I know you have all been waiting for my "BIG" announcement. Well here it is! I am starting my own nail polish line!!! OK, so I am just a little freaked out right now, because I can't believe it is really happening. I am dumping my life savings and then some into creating my piece of the American Dream. Heck not just the American Dream,  Anybody's Dream. Working for myself, doing something I love and making a difference in the world. As I planned for the line, the expenses just kept adding up as much as the demands on my time did. But in the end, it feels real good to be here announcing this today. Now I wish I could stand here and say this is going to be a huge collection, but I can't. One, I am actually sitting as I type this and two, It would take my life savings and a few other people's life savings to make this a huge collection. Of course I could have gone the route of smacking my label on someone else's polish and saved a few bucks, but we all know that isn't going to cut it. If I am going to do this, it has to be created for us. So I will be launching just three polish colors to start and I plan to release three more colors each season. So by the end of the year I will have 12 colors. Of course if things go great, I may just increase those colors to 4 or more per season, but let's not put the cart before the horse! My colors will release in early 2011, so we will have to be a bit patient in the beginning. But so many times when writing my blog I want to talk about how the business is going and can't, so I decided to announce it now. I want to start off with my official press release and following the press release, I have another BIG announcement! So stay tuned!

Cult Nails Press Release:

August 31, 2010 Nail polish blogger R3 Daily announces a new nail polish line, Cult Nails. Maria Morrison is the blogger of R3 Daily and creator of Cult Nails. The polish line will be B3 Free which means it does not contain formaldehyde, toluene and dibutyl phtalate. Cult Nails polish line is also camphor free, cruelty free and considered a vegan friendly product. "When creating this line it was important to me that not only can I safely wear it, but so can my daughters."

The line will launch in early 2011 with only three colors. Cult Nails will continue to introduce colors to the line throughout each fashion season in 2011. Maria stated that "While I was very excited about the opportunity, I had to be realistic in what I could bring to the table. A small line with a limited collection is a perfect introduction for Cult Nails. The focus is on creating trend setting polish colors that are fun and safe while taking an earth friendly stance in everything we do" In fact Cult Nails committment to being earth friendly means removing unneccesary packaging, using boxes for shipping that are made from 100% recycled materials and shipping packages with reusable packing materials, like cotton balls.

The three introductory shades will retail for $10 per bottle and will include a vibrant holographic red aptly named "Follow Me", a true grey purple creme with a subtle shimmer named "My Kind of Cool Aid" and a yet to be chosen color that R3 Daily's blog followers will have an opportunity to create. Maria's goal is to involve the polish blogging community in the creation of this new line, "Polish bloggers and followers are the most amazing group of women I have seen. They are so supportive of each other and have amazing ideas when it comes to polish. I can't wait to see what they create! This line isn't just for me, it's for all of us!"

For more information on R3 Daily or Cult nails go to: http://www.r3daily.com/ or http://www.cultnails.com/

OK, OK, you just read the second big announcement - that is right, I want you guys to help me create the last color. So go to www.cultnails.com/Shop for details and to enter. The winner will be featured here on my blog and credited with the color creation on the Cult Nails website and receive the entire first season's collection free! And while blogging or tweeting about this contest won't earn you more entries for this contest, feel free to blog or tweet about it! Heck, who am I kidding, PLEASE blog or tweet about it!

Phew....that was a lot to get out there! Are you still reading all this? What a trooper! Thanks again everyone for your support, it really means the world to me to have you all as followers and now hopefully as members of Cult Nails! Oh and one last thing before I go, welcome to the Cult!

