Fun and Mental Changes

So, last week I started my garden (my second one ever!). I found out the hard way that working in the dirt wreaks havoc on natural nails. I am gardening with gloves on this year, but there are just some things (planting seeds and pulling weeds) that are impossible to do with gloves on. This year I made a commitment (wow, really?!? Isn't that a little dramatic? Nah!) to protect my nails until the garden is up and running. I searched last year, long after it was too late , for something to protect my nails and THIS YEAR I think I found it. Thanx to a new friend of mine, who also happens to be a nail technician, I've discovered OPI's Axxium. It is a soak-off sealer for gel nails that MAGICALLY works on polish without puckering or cracking the color below. And let me tell you, I have been through enough gel "polishes", sealers, etc. that ruined the hard work below them to believe that REAL gel topcoats that would work over regular nail polish were probably not in exis...

Wow... I am super psyched! I love giving away stuff I love! Is that weird? For me it's a sign that I'm giving the BEST when I'm tempted to keep them!!! I can clearly see another person's excitement simply because I'm so excited... more on that in a sec. So with these Alice In Wonderland sparkle polishes by OPI, I HAD to buy one of each so that I WOULD be able to let go of these amazing polishes. Thanx to random.org, the winner is # 6 susies1955 said... I've been a follower through bloglines for a while now but decided to follow through google friend too. :) Nice giveway,Susie CONGRATULATIONS SUSIE!!! And thank you for following my blog! I know that you are going to LOVE these polishes as much as I do. I am sending you an email to the address you provided as soon as this announcement posts. Please let us all know what you think of them when you get them... don't be afraid to share some pics! LOL! Thank you to EVERYONE who participated! :) Now for SOME MORE f...

Yep, the give away deadline is today. It's open to my followers only (the greatest people in the world), so if you're not a follower, you're gonna wanna be one! :) Then click on THIS LINK and go to the give-away announcement to leave a comment. Tonight at 11:59 p.m. I will have random.org pick a number and will announce the winner. Good luck to everyone! :) In the meantime... here's some sexy Konadicure goodness. I ADORE those vampie colors! China glaze hit a home run with VII. It's a drop dead gorgeous vampie purplish-brown wine color. This color is IT! Then, to add a little romance to that sexy, I added those flowers with the amazing holo of China Glaze's TTYL from their OMG collection (I love those colors). Yah, I'm wearing this one OUT!!! It's so beautiful. The Konad image disc I used was M20. I have really fallen in love with China Glaze... now, if they could JUST make those brushes larger! *** Base coat is one coat of Nail Aid's Pink Growth Th...

Bunny... THANK YOU! This is sooooo nice! Ok y'all! Bunny over at Konad & Me tagged me for this award and I'm speechless!!! This is just so incredibly nice, especially coming from someone whose blog inspires ME! :) So I'm supposed to tag 10 of my favorite blogs, so here-goes (it's going to be SO HARD to keep it to JUST 10)! The Sunny Raw Kitchen - Amazing content! What a great writer too. All of her content is also accompanied with Amazing photos as well. But those recipes.... :) Cutting Above - For any crafter/artist looking for how-to's and inspiration... this is just a great site. They will ALWAYS be one of my loved blogs.... they gave me my Gypsy! :) Casual Lavish - Aside from being one of the most friendly bloggers I've had the chance to talk with, Vanessa over at Casual Lavish gives some pretty great review (honest reviews) of some pretty great products. She has introduced me to SO MANY new things! This is just a great all-around beauty site! :) Cha...

Awe! Thanx for the inspiration BabyD... this GORGEOUS Konadicure rocks! I just LOVE that For Audrey polish from China Glaze and I would have NEVER thought of using the leopard image with those color combinations. This turned out WONDERFUL!!! So, the base coat is For Audrey (of course) and the yellow color is China Glaze's Lemon Fizz (on the thumb). The yellow of the remaining digits is Konad's special polish in yellow and the black is also Konad's special stamping polish. This really is a sweet manicure just in time for Easter. I bet this would also look AMAZING with lavender and the Psyche Pink Konad special polish! Oh, wow... I'm going to be giving THAT combo a try before Easter gets here as well. That one will be AWESOME!!! To check out BabyD's wonderful Konadicure... here's the link: Polish And Powder *** Don't forget!!! Tomorrow's the last day to enter the Alice In Wonderland polish give-away!!! Check out the announcement here: Calling All Lacquer H...

