Happy Trails To You

Lately I just don’t have time to blog, as mentioned in a lot of my past posts. With baby #3 here it’s pretty much impossible. The only alone time I get is sometimes in the shower and….we’ll I just can’t think of very many times there isn’t a child with me. Honestly I don’t mind. I’m embracing it but I definitely feel that 3 is a good number for me. I already have a hard enough time just thinking period. Might have something to do with the whole post partum mommy brain, if that’s even a real thing. When one child is trying to talk over the other that is screaming while the other is crying, it’s hard to remember exactly why you turned on the laptop in the first place. Was I looking for something on Pinterest? Was I suppose to reply to a message? Send an email? Research some random topic that I have no idea what it is anymore???

While trying to keep my ever shrinking brain intact, I’m wanting to take my kids to the fair next week and I think it will be so much fun for all of us! Kind of a crazy thing with all my kids I think but I know women with, or that had, more kids then me and somehow lived through it. I think I’ll take my chances. When you stay inside to much you’ll do the crazy thing like drag your kicking screaming 2 year old along while pushing a stroller, trying to get the older one over to the ride or game she wants to play. We’ll see how this plays out.

But until then…

Happy trails to you, until we meet again.
Happy trails to you, keep smilin’ until then.
Who cares about the clouds when we’re together?
Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather.

There now it’s stuck in your head too.
Happy trails to you, ’till we meet again.

Television

For those of you that know me on a personal level know that I actually loathe television. I like movies and a few good or hilarious shows. The part that I can’t stand is the TV set being on all day long for no reason. I always find myself mindlessly staring at it never getting anything accomplished. Even if I don’t like the show. A lot of people tell me “I just like having the noise.” Really??? Because I feel like I’m going insane because every 30 sec someone is trying to sell me something. I prefer the radio. I love that my hubby’s great grandma has Sirius XM on her satellite. It rarely gets put to that but those channels have NO commercials and minimal talking.  I also found that my mother-in-law has Pandora that goes on the TV and it has nobody talking at me- ever. I know I’m probably waaaay behind on the times but this was news to me. I thought Pandora was just on the computer or in the car.  😛

But yeah- I love DVR. That way I can record exactly what I want to watch and can SKIP all the commercials. I do happen to like quite a few shows so if you’re interested these are the things I’m hooked on right now. (My top 3 are actually tied for how much I like them!)

1. The Client List (I love Jennifer Love Hewitt!!! I was sad nobody picked up the Ghost Whisperer!)
2. The All-Star Celebrity Apprentice (I know this is the 13 season but its great even though I’ve only watched half of one other season)
3. MLP– YES! It’s true I love My Little Ponies. As a “grown woman” I really shouldn’t but I do and I’m not ashamed.
4. Project Runway Teams ( Another show thats been going for a while that I’ve watched here and there but I’m hooked on the Teams aspect of it!)
5. Ridiculousness (I think that this new season they’re re-using a  few clips from last season so far it seems like every episode has at least one I’ve seen them show before.)

For some of my ALL TIME favorites they’re usually old or “old people” shows.

1. Gunsmoke 
2. Bonanza
3. Matlock

And probably a few others. I could waste the day away if there was a marathon of any of those old shows because I actually haven’t seen that many.

As for movies….that could be a WHOLE other post and a very long one…..

 

Diaper Rash? Some Home Remedies & The Ointment Dilema.

***So in advance- I’m sorry this isn’t about nail polish, but it is what it is! And also for there being a little bit of information overload.***

So my little guy just turned 2! So much fun at this age. It gets better when they go on the potty, but I’m not there yet. Which leads me to my main topic. Diaper rash. My boy doesn’t get it near as bad as the my older girl did when she was little. But when he does, he is one unhappy camper. He recently got another rash and was so upset that he requested a bath. He does so by saying “tub”. Haha so cute. So into to the tub he went along with oatmeal flour. I’ve been trying to be more of a D.I.Y kinda gal. I’ve always been dabbling in the arts and craftsy stuff but rarely doing useful things. But Pinterest has charged me up quite a bit in this area. I pin so many things I want to do, so I decided to start doing them. I actually didn’t get the oat flour idea from Pinterest- just something I’ve heard of before and I know that Aveeno markets something similar.

  So I wanted to make sure that his rash would be well taken care of, googled oatmeal bath, and found a number of interesting suggestions.

Some are things I feel are obvious ones:

1. Not using scented wipes- some suggest not using any type of baby wipe. Do it the old fashion way and get a washcloth. 
2. Being gentle as can be!
3. Oatmeal baths  or  baking soda baths. I actually did the two together. 😛  It seems that most people have different ideas about how much to use in the tub when it comes to oatmeal. On average people say a cup. I use oat flour because its exactly what you get when most recipes tell you to grind it in a blender. You need it to dissolve in the warm water! But most people seem to agree that you need a whole box for the baking soda. And make sure there’s no lumps on the bottom of the tub.
4. Making sure tushy is dry before applying any:
5. Anti-rash creams.

