First off, let me start by wishing you all a Merry Christmas. While many of you will be spending the day relaxing at home or perhaps running from house to house for the day, we will be in the air flying to MA. We will hopefully be at my parents house around 7pm tomorrow night. I will most likely take a bloggy break while we are out of town, but you may catch me on Twitter or FB. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas (If you celebrate it) and a Happy New Year. I hope all your hopes and desires for the new year become a reality for you.

Now let's get to packing. I haven't flown on an airline that charges for baggage that is checked in yet. We typically fly Southwest, the price is good and we don't pay for checking in bags. But in order for us to get home for Christmas this year, by flying on Delta and on Christmas Day instead of Christmas Eve, we saved about $150 for each ticket. Multiply that by 5 people and $25 for a checked bag seems like a steal.

I am usually a light packer anyway and strictly carry on whenever I can. However, with it being freezing and snowy in MA, that meant boots and warm clothes that take up way more room. We are going to be gone for 8 days too. Yikes! I tend to try to stick with a color pallet when I go away just so I can mix and match and maximize my outfits. I figured I would show you the method to my madness. I will usually grab my clothes that match and lay them out as outfits on the bed. and then pack. We are mainly going to be hanging out at people's houses, with the exception of New Year's Eve. So I imagine I don't need anything super special. But I still want to look presentable. I am going to try to put everything in just a carry on. Can I do it?

I recently placed an order for my Daughter's friends for some Evil Shades gift sets. Of course that meant that I ordered myself a set and a Cuticle Balm. I have been dying to try Andrea's cuticle balm, so I was so excited when I came home last night to find her package had arrived. When the package arrived there were three candy canes in the package. Since I have three daughters they swooped in and grabbed those before I even finished taking the goods out of the package. I will have to post a review on the make up items I got when I have some time. The eye shadows look amazing and she sent two free eye shadow samples and a sample of her new perfume. The eye shadow samples look so cool - I think I'm going to have to hide them from my daughter. I also ordered a gloss which is AMAZING. So look for some reviews on all that soon.

For now let's get to the cuticle balm. If you aren't sure what a cuticle balm is, let me explain. It is basically cuticle oil hardened into a thick almost was like consistency which will "melt" instantly upon contact with your skin. It is not a hand cream. Typically you will find cuticle balms in tiny metal containers. Evil Shades cuticle balm comes in a generous no frills 2 oz container.




Here it is all rubbed in. (Yup I'm still rockin' Coco's manicure!) You can see it glistening on my hands. Because this is a balm, I wouldn't recommend using this all over your hands during the day unless you have time for it all to soak in. During the day I would recommend just using it on your cuticles. Because it is a balm it will stay with a greasy feel for about 5 minutes or until it soaks in. Now that it is rubbed in my hands feel so soft. This is going on my nightstand for my evening applications. I paid $6 for this cuticle balm. I noticed on her site she also has a hand cream, I'd be interested in trying that one as well.

Edited to add: When I woke up this morning my hands were still extremly soft and they still had a hint of the scent of the balm. Yum! I couldn't resist re-applying.

What a break, I feel like I am crawling out from under a rock. As many of you know I posted that I was sick with the flu last week. Well Friday I was feeling better and went to work. The day went by in an uneventful haze, where I spent the day partially dizzy feeling. I came home Friday night and decided I should pass on Juan's work party. Saturday during the day, I kept going back and forth on how I was feeling. I wanted to sleep all day, but wanted to force myself to feel better. We went to a party at my CEO's house and then came back to our place with some work friends and made some pretty amazing cotton candy martini's and played Mad Gabs. (Thanks Scandalous Ange - oh and when I told Juan we had to buy it - he said, "um - we have it in the game closet." Who knew?) We had a great time, I was feeling great, I thought I was getting over it and then... I lost my voice. Usually when I am sick I lose my voice when things are getting better, I was so excited that my body was catching up with how I was feeling. Sunday, although I was sporting a total party girl voice, I took my girls out for some last minute holiday shopping. Then around 6 in the evening, everything changed. My ears started hurting, my eyes starting itching and puffing, what the heck is going on? I went to bed early and woke up in the morning...well in order to avoid some gross TMI, we'll just say I woke up sick. Back to the Dr's I went. Turns out I now had a sinus infection and an ear infection and possibly strep throat. WTF? The Dr. said he wasn't even going to bother testing for strep, since antibiotics were in my future.  I pushed myself to work from home yesterday and today, but in all reality, I feel like crap and just want to be sleeping.  But I feel better all at the same time, if that makes any sense. I plan on going to bed early, so I can wake up refreshed in the morning and work two days before I take off until Jan 4th!

