Fit It With Tape!

Good morning, Kitschies!  It's Wednesday...even though my mind keeps telling me it's only Tuesday.  I got some good Mommy-Son time yesterday afternoon with Nate.  We got to go to the park (he was *so* excited about that) and we played some MarioKart.  He's back at school today (for reals this time) and even though he wasn't quite as excited this morning, he skipped off to his classroom, so I guess he had a change of heart.  Mason is doing really well without his binkies - I'm glad we finally took that step.  Now it's time to get serious about potty training; wish us luck!

This mani was inspired by Nailside and her *awesome* tape mani.  She does the best tape manis...I can only try to live up to her example and for my first attempt, I think I did OK. 

As soon as I saw THIS explosion mani, I knew I had to try it.  I wasn't brave enough to try the 2-tone yet, so I settled with a single explosion.

I started with a base of Cult Nails My Kind of CoolAid (original post *here*).  For the explosions, I used Zoya Posh.  Posh is a gorgeous red matte, but I didn't want matte explosions on top of a shiny base so I used ChG Fast Forward to shine it all up.

I had a bit of shrinkage but I really liked the end result, especially for my first try.  Oh, and if you haven't picked up Zoya Posh, you might wanna grab it because it was not available for about a year and who knows how long it'll be around this time!

Here's a close up of my best explosion.  LOL  I definitely have some room for improvement, but I like it!

Have you tried a tape mani?  What do you think?  Wanna give it a go?

Call It What You Will

Good day, Kitschies!  Other than a big parenting FAIL (we thought Nate went back to school today but it's really not til tomorrow), it's been a pretty good day.  I went to my first derby practice last night in what feels like at least a month and I'm a little sore but nowhere near how I thought I would be.  Work was super busy this morning which was also a nice change.  And now I'm home with Nate. 

I have a really, really good recipe to share with you today.  I've made this before but it got pushed to the bottom of my recipe rotation and hadn't made it for quite a while.  I made this the day I was waiting for my new stove to be delivered/installed since I didn't know exactly what time they'd get here.  I got this from good 'ol allrecipes.com and you can argue whether it's a chili or a soup, but whatever it is, call it delish!

Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup
1 onion, chopped
1 (16 ounce) can chili beans
1 (15 ounce) can black beans
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle beer
2 (10 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained
1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning
3 whole skinless, boneless chicken breasts
shredded Cheddar cheese (optional)
sour cream (optional)
crushed tortilla chips (optional)
  
Place the onion, chili beans, black beans, corn, tomato sauce, beer, and diced tomatoes in a slow cooker. Add taco seasoning, and stir to blend. Lay chicken breasts on top of the mixture, pressing down slightly until just covered by the other ingredients. Set slow cooker for low heat, cover, and cook for 5 hours. 

Remove chicken breasts from the soup, and allow to cool long enough to be handled. Stir the shredded chicken back into the soup, and continue cooking for 2 hours. Serve topped with shredded Cheddar cheese, a dollop of sour cream, and crushed tortilla chips, if desired. 

NOTES:  I used Heineken because I know that's a beer the hubs will drink.  I don't touch the stuff.  They sell small bottles of "cooking" wine, why not cooking beer?  I'm just sayin'.

I don't usually say this, but I can't wait til my next office potluck because I know what I'll be bringing.

And like most soups, this is even better the next day.  It makes plenty for a night's dinner, but there's plenty leftover, too.  Don't let the idea of the beer in this recipe scare you - I don't like beer and I can't taste it at all in this soup.

If you've got some cold weather in the forecast, I definitely recommend picking up the ingredients for this soup.  You won't be sorry!

New Year - New Mani

Happy New Year, Kitschies!  It's been a while since I was 'round these parts.  I've been so bad about posting and reading blogs over the last few weeks.  Hopefully things will return to normal now that the holidays are over.  Speaking of the holidays...how were yours?  Was Santa good to you?  My boys had a great haul from Santa - Nate got his first bike (complete with training wheels) and Mason got a construction site play set with a remote controlled car.  It's been so much fun watching them play with their new toys...they really are spoiled.  Over the last few days, the boys have been trading stomach viruses...definitely not a good thing.  Today I'm home with them both and Nate's been up since 3:30 this morning with a yucky tummy and Mason's mad because I cut the tip off all his binkies.  It's going to be a long day.

