Nail it every time! :-)

I've lived with the worst nails known to mankind for my entire life. I can barely grow them passed my fingertips and they bend both ways, break, chip, rip, tear,  you name it. Not only is it embarrassingly ugly but also painful when they break passed my skin. I tried so many things to take care of the problem but nothing ever worked. 

I have been on my new nail routine in the last month and just had to share with you all because to me its amazing. I took these tips from other blogs and I have never had my nails so hard in my life. First, if you have any damage from fake nails take care of that.

 Manicure nails, buff out any deep ridges, be careful not to buff or sand down too much, it just makes them thinner. Then you get a bowl or manicure dish and fill it with warm water, deep enough to cover the nails. Then add 1 teaspoon of sea salt to the water and soak your nails for 10-15 minutes. Do this once a day for 2 weeks. If you don't have any damage you can do it once or twice a week. 

Now to strengthen them I have used a few things.

 One is my nail brush. I use it to clean my nails when I wash my hands. Doing this as often as possible really is one of the best things for your nails. From what I've read it stimulates the nail to grow. And also from experience I'd have to say it has helped keep my cuticles from growing out of control. I got mine from Wal-Mart for $2 I think. 

Two is soaking them in warm water with a dash of milk and a dash of olive oil once a week. The oil seemed to also be great for my cuticles. 

Three is applying a clear coat strengthener after all is said and done. I usually apply 1-2 coats and then take i off before I soak my nails every week. I've used a lot of strengtheners but Develop 10 has the best one I've tried so far. It's $7.00 at Ulta. Develop10 Calcium Gel. It's also super shiny, I use it as a topcoat for my colored polishes and it gives you that slick wet nails look you see in the magazines. 

Four is just filing your nails a little bit every week. Making sure there are no rough edges that will turn into chips or tears. 

I hope this helps. It seems like a lot but it really isn't. The worst part is filing and shaping your nails but if you keep up with them weekly it will pay off. 

Inspiration becoming reality

I'm super excited for our wedding day. I just wanted to share with you what I've got in my head so far. I've already tried on this dress, so I'm pretty certain its the one. Please excuse my cut n paste job, I was a bit sloppy.

I hear jingle bells, erh wedding bells

Alex and I have been engaged for what seems like forever. We are young with children, and we had better things to spend our money on. It has been so long I have reverted back to calling him boyfriend. I don't really like the word fiancée, it sounds too stuffy, and we aren't the stuffy type. Anyway! We didn't have a huge mess of a proposal or engagement, we just started talking about it one night. "Honey, are we ever going to get married?", "Yes, when you wanna do it?", "Whenever." , "Ok. Start planning." :-) Yeee that's all I needed. If I waited around for a second spectacular over the top romantic redo proposal...I would've been waiting a long time. Now I wished I had given myself more time, or asked in December. But I really want this to be an outside affair and good luck getting me into a dress by the end of September. So August 20th seemed good. Just enough time to go bald before the wedding and spend more money than I intended because it's last minute planning in the wedding biz.

So this is my new endeavorer. Classes will be over in less than 3 weeks and I can focus on what's important. Losing this baby weight. It will be a mostly diy wedding. Invitations, favors, food, flowers. I just don't see the point in buying all that stuff. Not when you're a craft fiend stay-at-home mother.Now if only I could make wine, we'd be in business. 

MISO HUNGRY!

Konichiwa! Every time we go out for sushi, they always accompany huge order with some miso soup. I have been a fan for a while, and I really wanted to be able to eat this every now and then without having to order $60 worth of sushi. Although it does go great with sushi. I'm nowhere near being Japanese, but this is what I put together as a recipe. 

You will need the following... 

2 tsp Dashi stock

3 tbsp Miso paste -white

1 block Firm Tofu

2 handfuls Spinach

2 Green onions

6 cups Water

I got everything from Wegmans, in the international aisle. WAL-MART DOES NOT SELL THIS STUFF. 

You can add more veggies, or less. The base is the dashi stock. It either comes dried in a little jar like this (smells like fish food) or you can buy water based stock, but this works better for me. Or if you have any bonito fish hanging around throw em in a pot and make from scratch. Sooo..

To start, get about 6 cups of water in a pot and add 2 tsp of dashi stock to water.. Set to boil. While you are waiting for the stock to boil cut your tofu into 1-2 inch cubes. Be gentle with the tofu, it's very fragile. 

Once your water is boiling, carefully add the tofu to the the stock. Let it cook for a few minutes until heated through. About 5-6 minutes should do. 

And while you are waiting for the tofu to cook, dice up your spinach and green onions. Next you will want to add the spinach. I used baby leaf spinach, definitely not the right kind for miso soup. It wilts too fast and doesn't set well in the soup. Use bunched spinach instead. I will next time. I used about 2 handfuls here.

