A Little Kindness in the Sand

Well, I survived the first day back at school with the little darlings!  I am looking forward to the year ahead, though I can see that some of my new kidlets are going to be very challenging.  At least I can't say my work is boring!

Tonight I am wearing my first ever Rainbow Honey manicure.  It is freakin' awesome!

Rainbow Honey A Little Kindness was gifted to me in my birthday group and as soon as I saw it, I was itching to use it.

A Little Kindness, from the Equestria Collection, has 'rose, white, gold and soft green glitters in a delicate and sheer yellow base in an iridescent pink shimmer'.

I layered it over another untried, OPI Samoan Sands, and I think it looks great - neutral and tame (maybe even 'work-safe') with that flash of delicate shimmer and pop of glitter sparkle.

Unfortunately, my crappy iPhone camera is nowhere near clever enough to to capture the awesomeness of this polish - looks like I'll have to pull out my Nikon point and shoot to give these polishes the justice they deserve.  You can see a glimpse of the pink shimmer in my pinky, which as I have mentioned about a million times, is AWESOME.

I am actually hoping that my manicure lasts until the weekend, because it will be sad moment when this gorgeous manicure gets removed.

Rainbow Honey does not ship direct to Oz, so please click here to see a list of their e-tailers.


I also received two more birthday group nail mails today.  I am happy to see that my Aussie indie collection is growing, and I can't wait to add more pretties to my indie drawer.

My first Emily de Molly (so much SPARKLE!) and an Essie I have been yearning for - Gold As It Gets.

Woohoo!! Two lovelies from Loki's Lacquer's brand new Futurama Collection.

xx

Gloss n Sparkle = WOW!

Yesterday I tried my first ever Gloss 'n Sparkle polish.

It was ah-maze-ing!

I received Gloss 'n Sparkle Royal as part of my birthday group goodies.  I loved it immediately and already planned for it to be apart of my 'back to school' manicure.

Gloss 'n Sparkle is a fantastic Australian indie brand and I have coveted some of Angela's pretties for quite some time.

Royal Flash is a mix of red hex glitters in two different sizes and black and silver glitter shards all in a clear base.

While I've seen it layered over blues, I decided to tone it down a bit (since this is the manicure I will be wearing when I meet my new students and their parents) and layer if over grey - Essie Chinchilly.

I am so happy with the result!

I LOVE how this looks.  I especially love how the deep red hex glitters appear to pop over the grey base.

I topped this manicure with one coat of Essence Gel-Look top coat and two coats of SH Insta-Dry to get a glassy smooth finish.

Royal Flash applied extremely easily and there was a tonne of glitter in just one coat.

Essie Chinchilly was also one of the better Essies I've tried.  The formula was a great consistency and it only needed two nice coats of even it out.

I have two more Gloss 'n Sparkles to try out (also birthday group gifts) and I am super excited to try them after the awesomeness that was my experience with Royal Flash.

Gloss 'n Sparkle is available through their etsy store for the incredibly awesome price of just $9 a bottle.  Unfortunately, I believe that Royal Flash is no longer available.



In other nail news, here is a pic of another birthday group pressie I received on Friday.

Yay!  More Gloss 'n Sparkles and my first Rainbow Honeys!

If all goes to plan in birthday group world, I should be receiving another EIGHT birthday group nail mails by the end of the week!  Yay!

xx

Chilli-bean Nachos

Here we have my first food post for the year.

As I mentioned previously, I had fallen off the wagon BIG time and had managed to put on a few of those pesky kgs I managed to lose last year.

In case you weren't keeping track, through calorie counting, I lost 8kgs last year.  Not as much as I needed to lose, but still a decent dint.  

Unfortunately, I managed to put 4kgs of those back on...

I had meant to get back into the healthy eating, but got distracted and my poor will-power got the better of me.  

Well, I got the wake-up call I needed when I got the results back from a blood test I had done a few weeks back (for another issue).

