It ended up being a hectic week. I had to make a portion of one kids costume and buy the other two costumes. Then I ended up needing one for myself for work. We had to do some work on my daughter's science project and a few other things thrown in and I found myself with zero time to blog. My new camera came in, but I think I am going to have to send it in for warranty work - I am pretty bummed. A lot of pictures are coming out blurry. Quite disappointing. Hopefully they exchange it or fix it quickly! But I do have some pictures to share with you today.

I spent last night making some subtle changes to my page. It just needed some fine tuning. I feel like it is always a work in progress, maybe I should just pay for someone to do it for me? Hmm maybe soon. I am having my pinup for my masthead and Cult Nails logo recreated and that should be up in the coming weeks, so it's a start, maybe the next thing will be to have the someone design the blog for me too. It just takes so long for me to do since I don't have the best understanding of HTML or CSS code. I need to learn more. No excuses.

I also spent some time updating the About Me page and changed the information on there. Hopefully it isn't TMI - but it felt right - so feel free to take a look and tell me what you think.

We took the kids to the Nick Hotel in Orlando this weekend. It was just overnight on Saturday. We spent all day Saturday and half of Sunday at the hotel. It was just a quick weekend, but man it was nice. I have lived here now for 2 years and like everyone else, before moving here, have done the Disney thing. But until this last summer I have never heard of the Nick Hotel. A friend told me about it and I knew I would have to take the girls. I was glad we went, we had a great time! I wish we could have taken a day off and stayed one more day, but unfortunately the real world called us back and we couldn't stay.

                               Here was the view from our room. This is the smaller of the two pools.

OPI has been busy creating Celebrity Polish Lines lately. I liken their desire to have all these celebrities with lines to the three little bears. Justin Beiber nail polish? NOPE - OPI you are WAAYYY to cold with that one. He is a 16 year old boy, what does he have to do with nail polish? All I see here is a desire for more profits. Yuck! Then Serena Williams comes along and now she is going from being one of the best tennis pro's to nail tech. Um OK, I can't knock her for that, I always wanted to be a nail tech too. Plus she's a girl who loves polish. But the obvious choice factor for this one? I would say OPI is getting warm here. The latest announcement from OPI is Katy Perry. Katy is fresh, young, female, always has something going on with her nails and an enormous fan base (that just doesn't include me.) So I say OPI is hot with this one! This one makes sense. But now it just seems like over saturation of celebrity inspired polish lines. If it were me, I would have gone after some different celebs. Here are my top choices.

Rihanna - She seems to change her manicures as much as I do. She is not afraid of experimenting with different colors or having fun with her nails. They are sometimes long, sometimes short, but always painted. Her makeup and nails are always flawless.
Gwen Stefani - From rocker chic to Fashion designer, her nails are always flawless. She rocks vampy colors, bright colors and even white polish. With her sense of style, she could rock a great polish collection.





Lady Gaga - Who can deny the power of Gaga? I wasn't a fan, then I was, then I wasn't. I mean I am just unsure with her, but like Rihanna, her nails are always done and she certainly isn't afraid to try something new or different. Besides with the way people want what celebrities have, she is probably one of the hottest ones to go after right now!  OK so Lippman already came out with a Gaga collection, smart on them, poor on OPI for not thinking of it first!



What do you think? Are you excited about the upcoming OPI collections? Which celebrity do you think should have their own polish line?

I have seen several posts this month from other bloggers regarding October being Cancer Awareness Month. I have been wanting to join in and contribute my pink nails, and the time just kept slipping by. 


Tonight I am attending a Cancer Awareness benefit and needed to get my nails done quick. I was a bit tired from a wicked awesome yoga class last night and my arms were feeling like jelly, but I knew I just had to perfect the pink I have been working on. I wanted a perfect bubble gum pink or cancer awareness ribbon pink. The color kept coming out too light or too dark or too purple. It just wasn't working out.  I was getting so disappointed. Last night with not much to lose I decided to take a too light pink I made and mix in some of the cranberry I made the other day. Who knew that was what was needed - the perfect pink! I know the color is probably easily available out there and I probably have one or two that are pretty close if I were to look, but every where I go people ask me if the color I am wearing is one I made or someone else's. Since I am trying to build a brand, I always want to try to wear one of my own, and since this is for a benefit, I feel I should definitely wear one I created just for the night. The down side is my clean up brush has seen it's day so I couldn't do a clean up. In person they look pretty close to perfect - with the detail of the camera though, you can see all my little mistakes. Boo! I forgot how much I love wearing pink polishes! Do you have a favorite pink?

