Beauty, Treats, Pretties

Modeling a Sally Hansen pinkish purple opal shade alternating with a Sally Hansen brilliant white on top of a book that took me forever to finish but was worth it (kind of…): The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. It is a Hamlet retelling set in rural Wisconsin specialized dog breeding farm with Hamlet as a mute boy.

Ahhh…I loved this book and the cover is phosphorescent! My mani might be a bit basic but the book definitely is not! Highly recommend this highly entertaining and interesting read!

Bought some rambutans from CAM Chinese grocery store. They were ripe, sweet and BOMB!

My mom’s gorgeous peony bouquet from her garden.

Japanese seafood pancake with shredded dried fish flakes, Japanese mayo, Japanese cheese, eel sauce (?) all on an eggy crepe!

First lunch restaurant date in 2 years! Ann Arbor’s yummy Tonkatsu ramen place was just the ticket!

Ordered my one and only cocktail for the wedding night–a Tom Collins ‘cuz I’m apparently a gin girl.

Hubby made mini pies in 2 fillings–cherry from a can and fresh peaches with a dash of cinnamon.

Bought a sunflower for $1 from the Solon farmer’s market. The pollen got errrywhere but the flower stayed perked up for more than a week!

Spotted across the street in our neighbor’s grounds…Manny, the sasquatch!

Mimiboo, finding her ideal place to rest. Her request? Only Sonatinas by Clementi… 😉

We visited the main Cleveland Public Library downtown and it was spectacularly impressive. They have a special exhibits room with rare artifacts. I loved their tiny books selection.

Rituals—Karma

Rose gold and Tiffany blue mani modeled atop of my current read–Atomic Love by Jennie Fields. I used an H&M polish and a mini Formula X from Ipsy. The Formula X really does just glide on and applies so smoothly. Just started this book and it’s just okay…seems like it’s trying too hard to come up with a unique female protagonist but she’s caught up with the same old feminine problems all other females have. Hopefully it’ll go more in depth about the science part of her work more and less about her romantic relationship.

Thanks to Tryazon and Rituals for giving me the chance to try out my 4th scent from their product line! Karma is a cleaner, sophisticated, more unisex option compared to many of their other offerings. Packaging-wise, it is my favorite so far. The cerulean blue and seafoam greens bring to mind tranquility, deep waters and soothing.

I got to try the body scrub, body cream and foaming shower gel. The body cream, like all their others is the star of the trio. It melts into skin, absorbs quickly, feels luxurious and softens skin. The scrub is filled with good for you oils and exfoliates well. It washes off easily and makes shower time seem like pamper time! The foaming shower gel is a cool product but the large metal container is just not my favorite. The dispenser gives you more product than you need at one time and even if you shake beforehand, it’s not evenly foam; some comes out in just gel form. You need two hands to grasp and press down and the metal tube while wet is quite slippery and unwieldy for small hands.

2020 Summer

Modeling a butterfly ring from a Fragrant Jewels bath bomb!

Another Fragrant Jewels bath bomb in golden egg form!

It didn’t turn the bath water good so much as sulfuric yellow…

The gemstone looks like pyrite with a dash of oil spill, lol.

Made my own fried chicken!

Celebrating my mom’s bday with this impressive strawberry cheesecake from Costco.

Celebrating Daphne’s 3rd bday with a strawberry dream cake from Giant Eagle.

Celebrating hubby’s bday with an assortment of Italian cakes from Moio’s.

Love this notebook! So summery and cute!

Pangur Ban is auditioning for a drama role…

Our cabin in Cook Forest!

Sitting on a tree bench.

Finding a magical painted rock!

Heading to the lighthouse at Headlands Beach.

Adding finishing touches to yet another bday present.

Hot Hot Summer Days

Current mani! Peach ‘n gold from Sally Hansen’s sorbet shade and this lovely matte OPI brushed gold. These would make cute summer wedding colors. 

Absolutely love this chic floral hardback notebook I got via Amazon. It even has a little pocket in the back and an elastic bookmark.

