Gellac Nails

I have a thing for nice nails. I’m pretty sure it comes from watching my mom sit in front of the TV at night, filing and shaping her nails. I remember falling asleep with my head on her lap while she watched the Atlanta Braves game on TV. Her body would rock as the file moved back and forth across her nails. She wasn’t much for primping, but she always kept her nails in good shape.

I like to keep my nails filed, and polished when possible. So I have a new favorite thing to share. Have you heard of gel nail polish, or shellac? Creative Nail Designs makes the gel polish. OPI makes the shellac.

It’s only available at nail salons. The nail technician applies a clear base coat on my own nails (not acrylics), then sets it with a UV lamp. Then she applies the first of two color coats, setting them each with the UV lamp. Then there’s a final top coat, followed by the lamp. The last step is to rub your nails with plain alcohol to make them shine.

After the rubbing is done, I sit there in amazement and touch my nails and even scratch them. Wonder of all wonders, there isn’t one little dent or ding even though the nails were *just* polished. It’s a weird thing, after spending years of my life having to wait a LONG time after the manicure to make sure the polish isn’t ruined.

But that isn’t even the BEST part! The best part is the polish lasts for at least three weeks AND makes my nails strong with zero chipping. It would last longer if my nails didn’t grow so fast and have space between the polish and my cuticles. Here’s how my nails looked after three weeks:

If I had chosen a color that contrasts more with my skin color, I don’t think I could have worn it for three weeks. The growth would be too obvious.

The second time I had this nail polish applied, I went with the French manicure. Here’s how it looked after a week and a half. (Disregard my ragged cuticles and cuts, please. Focus on the polish, y’all!)

I think I like the color polish better. French is nice, but it’s too perfect and makes me look like a salon rat; as if I am a high maintenance woman who gets her nails done weekly. Which isn’t true. Usually I do my nails myself at home with those nail strips I love so much. Lupus makes the skin on my cuticles very thick and tough, and it hurts badly to push them back. I don’t like a nail technician doing this for me, so I do it at home myself. Besides, this gel/shellac manicure is twice as expensive as a regular manicure - $30 as opposed to $15.

But for a special occasion or a nice treat, I’m definitely going back!

Photo Gifts

Lookie, lookie what I got in the mail! A bright ORANGE Shutterfly package!

I have been a loyal Shutterfly user for a while. I have photos in my account all the way back to 2006. I love that Shutterfly stores your photos forever, without making you buy anything. Other photo sites require you to buy something at least once a year, or they delete your photos. Shutterfly stores them for free! AND they store them in the full-size resolution you upload.

Another thing I love about Shutterfly? They are constantly sending me coupons and great deals to order items at a large discount. The photo above shows most of the items I recently ordered: 5 folded greeting cards, 30 prints, an 8x8 photo book and an 8.5x11 photo book. My total cost was $34.66. I took advantage of all kinds of deals: free shipping, free photo books, 20% off photo books, and free cards.

See that photo book on the left side of the photo? That’s the 8x8 album I ordered with photos I took this past year. When it arrived, I was amazed at the book’s photo quality. There were details I hadn’t noticed when looking at the photos on my computer.

Do you also see the little Shutterfly brochure in the bottom right-hand corner of that photo? That’s their brochure with all of their Christmas cards and photo gifts for this season. Oh, man! There are some really cute cards there. I can’t decide if I like the single-photo cards like this or if I like the collage photo cards like this. Simple is good, but I’m also into more-bang-for-your-buck. I really like the ones that let you include more photos on the inside of the card AND text. Pretty cool! Shutterfly also offers a great service: you can have the cards addressed, stamped and mailed by them. Hmmm… tempting.

Every year for Christmas, we order a photo book for the grandparents. I think photos are the perfect gift: usually a photo is something the recipient doesn’t already have, and it’s a gift that is personal and meaningful. For the grandparents’ album, we include photos from the previous year’s June to the current year’s June (Katie’s birthday month). That way we can include photos of Christmas each year. If we made the album with photos from January to December and gave it to them in December, we’d always be missing Christmas photos. And by doing June to June, we can compile the album earlier in the year and take advantage of Shutterfly’s sales.

I’d highly recommend Shutterfly products if you’re looking for some good Christmas gift ideas or still deciding on your annual holiday cards. And if you go to this link and sign up to blog about their products, you can score some free cards too!

My Favorite Posts from 2009

My friend Gina found a great idea that I want to copy. She linked to her favorite posts (that she wrote) from 2009. Here are my top ten, in chronological order (yes, I am OCD!):

January 23: An Apology
April 10: Good Friday: No More Waiting
May 10: Like Father, Like Daughter
May 31: Wonder Woman
June 21: Superman
June 22: Weekend Recap: Birthday Party, Father's Day and Baptism
August 20: A Prayer for My Children
September 29: One Year In
November 4: He Lives On
December 23: Fourteen Years and Fifteen Times

Happy 2010 to everyone!

A Katie Stamp!

Santa came to today at the Christmas party for my mom's group. He brought Katie one of the coolest presents! It's a rubber stamp with Katie's face on it!

I asked Santa about it, and this is what he told me. He ordered it from an elf named Anna-Mae at www.villageimpressions.com. Here's a link to the specific page on photo stamps. She used a photo of Katie, plus a scan of Katie's name that she wrote in her own handwriting, and made the stamp. It's mounted on clear acrylic, so Katie can see the placement of the stamp before she imprints on paper. The stamp can also be removed from the acrylic block for use with other stamps or for cleaning. It'll stick itself right back on when you're ready.

Here's a photo of Katie with the stamp, the impression in her new High School Musical journal, and an odd smile (she likes to stick her tongue through the holes where she has lost her teeth).

