WWtKW: Work Edition

Good morning, lovelies!  I hope you're having a good week.  After the hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving last week, this week has seemed rather mundane - but that's not necessarily a bad thing.  I had an intense derby practice on Monday and I'm *still* sore.  I'm getting the hang of this whole derby thing and I love it more and more with every practice.  The bruise I got (over two weeks ago!) is finally fading but you can still feel a knot where the impact happened.  Just goes with the territory!

I didn't hook up with this meme last week because of the chaos of the holiday, but I'm playing along this week!  So, grab a cup of coffee and join Mamarazzi, Crazymama & Queso for some questions about work.

1. What is the worst job you've ever had?

2. Have you ever been fired?

3. What would your dream job be?

4. What did you want to be when you "grew up"?

5. How old were you when you got your first job?

1.  What is the worst job you've ever had?

I was a hostess turned dish cleaner for a breakfast cafe.  Oh lord, how I hated that job.  It wasn't bad when I was a hostess, but once it turned dish cleaner, that's when it got bad. 

2.  Have you ever been fired?

Speaking of that breakfast cafe...I was *almost* fired...but I quit first.

3.  What would your dream job be?

You know...I don't really know.  I would love to do something with music, but that scene is so hard to break in to (just ask my sister), so that's out.  I'd like to be a nurse some day, but that means I'd have to go back to college and I don't see that happening right now.  Or...if I could make roller derby a full-time paying gig, I'd do that for as long as I could (you know...before I got too old - which is probably just around the corner).

4.  What did you want to be when you "grew up"?

The first thing I remember is I wanted to be a gardener.  Don't ask me why.  Then, forever, I wanted to be a teacher - then I worked in a daycare in high school.  Working in that daycare cured me of that.  I also toyed around with the idea of doing graphic design but life got in the way so I let go of that idea.  And, as you can tell from my answer to #3...I don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

5.  How old were you when you got your first job?

I was in high school and I didn't have a car yet, so I'm going to say 14 or 15 (probably 15).  I was a file clerk in a small dermatology office.  I ended up working there for 5 years and I ended up pretty much running the front office.  Started in medicine and that's where I've been ever since!

Great questions, Queso!!  Join me and link up to WWtKW - all the cool kids are doing it! :D

Nearly Perfect

Good Tuesday to you, Kitschies!  I don't know how it is where you are, but it's really starting to cool down here in New Mexico.  And that means it's time to get back in the kitchen!

I love to bake - especially when I can share my baking with family and friends.  Don't get me wrong, I could keep all my goodies to myself, but I'd end up weighing a lot more than I already do.  So, why not share the weight gain?  LOL

A while ago, a co-worker and I got an invitation to a soft opening of Paradise Bakery.  When they welcomed us in, they offered us a choice of cookies to try and I picked their chewy ginger cookies (that's not the name, but it's been so long, I can't remember the exact name).  I loved it so much (and so did my co-worker) that as soon as I got in to work, I went hunting for the recipe!  Now, this is not a plug for Paradise Bakery, but if you have a chance, go there and get one of their cookies - they. are. perfection!  This is, however, the result of my hunt.  This recipe isn't exactly the same, so I'll call them nearly perfect.

Big Soft Ginger Cookies
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup margarine, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons white sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Set aside. 

In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses. Gradually stir the sifted ingredients into the molasses mixture. Shape dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly. 

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

NOTES:  In order to make the cookies look like the picture you see on Allrecipes, you do not flatten them - at all.  I just dropped them directly from the spoon and they cooked off just fine.

Of course I had my trusty kitchen helper with me for these!  Nate loves to help me in the kitchen - but the crazy boy doesn't usually eat the sweets we make...he'd rather have candy.  *sigh*

The end result of just piling the dough on the cookie sheets came out better than flattening them out.

Mmmmm!  Warm cookies.  Is there anything better than a warm cookie just out of the oven?  Yeah.  I didn't think so, either.