One I haven’t tried yet:

1. Liquid antacid (Mylanta)! Apply with cotton ball and allow to dry.

Now everyone swears by a different diaper rash product. I’ve read some rave reviews on Triple Paste which I’ve never used. Some people prefer Desitin. When I started out with my first kid (the one who seemed like she ALWAYS had a rash) this did not work on her. Boudreax’s Butt Paste was the only thing that worked for her and it worked usually within a few applications of it, unlike Desitin which I tried for days and days without any change in the flaming red tush that greeted me every time I opened the diaper. But I know there are lots of people it does work for. I became completely turned off to Desitin once I read an article on its known carcinogens. SafeCosmetics.org has the scoop on its plans to be changed by 2015. Of course after reading that about Desitin I’ve come to be reluctant about using the Butt Paste as well. Apparently it’s a little better, but at what cost??

This website is amazing> Skin Deep Cosmetics Database | Environmental Working Group  it has a feature to look up any ingredient in your products and it would tell you exactly what is is and/or what countries it is banned in and everything else you should know about it. So here you can compare Desitin vs. Boudreaux’s vs. Triple Paste. Am I happy with my instinctive choice? Well yes and no. Yes, it scores better but in my book it should be zero. I hate taking these kind of chances considering that people I know personally are developing illnesses that could have been from years of use of multiple products containing a number of unknown ingredients and the types of things doctors have prescribed. So if you’re wondering (or still reading for that matter) I do still use Boudreaux’s Butt Paste. XP Very very very rarely do I because I use Neosporin (link for arguments sake), mostly because I want things to heal if the paste isn’t working.

While I’m at it I might as well throw Women’s Voices For the Earth.  They have some good Toxin free info.

So here are some recipes I found via Pinterest:

1. My Merry Messy Life using organic oils, beeswax, zinc oxide.
2. Mrs. January only two ingredients cornstarch and coconut oil.
3.  MamaOT a very nice list of a lot of things!

So like I said, information overload! I hope that somebody can find this useful!

 

 

 

All I’ve Got Going On…; Kids Books

So some may find this sad and depressing but after about 2 years of being a stay at home (like really stay at home, never go anywhere-) mom, you get used to it.

You sit on Pinterest a lot and try to find fun new imaginative things to keep children at bay busy. Also I should mention- don’t stay on Pinterest too long because that doesn’t help with the whole keeping children occupied. Another thing about being a stay at home parent is that you seriously need a million books, but at the same time it doesn’t really matter because they quickly develop favorites and your stuck reading a very wordy princess book over and over, causing strange princessy nightmares. But more surprisingly is that you too start to take a liking to certain books. My all time favorite that I have memorized (accidentally, honest!) is Goodnight Moon. I cannot even type that title with out starting to quote it in my head. I think its a great one to start the whole bedtime reading routine even with little tiny babies. Hey, if they’re alert and at least looking around period, they will definitely like hearing you talk to them.

Almost all Dr. Seuss books are great! I only say almost because those are some of the ones that are favorites that are requested to be read immediately after it is finished, and your tongue can get awfully tired after the 6th time.

Call me lazy but I mostly like short to the point books with great pictures, that way I really don’t mind reading ten in a row. Even with wordy books I still don’t mind reading more then one. It’s a great way to kill time. My 5yr girl received a nice little set of classic stories (they’re Brighter Child Keepsake Stories) that are mostly correct in my opinion and are long enough to make her satisfied and not so long that the 2 yr old has left pages ago. So right now I’m just going to cut to the chase and leave a list of all time and current favorite books for kids- young and slightly older.

All Time Favorites:

1. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
2. The Cat In The Hat  by Dr. Seuss
   
3. The Tooth Book by Dr. Seuss
4. The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss

Current Favorites:

1. Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle
2. Bear’s New Friend by Karma Wilson
3. Bear Feels Scared by Karma Wilson

