My Secrets For the Week-Long Manicure

This is totally out of character for me. Really. I am not a girlie girl at all. I kind of feel like I need to pull up the pictures of me as a 4th grader, wearing camo pants and no shirt (because I was a total tomboy and felt like I should be able to run around half-naked) so I can prove my non-girlie nature here. I'm not really in to fashion and I rarely wear makeup, but the one girlie weakness I have is this: painting my fingernails each and every week.

When I was in college, I painted my nails all the time - sometimes every other day. I'd use wild colors, but paid no attention to application or care. They were generally a sloppy mess. Once I had kids, my nail-painting habit died off, and I didn't touch the stuff for years. Then I had an embroidery class in which a student carried on about her nail-painting ritual. Her blog was the first place I saw the painted nails trend, and a post she did on her weekly ritual of painting her nails got me completely hooked again. Initially, I was painting them only occasionally. Several months ago, though, I got hooked on a weekly routine of painting my nails every Thursday night while watching 30Rock, Big Bang and Project Runway.

My husband teased me about it at one point: "Why do you like doing that so much!?" I stopped for a minute and wondered the same thing. Why - as a non-fashion/beauty interested person - do I bother with painting my nails every week? Here's what I came up with:

• I love the colors. Sometimes it's as simple as that. For as much black as I wear, I am always drawn to the menagerie of colors available in the nail polish aisle. I have a basket full of colorful bottles, and digging through them is deeply satisfying to the color-hungry part of my soul. Seeing a nice color on my hands every day is - as silly as it sounds - a little pick-me-up. 

• It's a simple form of self care. The whole moms-neglect-themselves is a cliche for a reason. It's hard to find much time or money to do a little something special for yourself, and my weekly manicures help in that regard. I'm taking time to take care of myself, feel "pretty" and indulge in something that's a bit impractical and makes me feel good. We all need more of that, right? 

• I can't multitask while I'm doing it. Aside from watching tv, I really can't do much else while I'm painting my nails or waiting for them to dry. After I finish painting them, I sit down on the couch and just allow myself to watch tv for the rest of the evening. I don't do dishes, fold laundry or work on the computer. This is pretty much the only time in the week that I just sit still. That's a beautiful thing! 

After digging around on the internet, and buying more beauty products than I'd care to admit to, I settled on a handful of favorites and a routine that give me a nice-looking home manicure that lasts all week.* My frequently-changing manicures have been visible in many of my pictures on Instagram, and I had several friends ask me to post my method and favorite products. There are thousands of nail-painting tutorials on the internet, but most of them are for fancy decorative nails. I haven't had time to do anything like that, nor do I strive to. The basic solid color manicure scratches my itch just fine, but just know that if that's something you desire, it's easily found with a quick google search or look-see on YouTube.

Enjoy the tutorial, and find some way - even if it's not painting your nails every week - to do a little something for yourself that allows you to not multitask while you do it, ok?

Here's a picture of my week-old manicure. On this particular week, I'd even cleaned out the garage over the weekend, and the polish still held up nicely. It's not perfect at this point, but for having been on my nails for a solid week, I'd say it's not to shabby, amiright?

My collection of nail polishes is kind of embarrassing, but not as extensive as some I've seen on the internet ... 

Supplies:

• A nice, fine nail file - I picked mine up at a beauty supply store 
• Target Brand Remover Dip-It Acetone (more on this wonder product in just a second) 
• Sally Hansen cuticle remover gel - I've used this one, as well as the SH instant cuticle remover. I like them both. 
• Sally Hansen Miracle Cure - for the base coat. This stuff rocks. 
• Nail polish in your preferred color (re: brand, I love Essie for colors & staying power. I also love OPI. My favorite inexpensive brand of nail polish is the Sally Hensen Xtreme Wear, which totally holds its own for a less-than-$3 polish) 
• Out The Door top coat - this stuff is what seals the deal (literally) on a long-lasting manicure. I found it at Target for around $3, but have had trouble finding it there recently. I know you can get it at beauty supply stores, it might just be a little more expensive there. LOVE this stuff. 
• A good cuticle stick - I like my metal one, as opposed to the wood ones. It came in a little manicure set from Target 
• Clippers - good for cleaning up gnarly bits around your nails 
• Nail brush - It's freaky how handy this thing is. I hadn't used one before, but now adore it. 
• Paper towels to protect your surface and use for quick cleanups

Let's start with removing your old nail polish. Part of why I didn't paint my nails much was because removing the color was a huge pain. I'd have stacks and wads of cotton pads all over the place, and the color would inevitably end up all over my hands. It was an annoying mess. At the risk of sounding like a commercial, this product changed all that.