See what I mean?  You can see the "slightly flattened" cookies toward the top.  The dropped cookies look much prettier to me.  Don't get me wrong - the flattened cookies tasted fine, they just weren't as pretty.

I shared these cookies with my office and they were gone by days' end.  I'm sharing the recipe with you now so you can add something new to your Christmas cookie plates - you won't be sorry!

NerdLacquer: Pinin for the Fjords

Happy Monday, Kitschies!!  I had a super-long extended Thanksgiving holiday, which was really, really nice, but it's back to the grind for me today.  We were lucky to share out Thanksgiving with Makeup Zombie and her clan - lots of great food, friends and conversations!  I also got to spend all day Friday with Mr Nate.  I went to derby practice on Saturday evening and about froze my fingers off - but I didn't come home with a gigantic new bruise, so that's always good.  It's been a good mini-vacation.

I have my second NerdLacquer to share with you today: Pinin' for the Fjords!  As much as I liked Data Squirrel, I liked Pinin even more.

Pinin' for the Fjords is one of 3 fun polishes from NerdLacquer's new line: Something Completely Different.  These 3 polishes are Monty Python-themed. I. love. it!

Pinin' for the Fjords is a delicate periwinkle base with loads of glitter.  Tiny specks all the way to large hex glitter.  The larger hexes don't show up as much on the nail as Data Squirrel's, but the base on Pinin' is a bit more opaque.  But don't let that get you down...there's still plenty of sparkle going on here!

All the pictures show 3 coats - I'm a chronic 3-coater.  You could definitely get away with 2, I'm sure.  The wear on Pinin' was great.  I applied this early in the week and didn't take it off til Thursday evening - at least 4 days of solid wear with very little tip wear and only one tiny area of chipping.

I got tons of compliments about this polish.  Tons.  People couldn't believe that all this sparkle came from one polish.  Granted, they weren't people in the know like us, but it was funny to hear their reaction, nonetheless.

The only drawback to these polishes is the removal.  Because of all the glitter, you have to use the foil method, but it's a small price to pay for the awesomeness that is Pinin' for the Fjords.

Pinin' for the Fjords, along with her buddies Crunchy Frog (who doesn't love *that* name?!) and It's Just a Flesh Wound (again, awesome!) are available on the NerdLacquer etsy shop page either individually ($8, each) or as a trio ($24).  If you hurry over there, Amanda has some great gift packaging available as well as a NEW holiday collection: Holoday.

A big thank you to Amanda, the creative genius behind NerdLacquer for giving me the chance to review her beautiful geek-filled polish!

*Product provided to Kitschy Suburbia for review - all opinions are 100% my own*

NerdLacquer: Data Squirrel

Good morning, Kitschies!!  I have a little something different for you today.  I have been given the opportunity to try out and review a new-to-me indy nail polish company.  Please let me introduce to you:

NerdLacquer by the one and only...

I was first introduced to NerdLacquer by Makeup Zombie and as soon as I heard about, it I loved it.  Nerd-centric nail polish collections?  Awesome.

The owner of the Etsy shop, Amanda, asked me what colors I'm interested in and lickety split...two pretty bottles of NerdLacquer showed up on my doorstep (super fast shipping!).  This is the first of the two I've gotten to try.

This little beauty is Data Squirrel.  On the NerdLacquer page, Data Squirrel, from the IRC-ing Sparklies series, is described as: "/msg nickserv identify DATA SQUIRREL tears through the dbase of glitters, picks just the right ones for maximum impact in a shimmering russet red base (turquoise, silver, red, copper, emerald) and hoards them away for the winter. Okay, screw hoarding. Let’s use them all now."  OK...for you non-techies...IRC is Internet Relay Chat (think chat rooms, version 1.0). 

The first picture was taken indoors with flash and you can see how the reddish-pink-with a touch of orange base has a bit of a shimmer to it.  I don't know whether to call it a jelly or a creme because it's more opaque than a jelly but it's more transparent than a traditional creme.  So...crelly?  LOL  This picture was taken outdoors in direct, bright sunlight.