So that’s all I can think of at the moment! I did want to mention that the current faves have excellent writing. Little Blue Truck is #1 for a reason. I see that there’s more for Little Blue and I’ve been searching for more Bear books, they are just too cute and the kids pay attention. OH, and if you’re wondering, I pretty much never recommend  pop-up books or the ones with the little tabs you pull or turn because until they are at least 4 yrs old you’re just asking for it. You might as well flush $10 down the pipe. It’s just too tempting for little explorers that want to push everything to the limit. Even my first child who (no joke) was angel of a baby- very soft and gentle, easy going, didn’t even cry loud and knew  to take your word for things being hot- couldn’t handle not accidentally ripping the nice noise making pop-up book grandma sent her into at least 6 different non fixable pieces. Needless to say the hell raising 2 yr old boy will not be anywhere near those kinds books, he almost can’t handle normal ones.  But not to be a complete spoil sport you probably could have these kinds of books and keep them nice if you put them under lock and key. *Putting things up high just makes your children smarter and they figure out how to use chairs or just straight climb things.*

A List Of Excuses…

It has been a very long time since I’ve posted anything on my blog! This is due to many excuses reasonable explanations. Lately I’ve realized (as I’ve mentioned before) that I want to refocus on the art aspect of nails. Yes there’s nothing like a good swatch of a gorgeous color but honestly after awhile I find it very boring. I was snowballing very fast on my collection of polish until a few months ago. Suddenly I wasn’t finding any colors that I would consider unique to my collection. I also think organizing my collection to color instead of brand helped me realize that I had A LOT of very similar colors mostly with the blues! 

Still not having my own computer to work from has also made it difficult. I don’t exactly feel comfortable loading the program I use to watermark my picture’s, or my picture’s alone, to someones computer that mostly likely doesn’t want there space being taken up by that! Honestly, would you want someone basically taking over your computer with their silly pictures?

I’ve been thinking about how I haven’t been doing any of this lately and it doesn’t necessarily bother me that I’m not very commited to it, but I would like to keep going what I started! SO to follow that comment I believe this blog will start to become a tiny bit more personal because believe it or not (!) I have other things I’m interested in. So if the only thing you hear me blog about in the next week happens to be about 2-5yr old children related activities- I apologize in advance. 

Robin Moses Inspired Nail Art; Pink with Roses.

SO this design was originated from Robin Moses on Youtube.com. She is the mastermind of Robinmosesnailart and I have attempted a design by her before.  I’ve been learning a lot from her over a year. So this is my attempt and I decided to do the original gold roses on my ring finger and change up the rest with some blue!

Here’s the original video first so you don’t have to look for it.

And here’s my art!

Inspired by Robin Moses

Whether or not anyone else likes this- I absolutely love how it turned out. I wore it for awhile. I love how acrylic paint keeps polish on my nails longer! I need to practice more on my leaves, I can’t seem to get those down yet! Gr!

Nail Art; Russian Nesting Dolls ♥Matryoshka Dolls♥

Lately I’ve been losing my feelings for nail polish. I haven’t been as excited about it much.  So I decided that it was time to get back to the whole reason why I started. I believe my very first posts were strictly nail art! How in the world did I get so far from what I love?

What I have to show today is something that I’ve wanted to do since before I started this blog, but I never really believed that I could do it well enough to even like it myself. So here they are. I could have made these again on a plastic bag and transferred the  design so that both hands had it- which I would have loved- but it had taken quite some time- about an hour. Cranky babies can’t wait forever you know?

Matryoshka Dolls

Matryoshka Dolls

Matryoshka Doll

I know they don’t look like they’d all fit into each other but that wasn’t the point of this. I love these little dolls and have two small sets of my own that I received (one of them later on by accident) from the largest Christmas store I’ve ever seen located in Frankenmuth, Michigan. The whole town is too cute and the hand painted ornaments at the store are to die for! The actual name of the store is Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland.

Oh and my accidental set was purchased at the same time mine was except it was for my niece that I grew up with since the time she was a baby. We were most likely 7 and 12 (me being older) at the time we got these and it was one of the best family vacations we went on. When my mother passed away almost two years ago these dolls were in her knick knack cabinet and both were given to me. After contacting my niece she said I could just keep it, as long as she knew I had it  it was fine.

ALSO! I will do these again sometime and I will try to be smart and make sure I have my dolls with my pictures! *They don’t look like the nails I did here*

 

Maybelline Color Show, Limited Editions, Avante Green and Auburn Ablaze

This one was another that I promised to show! Getting pretty good on keeping my word huh? Anyways I’ve recently been on a no buy and decided stepping into the stores was a bad idea. I did very good for over a month and then decided I should see what kind of displays are up. And lo- and behold there was a Maybelline Color Show LIMITED EDITION display! I pretty much wanted all of them, but decided Avante Green was my #1 must have of all of them and for SOME REASON I’m not sure why- I bought Auburn Ablaze instead. So I kept thinking about Avante Green dreading that I made a mistake. I had to wait a whole week before I could go back and the display was GONE! But I go to Walgreens quite often and knew that the left overs from displays are on the counter by the register in the beauty department and was over joyed to see the last bottle sitting there. Like it was waiting for me. Psychotic,  I know. Anyways enough babble.

