Water Marbling Manicure FAIL!

I was quite excited when Violet LeBeaux decided to do a nail-growing pledge and I decided to jump in on the fun!  I figured the perfect way to start would be a manicure and I'd been dying to try water marbling, so I went to give it a go.  I used the above colors as I wanted to go for sort of a fire-y look that would be nice for fall.  I was out of white nail polish (EEK), so I used the base coat, then two coats of the neon yellow since it was the lightest of the bunch.

After MANY tries of the dropping and mixing I finally got it to  marble okay, got super excited, and dipped a falsie glued to a nail tool into the bowl for a test run.  This is what I got:

I was STOKED!

Looks awesome, huh?  Unfortunately, that is where the awesomeness ends.  :(

Try after try, I couldn't make it work again.  I tried it with a few other falsies, too, but to no avail.  This is how my other ones turned out:

Yeah, I gave up after those two and went another route, which I will post soon.

No matter how many times I tried, this just kept failing except for the one anomaly up there.  When I'd drop the colors in the water, they wouldn't expand like they do in the various youtube videos, and it was every brand I used, not just one or two.  Once in a blue moon, they would expand, but usually not very much, and when I'd go to swirl, it would all come out in one, nasty, odd clump instead of swirling together.  I never could come even close to the falsie picture...My thumb looks okay int he above picture, but what you can't tell is that there was a massive clump of wadded-up, gloppy nail polish on the end.

By the time I finished, I had the above mess (times about 3, as I threw away 2 other hand fulls), and no longer had any nail polish remover left.

So, FAIL.  Any tips on how to make this work?

At any rate, these are my starting pictures of my nail-growing-out endeavor.  They chip incredibly easily and one already has, so I'll be filing that one down a little, but here goes nothing, and thanks to Violet for the inspiration.

<3 The Wookie Wifey...Who will soon post a not-fail, cute mani!  :)

Still alive...

...Yep, I know, I know, I suck.  Brief hiatus, but I am still around...Thing is, there's a lot of things in the works right now that will hopefully give me tons to blog about in the new future, and even a few things I've already been working on that I -GAH- can't blog because it will ruin other things I'm working on.  If that makes any sense whatsoever.

So hopefully things will be back to their regular pace very, very soon.

Until then, here's a flattering picture of my cat:

One of our couches came sans-cushions so I made makeshift ones out of really old pillows and some huge, square shams.  I took the shams off to wash them, and he thought I made him a lounge chair.  'Cuz, you know, its all about him.  I am simply here to serve.

<3 The Human Litter-Scooper, Food-Making, Water-Filtering Ear Scratcher

Random Photos!

Its time for the monthly random photo post!  This month's theme is flowers.  I know I did that not too long ago, but these are different flowers.

...And my other photo post that is ready to go can't be posted yet because it will unveil what will be in my re-done etsy store if I ever get it up and running.

I'd also like to throw a thank you out there to SOYJOY.  I'd won a prize package from them and it came yesterday, very nicely put together, and even with a few things inside that I hadn't been expecting, as well as  thank you note that was in the cutest little envelope.  Its so nice (and unusual these days) to see a company so grateful and generous an it was much appreciated!  Also, they sent me some of the Strawberry bars in there and they are so good...I can see myself snacking on those long into the future.

Done rambling, enjoy the pictures!  :)

These honeysuckle are STILL blooming and they smell amazing.

Wisteria...One of the most beautiful things in the world.

*All pictures taken by yours truly, feel free to use them, just don't claim that they are yours or remove the watermark if it has one and please show some love by linking back.  :)

Turkey!

The holidays aren't the only time of year to eat turkey.  In fact, we probably eat turkey more when its not a holiday.  This turkey breast I caught on sale and only needed half of it for the recipe I was making for dinner that night, so I decided to just bake the rest up for sandwiches or snacks.

This, admittedly, looks pretty gross.  But do not fret!  The turkey breast was pretty massive and came boneless, skin on.  I peeled the skin off the whole thing, cut it in half, and diced up the half I was going to cook for dinner that night.  The other half, I left in one big hunk, rubbed about 1/4 each of spicy mustard and honey (the real stuff only),  sort of wrapped it back into the piece of skin, then popped it into the toaster oven at 350 for about an hour and I had this:

It was simple, moist, and made one hell of a sandwich and wrap.

As with all poultry, once you take it out of the oven let it rest for 10 to 15 minutes before you slice it up so it will reserve its juiciness.  :)

<3
WW

DIY Vanity Container Set

Diving right in as this post is EXTREEEEMELY image heavy and log, but if you're in for the haul, grab a cup of tea and settle in!  It is worth it if I do say so myself!  This is a tutorial for these containers I DIY'd for my vanity.  I figure if I made my own set then I could just add on as my makeup collection grows! 