I needed a manicure, but just wasn't feeling it. I even decided I would go polish free for a few days. But going polish free does not mean leaving my hands a mess. I used some things that can easily be found in most kitchens. This is a great exfoliating and moisterizing treatment that I used to do when we lived in colder climates. It would help with some extra moisture while getting rid of the dead skin. I use some sugar, honey and olive oil and mix it together in a bowl.

It was Juan's birthday this last weekend, so we went out to celebrate. It was also my friends husbands birthday last week. We did a Golf Pub Crawl to celebrate their birthdays. It was a fun night and then we just spent Sunday relaxing and getting ready for the week ahead. I didn't do much in the way of nails this weekend. I am feeling a bit stuck waiting on the 4th set of colors from the lab and it is leaving me feeling a little stressed since we should be in production already. I am hoping to have the next set this week. Keeping my fingers crossed.

In the meantime I figured I would post some pictures from our Golf Pub Crawl. We had our picture taken by a local online nightlife page, so I figure I am safe posting some pics here as well.
Here is my outfit of the night. I purchased the shirt & visor at Goodwill. I had to take the shirt in, since it was huge. I also grabbed two plaid skirts at Goodwill and couldn't get either one to fit me right. So at the last minute I put on my khaki shorts. I wanted to go get some knee high socks, but didn't have time. I was told I looked like a Target employee, Chikfila and Dairy Queen employee. Too funny - wish the plaid skirt fit!
Here I am with Juan. He is wearing a wig! Everything he is wearing was purchased at Goodwill.



My camera broke during the evening festivities. My friend accidently dropped it. I felt so bad for her. She was really bummed over it. It hurt me to see her so upset. So since I know she reads this and is one of my biggest supporters I want to say it here  - I am SOOO not upset that you broke my camera and does it make you feel better that I once went to a party where the brand new home owners gave me red wine in a plastic cup and I proceeded to spill the red wine on their brand new white carpet and brand new white couch? Oh yeah! I did that! Makes me cringe to this day, when I think about it and that had to be 8 or 9 years ago now! Accidents happen, it's no ones fault, they just happen! No worries! Your still the bestest! :) I loved my Canon Powershot, so I will definitely have to get the same camera again. Maybe I'll take the time to learn how to use it properly this time. In the meantime, I guess I will have to figure out how to use Juan's fancy Nikon for any pictures I want to take. Not fun!

I attended a yoga class last night and one of the girls in front of me had on a vivid cranberry nail polish. It was so shiny and I wished I was wearing a freshly painted cranberry on my hands. I kept thinking that I needed to make a cranberry polish the second I got home. Once I created the cranberry, I started thinking that while it was nice, how about a dusty cranberry instead? Maybe add a little grey to the cranberry. Well I did a 50/50 mix of grey and cranberry and I ended up with a not quite pink not quite purple shade. Not what I was thinking. So then I added cranberry to a lot of grey and it was too light, not quite cranberry enough. But the more cranberry I added, the more cranberry it got. (duh! right?). It is a bit dusty in person, but the camera seems to pick up more of the cranberry than the dusty. Either way I think it is a gorgeous cranberry color, even if it isn't exactly what I was going for. Even though I am wearing it now, I am thinking this is going to be my Thanksgiving manicure too. I am loving this color, it's the perfect transition between Summer and Fall. It's still bright enough to wear in the high 80's we are experiencing, but will be equally nice once the weather gets colder. 

