Manicure Monday: Revlon Starry Pink & OPI Crown Me Already

2/27/2012 07:00:00 AM Ashley 0 Comments

Just like with last weeks manicure I went with the different colored ring finger. Seeing as Starry Pink is full of silver glitter I thought that the full on silver glitter in Crown Me Already was a perfect match.


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Shade

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Natural light

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Natural light

Revlon still sells Starry Pink, but they did rename if for a recent relaunch of their polishes. Which is hilarious as Starry Pink was only released a month or so before the relaunch and renaming. If you are looking for this color it now goes by the name Popular, though you may be able to find the original Starry Pink lurking around.

You can buy Revlon Starry Pink/Popular here and OPI Crown Me Already here.

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Weight loss Wednesday: We're at a stand still

2/22/2012 08:43:00 AM Ashley 0 Comments

The dreaded stand still. It happens to all of us at some point, even if we think it doesn't or we try to ignore it.

I'm currently going through one.

I haven't worked out in about a week and when I did it was awful. I've been fighting something off, so my body has just not been responding well. I keep telling myself that I am taking it easy so I don't hurt myself or get sick, but I was getting lazy before that. On top of that I am stressed out about the move and for another, very annoying, reason. Which, because I am one of those lucky people, is showing up as tension throughout my whole body.

Luckily it's really nice out today, like nice enough to get outside to run...jog...or even just walk. Really nice enough to get my butt out of this house and away from the ever growing list of things I need to do.

Have I mentioned that I hate moving? Especially when it's from a place that I like. Oh well I just need to get over it and get off my butt. I can do this.

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Manicure Monday: OPI DS Glamor with Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure

2/20/2012 07:00:00 AM Ashley 1 Comments

Today I bring you something a little extra shiny with a holo polish and a pop of flakies.

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Indoor natural light

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Indoor natural light

Both of these are indoor, natural light photos. You can see the flakies much better in these photos. Unlike the holo, which does not stand out at all.

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With flash

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With flash

With the flash on, the holo pops out and shows off all of its amazingness.

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With flash, blurry

I've found that making the photo a little blurry is one of the best ways to show off a holographic polish.


Glamor was part of OPI's Designer Series which, up until recently, is their holographic packed polish line. A lot of colors from the line have been retired and are now considered to be hard to find. Glamor would be one of those colors.

Along with using Glamor, which is beyond shiny I decided to to finally give the different color ring finger look a try. For that I used Sally Hansen's Hidden Treasure. Yet again another hard to find polish.

Man, I am just not helping y'all out today with purchasable polishes!

1 comments :

Weight loss Wednesday: Eating across America

2/15/2012 07:00:00 AM Ashley 1 Comments

Time to be candid about the upcoming move, back across the country no less, while trying to lose weight. Sounds pretty impossible doesn't it? Cause it does to me. In fact I've tried to do it once already.

Moving is a part of the job when it comes to the military. It becomes a part of your life, whether you like it or not. How often you do it can vary greatly. When this next moves comes, it will have been our 3rd, with two of them being within 18 months of each other. And yet we're noobs when it comes to military moves. But it doesn't make it any less stressful. At least not for me.

And I eat when I'm stressed.

But I've already shared that with you before.

The last time we moved I was in full "I hate my body" mode. I was over feeling blah about myself and was trying to work on weight loss. I wasn't invested 100% which, of course, isn't a good way to start. I also started a few months before we moved and I was stressed. So I ate. Go figure.

The eating badly before the move is something that I can fix. I can easily pull out something to make for dinner. It's the moving across the country, with a dog, while towing a car that causes the most issues. There is no easy way to eat well as sometimes you go through towns that don't have a lot to offer other than fast food. For the places that do offer more options we have to worry about what to do with Emmett and if we can find a place to park our car towing a car. It's not easy.

So what can I do differently for this move? If fast food is the best/only option I can get iced tea instead of soda. I can pass on the french fries. I can swim at the hotel (if they have a pool). I can get out and stretch my legs every time we stop.

I can also make sure that I get back into proper eating habits and working out when we get to our new home. As there was a long period of poor eating/laziness after we got here.

It won't be easy, but it can be done. I just have to push myself to be better. By being better about my eating I'm being better to myself.