To both my and my doctors surprise, my cholesterol levels were through the roof.  7.9 to be exact.  Yep, 7.9!  To get some perspective for those who have no idea about cholesterol levels (that was me until very recently), healthy levels are below 5, with 6.5 considered HIGH.  So my 7.9 was HUGE.  My doctor was quite speechless and almost thought the test must be wrong...  So we decided it would be best if I ate a low-fat diet over the next four weeks and get re-tested.  She said people with these levels are typically put on meds for the rest of their lives.  I'm only 27, so we want that to be a last resort.  

Scary stuff.  Especially considering heart disease runs rife in my family.  My paternal grandmother had a triple bypass at 35 and my maternal grandmother has angina.  Plus there is other cholesterol and heart issues in the family as well.

So I found this recipe on www.taste.com.au , while searching for low-fat vegetarian meals.

Chilli-bean Nachos also contain around 370 calories and only 5.5g of fat per serve.

An interesting addition to this nachos was the zucchini, something I did not expect to be in a typical nachos dish.

It was pretty yummy, though I stuffed it up royally.  I couldn't find Mexican chilli powder, so I added normal chilli powder.  Ummm... for future reference, normal chilli powder is NOT the same as Mexican chilli powder.  This was soooooooooo HOT!  Plus I tried to fix the heat by adding too much sugar...  It was odd. It tasted a bit sweet, but also had the heat from the chilli.  I will not make the same mistake again!

Oh, just thought I should add that I have been following this low-fat diet for 10 days now and have managed to lose 2.5kgs.  Hopefully I can get my cholesterol levels down to an acceptable level and I can hit my weight loss goal from last year.  Only 11kg to go!

Until next time...

xx

Ozotic 912 Awesomeness

Today I am wearing Ozotic for the first time.  I have seen Ozotic mentioned on various blogs (both local and international) and they have always appeared stunning.

The polish I wore today is no exception.

Ozotic 912 is a purple/pink scatter chrome holo.  It is GORGEOUS!

This polish continues to surprise me.  It's not as dark in real life as it is in the photo, but it changes colour depending on the angle you look at it and those chrome holo specks (NOT glitter) are to die for.

It applied like a dream, only needing two easy coats for full opacity.

I own a few more Ozotics that I am yet to try out, but I think even more will be added to my stash very, very soon.


In other nail news, as I have mentioned previously, it is my birthday group month.  While it is not my birthday (March was already taken), this month I will receive 11 packages of polish from the other lovely ladies in the group.  Today I received my first two parcels!

Awesome Wonder Woman polishes.  These look fab and I am sure will become staples in my collection.  I'm also looking forward to giving the star fizzes a whirl in a foot soak!

Yay!!  More indies!!  Trying to decide which one to wear first will be INCREDIBLY difficult!

I already had my next manicure decided, but now I might need to rethink things...

I can't wait to repay these lovely ladies when it is their birthday month!

xx

Dorothy's Secret

I never really identified with a 'favourite' polish colour.

Well, over the past couple of months, it's becoming quite obvious that that is not quite true and that I have lately been leaning towards blues.

That's okay though, blue polishes are awesome and come in so many different shades and finishes.

Which brings me to today's manicure.

CG Secret Peri-wink-le and CG Dorothy Who?

Two absolutely gorgeous colours.

(My pointer finger is the same colour as my middle finger, it's just that the light hit it at a different angle...)

China Glaze is fast becoming one of my favourite polish brands.  I am yet to be disappointed in a colour or its application.

Secret Peri-wink-le, a periwinkle blue creme from the 2008 Operation Colour Collection, applied smoothly and while there was some balding, it was easily rectified with a slightly thicker third coat.  Again, I need to learn some patience as the dragging could have been avoided if I had waited for the first coat to dry.