SO anyway, I am alive and medicated and I am going to survive and in spite of being sick, and not having a voice I am back!  While all this was going on, I have had a few minor set backs with Cult Nails, coupled with a few personal high points. I don't want to disclose some of the high points, because they are rather personal, but they are amazing high points that leave me extremely thankful for how fortunate my year is ending. I could not have asked for anything more. I definitely have a guardian angel looking out for me. So while Cult Nails will not release in Jan like I had hoped and planned, it will now release in Feb with a few changes and some surprises. I will let you all know what all that is real soon. I promise!

See what happens when I lose my voice, it just comes right out my fingers! Are you sick of all the blah blah blah yet? Want some nail pics?

OK so cutest story ever. My 11 year old knows how much I like to change my mani, and since I have been feeling to ill to do it, she offered to do it for me. I told her she could do whatever she wanted. As I laid in bed and drifted in and out she gave me a very special manicure. She even did a little clean up. Here is the mani she gave me:

I am sick as a dog with the flu right now. So much for the flu shot! I just hope I feel better soon, I still have way to much to do at work before going on vacation and I still have some Christmas shopping to finish up. Poor Juan is going to die if he has to finish the shopping. I know he will do it, but that is not his favorite thing. But for all of you who feel sick and go to work anyway - you suck! Just call in sick so the rest of us don't get sick! Your not a hero if you go to work sick. You are actually being inefficient. You can't give 100% because your not feeling well. then you spread your germs around the office and a whole bunch of other people call in sick which effects the company even more than if you just called in sick! We have had so many people calling in these last few weeks, and yet so many more coming in with a sore throat or not feeling well saying they are too busy to stay home. WTF! So now here I am having had the flu shot sick. Thanks! I honestly never felt this sick before. Well no I can't say that exactly. I have never felt this pain before. I was in so much pain yesterday morning, I couldn't move. I just whined. My poor husband had to call in sick for me and make a doctor's appt for me and take me to the doctor's. When the doc said I had the flu, I thought he must be crazy - this is way worse than the flu. He assured me it would be even worse had I not gotten the flu shot. I just can't imagine worse than what I felt yesterday! Today I feel better than yesterday, but still sick. I haven't had a fever since about 9:30 last night, so I am hoping the worst is over. I am going to try to work from home today, but I just want to sleep, so let's see what happens. Sleep or work.

ANYWAY, last Friday was my works Annual Party. It was a casual casino night. I had planned a cute black top with jeans, but wanted to bling out my nails. I had intended on doing the faux bob, but my hair was not having it. It refused to take the curls. So I ended up just throwing my hair up.  I frankened a polish using silver foil polish and some holographic glitter. It came out so cool!

I loved these nails! So blingy!!! Too bad the holographic glitter didn't photograph well. I call this one Disco Inferno.



And of course I had to do a picture in my daughter's favorite pose. She thinks I look so funny when I do this! HA!

I received the latest issue of InStyle magazine this weekend and they showed a taupe and black half moon manicure as the latest manicure to have. I had to laugh since I have sported this one occasionally over the last several years, but it is nice to see that it is making it's way to the mainstream. I know a lot of you also have been wearing this look for a while now too. I think it looks great on longer nails, but I used to sport the look when my nails were super short too, so really any length goes with this style. The easiest way for me to do this is free hand so that I can get the look that works with my nail size and shape. I chose to use My Kind of Kool Aid for the base color and black for the moon. I didn't take color accurate pictures since I figured that you have seen the color before, so it looks really grey in these photos. These photos are more for style than anything else, so hopefully you don't mind. Here's the manicure.

I can't believe how few entries we had for this give away! Typically when I have a give away I have so many entries it takes a while to sort through them all. Pretty amazing to me, but maybe it's because I love accessories and clothes as much as I like having my nails done. On the bright side, that means the odds to win are much better! Thanks to ZeeBerry for offering us this opportunity. I hope if you haven't checked out their site yet, you take some time to do so. They really do have a lot of amazing accessories, great pricing and excellent customer service.

After verifying the entries, I used Random.org to pick the winner. Of the 12 who entered, we ended up with 36 qualifying entries as many of you follow us on Twitter and Facebook and some of you even tweeted about it! And the winner is You Nailed It!

Congratulations You Nailed It! Send me an email with your information and I will get it forwarded to ZeeBerry for you. Can't wait to hear about what you get! Thanks again to those of you who entered.

