I just wanted to share this find with y'all!

I am so happy to have this little pretty thing in my hands! And on my nails :)

Real quick though, can I just get a "Halleluyer" for the Beautiful Mess app finally coming to Android? We're always a little late to the party but happy to be here! 

Alright so, Glisten & Glow HK Girl top coat. I'm no nail polish pro but I follow a bunch of them on Instagram and they're always showing off pretty indie nail polishes (of which I have none! I need to get on that!) and I kept seeing this top coat mentioned so I finally investigated. After reading multiple reviews that said this top coat is just as great as/even better than Seche Vite and DOES NOT get clumpy and gooey towards the bottom like Seche Vite does, I was sold! (Anyone who's used SV before knows the clumpy problem well; it leaves you with at least 1/3 of the bottle unusable and is a total waste.)

I immediately gave myself a quick mani when I received it, even though my nails are totally beat right now and I fell in love with how quickly it dried! Since then I've washed dishes, washed my hands 100x, showered, changed many a diaper, applied lotion multiple times, did my makeup, cleaned up around the house...and my mani is still perfectly shiny and chip-free. It's only been a couple days I know but I will report back later after longer use. I just have a good feeling about this one! And for $6.95 + shipping, it's totally worth a try! Let me know if you do!

Well, I am off to enjoy my 3-day weekend and I'm so excited because it's freezing cold! (that's Texas talk for temps in the 30s-40s ;) Hopefully we'll get out from under our blankets at some point and go do some Christmas shopping! I also have to do some clothes shopping for a work trip next week. I'm heading to Houston next Monday-Thursday for a conference/trade show. Meh.

Enjoy your weekend, friends! 

High Five For Friday

Linking up with Lauren Elizabeth today!

1. I think this kid loves the water :) Considering she haaated her bath for nearly the first year of her life, this is a welcome change. I don't even care that now she wants to sit and play in the bath every night for at least an hour.

2. Love this color, but hate the polish. Say what? Ok so it's a neon and dries as a matte (how I'm currently wearing it) BUT slap a top coat on and it only looks gorgeous for as long as you don't touch anything. I had entire nails popping off! Not literally, but the entire polish! Even as a matte, it chips immediately. However, it's top 5 worthy this week because I'm obsessed with the color. So much so that I've resorted to carrying the bottle in my purse and doing touch ups as needed (it dries super fast so that helps).  FYI: the polish is Sinful Colors - Dream On.

3. My baby brother turned 27 yesterday! And Violet finally sorta kinda likes him! High five for that! Not sure why she's so shy around men sometimes (I honestly think it's because she's so daddy obsessed that she just doesn't want any other guy around but him. ha). but slowly but surely, she's getting more comfortable. Except in this picture when she just wanted more yogurt and ain't nobody got time for pictures when there's food around ;)

4. You can't go wrong with anything Strawberry Shortcake. I get my hoarding tendencies from my mom and she's kept tons of our toys, clothes, papers, art and anything else she felt was memorable from our childhood. It used to be annoying and I'm sure my dad hates their full garage and attic but I love being able to see these things and hopefully I can pass them on to Violet one day. Whenever I can trust she won't ruin them :)

5. Now that it's the summer, my sister comes in every few weeks from college and I love seeing her with Violet. They love each other like crazy and I'm happy they at least get some time together. SHe came in last weekend and we got to spend Sunday together. We still need to make some plans to go visit her - she does live near the beach!!

So, that's been my week! We've had a whiney teething child (we're at almost a full week of awful sleep. Send help.) but we've survived. Tomorrow we have plans for another day at Sea World and I'm SO excited. I had no idea I'd love going there so much!

How has your week been?!

Nail Files - Pearl Silver

 

Ok, so I'm only posting this because I need feedback, y'all! This is my one and only KleanColor polish so I can't speak from much experience but just know, I am hating this polish. Also know, it was the only silver polish I have so I had to use it (Gotta support our Spurs!!).