Remember that stuff from the 80s that was a dip-and-remove nail polish remover? It was like a sponge inside a container and you shoved your finger down in it and rubbed off the color? The color often did the same thing as it does with cotton pads: gets smeared all over your fingers. Because of my experience in the 80s, I was hesitant to try this dip-and-remove from Target. Instead of the old sponge interior, it's full of plastic bristles. Instead of smearing color everywhere, the polish comes off in just a few swipes and leaves your fingers perfectly clean. I nerd out on this stuff big time.

Sure, it looks like a Sarlacc from Star Wars, and yes - I snicker and make 12-year-old boy jokes every time I shove my finger in it - but it works wonders and I'm sticking with it for the long haul.

Next, squeeze the cuticle remover gel along your cuticles and let it sit according to the package instructions (it can vary from 15 seconds to 5 minutes)

Use your cuticle stick to push back your cuticles.

At this point, I like to file my nails. I couldn't get a picture of this part, but it's pretty basic. Just gently shape your nails with the file. I've seen tips about filing only in one direction, but honestly couldn't get that down. Just don't go nuts and don't use too coarse of a file and you should be fine.

Once your cuticles are all pushed back and nails are filed, it's time to hit the sink. Again, I couldn't get a picture of this, but what I usually do is squirt liquid soap in to the palm of my hand and then dip the finger nail brush into it and scrub my nails pretty vigorously under the water. This removes the gel and the residual acetone (that can dry out your skin) and cleans up under your nails from filing. Dry your hands well after washing. You can then use your clippers to clean up any gnarly bits that are left around your nails.

Paint a nice, thin coat of your base coat on to your nails and let dry. Usually, by the time I finish my second hand, the first hand is dry enough to dive right in to the color coats.

Now it's time for color. I don't really have any tips for applying color other than be patient and paint thin coats. Globbing the color on doesn't do anyone any favors. Paint one thin coat, wait just a couple of minutes and then go back and paint a second coat. Wait a few minutes and then paint on your top coat, generously, over the whole shebang.

"But wait!" you say. "Your nails are a total mess!" Yep. And that's just fine. The other advantage to painting my nails at night is that I don't have to worry with cleaning up the edges. The next morning, when I shower, the excess polish comes right off. Usually just the process of shampooing and cleaning is enough to knock most of it off, but sometimes I have to use my fingernails in the shower to scrape off the last remaining bits. It's easy and my fingernails look dandy when I'm done.

And there you have it! That's what I do each and every week for my home manicure. I find that keeping my nails short helps keep them from chipping as much, and the biggest change in how they look during the week is from growth at the base. Otherwise, they look perfectly respectable, I'd say. Have fun and enjoy painting!

 *Disclaimer: Your manicure might not last all week. Depending on your level of activity and type of polish, you might have some chips. I'm not saying that your manicure will look exactly the same as it did when you completed it, but it should look totally acceptable if you're using these products and methods and aren't a lumberjack who doesn't wear gloves.

Recipe: Booze-y, Creamy Roasted Tomato Basil Soup, and playing with Snapguide

Several months ago, my mom visited and made some of the tastiest soup I'd ever had. Better yet, it was fresh and healthy and made my house smell heavenly. I wanted to give it a try a few weeks ago, but - of course - had to add a bit of ... decadence in the form of wine and cream. Either way is delicious, so you can follow the recipe as-is, or omit the wine and cream when you're trying to be a little healthier.