So I'm gonna have to eat a little crow here.... but only a little.... regarding the receipt of my Kindle in the 5-9 day delivery estimate that Amazon DID IN FACT end up honoring (I just got my Kindle). However, the fact that the first customer service contact I had the other day DID NOT make me feel like a valued customer means that I'm only taking a nibble. When a customer is having an impatience issue with a product that they ordered, THE LAST thing they want to hear is, "you should have picked a quicker shipping speed" or "we pick the most economical method of shipping", ESPECIALLY when that customer spent better than $200 with your company to qualify for "Super Saver Shipping". Earning "Super Saver Shipping" with higher purchase amounts SHOULD encourage customers to spend more with your company. Making your customer feel like they have been pushed to the back of the line BECAUSE they spent more money with you will only cause the custo...

So, you live and you learn. I did a GREAT review for The Kindle the other day. In fact, I did the review touting how WONDERFUL The Kindle was compared to The Nook... well, I just so happened to have written that post the day after I ordered The Kindle from Amazon.com. Since then (going on 6 DAYS AGO) Amazon STILL hasn't shipped it. That's right. My order purchase came to a whopping total of $259 and for that amount included free super saver shipping. Is "super saver" code for "this person's gonna get HORRIBLE service and have to wait FOREVER to even get what they ordered"? Really, I'm just curious. Had I known that I wouldn't have an e-reader right now (in my hot little hands) to enjoy, I WOULD have opted for The Nook. The differences between the two readers are SLIGHT at best (although I stick with that hinge being oh so cool! Barnes and Noble, LISTEN TO ME!).... but if Barnes and Noble's customer service is only minimally better than what I...

This American believes: No matter what side of ANY issue "the people" are on, it is NEVER alright for a representative "of the people" to shirk their fiduciary responsibilities. If discovered (even worse if openly admitted) that our representatives are not even reading bills that are presented to them, they ABSOLUTELY should be tried for HIGH treason. What is it going to take.... There is no greater #FAIL than what has become of America right now. What WE have allowed to transpire over the years, our lack of personal responsibility and integrity and the laziness that has been cultivated in this country makes my heart cry. I am truly worried for America. Who we are right now.... are we really worth ANYONE dying for? All those who sacrificed to make America great, was it all in vain? Can we REALLY look at ourselves as one nation... under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice FOR ALL??? I think we are SOON to find out.

So, as some of you may or may not know, Fun And Mental Changes is having a give away! We are days away from announcing a winner... March 27th is the deadline for entries and I will post the winner at 11:59 (PST) p.m. on March 27th. The prize is OPI's Mad as a Hatter and Absolutely Alice in honor of the Alice In Wonderland opening this month. These colors are VERY hard to find (trust me on that one) and because of that, I expected a ton of entries. But as it stands right now, there's only 8 entries, so there are GREAT ODDS of winning right now. To enter, simply become a follower (if you aren't already) and click HERE to leave a comment on the post titled Calling All Lacquer Heads! But in the spirit of give aways.... OF COURSE I've entered a couple myself, and want to share where you too can find some more "prize hauls"!!! Nail Addicts Anonymous ... giving away a HUGE polish haul!!! Konadomania ... giving away a mish mosh of GREAT products + a $25 gift code to ...

My first attempt at Stuffed Cabbage Rolls for dinner last night.... SUCCESS!!! These beauties were yummy! And I have the ladies over at Skinny Scoopers to thank for it! About a week ago they posted a healthy recipe for these awesome rolls. And while their recipe looked VERY good... OF COURSE I altered it a bit. I ended up with an amazingly flavorful dish that I THINK might be even less calories than the recipe posted at Skinny Scoopers. So, I thought I would post my recipe and then direct everyone here to check out the link above to see the ORIGINAL recipe. INGREDIENTS 2 heads of green cabbage (1 head if very large) 1 lb extra lean ground turkey 1/2 cup yellow onion (chopped) 3 cloves garlic (minced) 1/2 cup brown rice (cooked) 1/4 cup Egg Beaters 1 Tbsp McKay's Beef Style Seasoning 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 tsp black pepper dash of cinnamon 1 tsp brown sugar 1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce 1 can diced tomatoes (28 oz) 3/4 cup vegetable broth Brown the turkey with the onion and garlic, set as...