Dorothy Who? blew me away.  It is absolutely stunning!  The sparkle in that beauty is captivating.  My crappy IG photo does this amazing polish no justice.  It applied like a dream and reached full opacity in three easy coats.  Dorothy Who? is from the 2009 Wizard of Ooh Ahz Returns Collection, the same collection that the equally awesome Ruby Pumps is from.

If these are a sample of some of the amazing blue polishes available, I am happy to define myself as a blue polish lover.

xx

A Decadent Diva goes to a Festival

And so the lame post titles continue!

Today I have another brown manicure to show you.  Essie's Decadent Diva has been calling to me every time I look into my untrieds basket.  I have been wearing a lot of lighter/brighter nails lately and the dark sauciness of Decadent Diva is just what I needed to cleanse my palette.

Essie Decadent Diva is described as a 'daring dark brown with a bronze shimmer'.

Funnily enough, when I first looked at it in the bottle I thought it was a bit like a really dark reddish/purple.  Once on the nail though, it was definitely brown!  It looks almost dark chocolatey rich.  Yum.

Application was a bit patchy.  Again, maybe due to my impatience or lacking polish painting skills.  It was quite thin and runny and tended to drag and leave some balding near the cuticle.  Maybe if I let it dry more between coats the outcome would have been different.  I needed three coats for full opacity.

One of the aspects of Decadent Diva that I loved was how freakin' shiny it was!

I have also been hanging out to use my piCture pOlish Festival, as it is my first flakey (after coveting the nearly unobtainable Essie Shine of the Times or SH Hidden Treasure).  I know flakies usually look best over darker colours, so I thought I would try it over the dark brown and it did not disappoint.

I have caught myself many times over the past 24 hours staring at my nails in varying angles just to daze at the awesomeness that are the flakies.  LOVE.

I quite enjoyed this manicure.  It was something different to what I usually lean towards.

I'll be taking it off very soon though, as I think it might be good for my nails to be nekkid for a day or two.  My nails are feeling quite 'dry' and my hands are definitely feeling the agony of frequent acetone use.  Though don't despair, not completely nekkid, I will have my Duri Rejuvacote and OPI Nail Envy on for support.  I've already chosen my next manicure, so I will probably re-do them tomorrow night.

In other awesome nail news, I have purchased quite a few nail goodies over the last couple of days.  Though not polish, as I'm still on my polish no-buy due to it being my Birthday Group month.  I purchased three different kinds of top coat to see which one works best for me as SH Insta-Dry is just too expensive.  So once they arrive I will be trying Seche Vite, Posche and HK Girl.  I also bought some awesome nail art tools.  I bought dotting tools, brushes, striping tape, stamping stuff, rhinestones and studs.  I can't wait to play with them when they arrive.

xx

Glittery Cocktail Bling

Today I thought I would have another go at a glitter gradient.

I attempted a glitter gradient a couple of weeks ago with OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls as a base and Ulta3 Confetti as the gradient, but I found it incredibly difficult to get My Boyfriend Scales Walls to level out, thus resulting in 3-4 coats and then the Ulta3 glitter was sooooo thick (this is BEFORE I bought a polish thinner) and the finished result ended up uber thick and it pretty much came off in one easy wipe.  I will definitely try that combo again, with the use of my polish thinner, but today I decided to use two polishes from my untrieds basket.

For my base I used Essie's Cocktail Bling, a gorgeous cool-toned grey lavender with a creme finish.  This colour is gorgeous.  In some lights it appears grey, and in other lights, almost a super pale lavender.  I love it.  It also applied beautifully.  I had a bit of balding during my second coat - though this is most likely due to my impatience and applying it before the first coat was dry - but it levelled out wonderfully by the third very thin coat.

I then applied piCture pOlish's Gene Doll using the dabbing method.  Maybe in hindsight this wasn't the best glitter to use.  It appeared quite sparse and was quite difficult to get a decent amount of glitter on the nail.  I managed to get an acceptable level of glitter in the gradient by the third 'dabbed' coat.

