The Nail Files - Braided Manicure

Once again, I'm finally putting my Pinterest "Nails" board to good use!! Here is this week's inspiration:

I put my own twist on it, thanks to another pin with navy and silver colors that inspired me this week in my color choice.

I really love how this turned out. It looks a lot better than I thought it would - note to self:  never try to determiner what the finished product will look like when the in-progress is a mess and a half!

Here are the colors I used:

Pure Ice - Superstar, Julep - Missy, and Finger Paints - Artist's Sapphire

As always, I'm linking up to show off my "handy" work!  :)


Come show off your mani/pedi with the rest of us.

And - HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!

Weight Loss is H-A-R-D...HARD!

As a lot of you may, or may not, know, I started a weight loss journey last year. It was also an attempt to get healthy.

I lost 15 pounds. Then I stopped.

I stopped losing.

I stopped keeping track of what I was eating (food diary).

And I stopped the limited working out I was doing.

As of last week, I had gained back most of what what I'd lost. Thankfully it took a year to gain it back. And thankfully I didn't gain all of it back.

But really got me was this:

It's a little dark (ok, it's a lot dark), but just look for the outline of the red shirt. That is my...in all my fat glory!

I feel so disgusting looking at this picture. I mean, I know my pants have been tighter...I can feel it. And some that fit me last year don't anymore.

But it's amazing what 15 pounds can do to you and your self image and self esteem.

So last Monday I got back on the band wagon with Weight Watchers. Thankfully I'm wasn't all the way back at the beginning...but I was close.

Last Monday, September 15, I weighed 246.3.

This Monday, September 22, I weighed 244.8. Down 1.5!

I worked out one day last week for about 25 minutes. And I kept a better food diary than I had in a while.

The hardest part is remember to write down, or keep track on the app, of what I eat every day. But, at the same time, it keeps me accountable to what goes in my mouth and mindful of how many points I have each week.

This week I've worked out one day for about 45 minutes - mixing it up with some stationary bike then some free weights, lunges, squats, and sit up. (My bootay is giving me grief for that, too!!) I hope to get in another work out before the work-week is over, cause I can pretty much guarantee it won't happen over the weekend.


I've also been working on my fruit intake. That has helped, too. Oh, and drinking water (which I hate to do) as much as possible. I even put a glass of ice water by my bed to drink in the morning before I leave the room for coffee or anything else.

I want to go back to keeping track of things with you, my viewers, here, too. I think that will help with the accountability, too. My plan is to go with Mondays, as that is my day to weigh in. But I just wanted to go ahead and get things started tonight while it was on my mind.

So, that's where that is. Thanks for bearing with me and my ups and downs.

Until the next time...

The Nail Files - Dots on White

Look at me, trying to get back into the swing of things...again. And I actually did my nails for the first time in about two weeks, so I figured I should brag/show off.




I went perusing Pinterest the other day and came across some great inspiration. I think that's what got into me...that and I was tired of plain, boring, no-polish nails.

Here's my inspiration (link):

I realized, when I went to grab this picture and the link that I have a couple variations of this nail art, including one with a black base and brighter colors for the dots. However, the other variations have the dots towards the top of the nails. I liked this look for the dots being at the bottom.

But I didn't want pale colors, since it is September and time for all things Fall and Fall colors related.

So here's my take (not really fall colors, but still more season appropriate, I think):

Please excuse the smudge on my middle finger...I tried a new top coat and my dots may not have been completely dry. 

These are my colors:  Pure Ice - Superstar, Julep - Charlotte, Finger Paints - Sketch Me, Finger Paints - Masterpiece of Minimalism, and Julep - Beverly (ignore the white in the backgroud...it didn't get used).

Over all, I really like this. I think I could have done more dots up one of the sides on a few nails. But that would be the only change I'd make.

So what's on your nails this week/weekend? Come share with the rest of us over at The Nail Files!

Happy Friday!

Jewel Heist Letdown

A few weeks ago (not sure when, exactly) Julep released a new mystery box:

Now I realize that by ordering a mystery box I am taking my chances on what I'll get. I've ordered mystery boxes from Julep before. I also know that if you order multiple boxes, things may overlap (not an issue here, I only ordered one). The description was:  "packed with $100+ worth of mystery nail polishes and beauty must-haves..." Now I realize this says nothing about getting a glitter polish of any sort. However, based on the picture, I (and quite a few others, based on other reviews I found) was expecting at least one glitter.

Nope! Nada!

I did get a shimmer or two, but those don't really count, do they? They're not full-on glitters. And they are definitely the birthday polishes shown in the add picture.

So here is what I did get:

In the box, you can't really see what's what...the black box is the pink lip color below.

Padma, Nadia, Francis, Faye, & Lip Vernis in Peony, plus an overnight repair for hands kit.

Now, I have not done the research myself, except for Nadia, but other have stated that a lot of these items are on sale/clearance on the Julep website. Some have also said that the Lip Vernis is from two years ago. Others even got boxes with only one nail polish. While Julep looks at the original retail value of the products in the box, Zadidoll did a great breakdown (and review) of the box here (she got TWO boxes just like mine).

All in all, I am a little disappointed in my box. Technically the colors are considered Jewel Tones (Googled "Jewel Tones" to make sure), the advertisements for this box led a lot of people to think they would get at least one glitter polish of some sort. And while I may use the green (Francis) for nail art, I will probably only get any use out of Padma (purple). The lip gloss is too light for me. And as helpful as I'm sure the hand repair kit would be, I can pretty much guarantee I won't use it (I am horribly inconsistent when it comes to these things).

My question to you...did you order the Jewel Heist Mystery Box? What did you get? And do you like it?

Oh well....

It's Thursday, y'all! The weekend is right around the corner! WOOHOO!!