April 2018 Reading

I have been reading a lot more lately. Eight books to be exact for April. I think the main reason why is I got my mom's old ipad and between the kindle app and my library app I have tons more to read. Hopefully by the end of May I'll be halfway to my reading goal for the year.

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THE MOUNTAIN BETWEEN US

I did see that this had been made into a movie before I ever started reading it. Or rather, this one I listened to on Audible. At first I didn't think I was going to care for it, mostly because I didn't care for the voice of the reader. But then once the story got going I really enjoyed it. Set in the present day it's the story of a perilous journey that two strangers find themselves on together. After their plane crashes they must push through the rugged snow filled mountains if they are going to survive. The book does have a plot twist and unfortunately I had guessed it pretty quickly so that was a bit of a let down. Overall though I quite enjoyed this one. I did watch the movie within a week of reading the book and basically felt Hollywood ruined it.

4 out of 5 stars

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A CURIOUS BEGINNING

This was a fun read. It felt like a YoungAdult genre only a bit grown up. Plenty of twists along the way with a bit of romance. A period piece with kidnapping, the circus and a royal twist. I'd like to ready more of this series and more from the author.

4 out of 5 stars

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COUNTED WITH THE STARS

When reading the Bible, do you ever wonder what it would of been like to have been alive during that day? This is the story of an Egyptian slave who is befriended by a Jewish slave and their story of the plagues that Egypt endured before the Israelites were set free to go through the desert to the Promised Land. I really enjoyed this book. The writings of the author make that section of the Bible more alive to me now. I want to read the rest of the series.

5 out of 5 stars

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BRIDE FOR KENDALL

Such a short, but cute read. JoAnn is chosen to travel far from the city she has known to be a wife for Kendall, a Canadian Mountie. With so many difference and no time for courting before their marriage, can they find love and make their marriage last? I have a few more of these books as their are a ton in the series.

4 out of 5 stars

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FOR LOVE AND HONOR

Imagine living in a time where a birthmark could be taken as a sign of being a witch?! Lady Sabine lives with that danger daily. Will the Knight her grandmother is eyeing for her look beyond that and see the smart, God-fearing woman that she is? This was another quick read that I enjoyed. I saw after I read it that it is listed as book 3 in a series but it read fine as a stand-alone.

4 out of 5 stars

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THE KREMLIN CONSPIRACY

Imagine a Christian version of a Jack Ryan story and you would have this book. It was a bit of a slow burn for me but by the end I quite enjoyed it. It did feel a bit long, but the author really sets up all the characters for you. Plenty of action, though I might enjoy this genre more in a movie setting.

4 out of 5 stars

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STALKING JACK THE RIPPER

Young Adult historical fiction. Audrey Rose is just a teenager but she works with her uncle doing autopsies and sneaks into his classes disguised as a boy. There she meets Thomas who she finds is annoyingly charming. Together they work to solve the Jack the Ripper crimes and everyone is a suspect. This series is another I'd like to keep reading someday.

3 out of 5 stars

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FRANKENSTEIN

I'm still working my way through some classics this year. I read the abridged version of this as a child. This is another book I listened through using Audible. Some books for me are better read than listened to and I think that classics are those kinds of books. I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would and just kind of got lost in the reading of it.

2 out of 5 stars

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- Jessica

3 polish reviews

goodmorning!

today i have 3 nail polishes to review.  all of them are lovely brown shades.

first i wore opi suzi says da from the 2007 fall/winter russian collection.  it's a chocolate cream shade that pulls on the red side.  even with 2 coats if you are in the right light the red really comes through and reminds me of a chocolate covered cherry.

when i went to put suzi says da away i noticed i had another opi polish that looked very similar only with shimmer.  it is esspresso your style from the fall 2007 deliciously dark collection.  i really think they are nearly the same base shade but the addition of the shimmer in the espresso your style polish really adds a nice depth to the color.  i also added orly's so go-diva glitter as a top coat on my ring and middle fingers which matches perfectly. 

as with all other opi polishes i had minimal tip wear only for the first 3 days and then chipping after that.

i'm definitely a fan of the chocolate shade of polishes.  i was hoping i'd like one over the other so i could remove one from my collection but they are all keepers!

