My big boy!

TGIF, dear Kitschies! I hope you are enjoying your Friday. I only work half day today, so it's a good day! I'm escaping early so I can take the Birthday Boy to see How To Train Your Dragon - FINALLY! *sigh* That kid. I love him, but he drives me crazy!!

Anyway, as I mentioned, he's the Birthday Boy! Mr Nate turns 4 today! I can remember, like it was yesterday, what I was doing at this time 4 years ago today. Let's see..it's about 8:30 AM now, so that means I'd been having contractions for more than 4 hours already. Then 11 hours later (!), Nathaniel Edward joined our family. Nate was born on Sunday, July 16, 2006, 8 days PAST his due date. He was 7lb, 9oz and 24". He was stubborn when he was born (see how late he was?!) and he's stubborn now! Let's stroll down memory lane and take a gander at some pics of Mr Nate growing up.

Just a few days old here. Awww!

One of my very favoritest pics of my big boy. December 2006 - 5 months old

First birthday party - look at that sugar coma!

Look at all that blond hair! A little more than a year old.

He had such cute curls! July 2008 - 2 years old

The kid knows how to have fun! July 2009 - 3 years old

July 2010 - 4 years old

My handsome boy! Happy birthday, Monkey! :)

Through all the temper tantrums, screaming and yelling. Through all the bruises and scraped knees. You may be growing up and not "needing" me as much as you used to, but I love you more and more every day! Happy birthday, my dear, dear Monkeyboy.


Listening to: Stand or Fall by The Fixx
Mood: nostalgic

I'm a Dark Faerie!

It's Thursday, dear Kitschies! I hope you're plugging through your week and can see the light at the end of the tunnel that is Friday. The weather is super craptastic here today - it's already 80*+ and it's not even 10 AM yet. Humidity is at 37% and that's high for Albuquerque. It's cloudy. It's hot. It's humid. It's yuck!!

Once upon a time, my bestie, Wendi from Makeup Zombie, told me that she was looking for people to do submissions for a Dark Faerie theme/series. Makeup, nails, food, whathaveyou. I started thinking about it right away, but I came to a sort of road block. She's gotten some great entries and I wanted to live up to the quality of previous submissions. I started playing around with ideas one day. I did a test nail and though I really liked it, it was missing something *and* I didn't think I'd like such dark colors as a full mani (I don't do swatches, so I had to be willing to commit to a mani for at least a day). Then I went to Sally's and found ChG Fairy Dust and swiped that over my test nail. Of course!! Glitter makes everything better, so why was I surprised when I found this? And holo glitter to boot! Perfect. I filed the idea back in to the deep recesses of my brain and focused on other manis and challenges. A few challenges later, Ms W bugged me enough and I finally got her Dark Faerie look finished. And the finished look? I LOVE IT!!



Here's what I used. Zoya Ibiza and Zoya Yasmeen, Stripe Rite in silver glitter and ChG Fairy Dust. After prepping each nail with a French tip sticker, I painted below the sticker with 2 coats Ibiza. After removing the sticker, I applied 2 coats of Yasmeen. Once that dried, I painted a thin stripe of silver glitter between the two colors. Once *that* dried, I did a thin coat of Fairy Dust to top it off. This mani was rather time consuming, but I'm really pleased with the end results.



Ibiza is a beautiful, deep, inky blue. It's like when a blue ink pen explodes or leaves little glops of ink - this is the color when that ink dries. It looks almost black when not in direct light, but when the blue shows, it's so pretty. Yasmeen is a gorgeous, deep, royal purple. This was the perfect complement to inky Ibiza.



It's hard to catch the awesomeness that is ChG Fairy Dust. It's tiny holo glitter particles in a clear jelly base. The formula is a little on the thick side and I don't know if it's because it's a jelly or because it's so freakin hot out. Either way, this looked so good over top the 2 colors. If you click on the picture, you can see the holo colors in the bottle better.