ANYway...

I did my first new mani of the year last night AND I decided to trim all my nails so I could start fresh for the new year.  I knew right away I was going to use Zoya Alegra on my toes, but I couldn't decide what to use on my fingers.  I knew if I asked Nate for his input, he'd pick the most sparkly polish I had, so I asked the hubs to pick.  I reorganized my Helmer and other storage drawers yesterday so all he had to do was open one drawer to browse my untrieds (I have a lot more untrieds than I realized).  He decided on SH Xtreme Wear Gunmetal.  I was a little surprised at that choice, but I went with it.

Once I applied it, I wasn't all that excited about it.  It's a pretty color (reminds me of a black pearl), but it's a little too frosty for my taste.  So, I went digging through my BM plates and found a design I thought would work and I am *very* happy with my result!

SH Xtreme Wear in Gunmetal - 3 coats.  I used BM-210 and Orly Luxe for the stamping. 

I impressed myself with this combo.  LOL  It's pretty subtle but it's really classy.  It's best viewed in low light and that's why this picture didn't so up as good - it was taken in bright, direct sunlight.

The longer I see this color, the more it grows on me.  I doubt I would wear Gunmetal on its own, but as a base for stamping, it worked really well.  I love it when an idea comes together when you don't think it will.

Happy 2012!  I wish you all a great year and thanks for hanging with me for so long.  I'll be around more in the coming weeks.  Promise.

I'm Going Dotty!

Good morning, Kitschies!  It's been a whirwind couple of days.  We've been so busy with Christmas prep and holiday parties, I haven't had time to sit down and blog!  Don't worry, though...I've still been doing my nails.  Wait.  I take that back.  For my office Christmas party, I had one coat of a holo topcoat and that was it.  That's just not right.

Earlier last week (or maybe it was the week before), I saw this cute little dotty tree on Simply Rins.  She does the best nail art and they're usually pretty fool-proof!  As soon as I saw this, I knew I had to give it a go.  And wouldn't you know it...it *was* pretty much fool-proof. :)

I started with a base of ChG Glittering Garland (2-3 coats, depending on how careful I was with application) for all but the accent nail where I used Finger Paints Paper Mache.

To create the tree, I used a couple dotting tools, some greens, a red and a yellow.

The greens: ChG Glittering Garland, ChG Starboard, Zoya Gemma.  Yellow: Let's Meet.  Red: Zoya Sooki (that's been my go-to red this holiday).  See the pinky?  Yeah.  I should've gone with 3 coats there.

If you click on this pic, you can appreciate the flecks in Garland and you can see the tree in better detail.  See?  This is a pretty fool-proof design.  It didn't take but a few minutes and it's CUTE!!

So, now that it's December 20th...are you read for Christmas?  I know I'm not!  I still have some wrapping to do and I have to make my way to the grocery store to get the makings of a sour cream fruit salad (I know it sounds gross but totally isn't - trust me) and the hubs has decided we're having his dad over for Christmas dinner so I guess we need to figure out what we're making.  *sigh*  As much as I like shopping, I abhor the grocery stores any time after 5pm.

Classic Beef Stew

Happy Tuesday, Kitschies!  It was a busy day yesterday - finished the majority of my Christmas shopping (it's amazing what a difference shopping alone on a Monday morning can make), made a slow cooker dinner (not this one), got my new stove and finished all the laundry!  Now the fun of wrapping can begin.  Blech.

The weather is cooling down quite a bit (a damned lot) and that means it's time to drag out the slow cooker.  I try to use the slow cooker at least once a week during the winter.  I come home to a cooked meal and, more often than not, we have leftovers for the next day.  I was looking for something new to try and I found this recipe at Real Simple during one of my hunts.