I fell off track a little last week and my posting schedule got all screwed up. Saturday and Sunday I focused on getting everything back on track. I did a lot of cleaning and relaxing, not that the two go together, but ironically it was nice. I feel a lot less stressed and ready to get back to it. I even frankened (mixed my own colors to create new ones). And somehow through it all managed to watch 3 movies this weekend! I have no idea how I fit all that in, but boy did I need a chill weekend like this. Saturday night we did step out for a fundraiser, but after just an hour and a half there, I was ready to come home. Lame I know, but I was really enjoying my weekend in and it fell like an interruption, but since it was for a good cause we went. The event a small event at a local bar, nothing fancy. I thought of wearing a dress, but figured I would wear jeans since I thought it was going to be a casual thing. Of course I get there and all my friends are in dresses! UGH! I felt like a heel, but either way, at least I was there, right?  Of course I took a few outfit of the day photos along with nail photos. 


The outfit I am wearing is the one I mentioned I had to stop at Target to buy a few Friday's ago due to the coffee spill incident. I am wearing jeans here where that day I had on black cargo pants, but it the top I got and of course I accessorized. It was dark out when we took the pictures, so we shined the car lights on me and between the car lights and flash, I ended up with red eye in some of these pictures. 

I bought a book about a year ago called Milk, Eggs, Vodka. It is a coffee table book with random grocery lists. The other day at the grocery store there was someone else's list in our shopping cart and I remembered the book. I mentioned to Juan and Bee that we should really start reading the grocery lists we find. Well last night at the grocery store Bee found a crumpled grocery list and opened it up.


Seems pretty normal at first glance...


This is awesome! It looks promising, he wants to get his resume together for some girl named Julie. But he needs to call Jim to talk about his future. I wonder who Jim is? Then he is looking at taking GMAT. That is promising, he wants to get his Master's at least. (I don't know why I assume this is written by a guy, but it just seems like a guy to me). Then my favorite line: If I get "fired" can I get unemployment. And then his response to himself, yes I can file. Is he trying to get "fired"? Is he quitting and asking them to "fire" him? I couldn't help but crack up laughing when I read this. I knew I just had to share it with all of you guys.


After three days of school open houses, I am exhausted. I so can't wait for the weekend. I feel like I just live for the weekends lately. I just got back from vacation and already I feel like I need another vacation. Anyway I wanted to do a design on my nails, but then I realized I was just to tired to do it. I did half the design on one hand and then just had to remove it all and decided just a coat of polish was all that was going to happen for me. Maybe tonight I will finish what I started. Let's see what happens. Anyway I showed this one on here a long time ago, so hopefully it is long enough that I can show you again. It is Color Club What a Drag. This is two coats. I love the silver foil finish of this polish, I just wish it was a bit shinier. It seems to drink in the top coat, so there is no added shine by adding topcoat to it. But it will work for now.

Here's another late post for you guys. It has been the most hectic week! We have had open houses for all three of our kids over the last three days! Talk about no time for anything else! Anyway onto today's post.


As most of you know I got three awesome Alex & Ani bracelets for my birthday. I have worn them every day since I got them, with the exception of when I am cleaning or taking a shower. What you might not know is that I tend to put things in "safe places" when I don't want to lose them. Unfortunately my safe places are so safe, I tend to forget where they are. I have put my bracelets in a safe place and now they are gone! I am so bummed! My wrist already feels naked and lost without them. I have been looking for them since Monday. I have re-traced my steps from Sunday night, but it hasn't helped. I was cleaning the kitchen and took them off, that I remember. But then I also remember taking them off when I cleaned the bathroom and when I took a bath. So which was the last time I took them off and where did I leave them? My kids have offered up all my usual hiding places, but nope they are not there. I REALLY want to find them!


Unfortunately this is the way of my life. I misplaced my diamond earrings over two years ago, by putting them in a safe place and I haven't found them since. Now why in the world would I have not locked them in my jewelry box? I don't know, maybe cause that would make too much sense! Once I lost where I put the iPod I bought for my daughter for Christmas and I had to go out on Christmas Eve to get a new one. I ended up finding that iPod over a month later right before Valentine's Day. Another year I lost the Nintendo DS I bought for one of my daughters only to find it after Christmas, when we were putting the decorations away. Not wanting to repeat the iPod scenario I put the DS in the decorations knowing that once we took the tree down, the DS would be found. I actually did this knowing I would lose it! Isn't that crazy? So now my new Alex & Ani bracelets have been added to the things I lost list. Maybe they are hanging out with the diamond earrings somewhere?


