Pretty in Pink Satin Nails

Posted on Jun 13, 2014 in Beauty, Manicures |

Ladies, follow me.  Have you ever bought a certain color of nail polish, or handbag, or shoe, or piece of jewelry because you don’t have much else in that color and might need it at some point?

Totally irrational, we know.  That’s how I found myself with this ballet-shoe pink polish, Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Pink Satin.  It was on sale in a discount bin somewhere (might have been Walgreens) and I’ll admit – nothing about this color stood out to me.  It a light pink satin that reminded me of little girl’s ballet shoes and my favorite satin nightgown when I was a little girl.  It was some ridiculously low price and I remember grabbing it because I thought I’d never know when I might need a nice, simple pink to match an outfit or for some certain occasion.

Fusion Dance Project 2014 Recital Photos

Posted on Jun 11, 2014 in Photography |

It’s just as easy to be proud of a “niece” as it is to be proud of a niece.

What do I mean?  I’ve mentioned Joy before.  Joy is the 3-year-old (nearly 4) daughter of one of my oldest and best friends Jennie.  We’re so tight, that immediately without question when Joy was born, our group all became Aunties.  I see Joy and Jennie FAR more than any of our actual nieces, which are all children of my husband’s siblings and live in different states.  So I’d easily say that I’m closest to Joy at the moment.  I know her mom is very proud of her, as am I by extension, for doing so well in her first-ever dance recital, the Circus Carnival Dance Show from Fusion Dance Project in Hayward, CA.  Here’s Joy, on the far right.

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How well can a 3 year old do?  Well, she didn’t clam up and just stand there as a child in another number did.  And she didn’t run off stage before the number started and have to be escorted back by her mom, as yet another child had to be.  She smiled, she behaved, and she had fun, which means for a 3 year old in a toddler ballet class, she did a heck of a good job.  We’ll just ignore that when the number was over, she was the first one to get up off their finished kneeling pose on the stage and run off to her proud stage mom backstage!

Despite being in the back of the large auditorium, I had my trusty 55-200 mm lens with me and was able to get some great shots of the kids in their adorable costumes.  My ovaries hurt!  These are only shots from the first part of the performance from Fusion Dance Project, which included 24 different numbers and lasted 2 hours, so unfortunately that was as long as I could stay since I had other plans that evening.

Please enjoy checking out the gallery and please – I’m definitely open to any feedback!

Fun Fiesta Manicure

Posted on Jun 9, 2014 in Beauty, Manicures |

I sat down and knew I wanted to use my  new Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Fiesta top coat, but I didn’t know what I wanted to put it over.  So I handed my swatch wheels to my husband and said “This is what I’m putting on top of something… pick the something!”

Julep Polish Giveaway Winners!

Posted on Jun 6, 2014 in Contests |

First, a sincere THANK YOU to everyone who entered my Julep Polish Giveaway!  I appreciate all your tweets, Likes, and shares.  It really means so much to me to engage with readers like this, and I’m very glad to have given back.  I’m working hard to vary my content to include more aspects of my life, like my photography, entertaining, crafts, whatnot, and hope you’ll continue to join me for this journey!

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I randomly selected which winner will receive Julep Valerie, a teal with iridescent microglitter, and which will receive Julep Glam Roc, a midnight purple & gold stardust (matte glitter).  Thanks to Rafflecopter, the winners were chosen using Random.org technology and my personal random process of picking which winner would receive which polish involved mixing them up in my hands without looking and picking one first for the first winner, and one second for the second winner.  Highly technical and scientific, right?

Congratulations to Amie W. of Pingree Grove, IL and Sonya P. of Berwick, PA!

Thanks so much for your tweets and Facebook likes!  If you really want to get your hot hands on these fabulous Julep polishes featured in my Julep Polish Giveaway, they are available at Julep.com for $14.00 each (or $11.20 for Mavens).  If you choose to signup to be a Maven, use code FREEBOX to get your first Maven box for free (just pay the totally reasonable shipping cost).

So… what should I give away next? 🙂

Wanted: Photographic Inspiration

Posted on Jun 4, 2014 in Photography |

Being an amateur photographer (with skills somewhere around intermediate, I think) I always want to improve my skills.  Four years ago I took the leap to upgrade to a DSLR from a regular old point & shoot, and have not regretted it.  Since then I’ve taken a few classes to sharpen my skills and really learn more of the functions of my camera (a Nikon D5000).  I’ve upgraded to a longer lens after a great experience renting one from BorrowLenses.com a few years back, and I’ve increased my arsenal of accessories, from tripods to monopods, rubber hoods to rubber skins.  It got to a point last year that my dad wanted to buy me something camera related for my birthday and everything I could possibly want was up in the hundreds of dollar range (like different lenses, flash units, etc) since I’d bought all the little stuff (filters, remotes, bargain flashes) myself.

It’s gotten to the point where I don’t take many pictures anymore.  A perusal of my Flickr feed (a yearly birthday present to myself to keep the Pro account) shows a set I took about a month ago, before that some I took at the beginning of February, and then before that… Christmas.   I need ideas for photographic inspiration!

Where do folks find inspiration for going out and shooting?  I like nature shots, flowers, sunsets, but it seems that anywhere I’d like to go, I either can’t get anyone to go with me or there’s a LOT of walking involved.  Which, I’m into photography… not hiking.  So I know that if I got tired of walking around some place, my pictures would suffer.

I’m still kicking myself in the butt for not capitalizing inspiration I had a couple months ago.  There was a carnival in town near the Oakland Coliseum, and I thought that it would be cool night shots to go to the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline across the estuary from where the carnival was and get the rides all lit up with the reflection of the water.  But of course, before I got off my lazy butt to do it, the carnival had moved on to a less picturesque location.

So, photographers out there… where do you go for photographic inspiration?  Where do you look?

Memorial Day Camo Manicure

Posted on Jun 2, 2014 in Manicures |

Memorial Day is a somewhat tricky holiday to match a manicure to.  It’s not about patriotism, specifically, so while a patriotic manicure certainly wouldn’t be questioned, it just didn’t feel quite right.   Memorial Day is all about honoring fallen soldiers.  I’m lucky enough that, despite having many family members and friends in all branches of the military, I’ve never lost someone personally.