 

This one painted streaky, chipped immediately (like before I could even use a topcoat) AND when I used the topcoat, it streaked up the polish even more. I shouldn't hate on KleanColor because I'm sure it just has to do with just this color and the fact that it's a metallic, pearl type color but UGH. I'm just not happy with it. And two days later, it looks like HELL.

 

This just gives me a good excuse to buy a new silver polish ;) Any ideas?

 

Have you tried KleanColor? How did you like it?

 

[L: Yesterday, front facing camera shows all the chips // R: Today, 2nd day mani. Streaky and chipped]

 

And in other news, DID YOU SEE THE SPURS GAME last night?!

Amazing.
Keep it up, boys!!

 

[The Spurs Coyote taking over Miami Beach :)]

 

Have a great weekend!!

Nail Files + Mani Tutorial! [Guest Post]

I'm on my way home today and I can hardly freaking wait to kiss my girl and my baby daddy. I'm also super excited to have such a nail pro guest posting for me today! Thank you so much, Kali for your post, I LOVE this mani! Go say hi to Kali! 

Hello lovely ladies, and Happy Friday! I'm Kali at Kali Now Living and I am honored and excited to guest post for Jessica. I love her blog, really love the adorable pics of Violet and pretty much need her sense of humor to get me through the work week. Let's wish Jessica a safe trip home!

I've been addicted to nail polish for a few months now (ok, not really but kind of) and really look forward to Friday's Nail Files link up with Tara and a few other great gals. A few weeks ago I shared a tri-color spring mani, and I've had several requests for a tutorial. It's pretty much foolproof and easy as 1, 2, 3, 4!

Start with a base coat. Add two coats of your favorite nail polish color and let dry. Add a diagonal stroke of your second polish color, working from the side of the nail towards the center. Let dry. Working from the opposite side of your nail, add another diagonal stroke using your third color. 

This manicure features Julep's Helen, Toni and Zelda. I'd love to see what fun color combinations you come up with and hope you all have a great weekend.

A happy weekend.

This weekend...

The weather was PERFECT and I realized I could totally live in Texas forever and a day IF our April weather was always like this. But it's not so that's a talk for another day ;)

On Friday, we dropped this cutie off with my MIL and I got to have a REAL FREAKING DATE with her hot daddy. That's a big deal, y'all - our last date (alone!) was months ago. We went to a place called Josephine Street Café and having passed it oh, about 1000x in our time, neither of us had ever tried it! It was so good and so fun to have a real sit down meal. And we got prime patio seating. And the weather was perfect. (Have I mentioned that?) And the date was perfect. And the conversation was just so needed. Aaah, more of that please.

Since we spent a lot of time outside this weekend, this gave me the perfect lighting to obsess over my newest nail polish (Revlon Girly). It's just so well, girly, and so pretty in the sunlight!

On Saturday I shipped off packages to mamas who bought from my IG shop last week. Let me tell you, I am SO grateful to everyone who is buying from me. This has seriously been an awesome experience! Going to the post office on Saturday mornings (and getting breakfast on the way + spending about 45 minutes to myself) is a fun new routine for me. That night Ronnie made us some zucchini patties and OH EM GEE. Tastiest health food evah. Ronnie wasn't too happy with them because they fell apart so easily and just didn't look great, but I LOVED them. I'll share a recipe soon if anyone's interested!

And if you were wondering what V was up to ;) She spent her weekend attached to her "phone" (the remote), playing in her new "toy" (courtesy of the best daddy) and she hung out with me all day yesterday while I helped a friend unpack at her new place and also helped her open her own IG shop!

In between all of that, I caught up on the Dallas finale (holy crap.), started Downton Abbey Season 2 (I am completely in love with it, y'all) and did some cleaning and organizing. It was probably one of the best weekends we've had in a while :)

How was yours?

Fluff Friday?