Santa says Anna-Mae was very fast with the order, and had a good price. I thought I'd just pass along this great info in case you still need a unique gift idea!

5 Good Things Booklet

Today's sermon in church was focused on travel tips for those going through a transition in their lives. It could be starting a new school (or sending your baby off for the first time), a death, a birth, or just something that feels big and close to erupting in your life. The pastor talked about Jeremiah 29:4-14, which was written to those in exile - and I'm sure those who felt abandoned by the Lord. The gist of the passage is God talking to those who feel like they are waiting for something better to start. He is telling them to stop waiting and live their lives NOW. "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce." Even in exile! Don't wait until your lives are back to "normal." The pastor suggested we give up the "if only" game and stop wishing for someone else's story.

I think one of the ways we do that is to focus on what is good in our lives, not what is bad. Showing gratitude to God and those in our lives opens our hearts for more joy.

I came across this post, and love the idea of finding five good things every day. I printed a booklet and will fill it out this week. Maybe I'll post the five things (or 35, after seven days) in a week, to let you know the good that is flowing through my life.

Why don't you experiment with me? Focus on the good, even when things might not feel so good. I'd love for you to share your five/35 things with me too!

Jeremiah 29:11 says, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" Even in exile.

Fun Links

I really should be doing something productive with my time. Jackson is napping and I have only 30 minutes until Katie arrives back home. I have lots on my To Do List (write Grandmother, balance checkbook, edit a church memo... on and on), but I'm futzing around with a link that I found through Reiza's Stepping Off the Spaceship blog.

She has a link to this website called In4mador, and people go post links to other cool web features. I already made a Bob Dylan sign video, played with the Idea Generator and also the Cubescape, and made personalized money.

And now I want to go use the Official Seal Generator. Ooo, fun. I would not recommend going to this In4mador site unless you have time to spare. And I don't. So I need to Just. Walk. Away.

Things I Love

That last post made me think I should add a few more things to my list.

I love scrapbooking on my computer. I use a program called Photo Explosion, which costs about $30. It is very easy to use, and I've figured out some ways to personalize it with my own backgrounds. I also found a website that will turn your handwriting into a computer font, so I used that font throughout my 2007 scrapbook. I love scrapbooking on the computer for many reasons. 1. I don't have to lug all my tools and papers and stickers out and set it up, then put it all away again before the kids get into it. When I scrapbook on the computer, I can just stop halfway through a page and hit save and move on to something else. 2. I have a fear of my house burning down and all my one-of-a-kind scrapbooks going up on flames. Now that I have a digital copy of each scrapbook page, I burn them to CD at the end of the year and Dan keeps a copy at his office. So if the house burns down, I don't have to run to save the scrapbooks (after the kids are safe, of course!). 3. I can print out multiple copies of the same page and make scrapbooks for grandparents, friends, etc. 4. I feel like it's cheaper to scrapbook on the computer. All it costs me is $30 for the software, paper to print it on (I used to use cardstock but now I just use regular paper), a binder and page protectors to hold the pages, and the printer ink.

I love this hand-towel beach bag by Martha Stewart. I've been making placemat purses, but I've been trying to come up with better ideas for handles. I like the handles on these bags. And I also love these drink umbrellas by Martha Stewart. I gotta make these!

I love these Incoco nail polish strips. They're strips of nail polish that you put on your nails and they last for up to 14 days. I'm on day 14 of the latest batch of mine, and they still look half decent. But I probably need to go ahead and take them off. This is how they looked on my nails on day 11.

I love Skype. If you have a webcam, you can download the Skype software and call anyone anywhere over your computer. It's a video phone call! FREE! My uncle got me and my sister hooked up through it. The bummer is they are the only people I know signed up on Skype. I wish more of my friends and family would use it (hint, hint) so I can call them and "see" them more often. I love that it's free long distance, and I love that I can see my sister and her family, and they can see my family too. They were able to call and watch Jackson learn to walk, which is pretty cool. And if I had been thinking ahead, I could have set up the webcam so they could celebrate his first birthday with us. But I wasn't that on-the-ball at the time. You can also use Skype (for a fee) to call internationally too. I have a cousin stationed overseas and I know I could call him, but I haven't figured out the time difference or how to load my account with money. A woman I know also Skypes her family in Hawaii and her military husband when he's out of town.

Things I Love

Lately, I've come across some *great* ideas and I wanted to share them with you. So, here are two of them!

I found an AWESOME website called Block Posters where you can turn any photo into a full-size wall mural. I did it with a photo of Katie and Jackson (taken by my friend Tammy), and here's the result. This is a photo of my computer room with the mural above our wonderful LoveSac:

I think I'm going to reprint the photo a lot larger just to try it. I'm also thinking of printing one from our cruise or Jamaica, and putting it in our beach-themed bathroom. My neighbor Sheryl is also going to do a big one of Busch Stadium for her son's room. Maybe I'll get her to send me a photo once it's installed and I can share it with you.

My other great discovery was while we were in Vegas. Beth and I went to a mall and I found this cool nail art stamp set at a kiosk. I love to decorate my nails and toenails. (Just ask the tweens on my street! I'm the coolest grown up they know. Yeah, right!) This Konad Nail Art system has little silver discs that are engraved with designs. You swipe colored polish over the design, use a little squeegee to remove the excess, then push a rubber stamp over the design and the paint is stuck to the stamp. And then you apply it to your nails with the stamp pad. It's so fun!

I'm hoping to regularly post about "Things I Love" on my blog, so keep checking back to see what I uncover. And if you have any cool things you love, leave me a comment and let me know about it!