Valentine's Day - 2014

Mr S and I don't typically go all out for Valentine's Day. I probably has to do with the fact that our dating anniversary falls on the day before, Feb 13. And we're both usually working (unless it falls on the weekend).

This year was no different. Thursday, Feb 13 was our 5 years together mark! But, alas, Mr S is in Idaho for work. So no celebration was to be had. I, however, took myself to sushi for dinner. And Mr S was kind enough to send me a lovely boquet of my favorite flowers:  Tulips!!

Friday, however, there wasn't much hooplah. The obligatory "Happy Valentine's Day" texts, and that's about it.

However, I paid the final payment, got the keys, and did the walk through to our new place yesterday morning. And I treated myself to Chick-fil-a breakfast. But that was the extent of the celebrating.

Today, however, Mr S comes home. There will be plenty of celebrating, if you know what I mean (bow chicka wow wow!!)!!

And then back to the real world of adults, for a day at least, as we attempt to do some moving tomorrow.  Probably some of the little stuff...at least that's what Mr S says. Put in what we need first so we can see what we have left over for storage...that's my preference. Besides, the sooner we've got the big stuff there the sooner we can start "living" there. And I don't have to wake to critters over my head in the attic!

Then, Monday...oh how I can't wait for Monday!! We're heading to Disneyland! Renewing our passes (our anniversary/valentine's day gift to each other) and then spending the day in the happiest place on earth. I can't wait! This will be our anniversary/valentine's celebration.

I hope everyone had a fantastic Valentine's weekend!

The Nail Files - Valentine's Day edition

Because I found myself sitting at my desk on Saturday morning waiting in a virtual waiting room to buy tickets for Comic-Con in San Diego this year, I have two Valentine's Manicures to bring you today.

This is from Saturday and lasted till about Tuesday night.  Two coats of Julep's Helen with Missy hearts and dots. I know it's kind of hard to tell from the shiny of the silver, but they are hearts on the middle finger. I even had a hard time and I did the design!

Then, while on the phone with my parents yesterday, I did this one:

Two coats of Ulta's Total Eclips on all nails. One coat and multiple dabs of Nicole by OPI's Haley Good Lookin (from the Modern Family collection).  **Edit made to name of glitter polish after realizing from another link up poster that I had the wrong collection/color for Nicole by OPI...sorry for misinformation to those who saw it before the edit!**

If you know me in real life, I am not a pink, frilly kind of girl. In fact, there are no pick shirts in my closet. But for some reason, I find I have a lot of pink polishes.

And, since my husband doesn't come home from Idaho until tomorrow, I just couldn't do a full on "love" theme for the weekend.

Enough about my nails, what do yours look like this weekend?

And show some love to my fellow Manicure enthusiasts:




Happy Valentine's Day!!

The Nail Files - Shiny Simplicity

Due to the amount of packing I'm supposed to be doing, I've kept my nails simple since last week (hence, no post last week).

But I got my Julep box on Saturday and had to share the goods!!

I opted for my usual, Classic with a Twist and got Greta, a pink shimmer, and Octavia, a royal/navy blue creme.  As a special plus to everyone (I think), I also got a glitter polish called Love.  Gold glitter with pink flecks in a clear base. But, like my Essie's On A Silver Platter, it could easily be worn without a base color and have good coverage.

Here's what they look like (sorry for bad lighting):

One coat of Greta with one coat of Love on ring finger.

One coat of Octavia with one coat of Essie's On a Silver Platter on the ring finger.

I considered leaving my nails this way though the week...pink on one finger and blue on the other. Until I remembered I'd be with my in-laws for the Super Bowl and the last thing I needed were questions on if I was preggers or not and when (I get enough of that as it is...I don't want to rattle the cage of the beast). So I opted for Greta with Love until it peeled enough throughout the week for me to just remove it all together.

My nails have been plain since. I think they needed a break...but it won't last long, knowing me.

Happy Friday, everyone!

And, as always, come show off your manicures (and pedicures) with the rest of us polish junkies!!

Beauty in Change

With the move coming up, I've had a lot going through my mind about our new place.  If you've been following along (and if I mentioned it), we're downsizing from a 2 bed/bath to a 1 bed/bath apartment for the next 13 months.  The plan is to use the money we're saving to pay off some debt, save towards a down payment on a house, and make our credit look better for the future house hunt.

But we have a lot of stuff. And we're going from a fairly larger than normal 2 bed/bath to 725 square feet.  Yeah, tiny!  And I've been stressing a little bit (read, a lot) about where all our stuff is going to fit while we're not using it.  And it's small...did I mention it's small?

Yesterday, though, I was reminded that I need to look at the good in this (by, ironically enough, a fire truck outside).

Which leads to my first good point:

1.  We are no long located on the major road! (The complex is, obviously, but our apartment is in a row and not facing the main entrance or main road out there.)  No more road noises at all hours of the day.  No more wailing sirens at all hours of the day (Cause SoCal drivers be crazy!)!

2.  No more stairs!! We'll be in a downstairs unit.

3.  No more American Idol wannabe below us with her thumping music.

4.  A larger kitchen space.  Ironically enough, despite being a smaller size as a whole, the new place has a larger kitchen area.

5.  No more sliding glass door on the shower (I am not a fan...I prefer the normal shower curtains).

6.  Finally organizing stuff that I've needed to organize and sort though for the past two years.  Having to pack stuff up for storage has made me realize there are a lot of things I don't need to keep. I'm finally going through all the stuff I've accumulated over the past three years of being in our current place.

While I'm still nervous going into this, especially the small closet in the bedroom, I'm also very excited about this new chapter in our lives.  It will definitely be an adventure!

