Nails and a WHOLE LOTTA Random

Yeah, yeah - it's been another *cough* several days since I last blogged. Are you picking up on a new trend? Well, don't fret. (Surely, you were fretting.) I'm not abandoning ship altogether, just only blogging when I get the urge. The urge has become more sporadic in the last couple of months, admittedly, but this little internet space of mine means a bit too much for me to just cut it off completely.

Sidebar, who else actually learned the word "sporadic" from Alicia Silverstone back in 1995? G'wan. Admit it.

Today's blog is going to be a bit of a "life lately" word vomit, disguised as a nail polish post. Ready?

These nails were super spontaneous and weren't inspired by a single thing other than the color blue:

The bright blue, if you didn't already know by looking at it, is Pacific Blue by Sally Hansen - one of the most badass nail polish colors in the land. It's electric (boogie woogie woogie). My ring finger has 2 coats of Essie's Lapiz of Luxury topped with one coat of Green Tea by LA Colors. Green Tea is a really pretty mint-sparkle polish, but it's suuuuper sheer, so it's basically useless on its own.

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed that I spent last week in Charleston, SC visiting my friend Simmons. Since my job allows me to work remotely, we were able to hang out for the week without either one of us taking any time off from work. We got in some great beach time at Folly Beach, and I got to meet his friends and check out downtown Charleston (which is adorable and packed with people at this time of year).

Random Folly story: A dude at one of the bars there told me I was his dream woman (specifically my freckles and nose ring), and then later actually said, "I'm a sailor and I sail out tomorrow. Can I have a kiss?" I was all, WTF? No. And does that actually work on people? He probably wasn't even a sailor. He probably just knew a guy who owned a pontoon boat. Is this seriously what the singles scene is like these days, people? FML.

On Memorial Day, I spent my day off kayaking on the Charles River, stopping by the display of 37,000 American flags in Boston Common, eating froyo from Orange Leaf, binge shopping at TJ Maxx (got two new summer dresses!), and capping things off with some Chipotle for dinner. Successful day? I dunno. Sure.

In other news completely, those five workout videos I filmed for the website I manage have now all been made live, and I've now gotten up the nerve to share them here in this blog. Watch them if you want to. Even better, give them a thumbs up or share them or leave a comment. A nice comment, not a troll comment. You can keep those.

• Intense TRX Interval for Your Core
• Perfect Upper Body Sculpt 
• Tone Your Abs & Back with One Sizzling Exercise 
• Fat Blasting Leg Workout 
• Strengthen Your Abs FAST

The pool at my apartment building opened up, so I've been spending some time out there, tryna catch a tannnn. But a sensible tan, because I've been applying sunscreen (SPF 30 or higher) like a good girl and do not intend to get a sunburn this year. Skin cancer is common as shit and in most cases preventable, so allow me to remind you: Sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen. SPF = BFF.

On Tuesday night I went to a Fashionably Featured party on the roof deck of the Revere Hotel in downtown Boston. It was honestly just a reason to get dressed up and wear one of the pairs of heels that are sitting in my closet, not getting enough play.

Speaking of playing in heels, I have two more reasons to get dressed up this weekend:  My good friend April has a bridal shower tomorrow on Cape Cod, and my friend Linden is getting married in Pittsfield on Sunday. I'm going to dash across the state from one to the other, so lots of driving for me in the next couple of days! Good thing I just brought my car in for an oil change the other day... and came out $300+ later with a new muffler, too. Funny how that happens, innit?

Alright that should suffice for life updates for now. I have written a large amount of my Panama blog, but haven't finished it yet. Maybe that'll be my next trick!

Hope you guys have a great weekend - PEAAAAAAAACE.

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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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Bright Spring Pastels and Scattered Dot Nails

Today's nails are a direct result of me doing what I want.

I wanted an accent nail with lots of polka dots in a specific bright-pastel color scheme, and these polishes were the perfect colors for it!