I really feel like my blog is all b.s. and fluff lately but honestly, I'm ok with that. Why would I want to bore you with talk about my life? ha I can sum it up for you in a few words: work, coffee, Violet, exhaustion, work, Violet, wine, Ronnie, more work, more exhaustion and more coffee. Nothing you haven't already heard about!

 

I love my life, I really do, but I feel like I'm still struggling to just be ME. As an individual and as a fiancé. It's tough, yo! I truly am grateful for all that we have, I just realize I really need to take more time out for myself and for Ronnie. We need it!! This is why I'm glad April is here - it's a kick off to some of our favorite things!    

• This weekend is the San Antonio Highland Games and this is something my Scottish baby daddy gets super excited about. We first went a couple years ago and then we took new baby Violet last year. It's just a really fun time and how can you go wrong with anything that involves beer, music, kilts, food and lots of strong, burly men walking around. Just saying ;) 

• Then at the end of this month, it's FIESTA time!!! This one is MY event. It's 10 days of over 100 events including carnivals, fairs, parties, parades and so so much food and drink. The best way to explain it is - Mardi Gras but Mexican. ha It's a Fiesta, hello! It's truly an insane amount of partying that our city does and you'll go broke partaking in it, but it's so worth it.
• And then at the beginning of May, I travel to Vegas for the first of my two annual work events. Hence, my life being so full of work lately. We see a lot of the same people in our industry so going to our events is like a big reunion which I so look forward to; being in Vegas on our boss' dime is just an added perk ;) I'm not looking forward to leaving V for a week and not being here for Ronnie's birthday but I'll make it up to them when I get back!!

All that to say: Until some real excitement happens around here, you're getting fluff :)

 

Today's fluff: nail polish.

 

Essie - Turquoise and Cacos

Essie - A Cut Above (accent nail)

 

 

I took the picture of the polish inside to show you how pale T&C looks in the bottle. It's a really thin polish and it takes about 3 coats and will get more of a green color going but I added a fourth coat and it definitely looked more turquoise. I just can't live without an accent nail nowadays (can anyone?) so I added one of my favorites. I really loved this mani for Easter and it looked good for about 5 days, I was surprised. This picture was taken after 3 days.

Now, go enter my giveaway! Hair accessories and baby girl accessories, people. DO IT.

Happy weekend!

Discounts, High Fives and Nails!

I have the day off!!! 

But before you go and get all jealous, just know I didn't get to sleep in. My child decided no one in this house was sleeping in today! Oy. I'm just grateful to not have to go to work! Know what I'm saying? 

Ooh and I have some fun news today! ...

My March Etsy Sponsor Chip & Chisel is offering y'all 20% off your purchases again, before the month ends! Just use code YAMC20 (you must like her FB page first to qualify) and the code is good through Sunday! I truly hope everyone's gone over and had a look at Lindsy's jewelry - it's amazing. And as I've said before, I'm completely obsessed with my C&C necklace!

You can read my full post about Chip & Chisel here. 

Now for my High Fives!!

1. My sweet girl turned 13 months yesterday! I was in denial over her turning 1 last month but being over 1 is just too much!

2. My friend and I visit a local restaurant so much (because Nacho Monday, y'all!) that apparently we are part of their top 50 customers so we got invited to a customer appreciation dinner last night! ha Both of us are moms so getting out for the night + Hobby Lobby + a free meal and margaritas = highlight of our week.

3. It's been so gloomy and dark the past few days and I love it. I know that's mean to say when you northerners are sick of cold, dreary days but believe me, it makes our warmer temps feel much cooler and bearable.

4. I was disappointed in how streaky Julep Bette was since it's a jelly but lo and behold, I actually had a good idea and gave Bette another shot. I was wearing Julep's Oxygen and just painted Bette over it and I love how it came out! Moral of the story - paint a jelly over a pale color. So much prettier and easier to use. (I suck and didn't take a good picture but take my word, it's pretty!)

