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Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Go Pink Wednesday: Final Pink Wednesday!

Ah!  Hello!  I have been MIA...I know!  I actually had a pretty bad break on a few of my nails.  It happened right after I did last week's Go Pink Wednesday!  It's still pretty short but I really wanted to do the last installment of this series.  Oh, and by the way...Happy Halloween!  I'm taking my son trick-or-treating this evening and he can hardly contain himself!  He is going to be Mario, and no I am not dressing up at Luigi! :)

For today's mani, I chose Essie Sure Shot  Its a gorgeous magneta/fuchsia with fine shimmer (still in the pink family, right?!).  This was two coats.  Then I topped with a Spectraflair top coat.  Spectraflair is a holographic pigment.  I snagged a tiny bottle of a frankened top coat off of Copious a while back.  Unfortunately, I didn't have any sun so it was hard to capture the holo in this.

This first picture is kind of crappy but it shows the truest color and you can see a bit of the holo effect, especially on the pointer finger.  

This is outdoors but no sunlight. 

Even though the month has come to an end, please be sure to take care of yourselves.  Early prevention is key and having a healthy lifestyle and habits now means later on having less problems.  I've really enjoyed taking a part in raising awareness this month!  I hope to get back to blogging soon..I'm just trying to get my nails back in a better state.  



Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Go Pink Wednesday including Special Message

This is the second to last Wednesday in October, Breast Cancer Awareness month.  Last week, shortly after I posted my last Go Pink Wednesday mani, one of my friends of Facebook, an ex-coworker posted the following.......

Today I was dignosed with breast cancer.
I just turned 34. 
I'm told, this is an uncommon diagnosis for someone "as young" as me.

I'm a fairly private person and this is a very personal thing. But I feel it's important to share my experience. 
Who knows, maybe it will help someone...

I went in for an annual exam about 2 weeks ago.
Something the nurse felt led to a mammogram (which didn't dete
ct anything) and an ultrasound (that did).
Followed by a biopsy yesterday that tested positive for cancer.

Bad news, Yes.
BUT, there is a bright side (there is ALWAYS a bright side...although sometimes you have to search for it)
Mammograms aren't generally done on women until 40+ (unless there is a history)
And the mammogram I had didn't detect anything. It was the ultrasound.
So I feel very fortunate that although it is cancer, it was actually FOUND and found early.

So not to preach, but take care of yourself....
Go to your annuals and physicals.
It could potentially save your life.

And since this is the kind of thing that will throw you for a loop...
It's a good reminder of how fragile we all are and
how precious and SHORT this life (we're currently in) is:

Be kind......don't hate
Love yourself
Love EVERYONE
Appreciate all you have
Laugh as much as possible
Live as much as possible
Life is short...
We are here for a reason.
Whether we understand it or not
Make the most of it
While you can.

Oh, and for the record, I do hate something (but I feel this is fair):
the words, lump, nodule or any derivitive of them.
Geez :)





What wonderful words that she posted!  So I just want to remind you, to please do your monthly self breast exams, go to the doctor regularly, and take care of yourself!  Early detection is huge!  





Today I used Maybelline Color Show Crushed Candy (supposed to be similar to Butter London Disco Biscuit) and for the accent finger I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Strobe Light (dupish for OPI Teenage Dream).













Friday, October 19, 2012

Frugal Friday! Wet n Wild Toxic Apple

Whew!  Friday is here!  Even though I only had a three day work week at my main job it seemed like it took forever.  I am back to bartending too so, no rest for the wicked!

The polish I picked today is Limited Edition but it should be in stores now so if you like it, try to find it.  It is from Wet n Wild's Pick Your Poison collection.  This one is Toxic Apple.  I first saw this when Liesl from Liesl Loves Pretty Things did a guest post over at i Heart Pretty Polish's blog.  Don't you love when bloggers come together?!! :)  Well, when I saw her post, I figured if I came across is I would maybe get it....and that is just what I did.

This polish was $1.99.  It also may possibly be a dupe to OPI Russian Navy.  Dupe or not, I love it!  In the bottle, this looks much more purple.  You can see in the photo that the bottle kind of shows purple but on the nails it's a nice dark blue...perfect for fall!  It is gloomy and rainy here so I wasn't able to take photos outside.

I forgot to clean up a bit of polish on my ring finger...oops!



I thought I would share some of the family pictures we had taken a couple of weeks ago.  I say family but my husband hates getting his picture taken, so we mostly just had pictures taken of our boys but I peaked in just a couple.  Our photographer was amazing!  If you live in the Milwaukee/Waukesha area and are looking for someone, let me know and I can give you here info.




Have a wonderful weekend my lovelies!  

Amy




Thursday, October 18, 2012

Holy Shift! Picture Heavy

Hello my loves!  Today I have for you one of the new Sally Hansen Lustre Shine polishes.  I passed these up several times as I just hated the price tag for what is considered to be a drugstore polish.  But every time I went to the store, I often picked this polish up and then put it back.  I decided to bite the bullet and just buy it and let me tell you, I am glad I did. The one I am speaking of is Lava.  This polish is very unique to my collection.  I also have heard it is similar or dupish (yep, making up my own words!) to MAC Bad Fairy which was LE and hard to find.  There are tons of pictures here so you could see how much shift there is within this polish.  I did have to use 3 thicker coats on this one but I think it is well worth it!  I topped it with Seche Vite.









Have a great day everyone!  

Amy

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Go Pink Wednesday! Glitter Edition!