Look at all those sparklies!!!  NerdLacquer does glitter perfectly.  I was afraid the finish of this would be a bit on the bumpy side and/or eat up top coat, but I'm happy to report (I don't like my mani to be bumpy - bug!) that neither was the case.  All that awesome glitter packed in a shimmery base and the finish is very smooth.  I used 3 coats of Data Squirrel (but I probably could've gotten away with 2) and 1 coat of ChG Fast Forward.

You get a bit of a different color depending on the light source.  The above picture was taken in the shade and the bottom picture was taken in bright, direct sunlight.  This is a work-appropriate color, IMO, with just a little bit of bling without being in-your-face.  I got a LOT of compliments on this one Wednesday!  LOVE!!

I've only worn this polish for a day (at the moment) but the wear has been great!  No chips, no tip wear (I'm lucky to get a day of good wear out of some polishes) and no lifting of any of the glitter.  Application was effortless - I didn't need cleanup!  

In addition to Data Squirrel, Amanda threw in a *new* polish for me to try.  I'll be posting about it soon, but it's from a new 3-piece collection with a projected release date of this Friday: November 18th!  And...wait for it...it's Monty Python themed!  How awesome is that?!  And as much as I liked Data Squirrel, I have a feeling I'm going to like Pinin' for the Fjords even more.

Amanda was great to deal with - every question answered, happily!  I'm so happy to hear that she's increasing her collections (as if 25 unique colors weren't enough?!) and I hope she adds more and more and more.  And did I mention shipping was fast?  Yeah, like, 2 days!  NerdLacquer is available through Etsy for $8/bottle or you can customize a trio of geekery for $21.   

*Product provided to Kitschy Suburbia for review - all opinions are 100% my own*

WWtKW: Musical Edition

Good morning, Kitschies!  I didn't play last week (kind of a busy week that one was), but you can bet I'm going to join up today.




This week's We Want to Know Wednesday questions come from Alicia aka Queso.

1.  Do you have any musical talents?

I played flute and piccolo in high school - was in marching band and everything!  I used to be quite good (really, I was), but it's been a long time since I played.  I played for a while back before Nate was born but I haven't really been all that interested in picking it up since.

2.  What role, if any, does music play in your life?

Music is everything.  It sets my mood (accents or augments), it helps me express myself when my own words escape me.  Music is memories, feelings, markers in space and time.  I would say I have music on 95% of my waking hours. 

3.  What is your all time favorite song?

Really?  I have to narrow it down to just one?
I thought about this on and off all day on Tuesday.  My favorite song isn't a song at all, but a piece of music.
A very old piece of music: Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A Major Op 92 Allegretto.  Seriously.  What a strong, passionate piece of art.

4.  Do you sing in the shower?

In the shower?  No.  In the car?  All. the. time.  Mason tells me to sssshhhh! sometimes.

5.  Has a song ever made you cry?

Yes.  More than a few of them, actually.  Here's a short list.  These get me every. single. time.
Clair de Lune
Winter
God Bless the USA
Gravedigger
Charging Fort Wagner (and most of the Glory soundtrack)

I think these questions are my favorite out of all the 31 weeks of questions!  Thanks to Queso for these great questions.

Believe Me!

Good morning, Kitschies!  We're head long in to another work week.  I had derby practice last night.  Well, actually, it was skills test night and while I didn't expect to pass (yet), I did much better this time 'round.  I made it about 2/3 of the way through this time.  I was doing really well until I took a hit - I wasn't ready and I tumbled back and ended up with my right skate under my right hip and now I have a large bruise (that's probably only going to get larger) about 3" in diameter in the exact shape of my wheel.  How my right skate wheels ended up almost to my butt, I'll never know.  Either way, I stopped the skills test at that point and was happy I had made it that far.  I did much better than I expected I would, especially for not skating for the last two weeks.  There's a test every month, so I'm hoping to pass in early 2012.

Enough of that.  On to the sparklies!

