didn't have a ton of time to work on nails. The gift-wrapping that I did has me feeling PRETTY self-satisfied, so it will be super exciting me for me to eventually share that here on my blog with lots of pictures... but in the meantime, here is a re-do of the Christmassy nails I did last week but was unable to photograph at the time.

I used my Revlon Parfumerie polish in the color Balsam Fir and a Maybelline Color Show polish in the color Gilded Rose. All of my fingers besides my ring finger got 2 coats of Balsam Fir, while my ring finger got 3 coats of Gilded Rose. I also topped my middle finger with one coat of Gilded Rose for some extra bling.

Aside from gift-wrapping, this has been a busy week! On Monday evening I had physical therapy followed by a dinner date at Sei Bar with my friend Stephanie and her friend Cris. On Wednesday I spent the evening volunteering at a local food pantry, and last night I had physical therapy followed by a holiday event at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Tonight my friend Kara and I are taking a *romantic* stroll through Boston's Beacon Hill neighborhood to look at Christmas decorations. Beacon Hill is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Boston, and the old buildings and cobblestone streets make for a really magical Christmas stroll, so it's been on my list of December must-do's. Thank god Kara agreed to do it with me haha - otherwise it might have been the prettiest, loneliest walk of my year! I'll take pictures of the decorations, and if they come out well I'll post them in a blog.

I hope your week has been going well!
What are your plans for the weekend?
What are you rocking on your nails today?

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Sparkly Grey Nails, A Health Update, and Weekend Plans

I did these nails yesterday so you know that they are 45% peeled off already right now. That's why I need to take pictures of my nails immediately after finishing them - otherwise they will simply not last.

This is two coats of China Glaze's Recycle on my pinky, middle and pointer fingers. My ring and thumb nails each have one coat of Recycle topped with one coat of Revlon's Diamond Texture, which is a really opaque, fine silver glitter with larger silver rounds mixed in. I was seriously shocked at how well this Revlon polish covers with just one coat. It does also have a slightly grainier texture to it when it dries.

In other news entirely, the appointment I had with the orthopedic doctor on Wednesday provided both questions and answers about my long-lasting neck/shoulder/arm pain. X-rays on my neck and spine showed what looks like a freaking bone spur on my lower neck, which has been wreaking havoc on the nerves in my whole left shoulder and arm. The doctor also said that my neck and spine were both very straight - like they had no curvature. I looked almost arthritic, which he said I was too young to be displaying. He even asked if I'd been in a car accident! What the actual heck! To answer that question - I was rear-ended in my car literally 10 years ago, but it wasn't something I considered to be a major accident at all. The person who hit me wasn't going that fast - we were entering a rotary in the center of Pittsfield. Could that accident really have set this bone spur in motion?? How would I even know for sure?

Regardless of what caused it, the good news is that it won't require anything invasive (surgery) to fix it. The doctor prescribed 6 weeks of physical therapy, which I will start next week. Hoozah! Maybe my arm will stop going numb soon!

On a way cooler note, I am really excited for my evening tonight and my afternoon tomorrow. Tonight, I'm driving down to Canton to my friend Stephanie's condo and we are going to hang out and have a sleepover! The last time we had a sleepover at her place, we watched a lightning storm, colored in Care Bears coloring books, and watched movies. Tonight we might go ice skating or see a movie, or maybe even color and watch movies again! I'm heading to Target this afternoon to see if they have any copies of Home Alone and Home Alone 2, and if so I'll bring those to Canton tonight as well.

Tomorrow morning Steph is actually hosting Craft Club #3 at her place, so we'll be joined around 11AM by some of our other girlfriends for an afternoon of making homemade holiday cards. I'll bring my camera along - OBVI - and make sure to report back on how it goes. Spoiler alert: It's going to go AWESOMELY.

What are you up to this weekend?
Anything sparkly or fancy festive on your nails today?
Do you send out holiday cards?

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On Fridays We Wear Army Nails and Flip Flops

Happy Halloweeeeeeeeeeeen! Thumbs up to the universe for allowing October 31 to fall on a Friday this year - that works out nicely, hmm? 

You probably don't remember this, but for the last 2 years I've been wallowing in self pity on Halloween rather than doing something awesome and costume-related with my buds. My friend Jrod throws an annual Halloween party in Boston, but having been in Vancouver for the last couple of years, I've been missing out. #FOMOnightmare.

SO you can imagine my delight that I'm able to attend this year :)

My costume is going to be a mish-mash of Mean Girls references - army pants and flip flops, and a tank top with the boobs cut out. Sidebar - cutting the boobs out of a shirt is a more daunting task than you might think. Go ahead and try it if you don't believe me. Symmetry is a cruel mistress.

Anyway, to go with my army pants, and to incorporate the Plastics' love of pink, here are the nails I'll be rocking tonight:

I kiiiiiind of love 'em! This was my first time trying an army print, so I looked up a few Pinterest pictures and YouTube tutorials before launching into the project. This is the tutorial I relied upon most heavily in the end.

Starting off, I painted my pointer, middle and pinky nails two coats of Sinful Colors Pink Forever.

