NOTD: Matte Sparkles

Just a simple mani for today... Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Slick Slate with Ulta Glitter Top Coat and China Glaze Matte Magic. Easy peasy. :o)

NOTD: Tree Huggin' Leopard

Last night, I added the funky french tips I had mentioned in my previous post. I was torn between some shade of hot pink or a bright green. The green won in the battle of coverage so I used China Glaze Tree Hugger to stretch out this mani just a little bit further.

I need some cuticle oil like woah.

I used this scotch tape method from Chloe's Nails to get my french tip lines straight (sort of). I have a bad habit of rushing through the steps sometimes and then I end up with crooked lines that bug the shit out of me later. (I'm looking at you middle finger...) I'm just saying, being lazy and OCD do not work well together! lol

I also wore my tree earrings today to keep up with the whole "tree huggin" theme. I love these earrings... I picked them up at a local boutique called Girl Stuff that is sadly no longer in business since the owner retired. I miss that place... they were so cheap and had the cutest stuff! :o(

NOTD: Wild Thing, I Think I Love Ya!

I love my Konad M57 plate but I have neglected to use it for a while. I decided to break her back out tonight for yet another leopard mani. I've only used wild colors with this plate so far sooo I thought I'd try something new and keep it neutral. :o)


I just kind of winged it and I really like out this turned out. I ended up using a bunch of different polishes... more than I expected. I started with my usual Seche Clear base coat followed by a coat of Essie Jazz. I topped that with China Glaze Cyberspace. (I did this since the Cyberspace takes at least a good 3 coats to get any kind of coverage.) Then I used OPI Black Onyx with the Konad stamp since it doesn't come out super dark.


Now this is where I had to get creative. I planned on using Orly Prince Charming for the accent color but it was too plain Jane brown. I needed something leaning more towards yellow or orange but I didn't have the color I needed. I have this tiny bottle of Sally Girl orange polish... I looked all over the bottle but I couldn't find a name. It's just a bright orange with mild shimmer. I made a 50/50 mix of the two to get that orangy-brown and I just used a regular detail brush to paint spots throughout the leopard print. I also find that the Bundle Monster plates make great "mixing trays"... just flip 'em over and mix away and when you're all finished, just wipe it clean with a cotton ball and some polish remover.

So that was all I did... I also just realized I used 5 different brands of polish, 6 if you count the top coat. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or bad, lol. Anyway, I think I'll wear my nails like this for a day or two and when I start rough up the tips, I'll go back and do a wild color french tip. I'm thinking hot pink or lime... oh yeah!

Mama's Got a Brand New Bag

I went marathon shopping with my mother-in-law and sis-in-law, T, over the Easter holiday. We hit up the outlet mall first and foremost in search of dresses to wear to a formal wedding that's coming up in July. While we were there, we had to pop into all of the designer outlet stores to see what kind of goodies we could find.

We all found a great deal at Coach and all three of us got new bags! All of the clearance items were 50% the already marked down price and then the store clerks were handing out 30% off coupons. With all of the discounts, I managed to get a new Coach Poppy handbag for less than $60 including sales tax. Love it!!


Update: While were out gallivanting, T was snapping away with her iPhone and she sent me some of the pics she took during our adventure.

Coach and Starbucks' Frappachino. Life is good.

My Poppy bag, Nonna's black purse, and T's metallic number.
(I may need to borrow that one at some point in time!)

Booty Pop at the As Seen On TV Store. lol

After 6 hours of shopping and 2 malls down, T and I couldn't keep up with Nonna and had to take a break. Thank goodness JC Penny sells sofas. Haha.

NOTD: Green Eyed Girl

I tried to do a water marble for the first time ever and I just didn't care for how it turned out. I had this whole pastel Easter themed idea going and it just ended up falling flat for me. I think my colors weren't the best choices and then my marbling was supposed to be a flower petal design. It was nowhere close! I believe it looks more Rhianna than Peter Cottontail. What do you think?


So I kept this mani on just long enough to take the picture and then I took it off. I decided since I spent a good 45 minutes on the Easter Fail, I would just do a simple one color mani and went with Zoya Gemma. This is actually the only Zoya polish I own. I have no idea why I don't have more... the color is unique and I love how it glides on so smoothly.


It has this interesting shimmer that's visible in the bottle as this sparkly purple ribbon but once painted on, its not as obvious... there's this slight purple undertone and I think it's very cool. And there's one more thing about Zoya Gemma that I find to be super spiffy...

IT'S THE SAME COLOR AS MY EYES!