I'm including the recipe below, but I'm also going to introduce a new app I've been playing with lately so you can easily view the recipe and step-by-step pictures on your iPhone, iPad or desktop. Snapguide is a cool DIY tutorial app that allows you to easily upload pictures right from your iPhone, add text and publish with just a few click. Please note, this is not a sponsored review. I've just been playing on the app on my own and thought I'd share my experience. Screenshots below are from the iPhone app and desktop versions of Snapguide.

My "real" camera died a while ago, and my old iPhone (3G folks!) took terrible pictures. Honestly, that plus work constraints meant I wasn't able to crank out fun tutorials as often as I'd like to. I recently finally upgraded my phone, and instantly started wanting to snap away for projects. It's still kind of a pain, though, to upload the pictures, edit, post, etc. I kept thinking there had to be an easier way ... and there is. With Snapguide, you can create a tutorial right on your phone and publish it. I did the one for the soup while my son (literally) sat on my lap on the couch and played a video game on the tv. Aside from a few crashes when I tried to upload more than 3 pictures at a time, it was smooth, intuitive and really easy to use. And reading my tutorial and others is nice and easy - just swipe through each step. I like it!

I do wish, though, that they would have an option to embed the tutorial into your web site. If I'm going to create a tutorial, I'd like the traffic to at least be - primarily - to my blog. That will be the kicker. I think for now, my compromise is introducing the tutorial here and then linking over to Snapguide.

What do you think? Have you tried Snapguide? Check it out and see what you think. I like the variety of projects - food, makeup, home projects .... even dog tricks! I'll be curious to see if/how crafters embrace this new platform...

Recipe: Booze-y, Creamy Roasted Tomato Basil Soup

Ingredients:
(please note, the ingredients and measurements are general here. It varies depending on how much you can fit in your baking dish and what you have on hand. Go flexible, folks!) 

7-8 Roma tomatoes
7-8 small sweet peppers -OR- 2 1/2 red bell peppers
3/4 red onion
1 head of garlic - you'll need 6-8 cloves, depending on how much you like garlic
Olive oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Coarse Sea Salt
Pepper
4 large leaves of fresh basil
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup dry white wine of your choice
1 small can of tomato paste
3/4 of a 32oz box of vegetable broth
Immersion blender (if you don't have one of these, I highly recommend grabbing one from Amazon or Zappos. If you can't, be sure to read about blending hot soups in a standard blender)

Now go fetch the tutorial on Snapguide and let me know what you think!

A year later ... the "after" pics of the house renovation!

It's nuts to think we've been in the house for a year now. Nuts because there are still a few unpacked boxes tucked in corners and nuts because the walls are still largely empty. I'm not so great at this whole settling in and decorating thing, but I'm determined to get better.

I kept waiting to post "after" pictures, because I felt sure I'd get everything decorated and fixed up so I could show truly done pictures. I finally realized that that's going to take a while, and when I had a surprise visit from the family who used to live here, I decided I'd get the place as spiffed up as I could for them and would finally take some pictures.

The visit with them was wonderful. All three kids who grew up here came to visit. It was great fun showing them around, especially because we kept several things from their old bedrooms in tact. The daughter chuckled as I went on about all the "retro" stuff in the house that I loved, because it was all stuff she'd tried to get her mom to get rid of. We both agreed that it was a great thing that she didn't get rid of any of it, because I love it all so much! Just another sign that we were meant to be in this house.

Enough chit chat, y'all just really want to see the insides of the house, right? Let's get to it!

The front door is the perfect place to start, especially because it's one of my favorite things in the renovation. I never thought much about front doors, until I came across Crestview Doors. Then doors became all I could think about. My parents got the Langston doorlite kit (and a rad mailbox) for us as a house warming present. My husband had the awesome idea to put the windows down the center of the door, and it was perfect! I sprayed the escutcheon chrome, but we haven't been able to get new doorknobs yet. We painted the door the same soft aqua color that we used throughout the house. I never thought a door could make me happy every time I walk up to it, but this one totally does.

Man, what a difference ripping out cabinets can make! The space feels so HUGE and open, and it's awesome to come in and be able to see right out to the backyard. LOVE how it turned out.