Wow... another birthday is fast approaching and as is customary for my wonderful, awesome, out-of-this-world husband, I could pick anything I wanted to get. Well, this year I wanted a Kindle. This wasn't a willy-nilly decision. I've spent about a year mulling over whether or not to even convert to an e-reader. My concern was the strain on my eyes and, well, I wouldn't be reading real books anymore. There's something so organic with the look and feel of books... even the smell cannot be replaced. But thanx to a Kindle demo done by my sister, I got over that fast. THE SCREEN LOOKS LIKE THE REAL THING!!! She also purchased a super special cover (I'll be going into that quite a bit in a sec) that REALLY helped me decide to venture into the digital world of reading. And when I said a moment ago that I will not be reading real books anymore, I mean it. With the $200-$400* pricetag on these e-readers, the 'ORGANIZATIONAL' aspect of this item was a huge driving fact...

These are my 2010 St. Patty's nails. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that holographic green of China Glaze's L8R G8R. I topped it with a simple Konad Celtic-ish image from image plate M80 in Konad's special green polish. This turned out GORGEOUS! Can you believe that I found this China Glaze halo for $3.50 last year... now THAT'S lucky! It's kinda fitting to be using it on a day like today! :)

Spring Break 2010 and the girls get together for some play time and power mani's! And these Konadicures ROCKED! I'll show each of them and let you know how it was done. For more info on the konad images pictured, check out OC Nail Art and tell Kathleen that FitterTwit sent ya! :) Be sure to click on all the pics to enlarge. I'd also like to say a special thanx to Megan, Gabby, Delaney and Jordyn for being SUPER models for today's post! Ladies... Girl's Day was AWESOME!!! FLOWER POWER What could be MORE IN than neon pink with black beaded flowers? Jordyn says "Nothing!" as she's sportin these totally rad flowers on Color Club's Pink Lust. The image is from Konad image plate M69 done in Konad's black special polish and then topped with Northern Lights holo topcoat. Dazzling Dahling! :) ELECTRIC YOUTH Delaney diggs this green holo polish by China Glaze. L8R G8R was the perfect backdrop for those sweet flowers that seem to POP off those nails. Thi...

So! There have been a few pivotal bonding moments between me and my sister over the years. 1) When I saved her life from a pending scorpion attack. 2) When we stayed up all night playing Super Mario Brothers. 3) When we saw Road Trip in the theater. AND 4) When we went to see Hot Tub Time Machine... oh, wait, that hasn't happened yet! hahaha ! I'm going out on a limb here and saying that this is going to be the MUST SEE MOVIE event of the year. Not only does it star one of the best known heart throbs of the 80's, Mr. John Cusack , but the premise of the film is (DARE I SAY?) BRILLIANT!!!! The movie is set back in the 80's, probably THE SINGLE BEST DECADE EVER, which leads me to believe that the soundtrack ALONE is going to be worth the price of admission. Did I mention that 80's heart throb John Cusack is in this??? Those who have seen Better Off Dead know EXACTLY why this is significant. Where was I? OH! And the plot line is hysterical with four grown men going ba...

There's currently only three entries in this month's OPI Alice In Wonderland Polish Giveaway!!! Huge chance of winning here! And it's super easy to enter... simply leave a comment on the post at THIS link. The contest is open to my blog followers only (the coolest people in the world!!!), so if you're not a follower, be sure to become one before leaving a comment. So Easy! Click the link to get all the details! In the meantime, here's a little mani that helped me burn the midnight oil last night... yah , my sleep patterns are still a little off. But it was worth it, and I'll be back in line by next week. This Fauxnadicure was really hard to photograph!!! I can't seem to get a picture that shows how beautiful it turned out!!! So, all my pics were taken outside... and even then they aren't as magnificent as in real life. But they do kinda show how pretty they are, so here we go! :) I used Color Club's Stuck On You as a basecoat , 2 coats of OPI...