It is far from perfect. The finish is thicker than I prefer - but for a glitter gradient, that is to be expected!  The polish is also exceptionally thick (in my opinion) on my pinky.  But for a second attempt, I am still quite chuffed.

I was surprised by how much I loved the colour combination.  I often find it very difficult to come up with effective colour combos and often resort to google to see what others have used.  The gorgeous lavender/gray with the super sparkly violet of the glitter really contrasted well in my opinion.

I look forward to attempting other glitter gradients, especially with smaller glitters and with a sponge.  I find the effects of glitter gradients to be absolutely stunning and I can't wait to experiment some more.

xx

December Bella Box

Here is the other beauty box subscription I ordered.

Like Lust Have It!, Bella Box is $15/month and you get five 'prestige, boutique and cult beauty products from around the world'.

Now unlike Lust Have It!, the packaging of the Bella Box was exquisite.

This is how it arrived in my mail box:

Gorgeous.

Then inside was another, equally gorgeous box.

For the box alone, I would get this subscription, lol.  I already have ideas of what to store in this box and future boxes.

But, alas, this subscription does not just get you a pretty box.  Like Lust Have It!, here is a list of what may have been in the December box with more details on the products themselves.

All so delicately wrapped in tissue paper.

John Frieda Frizz-Ease Finishing Creme - I am pretty excited about this product.  I totally forgot it was in the box and actually went to the hairdresser the other day asking for a product to do very similar things.  I suffer from the dreaded 'sticky-uppy-frizzy-bits', especially more so now that I am using my AWESOME (yet uber powerful) Christmas present of a ghd Hair dryer.  I'm new to the whole hair dryer scene, so I'm an yet to discover the must-have products to make my hair look salon styled.  I can't wait to see if this product really will tame my frizzy tendrils.

emerginC Cleanser and Cream - As I mentioned in my previous post, I am a devout Clinique skincare follower.  But I will try these lovelies and see whether they do what they claim to do which is 'turn back the hands of time'.  Let's face it, I'm no longer a spring chicken and if I take care of my skin now, I may just look younger for longer...

Compeed Blister Patches - just what every girl needs.  We all know the pain and agony of breaking in new shoes, and these bad boys are supposed to act like a second skin to help prevent new blisters from forming while soothing and healing the blisters that already exist.  I don't have any blisters right now, but when I do, I'll be sure to give these a whirl.

Allegra Rhodes Hand and Nail Cream - I love hand creams and this little beauty is so tiny, it will fit easily in my handbag.  Obviously there is only a few uses, but it smells heavenly.

And now for the big ticket item Bella Box was raving about in their emails.  As you can see, most of their box products are sample size.  But this next item is 'real size' and according to their website, worth $110.  So either they are over-exagerating to the extreme (come on, the whole box only cost $15, how can they justify a product worth over $100?!) or I chose the perfect time to join.

Savoir Faire Limited Edition Kit "C'est le ton qui fait la musique" - This was a surprise.  I am always looking for new make-up to add to my collection, and while I don't tend to lean towards make-up kits, the eye shadows in this have me hypnotised.  They are full of sparkle and shimmer and I can't wait to use them.  The eye-liner, mascara and blusher will also most likely get a go, but I can't see myself using the lipgloss.

So that was my first Bella Box.  All in all, I'm fairly impressed, though I do believe there is more value in the Lust Have It! box (not including the allegedly $110 make-up kit...).  I am unsure as to whether they have big ticket items in all of their boxes, or whether this was just a Christmas treat.

Another notable aspect of Bella Box is that you can purchase most of the box products in full-size on their website.  Which is great, as there is nothing worse than liking a sample product but then having no idea how or where to purchase it (I think Lust Have It! may have something similar, where you can purchase box products in their 'shop').

I look forward to receiving my next box. 

