Get Nailed: Mermaid Nails

CVS has a really amazing deal going on right now with their Revlon nail polishes. All Revlon polishes are on sale for $4.99 and you get $3 in ECB's back on each bottle (limit 6)! So you end up spending $30 and getting $18 back! As soon as I found out, I ran (not literally, I don't run) over to CVS to take full advantage of this offer, and I was immediately drawn to all of the blues !

My Purchase (L to R) 730 Royal, 340 Ocean, and 441 Radiant.

Time for a nail poish secret of mine. I have a love/hate relationship with blue nail polish. Someone in high school once told me that blue nail polish was "so juvenile", and that particular thought has seared its way into my memory and only recently could i get past it with the help of my sister in law (I make it sound so serious, huh?) Anyhow, I saw these polishes and immediately thought "Mermaid!"

I began with this look which was cute but it was missing something. What do mermaids have (besides fabulous hair, nice shells, and amazing singing voices of course)..SCALES! Once I decided I was going to attempt scales, I gathered a few complimentary colors and begin to place rows of dots in alternating colors, layering them on top of each other.

This is my final outcome. It would have been amazing if I had a dotting tool, but I still haven't gotten around to ordering one so this is what you get! Anyone else take advantage of the current CVS sale or do you have your own Mermaid Nails to show off? Leave us a comment below or visit our FB page !

Get Nailed: Nautical Nails

It's that time of the year where Nautical print is back in (does it ever really go "out"?) and I'm loving it! I will post later this week a round up of some uber cute nautical themed stuff that you really should consider buying either for yourself or even as a gifts! But for now, I will settle on showing off my awesome (if I do say so myself) nautical print nails!

A few common themes for nautical designs are fish (my fave), a compass, rope/netting, anchors & stripes, pirates, a sail boat or you can even apply 3D nail art ! Don't forget essential colors to have on hand are some combination of white, blue, yellow, red,, silver and/or gold. I could go on and on with all the fun stuff you could do, but believe it or not, I'm going to keep it simple this week and jump on the stripes and anchors bandwagon.

I don't know why I kept running into so many problems with this manicure. I initially couldn't decide which colors I wanted to use or what type of design I wanted to draw. Once I decided what to do, I kept smudging my design and having to start all over. I tried to freehand stripes but I don't have a blue nail art pen or nail brush so those came out horrible, then I tried to paint my nails white, place scotch tape where I wanted the white stripes to go then paint over that with navy blue but it kept ripping off my white polish. In short, I felt like an idiot. I finally decided to paint scotch tape blue, yes I said paint the tape, and cut it into strips.

1) Take a strip of scotch tape and paint it whatever color you would like your stripes to be, let dry.

2) Cut colored tape into straight strips, trim to fit nail and cut them to your preferred thickness (that's what she said).

3) Apply the base coat, then pick a base color. I used white for all fingers except my middle I used a glitter red.

4) Next, after white polish is dry, apply your stripes and cover nails with clear top coat.

5) On my middle nail I chose to draw an anchor which is much easier than you would think. Check out this really simple tutorial here. and BAM!, we're done!

Corona & Lime Cupcakes

Picture & recipe directly from LaurenConrad.com 

Corona & Lime cupcakes, yum. I originally got this idea & recipe from Lauren Conrad...yes, the girl from Laguna Beach and The Hills. And yes I'm pregnant and baking with beer, don't judge me. I didn't eat any of the cupcakes because no one would let me. However, I would like to point at that according to certain sources, only 35% of alcohol in this specific recipe is retained after baking. I'm not a math wizard by any means, but 35% of a beer that is 4.5% alcohol level (of which I only used 1/2 a bottle) probably equals close to nothing. Bottom line, I didn't have any but I really wanted to.

Anyways, I digress...where was I? Oh yeah, cupcakes. I made these cupcakes for a Cinco de Mayo fiesta and they were a hit. The cake is almost corn bread like in texture, and still retains a hint of the Corona taste, and the frosting is amazing! I read that LC (yeah, we are on a nickname basis), didn't care too much for the frosting as it was too rich and sweet, so I cut down on the powdered sugar and what came out was a cream cheese frosting with a hint of lime, SO good! I realized these cupcakes aren't only fun for Cinco de Mayo, but for BBQ's and other summer time gatherings! 