Been dying to try this K-Beauty brand with their line of beautiful deodorant products. I got this jasmine scented deodorant cream at a heavy discount via 08Liter and am mostly happy with it. Love the simplistic tube design, script writing of “dirty salty passion” (LOL) and how easy it is to apply. It’s not chalky or streaky but smooth sailing. Scent is a feminine floral perfume and it’s great except for it doesn’t last that long. I do have to reapply throughout a hot day. 

Those online ads–damn you! Been buying Fragrant Jewels expensiveass bath bombs during this quarantine BUT they’re mostly worth it. Shipping takes forever and is a $8 flat fee. The rings though…do you see this delicate, gorgeous little rose gold butterfly beauty? This is the bath bomb Her Wings Unfolded and it is giant. I would say their quality is definitely higher than that of Diamond Candles and Prize Candles (my past obsessions). 

Homemade fried chicken because we don’t eat out anymore. Ya girl craves her fried chicken! Had to make this batter myself out of spices and panko crumbs. Turned out really well and crunchy enough! 

Celebrated my mom’s birthday back in June with this unique cake that has a surprise strip of cheesecake inside! The rest of the frosting was way too sweet though…

Loved this set of bath bombs. Daphne calls this one her lucky tiger ;). The white cushiony part took forever to melt though.

Just wanted to show off this perfectly chilled mint lemonade I made. 

Look at that little ham in her Madeline sunhat and sunglasses! 

Being silly. And yes, I gave her that haircut myself. 

Got this fun dessert cheese at Aldis. It does taste lemony and went well with buttery club crackers. 

Cupcake bath bomb! If you’re wondering, yes, we totally still have baths during the summer. The temperature ratio is just 70% cold water.

Bought some pretty craft paper from Michaels to make my own greeting cards.

It’s not their year to bloom but nothing about 2020 has been typical. At least I get hydrangeas centerpieces this summer! 

DIY & Yums

Just a simple sheer opalized coral and an opaque shell mani. I’m modeling on top of this disturbing book Room, by Emma Donahue. It’s narrated by a 5-year old boy who has been trapped in a small enclosed space all his life with his young mother. This is loosely based of the real life story of tragic Elisabeth Fritzl whose demented father held her in his sealed, sound proof basement for TWENTY FOUR years. She gave birth to 7 children of his, one of whom died shortly after. Truth is stranger than fiction, y’all. It’s hard for me to believe that there are many sickos out there in the world who would do this to another human being, let alone…more than one at a time! The one case that hits closest to home is the Cleveland abduction. Anyways, the book was good but it was fictional and too optimistic. All the real life cases are much worse and lasted longer. 

Loved this bath bomb shortcake fizzler! That “topping” in the center is cute and was last to melt.

I decanted this other fancier glass jar of bubble bath into my tiny plastic wine glass for the perfect fit! Now it has a wider opening and looks like bubbly!

I made my own bath crystals! Months ago, I had the foresight to buy a large bag of Ahava mineral bath salts from Marshalls and this week, I mixed some with rose petals, crushed mint leaves, lemon essential oil, coconut oil, a sleep blend of essential oil and achieved this spa-smelling bath treat! I used a few scoops in my last bath and it was delightful! 

I also took on a one-time decoupage project! Go me! I cut out these butterflies from a particularly pretty napkin and brushed on a few layers of Mod Podge onto this cleaned out empty glass candle jar. Viola, now I have a super cute pen holder!

I experimented with different colored wax pieces to achieve these cool lookin’ wax seals! I bought another set of 4 new stamp designs and can’t wait to try them out! I sent out 7 of these hand-written, completely customized and personalized cards and one person never got hers! Someone else got hers a whole month after I sent it so wow, the postal service has been dealing with a lot of delays. 

I made grilled pork kabobs with herbs and a Peruvian spice mix. Gotta say, they turned out SO DANG YUMMY. Cooking with pork is more challenging than chicken or beef but this grilling method was bomb!

Yup, another impulse Amazon purchase that turned into my DIY win! I mixed honeydew powder, whole milk, ice cubes, some honey and premium hibiscus iced black tea to make this miracle! Turns out, I don’t need a bubble tea shop during quarantine! 