Hopefully some nail polish will make its way in to one (or both) of these great beauty box subscriptions.

xx

*Again, this post is not sponsored by Bella Box in any way.  I purchased this subscription myself with my own money*

Lust Have It! December Beauty Box

Many nail bloggers from overseas were raving on about their subscription beauty boxes and I was curious to see whether Australia had something similar.  

I have discovered two so far and received my first boxes last month.  

Lust Have It! is a beauty box subscription.  For $14.95/month you get a box full of 5-6 'premium' samples.

The idea of the beauty box subscription is to introduce consumers to new products that they may not otherwise have tried.  Many of the products in the box are sample size, but still a good enough size for decent usage to test the effectiveness of the product.

I wasn't sure what to expect with these beauty box subscriptions.  I decided to give it a go for a few months and if I didn't like it, I would cancel my subscription.  I received my Bella Box first (which I will blog about later), and my Lust Have It! box arrived a week later.  The Lust Have It! box was, in my opinion, much better value.

Click this link for a more in depth description of what each product does and what was included in the box.  Note, not ALL products listed were in the box, this is the list of what they chose from, so the December box would contain 5-6 of these products.

To be honest, I haven't had a chance to really test these products, but now that I have taken them out of their box, I will make a concerted effort to try them.  I hope to review the actual products effectiveness in future boxes.

Here is the box and it's contents (please excuse the crappy photography, I am still getting used to my camera and only just discovered the macro setting in the Bella Box photos...):

Here's the box in all its seam bursting glory.  Apparently this is the first time they have not put the products in a nice bag.  Instead, it was just shoved in a box (with packing ribbon to cushion it).  I didn't know any different, so I was cool with it.

Marc Jacobs Daisy sample - I was a bit excited to see this in the box.  I have coveted this perfume for quite a while, however with its exxy price, I have put off buying it.  This sample is more than enough to quench my hunger for it, and may just make me decide I do in fact NEED this perfume in my life.  I have a birthday coming up...

Pelactiv Facial Refiner Deep Cleansing Scrub - I am curious to use this product.  I am a devout Clinique user and have felt the wrath of my skin every time I try to change to a different skin care product (uh, hello uber expensive Lancome, sorry, but my skin HATED you...).  I am always looking for a good scrub.  One to use once a week to give my pores a good clean out.  Clinique has a good one, but I will be giving this bad boy a try tonight.

Benefit Mascara They're Real Mascara - I have a love/hate relationship with mascara.  I NEED to use it.  My eyelashes almost look non-existent without it.  But I am yet to acquire the skill required to apply it flawlessly.  My lashes often look clumpy and due to my habit of subconsciously rubbing my eyes and fiddling with my crusty mascara riddled lashes, I am prone to panda eyes.  I am using a Clinique mascara at the moment that washes off in 'bits' in warm water, so that bit I like, but the wand leaves a little bit to be desired.  I'm gonna give this Benefit mascara a whirl the next time I go out.  The wand looks quite impressive and according to their spiel, it doesn't smudge, budge or dry out.  Three things I like in a mascara.

 Glasshouse Fragrances Nourishing Hand Cremes - I LOVE their candles, so I can only assume that the fragrance in their hand cremes will be just as awesome.  I have desperately wanted to use these, but they almost seem too good to use.  Don't despair, I will be giving one of these beauties a whirl later on this afternoon.  With my new found obsession with polish comes the necessity that is acetone to remove polish and to 'clean-up'.  This has dried my poor phalanges and I am always on the lookout for awesome hand creams.

Naked Tan Goddess Shimmer - This lovely smells divine and leaves a gorgeous sparkle on the skin.  However, I'm stumped as to where I would wear this.  To the beach?  Out to dinner?  Just because?  I'm sure I'll find a reason to wear it, if not only because I love sparkles!

