Nail of the day

This is Stop Stocking Me (get it? it's Christmassy!) from Sephora by OPI. It's a lovely, metallic purple with subtle gold shimmer.  I love it!

natural light, two coats

Bananas Foster!

First I'm going to tell you that one of my New Year's resolutions is to go without sugar for a month...

...and then I'm going to tell you about the dessert I made on the last day before my resolution started, Bananas Foster! For those of you who don't know what Bananas Foster is, it's pretty much just bananas cooked in a caramel sauce...and then flambéed and served over ice cream! (ice cream optional, but c'mon who are we kidding?)

I used Alton Brown's recipe...kind of. I didn't use the spices or the banana liqueur or the orange zest...just because I didn't have half of those and the other half I don't like.

melt butter in a skillet

add brown sugar and stir it all up to start the caramel sauce

cut your bananas into four, once length-wise then in half

place them all on top of the caramel in the skillet, cook for one minute...

then turn once and cook for another minute

take just the bananas out of the pan and set aside

now it's time to add the rum...

and light it on fire!

it's fun!

it only takes a minute for the alcohol to burn up



then stir it all up and that's your sauce

Add bananas to ice cream and spoon sauce over all!
I totally forgot to take a picture of the finished dessert until we had already started eating and everything was pretty melty. After talking to my dad about the speed of the melting he told me I probably should have let the sauce cool down just a little bit before putting in on the ice cream.  But it was still delicious of course! And it was all pretty quick and easy :)

Nail of the day: Take 2

I am still wearing my Go with the Flow-er, but I put glitter and sparkles on top...Rainbow Connection from the OPI Muppets Collection.  It is described as "a clear base loaded with multi-colored, multi-sized hex glitter nail polish color."  Ain't it purdy?



natural lights, three (or four?) coats of Rainbow Connection



inside!

Nail of the day

This pretty polish was a Christmas present from my parents! It's called Go with the Flow-er from Sephora by OPI. Thanks Mom and Dad!


It is described as an "opaque bright tulip pink with hot pink medium glitter."

natural light, two coats

inside it looks much more orangey!

DIY Picture Tiles

I got this idea from Crunchy Betty! As soon as I saw them and how easy and inexpensive they looked to make, I knew I wanted to try.

Katie and I decided to make some as Christmas gifts for our parents and then also for our younger brother, Michael and our new sister-in-law, Lauren. We had some photos of us as kids, and then some photos from Michael and Lauren's wedding.

We got everything we needed one Saturday afternoon and it took us like ten mintues to do eight tiles.

What we used:

slate tiles from Lowe's, they were 37 cents each

Mod Podge

a paint brush

scissors

our photos printed on regular paper

We made our photos 4x4 inches before we printed them and used the 3.8" square tiles

After we cut the photos out we "painted" Mod Podge onto the back of the photo

Then placed it square on the tile

Then Katie trimmed off the part that was hanging off (we couldn't decide if it would be better to have the paper flush with the tile or to wrap it over the edges, so we a little of both)

Then we just "painted" more Mod Podge over the photo on the tile

The Mod Podge dries clear and they all turned out better than expected!

These picture tiles can be hung with picture hangers or you can make smaller ones into magnets (this size would probably be too heavy) or Crunchy Betty said to put some kind of waterproofing on it and turn them into coasters.

A few days later we made tiles out of these photos for Michael and Lauren: 

Don't tell anyone, but I was told that brother cried upon receiving these :)

December Birchbox

Here is my December Birchbox, a subscription service where you pay $10 a month and get beauty samples. It's fun!

This month I got:

Jouer Moisturizing Lip Gloss in Birchbox Pink which I looooove and I actually might buy the full size when I run out.

Benefit The POREfessional, a silicone-based pore refiner. It's pretty good but probably not best for aging skin...which apparently I have now!

Harvey Prince Ageless  fragrance - not really a fan

Orofluido Elixir, a leave in hair smoother thingie that I used once and it was pretty nice

Showstoppers® Designer Fashion Tape - this is supposed to keep your boobies from falling out of your hoochie dress so I don't think I need this one

EBOOST Orange Natural Energy Booster - um, thanks? I liked this just as much as the coasters I got last month.

super duper pretty nail of the day!

Holy schmoly I saw this in Walgreens the other day and grabbed it immediately. It's essie's pure pearlfection, a "multi dimensional top coat," part of the luxeffect line. It's really just a pearly topcoat to make the color on your nails extra super duper pretty, but I wanted to wear it alone. It just makes my nails shiny and pearly and pretty and I'm totally gaga over this polish!

DIY Christmas ornaments

Sister and I got this idea from the Martha Stewart holiday craft book.
Take regular Christmassy cookie cutters, line them with pretty paper, add some ribbon and voila! Fun and easy...and pretty (even if they do turn out a bit wonky like mine did).

What you'll need:
cookie cutters
pretty paper (we used scrap book paper but you can use a strong wrapping paper)
some kind of good adhesive (we used a hot glue gun)
pretty ribbon
beads

Trace around your cookie cutter onto your pretty paper

Then cut it out

Put some glue on the cookie cutter and place your cut out paper on it 

Then seal the edges

I just poked a pen through my paper to make a hole for the ribbon

Then string your ribbon through...using a bead to keep it more secure