The pale mint pastel is Mint Sorbet by Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear, the pink is Tip Toe Pink by Milani, the darker green is Mint Apple by Sinful Colors and the white is Snow Me White by Sinful Colors.

I used 3 coats of Mint Apple on my pinky, pointer and thumb nails, 2 coats of Snow Me White on my ring finger, and 3 coats of Tip toe Pink on my middle finger. Then, using both ends of my double-ended dotting tool and all 3 colored polishes, I placed random, scattered dots atop my ring finger.

 

If you couldn't tell, I've become pretty into the two-accent-nail look. Decisions be damned - use alllll the polishessss!

In case you wondered, my gum seems to be healing suspiciously well from Monday's wisdom tooth extraction. I've barely needed to take any pain meds at all, and was able to start working out again today. There's still a slight chipmunkesque quality to my right cheek, but it's not the most noticeable thing in the world. However, the antibiotics I'm taking are going to put a damper on my weekend fun, as those are appppparently not to be mixed with alcohol.

On that note, what are you up to this weekend? I've got nothing on the agenda yet, but am always on the lookout for an activity or two!

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Leopard Print and Navy Nails

This was not my original plan for today's nails, but while innocently scrolling through my Instagram feed yesterday, I spotted this outfit post from ASOS, which immediately inspired me to abandon all other plans and do a leopard/navy mani instead. See how spontaneous I am? So spontaneous.

According to some (myself included), both leopard and navy are suitable to be considered neutrals. So g'wan then. Pair them with WHATEVERTHEHELL you want, ladies. It's your world.

The blue I used was a generically titled "Navy" polish from Forever 21's Love & Beauty line. It's actually a really nice polish, despite what the $2.80 price tag might have you expecting. It's shiny, self-leveling, and is opaque in 2 coats. It's also shimmer-free, which gives it some class, I think.

For the leopard accent nails:  the base is 2 coats of Essie's Case Study, the spots are a gorgeous silver-infused cocoa polish from Love & Beauty (aptly called Cocoa), and the darker brown accents are a suuuuuuper old Sally Hansen "New Lengths" polish called Mink Stole Creme.

After cleaning up the edges with acetone, I topped everything with a coat of Seche Vite and gave my hands a nice dose of Aveeno Skin Relief hand cream. My poor hands have been so dry lately that they've been cracking and even bleeding a little. A sign that a) winter is a bitch, and b) I'm possibly dehydrated? Oops.

Tonight I'm going to see one of my favorite comedians perform in Somerville! Ted Alexandro has been a fav amongst my siblings and I for over a decade now, and this will be the third time I've seen him live. Mayhaps you even remember the write-up I did about the time I saw him in Vancouver in 2013 - if not, here it is! I'm not sure yet if anyone else is coming with  me to the show, but whateva - big girls can get their laugh on by themselves if they need to.

In other weekend news, on Sunday afternoon I'm going to be doing something kind of scary: I'll be filming some short workout videos with a local fitness professional for my company's YouTube channel. The girl who was slated to demo the exercises in the shoot had to back out for scheduling reasons, so I volunteered to step in. It's a pretty well-known channel with kind of a lot of subscribers, so I'm nervous fo' sho, but I'm trying to be better about embracing the "if it doesn't scare you, it's not worth doing" mentality to step out of my comfort zone. Wish me luckkkk! And depending on how the videos turn out... maybe I will share them here on my blog ;)

On a related note, I've been going to the gym a lot lately and am thinking about starting back up my "Workouts of the Week" series this Sunday. Would that be of any interest to anyone? Let me know... but I might just do it anyway because it is my party, after all.

What are YOOOOU up to this weekend?
Doing anything outside of your comfort zone?
Whatcha got on dose nails doe?

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50 Shades of Blue Nails

Nope, sorry that was a total lie. It's only 2 shades of blue. Just enough to do some diagonal color-blocking on my accent nails.