Catwalk by Tigi Sessions Series Finishing Hair Spray - I'm kinda new to the hair product world.  I have been slowly acquiring hair products over the past couple of months, however I have steered clear of hairspray so as to avoid 'crispy' hair.  Funnily enough, I bought a light weight hair spray just two days ago...   This hairspray claims to be brushable and light-weight.  So I will surely give it a whirl and due to its compact size, it will most likely travel with me.

Lust Have It! Exfoliating Glove - When I first saw this in the box, I wasn't sure what it was.  For a small while there I thought it might have been a mini hot water bottle cover.  Turns out it's an exfoliating glove.  I love exfoliating gloves and use my trusty Body Shop ones every night.  I'm not sure if I will use this one though.  There is no loop to hang it in your bathroom and I quite like the actual glove like qualities of my Body Shop gloves (they have actual FINGERS).

All in all, I LOVED this box.  For just $15/month, that is HEAPS of value.  Lust Have It! have a lot to live up to in their next boxes, though from looking at what has been included in previous boxes, I'm doubtful that they will disappoint.

*This post was not sponsored by Lust Have It! in any way.  I purchased this subscription myself*

China Glaze - Running in Circles

Today I have a GORGEOUS emerald green polish to share with you.

China Glaze's Running in Circles is from their recent Cirque du Soleil Worlds Away collection.  This collection was full of very many pretties, and I managed to restrain myself and only purchase two - I'll show you the other one when I eventually wear it.

Running in Circles is an incredibly gorgeous emerald green with super duper shimmer.  For a while there I thought it was made up of mainly glitter, but I was mistaken.  Application was a breeze.  It required three coats for full opacity with the only issue I could see being the drying time.  It seemed to take forever to dry between coats, but that may be due to our disgustingly humid weather!  Clean-up was also VERY easy.  I imagined having green cuticles, but that is not the case (however the photo is showing some reflective green on my skin, it is not there in real life).

I love this polish and can't wait to try it's blue sister very soon.

xx

Recycled Bikini makes a Splash!

Again, another lame title, lol.  Get used to them.

Wow, two posts in one day.  Maybe this new direction was a good idea after all.

As I mentioned this morning, I had plans to recycle my blue Essie manicure by adding piCture pOlish Splash as a topper.

It was gorgeous.

The piCture pOlish applied like a dream.  I didn't have to fish around for the glitter and it contrasted well with the other blue shades.

I applied two coats of Splash, and in hindsight, one would have been plenty.

xx

Essie's Smooth Sailing in a Teeny Bikini

Okay, I admit it.  Lame title, lol.

Today I have my current manicure to show you.  It's my first manicure using Essie polish.  I purchased 13 Essie polishes for the fantastic price of $6 each from Ozsale just before Christmas.  Essie is well known for their simple, but staple colours and their fantastic formula.

I used three coats of Essie Bikini So Teeny and then three coats of Smooth Sailing on my accent finger and thumb.  I then topped it with a coat of my current fave top coat - Sally Hansen Insta-Dry (with a base coat of OPI Nail Envy-Soft & Thin).

These blues are absolutely gorgeous.  My only complaints would be the smell, with Bikini So Teeny slightly worse than Smooth Sailing.  I also had some issues with Bikini So Teeny levelling out evenly, but that is only really noticeable close-up.

I will be recycling this manicure very soon by layering piCture pOlish Splash on top - a gorgeous blue glitter. I will post the results from that addition later.

Oh, here's some more nail mail!

On the advice from the lovely ladies from the Aussie Nails facebook group, I purchased my first bottles of Duri Rejuvacote from an ebay store.  I also couldn't resist and bought some lovelies I have been lemming for a while, in particular:  CG Ruby Pumps, CH For Audrey, OPI Samoan Sands, CG Running in Circles, CG Water You Waiting For, CG Secret Peri-wink-le and CG Dorothy Who.

This will be my last nail mail for a while.  I am desperate to purchase some more pretties, but am on a no-buy this month.  But that's okay, because it's my Birthday Group Month!  So in the next few weeks I will be receiving 11 lovely nail mail packages from the gorgeous girls in my Birthday Group!  Yay!!

xx

A slight change in direction...