Now, I just need to see if the DMV will change my eye color from green to "Gemma" on my driver's license. :o)

Personality Test

Interesting... I just took this personality test and it was pretty spot on. I had never heard of an Ennegram test before I came across it on Miss90's blog. The description explains that it breaks down a person's personality into nine "behavioral tendencies." I needed to know what that meant so let's see how I scored. :o)

Enneagram Test Results Type 1 Perfectionism |||||||||||||| 58% Type 2 Helpfulness |||||||||||||||| 62% Type 3 Image Focus |||||||||||| 42% Type 4 Hypersensitivity |||||| 26% Type 5 Detachment |||||||||||||| 58% Type 6 Anxiety |||||||||||||||||||| 86% Type 7 Adventurousness |||||| 30% Type 8 Aggressiveness |||||||||||||||| 62% Type 9 Calmness |||||||||||| 46% Your main type is 6 Your variant is social

Take Free Enneagram Personality Test

Main Type	Overall Self

Take Free Enneagram Personality Test

So, I can say with confidence that this explains a lot! lol I really do worry a lot about all sorts of things, from the serious to the mundane. I can't begin tell you how many times I've called my fiance after I've gotten to work just to ask him to check and see if my flat iron was unplugged or to make sure I closed the garage door. And if he doesn't answer or has already gone to work himself, it will seriously eat away at me until I get to go home for lunch and check. I swear, I'm just so pitiful sometimes! lol

Thrifty Shopping: Goodwill Finds

Oh, how I love some Goodwill! I stopped in this afternoon while running errands and I found quite a few bargains.

From left to right:

1. Torrid Skirt, size 26
2. Steverson's Vintage Top, size 24
3. Cato's Maxi-length Skirt, size 1x
4. Mossimo Printed Cardigan, Size 1x
5. Ashley Stewart Sheer Ruffle-Front Top, size 20
6. Apt. 9 Cardigan (with the tags still on!), size XL

I always try on clothes at thrift stores. If I see something cute and cheap close to my size range, I'll try it on because it might surprise me and fit! Hence the size 26 Torrid skirt. I typically wear a 20/22 so a 26 is a bit bigger than my norm but it looked smaller soooo I tried it on. Perfect! It sits on my hips instead of my waist but that makes it wearable to work and the cut still looks good even slung lower like that.

And now to my absolute favorite find... Chinese Laundry heels! What girl doesn't love cute heels? And to make it even better, these bad boys were only $3.75! Can we say "cha-ching!"

I just adore houndstooth patterns. I already have my outfit planned for work on Monday and these shoes are the focal point! Love it!

Thanks for reading!
-Kim

NOTD: Cherry Blossoms for Spring

Wooooo! It has been a looooong 4 days! I'm in North Carolina and we lost our internet when all of the bad weather came through the other day. Thankfully, my city only got heavy rains and some wind unlike the Raleigh area which is a bit further east from here. They suffered the brunt of the storms and it's just been crazy with all the relief efforts. But moving on...

I fell in love with Nail Utopia's Cherry Blossom manicure and just HAD to make my own version. I love her flowers so much! Mine's a little more neo-impressionist... my blossoms came out more round than I would have liked but it still worked and I got a ton of compliments on this one!

1. I started off with two coats of China Glaze "For Audrey." (My favorite polish! <3 )

2. Then I painted my branches using Essie "Little Brown Dress." I used a regular size zero paint brush to do this. I would recommend using a smaller brush than that to get the finer lines. My branches are kind of chunky. lol


3. After that, I dotted on spots of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Petal Pusher".

4. Then I marked the centers of the blossoms with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Flashy Fuschia" and Essie "Little Brown Dress".

5. And of course, I wasn't satisfied with all of that so I added some Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Whirlwind White" to the petal edges. I was hoping it would has some depth to the blossoms... it was just kind of meh.

6. And of course, no mani is complete without a coat or two of SecheVite. :o)

I wore this mani for two days before I started chipping and had to take it off. So sad! But that always happens when I have this much polish on my nails. And aside from that, I'm weird about my nails matching my clothes and this was a hard one to match over and over, lol. But here is a portion of my outfit from Monday... I wish I had gotten a full picture because my heels were straight up awesome!!

I wore a black tiered dress and a cropped cardigan, both from Old Navy. And then my jewelry and flower pin are all made by me cause I'm a crafty something. :o) Also, I'm going to make it my goal to actually start fixing my hair everyday... I have got to get out of this horrible rushed ponytail habit. lol

Thanks for reading!
- Kim

NOTD: Chocolate Milk Mani

I had picked up a couple of bottles of Orly Prince Charming and Essie Little Brown Dress a while back and I wanted to see how they looked on my nails. I did a swatch of each, one on my thumb and one on my pointer finger. This progressed into me adding Essie Jazz into the mix creating a bit of a fade. I've wore this for about 3 days now and it's time to take it off but seriously, all I can think of when I look at my nails is chocolate milk.... nom nom nom...