I used 3 coats of Essie's Lapiz of Luxury on all of my nails. Once those were dry, I placed a small strip of an Essence Nail Art sticker (shown here) across my ring and thumb nails on a diagonal, then painted above the sticker with Sally Hansen's Pacific Blue.

Before that dried, I quickly used a pair of tweezers to peel away the sticker and then topped everything with a coat of Seche Vite to smooth out all the lines.

I was actually originally planning to do this two-tone mani with a kelly green and a turquoise, but my bottle of Turquoise & Caicos was SUPER gloopy when I removed the cap! Guess I'll need to replace that. Both Lapiz of Luxury and Turquoise & Caicos came from the same Resort Collection from Essie, and I featured them together in one of my more Pinterest-popular manis here.

Also - I'd love to draw your attention to the adorable rings in the picture above. I spotted the coffee cup ring on Pinterest and literally clicked right through to the Etsy page and bought it. For only $9 plus shipping, it was absolutely worth it. And to my delight, the seller, Lorelei, included a little hand-written note in the parcel, as well as a surprise extra midi ring!

I didn't yet own any midi rings so this was pretty exciting for me. Bonus point to you, Lorelei! #FistBump. And just FYI, she had no way of knowing that I have a blog or that I was going to shout out her shop, so this isn't at all sponsored. But if you are as charmed by these delicate and affordable rings as I am, you should prolllllllllllly head over to her Etsy shop - My Rings and Things - and support some hand-made craftsmanship. Tell her I sent you, for good measure ;)

In other news entirely, this has been a week of dental issues and acupuncture... separately, not at once. (Though maybe the acupuncture could relieve the gum pain I'm having.) I've got a wisdom tooth coming in that's not treating its host very kindly right now. It's growing in at an atrocious angle and digging into my cheek, so I had to get a consultation today with an oral surgeon to see what I should do about it. Perhaps you remember the tale of getting my first wisdom tooth removed (if not, you should go check it out - it's even illustrated). Well I should probably have gotten all four of them extracted back when I was living in Canada with affordable dental insurance... but the first one just hurt SO MUCH that I couldn't really bare the thought of getting the others removed. Especially because none of them were even erupted yet - they were all still chilling deep under my gums.

Anyway, now it'll probably cost me quite a bit to get them removed, so.... to everyone who told me to just bite the bullet and get that shit taken care of when I was in Canada... you were right, you sonsofbitches. I was wrong. HAPPY NOW?

As for the acupuncture - that was just a random thing for me to try out, because I figured with all of the emotional and physical turmoil I've been through over the last 6 months or so... it couldn't hurt to try. My friend Kara has been going to an acupuncture place in Cambridge, so I headed there on Wednesday to check it out. The place I went to - Acupuncture Together - has you sit in a comfortable chair in a room of others who are doing the same, and you just kick off your socks/shoes, roll up your pant legs... and relax while they stick you with needles. The needles - shockingly - don't hurt as they go in. I know, you probably don't believe it. They do feel a little itchy/burny if you move the wrong way while they're in you, but it's nothing as bad as what I'd been anticipating. And no, I didn't feel any differently after my first session, but Kara and I are going back there together tomorrow morning for another round!

Alright I've clearly rambled enough for now... I hope you have a great weekend!

Anyone else dealing with unruly wisdom teeth or have any tips about relieving teething pain?
Have you ever tried acupuncture?
What are you rocking on your nails today?

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Call Them Valentine's Nails If You Want To... (and Highlights from the Week)

Yesterday I spent time scrolling through Instagram looking at the #valentinesnails hashtag, cultivating some ideas for a heart-filled mani today. I even went so far as to decide on a theme and pull out a bunch of cute pastel polishes with which I was going to paint lots of small, dainty hearts onto my nails.

But then I realized I don't want to do any effing Valentine's Day nails this year. DO I SEEM IN THE MOOD FOR VALENTINE'S NAILS???

Sorry for yelling at you.

