Cloud manicure

It's so easy to spend too much time doing your nails when you're on summer break, oh well! Cloud manicure (on my ring finger) this week. Search for it on Pinterest, it's all over in so many fun colors!

I painted all of my nails the pretty coral color (Sonia Kashuk), then added the white layer and the purple (it was so difficult to correctly capture the purple color, it looks blue here) layers by freehand.

Close-up, but still couldn't really get the colors right.

Mini apple pies

My rommmate and I attempted mini apple pies! We used a muffin tin to bake the mini pies in.

 

We cheated and used the 99 cent Jiffy pie crust (just add water!), and we were actually really impressed with the results.

 

The filling was an in-exact mixture of chopped apples (skin removed), cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, lemon, and butter. Luckily,we had extra filling to snack on, it was like candy!

We even added little lattice crusts to the top, brushed them with raw egg, and topped them with a little pad of butter.

We baked them at 300 degrees for about 50 minutes (we kept the temperature low because we weren't sure how they would cook). 

They came out pretty cute, if I do say so myself, and they were really delicious!

Fancy breakfast sandwich

 Had a fancy breakfast this morning (well, it was breakfast for dinner). Open-faced sandwich inspired by this recipe. 

Toasted whole wheat bread

Asparagus sauteed in butter and salt

Sliced hard-boiled egg

Onions sauteed in butter until slightly brown

Salt & pepper

It was really great! I just wish I woke up early enough in the mornings to actually have this for breakfast!

Green grilled cheese

Apparently I missed National Grilled Cheese month (how could I??), so I made up for it tonight with a grilled cheese recipe similar to this one. It was sooooo good I can't even tell you, you just really have to try it yourself. 

Whole wheat bread

Mozzarella cheese (sliced)

Baby spinach leaves

Avocado (sliced)

Goat cheese (crumbled)

Salt & pepper

Fry on a stove or use a counter-top grill til the bread is toasty and the ingredients are warm and melted :)

Double braid

 I run around A LOT for my job as a nanny for two little boys and a newborn baby girl (I usually have the boys, not the girl). In any given two hours, we will play a bit of football, baseball, soccer, golf, basketball, and tennis. It's crazy! And fun :)

So I need my hair back and away from my face, hence the braids.

I started with a Dutch, French braid (braiding in reverse, but also a French braid, so it's Dutch-French braid??) behind my left ear, and another coming across my scalp from right to left. 

I pinned them together below my left ear, then twisted them and fastened with a little rubber band. Long hair is so much fun to play with :)

Chain-metal pedicure

Some fun with nail art today  :)

Started with this dark purple...

...and dipped the tip of a pen (with the ink bit taken out, so the tip was just a small circle) in metallic silver polish to make little circles all over. 

 

To finish I added little dots of metallic blue in the middle of random silver circles.

Kind of unique look, I've never done anything like this before, but I do like using props in my nail art :)

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to my Mama! I was home with my family this weekend and we enjoyed a nice, relaxing few days.  

My gift to her was a craft from Pinterest :) I hot-glued river stones to a piece of black felt (both from a nearby craft store) to make a hot pad for her tea kettle.

To celebrate her day today, we went to a restaurant called the Chart House for a delicious meal.

We had oysters on the half shell for an appetizer,

and my entree was salmon wrapped in prosciutto with a balsamic reduction and a miso sauce. Spectacular! There was also a chocolate lava cake and a creme brulee for dessert but we devoured those before I remembered to take a picture, oops! Plus, we had a nice drive through the mountains to and from the restaurant. We ended the evening with a nice long walk along the creek nearby. 

Hope you had a great Mother's Day, love you so much Mama!