spring has arrived

yeah, so i know spring has been here for a while.  don't judge me yet by the title.  i made this layout a while ago but just hadn't got around to post it yet.

spring is my favorite season.  i love that lovely rebirth of nature after the cold, dreary winter...all the lovely pastels...butterflies.  it always feels like i'm awakening myself in spring.

part of my love for the season is all the warm weather and the changing of my wardrobe.  love not having to wear so many layers.

our spring did rush in with mid 80's temps within the first few weeks.  hope that isn't a sign of summer...as much as i love warm weather i'm not a huge fan of the 112 temps we had last summer.

for this layout i used the daydream believer kit from studio calico.  i rarely ever scrap anymore without using one of the kits from them.  it must makes everything soooo easy!

this is my first layout featuring this kit and i've just been a bit too busy lately to get any more layouts with this kit.  but i'm definitely looking forward to using up the rest of it.

do you have a favorite season?

~ jess

polish review - china glaze for audrey and revlon aloof

so you know the other day when i said i don't really do blue polishes... i think i jinxed myself.  ha!

seems i can't get enough of the color lately and keep buying up blue polishes.  and i finally decided to jump on the blogger/youtube bandwagon with china glaze's 'for audrey' which is supposed to be a perfect tiffany & co. blue.  i'm not sure if it is or not since i don't own any tiffany & co. boxes, but i will tell you it is a very lovely color.

i started out by applying my regular base coats (nail magic nail hardener and china glaze strong adhesion base coat) and then two coats of revlon's aloof which is a very soft silvery metallic polish.  it is a tad thick, but definitely easy to work with.  since i was going to use a sticker to create a design i went ahead and applied a layer of seche vite polish to speed up the drying.

now i would recommend that you work on one to two nails at a time for the rest of these steps.  once the polish was set i used round stickers to cover the top section of my nail.  then applied china glaze's for audrey.  since i already had two coats of the revlon aloof i only applied one coat of the for audrey.  as soon as i applied that i peeled the sticker off that nail.  then i would let that sit for a few minutes before applying a final coat of seche vite over the entire nail.  i really liked the final look.  the china glaze for audrey applied beautifully and wore really well.  i would definitely recommend this color if you are looking for a lovely blue.  also the revlon aloof is a great color, although i'm not sure if it was a limited edition or in their permanent line.

~ jess

donut break

i have a fun little layout to share with you today.

a little story about this.  my mom and i had been at the grocery store doing our weekly shopping.  so at the end we decided to grab some donuts to as an afternoon snack once we were home.  there was a huge rain shower that came through the area just as we were walking out of the store and by the time we got to our car, loaded the groceries and got in we were soaked.  and it was raining soooo hard!!!  so what did we do...we ate them right there in the car while waiting for the rain to let up.

i can be a bit of a prankster and someone who loves to irritate, and one way i do that is to grab pics of my mom (and friends/family) while they are eating and in mid bite.  it always makes for the funniest pics.  she threatened me if i posted the pics to facebook for all her friends to see...lol.  so i told her i'd take one of me too to even it out.  i laughed so hard and definitely wanted to get this memory down on paper...

oh...while i was making this layout i came across the dilemma of how to spell 'donut'... is it donut or doughnut.  turns out both ways are acceptable.  so i'm wondering, how do you spell it?

thanks for stopping by...i'm really enjoying blogging this spring and i hope you keep coming by.

~ jess

currents - 04.22.2012

listening: ellie goulding

reading: the white queen - philippa gregory ... the apothecary's daughter - julie klassen ... rebecca - daphne du maurier

eating: fresher.  more fruits/veggies and smoothies!

drinking: cystal light mocktini's...umm, yum

wearing: brights and sandals

feeling: ready to tackle the week

weather: sunny but windy and chilly this weekend

watching: nothing much...and kinda enjoying having the tv off

waiting: to get my hair done, it's only been 4.5 weeks, but i'm wanting a change already

wanting: to get my hair ombre'

needing: to finish all these books i started reading months ago

enjoying: my new clipless curling wand...curling my hair every day!

wondering: if i'll ever be able to conquer this weight on my body

working: on committing time to scrapbooking

striped top // anne klein ... lace top // sans souci // tjmaxx ... skirt // walmart ... belt and watch // michael kors ... shoes // gianni bini // dillards ... pearls and ring // tjmaxx ... long pearls // versona ... nails // revlon aloof and china glaze for audrey

~ jess

weekend

ahhh.  the weekend.  enough said, right ;-)

although saturday is already half over, i feel it's been a productive day.  and i'm looking forward to getting a lot more accomplished w/ the day and a half that's left.

just wanted to jump on here and get a quick little blog post in for the weekend.  and no, the pics do not have anything to do w/ this weekend.  ha!  just thought i'd post some pics of my outfits from the past couple weeks.  hope you guys have a great weekend!!!