Makes 24 cupcakes
*All of these ingredients I already had in the house except for the limes so my total for this recipe was $1.23!*

Adventures in Iced Coffee

This is what working from home looks like. not. 

Truth: the only beverage that I love more than coffee is iced coffee. This year, it just so happens that the warmer weather has coincided with me working from home for the entire month of April. So far it's been no picnic (technology and I are barely on speaking terms right now) but one of the bright spots in my days of being glued to my computer desk (an old sewing machine table, not ideal but a girl manages) has been sipping on glorious home brewed iced coffee.

Now, I have tried various ways to make good iced coffee at home (including sticking the entire hot coffee carafe in the fridge like a lazy bum. not very tasty) but only recently am I finally happy with a method. Has anyone seen The Pioneer Woman on Food Network? Don't worry, no cool points lost if you haven't, I just watch my 'fair share' of TV if you will. I'm not sold on the show since I have very little in common with the blogger/domestic diva/dude ranch dwelling Ree Drummond and to be honest, her rich "down home" recipes border on diabetes-inducing Paula Deen territory. Plus, I'm so much more of an Anthony Bourdain/Travel Channel girl anyway.  However, I am loving me some of Ree's Perfect Iced Coffee. It's genius!

It's a beautiful thing.

DIY: At Home Samoa Bars

*Picture from Gluten Free Betsy

Apparently this week is Girl Scout's Week, where Girl Scouts everywhere sit back and reflect on their community service, and I sit back and reflect the delicious-ness that is Girl Scout Cookies. That being said, one can only buy so many boxes of cookies in good conscience. Not only are you painfully aware of how many you buy when the little girl pulls up to your house in a fully loaded wagon, but each box is $4 a piece!

Anyhow, me being pregnant with a hungry hungry husband, and a cookie crazy toddler at home, you can bet your ass I ordered a bunch of cookies. You can also bet your ass they are all gone and I refuse to go out and buy more...mainly out of shame.

So I decided to browse the Internet and find a cheap, easy, homemade version of my favorite Girl Scout cookies, Samoas aka Caramel DeLights. There are a lot of time consuming Samoa recipes floating around, but I stumbled upon an easy adaptation at the oh so yummy Baking Bites blog that better suits my impatient "I-Want-It-Now" personality.

Rag Curlin'

For my recent trip to the Edwardian Ball I wanted old-fashioned, natural looking curls. Curling irons are great, but the spirals are just too uniform for me and my straight hair doesn't like keeping the shape for very long. By using an old technique and letting it dry rolled up, my hair not only looked natural and amazinnnggg, but it held all the way through the next day! The additional pros are that it's cheap/free (you can use rags, cut up old shirts, nylons, socks, or even paper bags!) and doesn't damage your hair!

Salted Caramels. NOM.

Come here, little girl... eat some canndyy.

I certainly will, especially when it's salted caramels!

I've been wanting to make candy for a while now, but finally had en excuse: celebrating going to the Edwardian Ball in LA with friends to see Creature Feature. WHAT A GOOD NIGHT TO STUFF OUR FACES.

Here's the recipe:

In one pot warm up 5 tablespoons butter, 1 cup heavy cream, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla, and 1/4 teaspoon salt until butter has melted, as seen in photo on left. Turn off heat.

Apartment Life and My Industrial Revelation

A few months ago, my boyfriend Casey and I moved into a new apartment. Like, a real apartment. I'm no stranger to apartment living and I have loved each and every one of my past humble rented abodes in their own special way. There was the one bedroom in California that I shared with my dear Heather. In separate I Love Lucy style twin beds, at night we talked across the small bedroom like girls at a sleepover, the hum of the 101 outside of our window. Then there was the 3rd floor of a Victorian brownstone that I shared with girl friends in Jersey City. This old apartment had a definite "Miss Havisham" charm with it's cracked plaster walls, ornate fireplace mantles and stained glass skylight. But, the skylight leaked in the rain as well as the bathtub during certain showers. Oh yes, and this was apartment was next to an abandoned church, an empty lot littered with busted tires and needles, and a bodega that one summer was actually missing an entire wall (for serious, really missing a wall).