I have been pondering for a while what I should do with my blog.  I had big intentions of posting more regularly during the holidays, but lo and behold, there is little over a week to go until I head back to work and I haven't posted over the holidays at all.  I have been a little unmotivated to be honest.  I've put on some extra kgs over the past few months, and while I'm not as heavy as I was this time last year, I am nowhere near where I wanted to be.

So the blog pondering began.  Do I shut it down?  Or do I move it into a new direction?

Obviously, I chose the latter.

And I have changed my blog design to mark the occasion.

My love of nail polish has been no secret.  I have mentioned nail polish in a number of my posts during 2012.  However, in the past six months, my love of nail polish has exploded.  I have never been someone to do things by halves.  My collection has continued to grow thanks to Ozsale and Brands Exclusive sales.  I started reading tonnes of nail blogs and discovered a fantastic Facebook group dedicated to Australian polish lovers like myself.  The gorgeous ladies in this group have not only fuelled and enabled my love of polish, they have also inspired me.

So this blog will follow my journey with nail polish.  It will not be perfect.  My nails are far from perfect.  For some reason, they get to a certain length (SHORT) and refuse to grow any further.  My painting and clean-up techniques are far from perfect.  My photos are not perfect.  I will not be constructing a lightbox any time in the near future.  Most of my photos will be Instagram or from my simple point and shoot digital (if I can be bothered to pull it out of my drawer...)  I do not own photoshop, so there will be no tweaking, cleaning or perfecting of my photos.  I am still to perfect the 'bottle' shot.  It often looks like I'm gripping the bottle for dear life as my stubby fingers struggle to grasp the bottle elegantly.  I will not be doing 'swatches'.  I refuse to apply polish to one hand just to photograph and then remove it immediately.  I actually enjoy WEARING my manicures for at least two days.  My cuticles could use some work and I am currently trying a variety of products to soften them.  I do not moisturise my hands/nails every 30 minutes.  I'm lucky if I remember to moisturise them once a day.  I will very rarely use the word 'mani' as it I think it sounds slightly dirty like 'panties'.  I am yet to venture into the world of nail art.  I can barely draw on an A4 piece of paper let alone a teeny tiny nail, but I aim to experiment with the 'simple' nail art techniques using sponges, striping tape, dotting tools, stamps and brushes.  This blog will still be a hobby.  I will not turn this into a part-time job like some of those awesomely dedicated (and talented) bloggers of the blogs that I read regularly.  I do not expect to attract a cult following and am happy to share with the two or so regular readers that I already have.

This blog will still chronical my journey with food.  I've said it before and I'll say it again.  I love to EAT and I love to COOK.  I still enjoy the challenge of finding delicious, low calorie meals to help me on my weight loss journey.  However, the food side of this blog will be small.

So to kick off my new direction, here are a couple of nail related photos I've take over the past couple of weeks.

My latest manicure - CG Concrete Catwalk with CG Techno on my accent finger and thumb.

My latest 'nail mail'.  My first piCture pOlish order.

More nail mail.  My very first Essie polishes.  I'm trying a couple of these pretties out today.

Butter London Henley Regatta.  Gorgeous, however this is FIVE coats.

Butter London Two Fingered Salute.  One of the most popular polishes of 2012 and I totally understand why.  I am LOVING that copper shimmer in amongst the green.

Sinful Colors is now sold in Oz.  This is SC Why Not topped with SC Nail Junkie.  I love blue, but I hate the removal - Smurf Fingers.

My first brown manicure.  Essence Sneezy topped with CG Golden Enchantment.

My Christmas nails.

Oh, here is a food pic to get your tummies grumbling.  I was so proud of myself for making this awesome Balsamic and Blackberry Glazed Ham for Christmas.  YUM.

Until next time...

xx