My Valentine's Day Nails

I am not big on nail art as I don't have the talent, but there are events that calls for special nail art - Christmas and Valentine's Day. I was able to create simple nail art last Christmas, but wasn't able to share it here on the blog as I became very busy and my netbook suddenly gave up on me, so I told myself I will not let Valentine's Day pass by without sharing a special manicure. Well, it's been a week since VDay, but it is still the love month, so here was what I wore last hearts day:



I hoped to create hearts and other elaborate yet easy designs, but I just can't get it right, so I ended up with a very simple design. I went back to doing ombre nails, featuring two pink nail polishes. For this I used OMG Nail Polish in First Date and OMG Crystal Sand Nail Polish in Quartz. If you don't know how to make the ombre nail design, all you need are sponge (a lot of nail art enthusiasts use make up sponge, but for this I used the ordinary sponge used in soaping the dishes) and sticky tape (either scotch tape or masking tape) to wrap around your fingertips for easy clean up. Just cut a reasonable sponge size, brush a small amount of nail polish across it (two lines - one for each color) and dab the sponge on your nails, until you get the desired ombre effect.

Some would go for a different route - paint all their nails with the base the color and dab the sponge with the second color halfway through their nails. Either way is okay, just go with what you think works best for you. As for me, I decided to swatch both colors on the sponge and work on my nails one at a time.

As a topcoat, I used Christmas Polka by Caress Nail Polish... and a little bit of an experiment, I applied a coat of matte top coat after a few days and it looked great, too.

Ombre nails doesn't need to be just two colors; you can work with more colors if you want, as long as you go for the lightest shade to the darkest. Next time, I will go for three.

* Jenn *

Franken Nail Polish | Blurred Lights

December truly is one busy month for all of us, but because the family is set to travel to Cagayan de Oro after Christmas and might not be able to update any of the blogs for one week (as gadgets will be WiFi dependent and we are not sure if there will be free WiFi to grasp), my sister Jessie and I will make sure all blogs will be update this week, so the gaps between posts won't be that big if ever we won't be able to blog once we fly to Cagayan de Oro.

Okay, today is Monday, time for a manicure post. My last mani post was the first part of the Glitter Collection by Bobbie Nail Creme, but I had to put it on hold because it's less than 10 days 'til Christmas and I just felt the need to do Christmas nail art and share them before the occasion comes. There will be three Christmas related manicure, starting with this one.


I forgot the brand of this certain nail polish, but ever since I saw this specific glitter nail polish called "Salt and Pepper" online (UK online shop), I have always wanted to own the same kind of nail polish. I even bought a tube of glitter at a craft store to try if I can create one like it, but I realized there are glitters that melt with the nail polish and it was such a disaster.

When Paula of Wow Nails! shared a franken nail polish with white base with multi-colored glitters, it rekindled my interest and I started playing with my bottles of nail polish .

To create this, I used five different kinds of nail polish:

1. Snow White by Sweet Cherry
2. Marquise by Caronia
3. Shaker #3 by Bobbie Gradation Nail Polish
4. Christmas Polka by Caress Nail Polish
5. The Big Bang by Bobbie Premium Nail Creme

I started with the base nail polish - Snow White, as the bottle only had about 1/3 of nail polish left. Then, I poured the entire contents of Shaker #3, as the bottle was so small and the pinkish clear nail polish holding the silver hex glitters was starting to thicken. I realized, going for silver glitter didn't look good with white nail polish as it didn't create the kind of look I wanted. Because of this, I poured little of Christmas Polka and The Big Bang just to create a little dimension with the colors. Finally, I added a few drops of Marquise to add more fine glitter dust.

I called this creation "Blurred Lights" as it resembled the look I get when I aim to go take bokeh shots of our Christmas lights. It's packed with glitters, but it dried flat - as if I created a glitter sandwich, and it looked very subtle that I was actually very pleased with it.

* Jenn *

A Weekend Well Spent

The past two Sundays before yesterday, we were always just at home because either we baked cupcakes or that my sister was so tired after working six days that she just wanted to stay in bed or catch up on television shows. Last weekend was a different story, though.


Saturday morning, us three girls traveled to Makati together, but my mom and I went to The Maya Kitchen while sister walked further to her work place. For this month's featured class at The Maya Kitchen, celebrity chef Fern Aracama treated the class to easy to make dishes, which can be served this Christmastime. One of the dishes really wowed my mom, and I think it will be something we will re-create this weekend.


After the class, mom and I walked over to sister's workplace and waited for her break time so we all could eat lunch together. This was my lunch - yeah I know it was a lot... but I didn't eat it all, some I gave to sister.


