Hiatus-being real with myself

I am exhausted all the time.  I find it hard to be creative with my nails every week.  I feel like I'm letting people down when I don't provide a new manicure each week.  I beat myself up for it, and consequently end up not being creative even more.  So much pressure gives people all sorts of problems and issues.

So I am going to take a break for a while.  I need to take a step back, find my inner peace, find my flow, and that creative streak might return.  I will keep the blog up, as new people might find my info useful here.  I will keep an eye on things to be sure that things are still good around here, no spam in the comments.

If I find the time to do more than a french manicure, I'll post it here.  It just won't be every week.

Until later my friends,

Chess

Trying to keep up

Lately I have been rather busy at work and working on a few projects.  I have also been feeling so overwhelmed and tired, that I have only managed to paint my nails with single colors.  I am providing three swatches for you today.

The first one is China Glaze History of the World.  This one is from The Giver collection.  It is a fabulous grey blue, though the picture makes it look more purple.  I would highly recommend this one if you can get your hands on it.

The second is ORLY Darkest Shadow.  I think this one is from their Halloween collection.  It is a black polish with red glitter mixed in.  The glitter has a slight duochrome to it as well, making it look more coppery. It's a great color for Halloween.

The final one is China Glaze Well Trained.  It is a great teal color, perfect for fall.  I would have loved to have stamped a silver feather on this one, but didn't have time.  For whatever reason, I am completely obsessed with feathers right now.

I hope you find these useful.

Until later,

Chess

Penny Talk on Mauve

This week has been decent. The weather has been nice and I was able to walk to work a couple of days. I spent an evening with my mom for her birthday.  I was able to Skype my sister last night so we got caught up on events some. My belly dance troupe is performing tomorrow evening and I am excited about that.

This week I was lacking inspiration so I went to pinterest to find something to do.  I decided to replicate this look. I started with two coats of Sinful Colors Mauve.  It is a greyish purple and the formula is decent. Then I painted on the tips using Essie Penny Talk.  This one is a thicker formula and it tends to dry quickly. Consequently, it is more difficult to work with. After it all dried, I topped it off with China Glaze matte top coat.

I forgot how much I like the look of matte polish, especially over a metallic polish.

What do you think?  Do you like the matte polish?

Until later,
Chess

I can't wait for summer....

The days are getting a little warmer, but I can't wait until I can go out at any time without a coat on.  The few days that are warm enough like that, are just a tease.  Maybe I should have been born somewhere else.

I've been trying to update my warmer weather wardrobe for work.  This weekend I was out and about, and decided to look for some summery shoes.  Try finding something nice in a closed toe!  I love the look of the wedges that are ever so popular, but every single flippin' one of them had at least a peep toe.  I can't wear those to work.  So if anyone has any ideas, let me know.  Otherwise, I'll be on the hunt for a while.

In other areas of my life, I've been working on my yoga more, and some of my bellydance.  There is a workshop coming up this Saturday that I'm planning to go to.  It's all about makeup and hair for the tribal bellydancer.  I won't complain about learning a few tricks.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to do yoga almost every day, though so far, I haven't been able to create the consistency. Part of that is I'm pretty lazy when my husband is home, and the other part is that I get sucked in to WoW and don't get off the computer until it's past bed time, sometimes.  I'm trying to lose weight, like about 90% of the women out there, and it's coming off very slowly.  It's nice to see that scale change every week or two weeks, in a downward way.  So far, yoga is the only thing that actually makes me lose weight, rather than sitting on the plateau of doom.

And now, I'm headed off to actually go do some yoga before bed.  Let me try this consistency thing this week.

Lots of things going through my head

I just want to get this all down, especially before I get my shower this morning.  I've been doing a lot of thinking, a lot of reading, a lot of learning and am now trying to figure things out again.

I read that Volkswagen is working on a hybrid Jetta for 2012 or so.  I'm super excited about that, as I'm going to need a new car soonish and I want another Jetta.  And I've been working hard on going more green here and there, and a hybrid car would be awesome.  So now I need to save up money so I can put a huge down payment down, to reduce my monthly payments.

We discovered that the new dental plan may cover my braces after all.  So I need to contact the orthodontist's office and see what they have to say about this new company.  We owe only about $2400, and the insurance would be a lifetime max of $1500.  Which means we would possibly only owe $900.  That would help immensely.  The Dr. is still working on my teeth, and I've seen a lot of progress, but I'm getting anxious to be done, so I can start working on whitening my teeth some.

I was originally going to quit the program I'm in, because they were never able to get a lab for the tox program.  However, I spoke with the department head and he suggested I speak to one of the instructors who also works at the Coroner's office about getting and independent study set up with him.  So that will allow me to continue on, to get my masters, and to keep those student loans from coming due yet.  The department head said that some of the students that have done that have been hired on there, too.  So it may be a foot in the door for me.

