Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips

Look away now if you don't want to read another nail post.

I know my last post was on nails, but we all know how obsessed I am with nails and nail art.

Yesterday, after dying my sister's hair and then losing some of my nail polish because I was using nail polish remover to get the hair dye off my sister's face, I decided to use the Sally Hansen Nail Polish Strips I bought a few weeks ago.

I put some on my sister last weekend and they barely lasted a day so I was a prepared for it to be short lived.

Well, like most nail stuff, it seemed to work better on my acrylic nails.  It stuck beautifully and I didn't have any corners raising up.  The effect was awesome.

I'm hooked!

I have tried the OPI nail art stickers previously and they were awful.  They were really thick and creased very easily.  The Sally Hansen ones are very thin and mould perfectly to the nail.

I can't wait to buy some different designs in the future.

xx

Nail Art Experimentation

As I have mentioned previously, I have a slight obsession with nail polish.

I also love nail art, but am too cheap and impatient to get it done at the nail salon.

While I was wandering the aisles at the chemist the other day, I came across french manicure stickers.  You know, the ones you use to paint the tips of your nails a different colour to the rest of your nails.  Eureka!  This is exactly what I had been hoping to find.  Except I had no intention of painting my tips the boring white colour of the typical french manicure.

My nails were already the dark purple (OPI's Dutch You Just Love OPI? for those playing at home) from my visit to the salon the day before.  So I thought to jazz it up, I'd make my tips a lighter purple.  I used OPI's Planks A Lot.  I LOVED them.  They were a bit messy, but I learnt from my minor mistakes and made sure to do it a bit differently next time.

Yesterday I painted my nails OPI's A Roll in the Hague and the tips OPI's Big Apple Red.  Much brighter than last week, but just what I need to get me through the last week of the school term.

I look forward to experimenting with other colour combinations.  I am also thinking of being a bit more adventurous by adding nail gems and using sticky tape to paint different patterns.

In other nail experiments, I put Sally Hansen's Nail Stickers on my sister's nails.  They were pretty easy to apply, though a bit sucky that I couldn't find a sticker to fit my sister's pointer fingers.  They also didn't respond well to the NT heat and didn't stick as well as I had hoped and started to peel almost instantly.  My sister has already 'lost' two...  However for the 20 minutes that they were all in tact on her nails, it looked awesome.

xx

My Favourite Pumpkin Soup

I love pumpkin soup.

Even though we don't get typical 'winter' weather, I am more than happy to eat pumpkin soup in any weather.

I have made many different types of pumpkin soup  Some more complex than others.

However, there is one pumpkin soup recipe that I hold dear.  It is the easiest pumpkin soup recipe that I have tried, and it is by far the yummiest.

I found it online years ago.  And recently I lost the recipe.  That's okay though.  Having the recipe in front of me was more for the security blanket factor.  I shouldn't need the recipe.  I've made this pumpkin soup HEAPS of times.

And now I am going to share it all with you.

MY FAVOURITE PUMPKIN SOUP

Serves 4

Ingredients:

750g diced pumpkin - I use butternut, but jap works quite well too
250g diced potato
1 onion diced (the recipe originally asked for 2 onions, but I have changed it to one for personal preference)
3 vegetable stock cubes (you could also use chicken stock cubes.  I use vegetable because my sister is vegetarian)
3.5 cups of water
salt and pepper to taste
250g cream
crusty bread and sour cream to serve

Method:


1.  Put all ingredients (except cream) in a large pot.  Let simmer until pumpkin and potato is soft (not mushy though).

2.  Remove from heat and blitz with a bar mix until smooth.

3.  Return to heat and add cream.

4.  Stir cream in and heat through.

5.  Serve with warm crusty bread and a dollop of sour cream if desired.

ENJOY!

This soup also freezes and reheats quite well.

Oh, it's also only 225 calories a serve (not including the bread and sour cream).

xx

Litchfield National Park

After living in the Territory for nearly 5.5 years, I finally went to Litchfield National Park.

Litchfield National Park is pretty much a NT institution and with many of the sights being accessible by sealed roads, there is really no excuse to not go.

So yesterday, two of my friends and I spent the day playing tourist.  One of my friends had already visited Litchfield numerous times (and she's only lived the NT for 18 months...), and the other (a true blue, life-long Territorian) had also never been.

It was beautiful.  The weather was lovely - not too hot, not too cold - and it was great just to get out of town and chill out with some awesome friends.

 A miniature castle in Batchelor

 Big termite mounds

 Wangi Falls - beautiful

 Buley Rock Holes

 Keira swam, but I was only brave enough to put my feet in...

 Florence Falls

Now, I just need to get off my bum and see the other amazing sights the Top End has to offer!