5. I'm so excited to spend the Easter weekend with my little family - Violet's 2nd one. Crazy! Hopefully we can find a place to have her picture taken with the Easter Bunny but I'm not too concerned about it - she was obviously pretty traumatized by Santa. ha (I just realized I never even posted our Christmas pics here. Whoops!)

                                      

Have a great weekend, y'all. Enjoy your Easter (if you celebrate!) :)

Nail Files - Mojito Madness

I may be far from Irish but that doesn't mean I can't join in the festivities, right? :) So in honor of St. Paddy's Day weekend, I had to go green!

Essie - Mojito Madness

I've only worn this polish once before and loved it. Not sure why it's taken me so long to repeat!

I have to say, though I love Julep's colors and the service as a whole, Essie is still one of my favorite and easiest polishes to use. My #1 being OPI. Thoughts?

So I'm off work today -halleluyer!!- and besides lunch and a visit to the park, I'm not sure what else we have planned for our little family day but that's totally fine by me. I'd much rather be at home with them then at work ;)

Hey and don't forget, today is the last day to use my 20% off code at Chip & Chisel!! I'm thinking necklaces for me and Ronnie's moms would be perfect for Mother's Day. Lindsy has such an awesome variety of jewelry though, you should seriously jump at this offer!! Code is YAMC20 and you must like her Facebook page first.

Have a happy St. Paddy's weekend!

Nail Files + Last Chance To Enter My Giveaway!

 

I was so excited to share this beautiful color with y'all.

Julep - Joan

But instead of taking pictures this morning of my already perfectly pretty mani, I went and added another coat this morning because in my crazy head that's exactly what it needed and surely it would dry in no time and still look as pretty as it had... before I went and effed it up.

I'm now at work with smudged nails and I may as well have shown up in my underwear. It's not pretty. I'm not exactly sure what I was thinking because now my hands are just a mess.

So I linked up today so that hopefully you nail pros could tell me your tricks for drying your nails! I usually only paint my nails when I know I'll have the time to just be patient and let them dry (like last night) but for days like today, I needed help. I've tried these drops from Sephora before and they were crap. At least for me. Recommendations are welcome!

My giveaway closes Monday morning so go enter already!

It's for $50 credit to Chip & Chisel and believe me, you need her jewelry in your life.

(The first 3 entries are mandatory. just FYI)

I'm gross and I need help.

Ever since I've completely kicked the habit of biting my nails (a lifelong bad habit, mind you!) I've been pretty damn proud of myself and have rewarded myself with all the pretty nail polishes I want. But lately I've stupidly let some stress get to me and in the past couple weeks, I've started back up my even worse habit of picking at the skin around my nails. Ok, so I normally have the nervous habit of picking at my fingers a little but this is BAD. It's not only gross but it makes my hands, nails and whatever polish I have on look horrid.

My fingers are worse now than in this picture and my thumbs are to the point of bleeding and hurting. Who does this?! I'm not even sure why I'm showing you this picture. Maybe so y'all can tell me how gross it is that I pick at my fingers? How having gross hands is not conducive to being a nail polish addict and then posting mani pictures? Because I need to be reminded of that EVERY DAY.

Be glad the picture is blurry. Believe me, you don't wanna see these sicko hands clearly.

I finally removed that grape looking shiz off my nails (like I was seriously not a fan of the color. Maybe it's my skin tone? Hmm or maybe just my gross nails!) and have replaced it with Julep Oxygen Nail Treatment. I'm hoping this will actually do what it should and repair the damage I've done to my nails and make them stronger. But as far as the damage I've done to the surrounding skin, that's on me. I just need to break this habit again.

 

And being totally for real here, I have noticed that with less wine drinking comes more nail picking. I've had a bottle of moscato for 2 weeks now just waiting to be opened and I haven't even bothered. Now I've suddenly started tearing my fingers up. Coincidence? I think not.  

