Halloween Nails

One of my favorite blogs is Chloe's Nails. On her site, she creates great French manicures with using scotch tape. She pleasing the tape to the palm of her hand about 5 times to remove the stickiness. And then one by one does each nail.

I thought I would try something a little different, inspired by a picture on Pinterest for Halloween.
I make little sleevers of tape hat I cute and put that down on my orange nails before painting them black. I must admit, Chloe does each nail one by one and I should have followed this as some of my orange pulled up a bit when I finally finished all my nails. I touched them up but in the future would do this extra step than wait.

I thought a red under color and then black on top would look really neat! Also I saw this design done with pinstriping tape which I haven't ordered mine yet from Amazon but that will be another post. :-)
Cheers

Gibson Tuck - easy, fast updo for busy days

Some days that extra 30 mins of sleeping in COUNTS!! however I don't want to go to work looking like I slept-in. My hair is curly hence some of the frizz however the Gibson Tuck is a REALLY easy updo that you can do in less than 5 mins.

I've accessorized the tuck with flowers, sparkling bobby pins or (as shown below) a pic-like hairpin stuck in the tuck. I found this YouTube video online and hope you can benefit from it also:

Less than 5 mins for work (by the way, I didn't wear a sweatshirt to work.....this is when I came home):

Bridal Shower Fun

My friend Sara came up with some wonderful ideas for my bridal shower and I just had to share. I was thinking that these ideas could be used for Baby Shower or just other party planning in general. I was blown away while walking through the door, and even though I did post everything she did I hope you can get the gist of it. :-)

 

My friend Sara, greeted guests at the door and then served red and white wine along with iced tea, bottled water and a variety of sodas.

 She also set up a table near the door with the party favors, a Wishing Jar (for words of wisdom for the bride) and little potpourri sachets she made.

 This was such a cute way of dressing up the favors. Yellow and Gray M&M's with some scrap book flowers hot glued to our colors of the wedding ribbon along with Thank You stickers. I'm thinking about doing this for a baby shower soon also.

And yes, it was a vegetarian delight bridal shower. The only thing I didn't eat was quiche however ever thing else she made vegan for me. I LOVED IT!!! and so did the guests!

 This was my favorite part of the food. She made sandwiches and then used a heart cookie cutter to cute them out. It was the little touches like this for the bridal shower that blew everyone away. And she did all of this by herself the morning of! WOW!

 And when you first walked in the door, you see all the balloons on the ceiling and couldn't help but smile and get in the spirit of celebration.

 And to top it off, she brought in a massage therapist for all the guests to relax, let go of their day and BE HERE for me. This so over the top, I couldn't believe it!! I am so fortunate to have someone like her in my life and to have such a big heart to do something like for me. Especially during our school year, this was like a mini vacation to remember what is important and bring us all back down to our hearts and out of our heads.

Thank you Sara!!! <3

Baggage and Your Life

As much as i would love to expland on this quote, Yogi Bhajan sums up "your baggage" pretty sweetly:

You have baggage; it has wheels and handle. WHen the handle breaks, that bag becomes a load. That's life, When you lost the handle of your own life and it is nor under your grip and control, you can't run it."  Yogi Bhajan    6/27/93

Another quote that I heard the other day while watching Yogi Bhajan's Lifecycles and Lifestyles DVD was (along the lines because I forget exactly how it goes):

We hesitate to meditate. Don't hesitate to meditate.

Meditation is getting you mind/life back under control. It's best to do it first thingin the morning. IT's the mental shower of spiritual cup of joe to start your day grounded. I personally find that when I meditate, I'm less nit picky on aspects of my day. I work in a very analytical job which can spill ouver my 9-5 work day. With Meditation, I find that I bring the calm, neutral, pleasant self to work......and a lot more focused. I find that my monkey mind doesn't wonder as much or be resentful about long hours if needed to get my job done. And it's basically because I have taken care of me before anyone, anything else = I was not forgotten.

Sat Nam

No Sales Tax Days by state

I know a lot of people, especially with school around the corner, are already starting shop and look for deals for back to school or just look for deals in general with summer almost being half way done. I found this the other day and hope that it helps some people with their shopping (whatever the reason):

No Sales Tax Days By State

For most states, it's in early August--- FYI.

Ingenious Quick Shave

So by the title of his post, you can guess that I'm not as hippie-dippie as you might think. Normally I take a bath when shaving to take my time and not worry about "getting in and out" without hurting myself. Practice has not made this girl perfect so I don't know why I didn't think of this before...

In order to conserve water and not feel rushed, I got an of plastic cup and my shaving tools. Filled the cup up with water and turned off the shower. Then shaved. I used the cup water to rinse of my razor when needed by swirling/shaking it in he filled cup. And then emptied out/refilled the cup between legs.

It was so MUCH easier than a bath or shaving during a shower because the water never accidentally ran down my legs taking my shaving cream with it. And with not feeling "rushed," I shaved faster than normal.....ingenious yet so simple. Wish this occurred to me before Haha.

Bathroom Cleaning in Seconds!!

I use Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap in peppermint to start and awaken my day. I love this soap….the smell is awesome and you can use the soap to clean dishes, clothes, etc. It's very versitile and comes in a number of scents. On my weeekends they are so many things I try to do "get ahead" for my busy school/work week and for some it reason it never occurred to me to do 2 things at once in the shower.  

After shampooing and while your conditioner is in your hair or face mask, turn off the shower and use the Castile soap to clean the tub with a scrub brush. I did this quickly = less than 3 mins to scrub my whole tub. Turn the shower back on and rinse out the conditioner and tub. 

Voila! Done! 

Also, I love the disposable antibacterial wipes that you are get from your grocery store to wipe down the toilet and/or counter tops. I also keep a bottom of glass cleaner with paper towels under my bathroom sink so at any time, I can clean my mirrors. With these last 2 steps. I've cleaned the majority of my bathroom in under 10 mins. 

Hope that helps with time.

By the way, if you are new to castile soap, here are some (of the many) different uses for it:
1. Shampoo - even for your dogs!

2. Laundry detergent - I have definitely used this soap when i go camping to be my all in one!!!

3. Dish Soap - did I mention this was my all in one for camping

4. Mopping solution - Use 2 or 3 tablespoons of castile soap in a bucket of water

5. Soap dispenser refill - You can refill your foaming hand soap dispenser with 1 part castile soap to 4 parts water.

6. Body wash - use this on a loofah everyday = LOVE

7. Carpet cleaner