Slow Cooker Beef Stew
4 lbs bottom round, well trimmed and cut to 2-inch pieces
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup olive oil
2 large onions, chopped (about 2 cups)
1 6-oz can tomato paste
1 cup dry red wine
1 lb potatoes, cut into 2-inch pieces
1/2 lb peeled baby carrots
2 cups beef broth
1 Tbsp Kosher salt
1 tsp dried thyme leaves
1 bay leaf
1 cup frozen peas, thawed

Coat the beef in the flour. Heat a few tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the meat, a few pieces at a time, adding more oil as necessary. Transfer to a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker.

Add the onions to the skillet and cook over medium heat until tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and coat the onions; transfer to the cooker. 

Pour the wine into the skillet and scrape up any browned bits; add to the cooker. Stir in the potatoes, carrots, broth, salt, thyme, and bay leaf.

Cover and cook on low heat for 7 1/2 hours, or on high for 4 hours. Add the peas and heat through.

NOTES:  I reduced this recipe, basically, by half and still had PLENTY.   I didn't measure out the carrots or the peas - just added what looked like enough.  And I didn't thaw the peas - I just adjusted the heat to high and cooked for about 30 minutes.

As with most stews, this was better the second time around.  I may or may not have added a little more wine than the recipe called for.  I remember Nate ate this, but I don't remember if Mason did (he's been *super* picky about eating lately). 

Do you have a favorite go-to slow cooker recipe for when the weather turns chilly?

Winter Wonderland

Good morning, Kitschies!  It was a busy weekend here in the Harmeyer house.  I can happily say that the house is now decorated for Christmas!  Now the shopping?  That's a different story.  The docs took the day off so I'm spending some of my day "off" waiting for my new stove to be delivered (yay!) and then the rest of it will be spent cleaning around the house and shopping for Christmas.  I avoid to the mall area like the plague this time of year - especially on the weekends - but it's not so bad on a Monday morning.

In case you missed it, I did a guest post over at one of my favorite blogs, Housewife Eclectic, this weekend about Christmas traditions.  Go check it out HERE - there's some great pictures to see!

I'm a member of Polish-aholics Anonymous (big surprise, right?) on FB and every Monday they have a new challenge.  I've participated before, but this is the first time I've linked it to a blog post.  This week's theme was snow.  I could've done something out of the box, but I decided to play it safe and I'm glad I did because I really like this one.

I started with 2-3 coats of ChG Frostbite, a really bright, icy blue as a base.

Then I sponged Finger Paints Easel Come, Easel Go (silver metallic) to soften the bright blue.

The silver showed up a little too bright so I sponged a little more Frostbite over the silver.

And with SH White On, I stamped little snowflakes using BM14.  This is much prettier IRL - the silver sparkles like snow.

Speaking of snow...it's supposed to snow here again today.  We haven't gotten rid of all the snow and ice left over from the storm early last week!  I usually really like winter, but I'm already ready for spring already.  LOL

Do you have any Christmas/Winter manis in the works?

Black and Blue

Good morning, Kitschies!  We're almost through another week...and I'm officially caught up on my days.  Being off work on Monday and Tuesday really threw me off.  But now I'm all back on track.

And what better way to celebrate being back on track than to share a really pretty polish with you?  I thought you might like that.

This beauty is Zoya Kotori.  I describe this as a blackened blue/teal shimmer.  It. is. stunning.  Kotori starts of a little thin with the first coat, but once you get 3 on there, there is total color payoff.

It's glowy and sparkly.  In the sunlight, Kotori catches the best glints of blue and teal.  LOVE this one!

And with a change of angle you can see how Kotori lights up - becomes less blackened blue/teal to just bright blue gorgeousness.  This was one of the very first Zoyas I got - I've worn it before but I've never shared it with y'all.

I wore Kotori alone for a day and then that evening, went home and did some simple nail art with Orly Luxe and black and white striping polishes.  It turned out very...nautical.  LOL

So, what do you think of Kotori?  If you have her, do you love her?  If you could only pick ONE Zoya to have forever and ever, which one would it be?  I know...that's a hard one!