~ jess

happy birthday nanny

this is what happens when i want to scrapbook... i don't get the events onto paper usually til much later. luckily for my nanny i'm only a month and a half past on her bday layout. ha! oh, this is my 3rd layout w/ the studio calico story hour kit.

it's hard to believe that she turned 84 this year!  doesn't seem like she should be that old... she's got some good genes... both of her parents lived to be 94.

she always likes to be surrounded by friends and family on the day of her bday.  she doesn't like it if you have to put off celebrating until another day.  so for her bday this year (march 2nd) we (my parents and i) stopped by her house and took her gifts to her and then went out for dinner.

she loves ribs.  if a restaurant has them, then she will probably order them.  so we went to cheddars for dinner.which i was pretty happy with that choice as well since i'm obsessed w/ their monte cristo sandwich!

it was nice to have a little family dinner.  although my mom had just had eye surgery so she couldn't see very well to eat her food!

nanny really seemed to enjoy her dinner and the time spent together that evening...

~ jess

review - essie trophy wife & revlon whimsical

i'm not usually a blue polish kind of girl.  idk why, but i never feel like i can pull it off unless it's a blue-green.  i saw a youtuber talking about essie's trophy wife and thought i'd check it out.  that same day i found revlon's whimsical.

essie's trophy wife is a frosty deep teal that pulls a bit more blue i think than teal actually.  not only is it a frost polish but it shimmers like it might have some kind of super micro glitter.  it reminds me of the ocean when the light hits hit. soooo lovely.

revlon's whimsical is a light blue-gray with small and chunky blue and pink glitter.  i would guess w/ 2-3 coats you could have it opaque on the nails.  but i wanted to try it as a top coat.

so for this look i applied 1 coat of nail magic nail hardener and 1 coat of china glaze strong adhesion for my base.  i followed that with two coats of essie's trophy wife.  the polish was a great consistency and applied beautifully!  then on my ring fingers i applied 1 coat of revlon's whimsical.  i wanted some of essie's trophy wife color to pull through so that's why i only used 1 coat.  i followed that up w/ seche vite for my top coat.  i wore it for 3 days before i noticed chipping.  i actually was so busy that it stayed on my nails for 5 days, which by then it looked pretty rough.

my verdict:
essie's trophy wife - A
revlon's whimsical - A

~ jess

outfit of the day

pretty excited that today is thursday!  sooo close to the weekend.  ha!

i'm pretty addicted to taking pics of my outfits of the day (ootd).  i even recently downloaded the pose app and have just started using it.  so i thought i'd go ahead and print a few of the pics and create a layout around them.  this will probably not be the last time i make a layout devoted to an ootd!

this is my 2nd layout to use studio calico's story hour kit.

before i was subscribed i always thought kits were for those people who weren't able to coordinate paper/embellishments.  i thought, "what's the big deal".  but now that i get that lovely brown box every month it's just so convenient.  sure i could of picked out the products on some website, but they've already done it for me and included lots of products that are either brand new or i've never even seen before... and a few that are exclusives.

it just makes my scrapping time breeze through knowing i have products right there in a bag all ready to be used together.  of course i always have my own stash of thickers, stickers, embellishments and other papers close by to add to the mix!

~ jess

but first, coffee

this weekend was sooo nice.  sunday afternoon i pulled out my scrapbooking supplies and just immersed myself for a few hours... and it felt oh so good!

last fall i joined studio calico's monthly scrap kit club.  and so often i am just busy and don't get around to using any of the kits.  so sunday i just pulled out one kit at a time.  i made as many layout as i could with it and when i was finished w/ it then i broke it apart and mixed the rest of the pieces into my stash.

i started out working on the story hour kit, which is still available.  there were a few papers that i just wasn't drawn to right now, so i ended up getting 5 layouts out of this kit, but i did have quite a few pieces of paper left.

this first layout is was influenced by something i saw on pinterest.  i love coffee and had seen the saying "but first, coffee" and knew it would be perfect to go w/ some pics i'd taken showing off my preference for coffee.

