Sally Hansen's Nail Pen

With having to watch my spending, I've been going on "shopping sprees" at the Dollar Store.  It really does give me that nice feeling of shopping without having the shell out a lot of cash.  I found this nail polish pen in one of my bathroom drawers.  I had picked it up a while ago at the Dollar Store but had totally forgotten about it.  Needless to say, I was skeptical.  I mean, how well could this thing really work?

The concept is to push the top part of the pen to dispense the nail polish into the little brush.  The polish is supposed to squeeze through a little hole to fill the brush.  I was SUPER surprised at how well this actually worked.  It sped up my manicure time significantly and the formula was quick to dry.  I also made less mistakes because the pen fit my hand better than a small nail polish bottle cap.  The application was above average too.  I find that sometimes nail polish will be thin right near my cuticle and become thick and pigmented at the end of my nail.  I have no idea why this happens to me, but it's annoying.  This pen didn't do that!  I'm very impressed and pleased with the color. I might need to take another trip to the Dollar Store to see if I can find more colors!

Eggs on nachos?

It's actually not bad.  I've been trying to cook more now that I'm all settled in, but when it's just Nick and myself (or even just myself) my motivation wanes.  Ramen or udon is just so much easier.  I decided to start with something easy.  Turkey nachos!  For some reason I was really wanting eggs so I fried some up and put them on top.  It wasn't bad, but I'm not sure if I would do it again.  I got my egg fix!

Wall Decal

If you've noticed in past posts that I had some papers stuck to the wall of my kitchen it was because I was midway through putting up a wall decal.  It's one of those things where you take a credit card-like card and rub it onto the wall.  When I first moved in it was midsummer and stifling in the condo, which meant that even trying to get one letter up would have me sweating.  I finally finished putting it up now that the weather has cooled down.  To remove this all you have to do is use a hair dryer to warm up the decal and it will peel off.  What this means to me is that next summer I will find this decal melted off onto my kitchen counter.  At least it is cute while it lasts.

Anniversary Dinner

Last Thursday marked our two-year-anniversary.  Since my budget was blown in Monterey for the Porsche event and Nick's from buying me the TV, we decided to stay in for dinner.  Knowing that I adore lamb, Nick made me a scrumptious meal of lamb shank, garlic mash, and green beans.  All at the top of my "I LOVE" list.  He had pointed out that this was probably one of the first meals he's ever made me.  After thinking about it, he's right!  All of the cooking we do is together.   Just standing and watching him work was very relaxing.  Needless to say, after this giant meal I was down for the count and in asleep by 10:20pm.

Key holder

I've been a little bit stressed lately so I went to TJ Maxx for some retail therapy.  I got this jewelry holder to put my keys, chapstick, etc. in.  The scented diffuser is a little to florally for me so I gave it to my mom.  The bottle sure is pretty though!

Accent Pillows

From Harry Potter robes to accent pillows, my mom can make it.  My mom agreed to make me some accent pillow for my sofas and bed.  I LOVE THEM!  They're the perfect size since I have so many regular pillows as it is.

Love Seat

Love Seat pillow detail

Sofa

Sofa pillow detail without flash

Anniversary Weekend

Thursday marks our two-year anniversary.  Nick got me my TV as a housewarming/anniversary gift and I got him tickets to see the Rennsport Reunion IV.  I definitely hit the jackpot with this idea. Nick was like a kid in a candy store (as were the thousands of other men there).  The weekend started with us walking up at 7:30am on Saturday to drive down to Laguna Seca.  After we got there, we wandered around the paddock and got some up close looks at the race cars.  By 11am I had hit my car-wall.  Nick was excited so he talked about cars most of the drive down to Monterey and then we were surrounded by car fanatics.  I had been craving corn dogs since the Giants game I went to with his company at the beginning of September so he promised me corn dogs.  That made the whole day better. I ate three in the span of the weekend.  I probably haven't had a corn dog since I was 10-years old (I don't really like them much) but oh man, when you've been craving one for weeks it's the best thing in the world.  That as well as some strong, local beer got me through the day.

Sally from Cars.  The highlight of the Reunion for me.

There was a preview of a new racing game, not sure which,
and Nick tried to win a Hot Lap around the track.  He didn't,
but it was worth a try!

A race car that Nick was really excited about.  I'm not sure
what it's called, but all the guys were excited about it.  I went
to take a picture of the side of the car and when I held my camera
up all I saw were blue jean butts in the view finder.  All the men were
looking into the car.  There were four butts staring at me, I counted.
Nick's was in there as well. I don't mean to sound gender
specific, but really, there were no females
bending down looking in there. 

At the Corkscrew

There was a small crash at the Corksrcew that kicked up a ton of dust.

