Orchid Lollipop Nails

When I first began keeping a blog in October 2012, one of the first nail polishes I posted about was Lollipop by Urban Outfitters. It ended up being one of my most popular blogs, and I couldn't tell you why! I can no longer find Lollipop being sold in UO stores, so I hope you already scooped yours.

Here's a new way that I used it recently:

Polishes used:

- Beware by Pure Ice

- Orchid by Love & Beauty

- Lollipop by Urban Outfitters

Get it done:

1. Paint all nails except ring finger two coats of Orchid.

2. Paint ring finger several coats of Beware.

3. Paint two coats of Lollipop over the Beware on your ring finger.

Lollipop has a very sheer lilac-colored base, so I like the way Beware looks beneath it. It gives it a more opaque - yet still glittery - background.

Hope you like! If you try out something similar, Tweet me a picture at @akaBailey!

DIY: Hanging A Group of Frames

I've mentioned before that the walls of our apartment are a bit on the bare side and that I've been taking some steps lately to try to remedy that.

In early February, I came upon a great blog post on Young House Love that outlined a fool-proof way to hang up a cluster of frames and whatnots on a wall together. If there was one wall-related task I was certainly bad at, prior to this, it was hanging up multiple items together in straight lines. I'd try my damnedest to align things properly and everything would still end up askew when it went up on the wall.

But this time, armed with the knowledge I'd acquired from YHL, I was about to go H.A.M. on a whole wall's worth of shit. And this time I was, like.... pretty sure it was going to end well for me.

Here's how I not only did it - but actually did it WELL! As mentioned, this was based on instructions that I found at YHL, which in turn were found somewhere else. #CircleOfLife

Step 1: Get some shit to hang up!

.  uh huh, this my shit  .

I acquired some of my frames from The Kitchen Corner on 4th Ave in Vancouver, because they have a great selection of very reasonably priced frames. I got the other frames from the Salvation Army on 4th Ave which, if you follow my blog with any regularity, you know that I'm obsessed with.

I also picked up the jumbo clothespin and the oval mirror from the Salvation Army during my Thrift Store Challenge. The square clock and the small round mirror were both purchased at a different Salvay when I was checking out the Broadway store location a few weeks ago.

The small purple and green frames were only $1.50 each and were being sold in a big row of random things near the register at a Michael's craft store. They are super cheap frames with thin plastic sheets instead of glass and were intended only as desktop frames, with no means to hang them up on a wall. But I knew they were lightweight enough that some double-sided tape squares would hang them up, nooo problem. I love the detail on these little guys!

.  oh you're cute but i'ma paint the shit out of you  .

This was a bit of a motley crew of things to hang... clearly, none of the frames matched at all. But stay tuned because shit's about to get REAL UNIFORM. Keep readin'.

Step 2: Find a great arrangement for yo stuff.

Time to fiddle around, so get yo fiddlin' fingahs ready. Seriously guys, no shame here. Re-arrange as many times as you want until you see the arrangement that shouts "YES!" I shouted "NO!" several times before I found the right arrangement. Here's what I ended up with:

Step 3: Transfer that arrangement to paper, creating an outlined template of your grouping.

YHL used one large sheet of paper for this step, which is probably the best way to go. However, if you're not just casually stocked up with a ginormous roll of paper (you know, in case of emergency), you'll need to improvise here. I taped together several pieces of newspaper (remember, straight lines are important) to create one large sheet of paper that I could use to trace my arrangement.

You could have done this before Step 2 and then done all of your arranging on top of the piece of paper to begin with, but... shut up. Really though, it wasn't a big deal for me to snap a picture of the arrangement and then recreate it on top of the piece of paper.

Trace the outline of each item so that you have a template of exactly where everything will lie:

Because I was terrified that a black Sharpie marker would bleed through the paper, I used a blue highlighter marker to do this step (and the next one, too). Unfortunately it was so light that it didn't show up in these photos - so I went ahead and traced them for you so you can see the lines. If you didn't know, my Paintbrush skills are... unmatched. Notice I didn't say "incredible" or "super-talented." I said "unmatched." 

