I know where it all started…

My love for polish that is.  I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately.

I’ve bitten my nails since I was a little kid.  My mom tried to tell me that they were too dirty, my great aunt told me that I would get worms,  and my grandmama said it was disgusting.  I would bite them till they bled.  It was gross.  In high school I started getting acrylics.  I would get them for months and then peel them off and paint my little nubs.  My mom used to say that if I spent as much time on my homework as I did on my nails I would be a straight A student.  Into my early adult life I couldn’t stop biting them.  I had a million polishes, glitter, creme, and shimmer, but my nails were always little nubs.  One of my childhood friends, Cassie, always bit her nails too, but at her wedding shower she told me how she finally overcame it and she was growing out her nails for her big day.  I got engaged and I thought I would do the same thing.  I would get strengtheners, repair serums, once I even got some oil that claimed it had actual diamond dust in it, but I still bit them.

My mom has beautiful nails.  She spends at least 2 nights a week giving herself a manicure.  She’s cried when she’s broken a nail.  My grandmama had the most amazing nails.  They were naturally as hard as acrylics.  She always painted them frost white.  They were so beautiful.  Even when she was dying of lung cancer the nurses would comment on her nails.  When she finally passed I inherited all of her frost white polish.  She had multiple bottles from different brands.  I’ve only painted my nails frost white once, on my wedding day, in memory of her.  I could never bring myself to paint my nubs frost white, it seemed like it tarnished her gorgeous nail’s glory.

My mother and grandmama are/were the strongest women I know, with strong nails to boot.  Sure, they have/had their problems, but they’re amazing women.  When I decided to be a strong woman, they day I left my ex, was the day that I decided to stop biting my nails and I haven’t since then.  I know it sounds silly, but I look at my nails as another obstacle I’ve overcome and I also look at them as another piece of myself that Im reclaiming.  I’m a new person, with a new life and a new set of nails.  Getting divorced has done a lot to me, but the best thing its done is help me become the strong woman that would make my grandmama and has made my mother proud.

You never thought nail polish could get deep, did you?

Part of my stash

Friday was my first visit to Forever 21.  I picked up 2 polishes there for $2.80 each, Blue and Charcoal.  A steal for a good polish in my opinion.  The pictures on the website dont do these little guys justice.  I knew I would be in love with Blue the minute I saw it.  It has a subtle gold shimmer through it that doesn’t photograph well, but is gorgeous in person.

Im playing with ways to photograph my hands when they’ve been polished and my painting techniques, this hand position is too creepy claw for me.

This picture picks up the gold great, its really gorgeous.

I love this color.  Love Love Love.  It went on like a dream and it has had staying power.  Unfortunately, my mom got me a new polish today and it busted in the bag she had it in.  When I picked it out it got all over my pretty blue nails and I had to repolish.  Unfortunately again, when I took this pretty blue polish off, it turned my nails and fingers an ugly smurf blue.  While I love this color so much, I think it will only be used for special occasions and with a heavy duty base coat underneath.

In health and fitness news, Im down another pound and a half!  That brings my total to 21.6 pounds lost.  I put on my wedding dress tonight and it was too big.  I cant remember exactly, but I was at least 10 pounds heavier than I am right now on my wedding day.

I hate that it took going through a divorce to find the motivation to lose this weight, but I think that its really a testament to how depressed I was throughout my engagement and marriage.  Let me tell you people, when you know you’re doing something wrong, don’t do it!!  If you have any doubts about anything, be it a relationship, a purchase, a big decision, a small decision, anything, don’t do it.  Take it from me people, I really know.

Its become an addiction

Yesterday in Destin I was able to visit Sephora and Ulta.  I was not impressed with Sephora’s nail polish selection.  They only carried OPI for Sephora, which is nice, but nothing blew me away.  Ulta, on the other hand, carried everything I could imagine in a full service beauty store.  I drove away from Destin yesterday with 6 more polishes in my arsenal.  My favorite, or what I thought would be my favorite, was Orly’s Galaxy Girl.  Its from their new Cosmic FX line and it just popped in the bottle.  My hope was that Galaxy Girl would replace my extreme want for Deborah Lippmann’s Bad Romance, which retails $16-$18.  Waaaay too much for this girl’s nail polish obsession.  This is how Galaxy Girl turned out for me.

