{Wordless Wednesday} A hike through Red Rock Canyon Open Space




{Friday Favorites} Pebble Time Round

Hello and happy Friday! Today I am sharing a favorite that was a long time coming. And now that I own it, I'm pretty much smitten. That being the Pebble Time Round smart watch. 

 I say it was a long time coming because my husband has been a Pebble user since their first rodeo on Kickstarter a few years back. He wore the trusty black and white e-paper version for years before joining their second go at Kickstarter for the new colored face Pebble Time. While he's been getting a great amount of use out of both watches I have been trundling along trying out various fitness trackers and watches. None of which I was ever happy with. We had found an amazing deal on a Fitbit Surge, which was exciting at the time, but quickly became less so. It's bulky and awkward. The small size barely fit my wrist, which meant I couldn't use the clip that helped lock the band in place. But if I had sized up I would have had to tighten the band all the way. Plus any weight loss would have left me with a too-large to wear fitness tracker. Which is extra pointless as the heart rate monitor wouldn't have been able to work. Not that it mattered, because the monitor on the back of the watch spent most of it's time hitting my wrist bone in the most annoying manor possible. The fitness tracking that it did, it seemed to do well. Except the "elevation climbed" part which was meant to count how many floors you had climbed up/down. Seriously, I live in a 3 story house and one day I was informed that I was a power climber after it registered me climbing 70+ floors. No. Not even close. Maybe it's because of our altitude and driving up and down hills confused it. Maybe it's because of all of the high and low pressure weather systems that move through the area. I don't know. But I do know that I never climbed 70+ flights of stairs. Oh and did I mention that it was bulky as fuck? Seriously I have never hated having something on my wrist more than I did the Surge, especially when I was wearing long sleeves, or god forbid...a jacket.

My husband seemed to notice my annoyance. Probably because I was vocal about it. Very vocal. I was mad, because I want to track my activity. I want to not have to be glued to my phone every time it buzzes. I want a watch. A basic, normal, tell the time watch. So after the 5 millionth pissy fit, where I ended up tearing the Surge off my wrist and throwing it into my purse, my husband started talking about the Pebble Time. More specifically The Pebble Time round. As it was a classic round watch that offered step and sleep tracking, among other things. With the huge added bonus of it being a normal, non infuriatingly bulky design. I hemmed and hawed. Then hemmed and hawed some more. We had just done Christmas, where I was spoiled. And if I couldn't find a fitness tracker/watch combo that I liked, why would this one be any different? Then I went the "I don't deserve it route". After my long song and dance of "what if", a new Pebble Time Round found its way home and onto my wrist.


Best. Decision. Ever.
My version is the Pebble Time Round silver with the red leather 14mm band. The red leather band/silver and white face is apparently specific to Target. Though you can get the red leather band/black on black through Pebble's website.

Like I said, I'm pretty much smitten with it. It gives me notifications on what's going on with my phone. I can read text messages and emails. See various app notifications. Check to see who's calling and decline phone calls is need be. I can control music on my phone. It can vibrate at me as an alarm. I can change the watch face depending on my mood, with some even having the weather integrated or fancy animations. Best of all I can track my steps and sleep habits.

With a simple flick of the wrist, the face lights up so you can easily read what it says, especially useful in a low light space. Then after a few seconds it fades back to a dim, but still readable face. 

I'm excited to have this. Not just because it looks cool and does equally cool stuff, but because it will help me track my activity level. Which in turn I am hoping will help me reach goals and new milestones. 2016 is the year that I am pushing forward, living my life for me while striving to make me a better version of myself. It's oddly fitting that I am starting off the new year with a time piece.

So there's my Friday, but actually everyday, favorite. What's your current favorite thing that you have or are eyeing?

{Wordless Wednesday} Where's Swarley?


{Mani Monday} SpaRitual Instinctual

Happy New Year everyone! I personally am happy that 2015 is behind us. Saying it was a bitch of a year is an understatement. For 2016 I'm focusing on it being the year of me, but that's a subject for a blog post. Which will happen soon.