I just wanted to remind everyone that your last chance to enter the ZeeBerry give away is tonight, so if you haven't already entered, you still have some time!

The girls over at ZeeBerry have generously donated a $50 gift card for the winner to spend any way she wishes! You don't want to pass up the opportunity for your chance at some free jewelry!

To find out how to enter, see the give away post here! Good luck to all those who enter.

Are you sick of seeing me yet? I should just call this week conceited week! I have only a few nail pics, but I do have some more in the works. But since I have to get dressed everyday - I have an outfit post for you. I don't have a lot of pictures though of this one because my friend and her husband were standing there watching and waiting on me while I was forcing them to wait so John could take a picture of my outfit. Now if that doesn't make you feel conceited, I don't know what will! I would show you the picture of my beautiful friend and her husband, but I didn't get her permission and wouldn't want someone doing that to me, so I won't. A shame really because she is quite a beauty. So instead you get me again! These were taken last Friday. Tonight is my work party - so of course there will be another outfit of the day coming soon.

 Look at the look on my face! OMG! I am trying to be cool in front of my friends! HA! I look like a deer caught in headlights!

As you know around Thanksgiving I posted about wanting to try almond shape nails out. I haven't quite bitten the bullet yet, but I gave it a go on one finger. I cracked my thumb nail just a smidge, so I decided that would be the perfect nail to try it out on. I looked online for instructions and here is what I found.

1. Visually create a line in the center of your nail.
2. Starting on one side at the free edge, file towards that line.
3. Repeat on the other side.
4. soften the tip to desired shape

Seems easy enough - NOT! My nails are not perfectly curved so it made this rather difficult for me. Here is what it looks like:

As you all know I recently bought some Alex & Ani Bracelets from ZeeBerry. Well when I posted about it, I received an email from ZeeBerry offering to give one of you lucky ladies a $50 gift certificate to their website! How awesome is that? Actually they offered me some more Alex and Anibangles that I REALLY want so that I can do a review here, but I asked if we could do a give away for you guys instead because 1. You & I already know how much I love Alex and Ani products and 2. ZeeBerry totally sold me on their awesome customer service and products and of course they most generously agreed and instead of you getting what I want, they are letting the winner pick what she/he wants! Love great customer service! ZeeBerry has designer jewelery not just from Alex and Ani, but from Dogeared, Energy Muse, Ettika, Tarino Tarantinoand many more.

Not only that, they are offering you, my followers 10% off your order, so even if you don't win the give-away, you still win a discount! WAHOO! Just enter the code zb10 upon check out.

I of course came up with some lovely ideas that the winner could spend the $50 on.


Set of Lucky 7 Alex & Ani Bracelets $46.50

This is the set I just bought from ZeeBerry - we can be bracelet twins! I have gotten so many compliments on them too by the way. What a better way to show off your manicure than with some lucky bracelets! It also comes in silver.



Foxy Originals Dreams Come True Wearable Words Necklace $20.00

I think I might get this for my niece for Christmas. But to be perfectly honest, I kind of want one for myself too! I just love stuff like this. Notice the theme? Lucky, dreams coming true, the theme continues....


Dogeared Large Karma Necklace - $65.60

OK so this one is over $50, but I SOOO want this.  I totally believe in Karma, which is part of why I wanted to do a give away instead of doing the review. I feel you all deserve some of the greatness you have been giving me lately - keep the good karma going. (But seriously Juan, if you still have something else to get me, this should be it - don't forget to use the coupon code babe! Just think this and some silver bracelets and you are golden - or um silvered, whatever - you get what I mean. Love you!)




Rachel Leigh au Lait Gumball Ring $49.00

This ring is seriously amazing! Talk about showing off your manicure with this on your hand! What an attention grabber! OK so instead of showing you what YOU can get if you win, it looks like I am just making a Christmas wishlist for Juan! HA!


Energy Muse Second Chakra Necklace $190.00

Lastly, this is totally not $50, but I just had to put it on here because I SOOO want this one too! When I saw the photo of this one, I had to click on it and then right there in black and white the 2nd Chakra Affirmation: "I stand in my own divine power." Enough said!

With the holidays around the corner, some of us tend to have a lot of get together's that we need to go to. I like to try out different looks depending on where I am going since I know there will be a lot of pictures taken. This year in the next few weeks, we are going to be quite busy too! Friday is my works annual party, Saturday we are going to a wedding dinner(at The Medevil Times - how fun!), then next Friday is Juan's work party, then next Saturday a party at the CEO's house, then the following week is Christmas and we are going to be with our family in MA and while we are "home in MA" on New Years Eve we are having my daughter's 15th birthday or her Quinceanera if you are familiar with the Spanish version of a Sweet Sixteen (a year earlier). So I definitely have a lot of dressing up coming up, even though most of these are going to be somewhat casual, I think I will do myself up just a bit anyway.