I haven't done an outfit of the day post in a while, so I figured it was time to do another one. I was running late and didn't have time to take decent pictures, so these aren't the best ones I have taken. But none the less it's a cute outfit, well except the shoes. I wasn't happy with the shoes in the outfit, I need ideas for shoes for this one. It is still in the upper 80's here, so boots or booties just won't do and I feel like that is what this outfit calls for.
I wore this with the jacket to work since it gets cold in there with the AC. The jacket is from Express, but I got it at Marshall's for $15 some time last year. The tank was purchased at Marshall's too for $15 and the pants are from Express which I got on clearance for $20. The shoes are Steve Madden and I got them on clearance at Ross for $12.99 or something equally low in price. I love the shoes with dresses and skirts, but they just don't seem to be working with this outfit. I was thinking maybe some cute black flats or sandals until the weather gets a little colder.

Wow looking at the picture on my left reminds me of my mom. I always thought I looked just like my dad, but in that picture all I see is my grandmother (on my mom's side) and my mom. I also notice the huge bags under my eyes in the pictures. I was tired when I took these. Can you tell?

Well I am off to jury duty today - lucky me! Hope it goes well and quick! Wish me luck!

 Look at the gap in the front there? The previous tenants apparently took the bushes out to make a walk through with a stone in there.

Here you can see the weeds growing around the palm tree. Just impossible to keep up with the darn weeds!
 Here is the after of the mulch square. We removed the mulch and added some paving stones. This was an insane project because whoever did the original walkway paid no attention to measurements and they were way off. We left a little mulched area and put a few plants in there. I thought that would give it a nice touch. It really opened it from being a walkway to looking like a nice front patio.
 We planted a few filler plants in the front. We still have a few more to plant to fill it up, but that will have to wait a little while. Juan then dung a nice size trench to separate the mulch from the grassy area. (the dead grass we are weed killing and replanting some new grass seeds, so this is going to take a while to look great.)
 We extended the mulch area to include the palm tree on that side of the house. Now I really need put some plants in that area. But notice the big gap where the previous tenants removed the plants is now filled in. I moved some bushes from the back area to the front to fill it up and space it properly. We even added a few cheap solar lights around the front. We hadn't finished putting the solar lights down when the picture was taken. 

I had the best intentions of trying to finalize the colors for the second collection this weekend. Instead we decided to work on our front yard. The grass in our front yard is, well weeds. We also have a walkway that has all these bushes, but some were somewhat mutilated looking when we first moved in and others were taken out by the people who used to live here, so there were huge gaps. Then we had this walkway that had a little rectangle of mulch between the walkway and the front "porch". It was the weirdest looking thing and there wasn't anything in it, no bushes, flowers - nothing! We refer to it as the "mulch square". It has been an eyesore since we moved in back in March. But life being busy enough, there just hasn't been time or money to really take care of it. We knew we had to do something though, so we took care of it this weekend. We got creative and pulled some bushes out from hiding and moved them to the gapped areas, we grabbed some mulch and remulched under the bushes in the front, we weeded and raked and dug and moved things around and covered the "mulch square" in with some cement bricks to extend the porch into a nice little front patio. We did it on the cheap, so it by no means is a magazine looking walkway, but it is looking pretty damn good if I do say so myself. We were short a little mulch, so since Juan is off work today he is going to grab some more and try to finish it up. If he finishes today, I will post some before and after pictures for you all. 


I didn't work out this weekend unless you count the yard work, then I did. Considering every muscle in my body ached as if I worked out, I think my body agrees that it counted as work outs and I was ok to skip my walks and yoga. I did however wake up this morning and do my 30 minute walk. I have been doing my brisk walks at night followed by Yoga, I want to start waking up early enough to do the walks in the mornings and the Yoga at night. I even incorporated intervals of running this morning. Just about 1/2 my walk was running. I used to run all the time - so many years ago, it's like a dream. So I am glad I am getting to the point where I can add that back in. In total I did 1.8 miles. I can't wait until I can write that I did a 30 minute run and then some or am back to my 4 mile daily runs. But for now this is a little victory! YAY!


In the meantime, that means no polishing this weekend. I started on Saturday with the same manicure I have been wearing since last Monday which was the "bad" purple I received from the lab. Messing with cement blocks, it chipped like crazy on Saturday, but the manicure looked amazing up until that point. I repainted my nails Sunday morning just to keep my nails protected before heading back outside for more yardwork and it worked, but I wasn't thinking and didn't take pictures before all the yard work, so as exhausted as I was last night, I re did the manicure. Not my best manicure, and I didn't bother with clean up. Just a bit to tired for that. But this is a pink one of my daughters created. More a raspberry color really. Hope you enjoy it.

