Nails...

Hello everyone!
I wanted to post a picture of my nails that I did today.




The products I used were Love and Beauty (Forever 21's beauty brand) nail polish in Pink ~ 2-3 coats, Sinful Color's nail polish in California ~ 1 coat, and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat ~ 1-2 coats.

First of all let me say, the pictures are not true to color but you get the general idea. In reality, the Pink color is much more bright/neon pinky-peachy color - quite pretty, while the Sinful Colors nail polish is a very sheer base with pinky-purple shimmer flecks. It tones down the brightness of the pink, in my opinion, and makes it more wearable.

As far as the consistency of the polishes, the Love and Beauty polish is quite thick and chunky. It doesn't apply easily unless you load a glob on and work with it that way. I really wouldn't recommend it. The Sinful Color's polish is one of my favorites. It just adds a sweet sparkle to any cream polish. The Sally Hansen Insta-Dri is one of the ONLY Sally H. products I'd recommend. It allows you to paint your nails and then dries them to the touch in a minute or two... much, much faster than if you were to use a typical top coat. The only downside is that it's quite thick.

Have you tried any of Forever21's nail/beauty products? What did you think?

iPray - July edition

Hi everyone!


I just wanted to say a quick hello! It's Tuesday already and I'm trying to recall where my summer has gone!

Right now, I wanted to share somethings that I've been praying for and some awesome praises that I have. It's kind of more of an uplifting thing so that's why I wanted to share it with you!

1) My friend, Kim, has gone to Kenya on a mission trip. I've been praying that God will use her for His glory and that she will have safe travels and come back with a changed heart!
2) My other friend just had her first baby, praise to God that she was safe and healthy!
3) I've been praying that God will give me strength to overcome my stress and that He will calm my spirit so that I can hear Him better.
4) Also, that Matt and I can find a church in our area that is Bible-preaching and has a great ministry for kids/teens that we can get involved in.


That's my iPray for July - share yours with me and we can pray for each other!

Potato salad problems...

So today I just wanted to write about some frustrations I’ve encountered with this exercise business.

First of all, I have to say that my work place is the worst place in the world if you’re looking to eat healthy. Not so much because all the food is unhealthy, simply because there’s so many opportunities for snacking… and that is my weakness! Another reason is that there are a lot of food-related activities that they put on for the residents, and, being activity staff, I am apart of those food-related activities. Yikes! Not a dream combination do these things make.

Today I wanted to confess that I slipped a little bit. Not slipped so much as ate potato salad and baked beans that I wasn’t planning on eating at our picnic. I think that I still have plenty of calories but I just kind of feel… blah about the whole thing now. I compromised my will power and succumbed to the temptations that were available to me. While I didn’t go over my calorie limit, I’m still bummed about it.

I think that this is a great lesson though - my pastor would call it a “sermon illustration” and while this isn’t a sermon necessarily, I think you’ll see the connection. Giving in to food temptations be it at picnics or in your cupboard at home remind me of what effects sin can have in our lives. We know that something is not good for us but we continually seek out and do the very things that we know are harmful, not only to ourselves but also to our relationship with God. All this from potato salad, eh?

So what can we learn from this? Well, first of all, in the potato salad problem, we can learn that yes, potato salad and baked beans are delicious… but are they worth the feeling of disappointment afterwards? Not especially. Maybe next time, instead of reaching for that potato salad, I will instead be more motivated to eat the watermelon or just my giant hamburger that I had planned on eating in the first place (hamburgers are another story completely but we’ll just leave it at this for now).

As far as sin is concerned, there is hope. If you’re a Christian (and even if you’re not, by the way), than you will know (or should know, or know now) that Christ died for all of our sins and was resurrected from the dead. This means that your sin is covered. Should you still repent for said sin? Definitely, but know that through your relationship with God, He can give you the strength to turn from your sinful ways. In time, He can teach you the discipline to rely wholly on Him and His mercy and grace. Will you still sin if you’re a Christian? Sure. I can wake up and bet that I’ll do something stupid and awful in the eyes of God but if I repent and strive to be better and not put myself deliberately in sin’s path, then I think that’s a pretty good lesson learned, don’t you?

Hair of the day :)

Hi guys!

So I wanted to post a picture of my hair today because I tried something new! I used a conical wand to fix my natural waves and I'm really happy with the results.


This is after a 6 hour workday in the sun and heat and it held up amazingly well! I used Garnier Hairspray (the humidity resistant one) and I really love how it turned out!


I hope you have a great Thursday evening! Talk to you soon!
xoxo

Another post with no pictures...

Sorry, I know the text blogs can be a little monotonous… but I haven’t showered and I am working up the motivation to work my butt outtttt!