Next, I applied one coat of Essie's Case Study (also used recently in this leopard print mani) to my thumb and ring finger and allowed it to dry. Then, one by one, I applied the following polishes by stippling them into random overlapping squiggles with my dotting tool, allowing each to dry a bit between colors:

• Essie Sew Psyched (muted green)
• Revlon Parfumerie Balsam Fir (dark green)
• Forever21 Love & Beauty Hunter Green (bright green)
• Revlon Stiletto (black)

I love when relatively easy nail art looks really detailed or difficult - like this army print, or leopard print, or even polka dots. People - these army nails are literally just a bunch of different randomly sized squiggles of different colors. You could use a toothpick to stipple them on, if you don't have a dotting tool. Or you could even go directly from the nail polish bottles and just use the regular brushes. You can do eeeet.

Completely random sidebar, this video made my day yesterday when I saw it. I watched it several times and laughed out loud each time:

Anyone else love Flula and Mamrie and Grace Helbig and Miranda Sings and that whole gang of YouTube misfits? Who honestly needs cable these days? WHO?

Alright now I obviously want to know if you're dressing up for a costume party this weekend and what your costume is! Will you be handing out candy to trick-or-treaters? Tell me everything.

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I Like My Nails Matte and Scented.

Hey thanks to everyone who listened to me whining yesterday. I appreciated all of the advice and messages that you guys sent, and I promise I'm taking it to heart as best I can. I need to stop listening to sad music and start holding my chin up... but sometimes it's really, really easy for the sad music to win. (Thanks Sara Bareilles. Thanks a lot.) Sometimes it's really hard to not cry on the subway. Sometimes waking up alone feels like the worst way to start the day. Sometimes rainy days feel like a metaphor for my entire life.

But sometimes nail polish on a Friday is a reminder about the little things that can make me smile. So. There's your segue into nail polish today.

These nails were supposed to be autumnal but they came out more Christmas-y in the photos...

So I guess now would be a good time to mention that there are only 61 shopping days till Christmas.

I used a Revlon Parfumerie polish, in the color Balsam Fir. It's a beautifully dark hunter green - quite a bit darker than it's actually appearing in these photos. And since it's a "Parfumerie" polish, it does have a "balsam fir" scent to it, which lasts a couple of days and withstands several hand washings.

My accent nail is Raisin Rage from Revlon, which I also used recently for my Fierce Autumn Wedding nails.

I topped my nails with a matte top coat from Revlon, but it didn't have the dramatic mattifying result that I remember it having the last time I used it. Can you even tell there's a matte coat on these??

What are you rocking on your nails today?
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Seeing Spots: Fuchsia and Polka Dot Nails

Don't spit at me, but today's nails are not even slightly autumnal. They're also a bit more "16-year-old girl" than "adult about to turn 30 in a few weeks," but it's my hot body and I'll do what I want!

Clearly I just can't get enough of this Maybelline Color Show Polka Dots polish. I keep reaching for it! 

This is two coats of Fuchsia Fever by Revlon on my pinky, pointer and thumb nails. Two coats of Snow Me White by Sinful Colors on my ring finger and middle fingers. My ring finger is topped with two coats of Clearly Spotted by Maybelline. On my middle finger, I used my dotting tool to add polka dots in Revlon's Stiletto. (On my left hand, I did fuchsia polka dots on my middle finger, but wasn't as pleased with how it looked.)

You can see my other manis using Clearly Spotted here and here. I'm quite fond of both of them.

Tonight my brother Rob is picking me up and we are heading back to western Massachusetts to visit with my family for the weekend. My sister Mallory is turning 31 on Monday, so we thought it would be nice to go see her and give her a present or a high-five - or maybe even both. Probably both. I'll also get to see my nephew and niece, who are both just as clever and hysterical as can be. Maybe I'll even get to hit up an apple orchard while I'm there! I certainly know a great one in the area...

What are you up to this weekend?
Any family time planned?
Show me what you're rocking on your nails via Twitter or Instagram!

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Fierce Autumn Wedding Nails

Wulllll, I know it's not technically autumn yet, but the weather has definitely shifted in Boston this past week. It's become a bit chilly and cloudy, which - honestly - is fiiiiine by me. The humidity around here was making me want to cut a betch, so I'm certainly a better person to be around in the more fall-like temperatures.

Tomorrow evening I'm heading up to Marblehead, MA (a coastal town north of Boston) for the wedding of my friend Izzy and her fiancé Darren. The two of them live in NYC, and I've actually never met Darren before, so hopefully I'm able to snag at least a moment or two of his time to meet him officially! It's been quite awhile since I've seen Izzy too, so I'ma squeeze her fo sho.

Since it's practically fall, the color scheme for my wedding outfit was leaning on the darker side. Burgundy, to be exact. It's a really simple dress, but it's moderately flattering (errr... it was the last time I tried it on anyway - fingers crossed on that one) and is easily dressed up with some accessories. Some of those accessories include two thin leopard print belts to go around my natural waist, which is where these fierce autumn wedding nails come in!