Step 4: Mark out where the nails will go. 

Get your precision hats on, ladies! Or just grab a ruler. No need to muss up your hair with a precision hat. Using the ruler, measure out on the back of each frame exactly where the nail will sit - how far "in" and how far "down" it needs to go.

Then measure that same spot out on your template, and mark it with a dot:

Step 5: Make your shit look a little more like it all "goes" together. 

This step is optional, depending on how well your particular group of stuff already looks and what kind of condition it's all in. Since my items were so random, I wanted to spruce them up a bit and paint some of them to make them look more uniform before I put them up on the wall. You know, make it look a little less like they'd all been purchased on several separate trips to three different stores.

I wanted the colors to be clean and gender neutral, since I share the bedroom with my handsome boyfriend. I chose a sage green spray paint and a matte white one. (Michael's has a great selection of spray paints in all types of finishes.) The plan was to paint some of the frames sage, some of them white, and leave some of them plain wood.

Before the paint though, you're going to want to give your frames a little washing, just to make sure your surfaces are nice and clean. Allow them to dry completely before you start actually painting them!

Most of my items had frames that I was able to remove before painting, but a couple of them did not. The square clock and the oval mirror both needed to have their frames painted, so I had to cover the clock face and the mirror by taping newspaper to them.

After laying out several sheets of newspaper on my balcony as drop cloth, I finally got to the fun part: spray painting!!  Since I'm not a tag artist by night, this isn't something I get to do often. Do as many coats as you want/need/desire. I kept re-evaluating and then adding more coats. Maybe I was just being spray-happy. WHO'S TO SAY?

I let them all dry fully for a couple of days (inside!) before I finally felt they were dry enough. This is definitely a project you need to have some patience for!

Very carefully remove the newspaper and tape from any faces you needed to cover during the painting process. Here I am admiring how well I taped my clock. I mean damn. Check out those lines.

Step 6: Tape your paper template to the wall in the place you want your cluster to hang.

Simple enough. Use a level to make sure you're hanging your template straight. You don't want to get this far and then fail at your template taping. DO YOU??

Step 7: HANG YO SHIT!

Ohmigodohmigodohmigod! Here's the step where you get to see if all of your hard work was in vain or if you actually succeeded in hanging up a whole wall full of stuff in straight lines that look good. READY??

Hammer? Check. Nails? Check. EXCITEMENT LEVELS HIGHER THAN REALLY NECESSARY? ...... CHECK. Let's get to nailin'.

Put a nail right through the paper in the center of each of the "nail dots" you made earlier in Step 4. Once you hammer in every nail, you can rip away the entire sheet of paper from the wall, leaving your nails in their correct places.

Hang up each of your frames and whatnots.... step back.... take a look.... and HOPEFULLY it's all straight!!!

Whoohooo!!

And, look what it's right above - the holiday lights/jars light situation:

.  DIYs on DIYs  .

As you can see, I've still got some frames to fill. I think I'll make a collage for the tall rectangle on top. The square frame in the center has a generic flower painting inside of it right now, which came with the frame from Salvay. Not sure what to do with that one quite yet, but eventually some solution will present itself. The two tiny frames from Michael's each got a dainty little collage - the two smallest collages I think I've ever made:

 

The smaller rectangular frame on the lower left will eventually get filled with a photo I think. The photo in the lower right was a gift from my sister - it's a picture that was taken down the street from our parents' house in Pittsfield. Also, I love the jumbo clothespin. I feel like Queen of the World for finding that one.

I am pretty pleased with the color scheme of the frames - and I'm a particular fan of the pretty random way that they are arranged, color-wise. I didn't want to consider their placement when I was painting them; I just wanted to paint each frame the color that I felt it should be painted, if that makes any sense. For example, I knew I wanted to painted the round mirror green, regardless of where it ended up in the arrangement.

Has this blog made you want to go cover an entire wall in your home with frames and jumbo-sized knick knacks? Hope sooooo!

Mini-Vacation: Visiting, Hiking & Camping in Oregon

Last week was David's Spring Break from school, so we headed down to Oregon to visit our friends in Portland and do some camping/hiking out in the desert.