On the bright side, I recently swatched OPI Lucerne - tainly Look Marvelous. This is very similar to China Glaze Jitterbug, but it has a bit of a subtle green hue and takes three coats for coverage. I think I like Jitterbug better. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures of this one since they didn't come out well. I was planning on redoing them, but it has been a hectic week and my SpaRitual Precocious manicure still looks perfect. But perfect or not I will be changing this manicure tonight.

The Mommy Daddy Song had me cracking up - had to share it



And the original if you are interested in the original video before it was autotuned

I am actually still sporting SpaRitual's Precocious, but here is a color I wore for a few days last week. This is OPI Bogota Blackberry.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. After my facial on Saturday I ended up taking a nap. I can't remember the last time I took a nap in the middle of a weekend day, but I think I should do it more often. it felt so good! After the napping was done, I hung out with some of the girls in the neighborhood for a little while. I love living in a neighborhood with great neighbors. It makes life so much better when the people who are always around you are nice. I think in the military we tend to get to know our neighbors more than those who aren't in the military, but then again I could be wrong. 


Yesterday I went to brunch with some friends and it was so nice. I really have a great group of friends here. One of my friends said that her SIL calls us The Real Housewives. Too funny. But we are like the The Real Housewives, that get along great. HA! I have to ask if they are OK with me posting some pictures of us on here, so you can see us in action. After brunch I went to a Tastefully Simple party at another friend's house. It is a home party where they sell different food items that take only 1 to 2 ingredients to complete the recipe and is done fairly quickly. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was pretty good stuff. I ordered a few things that I think we can enjoy as a family or if we have friends over. Before today the only thing I had of theirs was the Love Lemon Lush or whatever it's called. It is a frozen drink mix that you add vodka to and it is delicious, so I knew going in I was going to order more of that. Can't wait to break that out with the neighborhood girls once it arrives. 


As if that wasn't enough to cram in a Sunday, I was suppose to drive to meet up with some friends from high school for dinner. One of which I haven't seen in a few years. I was really looking forward to it. But with the kids back in school and it being a Sunday night, it just wasn't going to happen. I debated going by myself, but I didn't really want to drive an hour away and back alone. I know selfish right? I suck! I feel like such a crappy friend. I will have to figure out a way to make it up to them.


Anyway, on my toes I put on a pink gel polish last week. It is a baby pink color and I am really loving it. I really wanted to put it on my hands too, but the whole matching thing just isn't me. But when we got to brunch today, one of my friends had the perfect pink bubble gum pink on her nails and it just made me want to do my nails pink even more. I wanted to ask her what she was wearing, but I really didn't need another lemming, so I kept my lips tight and went digging in my nail drawers before the Tastefully Simple party at my friends house. I found one that was a perfect match for my toes with the exception that it has an added shimmer. It is Spa Ritual Precocious. It took 4 coats. Ugh! But it is so pretty and girly. I am loving it. Apparently I am in a pink and girly mood!

I had the enviable task of starting my weekend with a facial and peel. Ahhh! My skin feels so refreshed. The facial turned out great, but the facialist I used made it feel rushed. It was almost two hours long, so I know she didn't actually rush the service and it included everything that you would normally receive with a great facial, but her hand movements were so fast it made it feel rushed. Does that even make sense? When rubbing in her lotions and potions she took no care of my eyes and went right over them. I thought I was going to end up with product in my eyes! Then the lady in the room next to me was the world's loudest talker. Someone went in and actually asked her to quiet down. My facialist actually left the room at the same time, and then quickly re-entered since someone else was taking care of the situation. That didn't work though, she reduced the noise level for about 5 minutes and then returned to using her "outside" voice. This is a high end spa in the area too, so I was a bit disappointed. You know the kind of place you go in, put on your robe, enjoy some refreshments, use the sauna or steam room, relax, the whole nine. I have been here before and was not expecting this at all. But all in all the facial turned out great. I am loving the results. Then again I always do. Plus it was my birthday gift from Juan, so that made it better. But I wish the style used was different and that my annoying neighbor was elsewhere. Either way, the point is that I got a facial with great results. Plus it kind of makes me have to laugh. I always tell Juan my life should be a reality show or a comedy sitcom, because like a sitcom everything always turns out great in the end, but odd and funny things always happen on the way to the end result.


