Feelin’ Purple

Continuing January with a purple vibe, y’all! This is straight from my Ipsy bag; a nice full size nail polish from Emma with the shade Mia is my BFF. Someone needs to tell Ipsy they have sent every possible shade of purple already to me. I’m so ready to move onto a new color. Green? How about green?! I’m much lacking in the green department besides mint. My accent color is a petal French manicure shade from Sally Hansen. It’s all old and sticky and from my college days. Out it goes! Finally, I have come close to using up a bottle of nail polish!

I’m modeling my mani on top of the book I just finished: The Piano Teacher. It had an interesting narrative with good depictions of characters but the mystery was served a bit on the heavy side. I read the whole darn thing and still don’t know what happened to key characters and what exactly their crimes were.

I tried my hand at home-making ramen and here’s what I came up with:

-Chinese egg noodles (they come frozen)

-duck broth

-onions

-sweet Chinese sausage (I love this! So tasty)

-scallions

-egg

-red chili oil

-sesame seeds sprinkled on

-sesame oil

It was a great cold weather meal and the rendered duck fat in the broth added some umami!

I got to test out this dry shampoo from Unilever’s new brand, Love Beauty and Planet recently and it was bomb! Another Crowdtap opportunity! The scent is citrus peel and it is so refreshing for a dry shampoo! Usually, it smells like powder or that plasticky hairspray scent so a fruity fresh smell was the right choice! This didn’t weigh down my limp and fine hair so I highly recommend it! The size is also great for tossing into your purse or luggage.

I haven’t showcased my Mimiboo for a while so here she is! She wanted to nose in on my bath time :). Look at her ladylike little paws!

The Start of 2018

Happy end of 2017! Gosh, I have such intensely conflicting feelings about 2017. For most of the year, I was in constant pain, discomfort and a state of anxiety. Pregnancy and delivery near broke my body. But after everything was said and done, I did welcome the most precious little bundle of joy who promptly stole my heart and changed the way I view life forever. Pain, nausea, swelling, acid reflux, massive weight gain, clumsiness…you name it, I got it! Throw in getting T-boned by a 79-yr old while 8 months along and you got yourself 2017 in a nutshell. I have to recognize that this was also Pangur Ban’s worst year, lol. She was confined to our house for the duration of my pregnancy and then demoted to 2nd place in our hearts and household after Daphne was born. It is a lot to take in for an adorable glamour puss. She surprisingly has been very friendly to the baby, even if she does like to hog the changing table at times. I can’t wait for little Daphne to be old enough to interact with Pangur Ban!

I’m sporting Revlon’s parfumerie line in Moonlit Woods with fruit water decals and loving it. This gray violet shade is metallic, opaque and smells like a sweet bouquet after drying! I want this entire nail polish line but it’s from several years ago. The scent lasts for about 2 days and you only need 2 coats for this thick, creamy consistency!

The mani is modeled on top of the first book I read in 2018–The Fifty Year Sword by Mark Z. Danielewski. If you’ve read his other masterpiece House of Leaves, you’ll know this is an experimental horror book. The story was okay and it took about 1.5 hrs to finish the whole thing! There were many words misspelled on purpose but I’m not sure I liked that. I cringed every time I read these atrocities…

My MIL and SIL had fun putting Daphne in this old Radio Flyer wagon. She is the perfect size for this contraption! #cheeksfordays

Lucca the bordercollie was a lot better behaved this time around. We spent Christmas break on Long Island and I have to award Daphne with the best traveling baby award. She only cried for fewer than 10 minutes during the worst traffic between the George Washington bridge and LIE. Many adults have cried for longer. It took 9.5 hrs with 4 stops on the way there and 8.5 hrs with 2 stops on the way back.

Dog + Babby pic. Santa’s helper baby!

The week before our big Christmas trip, we took a smaller trip to Columbus, OH to celebrate my sister’s undergraduate graduation from Ohio State! Daphne slept the whole 3.5 hrs of that trip, the little angel. Here she is, posing sweetly at our scarlet and gray decked out hotel!

Oh, hi, Brutus! O-H to you too! The Schott was as big and chaotic as I remembered it.

With so many dog pics, I had to sneak in this cat pic too. This is Molly, my hubby’s friend’s gorgeous, long haired midnight beauty!

And to end this post with my little Daffodil in her lamby outfit :). To a less painful but more exciting year! Cheers!