Sister had to go back to work, so it was time for mom and I to leave, but we passed by The Landmark first to shop for some things. I bought the spoon and spatula set as well as a pack of paper cupcake liners then I bought some nail implements. The Landmark is a shopper's heaven! They sell items cheaper than other malls, that's why whenever I pass by this mall I make sure I buy something to make it worth my time and bus fare. Anyway, I want to put spotlight on the nail polish remover. A month ago, I was "forced" to buy a new bottle of nail polish remover at a pharmacy because it was the only place I could buy what I needed and a bottle of Bobbie Nail Polish Remover 120ml was priced 46.50 pesos. At The Landmark, I first thought of buying the same kind and was surprised to see it was only 36 pesos. I told mom about it, and when I checked the bigger bottle - 275ml, we were more surprised to see it was only 49.50 pesos. Definitely, we bought the bigger bottle.


Sunday, mom and I woke up early because mom had to go to the Divine Mercy center where she and her friend attended a church service. Sister got home a little after mom left, and because she didn't sleep the entire night, she immediately dozed off and I thought this is going to be another laid back Sunday for us, but when she woke up, she asked me to prepare so we could go out and enjoy our time together.

We ate at the newly opened Manang's Chicken at the mall near our house, then strolled around - tried on some shoes, and spent time at Booksale where I rummaged through the books but didn't buy any because nothing caught my interest.


Before going home, we went to an HBC branch. At first, we just went there to check their products, but when sister saw this tube of BB Cream for only 149 pesos, she decided to buy and try it out. This was very cheap compared to her usual choice of BB Cream, so she is just hoping this would be just as good for her to save money. I bought the cheek blush because the one I am using already hit the one year mark.

Mom was already home when we arrived. While eating dinner, us three girls shared stories of how our day went... and because boxing news was so good (Manny Pacquiao won), part of our talkies was about that, too.

It was a great weekend, and a good opening to a new week.

* Jenn *

Blood Splattered Nail Art

Hello guys!

It's the start of another week after a long weekend, and because I wasn't able to do a Halloween-themed nail art a week before the actual Halloween day, my nail art post will concentrate on that.

It was October last year when I started really liking nail polish. While vacationing in La Union in time for Undas (All Saints / All Souls Day), I spent my extra time reading a book or checking each and every nail polish blog I could find. Halloween is one celebration a lot of nail bloggers prepare for when it comes to nail art, and the Blood Splattered Nails was one of those easy nail art designs I hoped to try.

I wanted to try it since then - even bought myself a bottle of white and red nail polish, but small pharmacies and convenience stores in La Union only had the Caronia Nail Polish brand, and the very open space of our house, with wind coming in the big windows proved to be the biggest hurdle for creating the said nail art. This local brand tends to go thick and goopy easily, that I couldn't bring myself to do the first step. I gave up and told myself I would try come following year.


...and this year, I didn't forget to do the promise I told myself.

How to make this nail art?

Recapping a Very Busy Week

The last week of October was so busy, I only had little time to do some things, but I am grateful for it more than anything. This is going to be a lengthy post, so let the recapping begin:



Saturday
26 October 2013

Us three girls traveled to Makati City early morning today - mom and I attended the "Breaking Bread with Our Heroes" cooking demo / class at The Maya Kitchen, while sister went on her way at the Salcedo Weekend Market and Ayala Triangles to walk and jog around. I always receive an invitation for the monthly featured class at The Maya Kitchen, and when I introduced my mom to the person who always invite me, she told mom she has to come with me every month. Mom liked the idea and I think she will be my constant classmate every month.

Sister met us after the class and we went to SM Mall of Asia to purchase our airline tickets. There was a big difference with the price we saw online and the price the airline staff told us, so we didn't buy it. Instead, we just roamed around the mall - had snacks at J.Co Donuts and Coffee, and rode the MOA Eye. At J.Co Donuts, I chose to eat their newest flavor - the Cheese Cakelicious, mom went for Avocado DiCaprio (we always order this whenever we eat there), and sister chose the Tiramisu when her favorite wasn't available yet. When the drinks we ordered were served (sister went for the Matcha, mom and I shared the JCoccino), sister saw her favorite donut (Green Tease) was already available and ordered one as well.

Roaming the grounds of the mall, we saw this big McDonald's Happy Meal Box, with sides like a blank canvass for people to paint whatever they want to. Mom and I took turns, and I heard someone shouted my name. To my surprise, it was my online friend - the Panda Bear. He and I have been online friends for years now, even if it was seldom for us to exchange text messages. There were a few instances that we wanted to meet for some snacks (and I hoped to visit their place during the fiesta), but nothing pushed through. It's good to finally see an online friend in person.