First off, get a container.  Whatever size or shape fits your needs will do.  This is just an old plastic container I'd cut to the height I need it to be. 

I wanted it to be sectioned, so I cut a few pieces of thin cardboard and put slits half-way down each in the middle so I could cross them like so:

Simple!

Next, I put a line of glue from a glue stick on the inside and outside of the top of the rim.

Then, I covered it with a piece of ribbon cut to length and folded in half so it sort of wraps around the edge and hides that ugly cut-off top part.  I held it in place with some tiny pins I had lying around so it could dry and was sure to put extra glue on the ends of the ribbon so it would lie down.

Next: Enter spray adhesive.  I didn't use this on the top part because I didn't want the inside to get sticky or glue-y.

I didn't want the ribbon to spiral, instead I wanted more of a linear, stripe pattern, so I cut strips to fit instead of wrapping and made sure to line all the seams up on the same side so they could all be turned to the back.

Here it is sitting up to dry.  Upside-down, hence the pins looking like feet.

Next, I got a smaller container.  This was from a super delicious Tiramisu gelato.

I trimmed off that odd edge thing where the lid had sat...And apparently swapped containers.  I had a few of these lying around to play with, which was good because I ended up having to throw one out due to an epic fail idea!

I grabbed some sprinkles and stuck them in a coffee filter.  You may be wondering where in the hell I'm going with this, but just hang with me.  :)

Next, I took some clear tape and cut it into strips the circumference of the little container and then dunked them into the sprinkles until they were covered...I probably should have used a used/dried out filter for color variation so its easier to see what's going on!  >.<

After covering the small container in spray glue and letting it sit up for 5 minutes, I wrapped the sprinkle-covered tape strips around the container so that sort of a sprinkle-sandwich was formed.

I added a bit of extra glue to fold in the bottom corners, as you can see on the top corners in the above photo.

Then, I added some clear nail polish over any exposed places on the sprinkles/tape/container, then applied glue to that top, ugly rim.

...And that I dipped in white glitter:

Container #2 Done!

Next, I wanted a small, shallow tray to hold my sponge eyeshadow applicators.  Those things need to be on hand, but are a pain to store in anything with a lid and get lost in the bottom of makeup bags.  I took another container identical to the previous one and trimmed just the bottom off of it to where it made a tiny tray.

Painted with silver glitter nail polish and done.

Here is the completed set!  The two little jars were just lying around and I wrapped a strip of ribbon around one and put a stripe of white glitter around the other.  All items got black/white doodads affixed to them as little decorations.

I love how it turned out, especially the sprinkle-covered one.

Some close-ups...

This way, as my makeup collection expands, I can just DIY more coordinating contaners as I need them.  The charm on the large container didn't photograph too well, but it is a horse shoe with skulls on the ends and a rose hanging off the U-part.  I did remove all of the pins except one that covers the seam in the back and the two up front that hold on the chain.  The rosette on the sprinkle container I just made by twisting then spiraling a leftover scrap of the damask ribbon!  ^_^

This sure did spice up my vanity tray!  It looks so much nicer now.  I'll post a picture once I have the whole thing organized how I want it.

In the mean-time, does it bother anyone else that makeup containers aren't usually very pretty?  That stuff generally gets left strewn all over the bathroom or dressing table for all to see, so it may as well be cute, right?

What do you think?

<3
Wookie Wifey

Hawaiian Tropic Silk Hydration Lotion Sunscreen - REVIEW

**Note, this product was provided for free via , Influenster opinions are solely my own.

This is one of the last things left to review from my Voxbox. 


 My take:

The first thing I noticed about this is that it isn't over-powering.  A lot of sunscreens have such a sickeningly sweet smell that, depending on my mood, it will either turn my stomach or make me crave candy.  This isn't like that at all.  It has a nice smell to it without being a punch in the nose.

The other thing I love about this is that it isn't greasy.  I am the world's worst about not wearing sunblock as often as I should because I HATE anything that leaves a greasy residue or a film on my skin.  This does neither.  It really does go on just like any normal lotion.

This stuff retails for about $8.99 a 6-ounce bottle, which I'd say is about normal for sunblock as it is generally pretty pricey.  Seeing as how it is one of the only truly non-greasy ones I've ever tried, I'd say it is worth it, though!  (Although it is advertised to also com in SPF 12 and 50 and if I purchase some I plan to get the 50 just for extra protection!)

I guess it goes without saying that I didn't burn with this on...If I had burned that would have been the FIRST thing I mentioned!  ^_^

<3
WW