Want another story of my not so usual life? Well yesterday I left for work like any other day. Once I pulled into work, I realized that my daughter left her backpack in my Jeep.  So I had the pleasure of driving back the 30 minutes to bring my daughter her backpack. Once on my way back to work and now totally late, I have to stop for gas, since I had just a quarter of a tank when I left for work the first time, but I figured I could just get it on my way home later. Anyway since I was stopping for gas I figured I would get myself a Dunkin Donuts iced coffee as well. Heck I was already late, so why not right? Well the cap was not put on the iced coffee all the way and when I went to take a sip I ended up wearing a good portion of the coffee! I was wearing an ivory t-shirt too!!! I was already back near my office when this happened and couldn't afford another 30 minute ride home, figuring out what to wear, ironing it and a 30 minute ride back to work, so I headed towards the closet store that I hoped would be open and sold clothes - Target! I had to walk into Target with a wet stained and now see thru ivory t-shirt on!!! All I needed was a loose fitting t-shirt. Cheap and easy. It was casual Friday after all. I was wearing black skinny cargo pants, so the top could not be a regular fitted t-shirt. Well I guess not so easy, in my extremely quick 5 minute scan of Target, I could not find a loose fitting t-shirt that was plain. Ugh! I grabbed a loose fitting lace top that was super cute and a little shrug to go over it so I wouldn't have my shoulders exposed at work.  I could wear a tank top to work and they wouldn't care, but my former Financial Institution background with super strict dress codes still resides in the back of my mind and I am just uncomfortable exposing my shoulders like that. Plus I had a meeting scheduled with our benefit broker(Who loves nails and polish as much as me - how cool is that!) and an interview. I don't know I just don't like being sleeveless at work OK! ANYWAY - the shrug turned out to be sleeveless so I was stuck exposing my shoulders at work all day. I was uncomfortable all day - but everyone kept complimenting me on my outfit. Go figure! All though all day I kept thinking I needed a long necklace to complete the outfit and it was killing me because I felt the outfit was just unfinished as it was - but still turned out totally cute. So see crazy morning ended up turning out great anyway. Actually I found the humor in it all that someone at work actually commented that I was exuding happiness all day and was wondering if I had some amazing plans for the weekend or something. Nope, just thought my day was off to such an bad/strange start and I ended up getting to work over an hour and a half late, but I pushed through and just laughed it off.


I have hundred of stories like this. I swear some of us were just meant to have craziness in our life and I am one of those people.  Ha! Today's manicure is one of the Essence Surfer Babe Polishes that I got at Ulta. This one is called Pointbreak. It is a true gray. It applied evenly in three coats. There is nothing really special about this gray other than the fact that it was less than $2. I have had better quality polish in the past, but for the price, this one is great.

In yesterday's post I mentioned that the wind blowing the dress I was wearing made me look a bit bigger than I really am. One of my polish friends asked if I thought I was big in her comments. The answer is a big fat NOOOO! :) But the comment stayed with me all day.  She didn't say it in a rude way, she wasn't mean AT ALL. It was a totally innocent comment. But I thought about that and how my comment could be seen by some that I think i'm big or fat or whatever you want to call it. As a mother of three daughters I think it is important that I send a positive message and I don't ever want to put a message out there that makes it appear that I think girls need to be super skinny. So I wanted to take the opportunity to offer my opinion of myself and women's sizes in general. Remember this is just my opinion, I hope I don't offend anyone and I would love to hear your opinions too.