STILL not a good representation of the holo. Those little boogers are a pain to capture. I guess you'll just have to trust me that it looked good. LOL I loved this mani so much that I wore it for 3 entire days. This is the first time I've worn one mani for so long since I started this whole polish addiction thing. There were 2 reasons I had to take it off. 1) I had some minor chipping on 1 nail and if it hadn't been such dark colors, I probably would've left it. This speaks volumes for Zoya, my new favorite polish brand. 2) I had another challenge to do! THIS IS A LINK to my post on Makeup Zombie. So, a BIG thank you to Mistress Wendi! I love this mani and I probably wouldn't have ever thought of it if you hadn't come up with your Dark Faerie series. YOU ROCK!!!!

Listening to: Strawberry Swing by Coldplay
Mood: *sigh*

Life's just better...

...with chocolate! I'm sitting here stuffing my face with popcorn. Why? Because I don't have any chocolate in the house. Can you believe that?! Blasphemy!! LOL

Totally Tubular Tuesday, my dear Kitschies! The week has been the usual so far. It seems that Summer has finally descended on the Land of Enchantment. It's been HOT. We're not quite to 100*, but it's getting close! It's yuck, yuck and yuck through the end of the week, with no rain in sight until Monday. It's been a continual battle with Master Nathaniel. I just have to know that we'll get through this eventually and things will run a little more smoothly - I hope.

Enough about the bad weather. Enough about the bad kid. On to the good stuff. And by good stuff, I mean: CHOCOLATE!! (Bear with me, B - I know this post won't appeal to you) Once upon a time, a great family friend made these brownies for us. I remember she even made them for my 16th birthday (that was a LONG time ago)! Since getting the recipe for the most awesome of brownies, I have never strayed from it. I've never since made a "box" of brownies. These brownies aren't as cake-y as the box kind and I think that's what makes them oh, so good. They're denser and gooey-er. They are, simply put, the. best. brownies. ever! I asked Donna if I could post her wonderful brownie recipe to share with the world. Thankfully, she said yes! Oh, and a word of warning: These are not good for you, by any stretch of the imagination. But that's what makes them so good! So, here ya go.

The Real Deal Brownies

2 cups sugar
2 cubes butter, softened
4 eggs
1 cup flour
4 Tbsp cocoa powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
dash of salt

Cream together sugar and butter. Mix in half of the flour, just until blended. Add eggs, cocoa, vanilla, salt and remaining flour. Mix until blended (the batter will lighten in color). Spread in greased 13x9x2 pan. Bake at 325* for 35-40 minutes (or until center doesn't jiggle).

I hadn't made these in a long time. When a coworker said she wanted "something chocolate" for her birthday, I thought this was the perfect opportunity. Soooo goooood!!!

There's *always* extra left in the bowl and on the beaters. I usually end up "cleaning up" so good that I get a stomach ache. LOL

The edges get nice and chewy, but the center stays nice and moist.

I cut a big corner piece for the hubs before the nosy vultures at the office ate through the entire pan.

Don't those look awesome?! Posting this makes me want to whip together a batch right now! But...it's already after 9 and it's still 80* in the house, so I think I'll just go to bed with visions of brownies dancing in my head.

To get your mind off chocolatey brownie goodness...Ms W over at Makeup Zombie posted my submission to her Dark Faerie series. I think it looks great (if I do say so myself). I'll be posting about those pretties either Wednesday or Thursday. I think I'm going to call it a night. I have a new book calling my name in the other room. Happy reading, dear Kitschies!

Listening to: Say It Ain't So by Weezer (reminds me of RockBand night with the BFF)
Mood: bookish

Just a bowl of cherries

"He who likes cherries soon learns to climb." German Proverb

Good afternoon, dear readers! I hope Monday isn't abusing you too much. It's been a typical day for me, other than the shooting in SE Albuquerque this morning. Not good news! *sigh*

Anyway, to brighten things up just a bit, I have a new nail art to show you. It's not professional by any stretch of the imagination, but it was fun. I did this for Babbling Brooke's Summer Fruit Nail Contest that runs through July 19th. Her nails were so cute, I was almost afraid to do my own fruit-inspired mani. And, like most of my nail art ideas, this one looked better in my head than on my nails. LOL

First, I went through my stash and decided on Orly Goth. It's a black base with irregular silver flecks/glitter. I applied two coats. The hubs had originally said he preferred Ulta's Black Lace over Orly's Goth, but I misunderstood him and went with this one. Oops!


