Green nail polishes

I have two nail polishes to talk about today. I'm doing two reviews for one main reason, which I will talk about later.

My mom was a fanatic about keeping her nails polished and looking good. In fact I can hardly remember a time when she wasn't wearing polish. What I always found to be interesting is that she had amazing nails, people were constantly asking where she got them done and were shocked to hear that they were her own and yet she never left them natural. The other thing was she refused to wear colors. She stuck to nude or toffee colors. I always joked that it was a non color because it matched so closely to her skin. It was hilarious to me that she would spend so much time on making her nails look perfect only to rummage through 10 different nude-ish colors. I still own two of her old polishes, but I don't wear them.

The colors I am talking about today would have been something that she would have never given a second thought to. Heck, I doubt they would have ever graced her toenails. Yeah...we even had to force her to wear colors on her toes.

Today's colors are very much on the opposite end of her color spectrum...as in we're going green.

I did already did a posting on OPI's "Jade is the New Black". Go check it out if you haven't already.

The two colors I am talking about today are both OPI by Sephora colors.

First up is Dark Room, which is part of their main line. At first is wasn't really a color that caught my eye. In store it looks like your basic black and I already have a black. Then I tested it and realized that there was green in there.

My interest was sparked.

OPI for Sephora- Dark Room (natural light)
Natural light.

OPI for Sephora- Dark Room (direct flash)
Direct flash.

OPI for Sephora- Dark Room (flash)
Indirect flash in natural light.

This is one of those colors that plays with you. It is an amazingly dark, creamy green. In some lights it comes off as a grey/green and others it is fairly black. The formula is pretty good, in fact I have never had an issue with OPI by Sephora. It goes on a little streaky, but that is easily fixed with a second coat. I did go for a third coat just to make sure that I didn't miss anything. These photos were taken on the third day, which is impressive because I am hard on my nails.

Next up is a new color which is part of Sephora's Modern Flowers Collection (their spring line). All of the colors are pretty much bright pinks or lavenders, except for "Leaf Him at the Alter".

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Indoor lighting.

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Indirect flash.

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Direct flash.

I really love the shimmer/glitter it has to it, which is very silver. The green itself is a leaf green. The formula went on easily and very smoothly. I probably could have gotten by with just two coats, but I went for three to make sure there was no nail show through. For it being a metallic, it doesn't show as much of the dreaded brush strokes that some show so much of.


There are the two polishes for the day. Like I said at the beginning, I have a reason for posting about two.

Oh the reason you ask...

I guess I could share it with you.

Okay, okay here it is...

Keep these polishes in mind, as well as the other beauty items that I will be posting about in the next few days, because they just might all be a part of the March giveaway!

Who wouldn't want green nail polish? It's perfect for the up coming holiday. You can pinch people who aren't wearing green, while wearing your green polish. How perfect is that?

What do you think of the colors? Would you wear green?

A splash of color and poppies

I had been talking about redoing our guest bathroom recently. I think the desire to do it really hit me after I finally pulled our master bathroom together and it turned out so well. It wasn't that our guest bathroom looked bad, it was just that it felt tired. We have been living with this bamboo look for well over three years and while I am an admitted lover of all things green I wanted more color.

To give you an idea this is what the bathroom looked like. It was a nice look and well put together, which is important to me because it's the main bathroom that everyone sees.

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The shower curtain had a linen look and feel, but I wouldn't say it was a true linen. The bamboo was actually embroidered onto it with two different colored threads.

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I went with a plastic liner with a bamboo pattern to add a little fun and give the person using the shower something to look at. What can I say, I am a visual person and I love adding extra unexpected touches.

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This was hanging above the toilet. I have had this piece for well over ten years and it just worked in this current bathroom. I guess I have really been into the Asian look for awhile (I still love it, but we all need change).

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These were on the wall to the right when you walk into the bathroom. They are mostly covered when the door is open. Again, I have had these for well over ten years. I had no place to hang them and then noticed that there was three nails already in the wall so up they went.

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Normally there are towels hanging off of the hooks on the wall (which is from Anthropologie). The black vase (ten plus years old) use to house fresh bamboo. I honestly still love our bamboo looking faucet. It really freshened up the look of a basic sink.


Much like my issues with finding drapes, I was having major issues with finding the perfect shower curtain. Everything was just okay or way too freaking expensive for a simple curtain. $150 for a sheet with holes in it? Come on.

On our recent trip to Colorado I was able to visit The Great Indoors, which is a pretty amazing place for all things home. You need a new stove and some candles? Check. You need a tea pot and bedding? Done and done. Yeah...it's that great. And when I say great I mean they have the bedding I have been lusting after, but that's for another post.