 

So now that I've fully grossed you out with my nails, I'll leave you with this important reminder:

Stop stressing. Your pretty hands are not worth it.

 

Seriously life lessons right there, y'all.

Nail Files + February Julep Box

I tried two new polishes this week but am saving the other for next Friday!

This week's is one from Milani's Neon line - Fresh Teal. This color is an interesting one.

First, the bottle is "wrapped" in plastic so it's not see through to the polish inside. Weird.

Second, the nail color does not photograph well. AT ALL.

It paints on like a teal but in every type of lighting I tried, it shows up as a blue-ish turquoise.

I just googled swatches and people complained about the same thing. So weird!

This picture was taken about 3 days after I painted them which is why my nail tips are chipped but really it's a pretty decent brand and I LOVE the color! I want to try the rest of their neon line!

Yesterday I received my February Maven Box from Julep!

I went with the "Classic With A Twist" box and received:

 --Claudette - a "smokey brick red creme"
--Helen - a "smoky pastel lavender creme"
--Oxygen Nail Treatment 
--Freedom Polymer Top Coat.

I cannot wait to try these bad boys!! 

They also threw in a little eyelash curler (that works really well, I might add) 

and a couple of little heart chocolates. No idea where those went ;)

I'd say this was a pretty sweet deal for $19.99!

If you want to jump on the Julep bandwagon, sign up here!

Do what I did and try their Intro box for just a penny. For real. The code is PENNY.

Happy Friday AND oh - my - gah Happy February!!

(a.k.a. the month my baby turns 1. Oh lord. Pass me the tissues.)

Nail Files - Candy Apple

Y'all know I love me a good red nail polish! I feel like that's all I ever post about for Nail Files! ha

One of my aunts gave me an Old Navy gift card for my birthday along with a couple of Old Navy Tip Toe polishes and I finally got around to trying this one, Candy Apple.

I wasn't expecting it to be the best quality polish around but it ended up being really easy to work with! Just another thing to make me love Old Navy even more ;) It was slightly streaky after 2 coats but the third seemed to do the trick. Normally 3 coats pisses my impatient self off but luckily this dried pretty quickly too. 

And in other nail polish news, I got over being annoyed with Julep (after I wasn't able to change my box style in December) when I found out that February's box would include not only 2 polishes but their Oxygen Nail Treatment and Freedom Polymer Top Coat! All that for $19.99? Done! This time instead of my usual Bombshell box, I chose Classic With a Twist instead. Told you I'm a sucker for reds.

If you're on the fence about signing up for Julep, try their intro box for 1 penny! That's how I got hooked on them last year. Just click below then use the code PENNY. (If that doesn't work, I've also seen the "MAVENINTRO" code floating around.)

I'm supposed to head to Austin tomorrow for the Austin Blogger Meetup but per usual, my busy student fiance has a ton of studying to do and I have yet to find an available sitter :/ I'll keep my TX girls posted!!

Happy Day, it's FRIDAY!! Enjoy your weekend!

Just stopping in!

Hey y'all! I hope everyone had a great Christmas! Vacation has been sooo amazing and it's really been nice to take a break from blogging this week and I plan to continue it for a few more days but since I had a childless few hours yesterday, I finally got to paint my nails and had to share! I love how this combination turned out.

I used L'Oreal Greycian Goddess and love & beauty multi color glitter from Forever 21. The glitter's kinda gloopy and a pain in the a to use but if you're patient (so says the most impatient girl evah!), it ends up looking really pretty! Plus for 99 cents, you can't complain much.

We had an awesome first Christmas with Violet and we took oh, about 200 pictures. No lie. But we did about 5 family events since last Saturday so there was a lot to capture! ha. We have our 6th and FINAL (thankyoujesus) get together tonight. So til I see ya again, have a great weekend and Happy New Year!! xoxo

And most important of all,

Happy 10 Months today to our sweet tootie girl!!