I was tagged by the PolishInsomniac for the Versatile Blogger Award. How cool is that?


The Rules: Tell us 7 things about you then tag 12 other blogs for this award.
This is tough, since I am constantly telling you guys things about me, but how about I go with 7 really old things?


1. When I was a kid I begged my parents for a pretty yellow princess dress. According to my mom, she said no and when my dad came home from work, I convinced him to take me to the store to buy me the dress behind my moms back. How I loved that dress. I had to be 5 or 6 if I remember right. The first and only time I remember wearing the dress I was playing tag with my brother and he grabbed the back of the dress and ripped it. :( I no longer have the dress, but I can still picture it perfectly in my mind.


2. My first language was Spanish, (even though now I speak English better than I speak Spanish) and I remember being in school as a kid not knowing any English and having no clue what anyone was saying. But I did get that if we took a nap when we woke up we would have a single gum drop on our mat. Imagine a kid today taking a nap for a single gum drop!


3. At the age of 17 I was present while a good friend gave birth to her daughter. After witnessing childbirth, I swore I would never, ever, ever have any kids. 


4. On my first date with my husband at the mere age of 18, I looked over at him and knew in that instant that I would spend the rest of my life with him.


5. I got pregnant with my first child on my wedding night at the age of 20. So much for never, ever, ever having any kids! After the first one, I wanted at least 3 more. I now have a total of 3, could never convince Juan for the 4th one! Ha!


6. I hate cleaning and driving with a passion. I hate it so much that while most people dream of the house they will one day hopefully own, I dream of hiring a maid and a driver. I even think of how many drivers I will need and what days I would give them off. Oh if only I would win the lottery! Ha!


7. I will most likely never win the lottery. Why? Well because I just don't play the lottery! I guess I won't be getting that maid and driver after all!
For this award I tag:
Beautyvibes
Chromatic Misadventures
Concrete and Nailpolish
Scandalously nailpolished
Lacquerized
Black Nail Polish & Lipgloss
My SImple Little Pleasures
Konadomania
Pretty in Dayton
Tropical Mind
Prim & Polished
Nail'd & Polish'd

I am addicted to the show Thintervention on Bravo. I wasn't a huge fan of Jackie Warner before, not sure that I am now either, but this show has me hooked. She is taking a group of overweight people and teaching them to eat clean and get in shape and lose weight. I look at her body on the show and I am in utter awe. I would love a body like that, but not at the cost of making working out and eating clean my life. But I am willing to put the work in to get my arms, legs and tummy toned up. The show has taught me some things like sugar is a lot worse than I thought for the body. Sugar is linked to more than just weight gain, like cancer, forgetfulness and much much more.  She has me convinced that even though I am not overweight and eat a mostly healthy diet, I still have changes to make. I went and grabbed her book: This is Why Your Fat. I hate the title of the book, I made Juan ask for it at the book store. Imagine me asking a slightly overweight woman at the bookstore to grab this for me. She probably would have punched me! So instead I sent Juan to do my dirty work! I don't feel like I need to follow this book like a bible. I think I am going to keep following my 80/20 rule. When I lost over 30lbs several years ago I adopted the 80/20 rule after reading Body for Life which tells you to eat clean 6 days a week and then eat whatever you want on day 7. Jackie Warner's book says eat clean 5 days a week and then have 2 cheat meals a week. In the end I think my 80/20 rule is about the same. I eat good 80% of the time and I eat what I want 20% of the time. But no matter what I don't exceed my calories for the day. I have stuck with this for years and it has served me well, but I think it is time to clean up just a little. I am drastically reducing my sugar and caffeine intake now. (This is probably the source of yesterday's migraine.)


The other thing I read in Jackie Warner's book was set a goal, like running in a 5k or something similar. Well I think I found something WAY better than that for my goal. The WARRIOR DASH! What is the Warrior Dash you ask? It is a race that is put on across the U.S. each year. The race is approximately 3 miles through exciting, rough terrain. Part of Florida's warrior dash will be running through murky water, 100's of tires, a cargo net climb, climbing over several bales of hay, through a simulated hurricane, and crawling through a mud bog under barb wire before finishing the race! It is going to be exhausting and exhilarating all at the same time! The race here in FL is on Jan 29th. So I have just over 3 months to prepare! I am determined to do this! Now I have a goal! Check it out at www.warriordash.com. Anyone care to join me and mu friends for the dash? Is there one near you that you will sign up for? Come on girls let's get dirty! HA! 