On Valentine's Day we left Vancouver after I got out of work, stopped at Red Robin along the way for a *romantic* little V-Day din, and arrived at our Portland hotel around 10:30ish.

After I put in a workday from the hotel room on Friday we went out to dinner at Grain & Gristle with our friends Simon and Emily. I had their burger, which was deeee-lish, and my dinner companions enjoyed their $2 craft beers. [There was one total "Portland moment" when our server was describing a ridiculously terrible-sounding, served-at-room-temperature beer with oysters and truffles in it that made us all chuckle.] We dinner-capped next door at the bar Tiga, where I boldly ordered a virgin Shirley Temple, continuing my tradition of doing what I want.

On Saturday morning Dave and I went to the Prescott Cafe for breakfast - this was on Simon's recommendation because he knows that Dave and I can be slightly turned off by the over-the-top, exaggerated menu items at many of the "typical Portland" breakfast places. I don't need a softly poached egg served with braised pork belly and plum sauce on top of a bed of shaved kale (is that even a thing?). I just want some over-medium eggs and bacon. Turns out that Prescott Cafe is exactly the kind of down-home place that I like to go to for breakfast... the food there just happened to suck, unforch. Ya win some, ya lose some.

After breakfast we scooped up Simon and went out to do some adventure gear shopping at Next Adventure and REI. As a Valentine's Day present, David got me an AWESOME new soft-shell jacket, which I got a ton of use out of over the next few days. #holla

On Saturday evening, we dropped Simon off at work (at Valentine's, which is apparently the place to be, y'all) and then headed to Target for a massive haul because it's so much cheaper to buy our basics in Oregon than it is to buy them in Vancouver. We bought sooo much awesome stuff like canned tomatoes and black beans and pasta and peanut butter. So much peanut butter.

Also while in Portland, doughnuts were definitely on the agenda. Me boo and I both have definite sweet tooths (sweet teeth?) and when we first moved to Portland in January 2012, we went a little overboard with buying doughnuts several times a week. The habit cooled off eventually but never died completely. Everyone hypes up Portland's Voodoo Doughnut, and while I do enjoy their doughnuts, the place is really more of a tourist trap than a necessity. I might have gone there if the line wasn't literally down the street when we drove past it. But why wait for that when you can just get Tonalli's anytime of the day, with hardly any wait at all??

.  get ya donut noms on, ladies!  .

Tonalli's was our go-to doughnut place while we lived in Portland - especially since it was sort of on our street... I mean, what's a mere half hour walk when delicious doughnuts are at the other end of it? So on Saturday after our Target trip, we headed to Tonalli's and then took our doughnuts over to our friend Doug's house to visit with him, drinking tea and getting our laugh on for a couple of hours before heading back to our hotel.

On Sunday morning we checked out of the hotel early and headed over to Simon's house to scoop him up again. From Sunday morning to Wednesday morning, we'd be adventurrrring!

Our big plan was to drive east/southeast from Portland to the desert to see what we could see of the John Day fossil beds (which had been on my list of "things to see in Oregon" for almost a year), and then southwest from there to Smith Rock State Park to camp and hike for a couple of days.

Here are some of my favorite pics from our drive to the desert on Sunday...  Definitely click on all of the images below to see their larger versions!

.  the A is a reflection in the glass from my UMASS t-shirt.
i don't want to talk about why this window doesn't roll down  .

The fossil beds have different sites, so we chose to drive to the Painted Hills... because doesn't that sound like a cool thing to see? Well they were:

There was a bit of excitement when we nearly ran out of gas as we were making our way to/from the bowels of the Painted Hills. The fact that none of us had service or even any battery left in our cell phones was a nice touch to this challenge, especially since we were basically out in the middle of nowhere. We eventually cleared that hurdle, finding a gas station in the nick of time.  Dave ended up needing to put 14.93 gallons of gas into his 15-gallon tank. Eesh. #closecall

From there we headed south to Smith Rock State Park, where we had plans to camp at a Bivouac Camping Area - meaning that you'd park your car in the parking lot and then bring your camping gear from there out into basically an open field intended for random tenting. In the darkness we could barely tell who else was staying in the field and had to use our head-lamps to locate a place to set up our own tents. Did I mention that there were no open fires allowed at the site? Because there weren't.