Upper cabinets came down, and that made a huge difference. My inspiration for the kitchen was this picture of Frank Sinatra's kitchen Pam shared on RetroRenovation. We kept the original lower cabinets and countertop, and just added new paint and hardware. We put in a new vent hood and open shelving for everyday dishes. I love the tile, and the space feels ginormous - even though it's a galley. I actually really really love the galley. The light fixture over the sink was a $14 IKEA purchase to match the rad original light fixture in the breakfast area.

The laundry side of the room was also gutted (there was some water damage there) and built out to fit our washer and dryer. There's space to hang clothes and a cabinet for detergent, and a broom closet to the left. We keep our trash can and brooms/mops in there. Cleaning supplies above. It's kind of sad that this is one of my favorite spaces in the house, isn't it? I thought about pulling all the laundry out for pictures, but really - this is how it goes at our house. No need to pretend I stay on top of the heaps of clothes, folks. This is actually tidy for me.

   

We gutted the utility room and redesigned it for maximum efficiency. On this side, we put in a small mudroom kind of area with hooks for bags/coats and drawers for shoes. The three sections of pantry were custom built and outfitted with IKEA slide out shelves that are super handy.

   

The wife of one of Chris' co-workers had the brilliant idea to tear out the bookshelves in the living room and replace them with giant windows to match the rest of the windows in this part of the house. It made total sense and was one of the best things we did for the house. The contractor was able to match the frames almost exactly - I couldn't believe it.

 

Originally in bedroom 1 in the configuration on the left. We moved them to bedroom 2 (son's room) and consolidated them a bit. We *love* them.

  

Before, it was just a vanity, but we wanted to have sinks in this space instead of the shower area. The vanity design is based on a popular vanity design from the 60s. I love our metal rim sinks and faucets. The guys installing them just kind of chuckled at me "We've torn a lot of this kind of stuff out of homes, but never put it IN them!" That's just how we roll, fellas. Medicine cabinets above sinks and the cabinets below offer all the storage we need & make up for limited counter space. I actually prefer it this way - I hate having junk out on countertops.

 

This is in the room with the shower and toilet. We moved the sink out to the previous "dressing area" and had storage custom built for the space. The bottom left part is a hamper!

 

I could have gone more 60s and lest 30s in here, but finding affordable 60s-style tile was difficult. I decided to go with the classic subway/black and white action that I've always loved. It also feels weird to show a picture of our shower like this - and not "staged." Check out our shampoo! Look at our washcloths! Ehhhh!

 

Looking back at the kitchen all opened up now.

 

Aaaaan, the STUDIO! My Happy Place. A needlework wall on one side, space wall on the other. The couch and chairs came from a garage sale (for a steal!) and the work table was traded from a friend for sewing lesson (hey, Lauren ... we need to do those!). Love this space so much! 

There are lots more "after" pictures over on Flickr. Hopefully this will spur me on to getting the place decorated and more put together, but for now it's suiting us just fine. We love it here. The house has been amazing, the neighborhood is awesome, and we're still happy (even happier?) that we got this place.

How-To: Hunger Games Mockingjay T-Shirt with Freezer Paper Stencil and Bleach Pen

 

I have to admit that I was late to The Hunger Games party. Friends had been reading the books for years, but I've had my head stuck in non-fiction space books for so long, fiction just passed right by me. My 11-year-old daughter started begging to read the trilogy, and I decided that - based on what I'd heard about the violence in the book - I needed to read them with her so I could make sure it was appropriate for her.

I read the first book in less than 24 hours.

That week, aside from the normal work and family tasks, I luxuriated in devouring the whole trilogy. Reading a good book is absolutely blissful, and I loved how this story sucked me right in and wouldn't let go until I turned the very last page of Mockingjay.

My daughter also devoured The Hunger Games (though she's going through Catching Fire more slowly) and we have had so much fun discussing the books. We fight over the whole Team Peeta/Team Gale thing, talk about how Katniss' awesomeness knows now bounds, and discuss if she thinks something like this could ever happen in real life. It's been a wonderful way to connect with each other, and if you are a parent to a pre-teen ... you know how much it means to find something to connect with.