~ jess

polish review - sally hansen diamond strength jewel overcoat

while roaming around ulta last weekend trying to get as much as i could w/ my 20% off coupon i wandered over to the nail polish area.  i keep telling myself that i'm not going to buy any more.  but then i'll see a color that i don't have in my collection and of course it ends up in my shopping bag.

they had a display for the new sally hansen jewel overcoats.  so much beautiful glitter!  i'm not sure how long they have been out, but i know i hadn't seen them before.  i immediately gravitated to the 501 - ring-a-ding which is a mixture of rose and yellow gold chunky faceted glitter.  the 507 - white veil also caught my eye as its a mixture of chunky gold faceted glitter and smaller white glitter.

after i got home with them i was a bit disappointed that they are set in a clear base and sometimes when you swatch them on the nail it only leaves behind a few pieces of glitter.

first i applied 2 coats of opi got a date tonight as my base color.  it's a very soft creamy pink.  i then applied 2 coats of the 507 white veil to all my nails except for my ring fingers.  and for those i used the 501 ring-a-ding.  since it is only the large chunky glitter i had to work with it more and use 3 coats.  finally i topped it off with seche vite.

507 - white veil

it was a bit of work to get the glitter on there just as i liked, but i'm very happy with the end result.  by using the soft pink as a base color this is the perfect pairing for spring.  i'm sure i'll be getting a lot of use out of these two bottles.

501 ring-a-ding

~ jess

currents - 04.09.2012

listening: sarah jarosz

reading: about to finish up delirium by lauren oliver

eating: well, i was doing really good and eating salads and smoothies...but i went on vacation this past weekend and so it's been a lot of yummy but not so good for me food! back to counting calories tomorrow!

drinking: coffee... i'll admit it, i'm a coffee addict...

wearing: my pajamas still.  and i may just stay in them ALL.DAY.LONG!

feeling: a bit tired.  staying up w/ girlfriends til after midnight and then shopping all day the following day can be tiring...

weather: sunny!

watching: finally got around to watching souls surfer last night and it was much better than i thought it would be.  usually movies like that tend to be way to cheesy for me...

waiting: for prince charming

wanting: to do some deep cleaning today and start some crafting

needing: to finish putting away all the goodies i bought over the weekend

enjoying: my four day weekend

wondering: which nail polish i should try next

working: on organizing

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and now i want to share some pics w/ you from this past weekend.  i went away w/ 3 of my friends to tulsa for part of the weekend.  it involved lots of eating and shopping and for one friend lots of dancing.  we love to get away for these fun little trips every so often and there is always lots of laughing and memory making...

first place we went was to on the border for dinner. this was one of their new dishes called "baja" and it was an avocado stuffed w/ cheese and chicken and deep fried. it wasn't as good as i expected, but still pretty yummy.

one place we always have to go is to cheesecake factory for dessert. we always get a slice and take it back to the hotel. i had the raspberry lemon cheesecake cake and it was delish!

just a quick pic before heading out for a day of shopping.

my friend and i were eating up the sunshine streaming into our hotel room...it was perfect for pics.

lol. every time i'm w/ my friends they are usually begging for a smile on my face because i give goofy faces in most pics...

lunch at pei wei. sooo good. i had lettuce wraps and edemame

so i grabbed a couple of fortune cookies at pei wei, one for me and a couple for my friends. after opening mine and finding this fortune i decided i wanted a better fortune so i took one of my friends'...and i could not believe it when i opened it and it was the SAME fortune...lol.

love gap...wish our local one hadn't closed. this is the only pic i took of our shopping day but i definitely shopped til i dropped. i even had to have one of my friends help me carry out my bags!

we went to chipotle for the first time. O.M.G... it was sooooo good!!!

i was little laughing! i kept giving my friend goofy pics while at lunch and she kept taking pics to get a serious smile...

went to mac grille for lunch and got my fav dish - shrimp portofino!

~ jess