I have to say, its not as pretty on my nails as it is on the bottle.  It also went on pretty sheer and it took two coats to get it just semi-opaque.  I even put two shiny top coats on it to help it shimmer more, but its still not wowing me.  I’m keeping it on for now because it is pretty enough and the whole manicure took some time.

I hope yall dont care that I’ve kinda morphed into this beauty/health and fitness blog.  Im loving it, I hope yall do too!  Im planning on posting reviews on the rest of my nail polish stash too.  So get ready!

Night Running

It’s been crazy hot here lately. We’re still in a severe drought even though we’ve had a couple pop up thunderstorms in the last couple of days. I don’t do mornings, I’ve tried and tried and it just never works out for me. I like to stay up late and sleep in the morning, sometimes even into the afternoon when I can. Running at 7 in the evening is still pretty dang hot, so I’ve been thinking about waiting until its completely dark to run. It doesn’t bother me that much, but there’s always a safety factor to consider. Should I wear a blinky thingy? Should I make Salty wear a blinky thingy? What about a goofy reflective vest or belt? Are my clothes too dark? Is there a boogey man out there!?!?

Do you run in the dark or not? If you don’t, why not? If you do, what safety precautions, if any, do you take?

Bang Bang Bangs!

I havent had bangs since 8th grade.  What do you think?

POTD

I think I’m developing a problem, but for now Im going to share my problem with you.  Here’s my Polish Of The Day:

Transformation

20 pounds of fat looks like this:

That’s disgusting!

Now, here’s what it looks like off of me:

Holy smokes Im a new woman!

I want to lose another 10-15 pounds or so, but Im pretty pleased with myself right now! 🙂

Confession Time Y’all

Tonight was my first run since the end of April.  I know, I know, Im bad.  May was a busy month.  June 1 is National Running Day, so I had to get out today.  I did day 1 week 3 of c25k and busted it out.  I have some lost time to make up, but if I keep up with it I should be okay for the Firecracker 5k on July 3rd.  I did an butt busting easy 2 miles. 😉

OMG it was hot though.  This was the forecast for today:

Most places said it was over 100 degrees today.  Holy Crap.  I got out there though and I feel better for it.  If you’re local, you know we’re in s severe drought here.  Its insane.

This used to be a substantial stream that I pass on my run.  Its completely dry.  Its depressing.  We need ran y’all!

In lieu of my new nail polish obsession here’s what’s currently on my nails:

Finger Paints: Art Lofty Toffee.  That’s my nails too.  Love it!!

Fashion, or lack there of

I’ve lost more than 10% of my body. That’s crazy when you think about it. When the weight started coming off I wanted to start dressing my age and not like a grandma anymore. I started getting into fashion magazines and I started to wear make up more often, fix my hair, and paint my nails. I’ve pulled old dresses out of my closet that I haven’t fit into for 2-3 years. It’s been awesome.

But, there’s always a but, sometimes I look in the mirror and I see the old me. The almost 20 pounds heavier me. I still pick up clothes that are too big to try on. I still see my fat cheeks. I still get down on how I look. It’s so frustrating to think of what I’ve accomplished, but then dwell on how much farther I want to go.

Then I worry about how far I will obsess about this and how long until I think I “look” good. I have 12 pounds to go till I get to that magic number on the scale, but will it be enough? I’m trying to stay diligent and not obsess, but somedays I feel so defeated that I can’t help but obsess. Ugh, will it ever end?

But I want to leave this post on a positive note, so here’s a fun picture. Summer is here and now my toes match the great weather!

Blogs for Dogs

One of my fellow bloggers Brie lives near Joplin, Missouri where the recent tornadoes wrecked havoc recently.  She has volunteered at the Joplin Humane Society  and knew that they were overrun with misplaced pets.  She recently posted about what she has done to help JHS here.

She has set up a registry on Amazon for JHS.  There’s stuff on the registry at all price points, so if you can buy anything its a huge help.

Pass the word around on your blogs, facebook pages, twitter.  If you cant donate, get the word out!