I've seen these polishes all over the blogs and I finally found them about 2 weeks ago.  I picked up two but ended up giving one to Wendi because I had something really similar to it already.   I had just chopped down all my nails because I was getting some bad breaks, so I used my new polish to console myself.

This is WnW Believe Me, It's Real.  I knew it's a bit on the sheer side, so I started with LA Colors Static Electricity as a base and then used two coats of Believe Me on top.

The bling in this polish is pretty enough to overlook the fact that it eats top coat - two coats and still a bit bumpy (I use ChG Fast Forward).

I love macro shots!  Believe Me is little blue glitter suspended in a sheer blue base with larger purple hex glitter thrown in for fun.  The contrast of the purple against the blue makes it really pop.  So pretty!!

I'm throwing this over-exposed pic in just for fun.  I was having a hard time capturing the purple (who doesn't?!) and got this kinda cool pic. 

The draw back to these beauties?  They're a pain in the buttocks (kinda like the pain I have today!) to remove.  You definitely need to use the foil or felt method for removal. 

Have you picked up any of these glitter bomb WnW polishes?  Which is *your* favorite?

Got It. Didn't Like It.

Good morning, Kitschies!  It's Friday AND it's Veteran's Day - both good things.  It's been an insanely busy week and I finally have a few moments to do another post for you.

A while back, I took a coworker with me to Sally Beauty to take a gander at all the pretty polishes.  She was amazed at how she could pick up any number of polishes and name them without even thinking about it.  It's that whole got-it-got-it-got-it-need-it-got-it gag from The Big Bang Theory. 




I loves me some BBT!!  Anyway...this was one of two she picked up, and of course I had to borrow it from her.

This is ChG Tempest - a really, really pretty purple/blue duochrome.  The blue shift is so strong in this one, it's easily more blue than purple.

I did this mani just before I left for work one morning and I didn't have time to add nail art.  But, I did have a bottle of Revlon Grape Fizz I hadn't used yet, so I slapped on a couple coats on my ring finger and thumb.  I love the color of this polish - a purple jelly base with purple, pink and blue shimmer.  Sounds awesome, right?

The color *is* awesome.  However...Grape Fizz is scented and it is WAAAAY too sweet for my liking.  I hated to do it, but I had to take the polish off soon after I got to work.  This mani didn't last more than 3 hours because the sweetness of Grape Fizz was sickening.  I want to love that polish, so much, but I just can't.

Did you pick up any of the scented Revlons?  Were you able to tolerate the scent or am I just being too sensitive?

Have a great weekend!!  I've got more posts up my sleeve for next week. 

I'm Blue Over You

Happy Monday, Kitschies!  I had a pretty good weekend.  I got to have some alone time with the hubs on Friday night.  We went to dinner then a bar to see one of his favorite bands (Mr Gnome) perform.  It was a super small place, so no matter where we were, we had good seats.  I enjoyed their set and it's always nice to "find" a new group.  Then Sunday, I got to skate!  WOOT!!  I was supposed to go to practice on Saturday but I didn't have my helmet and the woman who has it wasn't at that practice, so I got caught up on some of my shows.  I ended up skating about 9 miles and my legs feel really good despite not having been on my skates a lot lately.  I fell on my butt trying to walk down a hill instead of skating it and now I feel like I have whiplash (FUN!), but other than that, it was a good outing!  LOL

I have a mani that's been sitting in my pending folder for a LONG time.  I couldn't tell you when I wore this.  If I had to guess, I'd say July-ish?  I know...I'm bad.  I'm trying my best to get all my pics prepped - I'm getting there!!  On to the pretties, k?

This is OPI Austin-Tatious Turquoise from their Spring Texas collection.  It's a gorgeous glass-flecked turquoise with a faint shift of purple.  Sorry this pic is so blurry, but it's the only one I got that captures the purple flash.

Here's a flash pic.  It's such a pretty, pretty color.  The downside?  It's super sheer!  I ended up using a base color (LA Colors Static Electricity - a blue creme) and then using at least 2, if not 3, coats of ATT.