- jess

polish review: opi chapel of love

today i'm continuing with the polish reviews and this one is another older one from 2003.  it is chapel of love from the las vegas collection.  it is really such a beautiful color.  pink, with a slight peach undertone and lovely gold shimmer.  definitely one of my favorites.  on my nails for 3 days with no chipping and minimal wear on tips.

- jess

nail polish review: opi infatuation

i have a slight nail polish addiction.  as in i have well over 300 bottles!..eek!!!  so the other day i was looking over my collection and realizing that there very well could be some colors that i have never worn since a lot of times i buy multiple bottles at a time.

sooo.  i thought it would be kind of fun to try to work my way through my collection and blog about them.  fun, no?!?

today i'm going to show you opi infatuation.  i believe it's from the sheer romance collection from 2004.  it's a color that has been in my collection from the early days when i first started collecting and in fact the color had slightly separated.  of course nothing that a good shake to the bottle couldn't fix.

when i first applied the color i wasn't too sure about it.  first of all it was a bit sheer.  even after 3 coats i could see through the tips.  also, i'm usually not a fan of nude polishes...or lipsticks for that matter.  but turns out this is a really lovely peachy nude.  the color grew on me each day and i ended up keeping it on my nails for 5 days with only minimal tip wear.

i'm glad i decided to start this project as i've been reaching for colors i normally wouldn't and found some great shades like this one!

- jess

zoya polish review

i adore polish.  it's rare that my nails are bare.  such lovely colors mean my collection of polishes is starting to get a bit out of control...and yet there is always a new color or colors calling my name.

this winter zoya has really been on my radar.  i saw a few reviews of their winter 2012/2013 collection a few months ago and then started stalking my local ulta.  it felt like it took forever for them to update their zoya selection and bring out the new collection.  finally they had a sale on zoya buy 2 get 1 free and i finally scored a few.  i picked up blaze and storm along with rekha (which i've not worn yet) from their nyfw 2012 collection.  then as part of one of my glossybox i received electra.

i applied blaze on my nails first as i thought it would be lovely for the holiday season.  the polish applied beautifully and i only needed 2 coats.  the base color is more of a raspberry red.  and oh the shimmer this polish possesses with micro glitter is amazing!  the pics just do not do it justice.

this polish quickly stole a place in my heart as one of my top favorite polishes of all time.  the wear on the zoya formula for me was the standard i get with most polishes.  and even though it has micro glitter, it was a breeze to take off the nails.

this week i wanted some glittery nails for new years so i applied a base of storm polish.  the coverage on this color i found to be a bit more sheer than blaze.  it took two liberal coats for me to get an opaque base.  i was actually more excited for this color than i was for blaze, but to me the micro glitter just shimmers better in blaze.

i decided to apply electra to just the tips.  it is a holographic bar glitter in a clear base.  it is stunning.  however i do have issues with bar glitters in that my tips always seem very sharp once the polish has dried and sometimes the 'bars' of glitter can really poke through the top coat and cause friction when your hands rub against anything.  i did have to take a nail file to the tips of my nails as it was so rough i was afraid it would catch on a sweater or even scratch the delicate skin around my eye when applying makeup.

the storm and electra polishes have been on my nails for two days now and so far no chipping.