Today we are focusing on SpaRitual's Instinctual. Which is a lovely, sheer topper filled with glass flecks that shift and flash color. There's a bit of a blue flash as well as a color shift from a rosy pink to orange to gold. This is a wear on top of another color, which I did by using my last posts color as "underwear". So in the photos you will see Instinctual on top of Orly Rage. I really loved the combination and found myself mindlessly looking at my nails in various lighting. The photos I have do not do the color shift and justice what-so-ever, but I tried. I wore three light coats of SpaRitual Instinctual over two coats of Orly Rage.
{Outside: Evening light}

{Outside: Evening light}

{Outside: Evening light}

{Outside: Evening light}

{Outside: Evening light}

{Outside: Evening light}

 Hope you all have a great Monday and an even better 2016! I'm excited to make this year mine. Keep checking back because new things are already in the works for this little ol' blog! 

{Wordless Wednesday} The elephant(s) in the room


{Mani Monday} Orly Rage

Man, last week got away from me. Badly. With it being the end of the year and the holidays hitting full force, I just kept forgetting to get photos of my nails. Also, if it could stop being SO DAMN DRY here, that would be peachy. Cause my nails are not appreciating it. Nor are my hands loving the abuse they are receiving. After a handful of nail breaks, with one guaranteeing nubs, and a crap ton of variously acquired cuts I think I am finally able to start healing and re-growth.

With things calming down a bit before New Years hits, I found some time today to sit and paint my nails with a classic color from Orly. This color is called Rage and is just a really great rose gold foil metallic. It applies well, isn't streaky and is a just good color to have in a collection. The only major issues are cleanup as foils like to leave shimmering reminders of the polish behind, but all you need is a good hand wash to get rid of the shimmering remnants. I use it as a base color as well, which you'll see in next weeks post. So just an all around solid polish. Photos of the polish were taken outside in cloud cover, so the warmth of the polish is lost a bit.

{Outdoors: cloud cover}

{Outdoors: cloud cover} 

{Outdoors: cloud cover} 

{Outdoors: cloud cover}

{Outdoors: cloud cover}

{Outdoors: cloud cover}

 As you can see I didn't wash my hands before photographing the polish, so there's shimmer around the cuticle. I was fighting with the sunlight trying to get photos before the clouds fully moved in.

Clouds - 1
Me - 0

 But I win in the end, because I have a pretty polish on.

{Wordless Wednesday} Mid-Century Modern Bathroom Lust


{Friday Favorites} Boot dreaming

Wandering Instagram can be a very dangerous thing. There's so many great and odd things to be seen.

One of my recent, late night, IG wanderings lead me to a pair of booties that I just can't get out of my head. After clicking around a few photos I finally found the link. Right to Anthropologie. Of course. 



These beauties are from Billy Ella and are a navy faux suede with silver star embroidery. It's like a starry night is being laid across your feet. Swoon. I'm in love and trying to come up with as many outfits to wear these with as possible.

They are currently out of my size, but I can only hope that they will magically be restocked at some point so that these night sky booties can find their way to my house.

A girl can dream right? Cause I know I sure as heck am.

So what are your current favorite things that you own or are lusting after?

{Wordless Wednesday} Sleepy smooshed face


{Mani Monday} Great Lakes Lacquer and Stamping

Let's start off with a truth. My nails are brutal right now. Between packing orders and how dry it's been here this winter, my nails look haggard. None of my nails are the same length. At all. There's been some bad breaks, including one yesterday that became not only a broken nail but a cut into the tip of my finger when I was trying to file the nail. Yeah...it's bad.

Which means I'm kicking off Manic Mani Monday with a mani I did a month ago. It's perfectly fall and wonderful and shows off my very new stamping skills. It also showcases a beautiful small batch limited edition from Great Lakes Lacquer. The color is called Raisins Fall and is a beautiful browned out purple holo that has a copper like sheen. I purchased mine the first time it was released. It had enough interest in it that the maker worked to recreate the polish to re-release on Cyber Monday of this year. Meaning that there are two versions on Raisins Fall, though I don't know how much they differ from each other. My version applied beautifully in two coats and was easy to remove. 

Okay enough jabbering, let's get to the polish...

{OttLite}

{OttLite} 

{Outside: full sun}

{Outside: shade}

After wearing this polish for a day I decided to try out some stamping over the top. I just recently started stamping, after putting it off forever. I'm still learning but it's been fun. 