Once that dried, I dug out my craft paints and a bright red I got from my last Freecycle exchange. The green is Folk Art acrylic paint in metallic green and the red is Cover Girl Nail Slicks in Classic Red.


I hadn't gotten my dotting tool yet, so I used the tip of a pencil for the cherries. Ghetto, I know. I used a small paintbrush for the stems. As always, you can click on the pics to make them bigger (just don't look at the messiness that is the edge of the black polish - I hate cleanup with black!).




And a close up for the WIN! LOL Like I said, I am no professional, but I love doing these challenge submissions.



Speaking of challenges, my BFF put a shout out for Dark Faerie submissions. I did my mani for that (so she'd stop bothering me - GAH!) last night and I love it!! I'll be posting on that one soon, but not until she posts it first. Polish Hoarder Disorder posted the Summer Sponging challenge gallery on Saturday. There were some great submissions - check out the gallery HERE! PHD has posted her next challenge: Fashion Inspiration. I'm going to have to put my nose to the grindstone for that one!

Listening to: A Moment Like This by Kelly Clarkson
Mood: Monday, Monday

There aint' no cure

...for the summertime blues. Happy Sunday, Kitschies! I hope you're enjoying your Sunday. Sunday in the H household means chores. Fun! It's barely noon and I've made breakfast (Canadian Pancakes - YUMM!), cleaned the kitchen, taken a shower, helped the kid (read: brat) clean his room, vacuumed said room, swept off the back patio and started laundry. And that's on top of vacuuming most of the house yesterday afternoon and finishing last week's ironing last night. It's time to take a break. Besides, it's almost time for lunch.

We did not have the greatest day yesterday. Nate (almost 4) was a complete brat. We went to lunch at Lumpy's Burgers in Albuquerque (sort of a business call for the hubs). They have great burgers and you get to pick your potato (or sweet potato) and they chop it up and fry them for you fresh. So good!! Anyway, it was time to eat lunch and Nate threw a huge fit (screaming at the top of his lungs, arms and legs flailing) because I told him it was time to put the Crayons away and eat. Long story short: I picked him up and we sat in the car until the hubs and Mason finished their lunch. That big fit threw me in to a funk. Later that afternoon, the hubs went grocery shopping and I stayed home while the boys "napped". While lurking the beauty blogs, I came across Nailstah's post with Claire's Mood Polish. Hey! I have that polish and I love it (well, sorta) - just the thing to help me with this funk.

When first applied (and in the bottle), Claire's Mood Polish in Mild/Wild is purple with silver sparkle. Pretty just like that.

Then, when it gets warm, it turns a pretty petal pink. Also with sparkle. This picture was taken outside after sitting in the sun for just a few minutes.

Since it's a "mood" polish, it changes color depending on the temperature. This is after being outside then coming indoors where it was cooler. Notice the tips changing back to purple. This is how my nails usually look with this polish.

And then sometimes, it's the reverse. The cool purple over the nail beds and warm pink over the tips. This happened after opening the lid of the BBQ grill.

I want to love this polish. I really, really do. But...application is the suck! This is at least 4 coats to even out all the bald spots and bumps. The formula is also the suck. Very gloppy. It dries really fast and it dries to a satin finish. The finished mani looks good, but like all good things, it does not last. I applied this polish yesterday around 3:00. By this morning, it was already a chipped mess (and that's without the usual abuse to my hands). However, this did help to bring me out of my funk a little. Funny how the little things have such a great impact. So, a big hug of thanks to Annie at Nailstah. You helped my day get a little brighter!

Challenge Accepted - Part 4

TGIF, Kitschies!!! I hope you've had a good week and you have something fun planned for the weekend. No big plans here, though I'm hoping, if the boy is *good*, to go see How to Train Your Dragon at the dollar theater. I really want to see it, but I'm not holding my breath. When is this kid gonna break out of this horrible-ness? Anyway, enough about that. This evening, weather permitting, we're planning on taking the boys and some sammiches up to Sandia Crest and take a little hike to the Rock House. It's monsoon season, so rain, thunder and lightning are possible. Cross your fingers it's a dry day!! Now...on to the fun!!