So even though I had a migraine last night, I did my fast paced brisk walk. I passed on the yoga, but hey I walked with a migraine. I need to pick that brisk walk up to a run and I need to move it along. I am not tracking how far my walks are, so I need to do this too. It is time to step my game up so I can be a warrior! By request, I will do some future posts on how the working out is going. I would love to hear what you girls are doing too! So let me know - we can keep each other motivated! Sorry no nails, since I had the migraine yesterday, I may have done the walk, but I didn't redo my nails! Maybe tonight.

 I just wasn't feeling nails last night. I am feeling makeup and clothes big time at the moment though. But being sick and all didn't lend itself to my playing with makeup, so I did some virtual window shopping on Polyvore.com last night instead. I loved my outfit so much, now I am going to be on the hunt for the outfit on the cheap.
I really want the Alex and Ani Bracelets, I absolutely love them and am crushed I misplaced the ones I got for my birthday this year. I still have hope that they will turn up, but the reality is I will probably have to buy them again. So sad. The purse is another item I will be on the hunt for, I will be stalking some Marshall's and TJ Maxx's to see if I can find a totally cute and great quality green handbag like this. And the Chinese Laundry boots - DIVINE! I for sure need to get these. Now if I can just convince Juan that I must have them!

Shoes and handbags are usually where I will spend my money. I think you can find some great quality clothing at bargain prices, but when it comes to handbags and shoes, I get the best I can afford. I never regret it. So these boots, I need them! But will over the knee boots be going out after this year? That is my worry if I get them, then I will get minimal use out of them here in FL because of the weather. But wouldn't you guys love to see these in an outfit of the day post? If so, give me your best reason to convince Juan to part with $150 to get me these boots when we are in the middle of scrimping and saving every last cent to start a nail polish line? His birthday is coming up, maybe he should get me these for his birthday? Hmm I guess that won't work! HA! While we are at it, how can we convince him to get me these Alex and Ani bracelets even though I totally proved myself completely irresponsible with my last ones? And how about that lace top? All I see around here are tight ones, I wonder if I will find something like this. I am so loving this outfit. Hmmm maybe virtual window shopping should be off limits while I am saving. I don't need any lemmings!

Have a fabulous Wednesday everyone!

I received my samples yesterday. Round three and we are so close, but not quite there yet! But the colors are SOOOO close. I am a bit disappointed because they aren't 100% yet, but at the same time, the closer the colors get, the more excited I am getting! The purple/grey I received today was more blue/grey when I saw it, but then once out in the sunshine, it definitely leaned purple. It is like three colors in one, purple, blue and grey. But it isn't what I want. But I did try it out today and it is a great color all on it's own. I figured since I had it on, I would snap a picture or a few for you guys.  I feel like the lab is going to dread dealing with me by the end of all this. But I mean really, I know what I want and nothing less will do. 


You'll have to excuse my manicure application skills. I have been feeling a bit sick lately. I think I might be getting strep. Keeping my fingers crossed that I'm not, but my throat is killing me. I took Saturday off from my workout for my one day of rest and then I felt so crappy Sunday, I didn't work out. Well yesterday sick or not I went to work (I know bad - but I stayed in my office and away from everyone so I wouldn't get anyone else sick - hopefully.) Since I went to work, I felt there was no excuse not to do my walk and Yoga. Well I brought Kat with me and it turned out to be high tide at the beach, so there was no hard sand to walk on, just soft sand, which made it that much more difficult, and then on the way home Kat decided we needed to run. UGH! My head was pounding, my throat was killing and yet somehow I made it through. I didn't think I had it in me for Yoga after that walk/run, so instead of a 30 -45 minute Yoga option, I picked a 10 minute Pilates video. I thought I was going to die by the end - it was an intense Pilates Ab workout! Seriously? Yup! But either way I did it. Sick and all I did my work out. And you know what, even though I felt like crap and hurt and just wanted to vomit and curl into a ball, I felt good having done the work out. I felt proud of myself for sticking to it. My throat still hurts, but at least I made it through. So no excuses girls, if I did it, anyone can do it. 