Then there was my last apartment, a "garden level" one bedroom next to an awesome but very rowdy gay bar that had nothing "garden" about it unless you're talking about the ants and spiders that also called it home. But this new apartment is different. It's charming but also functional. There's old but pretty parquet floors, tall ceilings and windows, two white architectural columns in the bedroom, a claw foot tub that doesn't leak and subway tiles in the bathroom. There are actual closets to almost completely disguise my "collecting" habits and to stack towels and blankets (something even the nicest urban apartments don't always have). Oh  yea, and it's across from a park that is complete with a gazebo, twinkle lights at night and a dog park (and the occasional hobo or two, but who's counting?). It's not perfect but it's damn sure perfect enough for me.

Sucker for Love

For any of you Whore(der)s who have younger kids that are not yet too cool for Valentine's Day, this post is for you!

Tired of the same 'ol boring Valentine cards your kids fill out every year? Want to do something fun, memorable, and cheap? Make your kid the hit of the classroom on Valentine's day with these four easy-ish hand-made valentines. All you need is colored or construction paper, writing/coloring utensils, lollipops, and tape!

Lovely Lips Lollipop

1.) Draw lips on pink or red paper.

2.) Cut out lips.

3.) Outline lips with a similar color.

4.) Cut a tiny slit in the middle of the lips and push the lollipop stick through so when you suck on the lollipop, you have cartoony exaggerated lips !

Vanessa's Top Ten Budget Beauty Buys

Normally, these top ten lists come at the end of the year, but we Whoreders were a little busy wrapping presents and mixing cocktails. Whoops. I get some flack from people (Heatherrr!) for my fancy product lustin', but I'm also a big believer in budget buys (I AM!). I put together a list of my top ten favorites, all found at your local drugstore for under $20.

Ready? Here they are, in no particular order...

Crafty Crackers

Running out of time and money, but still have some more gifts to buy?

Let's get craftin'!

Here's a list of DIY present ideas for us to try:

A Bow Ring

"Floating Book" Shelf

Sugar Scrub

Bath Bomb

Custom Glass Jars (or cups)

Fake Book iPhone Case

For your word nerd friends

Cute Mirror

Jars on Stands

Cuter than it sounds.

Mittens From Sweaters

Solid Perfume

Chocolate Spoons

Homemade Vanilla Extract

Mmm

Get Nailed: This Little Light of Mine

There are many things I love about Christmas, but my absolute favorite thing is the lights! I love them so much that I went a little overboard and painted them on my nails! I was originally inspired by TheBeautyDepartment's fun and unique tutorial where Lauren uses actual string for her string of lights. I am not that ambitious, nor do I have string on hand, so I improvised.

1. Prep your nails with a good base coat. I got a new one when I took advantage of Milani's Cyber Monday sale (I went a little too far buying bought 26 polishes), and I love it so far. It really gives you a smooth canvas to work with!

2. Apply your base color. I went for a fun, holiday gold O.P.I., which happens to be a super rare polish that I found laying around Heather's desk.

3. Next, I took my new Nail Art Polish in Black (also by Milani of course), and made loops to resemble a string of Christmas lights (minus the lights).

4. I used three more of new Milani glitter polishes to dot on lights. You can use any color you want, just have fun with it!

5. Follow with a good top coat, and voila, you've got some fun(ky) Christmas nails!

DIY Beauty: Pumpkin Foot Scrub

During the summer, when flip-flops and bare feet abound, I keep a careful watch on the state of my feet. Pedicures, polish and copious amounts of pampering keep them pretty and camera ready. Then come fall and winter and my poor, neglected feet start to resemble hooves.

Since I'm saving all my extra cash for Christmas presents and an iPad (*ahem* hope you're reading this, Santa), I decided to skip the nail salon and research some DIY treatments instead. I found a pumpkin foot scrub that sounded interesting and was made from ingredients I already had at home.

Get Nailed: Out Damn Spot!

So usually I write about how i did me some awesome nails, but this week, I'm writing how to undo these damn nails I did last week! Imagine my surprise went I went to remove my O.P.I. nail polish, and it didn't come off! What is this world coming to when you can't even count on O.P.I nail polish ?? ?Okay, maybe that was a bit dramatic, but I looked like I fingered the Hulk. Yeah, I said that, now deal with it.

I don't know if any of you have ever suffered the embarrassment of the dreaded "Nail Stain". It usually occurs when you don't use a base polish, use a really cheap polish, or a heavily pigmented polish. I never knew how to completely remove the polish stain, so I usually just painted over it, but this time I ventured  to my magic machine (the computer), and researched (aka Googled) the hell out of it.