{Outside: full sun}

 {Outside: full sun}

I went with some fall leaves off of the Uber Chic Halloween-01 stamping plate. I used four Illamasqua colors in various shades of yellow, orange and green to create a water color effect (it probably has a proper name, but let's just go with this). I really love how subtle the leaves were and how the colors blended into one another. Just like leaves changing in the fall.

So there we have it, the kick off to Manic Mani Monday! Hopefully I can get my nails to a happier place so that I can share a current mani next week. Fingers crossed!

{Decor} The rainbow tree receives an epic upgrade

In the not so distant past I had an idea. A wild hair, if you will. It led Nate and I on a late night trip to Meijer for a white Christmas tree. I had plans. Very colorful plans. 

 Five years ago an idea exploded and I had no idea it would be so popular. I took a white Christmas tree and combined it with a plethora of rainbow colored ornaments I had stockpiled away. Thus our rainbow tree was born.

Since then our tree has been posted and reposted on Pinterest and other various sites many times over. At this point the tree usually doesn't even link back to this blog. A tree lost in translation.

The good news is the tree is alive and well. Going strong so many years later. I have moments where I think maybe we'll change it up, but then I re-fall in love with the tree all over again. So every year it goes up and slowly gets decorated color by color, starting from the top. It's a decorating dance that I know well at this point.

This year though, something was set in motion to help give the rainbow tree a new breath of life. For once stores having their holiday accessories out, just as Halloween wrapped up, paid off.

On a random wandering of Target, because it's what I do as an adult, I ran into the trickling out of Christmas trees and all of their accoutrements. I did my usual wanderings to see all of the new things only to have my eye caught by a shimmering star topper that spun color onto the "ceiling" of the visual box it was displayed in. Videos were instantly taken to send to Nate. 


Yes...that video was sent to Nate instantly. Along with pleading. And whining. Really anything I could throw at him to somehow make that tree topper come home to live with us. All that was needed was another trip back to Target, this time with Nate it tow, to show off the the tree topper of epic-ness in person. Also known as the Lit LED Projection Star Topper. My name for it is so much better.

 Let's just say that this topper sat in it's box taunting me for almost a month as we finally finished getting our house put back together from the summer basement flood. Which is another long story for another time. As we scrambled to get the last bits and pieces of a destroyed house put back into proper places, so that we could enjoy Thanksgiving with friends, the white tree may have found it's way into the house. Before Thanksgiving. GASP. And while not yet decorated, the topper may have also found its way to the top of the tree.

About a week later the ornaments found their way onto the tree. 







Swoon.

To say that I'm still smitten with the tree is a total understatement. And now with this amazing topper? Stick a fork in me, I'm done. If you need me you can find me laying on our sofa next to the tree just staring at it in wonderment.

I mean, just watch this video and tell me how you can't absolutely love this tree!?

{Friday Favorites} New K-beauty favorites

Korean beauty, or K-beauty for short, is finally hitting the beauty market in a big way. And I am excited! I've been a fan of K-beauty products for awhile, but getting ahold of certain things was difficult.

With it being easier and easier to find products, I'm finding more and more products coming home with me. Some of my recent purchases were from two really fun brands. Cute packaging is always an eye catcher for me. Honestly it's how I end up buying a lot of things. Cute packaging? SOLD! Okay, so I do actually do research on the beauty products that I buy, but cute packaging still helps with the decision.

My recent purchase of K-beauty products comes from Tony Moly and Too Cool For School. 



Tony Moly Panda's Dream So Cool Eye Cream is a cooling eye serum. It cools on contact with the skin, is easy to apply and doesn't feel heavy. I can easily see this being a go-to under eye product for the summer. 


Too Cool For School Dinoplatz Holiday Wish List is an offering of three scented and tinted lip balms. Each one has a scent/flavor that pairs up with the color. I'm pretty much smitten with these. Between the adorable art, the kiss of color and the hydrating feeling these are a must. They add a nice wash of tinted color. Nothing over the top, just a hint. They go on nicely, aren't sticky and feel smooth and hydrating on the lip. There are five colors in total and I can easily see myself getting the other two. Sadly it doesn't look like this set it still for sale, but you can buy the individually.

So there's my current Friday Favorites! What have you been loving and/or lusting after recently?