After abandoning most of my pastels and telling my heart-making dotting tool to go eff itself, I settled on another look entirely... a look which still ended up being semi-Valentinesy, much to my chagrin. The pink polishes used might give off a V-day vibe, but this was really just a way for me to use a Deborah Lippmann polish that I received as a 100-point VIB gift from Sephora a couple months ago. The polish, absolutely adorably called 99 Luftballons, has a sheer fuchsia base that's glitter-packed with multi-colored rounds and hexes.

My nails each have 3 coats of Sally Hansen's Pink Blink, and my thumb and ring fingernails each also got 2 coats of 99 Luftballons. Pink Blink is such a streaky bitch of a polish, but it's still a pretty color!

I didn't realize the base color of 99 Luftballons was going to be so colorful until I applied it over the top of Pink Blink. The fuchsia color surprised me, since the polish is so packed with glitter in the bottle that you can't really discern a color in the base. I thought it was going to be clear!

This has been another snowy week in Boston, and we are due to get another 3-day storm in the coming days. I'm not going to say that I hate the snow... but it's taking some getting used to, after enjoying balmy Pacific Northwest winters the last few years. Honestly, I'd much rather have rainy winters filled with lush green grass and trees than snowy winters where everything looks dead and depressing. Maybe a pretty strong sign that the Pac-NW was a good place for me... #LifeDecisions.

Despite the snow, I've been trying to not be a hermit. On Tuesday evening I took the T into downtown Boston to meet my friend Kara in the Back Bay for a post-work drink. We intended to go to a regular bar but Kara inadvertently discovered a freaking CHOCOLATE bar, which you may have seen me RAVING about on Instagram:

Max Brenner is a chocolate bar, restaurant, and all-over goddamn EXPERIENCE, people. Hot chocolates, choctails, milkshakes, desserts, crepes, waffles, and a full restaurant menu as well... I mean, it was like Willy Wonka opened a classier place for adults. I got a salted caramel milkshake (right) and Kara got a Mudslide milkshake (left). We both felt pretty good about ourselves afterwards. And by that I mean... I think we both skipped dinner that night.

On Wednesday afternoon I was on my way to a doctor's appointment (a follow-up orthopedic appointment about my neck/shoulder problems) when my entire car started to shake on the highway. Thinking I'd gotten a flat, I immediately pulled over on a super shitty part of I-93 - right at an off-ramp - and risked my life to check all four tires, which were all perfectly plump with air. Getting back into my car and driving off, the damn thing starts shaking again. Obviously worried, I pulled off at the next exit, parked in a bank lot, got out and looked underneath my car...

... where I saw something very metal and very important-looking dangling, half-attached, from the underbelly of my poor Toyota Yaris. "What the actual fuck?" I wondered to myself. Getting AAA on the phone was a 25-minute process in itself (busy day in Boston, thanks to all the snow), and then I was told that a tow truck would be out to help me by 5:45pm. I looked at the clock. It was just before 3pm. Fahk. Cue waiting in the cold car for nearly 3 hours with a dying iPhone, using bubble wrap as a blanket:

At 5:45 on the dot, the tow truck rolled into the lot. I described my problem to the driver, who looked under my car, identified the dangling atrocity as my heat shield, and told me it was no biggie and that I could very safely drive the car to a repair place myself. No tow needed.

....

YEAH. Really fantastic way for me to spend 3 hours. I even had to cancel my doctor's appointment. On the bright side, the heat shield is so unimportant (apparently) that the guy at the Monro Muffler place simply removed it for me, no charge! Thanks, Monro Man. I'm sorry I didn't get your name.

Last night I went to dinner at (Boston's famous) Regina's Pizza with Jenna and had a fantastic evening of catching up and eating carbs. Tonight I've got a sushi dinner date with Steph and her friend Cris at Sei Bar in Medford. Friends and food seem to be my big themes of the week :)

Hey, how the heck has YOUR week been going?
Did you eat anything super yummy this week?
How is your car holding up through your winter season?

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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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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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