Is there anything that you do to help your eating habits when moving?




1 comments :

Manicure Monday: Zoya Roxy

2/13/2012 07:00:00 AM Ashley 1 Comments

Today's beauty for Manicure Monday is Roxy from Zoya. This is a polish that I kept seeing on blogs and then promptly forgetting what the name was. This happened at lead 5 times before I actually remembered to write the name down and buy it. This is one of those polishes that is just amazing. I don't know how I went so long with this polish not being a part of my collection.

It's a red-ish purple almost jelly that is full of purple glitter. The glitter just shimmers from within. So amazing.

For this manicure I played around with a half moon manicure. I used both a matte top coat and a normal top coat to achieve the effect.

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With flash

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With flash

This is now easily one of my top 10 favorite polishes in my collection...and it's a LARGE collection!

You can buy Roxy on Zoya.

1 comments :

Giveaway: Last change to enter giveaway

2/09/2012 03:00:00 PM Ashley 0 Comments


Yep...today is the last day to enter my giveaway for the Konad nail art kit. If you haven't entered yet...do it!

If you did enter, keep your eye out for a post tomorrow for the winner. Good luck to all who entered!





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Weight loss Wednesday: My play list

2/08/2012 11:20:00 AM Ashley 2 Comments

Working put isn't always fun. A good portion of the time I will go to the gym and just feel...bleh. Just because I'm at the gym it doesn't mean that I have the drive to work out. That's when music comes into play.

There's a good chance that I would not work out the way that I do if I couldn't pop on my head phones. Music drives me...pushing me to start and to keep going.

With music being my motivator, my play list is beyond important. A slow song can totally screw with my pace, while a fast song can push me to work harder.

I've spent awhile adding, trimming down and perfecting my workout mix. And because it's such an important part of my workout routine, I thought I'd share my must have songs. Now keep in mind that this is not my whole list, as that would mean having to list 130+ songs. This is just a list of the songs that are always on my playlist, no matter how many times I change the list around.

Workout playlist


The Academy Is...- The Phrase That Pays
The Academy Is...- We've Got a Big Mess On Our Hands
Alkaline Trio- We've Had Enough
The All-American Rejects- Move Along
The All-American Rejects- Night Drive
The Almost- Say This Sooner
Blur- Song 2
CKY- 96 Quite Bitter Beings
Dragon Force- Once In a Lifetime
Evanescense- Call Me When You're Sober
The Exsies- Can't Relate
Fall Out Boy- Chicago is so Two Years Ago
Finch- What it is to Burn
Goldfinger- Counting the Days
Jimmy Eat World- Bleed America
Jimmy Eat World- Get it Faster
Lady Gaga- Just Dance
New Found Glory- Head Over Heels
New Found Glory- It Ain't Me Babe
Nine Inch Nails- The Hand That Feeds
Nine Inch Nails- Only
Pusicfer- The Mission
The Rasmus- In the Shadows
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus- Face Down
Spiderbait- Black Betty
Spinnerette- Ghetto Love
Versa Emerge- Paint it Black


If I had to choose 5 songs that I absolutely had to have no matter what the would be Nine Inch Nails "The Hand That Feeds", Versa Emerge "Paint it Black", Lady Gaga "Just Dance" and both songs from Jimmy Eat World (Bleed America and Get It Faster).

What songs are on your playlist? Any must haves?

And don't forget tomorrow is the last day to enter my Konad nail kit giveaway! So enter if you haven't.

2 comments :

Manicure Monday: Butter London's No More Waity, Katie

2/06/2012 07:00:00 AM Ashley 1 Comments

Hello! I'm back with another installment of Manicure Monday. Today's mani is No More Waity, Katie from Butter London. My friend Cassie asked me about this polish, because a lot of bloggers have not been fans of the color. But I, on the other hand, really enjoy it.

It's actually an unusual color in my collection. The base is a sheer gray with lavender glitter. I think the problem most people have with the polish is that the base is sheerer side and you need at least 3 coats for full coverage. That doesn't bother me though, as I can always layer the color onto a gray base coat.

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Natural light

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Natural light

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Flash

This is one of those colors that also looks amazing with a matte top coat. Here I used Essie's Matte About You.