{Wordless Wednesday} Snow Edged Leaf


The Thing About Daisies reawakens

It's been months since giving this blog a much needed, clean facelift.

 It's been over a year since the last time I posted anything here.

 It's been over 6 years since I first had a wild hair to create a personal lifestyle blog.

So why come back now?

 I could write out a beautifully long story about life being crazy and having huge amounts of self-doubt and being too busy and losing the love for blogging. 

Instead though, I will simply say...

I missed it.

For months I have racked through my brain about what I want to do to revive this blog. What I want to share. It always comes back to keeping it the way that it was. A place for me to share whatever strikes my fancy, but with a little more structure.

Reviews will still happen. Sharing craft ideas are a must. Random musing of life are always interesting (at least to me). There's my desperate love of all things fashion and beauty related. With some home decor thrown in. Food and drink, can't forget about that, be it making it or just simply eating/drinking it. Totally need to share things I currently love and things I currently would love to have, we can all dream and drool together right? And to round it out, nail polish, because it is my life and day job.

To get back into the flow of things I am going to start with three main, weekly cycling, posts to get content rolling. So keep an eye out on Mondays for Manic Mani Monday, where I will share my favorite current polish. Wednesdays will see Wordless Wednesday, which is just sharing a wordless photo. Fridays will see Friday Favorites, where I will share either something that is currently a favorite thing I own/use or a favorite thing I have been lusting over. From there I'll add on various posts as I get the content up and ready for them to go live!

 So welcome to those who are new to this journey with me and welcome back to anyone who may have stuck it out throughout the years. 

 Let's get this blog re-blogified! Also apologies about so many blog posts with broken photos. It's on my to-do list for fixing.

My parting gift is this random photo of holographic snowflake decor:

Review: Laneige BB Cushion

Once again Infuenster was kind enough to tag me for a promo that they were teaming up with Target for. Target is revamping their beauty departments while also bringing in new, fresh products. #FindItAtTarget is the campaign that they launched to help people discover all of the new lines they were bringing in. Laneige is one of those new lines.

I was beyond lucky and received the Laneige BB Cushion in three colors (light, medium, dark). The packaging for them is lovely. The box they come in has a beautiful glossy pattern printed on it which is repeated on the foil packaging of the included refill.




The compact itself is has a nice weight too it, but it's not overly heavy. It is sleek with its all white look and only the brand name and BB Cushion printed on the top. The push button is nice and easily opens the compact to reveal a mirror and makeup sponge. Flipping open the sponge holder reveals the actual foundation. 




I personally tested the Laneige BB Cushion in Light, as it matched my skin the closest. The foundation itself is unique and interesting. It's like a soft, springy, moistened sponge or as they call it, a cushion. What I loved about this foundation is the SPF 50+, which is almost unheard of in most foundations. The texture, application, skin color correcting and scent were all spot on for me. It was easy to apply with the application puff that is included and blended in nicely. It left my face feeling soft and giving off a lovely dewy glow. I enjoy that I was able to reapply it as needed, without feeling like I was adding bulk to my face.


My one compliant and the constant issue I run into with all of the BB lines I have tried...color. Even their light was not light enough for me. Sadly it pulled out the yellow/orange undertones in my skin. I wish that Laneige offered a lighter, more neutral color because I would buy it up in a heartbeat. I love this foundation that much. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that when my skin color changes during the summer that I'll be able to use the color, because I think it will be an amazing summer foundation. 

I did pass out the Medium and Dark to some beauty gurus that I know and they absolutely raved about it. They loved the texture and how it felt on. They also agreed that it didn't feel bulky in any way what-so-ever. Plus the colors matched the two of them perfectly!


Here's what they say about the product: 


So in the end I really love this product, even if it isn't a perfect match for my skin color. The SPF 50+ is an amazing feature to this product, as is the fact that you can reapply it throughout the day without bulky buildup. The price, $34, does seem a bit high, especially for Target, but with them expanding their product line, it's nice to a wider range of offerings and prices. Also, all of the colors comes with a refill, so there's actually two packages of color in each box. That alone makes the price worth it. I'm going to keep trying the light color as the summer progresses in hopes of it working for me. I'll also be keeping my fingers crossed that Laneige comes out with a lighter color.This product was sent to me by Influenster to review for Target. All thoughts are my own. 
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