Sunday
27 October 2013

As brother's wedding day comes closer and closer... the more we are stressed about the airline tickets. We all know that an airline fare gets more and more expensive as the date of the flight comes near, so we truly had to purchase our tickets now. Yesterday, we were at the Air Asia Zest office, because they had the cheapest fare going to Cagayan de Oro, the staff told us that the fare was at 2,800 pesos each way and that was the promo fare, check-in luggage not included. It surprised us because a few days ago, the amount was only about 1,700 pesos each way (that was the reason why we didn't buy tickets at the office).

I messaged my brother and we thought of booking the flight at Cebu Pacific, but even if their base fare was cheaper, the total amount was still more expensive. Turns out, the 2,800 pesos projected on the Air Asia Zest website was all-in, with included 20 kilograms check-in luggage. In the end, we chose to book at Air Asia Zest, and the fare was lowered because we didn't opt for the travel insurance and we downgraded the luggage allowance at 15 kilograms per passenger.

One thing to be grateful for - our next door neighbor allowing us to use her credit card to purchase the tickets, so we didn't have to scramble to the nearest LBC office to pay for it.


Monday 
28 October 2013

Mom and I went out to walk and jog. My mom is 64 years old, but she's kind of a showoff that she didn't want to stop to take a breather after jogging around the plaza and hopping on the stairs. I told her to rest once in a while, but she wanted to show the people around that she can still do things at her age. Oh well...

After an hour, we went home, ate breakfast and went to the polling precinct to cast our votes for the Barangay Elections. Her being a Senior Citizen, she can immediately proceed to the polling place bypassing all the people lining up, and of course I went with her, because last May during the National Elections, some senior citizens and people with disabilities were allowed to let their companion vote with them. When we got there, the watcher asked me to line along with the rest because the line we first went to was strictly for senior citizens and persons with disabilities, and I could only watch my mom from afar. I told him, what happens after she vote - let her walk home alone, or let her wait for me until I finish casting my vote? Good thing, another watcher heard us and told the man that it was written that SCs and PWDs are allowed to have one companion. Anyway, we were done in under 30 minutes, and we treated ourselves for a good 20 minutes walk back home.


Tuesday
29 October 2013

I went to SM Mall of Asia for a food tasting activity at Fish & Co., featuring their new dishes. So many dishes tried, but each plate of food were shared by four people, so it was just fine. After, I went to meet with my sister and we had an early dinner at Figaro (my treat).

When we got home, there was a package waiting for me, which contains the books I ordered from another Instagram seller. Buying the "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" completes my Harry Potter UK version collection. Yihee!!!


Wednesday
30 October 2013

Quite a laid back day for us, but of course, mom and I went on another morning walk and jog.



Thursday
31 October 2013

Sister's duty at work was until later at night, so today, us three girls went to Novaliches to find a dress mom will wear for brother's wedding. It is true that Baclaran and Divisoria are two places where one can buy cheap items, but a few years ago, my mom got to buy a formal outfit for another wedding at Novaliches for a very reasonable price. Baclaran and Divisoria are way too far from our place - stressful to go there as well - so we checked back at Novaliches, and she was able to find a dress for a great amount. We were also lucky to see a Merced Bakeshop branch where we bought our favorite Pineapple Pie and a few baked goodies.

Lunch, we ate at Jollibee where the girls tried their newest offering - the Thor Burger, which is actually the champ size of the Cheesy Bacon Mushroom burger. I had my usual choice (Chickejoy + Spaghetti), but I did try another new from Jollibee - the Kisses Mix-In sundae.

It was still early, so we went to SM Fairview to pay our bills and we bought mom a new stove because our current stove is on its verge of retirement.  One regret I had today was buying nail polishes... because I didn't know I had the chance to check Booksale, and I got to see awesome titles, but couldn't buy it anymore because the money I brought wasn't enough already. I just hope the books would still be there when I go back.

Anyway, as soon as we got home, I cooked our dinner and painted my nails. I sported the blood splattered nail art for this Halloween and I love it!

Biggest crappie this week was not traveling to La Union to light on dad's grave this Undas (All Saints / All Souls Day). With my sister's shift at work, and the news going around about houses being robbed because most are away visiting their dead loved ones), I just couldn't risk letting mom home alone during the night. We did message Aunt Julie to tell we won't be there, and she understood our situation. We will just travel there next year.

I am starting to feel better now - less dizziness and no more headaches, but I still am not eating pork.

* Jenn *