I Want Long Hair...

Growing up, I always had long hair. I mean LOOOOOONG hair... like almost touching my ass hair. Then when I was about 20, I had a corporate job and needed a professional look. When I was mulling over getting a new do, my ex told me if I ever cut my hair, he'd break up with me. I took that as challenge and and got it all chopped off... we broke up about a month later. (It was completely coincidental but it still amuses me none the less!)

So over the past 8 years, I've gone through a good 10 or so hairstyles from the shabob (thanks Jennifer Aniston) to the short spiky-in-the-back, long-in-the-front thing. I have no idea what that style was called but it was certainly spunky (and a pain in the ass since I HAD to style it every day or I'd look like a homeless man). Anyhow, I've been trying to grow my hair back out long off and on for the past couple of years but every time it gets to my shoulders, I get it cut off again. And now, I'm making yet another painful attempt to grow it out by October so I'll at least have something to work with for my wedding hair.

This is my current unkempt mess. Yay!

Well, recently, there was a huge fiasco involving a fraudulent Etsy seller that was on blast all over the fashion blogs. The story goes that she was purchasing wigs from China on eBay on the cheap and turning them over on Etsy at a huge mark-up claiming they were hand made. I was sad/pissed off to hear about the whole deal but I was also relieved that the truth came out because I had often browsed her wigs and almost bought one on more than one occasion. I would have been among the highly pissed off masses that this girl scammed. So with that being said, the eBay sellers where she purchased her wigs ended up getting a lot of publicity too.

I found this adorably cute wig from seller MildGreenTea-1 for $9.99 plus $13.99 shipping. I'm willing to try a wig for that price so I got it. I expected the quality to be a bit shoddy (think Halloween wing) since it was so cheap but I'm pleasantly surprised. It fits well, the color looks great, the hair is realistic looking and hangs naturally, and it's a bit heavier than I expected.



The color is a lot lighter than my hair now but it's actually closer to my natural color than the brunette I have going on now. It almost makes me want to go get my hair dyed to match the wig... maybe a new look for summer since I can't cut it off like I normally do?

Upon closer inspection, I've decided I really like this color.

I love, love, love this wig but I'm actually shy about wearing it out in public. I'm scared! lol My fiance shrugged it off as a weird Kimmy thing so I have yet to get a real opinion from someone. To wear it out or not to wear it out... that is the question.

Hmmmmmm....

Best New Shirt EVER

A new shirt I got on ebay for about $12.00. The cuteness is overwhelming, omg!

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Bella Roo: Closet Raider

I heart my dog.

NOTD: I Like That Bieber Kid... He's Swell

I went out and bought a bottle of One Less Lonely Glitter all because of this one particular blogpost by Chloe's Nails. I never paid the Justin Bieber polishes much mind until I saw this beautiful mani by Erika. I had to have it! So here's my version... The only difference is that I used Black Onyx by OPI as my base.

OOTD: Triple Threat Dress a la Target

I love Target. I really do. Even though they only have two whole racks making up the plus size section... it's more like a corner than a "section". But I digress...

So, the other day, I popped in to look for a birthday present for my niece and I always stop in the clothing section to see if there is anything new or interesting and I found this super cute maxi dress. It's basically 3 of springs top trends (nautical, floral, & maxi) all rolled into one adorable, comfortable, affordable dress. I rarely buy things that aren't discounted or clearance but at $34.99 I couldn't leave this one at the store.

Pardon my wonky picture...

Dress: Target Pure Energy - Size 2
Cropped Cardigan: Target Mossimo - XXL (this one is about 3 years old)
Necklace: Avon - Outspokes by Fergie

My photo quality is so bad on this, I found the dress on the Target.com website so you can actually see how cute it is. I just love the color combo.


Another recent purchase that I'm really digging right now is my necklace. I bought it through Avon a couple of weeks ago at the introductory price of $4.99. It's a solid perfume pendant on an adjustable fabric cord which is awesome. I can make it longer for low cut shirts and it won't get lost in my boobage. You girls know what I'm talking about!



The perfume itself is great, too. It's called Outspoken by Fergie. The Black Eyed Peas Fergie, of course, not the Duchess of York. I felt I needed to point that out since a lot of people think of Avon as being matronly and for old women... I've always like their stuff but they've really stepped up their game the past couple of years. Anyways, it's a very light fruity floral scent and it's nice having it there around my neck for when I want a quick refresher... very inconspicuous. ;o)



Thanks for reading!
~Kim