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Matte top coat, natural light

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Matte top coat, flash

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Matte top coat, flash

What are your feelings on this polish? Did you love it? Hate it? Or have you even seen it?

You can buy No More Waity, Katie at Ulta.

Don't forget to enter my Konad nail kit giveaway. There's only 3 days left to enter!

1 comments :

Life: Momma I'm coming home!

2/02/2012 07:00:00 AM Ashley 0 Comments

Thank you Ozzy Osbourne for the perfect title and a somewhat fitting song. You know minus the whole issues with my mom and her not actually being there, but lets not nitpick.

I'm coming home! And by coming home, I mean that we are moving back to my place of birth. As of yesterday we have our official orders.

Now I can totally get started on this peaceful process freak.out.and.panic.and.plan.and.over.stress.

Yep...sounds about right.

I can tell you that we're bummed about moving away from Ohio. We've really liked it here. And honestly 18 months is a crap amount of time to be somewhere. About a year in is when we are usually totally comfortable in a place. Funny that we actually like it here and this is the shortest stay we'll ever have in a place.

Sadly though, our house will go from this:

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Our master bedroom and bath.

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Our guest bedroom.

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Living room.

To this...again:

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Which, of course, makes me want to curl up into a ball.

Again, in case you've missed it...I HATE packing an moving. A lot. A lot a lot. I don't like other people touching my stuff, but not enough to make me want to do all of the packing myself.

Then there's the unpacking. While it's fun to set up a house how you want it...it doen't just magically happen.

I'm trying to breathe, while I keep making lists. As lists are what help me keep my small bit of sanity.

So here we go...two months till we're out of here. I'd ask for those two months to at least be slow, but we all know that's not going to happen.

Wish me luck...and sanity!

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Weight Loss Wednesday: Week 4

2/01/2012 08:30:00 AM Ashley 0 Comments

Last night was my weigh in for week 4. It's been a whole month since I started with this newest plan.

I can't say that I am happy with the weight loss I am seeing...or better yet, not seeing. But that's why I gave myself other things to look at such as NSVs and measurements. And I can tell you that if I didn't have those things, I'd be super bummed right now.

While I can say that I am working out, I can't even come close to saying that I'm eating as well as I should be. While I am eating and snacking less, I'm still not eating as well as I could be. I have to blame a lot of that on just plain laziness and oncoming stress. We're moving very soon and my stress load is slowly growing because of it. I am a stress eater. And the stress is only going to be growing for the next 3 months as we working on packing, moving and unpacking. If you can't tell I am not a fan of packing/moving.

At this point I need to work on coming up with some NSVs that involve moving. In hopes of that giving the little push I need. I'm also going to have to have some "blackout days" where I just won't/can't stress about what I am eating, as long as it's in moderation. Because sometimes it's not possible to not eat fast food when you're driving across the country with your belongings and a dog.

Now onto the better news.

Even though I have only lost about 2 pounds, which occurred last week, I can say that I didn't put on any major weight (I had a fluctuation of .3 lbs for the week). But even though those numbers aren't moving...my measurement numbers are! I have lost anywhere from .5 to 1.0 inches on almost all of my measurements (I have only seen a .25 inch reduction on my calves and no movement on my upper arms, but I am doing a lot of arm and leg workouts).

I am also working out far more frequently and finding what does and does not work for me. I have a good gym routine (row machine, running, stationary bike and weights) and at home I am using Jillian Michaels: 6 Week Six-Pack. I'm hoping that once my knees start feeling a bit stronger that I can get back into using the 30 Day Shred.

The last thing I want to show you is my week 1 stats compared to my week 4 stats. I have no reason not to show these to you, as so many of you are in the same boat as me and if something I am doing helps you, then it's well worth it!


Week 1
1.10.12

Weight: 187.6 lbs

Bust: 42"
Upper Arm: 13"
Waist: 35"
Hips: 45.5"
Thighs: 27"
Calves: 15.25"


Week 4
1.31.12

Weight: 186.1

Bust: 41"
Upper arms: 13"
Waist: 34"
Hips: 45"
Thighs: 26.5"
Calves: 15"


What are some things that drive you to keep going? Have you had any hiccups in losing weight? What are you doing to fix them?

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