We have our tickets to see the movie tonight, and have a whole date night planned. She mentioned wanting a shirt, but of course I thought, "Why buy when I can DIY?" I posted a Hunger Games craft roundup on CRAFT last week, and one of the projects included a template for the Mockingjay pin. I decided a simple bleach pen/freezer paper stencil on black t-shirts would be easy and would give us that gritty Hunger Games feel.

We may look like total nerds wearing mother/daughter Hunger Games t-shirts, but if she's game for it, I will not pass up the opportunity. Who knows when she'll be willing to do this ever again!

Bleach pen/freezer paper stencils are insanely easy, quick and inexpensive. Here's all you need to make your own Mockingjay t-shirt to wear to the movie this weekend. Once you have the supplies on hand, you can easily be done with your shirt in 30-40 minutes.

Materials:

• Black T-shirt 
• Bleach Pen 
• Small Sponge Brush 
• Freezer Paper 
• Mockingjay Template (available here from Forever Young Adult)
• X-acto knife 
• Iron
• Scrap piece of cardboard 
• Pencil 
• Tape
• Small container or dish you don't care about 
• self-healing cutting mat 

Step One: Print the Mockingjay template available at Forever Young Adult (if you are interested in screen printing instead of freezer paper stenciling, they have a great tutorial!) Tape the printout on to a sunny window (or a lightbox, if you're lucky enough to have one!) Then tape a large piece of freezer paper, shiny side down, on top of the printout.*

Step Two: Use a pencil to trace the Mockingjay design on to the rough side of the freezer paper. 

Step Three: Remove the freezer paper from the window and place it on a self-healing cutting mat (a piece of cardboard will work in a pinch. You just want to protect the surface on which you are cutting) Carefully cut out all the inside pieces of the Mockingjay design that you will want to keep black in your design. Then cut out on the outside line of the circle/arrow. Be sure to keep the outer large piece of the freezer paper in tact. SAVE all the small inside pieces. You'll need them for the stenciling. 

Step Four: Iron the large outer pice of freezer paper on to your shirt where you want the design to go. Use a hot, dry iron and press well. the paper gets a little wobbly-looking. That's ok. 

Step Five: Place the Mockingjay portion of the cutout carefully in place inside the circle and press down. 

Step Six: Take all the small inside pieces and iron them in to place. Things can get a bit fiddly at this point, but keep in mind: it doesn't have to be perfect. 

Step Seven: Once all the pieces of the freezer paper are down, it's time to remove the pieces you want to bleach (thank you to my pal, Kathie, for this easy tip on getting the reverse of the design to work!) Carefully peel back the pieces of the Mockingjay pin portion of the design, leaving you with the large outer piece and all the small inside pieces. 

Step Eight: Slide a piece of scrap cardboard inside your shirt to prevent the bleach from bleeding through to the back. 

Step Nine: You can either use the bleach pen directly on your shirt, or with a sponge brush. I prefer the latter method. Squeeze some of the bleach gel out in to an old container. (I keep a stash of yogurt and applesauce containers around for this very use) 

Step Ten: Use a small foam sponge brush to paint the gel on to the t-shirt inside your design. 

Step Eleven: Make sure the design is fully coated and let it sit for a few minutes. You'll see it start to change colors. I'd say anywhere from 5-8 minutes is good enough to bleach it out, but not so long that it will severely damage the fabric. Be sure to keep an eye on it and judge based on your own shirt. 

Step Twelve: Very carefully peel back the pieces of the freezer paper, starting with the small inside pieces. Be sure to not allow the shirt to pull up and fold back on itself, causing the bleach gel to transfer to other parts of the shirt. 

this is in my big studio sink that has a corrugated liner :) 

Step Thirteen: Immediately rinse the t-shirt in the sink to stop the bleaching process. Squeeze it out and then wash it in the washing machine and you're ready to wear it to see the movie! 

This is such a quick, easy and accessible project, and the method can be applied to any design. Give it a try and let me know how it goes!