I’ve been watching my diet and exercising for three whole days now (well, today is day three so probably by the time you read this I will have done my morning work out so I think that it’s fair to say that I’m on day three). I’ve made some progress in the snacking department. I have limited myself to about two snacks a day and I’m amazed at how much candy I haven’t eaten. With that said, I did have two no bake coconut cookies yesterday and two mini muffins the day before (both totaled 200 calories or under and I didn’t go over my “limit” so I think that I did pretty good).

One thing that I have learned is that it’s ok to slip up and eat sweets… what’s not okay is to sneak into your boss’ office at lunchtime and gorge yourself on Reese’s and Hershey’s kisses. Even if they are there for the taking.

I find the temptation especially great at the place that I work just simply because it’s EVERYWHERE. For example, the day that I started my “just say no to sweets” diet, there was a breakfast social with coffee cake, cinnamon rolls, and muffins (oh and fruit and bagels but ooooh the muffins!) and it was someone’s birthday so of course there were cupcakes! My nightmare. Cupcakes.

I can say that though I have thought about eating those cupcakes when I had lunch, I didn’t. Wam, bam, thank you, God.

I think that dieting can be a spiritual journey if you let it. I realized that on my own, I have no will power, if there is a cookie or a cupcake, I will eat it, no questions… but when I started thinking more about taking care of my body, not just for myself but because God had entrusted it to me, it made more sense to exercise more and eat sweets less.

Right now, I’m enjoying the fact that I have newly discovered will power - thanks to my awesome God. I am also rediscovering that I like cooking and shopping for healthy things. It makes me feel like I”m doing something good for my body….

As far as the exercise goes, as I sit here and write to you, I’m achy all over, but I love that! It makes me feel like I worked hard and that, with a little patience, I’ll be seeing some results! I’m currently doing either Zumba or some strength training workout dvds in the morning, and walking at a brisk pace with Matt for about 40 minutes after dinner.

What are some healthy foods/exercises that you enjoy? I hope you all have a beautiful Thursday!

God bless xo

Summer Bronze

Hello everyone!

I recently looked through my archive of blog posts and noticed one from last summer about wanting to find a great sunless tanner. Well my quest continues but I've tried a new product and changed my opinion of an old one.

Stay tuned for the results!

Nudey nails

Hello readers!

I saw that Fleur De Force posted a blog about the perfect nude nail polish. I too was on the quest for the elusive "perfect nude" and I think that I may have discovered a trick that can help you achieve that nude finish.


I have to preface this by saying that I am a stickler for perfect home-manis. I hate glopy, gloopy, and chunky manicures as well as any smudges or nicks in my polish. I also should say that I'm more of a natural manicure kind of girl. I've tried the brights and the pastels but they just don't work for me.

Anyways, now on to my nude polishes. What I do is I mix two different polishes to achieve the nude finish that I want. The two polishes that I think work well together are Sally Hansen's "Hard as Nails Hard as Wraps" polish. It's a nude/natural colored nail hardener. Alone, I frankly really detest this polish. If you want an opaque finish, it needs several coats, and it gets gloopy. But when paired with Essie "Madamoiselle" (a pale, translucent pink) it looks great! I find that one to two coats of the Hard as Wraps polish with one or two coats of the Madamoiselle polish does the trick. I top it off with the Sally Hansen "Insta-Dri" top coat.

Now before you go getting the wrong idea and think that I'm sponsored by Sally... I'm not. I actually have resolved to never by this brand of nail polish ever again. I have had nothing but trouble from Sally. The polishes I've tried are truly chunky, sticky, and too thick for my taste. But the ones I mentioned above, somehow, worked for me.

Have you had the same issues with Sally that I have? Leave a comment!

June's Ins and Outs

Ins

Eating fresh/steamed veggies! - I highly recommend peppers and cabbage, so good!

Using a crock pot

Sunblock

Unheated swimming pools

A good, working fan

Family visits

Comfortable couches

Reading the Bible with my friends

WEDDINGS!

Outs

Sweating your face off…

Deodorant that doesn’t live up to its promises

Bad kitties

Too many pop bottles

Humidity

I do have one more out that I think I’ll count as the “out of the week.” On Saturday, my sister and I decided to go shopping at Target… much to my dismay, at the checkout my car keys were nowhere to be found. Yikes!

After circling the store, asking several unhelpful employees, and having a near meltdown in the fitting area, we found my keys… locked in my car… that was still running. Stupid!

Now I did learn a couple of things from this misstep:

1) Always check that you have your keys before you exit the car.

2) It’s ok to laugh at frustrating situations. After I had my initial “I’m so stupid, what do I do, it’s all Matt’s fault…” moment collect yourself and laugh about it.

3) It’s ok if you don’t handle the situation with as much grace as you would have hoped. Apologize to husbands and ask God to help you maintain more control next time you face a situation like this.

I hope that you all have a safe and blessed Fourth of July holiday! Just remember that TRUE freedom comes from Jesus Christ who died on the cross for the sins of man (yours and mine) and rose again and ascended to Heaven.

God bless <3