Anyway, here are some photos of what is NOT going to be my purple grey polish! Amazing how the different lighting conditions effect how the color looks. HA!

I remember when I was a kid growing up in Massachusetts that it got cold before it ever was officially Fall. Not cold by most people's accounts, but the weather was definitely beginning to cool and leaves were starting to fall from the trees. Fall meant apple picking and warm apple cider. I love the memories of Fall as a kid. Sometimes I wish I was still living in Massachusetts so my kids could have those memories as well. But I certainly don't miss the cold.


I tend to get cold easier than most people and anything under 80 is to too cold for me. So needless to say living in Florida is perfect for me. I am not a fan of the cold, the snow, the winds, none of it. But I LOVE fall clothes. I love that I can mix some of my warmer summer clothes with some colder winter clothes and it is perfect for fall. I love than I can transition my makeup and nails to more of a Fall look. And my kids will have memories of the beach and still being outdoors in the heated Florida Fall, still running for the ice cream truck to get a cool treat. 


Here I am in the second week of Fall rocking a matching coral mani & pedi. (I know the horror! I have been in a matching mood lately!) It is still in the high 80's and low 90's here and wearing Fall clothes or dark nails, just doesn't feel right. I am ready, but with the nice weather, it just doesn't feel right. It'll be at least another month before we get into what everyone else considers to be the Fall.  So while everyone is rocking their Fall mani's now, I have one more summer mani to show you. Maybe you are hoping for some small reminder of summer or maybe you are enjoying the change of seasons, but either way hopefully you enjoy this coral manicure. At the very least it is a bright way to start the week. 

This week has had so much going on. I am of course starting on my path to get back in shape, so my focus has been there as I adjust my bad habits and turn them into good habits. Which means I haven't painted my nails since Tuesday! I will for sure paint them tonight though, the Essence polish I am wearing is chiptastic and I can't wait to get it off! Working out is going great, I am remembering how much I loved it and can't figure out why I stopped to begin with. Let's hope this feeling stays. Plus when I am working out I tend to eat better too, so overall I am already starting to feel better. Loving that! I'm starting slow, I am just doing a brisk walk for 30 minutes each day. (I walk at a joggers pace, so not bad if you ask me) and then some Yoga. I have been using the Exercise On Demand channel that my cable company offers and yesterday I took an actual Yoga class. It felt so good. Tomorrow I am suppose to go to a Zumba class with a friend. I am dying to try it, but I am a bit nervous all at the same time. Let's see how that goes or if it even actually goes. I love Yoga cause you can feel your body working, and the stretching and everything, but you can relax at the same time from the workout. You just have to add your own cardio in with it. You can't just do Yoga alone, so it is nice to have some options.


My daughter's homecoming is this weekend, so we are off to do some shopping tonight, which should be fun. I feel like a "mean" mom because I am making her wear the dress we bought her for my brother's wedding back in July. So she gets to watch her friends last minute shop for a dress, while she is stuck with what she has. I am thinking I will get her some different accessories or something instead. That should be cool right?

My nail polish samples should be on their way to me today. We are on round three with the lab right now, so let's hope the third time is the charm! They may even already have a sample for Tierny's color for me! That will be impressive. I can't wait to get these colors into production. If it works out great today, production can start in the upcoming weeks and I may have the polishes ready for sale in December! That would be ahead of schedule, and I'm super excited about that possability! Since the samples aren't here yet, I have no pictures of them for you. :(

Other than that, work has been hectic this week and I feel like I haven't seen my family enough, so hopefully this weekend we can get back to some good quality family time. The weather is still in the high 80's here, although this morning it was 70 when I woke up. But since it is so nice out, maybe we can hit the beach together. Although there are tons of jelly fish washing ashore and the waves are instense, so who knows. There were tons of jelly fish washed ashore the other day when I went for a walk. Did you know that you can still get stung even after they are "dead" on the shore? Yuppers! So if you ever see one, don't go picking it up!