(You'll have to excuse me while I go cry my eyes out. Why do our babes grow so fast?!)

merry nails

Happy Friday!

You know the day's gonna be good when you can start off with a little crafting! I just got done glittering up and personalizing stockings for myself and 12 co-workers. I'm a glittery mess now but it doesn't hurt getting paid to have some fun ;)

I'm linking up in 2 places today for both Amy's Merry Manicures and Tara & Vicki's Nail Files!

I tried over and over to get a good picture of my nails but it just wasn't happening. My phone's camera is normally pretty decent but it wasn't focusing well and my point and shoot was no help either...But here it is! I had fun with this one and was pleasantly surprised that pink glitter looks good over a berry color! I think it's pretty festive and Holiday-ish, no?

Essie A Cut Above and Essie Berry Naughty

I'd just finished cleaning then decorating so let's agree to ignore my cuticles, shall we? ;)

I have a new color on (as of last night) but I was pretty obsessed with this mani and want to do it again! A Cut Above is a really fun glitter too - it's "shattered" and has large pieces mixed in with micro glitter. I even had a couple people stop and ask what gold flaking I had used on my nails? ha. It's definitely a pink glitter but I can see how it looks goldish over the berry!

I never linked up any of my Instagram pictures this week so here's just a few! ;)

1. Christmas cutie booty // 2. Obsessed with V's new crib sheet // 3. Sweet girl

4. Dinner time  // 5. Influenster reviews coming soon! // 6. Cutest niece and nephew evah!

Have a great weekend, y'all!

I'm heading out! + A Guest Post from Allie

Good morning, lovelies! I am currently (if you're reading this before 9 am) stressing the eff out and getting myself together and out the door to the airport! My flight leaves at 11:20 am and I won't be back until NEXT Saturday evening. Wish me luck! And a huge thank you in advance to all the ladies taking over my blog while I'm gone!

 

Which brings me to...the first guest blogger of the bunch, Allie!! I met her through the Fall Swap - she was my amazing partner - and I have loved the heck out of her ever since. Pay her a visit after you read her fun post! Oh and if you participated in the swap - tomorrow is the day to link up and show off the goodies ;)

Hey Ya'll! 

Let me start by introducing myself, after all that is the right way to begin right? Right.

I'm Allie and you can come say hello at Tales of a Twenty Something!

I'm 24 and from North Carolina, in case you were curious.

If ya'll have been here for any amount of time, you know that some of Jessica's favorites are nail polish and jewelry, well after her hubby and Violet of course!   FYI - I share the same loves! The first two obviously, but I'm sure when her and her adorable family come to NC, they are coming to visit, and I'm sure they will be added to my list as well!   Since fall is upon us, I wanted to share some of my favorite fall polish colors! My container of nail polish is ridiculously full, but these are my top five go-to pretties.

Essie - Going Incognito

Maybelline - Impeccable Greys

OPI - Houston We Have a Purple

Revlon - Slate Blue

 

 

Zoya - Toni

Finally the BEST glitter polish and it's cheap!

 

NYC - Starry Silver

And the BEST top coat. It dries super quick and your nails DO NOT smudge

Essie - Rapid Dry Top Coat

And last but certainly not least, jewelry. Girl loves her some good jewelry. Oh and when I say girl, I mean yours truly, but in this case, Jessica too.   I was SO late on the whole bubble necklace thing, but I jumped on the caboose and received my first of five, yes five, bubble necklaces the other day.   I. LOVE. IT. I will also be receiving turquoise, hot pink, red, and black in the mail very soon.

and, yes there is an and. I ordered two of these lovelies in red and grey and am patiently about to explode waiting their arrival.

I know what you're thinking...girl you have a problem. and I agree. I'm working on it.

Maybe.

But probably not.

So what if I have to eat Ramen Noodles every night for dinner to afford my habits.

Girl will eat those noodles in style

Thanks again Jessica for letting me take over your blog today!

xoxo ya'll