Not to toot my own horn, but... I think these came out pretty damn good. Here's what I used:

Goldie But Goodie by China Glaze, Case Study by Essie, and Raisin Rage and Stiletto - both by Revlon. Case Study hasn't been taken out for a spin in a DOG'S age. What was my problem?? This milky beige polish is awesome!

To start, I painted all of my nails 2 coats of Raisin Rage, except my ring finger, which got 2 coats of Case Study. Next I used Goldie But Goodie to place a few large spots around my accent nail. Using a toothpick dipped into Stiletto, I stippled some C's around the large spots of gold and also added a few smaller random spots around the nail.

You can find more of my leopard print nails here, though be forewarned that they are all pretty old posts:

• Silver Leopard Nails
• Neon Glitter Nails
• Patriotic Leopard Print Nails
• Pink Leopard Accent Nail
• Pink Leopard Print Nails

Speaking of weddings, don't forget that I've still got a re-cap coming up of the wedding that went down over Labor Day weekend. NEVER FORGET. Hopefully also some pictures and tales from Izzy's wedding as well!

What do you have planned this weekend? Anyone else attending a wedding? What will you rock on your nails?

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Life this Week: Unpacking, Friendshipping, Building, Nail Painting

I'm finally starting to feel a litttttle bit more settled into my new home this week, thank GAWD. After what seemed like a string of bad luck, the clouds are parting a little and there hasn't been a terrible event in at least a few days. Phew.

So far one of the best things about being back in the Boston area is being able to hang out with friends. It's so nice to be able to see people casually again on a weekday evening without me needing to hurriedly squeeze in a visit before leaving town again. Although, I have to say, it's not that cool that public transportation makes a 3-mile trip take no less than 1 hour to complete. (Boston transit... you and I are gonna have to work this thing out.)

On Tuesday night I ventured from Medford to Cambridge to spend some QT with my little angel-faced doll of a friend Kara. (She has been a rock star in helping me feel more at home.) We watched a ton of the trashy E! television shows that have been missing from my life for way too long, as well as the wonderfully retro movie Now & Then (all while eating a chicken quesadilla that Kara made for me herself, #nom). The viewing of the latter was mostly because we couldn't find Aladdin available On Demand or Netflix. Next time.

Earlier this week I also got a gym membership at a Gold's Gym that's within walking distance of my home. If I know me - which I do - a gym within walking distance is my best bet for frequent workouts. And here's a funny thing that happened during that sign-up process:

So. That has spawned some discussion on my Facebook page haha. The people of Pittsfield clearly don't agree with the trainer's opinion of our dental reputation.

In other news, I keep realizing as I'm preparing food that I don't have the necessary kitchen utensils to complete my meal, and neither does my roommate. This has caused a bit of frustration and has spawned a running list of several basic things that my apartment still needs. Spatulas, can openers and pasta strainers - I'm lewkin' at yew guys.

Meanwhile, as seen on Instagram, I finally finished putting together one of the two dressers I ordered from Target for my new apartment. There has never been a more involved building process for such a cheap-ish piece of furniture. Literally took me 5 sessions spread out across as many days to complete, but once it was finished I was finally able to start putting away some of the clothes that have been COVERING every corner of my bedroom since August 17th.

The white rug of my bedroom is becoming more and more visible by the day. Which reminds me, I need to buy some Resolve... because there is NO way that I'll be able to avoid getting that damn thing dirty. #ImClumsy #SpillsFindMe

As mentioned here yesterday, my friends Abby and Geoff are gettin' hitched this weekend, and YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS. Party time, excellent, wheee-oooo, wheeee-oooo, wheeee-ooo!! #FriendshipFest2k14. There are friends coming from near and far to celebrate the momentous occasion. Geobby (obviously their celeb couple name) have been dating since they were BABIES practically, and the rest of us have been -UM- waiting for this day for a long damn time. That's one of the reasons I feel SO SPESH for being able to be a part of their wedding as a bridesmaid.

Annnd speaking of that, here is the nail look that I'll probably be sporting on Sunday for the wedding, using Jade Jump by Sally Hanson Insta-Dri and Dreamer by Revlon:

Since they're both pastels, you know that their first coats looked like a hot mess: 

But they mostly evened out after the second coat. The blue nails are still a tiny bit patchy now that I'm looking at these photos, so I'll make sure to add a thin third coat when I recreate this on Sunday.

On a related note, there was a recent important lesson learned in how not to move a box full of nail polish bottles across the country:

Miraculously, it was only one single bottle of polish that broke inside of this box - but it covered dozens of other bottles in polish! The bottle that broke (the remnants of which is pictured below completely stuck to that other bottle of Insta-Dri) was actually one of the oldest (if not the oldest) nail polishes I owned. It was a Bath & Body Works purchase from middle school or high school - a pea-soup color that I probably haven't used in the last decade. 

Next time I will use a hell of a lot more (read: any) bubble wrap in my packing of those little guys. I still can't believe my luck that only one bottle broke out of my entire 100+ bottle collection. Disaster avoided, somehow. I'll circle back to the first paragraph of this blog and just say it again: "PHEW."

...And I'll end this blog now before my luck runs out ;) Have a great weekend!

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