The races started at 1pm, much to my chagrin.  I thought the qualifying races we had been watching were the actual races!  Little did I know that I had a whole afternoon to go.  It wasn't as bad as I thought though.  We hiked up to the Corkscrew area and I took a little nap.  With the power of ear plugs, the day went by pretty quickly.  I'd go with Nick again, but only as long as the tickets are reasonably priced.  I don't think I appreciate this kind of thing as much as some others might.

Nick had made us reservations at our favorite seafood house in Monterey, The Monterey Fish House, so we headed back to the Marriott in Downtown Monterey to clean up.  I showered first.  By the time Nick got out of the shower I was in sweats with a glass of champagne and my feet up on pillows.  We are such an old couple.  We had a great night with an awesome dinner and some pretty hearty laughs.  He makes me laugh so much.  We were chattering away when we got off the elevator in the hotel and we went to the wrong room!  He would put the key in and I would try the handle.  We did that about three times before we realized we were on the second floor but needed to be on the sixth.  We got out of there quickly in case someone came out of their room.  Giggling the whole way of course.

Our view of the bay from the room.

The second day of the Porche reunion was just about the same as the first but this time we went to breakfast at The Breakfast Club in Seaside.  Holy smokes, I had the best omelette I've ever tasted.  The waitress recommended the Chile Verde omelette.  It was packed full of green salsa with barbacoa pork.  Just thinking about it makes my mouth water.  I scarfed the whole thing down before I even touched the biscuits with gravy and hash browns that came with it.  We've definitely found our new breakfast place for when we're in Monterey.  Oh man, it was good.  If I was on the Food Network show, The Best Thing I Ever Ate, this omelette would be a top pick.

Best omelette EVER

Cuddly doggy

With the all of the family events and trying to get my apartment in comfortable living condition, it's been very hectic during the weekends.  I decided to take a "veg" weekend and Emmy wanted to relax with me...until kids outside started to play with their remote controlled cars.

Updated Center Piece

In an earlier post I had showed this "blingy" center piece for my coffee table.  Well, it was a little too blingy.  When I was at the dollar store looking for little baskets to organize my makeup, I found navy blue fish tank pebbles.  It helps bring in the blue and green accents that I'm hoping will liven up the overwhelming brown theme.

Old

New

For now the centerpiece is on my kitchen table because I've been using
the Yankee Candle that I got from TJ Maxx.  I'm addicted to it, but eventually
this centerpiece will make it's way back to the coffee table where the shape
compliments the table better.  

NYX Haul

I was sooooo excited to see these.  I've tried NYX's jumbo pencils before and loved them so when Bonnie told me that Hautelook.com was having a sale I couldn't resist.  I tend to go to the NYX site, fill up my cart, and then leave it because I don't want to pay full price for it all.  I got lucky this time.  I actually had to take things out of my cart because I would have ended up spending $100 on everything.  They sell these all on nyxcosmetics.com, but at full price.

I found that the lighter colors had less pigmentation, which made it difficult to swatch.  The darker colors, however came out beautifully.  I tried using this rust-toned trio today.  It was a little too "rusty" for my skin tone, but I was able to balance it out nicely with the matte finished Highlight.  So even though the light colors don't swatch well, they still show up on my eyelids and drastically help blending.

Golden, Rust, Walnut Bronze Trio ($8 nyxcosmetics.com)

Aloha, Mink Brown, Deep Bronze Trio

Without Flash
The swatches were just too light on this pallet so I'm not posting them.

Lake Moss Trio

This kit also came with an eyeliner and shadow base.

Black, Dark Brown, Highlight, White

Can you get over this pigmentation?!  It looks like I swiped my hand with
charcoal. 

I used the bright pink "Mocha" today and love it.  Just make sure to blot
your brush on the back of your had before applying to your face.

Chicken Soup...

...for the gloomy day's soul.  Yesterday was just so gloomy and drizzly that I really wanted to make chicken soup and pies.  The soup was delicious and my coworkers enjoyed the pies.

Gloomy Day Chicken Soup
1 pack chicken thighs
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 head garlic, minced
4 stalks celery, roughly chopped
8 qts water
1 tsp rosemary
2 tsp thyme
2 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp kosher salt
2 heads broccoli
2 eggs
1/2 lb pasta
Directions:
Sweat onion and garlic over medium-high heat in a large pot.  Add chicken to brown. Once chicken is browned, add celery, water, rosemary, thyme, pepper, and salt.  Bring to a boil.  Let simmer for an hour.   In a separate pot, cook pasta and drain.  When ready to eat, add broccoli, pasta, and egg.  Cook for two minutes.

Browned chicken, onion and garlic.  I added the herbs first, but you can just
do this when you add the water to ensure that they don't burn.

Everything in the pot.

Last step.  The white blob is where my poached eggs are.