As far as size goes, I think I am skinny. Maybe not according to everyone, but I see a skinny girl when I look in the mirror. I don't weigh myself, but when I go to the doctor's they weigh me and the last time I went I weighed in at 124 lbs. I am about 5'3" - 5'4". I wear a size 4 - 7 depending on how much I spend on the clothes. It seems the more I spend the smaller my size. The size on a tag means absolutely nothing to me. I have clothes that say XS and clothes that says L. I don't care as long as it fits. 


My body is not perfect, I still have issues with my body. I am at a weight where I eat a mainly healthy diet, but over all I eat what I want. I don't work out like I should, even though I want to. I wish I was more toned, my boobs are fake (Hey someone had to put them back to their pre-baby glory!), and my stomach is a little flabby that no amount of sit ups will cure and has so many stretch marks it could double as a map. (I would get a tummy tuck if I could.) But clothed, I think it looks pretty darn good if I do say so myself. I love my body clothed. Not so much in a bikini. But hey we can't have it all can we? 


Now for how I feel about size in general. I think women of all sizes can be beautiful. I think how a woman carries herself and what she wears makes the body. I fully believe we are all made in different shapes and sizes and we should embrace what we have and stop comparing ourselves to each other and love who we are. Easier said than done. I know. There are certain times of the month when nothing fits and everything just makes me look puffy in all the wrong places. I get frustrated and wish I was taking better care of myself because I like how I look and if I don't do better, I won't get to stay looking the way I do. But for the most part I am happy with how I look and I wish more women were too. Skinny or big we can all look good. 


Speaking of someone who looks amazing and owns it. A friend turned me on to a blog by Erica Bunker. She is a size 14 - 16 (according to her sewing patterns) and she is GORGEOUS and I mean GORGEOUS!!! She sews her own clothes and her blog is about her sewing. I am in serious awe of her talent! This is a woman who is the size of most woman here in the U.S. and she looks amazing! This is what I mean that all women can be beautiful. If we all took the time to care about our appearance, then I think we could all be beautiful regardless of size. When I see a mom at the store wearing some unshaped t-shirt and ill fitting jeans and sneakers and her hair in a messy ponytail. I just want to grab her and give her a makeover.  I think we sometimes forget to take care of ourselves. 


Now with all that being said, I still think there are people out there that are too fat. There are people that for whatever reason have given up and just gained an insane amount of weight. These are the people I feel bad for. I wonder what made them give up. It makes me sad and it makes me angry when I see what some of these people have done to their children. I get so frustrated. I understand that there can be health conditions that can prevent someone from being thinner, but there is a difference between morbidly obese and a healthier weight. I wish these people the strength to find themselves and a way to be healthier. 


So there it is, all out in the open. My opinion on my size and everyone else's.  Probably way more than you wanted to know. I hope I didn't offend anyone, now let's all get off our bums and give ourselves a good stretch. But before you go let's get to another one of the Revlon Street Wear's that Andi from the VivaNails blog sent me. (Yup Andi - I just plugged your blog again!) This one is called Burnt. She actually sent me two called Burnt but they are totally different from each other. I fell in love with this one though. It is such a great grey olive color with shimmer. So cool! It was perfectly opaque in two coats. Now ignore my manicure skills. I apparently got this all over my cuticles, but ironically I didn't notice it at all until I saw the pictures. I almost didn't show these - but the color is just too amazing.

It's been awfully quiet around here the last few days. I couldn't believe I didn't even have a single comment on the polish yesterday. What's going on girls, you still with me? I sure hope so! I look forward to reading what you all have to say everyday. Then again, who am I to be bummed for not seeing comments, I am terrible at leaving them myself! I have zero time and I usually catch up on everyone's blogs while I am in the car riding somewhere and it isn't easy commenting from the phone. But yet here I sit wondering where everyone is at? I'm developing a complex. 