Natural light.  I like that this polish changes a bit depending on the light source.  It looks a lot more blue in this pic than turquoise, but no matter what way you look at it, it's great!  It kind of reminds me of a sparkling blue pool.

What do you think of this blue beauty?  Do you own it?  I only picked up this one and Do You Think I'm Tex-y from the OPI Texas collection.  Though I'm thinking about picking up the orange "sorbet", too.

Have a great rest of your day! 

A 4-pack of FAIL

Happy Friday, Kitschies!  It's been one long ass week and I'm glad it's coming to a close. 

I usually play along with Mamarazzi's Friday Confessional, but I don't much feel like confessing, so I'm going to share some nail fail with you.  I guess that, in itself, is a sort of confession.  LOL

These are all manis I wore but wasn't happy with. 

This is a pretty color, but it's not as great as I wanted it to be.  It's OPI My Address is Hollywood from their Fall collection.  It's a work-safe color with just a hint of shimmer.  Maybe I wanted the shimmer to be stronger?  Whatever it is, it just didn't do it for me.  I added the little hearts to try to change my mind about it, but it didn't work.

I liked the idea of this in my head but like so many nail art ideas, it didn't transfer very well from my brain to my fingers.  The color is a neon pink Nina Ultra Pro and then I added lots of black and white dots.  I think the dots ended up looking like bird poop.  This mani didn't even make it out of the house.

I wanted these colors to be closer and create less of a stark transition between orange and red.  These are Zoya Kimmy (red) and Tanzy (orange) from the Sunshine collection (Summer 2011).  I should've used Tanzy and Rica instead.  Anyway...I did some white nail art on these after wearing it for a day, but obviously it didn't impress me enough to take a picture of it before I took it off. 

And one more...

I was on a French mani kick for a while back in August (?).  The hubs has always said he didn't like the typical French look but I tried to do one anyway.  I started with SH White On on the tips and ChG Whitecap to add a bit of shimmer on the nail bed.  I liked it that way, even though the white was so, so stark.  I wanted to soften it up a bit so I added green star bursts with green star rhinestones.  That's where it went wrong.  I didn't like this one at all.  I don't think this one made it out of the house, either.

So, while these aren't fails per se, they're definitely not my greatest works.  Tell me, fellow nail bloggers, do you post your fails or do you keep them hidden from view?

Why Go With the Flow?

Good day, Kitschies!  I hope you're enjoying your week and you can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  It's been an *interesting* week, to say the least.  Halloween was good - the boys got TONS of candy.  We went to see Harry Potter 7.2 (finally) and I loved it.  I think it was the best of all the HP films.  I cried a lot more than I expected I would, but that's not really surprising.  I'm a cry-baby when it comes to movies.  Anyway...I posted my Halloween manis on Monday and in case you missed it, go take a look at them HERE.

I know it's usually WWtKW or On Wednesday We Wear Pink, but I don't really feel like going with the flow today, so I'm going to share a purple mani with you today.

You've heard of my disinterest in neon and you've heard my love of the CC Electro Candy collection.  This little neon lovely comes from that wonderful CC collection.

This is CC Ultra Violet.  It's a really pretty purple neon with a blue flash.  I love this color in person, but like most purples, this one was hard to capture.

No matter how I adjusted the color balance in PS, I couldn't get it quite right.  It's more purple and less pink IRL.

It was too much POW just left as purple, so I grabbed my black and white striping polishes and did some racing stripes.  And no, you're not imagining things - I've done a mani similar to this a while back with a Cult Nails polish (you can check that post out HERE). 

I love the color of this polish, but I *really* love the blue flash.  It's crazy strong in the sunlight!  If more neons were made with a flash, I wouldn't shy away from them so much.

In other news, I had to chop down all my nails.  *I haz a sad*  I haven't chopped my nails for MONTHS and now I feel like I'm missing half my fingers!  *sigh*  I know they'll grow back but they're so SHORT!  

Well, there ya go.  I'm about outta here for the day - have to go take care of Thing #2 and have the hubs go to work.  Don't ya just love sick kiddos?