I made this version of bibimbap that was healthy and good! Ground beef, fried egg (with a slightly runny yolk), sliced avocado, scallions, black beans, minced onions and baby portabello mushrooms over rice drizzled over with Sriracha sauce. Mmmhmmm!

For lunch today, I seared sea scallops in a pan with butter, minced garlic, lemon juice, sprinkled with some salt, black pepper and parsley. Simple and oh, so divine! 

My background, ladies and gentlemen! So it doesn’t look like this right now but a few weeks back…damn, my whole backyard should have been featured in Better Homes & Gardens.

Just look at these perfectly pink blossoms!

Okay, now this is a separate photo entry to National Geographic. Right in our pond, people! 

One of my favorite pictures of biddyboo in our backyard.

Quarantine Time!

This mani has been lasting me a while and I’m kind of proud of it even though it looks pretty rough. I chose a faint lilac from Essie and a creamy lavender from Adesse. No topcoat yet I’m going on the second week with only a few chips. 

The book I’m modeling on top of is Eat a Peach, by David Chang. It’s a really interesting, colloquially written memoir that is fascinating for fans of Momofuku, the various Netflix series he’s in or just for fans of Chang himself. See my full review on Goodreads here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3228153296?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

Both Daphne and I are in love with this 6-pack of bath bombs! I got them from Amazon and they are literally da bomb. I’ve already ordered MANY boxes/sets of bath bombs/fizzies with surprise toys inside and while the element of surprise is exhilarating, my luck has been terrible and I keep getting repeats within the same package. Two unicorns, two whales, two penguins…enough already! Give me some variety! These aren’t cheap at all! So this particular set already had each toy showing in the packaging, which is great for people who want to see the goods! No repeats this way! The size of the bath bomb is large, the scent was nice and fruity and the coloring was STRONG. Just look at the hue of the water! No staining in the tub either afterwards! It did get quite slippery because of the essential oils. Here is the link I used:

 

Hahaha, this was such a random beauty product I bought in a bundle via Mercari back in February. You break apart the “spoon” like tool to mix the “yolk” part with the “white” to create this hydrating sleep mask. The scent was so nice and beautiful! This lasted me a week and half and while it did feel a bit thick upon application, you woke up with supple, smooth skin! Plus, it gets points for being super adorable.

Is this not the most perfect buttered brown toast you’ve ever seen? It’s French brioche toast that I browned on the skillet with a pat of butter and then topped it with my new obsession–clotted cream and an artisan blueberry champagne jam. Heaven!

I whipped my own cream with a pinch of sugar and it frothed beautifully when I put in fresh cut strawberries. Yummy dessert!

I baked drumsticks with a nice rub/glaze of: hoisin sauce, honey, cajun seasoning, black pepper, crushed mint, garlic salt, paprika. The broccoli was tossed in a similar spice mix albeit with drizzled garlic infused olive oil and parsley. The potatoes got a little more honey and olive oil. Yum. 

I got sent a box of Lola ulta thin condoms for review and I loved the look of them! I was only aware of Lola’s feminine care products like tampons, wipes so was pleasantly surprised to see them come out with condoms. The little box was discreet, cute and totally can be mistaken for a box of mints or paper clips placed on your nightstand, ha! So yes, they were ultra thin but the verdict was that they are a bit too tight. 

Amazon makes my wishes come true! I searched for tons of wax sealing kits and settled on this set with a hefty brass stamp. I am obsessed! I bought another set with pre-cut hexagonal wax pieces so that I could mix colors and go all out on this new hobby of mine! 

Here is everything in action! I’m melting 2 differently colored wax pieces in the tiny spoon heated by a tealight candle. This is really going to amp up my stationery game! 

April weather got me like…wuh? I’ve been enjoying our solarium a lot more and trying to catch some much-needed sun in there admist all the torrential rainstorms, freezing temperatures, snow or fierce winds! 

This is a pretty accurate Hogwarts House test I took last week via Facebook. I self identify as Slytherin but usually get placed in Gryffindor. I do believe I’m way more Ravenclaw than Hufflepuff though…

I filled up all the plastic eggs we had with fruit snacks and cheddar penguin crackers (off brand Goldfish) and hid them all over the house on Easter. Daphne found 85% of them the first day! Then over the next two days, found the rest. My hubby ended up finding the very last one in her toy watering can almost a week later though. Ha!