We set up our tents in the darkness, unable to see our surroundings at all. I knew that when we woke up in the morning we'd be surrounded by some pretty sweet shit... 

... And we were: 

Ooh. La. La. Geology!! Nature! State parks!

And deer! 

On Monday we made a luxurious breakfast of eggs and bacon at the picnic area of the campground and set out for a late morning/early afternoon hike to check out the enormous and stunning rock that was surrounding us. Dave had gone rock climbing at Smith Rock State Park several times before, but this was the first time that Simon or I had seen the place. I was surprised to realize that it was all basically one huge continuous rock formation, rather than lots of separate rock formations like I think I'd expected. #Duh #ItsNotCalledSmithRockS

There were a ton of people rock climbing all over the rock that day, which for me was a bit insane to see. Tiny figures scattered across a dominating, sheer rock wall, hundreds of feet in the air, trying their best to pretend that it was totally normal for them to be doing so. A real trip, for a non-climber like myself.

We walked along in front of one side of the rock before beginning to make our way up and around it, via a switchback-filled trail called the Misery Ridge Trail. Here's a view of the switchbacks, as seen from a totally different area of the park:

.  switchbacks in the lower left  .

And here it is from the top, looking down at it:

This ascent kicked my ass, for some reason. It was steep, but it was short. I had to stop a few times to catch my breath, and I wasn't even hiking quickly. Once we made it to the top of this part of the trail, however, it was mostly just fun adventuring from there.

.  boys and rock  .

.  simon and i.... and rock  .

.  views on views on views  .

After our hike we were a little beat and the weather was getting a bit chilly. So what did we do? Well we went to go see A Good Day to Die Hard. Because nothing says, "You're on vacation!" like Bruce Willis and binge-eating Reeses Pieces.

We decided that night that we'd leave Smith Rock the next morning (Tuesday) - rather than Wednesday morning as we'd originally planned - because it was starting to get pretty freaking cold and without being able to have a nice roaring fire at our campsite, that was slightly less appealing. No matter - we had a secondary adventure planned in no time: We'd head out to the Oregon coast to try to snag a yurt at Cape Lookout Campground in Tillamook, OR. A yurt is a cabin-esque structure with canvas walls, bunks, and - most importantly - heat. Basically like a hotel, when you're used to camping in a tent. 

We woke up early on Tuesday morning, shook the snow out of the inside of our tent (condensation from our breath froze on the tent walls during the night) and immediately started making some coffee to keep us warm while we broke down our camp and packed up the car. We had a long drive ahead of us to get to the Oregon coast!

We arrived at Cape Lookout Campground late afternoon and picked out a yurt from the remaining available:

.  zee castle  .

The campground is right next to the beach so after we'd unpacked our stuff from the car we walked over to enjoy the waves 'n sand 'n stuff for a bit. 

I tried to avoid being roped into their "homerun derby with a plastic bat and ball in the raging seaside wind" game, but alas, this happened:

.  definitely a swing and a miss  .

.  dave and simon  .

I literally didn't hit the ball once, but I swung at it many, many times before finally announcing that this was "no fun" and running off to take more pics.

We spent the rest of the evening hanging out at our yurt around our fire, making different versions of delicious camping food (grilled ham and cheeses, fire-roasted hot dogs, s'mores made with Reese's new peanut butter candy bars in place of the standard Hershey bar... #campingheaven) and trying to scare away the five or six raccoons that were very carefully scoping out our campsite all night long.

.  rascals  .

I love camping in tents - I've been doing it my entire life - but I gotta say... the yurt was prettttttty nice to sleep in. We could even hear the ocean all night long, right from our beds. It was a perfect way to spend the last night of our vacation. 

On Wednesday morning we packed up and it was back to Portland to drop Simon off at his apartment before Dave and I had to drive home to Vancouver. Friends, geology, adventures, pictures, lots of eggs 'n bacon, sleeping bags, mix CDs and 1300+ miles. Not a bad time!