I was thinking about trying out a Faux Bob. I love the look of a bob, but I am not about to cut my hair - so the faux bob is perfect for someone like me! Of course that means I needed to practice this before I actually wear it out, and since we were just chillin' on Sunday, I decided to try it out.

I probably should have taken some pictures or done a video tutorial of this, but since I myself didn't know what I was doing, I wasn't about to try. But there are a lot of youtube tutorials to show you. Briefly here is what I did. I used hot rollers in my hair. When I took the hot rollers out, I sectioned off the top layer from the bottom layer. I then rolled the bottom layer around my finger loosely as if my finger is a curling iron, but starting about midway of the length of my hair if that makes sense and then I just bobby pin it, leaving the bottom portion of the hair to curl loose. (Wow - that really needs a visual. Maybe I will have to try it again and have someone video it.) I then let go of the top section and because I have layers, I am usually good to go from here with some hairspray and fluffing and some random pinning of any areas I missed.

So in case you need a reminder - here is my before:

The back. I look nekkid here! HA!

The side. I pinned it back with a feather clip.

The front. I look like I am up to something here

Another view of the front.

I really love how it came out - I just can't pick one picture. Kind of makes me want to cut my hair. That could be dangerous!

So what do you think? Do you like the faux bob? I need to come up with some other hair ideas for all these events. What's your favorite style when you want to do something different?
I also wanted to take a second thank Laura of Eight Days Designs for the wonderful layout of my blog! She did an amazing job and even re-designed the whole thing after I gave her cart blanche to do what she wanted and then changed my mind! I guess I did have something I wanted in mind after all. Oops! She was such a trooper and so pleasant to work with and the cost was quite reasonable. I will definitely use her for future site enhancements. I highly recommend her to you if you are looking for someone to design her blog. Thanks again Laura! You & Natalie rock!

For a while now I have been debating on doing a post showing what I look like fresh out of bed and once I am walking out the door. I can't even believe I am putting these pictures out here with no makeup, no hair done, no re touch. Yikes! But I hope I don't sound conceited saying this, but I probably will, but here goes anyway. I think without my hair and makeup being done, I have a fairly normal look about me. I think I could go wherever looking like this and it wouldn't be terrible but it wouldn't be hot either. But when I do myself up, I think I look pretty darn good. Of course like most women I have things I would love to change or fix or whatever it is you call it. But I think I go from being ordinary to being nice to look at. SO now that I totally sound like a snob let's take me back down a notch and see what I REALLY look like. (Deep breathes, I can do this!)

I can't believe how fast the time is going by! It feels like this year just began and here it is already coming to an end in just a few short weeks! Crazy!

Anyway I tried to remove the stains from my nails today. Talk about a failed process! I tried taking some pictures, but the pictures are deceiving! The first picture you can see the staining a little, but in the second picture they don't look so bad. Kind of makes me feel crazy!

 I was determined to rid my nails of the stains and have beautiful white tips and pink nail beds. I started by soaking my nails in Hydrogen Peroxide, then brushing them with a nail brush and baking soda.

 After a long day at work, I came home to a lot of the Christmas presents I ordered from Etsy. I am so impressed. I showed what I ordered on here, but in person these gifts look great! I can't believe how fast everything arrived. If you remember I posted a hint for John for some bracelets to replace the Alex & Ani bracelets I lost. Well someone from ZeeBerry commented that they were having a discount on their site of 20% and they carried Alex & Ani Bracelets. Normally I would think something like this is a spam comment, but the way it was written, made me second guess that and so I checked it out. What I found out is that Zeeberry is a 100% women owned company, owned by two women. So maybe they are just trying to get the name out there. Plus I liked the way they set up their site and they have a great selection and pricing.  It just so happened that comment posted on the same day I won $50 at work in a 50/50 raffle.  So I decided I would replace my Alex & Ani bracelets. I bought different ones this time, since I am still holding out hope that I will find the ones I lost. I paid $28 for each of the three that I had lost, so $84 for three. On Zeeberry with their sale going on I was able to get the Tree of Life/Good Luck 7 bracelet group and I ordered another charm bangle, but instead of a red charm, I got the black one. I paid $50.54 for all of them! SCORE! They arrived today too. Check them out!