So I did the outfit of the day pictures yesterday and I am not thrilled with how they came out. I am coming to realize it isn't me, it's Juan. Or at least he is an easy target. He is my photographer and yesterday we had about 10 minutes to get the pictures taken before I had to leave to meet up with the girls. I would pose and it would look like he took the picture, so I would move and nope he is sitting there taking his time and decides to snap right when I move. Ugh! To make matters worse my camera battery was dying which only serves to slow the camera down more. I think we are going to need to switch and use his fancy Nikon for outfit of the day posts.


I knew I would have limited time, so I wore an outfit that I could "change up" enough to wear out for an evening of wine with the girls. 

Happy Wednesday everyone! I hope everyone is doing well. Nothing exciting going on here. I am hoping to have another outfit post for you guys soon. I am meeting up with some friends tonight, so I figured I would do an outfit post for it. Oh maybe I will make it a from work to out for drinks kind of thing? That could be fun. What do you think? I am wanting to do more outfit of the day posts. I have been stalking some fashion blogs and besides dying of envy from their outfits, I think I have some ideas for the posing part of it. Let's see if I can pull it off without having a few drinks first! How do these girls make it look so effortless? Do you follow any fashion blogs? If so which ones. I would love to see more. 

I saw Nicole over at Magic Maid posted the Google Game on her blog and it seemed too fun to not play. So here I go joining in on the fun!


1. Type in "[name] needs" in the Google search:
Maria needs Help! - I definitely need help! Anyone want to come help me out? I have a ton of stuff to do and help would be nice! Wait...do you think they mean mentally? hmmm....
2. Type in "[name] looks like" in Google search:
Maria looks like she belongs on the red carpet. Oh hell yes I do! Can you imagine, me & all my gloriousness on the red carpet? OK so maybe I do need help! HA!
3. Type in "[name] hates" in Google search:
Maria hates you back. Well seems simple enough - you hate me, so I hate you. Sounds so mean though! I really love you all!
4. Type in "[name] goes OR [name] has gone" in Google search:
Maria goes to school. Oh no I don't! Those days are behind me missy! I mean sometimes I think I should go for that grad degree, but then I change my mind. It's hard enough going through Elementary, Middle & High School all over again with the kids!
5. Type in "[name] loves" in Google search:
Maria loves words. Well duh, I have a blog where I just talk & talk & talk..... I mean this was an obvious one!
6. Type in "[name] eats" in Google search:
Maria eats Reese's - except they spelled it wrong, they spelled it like resee's. Either way Reese's are good. Yum! Great now I want some Reese's!
7. Type in "[name] has" in Google search:
Maria has huge amazing breasts. Well um, I um, yup! Wow - this is awkward. Their definitely not huge though.
8. Type in "[name] works" in Google search:
Maria works it. I guess I have to work those huge amazing breasts if I don't want to go back to school! 
9. Type in "[name] lives" in Google search:
Maria lives here. Well how do they know that I live here? I mean, I know that I live here, but how do they know?
10. Type in "[name] died" in Google search:
Maria died five years ago. So sad. Why do they choose this as part of the game. This is the last thing I want to think about when playing a game.
11. Type in "[name] does" in Google search:
Maria does not back down. No I don't. I am relentless. I will not give up or quit. When I am on a mission, you better just watch out. And don't even think of messing with me!

12. Type in "[name] will" in Google search:
Maria will know. See who needs more school? I already have all the answers! I am wicked smaat! 
13. Type in "[name] is" in Google search:
I was hoping Maria is awesome for a response, but instead I got, Maria is no longer sweet on honey. Oops, guess I shouldn't have bought the Greek yogurt with honey today! I wish I knew this earlier. :)


This was a fun distraction for a few minutes. So now distract yourself and play the game and distract me by posting your responses here or on your blog and link your blog in the comments so I can see your responses! I can't wait to see everyone play the Google Game! 


Now for the one I made up: Maria Wears Revlon Street Wear Holographic