Moving and Packing, Packing and Moving

My list continues to grow. With every one thing I mark off, two more pop up. Seriously, what's up with that?!

I think downsizing is what's making it a little more difficult. If we were just moving to a same size apartment, or a house, it wouldn't be this way. I could just pack stuff up a week before and toss it in a room to at the new place to sort though later. We don't have that luxury this time.

I've already emptied three shelves of a 5-shelf unit (boxed for storage, that is). I've boxed for storage our DVD collection. Just the DVDs. We still have a 4-shelf unit of blu-ray and xbox games. That one won't get boxed as those are the ones we usually seldom never watch (it's the ones we go to when we actually watch a movie that isn't on cable or Netflix or Amazon Prime or HBO Go).

And, my latest accomplishment, I've boxed up my important papers.

I am a recipt/bill/paper pack-rat. I keep all my important papers throughout the year in a drawer in my office. At the end of the year, I empty it into a bag/box/large envelope (to sort though at some point) and start fresh in the same drawer for the new year. My goal is to sort through the previous year and get rid of receipts I no longer need, random papers that got tossed in there, forms I filled out for work but don't need to keep anymore, etc. Of the five years worth of papers I went through the other night, only one year was already sorted and toned down to essentials. That's how "great" I am at the sorting part.

What are the essentials? Car tag paper work, bills that were paid (mainly medical stuff), bank statements (still in the envelopes they came in), some water bills (also still in the envelopes), paperwork from new accounts, etc. I also ran across my wedding folder from 2011...I kept it all!

I'm glad we have our own shredder now...cause I filled that puppy UP! I even emptied it BEFORE I started shredding stuff! I think I filled a 13 gallon trash bag with receipts to trash and shredding bits. Confetti, anyone?

I still need to do so much:  the spare room closet, the spare room storage, the stuff under the bed in the spare room, the last two shelves of the 5-er, the 3-shelf unit in the living room, the hall closets, under the bathroom sinks, and my closet.

I did get some more boxes...the banker boxes. I thought those would be good for books and magazines. That way they don't get too heavy and there are handles to carry them.

It's just A LOT to do!

But then, anyone who has ever had to move knows what it's like!

 Happy Wednesday, y'all!! 

The Nail Files - On A Silver Platter

As you may (or may not) have seen here, I got some lovely polishes for Christmas. I've tried out two of the three, but had yet to try Essie's On A Silver Platter.

I was intending to do it over another color since it has a clear base, but hadn't decided which one yet. Yesterday morning, on a whim, I tried a layer on my thumb just to see what it looked like without a base color.

Uh...AMAZING!!

I ended up just going for it with out a base color!

 This is angled so you can see the gold micro-glitter coverage at certain angles/light.

 This gives a better idea of the clear base, but the holographic/iridescence of some of the other glitters in there. Even the blue flakes have a bit of a holographic shine to them in certain light.

I did two coats to try to "even out" the blue glitter. But I really didn't need to.

I think I have a navy blue that this will be AMAZE-BALLS over, so stay tuned for that test run!

And, as always, I'm linking up:



Head over and check out some of the other great manicures and show some love!  :)

Happy Friday!

The Moving To Do List

We are moving!

And while Mr S is gone, I've decided to take the time and start packing up the non-essentials of the apartment.

We're also moving into a smaller apartment, so part of the packing is working to downsize stuff...like our DVDs, tchotchkes, etc.

It's a bit of a daunting task.

Monday evening I started sorting the DVDs, alphabetically. We have A LOT!! And that didn't include the Blu-Ray movies or the Disney Movies (Disney Movies get their own category, thank you!)!

Tuesday I started packing them. I decided to inventory them, too. Because as I was sorting, I discovered we had three copies of Ocean's Eleven. THREE!!! And that's not including the original with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr. And there were other movies we had more than one copy of. I realize that happens when people get married...you join stuff together and get duplicates of stuff.

**Update on Ocean's Eleven - it was really only two copies. The third copy was actually Ocean's Twelve, which, in my defense, the covers look VERY similar. Similar - as in one is white and the other is black.**

***Another duplicate movie update - we had two copies of Sex in the City. I'm pretty sure both were mine. If not, I don't really want to know!***

Today, I got the rest added to the list and attempted to pack them. However the remaining containers I have are smaller than the one I used yesterday and M-Y won't fit. So I need another 20 gallon container to finish packing the movies (payday on Friday!) and those will be done.

I also realized my alphabetical powers have dwindled a bit. There were about three movies that were mis-alphabetized. Oh well, it happens

My next task is our closet. I realize I can't do much with his stuff. But I desperately need to sort out my clothes and shoes. Cause we're getting a smaller closet to go with the smaller place! And I know there are tops in there I haven't worn in over six months. There may be some dresses and pants in there, too. I see a trip to the Salvation Army in my future...for a very large donation!

Another thing I want to do is pack up some of our non-essential kitchen stuff. You know, all the stuff we registered for when we got married but haven't used because we don't entertain because we live in an apartment. The stuff we still won't use for the next year or so while we're in an even smaller apartment than we're in now. Yeah...that stuff.

I've also got to go through the stuff under the bathroom sinks and downsize all that. And figure out how I'm going to store my expanding obsession collection of nail polish. Cause the current system won't fly over there.

And I have three black drawer towers (inherited from my roommate 4 years go...thank you Mar) that have become junk drawers. It's beyond time for those to be cleared out. Besides, I've already got plans for them as extra storage space around the new place!

There is a lot to do. Thankfully, I have the time to do it.

Now if I could just find that motivation. I left it around here somewhere...