Polish Hoarder Disorder posted another fun nail challenge: Summer Sponging! I always have so much fun putting together a look for these challenges. This is my 5th entry! This time around we're supposed to incorporate some kind of sponging in our manicures. It doesn't have to be every nail - it just has to be there.


I started off with sponged on blue ceramic paint all over my right ring finger. Once that dried, I used the sponge and did a little white ceramic paint on the top-half of my nail to create a cloud effect. Once that dried, I applied a layer of top coat so I could decorate it. Clicky click the pics to make them bigger (to see detail).


Once that dried, I painted on a desert island and palm tree. How much more Summer can you get than a palm tree? Don't answer that. LOL Anyway, I used a metallic green ceramic paint for the leaves of the palm tree and it reminded me of my gorgeous Zoya Ivanka (sister to beautiful Charla). I slapped that on all the other fingers and there ya have my Summer Sponging challenge mani. A little note on Ivanka - this wore incredibly well. I did this mani Monday afternoon and I had to talk myself in to taking it off for another nail art submission last night! I am constantly washing my hands at work, not to mention all the computer work, so to say that this lasted without even 1 single chip is amazing!! Zoya, you have a customer for life!!

Here's what I used.

Ceramcoat in White and Ocean Reef Blue - really the perfect sky blue for my "ocean".

Sribbles 3-D paint in Butterscotch (the island) and Brown (tree trunk); Acrylic paint in metallic green for palm fronds. These were applied using a thin, small paintbrush.

Ivanka: Mermaid green sparkling metallic. I adore the Zoya sparkle collection!!

One more thing before I go. Nail Addicts Anonymous is hosting a CSN Giveaway. CSN has provided a $60 (!) gift card to the lucky winner who will be chosen July 30th. Skip on over there to check out NAA's blog...she does some great swatches and her nails always look great!

Listening to: Whataya Want From Me by Adam Lambert (I was really surprised to read this was AL!)
Mood: TGIF

Berry berry, quite contrary

"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana." - Groucho Marx

SHIT (So Happy It's Thursday), Kitschies! Cursing right off the batt - nice; Mom would be proud. LOL It's Thursday which means one thing: 1 more day til the weekend!! Not that I have any exciting plans for the weekend, I just don't have to come in to work.

As mentioned in Time to Celebrate, the hubs' office usually throws a shindig for the 4th of July. The office (a food brokerage) usually supplies the meat and then everybody signs up for sides and such. The hubs told me that it was my decision to choose what to bring since I'd be the one making it. There was so much good food - I had to go back for a second plate because there was just no room left on the first one! Ahhh...good food, family and friends. Does it get any better than that? I decided on a recipe I first tried at Easter. (HA! I first typed that as Eatster - coincidence?) This is a good Spring/Summer fruit salad, all made with fruit that's either frozen or available year-round.

Blueberry Fruit Salad

1 (20 oz) can pineapple chunks
1 (15 oz) can sliced peaches
4 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
3 medium firm bananas, sliced
1 cup green grapes, halved
1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
1 (3.4 oz) package instant vanilla pudding
3 Tbsp instant orange breakfast drink mix (Tang)

Drain pineapple and peaches, reserving juices; set aside. Combine the fruit in a large bowl. In another bowl, combine fruit juices with pudding and drink mixes; mix well. Pour over fruit and toss to coat.

NOTES: I did make a couple changes to this recipe. I know it's blueberry fruit salad, but there were just too many blueberries at 4 cups. This time I decreased the amount and only added 3 cups. That seemed to be just right. I remembered after I mixed this all together that there was too much juice for this salad. Next time I'll mix the juices, pudding and orange drink mix together as stated, but only use half of it on the salad. The salad drowns in juice as it is now. Without so much juice, I think this would be really good over vanilla ice cream!

See all that liquid?! TOO much!!

There ya go, Kitschies. I hope you enjoy this salad - I know I do! If you try this (or any others) recipe, please let me know how it worked (or didn't work) for you. You can find my email info in the "contact me" area of the blog. I always love hearing from my followers. Now...go do something fun!

Listening to: Time of Dying by Three Days Grace
Mood: sleepy