Whew! Ruffian is RIGHT! After a night of tossing and turning, I woke up feeling quite the "Ruffian", but that's not where this post comes from. But SINCE I brought it up.... Let me tell you about my night! A friend of mine has a daughter who is getting ready to deliver her first child. I am so emotionally invested in this delivery, I can't see straight! I WISH I could articulate exactly why. Love for my friend? Definitely... But this is also going A LOT deeper for me. And I am truly blessed to be allowed to share in this HUGE waiting game for this newborn to make his entrance into the world. So with all this waiting and excitement and NOT SLEEPING, a " Ruffian " manicure is JUST what the doctor (not the obstetrician) ordered. Not only did this little mani kill some time during this long wait, but it went a LONG way to making me feel pretty good and distracting my mind!!! I mean, a person can only cry so much (yah, I bawled like a baby when they hooked her u...

Well.. today's post is going to be a guest post of sorts. Yesterday I received an email from my sister on her FIRST DAY of C25K. For those who aren't familiar with this program, C25K stands for Couch to 5 Kilometers and is a program that gets people off the couch and running 5K in 9 weeks. That's just over 3 miles!!! The program sounds pretty great, so you can image my excitement for her when I received her email recapping her first day.... You should have seen me on the treadmill yesterday! I walked for 5 min (warm up). Then the C25K said to run for 60 seconds… sure, no problem… Then walk for 90 seconds …again ok…. Then run again for 60 second (HOLY SHMAKAKA! I thought my legs were on fire, my lungs just closed up completely… I think they went on strike). Then I was really scared because I didn’t know how I was going to hang on to the side bars and push the dang button to get the speed to go down. All I kept picturing was falling on my face and getting "tread" ...

It was brought to my attention last night from my friend Lori Shemek that simply reducing your calorie intake every day by 100 calories equates to 10 pounds a year. With that I couldn't help but think about the reverse, and what exactly 100 calories looks like. So 100 calories is a piece of buttered bread (in my case whole wheat). That's pretty nominal and insignificant when you think of ALL the food you consume throughout your day. It's not so strange to butter a piece of toast with your breakfast or to serve a buttered roll with dinner. THAT is 100 calories. And how many of us eat TWO rolls with dinner? I mean, it's relatively small... maybe 6 small bites and the roll is gone. Wow... that small shift (either way) makes that big of an impact!?! I honestly never really thought about it quite so simply before. Cut out the roll or add another.... 6 less bites or 6 more bites to make a HUGE difference. That is certainly something to think about. And while cutting your cal...

With St. Patrick's Day right around the corner (March 17th), I thought I'd share a little mani and a little story to inspire everyone. Check out "items used" at the end of this post for stuff to do this "Konadicure". But first the story.... So where the heck does this shamrock business and wearin green come from for St. Patrick's Day? Well, this is what Holidays.net has to say: During the St. Patrick's Day season, shamrocks are everywhere from storefront displays to classroom bulletin boards. Even people's lapels sport the green three leaf clover. As the unofficial state flower of Ireland, the shamrock is the most prolific symbol of the Irish holiday. Legend teaches that the first shamrock was a sacred plant discovered by the Druids of Ireland. These Celtic pagans revered the shamrock for its triad leaf formation, as three was a mystical number in their religion. In the 5th century, Saint Patrick is said to have used the shamrock to teach the do...

Welp... my 30% discount for Konad REUSABLE nail art at OC Nail Art is ending today. This was NOT Kathleen's doing, her store at OC Nail Art is phenomenal!!!! Her shipping is super quick and customer service ROCKS!!! Plus she ALWAYS appreciates the talent of her wonderful customers (check out my nails being featured HERE ). Nope, this is Konad's doing. They have mandated that all authorized dealers discontinue ALL discounts effective immediately. So with today being the final day to use my wonderful, excellent and cool (I will miss you my friend) 30% discount, I thought I would share my MUST-HAVE Konad image plates. These are the plates that I absolutely adore for their versatility. Remember, until midnight tonight, 30% off using discount code 'MENTAL' at store.ocnailart.com . Don't forget the free shipping in the US for all orders over $20. Konad Image Plate M3 - I love this one because it has smaller images and the plate can be used year round. It's also gre...

