Deck the Halls

 

This is how I like to imagine I look as I decorate... the reality is me in sweats and a top knot covered in ornament glitter and garland watching Christmas classics and dragging boxes down our pull-down attic stairs. Either way, I'll take it. It's decorating time, folks!

In honor of tomorrow's festivities (hanging tinsel on anything that stands still long enough), I painted my nails bright Christmas red. The jolly color is technically Essie's "Really Red," but hey, who am I to get caught up in technicalities. They'll no doubt be chipped and broken after lugging boxes and stringing lights outside, but I couldn't be more excited. 

In normal tradition, my family decks our halls the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but since Thanksgiving is late this year... we wanted ample time to enjoy the trimmings and trappings before 2014 forces us to take them down. 

This year, I even have two houses to decorate! My family's house, which Lulu and I try to make the North Pole, and JT's house, which will be just enough to make neighborhood kids not think he's a  Scrooge (he's been very generous and allowed me to do as I please, but I'm trying to limit myself to areas of the house including the mantle, a tree, and the front porch). I cannot wait. I'll share the finished product with y'all soon!

Is it tomorrow yet?!

Picture This

Two of my greatest loves (up there with nail polish and print magazines) are coffee and photography. I think I have found the perfect hybrid of these two lovers in this precious mug. 

How adorable?!

Now, all I need is my nails painted this Essie color ("exposure") to perfectly hold my new mug and usher in Spring. 

I Dreamed a Dream

Happy Monday ladies and gents. Lately I've been thinking about some of my career aspirations but then I got distracted and the list turned out to be mostly wishes and aspirations with a few dream careers sprinkled in. So, in case you were curious, here's my current list of day dreams/aspirations/wishes:

1) Have a custom Inslee Haynes illustration. 

If you've ever read/seen my blog you know how utterly obsessed with her I am, and a custom illustration might just make me faint [that, and well, meeting her].

2) Have and/or collaborate on a nail polish line. Preferably with OPI or Essie.

 3)Employ an assistant

I know this sounds horribly vain, but it would be fantastic to not have check my emails only to delete 50 useless ones and have a purse full of to-do lists, amiright??

 {Giuliana Rancic and her assistant, Sarah Knight}

4) get afford regular pedicures

5) write get a book published

6) be the go-to person for holiday parties (a la Tori Spelling)

7)Create a brand logo

8)Talk at a speaking engagement and not die of a panic attack

9)Meet: Giuliana Rancic, Tori Spelling, Emma Stone, Katy Perry, and Kate Hudson

10) Furnish a home from Leontine Linens

I guess a gal can dream, right?

There's No Crying on Halloween

Told ya I was gonna be the very best Katy Perry I could be at the annual Halloween party, and now you can be the judge...

 It's all in the details....

 

The fam

 Batter up, Emily as everyone's favorite Rockford Peach, Dottie Hensen, and Ben as Coach Jimmy Dugan from 

A League of Their Own

When I Grow Up

If you're anything like me, the title of this post made you start singing the Pussycat Dolls song in your head, if not out loud. My crazy, wacky brain tends to move at warp speed, and today I stumbled across a few images that inspired this post: the many things that sound fascinating to me as a potential career. As I'm sure you're well aware, my lifelong dream has always been to do this:

 

And now that I am, I'm seriously happy as a lark. And to put the icing on the cake, I work for a magazine/magazines that I actually believe in (somewhat of a rarity among possible career paths for a journalist that actually enjoys a roof over her head and food on the table). 

Nevertheless, my fast-paced mind has wandered to the world of fantasy (as it often does) and I just wanted to share a few of the other things I think I'd enjoy.

First up,

 

I've actually told several people that this would be a dream job of mine. To most, I sound like even more of a loon than I already am, but in fact, this does exist. Don't believe me? Check it out.

 Next, my obsession with Sephora/Ulta/Drug Stores/Beauty products has always made me intrigued by a career in the beauty industry, and lo and behold, this one exists too.

 {click here to take part one the beauty industry test (then take part two, then three). I'm a beauty blogger, nail technician, and product developer go figure}

Lately I've had a freakish desire to learn to bake. Maybe it's talking to EZ about our mythical start-up magazine that would include recipes or maybe it's being around all of these cookbooks and foodie events, but either way I now want to own 

Georgetown Cupcakes.

 {If I'm honest, I've been obsessed with the idea since the show premiered}

Last, but certainly not least, I've always thought

 it would be fun to write a novel.

 I have no idea what it'd be about or anything like that, but just entertaining the idea until something clicks and I'm newly inspired. Of course, if I ever did, I wouldn't hate for it to be a best-seller...

A gal can dream, right?

nail envy

Anyone who knows me knows I have a minor obsession with nail polish and painting my nails; so, here are a few of my new addictions.

{glitter}

{dark red}

{glitter + multi-color}

{simple white}

{dark grey}

{white + glitter}

{neon}