Quarantine times has probably got a lot of going stir crazy but I want to explain my nerves and feelings because they’re not quite like those of my friends, family or coworkers.

Things I’m tired of hearing:

-If she’s hungry she’ll eat (a big NOPE! So my 2-yr old has sworn off food and hubby and I have tried the gamut of tricks. Pediatrician is worried, we had an appointment with a nutritionist. So she’s fallen completely off the growth chart but the issue isn’t physical. It’s 100% behavorial and it’s driving all 3 of us nuts. Meal times are WAR TIMES in our household)

-The apple doesn’t fall from the tree. She’s tiny because you’re tiny. There’s no other reason (wow, okay, completely disregard my husband’s very normal height and weight and taller genes from his family. Explain why literally every single child I know who has two short parents have crazily exceeded their height and weight?! No, Daphne is not tiny because I’m tiny. I’m tiny because I didn’t eat real food until the age of 12 and starved myself and didn’t sleep. Sounds familiar but it might have been a physical ailment for me because I just didn’t like the taste of anything edible until turning 12. It was like something finally clicked. Unfortunately, I missed my growth spurt and only ever grew horizontally after that. I always have to explain that genetically speaking, my future height was projected at a healthy 5’4″ by multiple doctors that my parents visited when I was a child)

-I’m so bored while quarantined or I don’t know what to do with all the free time I have now that I’m stuck at home (okay, I will trade with that person’s life in a heartbeat no matter where they are living because all I want everyday is to have a few moments of free time. Being under quarantine has drained away my energy, my sanity, my freaking time and my life force. The closure of daycare centers and the essential nature of my work has caused all hell to break loose in my household. Both my husband and I are expected to care for our crazily difficult toddler while working full time jobs at home and maintain whatever routine and health and wellness we have left. She doesn’t eat, which I have already stated but she also skips naps and goes to bed late everyday, giving us no moment of rest. She is a full time job and even with our eyes on her, she manages to get various scrapes, cuts, bruises, bumps from EVERYWHERE. Her screams and tirades fill the house and I don’t remember the last time I was able to go to the bathroom without her following me. It might have been in 2018 when she didn’t walk yet. However, even with all these difficulties, I’m not one of the people complaining about social distancing. I’ll do whatever it takes so that more people don’t have to die from this pandemic. Turn your boredom to hobbies or even online browsing and shopping. I just want a minute to look at my goddamn phone!)

Bath Time = Fun Times

Meh. This brand has fun packaging and creative scents but the quality is not great. It smelled great in the pack but disappeared in the water without coloring it or anything. I had to layer in my higher end bubbles and bath wafers. 

There was absolutely no fizz in this fizz bar. I dropped it in the bath and it just sat at the bottom of the tub quietly dissolving with no scent. The brand advertises that it’s women-owned and that’s positive and all…but step it up on the efficacy and quality! The ingredients are so lackluster and light!

In contrast, these bath wafers were much better. They also didn’t fizzle like crazy but the scent was oooh la la yummy! It was a mix of sweet with delicate floral, very much like a beautiful French dessert that’s too pretty to eat! Loved using this! 

And how fun is this bath cupcake fizz? The fizz was great and colored the entire tub purple! Unfortunately, the top “frosting” part broke apart from the rest of the bath bomb and did not quite fizzle as much as just sat all mushy in the tub until you dispersed it yourself.

Ah yaaaaas! Do you like wine but have trouble finishing a bottle? Lol, me! So wine hits me harder than a shot of vodka, believe it or not. I found this brand with their clever ads on Facebook/Instagram and had to try a sampler! This is the white wines set and I’ve tried the first bottle. How can you not like ridiculously cute little skinny bottles? I mixed it with a sparkling elderflower soda and it was tres chic! 

So before all this quarantine craziness, we went to get our noodle fix. Still, the prices are high for such a small portion (I need to order 2 things to be full) but I do recognize the quality and freshness of the ingredients. It really is a tiny amount and the wait time was so massively long.

And I couldn’t NOT add a pic of my darling sporting her spring jacket. I would totes wear this in a larger size ;). 