I found the simplest way to remove the stain is this:

1) Remove as much as you possibly can with Nail Polish Remover.

2) Get  a cheap manicure kit, and go to town! No seriously, buff and smooth your nails with buffer stick (I may have made that name up) push back your cuticles and cut them with the cuticle pusher/cutter, which is super easy (even thought it looks scary). Next clip and/or file your nails as necessary. Lastly use the "Shine aka Side 2" of the "buffer stick" to polish your nails, and voila, the stains are gone! At most, this took me 10 minutes for both hands.

                                

    IT STARTED LIKE THIS

(DON'T JUDGE ME, I WASN'T DONE CLEANING THEM UP YET)

Get Nailed: That's a Wrap

Yay, December is finally here, and all I can think about is presents...err the presence of Christ. The Wisemen brought presents to Jesus (is it weird that I pronounce it Jesús in my head?) so maybe Christmas really is all about presents? Well whatever your take on presents and Christmas (or Hanukkah for that matter) is, I decided to paint my nails like a present in anticipation of the holidays.

What you will need:

Clear base coat

Solid Polish

Clear top coat

Nail Pen or Nail polish with an art brush
A gem or glitter polish

Crockpottery

So... a few posts ago I mentioned that I won a slow cooker, well, I got it. AND I LOVE IT. It doesn't make my life any easier... I'm not gonna lie. It takes about the same work as a normal meal, but slow cooking your food can bring out a whole different taste. It allows the flavors to mingle and the textures to crumble (in a crumbly moist way, not a crumbly no-no way).

I plan on making a bunch of recipes in this bad boy, but for starters I went with chili. And again, I challenged myself to only use what I had in the kitchen ready to go.

Get Nailed: By Dr. Seuss

My daughter and I have been reading Dr. Seuss beginner books lately and I came across a set I really like but hadn't read before; Put me In the Zoo, and it's sequel I Want to be Somebody New!. These are really fun books (that happen to be on sale) by Robert Lopshire and they teach you all about colors and other fun things. She seemed to really like the main character who is a yellow and red spotted leopard. Since we were already having mommy and me time by reading together, I figured we could paint our nails (and our faces lol)drawing inspiration from this kids book.

Everyday is Halloween

No, really. Everyday IS Halloween for me. I lose count when I try to put a number to the amount of skulls decorating my apartment. An antique silver "At Rest" plaque hangs above my bed. I have lots of Victorian photographs of strangers which amateurs tell me are "creepy". I own atleast 3 dresses that could be worn in a high school production of Chicago. I have collected so many corsets that more than one person I work with came to me to borrow one when they were putting their Halloween costumes together this year. And I'll admit, I have one or two pieces of (very tasteful) bat jewelry.

Get Nailed: By the Dead

Get nailed by the dead? Whoreders say what??? No I'm not talking about necrophilia you pervs, I'm talking about Obituary Newspaper nails, duh! So now you're probably even more confused which perhaps means that you are eagerly reading to find an answer to what all this cray cray-ness is about.

Well, I'll tell you, it's about this awesomeness!
                                             
                                                  BAM!!!!

Matzo Ball Soup: How do I love thee?

It's the week before Halloween in New York City. In a perfect world, I'd be walking down Broadway after a long day at work, wearing a cute, fitted trench coat and sipping a pumpkin latte and maybe even kicking up some yellow and orange leaves under foot. The soundtrack on my iPod would be something dreamy like Fleet Foxes, Cocteau Twins, or classic Feist. Tonight was not that kind of autumnal evening. It was bone chilling, ice cold rain and wind. I could get some specifics from weather.com but let's just say it was a watery hell. Anyone remember "frog in a blender" from the early days of the internet? It's better if you don't but if by chance you do, you'll know how pretty much all of commuting Manhattan felt during rush hour tonight. During my short walk to the subway, my favorite leopard print umbrella spastically inverted itself not once but twice before breaking and ending up in a pile of other defeated, dead umbrellas (RIP). My cold, clammy hands turned an unhealthy shade of pink and my iPhone was getting an unwanted shower even though it was deep in my coat pocket. I'm pretty sure I even saw a little girl in tiny rain boots almost blow away before her father could save her. I couldn't get home and get dry fast enough. Once at my apartment and after peeling off my wet, chaffing jeans (the worst!) there was only one thing I could imagine warming my rain soaked, weathered, and slightly bittered soul: a  bowl of matzo ball soup.