Anywho, I set off to wander the bath section hoping for something amazing. It ended up being a lot of neutrals, which I have no issues with but lets remember that I wanted color! As I circled one of the displays my eyes caught a pop of orange. I swung around and found the Vera "Zinnias-Poppies" collection. It was perfect, but I debated. I snapped a quick picture to show Nate and went on my way. The next day we went to the local HomeGoods and once again that pop of orange caught my eye. Low and behold they had almost the whole collection there. Some quick searching and I found the shower curtain. I was sold. Of course the pricing was amazing. I got almost everything for 50-60% off. Score!

So now...for the very exciting makeover results. You saw the before, now here is the after!

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The curtain had mostly oranges with mustard yellow and olive greens splashed in there for fun. I actually already had the orange towel (don't worry it won't have perfectly matching towels all the time). I was actually thinking that I was going to have to find a new rug, but the current one matches really well and also helps to break up the colors a bit.

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A close up of the pattern and colors. Lets ignore the wrinkles and creases. It was really hot in the bathroom already with the sun coming in through the window and I wasn't going to add steam to that mix. I'll pull out the steamer and get to them later.

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The back of the toilet. I got the cream tray for $6 because it gives a more flat surface to work with. At some point I'd like to get a hutch to put behind it to give more stroage space, but that will have to wait until we move. If and when we get one, the tray would move into the hutch. I'm still playing with how I want the set up to look, I don't know if I'm a 100% in love with it. I'll live with it for a day or two before I move anything. The greenish/yellow jar is a antique carnival glass jar with an iridescence to it.

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The vase with poppies was actually something I had in the guest bedroom. Yay for getting to re-purpose things! The vase was my mom's (a birthday gift from me) and the poppies were a visual display that were getting tossed into the garbage my car. It's like I knew that one day I would have the perfect use for them.

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Making trash look fabulous since 2010!


I need to make a few finishing touches. Mostly that involves some sort of wall art to replace the stuff I took down. I think I am going to try to make the artwork myself. I will of course post on that once I make it and hang it up.

To tie this back to my mom...seeing as I promised that these posts would talk a little about her. I realize that my love of Vera patterns does not come from nowhere (her prints and patterns were amazingly popular from the 40's to the 70's with most of her things now being collectible). I have always loved her use of color and apparently so did my mom. After her passing I came to own a lot of my mom's old tablecloths, place settings and napkins. A few months back I was setting the table for a dinner party and pulled out very fun napkins that had daisies all over them. Shocking! That's when I realized that they were made by non other than Vera. I not only have those napkins, but also another set that is covered in green plants.

I've been finding out recently that a lot of things I have begun to love were things that my mom held near and dear or had an eye for.

That makes me smile.

Oh and Vera's signature includes a lady bug, which is a bug I have always loved. So much so in fact, that my mom would make and buy things for me with ladybugs.

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It's the little things like that which allows me to know that I will always have little things that will remind me of her.

Paper shamrock wreath how-to

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With my mom's birthday being on St. Patrick's Day there was a lot of decorating done. My mom decorated for every season and every holiday. There was a wreath on the door and various amounts of accoutrements scattered around the house in coordinating holiday colors. Of course with green being my mom's favorite color, St. Patrick's Day was easy and fun for her to decorate for. It didn't hurt that my mom was amazing at all things crafts. In fact because of her I know my way around a hot glue gun far better than most. She's the one that sparked the crafting bug in me. From a young age I remember sitting next to her helping her paint and glue things. Sadly my crafting spirit dwindled after my mom passed away, but I recently rediscovered it and have been finding inspiration everywhere. My mom is still my biggest inspiration. I find now that when I craft that it helps me remember her and that means so much to me. Though it doesn't hurt when something turns out well.

Luckily this idea turned out very well (at least I think it did). So now I will share with you yet another way to spruce up your living space with some green for this festive holiday!

I'm still in the process of making an all green fleece rosette wreath, but cutting circles was killing my hands. Instead I decided to kill my hands in another way. I stamped out a few hundred shamrocks to make my newest creation. I have a lot of craft punches and after some rummaging I found my lucky 4-leaf clover and went to work.

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This is about a half day project, with the longest parts being the punching the paper and the pinning of the clovers onto the foam wreath. This is a great project for all of you scrapbookers out there, because you probably already have a lot of green paper and maybe even a paper punch or twenty.

Here's what you'll need:

  • Foam wreath form in your choice of size (found at any hobby store)
  • Green felt or fleece
  • Shamrock/clover craft punch(mine is from Martha Stewart's line from Michael's)
  • Straight pins (I'd estimate you'll need 200+)
  • Green scrapbooking paper (I used 9 different colors, you can use more or less)
  • Ribbon (to hang wreath)
  • A thimble or something to help push pins into wreath


Okay lets get started!