- jess

review - forever21 mint & urban outfitters chilly

when i was on vacation in florida i happened to pick up quite a few nail polishes, including these two from forever21 and urban outfitters.  i don't have either store close to me, so i was pretty happy to get to get to shop at both stores.

first i started out applying the forever21 mint polish.  what attracted me to this polish, besides the fast it's only $2.80 is that it's a mint base w/ a lovely blue shimmer.  the shimmer is faint, but you can still see it even after the polish has dried on the nails.  this was the first time i'd used a forever21 polish and i'm not overly crazy w/ the brush, it's just a bit too thin for my liking.  the formula for this color was also a little thin and it took 3 coats to get it completely opaque.  it does wear really well as i had it on my nails for 4 days w/ minimal wear on the tips only.  i picked up 3 more polishes from forever21 and i'm excited to see if they wear just as phenomenal since they are such a great price point.

the urban outfitters i went to didn't have very many polish colors to choose from and i only saw one that caught my eye.  this polish retailed for $5.  chilly is a beautiful glitter polish.  it's a mix of blue micro glitter, small pink glitter and holographic glitter in a clear base.  this glitter polish is stunning.  i did apply 3 coats of it to my ring fingers.

both of these polishes are beautiful and i would definitely recommend you check them out next time you are in forever21 and urban outfitters.

~ jess

polish review - orly rage with sally hansen big money

i love some sparkly nails! ;-)  sadly, so many glitter polishes are so sheer it's hard to wear them alone.  but one of the fun things with owning so many glittery polishes is to combine them with other polishes and see what a lovely combination it creates.

so the other day i decided to combine orly rage, which is a lovely rose gold with sally hansen big money a clear polish with small gold glitter and chunky purple glitter.  it turned out to be such a lovely combination.  and oh my, in the sun does it ever shine!

both polishes are lovely on their own but layered together they totally rock.  i had minimal tip wear but no chipping for the several days i wore the polish on my nails.

~ jess

polish review - revlon buttercup and calla lily

revlon has really been coming thru lately with me  on their polishes.  they are a great price point, come in some great shades, including some amazing dupes for high end, fantastic color range and good formulation.  i've been looking for a lovely yellow for a while now and youtube has really been buzzing about the buttercup shade. so the day i went into ulta revlon products were on sale for bogo 1/2 off.  i decided to pick up the buttercup shade and also the calla lily.

buttercup is a lovely light pastel yellow.  nice and creamy, everything you'd want in a spring yellow.  calla lily is a creamy off-white with lovely micro shimmer glitter (i wasn't really able to capture it in the pics).  here's where the praise for these polishes starts to diminish in my opinion.

i think i must have just got a bad bottle of the revlon buttercup.  for starters the brush seemed shorter on it than the calla lily shade and also some of the bristles were rough and a bit longer.  it just made application a pain.  also, the color was very streaky and thick.  if i tried to put on a thin layer i only had streaks.  so i ended up having to use three layers of the buttercup to try to get it to look decent.  thankfully seche vite top coat can cover a multitude of "sins". ha!

now onto the calla lily shade.  i could tell from the bottle that it would be a sheer color, but i was hoping i could get it opaque in three layers.  wrong!  it took five.  i will say though that it applied much easier than the buttercup shade.  this is a lovely shade though and would be beautiful with an opaque white applied under it first.

even though the application was a bit of a headache, i have to say that both shades were really lovely.  so if you don't mind working with them a bit, they are a great purchase.  like i said though, i do think the brush on the buttercup shade i purchased was just a lemon.  oh, and the wear on these polishes was very good for me.

~ jess

polish review - zoya belle

last week zoya and birchbox launched a package of limited edition blogger nail polishes.  there are 3 shades in the collection - belle, kate and coraline.  belle was inspired by capitol hill style.  coraline inspired by eleventh gorgeous.  and finally kate inspired by the small things blog.

of course as soon as i saw tweets and emails about this collection i rushed out to buy them.  they retail for $22 for all three bottles and ship free.

the polishes are very lovely, especially for spring and summer.  all three are a sheer jelly polish and only one has shimmer.  i currently have kate on my toes.  today's review however is about belle, which is the one polish with shimmer.  as soon as i opened the package this is the one i was immediately drawn to.  it's a beautiful pink that has a coral/gold shimmer to it - i wish i'd been able to capture this better in my pics.  surprisingly i don't have anything else in my collection like it.

now since these polishes are sheer, it did take three coats of this polish to become opaque on my nails.  they apply very easily and dry beautifully.  here's my one and only problem with this polish.  it wore horridly on my nails.  as you can see in the pic above, i had major wear on my thumb nail and that was less than 24 hrs after applying the polish.  i used the same base/top coats i normally do and did nothing out of the ordinary in my every day life to cause extra wear.  i'm not sure if it's just the nature of the sheer polish or what...  next time i think i'll put down a base of an opaque pink first and use this polish as a top coat.