Maybelline Color Show- Avante Green

Maybelline Avante Green is in 3 coats, and probably could have used another one…maybe two.  It’s very thin but not a super runny formula its almost painful to work with however. If you have a good base color to go underneath- go for it. I’m sadly disappointed that this didn’t have any real color shift (kinda blue-ish) to it outside of the bottle. What can I say? Lesson learned.

 

Maybelline Color Show- Auburn Ablaze

Maybelline Auburn Ablaze is in 2 coats. This ended up being a big win for me. I don’t have a lot of colors like this (none since I try to keep my collection simple) but this picture is bringing out a lot more of its wine colored hidden shimmer. In indoor lighting this is a bit more brown with the shimmer leaning a tiny bit more towards purple. Dry time is pretty good- my first coat was thin and my second was thicker then it needed to be-  I could have gotten away with it being thinner and still full coverage (and dry a bit faster, too).

P.S. Sorry about the sloppy slop paint job! I try to do it right the first time, if I can’t I try to at least clean up after myself. Children needed attention so I took a picture before I scuffed them, and I really did ding them bad afterwards.

So far I’m pleased with the polishes that Maybelline keeps coming out with- whether its core line or limited edition like these two. It’s brands like these that make me afraid to waste money trying a new brand I’m not sure I will like!

Green-ish Nail Art for Depression Awareness Month

Here’s my little contribution to Depression Awareness Month! I’m just going to include a great link from the National Institute of Mental Health since according to me- it seem very in depth and covers a lot of questions even family member of those depressed might have.

♥♥ Depression Awareness ♥♥

So I’m guessing this color is green? Kind of a mint? Maybe too dark for that? ANYWAYS- I don’t know the name of this Color Club because it came from Ross and a 7 pack and I have never gotten a pack with names on the bottles- but I believe this set is mismatched. Box says one thing- everything else on the interest shows that SOME of the colors might go- but I might as well assume none of them do. Alter ego Reveal Your Mystery set didn’t include an orange either… This color might be Twiggie but I’m not 100% on it. So yea…whatever…

Sally Hansen Lustre Chromes; Lava and Scarab

Things ended up taking a little longer then expected AND I’m easily distracted lately. So since the time of me saying I had Sally Hansens new Lustre Chrome “Lava”, I had been drooling over pictures of “Scarab” and went to Walmart (since it was a whole $1 cheaper then Walgreens) and bought it. Since I did that I might as well show them both on the same post. With out further ado…….

Sally Hansen Lustre Chrome; Lava

Sally Hanse Lustre Chrome; Lava

Sally Hanse Lustre Chrome; Lava

Sally Hanse Lustre Chrome; Lava

Sally Hanse Lustre Chrome; Lava

Sally Hanse Lustre Chrome; Lava

Sally Hansen Lustre Chrome Lava, is named perfectly, I do believe! This orange-pink duo-chrome is such a beautiful glowy polish with an awesome shift! Seems very micro flecked and really benefits from a top coat. I used Sally Hansen Insta Dri. SH recommends using one of their own as a top coat- but in my opinion any should work. **Just as a note, it isn’t very dull- top coat just makes it feel and look a bit more glassy.**  Application- cake, a little sheer but build-able. Dry time- decent. From index to pinkie (L-R) are 3 coats. 3 coats, 2-3 over black, 2-3 over black. Sorry I can’t remember if it’s 2 or 3, I meant to write it down.  I really do love this and have gotten compliments on it- which is pretty rare for me. Haha.

Sally Hanse Lustre Chrome; Scarab

Sally Hanse Lustre Chrome; Scarab

Sally Hansen Lustre Chrome Scarab, is a pretty blue green duo-chrome polish.  This isn’t as big of a shift as Lava was but it’s still quite beautiful. Another difference between these two is that Scarab is much more pigmented then Lava. Also I feel that Scarab was more of a true chrome since you can make out my outline (mainly the camera) in some of these pictures. Application- cake. Dry time- excellent. Also could use top coat to gloss it up. From index to pinkie (L-R) 2 coats, 2 coats, 1 over black, 1 over black.

So in summary, I love these! Thay’re non-problematic and could use a top coat to make them look and feel glassy, but still looks absolutely stellar without it.

I’m sooo glad duo-chromes are trending right now because even though this isn’t a completely new concept, I like that it’s becoming more readily available to the masses. Unlike crackles and magnetic’s I think that this will be popular for a long time, since it pretty much already has been very popular among nail polish junkies for years. I only have a few other duo chromes but I’m hoping to expand this part of my collection as more of the big brand companies decide to make entire duo-chrome collections.