I've also been thinking about doing a yoga teacher training course, but with this change in the way I'm doing my school stuff, that may get put on the back burner for a while.  Plus, I really need to get back into shape.  I hate looking at myself in the mirror anymore, so I'm trying to figure out what to do.  I've been speaking with a few people, and I'm changing the way I think.  I thought 20 minutes of exercise each day was enough.  I've been taking to some women in my class, and they mostly say that they exercise for closer to an hour a day.  And these are women that are thinner, so they must be doing something right.

I'm beginning to see that my parent really made things difficult for me.  The portions my mom would put on my plate probably could feed two adults, not one kid.  And they never do anything except sit at home and watch tv.  So I grew up hating exercise and eating a lot.  My mom blamed it on the soda I drank, which probably didn't help a lot, but they would have at least one a day, so I thought it was ok to drink it, too.

Now I'm trying to fix this.  My braces have actually helped me get to a point where my portions aren't so large, because of the initial weirdness and occasional pain in my mouth.  I had a period where I didn't eat a lot, so not eating much feels more normal now.  Now I just need to push myself and do more yoga, work on the stationary bike more, and go running some when it gets warmer.  The cold weather kills my lungs.  Some people suggested I get a bandana and put it around my like a mask and that should help.  But because I don't like the cold, I think I'll stay inside for the winter and try the running thing when it gets warmer and I want to be outside more.

Classes will be out soon, so that will give me time to work on the exercise thing.  Classes don't start back up until about mid January.  And with classes, I'll be able to pay off these few debts we've obtained lately, like my braces, the bed, and the new washer and dryer.  Deferring my student loans a year or so should help us catch up because I'm going to be full time all year, and my husband just recently got a raise.  I also went online at the suggestion of my brother-in-law and found that currently, INGdirect has a savings account with about a 1% interest rate.  So I'm thinking of creating a savings account with them to try to make my money grow faster for that down payment on my future car.

Wow, that's a lot of stuff I've been thinking about, and now a lot of writing.  Best to go get a shower now I think.

Test tomorrow

I have a test in biology lab tomorrow, and I just don't want to study.  I'm so ready to be done with this class, that I've lost my will to go to class and to read the chapters.  I just need to force myself to work on this tonight....

I'm thinking that it's time to just end this program, and see about working for a while.  I know that means I'll have to start paying on my student loans, and that worries me a little.  I'm sure we can figure it out though.

I've been thinking about becoming a yoga instructor, but I'm not sure I should spent the money on that too, with everything else.  However, I would probably love to teach, and at the very least, it would be one expensive class.  On the other hand, the cost of the teacher training is still less than one class up at the college.  So really, it's a lot more tempting just knowing that.  Plus, if I could teach, then maybe I can make a little extra cash on the side of my 40 hours at the hospital.  Making some money and doing yoga at the same time sounds great. 

I was talking to my husband about it and he suggested that I look into specializing in a class for real women, curvy women, women who think that they can't do yoga because they aren't stick figures.  I think that is an awesome idea.  It would bring in a lot of what I have learned about myself through yoga and belly dance.  So I guess what I need to do is hunker down, stop shopping so much, start paying down the little debts we have, and see what happens when my student loans come due.  Maybe I can save enough money to pay for the program out right.  If I don't become a teacher, the worst I've done is spent a little money on something I love, and I am a student at heart, so learning is something that comes naturally when I'm interested in the subject.

In other news, the bed is huge!  I'm so happy with it, even if it is a little big for the room.  But we managed to work things out.  It's nice to be able to have my side of the bed now!  I love my husband dearly, but I don't like feeling squished when I sleep.  Maybe that is due to sleeping alone for over 20 years.

What a crazy week

It was HIM week at work.  This is where we celebrate the hard work we do throughout the year, for one week.  There were a few potlucks, so a lot of food was had.  Some people were emotionally draining, and some others were fun to be around.  So it was a long week, with all that, added into my usual school schedule, and trying to get my braces worked on around all that.

The braces are going well.  My orthodontists keeps saying that I'm ahead of schedule, and I'm ok with that.  This coming Wednesday I need to get my panoramic done, I guess to see if I have cavities and to see if my teeth are doing what they need to.  I'm nervous about the cavities part.  I've never had one, and so I'm not anxious to get one.

I'm getting farther behind in my readings for classes, and I have a practical this Tuesday that I need to study for.  I guess I'll be rather busy tomorrow doing all of that, and maybe I can squeeze in a run or some yoga, too.

Today, my husband and I spent most of the day looking for a new bed.  Sadly, we had been sleeping on a futon mattress and frame.  So it was time for some adult furniture.  We found one, and are financing it, but I can easily afford the monthly payments we planned out so that we pay in the interest free time frame.  I'm excited for it.  It's a king size bed, so that mean we can have our own space, but can cuddle when we want.

Sadly, my car has been acting up once again.  However, this issue is workable until I'm out of school and can make more time to take it in to get it checked out.  And to figure out how much it will cost to fix it, or something else that might be more dire.  Unfortunately, my husband needs a bit of dental work and that is going to be the major issue first.  Then I'll worry about my car's little issue.

So, I'm off to go sleep in my brand new bed!