~ 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

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

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

essie play date polish review

i love spring.  it's my favorite season, for sure!  spring and summer are actually also my favorite seasons for nail polish.  usually i'm a pink nails kind of girl, but i definitely like a lot of other colors too.  i kept seeing pics of essie's 'to buy or not to buy' lavender polish and i was falling in love.  so i ran to walgreens friday to pick up that polish, but got sidetracked when i saw essie's 'play date' from their 'go overboard' collection.  what i love about it is that it is a much richer purple.

saturday i put it on my nails and was in love!  not only is it such a beautiful color, but its so creamy and a dream to apply to the nails.  it was opaque in two coats.  i used china glaze 'strong adhesion base coat' and seche vite for a top coat.  i did have chipping after two days, but that was just due to my nails splitting. 

essie 'play date' swatch

i can definitely see this polish getting a lot of use on my nails not only this year, but for years to come.  check it out next time you are in your local drugstore or beauty store.

~ jess

ps... i'll try to get better pics next time i do a polish review!

daily pics - 01.24.2012 - 01.31.2012

it's been a while since i've caught you up with my daily photos.  in fact, i think i'll break them down into a couple of posts.  i'll at least get up the rest of the january pics today.  i'm still doing pretty good w/ the photo a day.  every now and then i miss a day.  i did see a post/pic on instagram of things you take a pic of each day and loved the idea, but only followed it one day in february... so i might try it again in march.

yes, i'm still obsessed with greek yogurt. i'm not eating it every day, but most days i am. i still have no clear favorite brand/flavor. this was the first time i've tried a flavor that is already mixed into the yogurt...usually i buy the fruit on bottom or fruit on side. this was sooooo good. it tasted exactly like i was eating a key lime pie w/o the crust.

while grocery shopping i always look to see what new items have arrived in the frozen section of the grocery store. these meals are sooo easy to just grab and take to work for lunch...otherwise i don't have enough time to fix something of a morning and end up grabbing some kind of unhealthy fast food. i found this meal at a walmart supercenter, but not the one i usually go to. and i didn't even realize until i was eating it that it was vegetarian. oh.my.goodness. was it every yummy! quite possibly the best flavor of lean cuisine i've ever ate.

just a quick snapshot i grabbed friday morning...for two reasons. first the scarf was new. i'd just bought it the day before from tjmaxx. i wasn't sure if i should wear it yet or hold onto it for a few months since it's so springy...but i couldn't resist wearing it. i love how it brightens up a dreary winter day. second was the fact that i'd just had my hair trimmed/colored the day before. i'm still loving the dark brown so i just got a repeat of last time w/ some highlights. interesting note - my hair doesn't like color. in fact my stylist has to use the next to darkest color (blue-black being the only darker) to get that color on my hair.

this is the sigma dry'n'shape system. after you wash your brushes you place them in there and then most brushes will dry in 4-6hrs. it worked really well for all my brushes except my XL powder brush which took a little longer to dry. i'll definitely be using this from now on when i clean my brushes.

julep - demi polish. a lovely vampy red shade.

a sparkly wreath w/ a peacock...it hangs between my two large windows above my bed.

i'm sure by now you've seen a million pics/recipes for a green smoothie. this was the first one i tried and if you can get past the color and knowing it contains spinach it's actually really yummy. as in if i were blindfolded i wouldn't have known it even had spinach.
well, that's it for today. see you guys later!
~ jess