February Miscellany

A simple mani! Essie’s Ladylike with Sally Hansen’s white topped with gold glitter from VS. Not pictured here but I’m currently reading Commonwealth by Ann Patchett and it is entertaining! We’re not talking deep literature here but the story and characters are so fascinating. After State of Wonder, I really am quite a fan of this author.

I bought 20 of these bad boys off Mercari last week so that Daphne will never want for a fun bubble bath experience! Bubbles were good but the scent was too light. Can’t wait to try out such flavors like Margarita, Bahama Mama, Lemon Drop, PIna Colada, etc.

These dessert bath bombs came from Amazon and they are so fun to use! Look at this doughnut with “sprinkles!” It turned the water a nice baby blue. Scent was just a generic powdery lavender/soapy kind of scent; not actually like the treat itself.

Had high hopes for this one but it came broken out of the packaging :(. It also had the same toy inside as another one we used from the same box. C’mon! Throw in something different over here!

Went to one of my favorite bakeries in Pittsburgh–The Pink Box in Squirrel Hill. Got 2 Japanese cheesecakes (in which they put way too much whipped cream and not enough of the actual cheesecake…) and a slice of triple layer strawberry. Both were yum.

This ginormous smoothie from Tropical Smoothie Cafe was literally half the size of my child. Cray.

Man, what a crazy two months it has been so far this year! I watched about 30 minutes of the State of the Union last night and just eye rolled the whole entire time. God, what a delusional monster we have in charge of our nation and an entire group of people who prop him up. On the fashion side, check out all those chic white suits the Democratic women were wearing!

 

Subscription Addictions!

Latest manicure is a blue ombre. The second and third fingernails are completely different nail polishes, I swear to you! One is supposed to be a slate blue lavender and one is supposed to be a perfect baby blue. Apparently, I don’t actually have that many blue shades. I can achieve a much better ombre look with purples, greens or pinks!

During our Fall Northeastern trip in 2019, we went to this candy store called Chutters in NH and I got this fancy pink hot chocolate! I made it last night legit on the stove with fresh cream, a tiny bit of water, 2% milk and a sprinkling of lemon peel. The result was pretty-looking deliciousness!

This cool bath bomb had a tiny hammerhead shark has a surprise toy inside and turned the water to such a beautiful lavender shade! Can’t wait to try the others!

Love with Food is a fun food subscription box that comes once a month with interesting snacks! I don’t think there’s a specific theme but I have never heard of these brands or some varieties. I got this first box for only $4.99 and enjoyed most of these snacks except the bag of pretzels. Just for the novelty and the convenience of getting of try new healthy snacks, I’d say this is worth it to get another few months or so!

I actually found a subscription box for tea lovers! I love the idea and I do love that there’s an extensive questionnaire to make sure they get your preference right. I tested out whether this company could get my tea tastes right and…unfortunately, this will be my only box from them.

Pros: LOVE the reusable tea bag and the couple of disposable tea bags that came in my package. Love that they chose a flowering tea for me, love that they chose a great flavor from Harney and Sons for me

Cons: they chose lavender as a flavor for the flowering tea and it’s one of my least favorite flavors in foods and household scents. It’s so medicinal to me, ugh. I love that Paris flavor but I already own the full size container so this wasn’t a new discovery! The Organic India tea flavor was chamomile and I just don’t like it–too medicinal. The Einstein tea was not bad but kind of basic, like, just mint, which I have and tried lots of times.

I still would highly recommend this service though if you are less picky than I am!

This is a household subscription box called Who Gives a Crap for paper products that do not use trees! Everything you see in this picture shows what you get in your first box which is only $4!!! So worth it and so useful! My hubs is seriously the worst at reducing use of disposable products…so he goes through a roll of toilet paper and full box of tissues EVERY SINGLE DAY. Paper towels is almost like every other day. Anyways, I thought I’d look into a subscription for something like this and this service has options for all those types of products and for different schedules too. The cute thing is that they even encourage you to reuse the super adorable prints as wrapping paper, tissue paper, packing or book covers.