It hits me that the ***Spoiler Alert*** may not apply here. Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass have been around foreva! But, to cover anyone who HASN'T read those stories or seen this film, please know that I'm going to give away some stuff here that COULD ruin someone's movie-going experience. So, what I'm saying here is, if you haven't seen Alice In Wonderland yet (which I think you TOTALLY SHOULD) and don't want anything "spoiled", quit reading right here. OMG!!! What a great movie!!! And the special effects were INCREDIBLE!!! Even the set design and wardrobe were AMAZING! Whoever cast this movie did a FANTASTIC JOB, except.... I really felt that the entire character of the White Queen did nothing for the movie. While the character is present in Through The Looking Glass (and establishes the story's 'Chess Game'), that character in the film irritated me. Anne Hathaway gave a LOUSY performance,...

Today's the day!!! Disney's Alice In Wonderland Opens today!!! In honor of the big day... check out my sparklies!!! The color of glitter polish that's featured here is called Absolutely Alice. It's one of the new polishes from OPI's Alice In Wonderland collection and is also one of the gorgeous polishes that I am giving away this month. All you have to do is become a follower of this blog (if you're not already) and go to this link and leave a comment on that contest announcement post. Super easy. The contest is open to all US residents however, along with the AWESOME Alice In Wonderland polishes is a free Manicure from Zolton's in Chandler, AZ. So that part of the prize might be a "little" harder to use living outside of Arizona. But hey, free polish is free polish and these polishes are AMAZING. A couple of notes I want to make about this polish here, it is ABSOLUTELY gorgeous in real life, however, I could not seem to get a pic that did this p...

Today I am DRAGGING! I have been sick for a little over a week now with a cough that has kept me up for the past four nights. I am tired, bodily fatigued and full of whiny complaints. But sometimes magic occurs just when you need it most... So I'm in a discussion when it veered suddenly with a question about the tee shirt I was wearing. It happened to say "I've been to Hell and back." While I'm not in the habit of wearing profanity on my body, the shirt was a memento from a trip taken some years back to Hell, Grand Cayman and I had the AWESOME pleasure of explaining that very thing. While telling the story of this wonderful trip and all the sites and memories I had, I found myself FULL of energy. Recounting the amazing blue water and unbelievable fun that I had made me feel like a million bucks. Suddenly the fatigue was gone, the aches were gone and I felt a renewed excitement like I had JUST GOTTEN BACK from this trip that I actually took 3-4 years earlier. What ...

A couple of days ago I warned everyone of the pending doom that is the girl scout cookie drive. Well, I thought I would follow up this warning with some steadfast survival tips to get you through the cookie domination. For most critical mass situations, it is wisely advised to remain in your homes, however no one is safe... especially in your homes. So please, please, please take heed to the following tips; they could just save your life. KNOW WHAT TO LOOK FOR Evil presents itself in many different forms. But from January to March every year, evil looks like an angelic little girl usually sporting pig tails. They adorn themselves with sashes displaying their victories over various conquests while dressing in military-esque green uniforms. They are always accompanied with what is usually disguised as an authority figure also called "Mom" or "Troop Leader"... but don't be fooled, you can tell by the eyes that this "authority figure" is really the one bei...

So, whose idea was it to form a group of overly ambitious children (girls no less) to gather and sell cookies... I mean, I never see them any other time of year! And what exactly is in those cookies that causes us to forget that the new year brings another round of pending cookie doom? There is some great "master minding" at work and these evil little cookie selling minions know, almost instinctively, how to get us to buy their evil deliciousness. "Buy me cookies mum. It's for the children mum." Ok, so they don't actually HAVE the British accent (I'm sure some do though and then you're REALLY up a creek!), but when they look at you all doe-eyed you'd swear that every one of them methodically study Tiny Tim to get pointers on selling their evil little wares. They are evil incarnate and their Samoas are their leading device of destruction created to take over the world. Think I'm kidding? TWO Samoas are 150 calories and render a person braindea...