Monday, January 20, 2014

Monday

It's January 20th and I'm still pushing through January without my usual January meltdown. We're headed into the home stretch, I think I'm going to make it. :)

I have a few things to discuss today. 

First of all, the new basement TV room has been life changing. Our kids have friends over almost every day now and I'm loving it! I have always wanted to have the kind of house where all my kids friends congregate. I always imagined that when we had teenagers we'd have a house full of our kids friends. I want that. I want our house to be a place where kids can come to hang out. But up until now it really hasn't been that way. The boys had friends over occasionally but not very often and there was never a good place to hang out that wasn't right in the middle of everything. 

Now with the basement room finished kids are in and out of here all the time. The boys are asking to invite friends over almost every day and kids are calling and asking to come over. They love it because it's a nice space with a big TV for video games and hanging out and I love it because all the noise and chaos is contained in the basement. I also get a chance to get to know my kids friends better and keep an ear on what's happening. It's better than always sending them somewhere else and never knowing what's going on. It's working out really great. The kids are home today because of the holiday and there have been friends down there all day. 

Second, my mom and stepdad came over on Friday and spent the night while my stepdad had meetings in town. It was fun to see them and spend some time with my mom. We don't see them all that often, so it's always nice when we get to spend some time with them.

Third, I have a fingernail update. I haven't posted nail polish photos in a while because after a year and a half of having awesome fingernails, they've been giving me problems lately. They keep breaking and peeling and won't grow like they were before. I think I overstressed them with way too much polish and acetone. Nail polish is pretty, but it can't really be good for your nails, especially for as often as I was changing polish colors. 

So for the past couple of months I've been trying to get my nails to grow again. I cut them all off and started over but they have been breaking and chipping before they could get very long. I decided to give nail polish a break, but that didn't help and I almost can't stand to have unpolished nails anymore. It feels weird! 

So I decided to look into gel polish. In case you're not completely obsessed with nail polish like I am and don't know about gel polish, let me tell you all about it. :) It's special nail polish that is cured under a UV light, which bonds it to your nail and lasts for weeks without chipping. I've known about it for a while but I was never interested before because I love changing the polish on my nails so much that I never understood why anyone would want the same color on their nails for weeks at a time. I get bored after about two days and I love repainting my nails all the time. Which is probably why my nails are all messed up, lol. 

But I finally decided that maybe gel polish would be good for now to protect my nails and keep them pretty while giving them a bit of a break from constant polish changes. 

You can get them done at most salons but I don't really like having my nails done. I'd rather do them myself. So I researched the UV lights and all the supplies and on Saturday I went down to Sally Beauty Supply and bought all the stuff I need to do gel nails at home. It's a bit expensive to get started, but I figured if the results are good it would be worth it.

So I spent all Saturday afternoon giving myself a gel manicure. It's a bit time consuming. It requires a special base coat, two coats of polish and a special top coat, which all have to be cured under the light after each step. It's also a bit trickier putting the polish on because once it's been cured, mistakes can't be cleaned up. If you accidentally get some polish on your cuticle, it doesn't easily come off. 

So I went slow and followed all the directions and when it was all done I was super happy with the results! It's shiny and pretty and I can tell that it's going to stay on for a while. Regular nail polish starts chipping after a few days. This stuff is supposed to look like new for a few weeks. I'm on day three and so far so good. Hopefully it will protect my nails so they can grow. I've missed my long nails! 

Here's a photo of the results: 

image

Not bad for my first try! I'm loving the color. If I have to wear the same color for a few weeks at a time, this is a color I won't get tired of. 

So things are going good here. I'm surviving January, my basement is full of neighbor kids, my fingernail crisis has been averted and it's all good at our house! :) 

1 comment:

Unknown said...

That color is beautiful!