V-day nails

Plans are made, preparations are in effect, it's almost Valentine's Day! Honestly, I'll take any chance to celebrate romance and be feminine and work with a theme. Therefore, Valentine's Day nails!

Super light pink with a big red heart!

Wishing for spring

As much as I love Colorado, I'm really starting to get sick of this snow and winter weather. I'm ready for spring! Unfortunately, as the snow on the ground and the snow in the forecast is telling me, it's just not here yet.  But on the bright side, the new Vera colors are here!

Island Blooms

Camellia

Ellie Blue

Rosy Posies

I'm a sucker for any pink Vera pattern, but I really love Camellia too! It may not be warm weather and blue skies, but it's a start!

Not your average fried egg

I'll probably never make a fried egg the same, ever again!

Saw this, and had to try it. 

These are also cute too!

They can be found here.

Fun mani

Had to try the Aztec/tribal nail art that's going around Pinterest like crazy. It's so cool! A bit overwhelming and it looks weird with the majority of the outfits I wear, but overall I'm pleased with the results. I achieved the look with Revlon basecoat, L.A. Girl Flare in Flushed, Revlon in Minted, Sinful Colors in What's Your Name?, and Rimmel French White Tip Pro.

I started with a basecoat, and then did three stripes on each nail of the Flushed, Minted, and black (What's Your Name?). This was finalized with a lot of random designs with the white. The key to this whole look was the skinny brush that this white comes with (since it's for French manicures), or else it would have been nearly impossible. A nail pen would have also done the trick nicely.

Not sure how long I can stand to have all of this on my nails, but they are fun for a few days :)

What I'm listening to right now

Florence + The Machine. Pretty much non-stop. It is a common soundtrack in my almost-daily yoga classes and has permeated the rest of my life as well. Such good stuff :) Here are a few of my favorites...

Mini cinnies

In order to celebrate finishing my first calculus test, I made mini cinnamon buns, or mini cinnies (!), with the boyfriend.

We made them using Pillsbury rolls, butter, cinnamon, granulated sugar, powdered sugar, and vanilla. We didn't measure anything out, just eyeballing it instead. 

We pre-heated to 350 degrees and laid out the Pillsbury rolls, cut in half. The seams where one would ordinarily tear the rolls apart, we pinched together to form two rectangles.

We mixed equal parts cinnamon and sugar.

We melted butter and spread it all over the rectangles. We left about half an inch un-buttered on one edge.

Then we spread generous amounts of the cinnamon/sugar mixture over the buttered portion.

We rolled them up starting with the buttered edge, pinching the un-buttered edge to the roll.

We sliced them into half-inch pieces and spread them evenly on a pan.

They baked for 8 minutes.

Finally, we made icing from a mixture of  melted butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla.

Yummy!

Braided headband hairstyle

This is a surprisingly easy hairstyle, it's cute, and has enough staying power to make me a devoted fan already.

It's basically making a headband out of your own hair.

Braided hair, that is. I started by clipping back the top half of my hair. 

I took a small chunk of hair from above my ear and, holding it up vertically, braided it.

I used a clear elastic at the end of the braid, and brought it down to the corresponding spot above my other ear. I kept the braid in place with two bobby pins.

Once I let my hair fall naturally, all signs of the hardware were covered. From there, I backcombed the hair at the crown of my head a bit, for a little extra oomph. And, within 3 minutes, had a cute hairstyle that lasted all day!