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Gather your paper and start punching away. I used nine different papers in greens that were similar in color (I used a lot of papers with patterns, texture and shine). I over punched for this project, because I know I can use the leftover shamrocks for other projects. If I had to guess I would say I used 200+ for a 10 inch wreath (I'm probably totally off on this estimate). Don't worry your hand will promptly start cramping during this part.

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When you're all done you'll have pretty piles, which now means it's time to move onto cutting strips of your fabric. I love shopping the remnants section at the fabric store, especially if you're using it for crafts and not for sewing something. You can usually find great deals as they tend to take a discount off of the scraps.

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Cut strips down the length (longest part) of the fabric. Mine were about 1-1 1/2 inches wide. Don't worry it doesn't need to be pretty as most of the fabric will be hidden.

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Pin the end of the fabric to what will now be the back of the wreath.

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Start wrapping the wreath form with the fabric. I intermittently tacked down the fabric with a pin to help keep the fabric from slipping around. I ended up needing two strips of fabric to cover the whole form.

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When you're done with all of the wrapping you will now have a wreath that looks like this. If you used fleece you can now pet your covered wreath for a few minutes. Or you can ignore that part.

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Now you can start placing your shamrocks! To start my placement I would use one pin for every 2-3 shamrocks (which you can see in the lower middle of the picture) and pin it down in a random spot. This allowed me to use less pins and cover more space in less time. After you you get a good base down you can start filling in spaces. Keep in mind that you don't have to cover the back because it will never be seen. Just cover the spots that will be visible.

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Once you're done you can add the ribbon to the back (if you're not going to hang it you can skip this step). Cut the ribbon long enough to make a loop that will fit on whatever you will hang the wreath from and pin it to the back. Here you can see where I stopped pinning the shamrocks so that they didn't cover the back.


You're all done!



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Taken with the flash so you could see all of the different papers I used.

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This is a relatively easy project minus the cutting of paper and pinning (lots of hand cramps). You could easily use other craft punch shapes for other holidays and seasons. It's also a great way to use up paper that may be neglected or scraps of something too small for other things. Also, with it only talking less than a day to make, it's a quick way to spruce up your house.

I hope to be able to bring you many more craft punch ideas in the near future. Until then I hope you are able to have fun with this idea! Let me know if you try this out, I'd love to know!

I'm going to go hang this near the front of the house so I can see it when I come and go. It's a happy little reminder of a wonderful holiday and birthday and I never have to water it!

The Lovely Package Exchange 2010



I am very excited to announce that I just signed up to participate in the Lovey Package Exchange for 2010! This wonderful idea was started over at Oh, Hello Friend because of a love of giving/receiving pretty packages. I have seen some of the wonderful packages that other bloggers received when they participated last year and was smitten with many of them. I'm excited with this chance to branch out into the blogging community and getting the chance to find many more amazing blogs to follow.

If you're interested in joining, just use the links I posted above to get to the page where you will need to sign up. Go join!

What to expect from March

March is here. I've been waiting for this month with eagerness and a little apprehension. It's one of those months that always seems to have a lot going on. Spring comes in this month, as does St. Patrick's Day which also was my mom's birthday and depending on the moon sometimes we celebrate Easter. Really this month is a constant reminder of my mom and while that can be very sad at the same time it allows me to look back at all of the happiness and love that she gave me.

March really was the perfect month for her to be born. Spring was probably her favorite time of year, because that meant that she could start planting and preparing her flowers. Being born on St. Patrick's Day was also wonderful, because her favorite color was green and man would she come after you if you weren't wearing it that day. March is also the unofficial Kidney Cancer Awareness month (sadly only a few states have adopted this and mine is not one of them). Once upon a time Kidney Cancer support was shown with a green ribbon (it has now been changed to orange, but I still wear my green bracelet). So as you can see, there is a lot about March that means something to me.

Which means...

I'm using this month as a tribute to my mom. What does that mean exactly you ask? Well let me tell you. I would like to introduce my list of things to expect, though I will throw in some other things (man do I love lists). In no apparent order you can expect...

  1. All things aquamarine (March birthstone)
  2. Decor for St. Patrick's Day
  3. Green things that I love (sorry folks not the environmental movement)
  4. Kidney Cancer Awareness
  5. Reviews of green beauty items
  6. A giveaway with all of my favorite green items
  7. Daisies and daisy related things
Daisies you ask? I made no comment about them you say. Well of course I have to talk about daisies. They were my mom's all time favorite flower and they very much remind me of her. I don't think I could do this month long tribute to her without talking about them. In fact, in case you haven't noticed, my blog's name has daisies in it and is very much a tribute to her. While you can add on anything to the end of "The thing about daisies..." like that they are happy, pretty, or perfect...the thing about daisies for me is that they remind me of my mom.

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Memorial flowers for my mom at our wedding.

I hope you'll enjoy March as much as I do. I look forward to sharing all of the things that make March such a wonderful month!
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