This is my order from Revitalash and it was $145. Their products are pretty high quality but I probably won’t go through their website next time. They don’t offer free gifts, samples or discounts :(. The eyeliner wasn’t exactly that creamy and the tweezers are about the same as Tweezerman’s but not even as cute. The eyelash curler is baller though! And the micellar wash works great! You spray it onto a cotton pad which works better than dumping the product from a small hole like all other toners and micellar waters.

Was inspired by my mom’s killer tofu dish so I had to make my own ground beef, Chinese greens, mushroom, cilantro, garlic tofu with a bit of chili oil.

Yaaaasss for Skyline chili! I legit crave this stuff and only my bestie in CBus will bring me some cans without fail every time I see her!

Cute little arrangement found while shopping at the Strip District on a Sunday.

This is Daphne’s THIRD time to Kalahari waterpark in Sandusky, OH and she’s only 2 yrs old. LOL. Livin’ it up on our last trip here ever!

During Christmas break, I tried out Solon’s escape room with the theme Budapest Express! We escaped with 7 minutes left so I wish the puzzles were a little harder or had some more layers. The facilities and ambiance of the place were top notch, however.

Busy 2020

I might have used these on New Year’s Day, but shortly afterwards, I bought and used my first holiday cracker! Found these fun snowman ones at Marshall’s and they still cost too much after clearance :(. These ones are from a brand that Popsugar introduced me to–Meri Meri. Daphne loved these but were a bit young for the toys that came out. Oh, well, more fun for mom!

My friend Michelle always make this dish for her annual holiday party that has become famous by now, and this is my own version of it. I also fried up radishes, herbs, pancetta and added it to olive oil drizzled grape tomatoes to make it a meal.

Ingredients:

Butter-toasted potato bread seared on a non-stick pan and NOT a toaster

Sliced brie

Dollops of fig jam

Raspberries

Bath time has become routine and necessary fancy affairs for my toddler. I kid you not, she gets a special bath item(s) at EVERY bath. Not including the cost of hot water, her baths averages to $4 – $8 PER bath! I mean, I enjoy them too but she’s totally going to grow up saying “Oh, you didn’t get a bath bomb or bath oils or bubble bath at every bath? Strange.” Guilty as charged for 150% indulging her but there are definitely worse things to indulge a kid in ;).

This bath bomb from 2 Sisters spa via Amazon was especially cool. You put it early on in the bath next to the running tap so that it activates all the bubbles. It turned this gorgeous cornflower blue from the pink and blue colors at the end that reminded me of my wedding color. Smelled great, looked great, felt great.

This pre-Christmas mani was done with a mini OPI nail kit from my MIL and some fun nail decals. I’m modeling on top of the book that I finished out 2019 with called The Unconsoled by Kazuro Ishiguro. Oy vey was this a crazily frustrating book! The point was to make you frustrated, anxious and stressed out as much as the protagonist but yeesh…it did too good of a job. The writing was great and I am convinced that the nondescript central European city that the story took place in was Budapest. Many clues pointed to it–repeated mentions of Old Towne, food that was vaguely Hungarian and some side characters with Hungarian accents.

My newest mani also consists of these butterfly nail decals and coral and gray Essence polish. I’m modeling the new ring I got from Simple Statement Jewelry. I only did the one box to try out new styles of jewelry and my favorite item turned out to be this ring (that I miraculously fit!).

Had to feature my Mimiboo as she had a crazy end to 2019. We went on a big 12-day trip all across PA, Finger Lakes, Hershey, White Mountains, NH and had to put her in a kitty hotel for the whole time. Then we took her to my parent’s house for 6 days during the Christmas break and now we’re going to leave her for another 3 days to head to Sandusky. Poor thing is a trooper!

This was taken on the warmest day ever in December with my dad’s new iPhone 10 at Legacy Village.

Look at our unconventional Christmas tree! My mom is so creative at decorating, lol! And look at that healthy pile of presents!

Our mall had some craft booths and this one caught our eye. Hubby ended up buying me a pair for Christmas. These are origami crane earrings dipped in resin!

2019 wasn’t my favorite year but many good things did happen! 2020 is off to a whirlwind start and my immediate wish is that we don’t go to war! To peace!