Well, here I am.  I had four wonderful days off of work.  I am back to work and back to blogging too.  I had some nice time with my husband while the kids stayed with grandma.  We also went to a pumpkin farm on Monday which was fun.  I did just want to quick say that I have been kind of bad about responding to comments on the blog.  I am hoping to get to responding this week.  I know comments don't require a response, but I really enjoy the interaction.

For more information on Go Pink Wednesday for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, check out my Go Pink Wednesday button.

For today, I did something a little different.  I used American Apparel Echo Park and layered Essie A Cut Above with the exception of my ring finger.  I decided to do sort of an inverted accent finger.  I started with China Glaze Something Sweet and layered Essie Set in Stones on that.  This isn't in-your-face pink but I was trying to be more creative...not really my strong point! I do however like how this turned out!




Friday, October 12, 2012

Frugal Friday: Spoiled - The Parking Meteor Expired

Happy Friday everyone!  I hope your week has gone fast!  Mine hasn't but after today I am off for four days in a row.  I usually only have off one day a week but I decided to take some "me time".  The kiddos are going to grandma's tomorrow and staying overnight so my husband and I are going to go out and take advantage of that.  Then on Monday or Tuesday we are hoping to do a pumpkin farm/apple orchard sort of thing with the kids.

Enough of my babbling!  Today my Frugal Friday pick is Spoiled The Parking Meteor Expired.  This is a black base with blue and teal shimmer in it.  I am getting more and more used the the brush on these polishes.  For the pictures below, I used two coats with one coat of Seche Vite.



I hope you all have a great weekend!

Amy

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Go Pink Wednesday: Icing Power to the Pink

Hello my friends.  Here we are, on the second Wednesday in October already!  This is the second installment for Go Pink Wednesdays.  Andrea from Finger Painting Fingers extended an invitation to everyone to sport pink nails to help raise awareness for breast cancer.  You don't have to be a blogger to participate.  Share your pink nails on Finger Painting Fingers Facebook page and/or my Facebook page.  

Today the pink polish I chose is from Icing and it is called Power to the Pink.  It is an in-your-face neon with silver irridescent glitter in it.  This was four coats and you can still see some visible nail line.  I really love how bright this is but the polish is a tad hard to work with.  I might add thinner next time I use it as that seems to be a cure-all for many polishes.  I also used two coats of Seche Vite as it was pretty gritty after the first.  I probably should have used a coat of Gelous first and then Seche Vite.  Without top coat, this does dry matte just like any neon.  Also I must confess, I adjusted the brightness in this to get the color accurate.  As I've mentioned before, neons are very hard to photograph and without editing it, it was not even close to accurate color-wise.  



Also, I wanted to provide a great link for more info on breast cancer.  This website has great info on how you can help, different programs, FAQs, etc.  http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/

Get out your pink nail polish and lets see some of those pink manis!

Amy



Friday, October 5, 2012

Frugal Friday: Sally Hansen Grey Area/Possible Dupe

Welcome to Frugal Friday.  I had a really busy week this week.  The fall colors are at their peak around here and it is gorgeous!  I am really excited as I had my boys pictures taken this week with the beautiful fall colors.  But with fall, the weather seems to get cold pretty fast here.  It was pretty chilly today and I am not a cold weather gal!  Burrrr!

For today's Frugal Friday, I picked Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Grey Area.  Oh how I love colors like this.  It is a darker grey that has a hint of purple to it.  I asked my husband what he would describe the color as...he said "Umm, kind of purple, brown?"  Haha!  For the photos, I used two coats and topped with Seche Vite.  Application was very smooth!  Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear polishes are often on sale at Walgreens two for $4.  I figured that price was low enough to qualify for Frugal Friday.

Also I have pictures below featuring bottle shots and on a nail wheel of Grey Area next to Essie Smokin' Hot.  I'm not sure that they are exact dupes but they are extremely close.




What do you think?  Dupes?  I think you definitely don't need both.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Amy

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Pink Wednesday - Breast Cancer Awareness

Hello there!  This morning when I was checking up on the many blogs I follow, I noticed a lot of my favorite bloggers were doing Pink Wednesday for Breast Cancer Awareness month.  I immediately loved this idea of raising awareness for breast cancer by wearing something I love so much...nail polish!!  Now I generally am not a huge fan of pink nail polish but I definitely have plenty.  It is not that I don't like pink nail polish, I just tend to not like it on myself.  I feel like it kind of gives me lobster hands.  (If you don't know what lobster hands are...it is when your skin looks pink/red based on the nail polish you are wearing.)  So, I decided to throw out the window that I am not a fan of pink and take this on, especially for the cause at hand.  I have said it before but I just LOVE the polish community!  A bunch of bloggers have come together to raise awareness.  How awesome is that??!!  This Pink Wednesday thing was initiated by Finger Painting Fingers.  Please click this link to find out more on how to participate.

Okay, so I pick an untried which is OPI Pedal Faster Suzi.  This is a really pretty pink with silver and pink shimmer in it.  I still feel like it made my hands look red though.  Let me know what you think and if you know of a pink that would maybe better suit my skin tone.  (or if I am just nuts!)


I wanted to add one thing.  I know life can be busy (trust me!) and we often forget to do things but please, do a monthly self-breast exam!  If you have a smart phone or even use Outlook on the computer, set a date every month to be reminded to do one.  This is one of the best things we can do for early intervention and it only takes minutes!  

Thanks for stopping by and if you'd like to join in, feel free.  

Please check out the others participating in this!