Get a separate bowl and add 1 and half to 3 tbsp of miso paste. It depends on the flavor you are looking for. Shiromiso has less sodium, so I used 3 tbsp in mine. 

Then you will need to add 1 cup of your dashi stock to this bowl, and mix the miso paste well until dissolved.

Turn down your heat and carefully stir in the miso paste mixture. Once it's in let it cook for a minute or 2 and then turn off the heat and add your diced green onions. Try not to let the soup come to a boil after the miso paste has been added, I have read it will diminish or change the flavor if cooked at too high temperature. 

Now just serve and enjoy. Very delicious, light soup. You can add more veggies if you'd like.

 My son loved it!

How to make quick crib rail covers without sewing!

This is a tutorial on how to make quick crib rail covers without sewing. They go along the top of the crib to prevent teething on the wood. Our first son chewed huge chunks out of the rails so this also doubles as a cover up because it looked kinda ugly. If you are strapped for time or don't have a sewing machine this does the trick. But if you do have access to a machine I suggest making some reinforced covers that can be washed.

HOW TO....

First you will need to pick out a fabric that matches the crib bedding/room palette, or baby's interest. I used 2 fabrics and just made 3 separate pieces along the top but you can do just one or many more. How much fabric? I bought 1 yard of each. It was more than enough for some trial and error. But if you want exacts measure your crib before purchasing. A yard is 3 feet.

WHAT I USED...

You will need fabric scissors, tape measure, an iron, your fabric and quilt batting for padding. Maybe also a fabric pencil or marker to mark your cuts.

TO START...

Measure your crib rails. You will need the length of the rail, the width of the bar all the way around for the padding, the width of the rail bars, and the spaces between the rail bars. Once you have the measurements you can start cutting. Get your fabric and take the length (mine was 26" for a side rail) and your width (mine was 4") plus add 3 inches on each side for the ties to hang down. So my total width will be 10 inches. My starting fabric was 26"x10".

Cut the batting to length, but only use the width that was measured for your top rail. (26"x4")

Place the fabric faded side up and put the batting piece in the center.

Hold the batting in place while you flip the fabric over. Run the iron over the fabric a few times to adhere the batting.

Once the batting is ironed you will need to start cutting. Get your measurements from the crib bars. Put a mark for each measured bar and then space. Mine were 1.5" bars and 2.25" space.

Once you've made the small slits, go back and finish the cuts all the way up to the edge of the batting. Leave about 1/4" space before the batting because when you fold it over the rail it will spread a bit. When this is finished fold up all the fabric pieces that will be your ties. Then cut off the pieces that are still hanging down.

This is the finished product. Just line it up and tie it along the top of the crib rail.

AND YOU'RE DONE! Hope this was helpful.

Rev up your skin for spring!

It seems like it's been an unusually long winter. My skin is definitely feeling it. I have been trying some new moisturizers, since that's about all I have time for these days. Just wanted to share a few. I was swearing by Alba Green tea moisturizer at the beginning of last year. It has a great texture, leaves your skin silky smooth and moisturized, smells delicious, and is mostly organic without all the harse chemicals to irritate sensitive skin. For about $18 at Target and Ulta it was a bit steep but a little goes a long way so it lasts for a while. I stumbled upon a wonderful gel moisturizer from Clinique when I was trying to buy my facial mist. She was out of the regular sized bottles but did have a kit that included a small mist, eye cream, and moisturizer. I just wanted to mist, so after listening to her talk for minutes about how great this moisturizer was and totally abandoning the reason why I went there in the first place, I just bought the damn package to shut her up. I was only going to use the mist. Sooo, I ran out of Alba finally...oh no! But wait! Clinique to the rescue. I used it. OMG was it good! Clinique Moisture Surge-Thirsty Skin Relief. There was no delicious scent, but it was so smooth, non-greasy, dried quickly, and my face stayed moisturized all day. It is now my favorite. Price tag, uhhh $34 at Macy's. After that ran out, I was on the search for something similar but cheaper. The gel moisturizers seem to spread beautifully, and allow you to apply all over the face without it half drying in the process and having to pull your skin. I found H2O skincare. Also a gel moisturizer, but same price as Clinique. I had a gift card so I said what the hell, and bought it. H2O has more moisture than Clinique's but it has an awkward smell to it. Sea mineral is active ingredient. It's not bad. But I don't fancy the smell. That's almost gone. I'm really starting to notice, it doesn't matter what I wash my face with, or the makeup I apply afterwards, it really depends on my moisturizer. I've heard great reviews on Philosophy's Hope in a Jar, so that will be what I try next.

Finally shaved my head!

Haha, not really but I did get a new haircut and I took a good 6-7 inches off. I had been debating this for quite some time and finally just went ahead and did it. I loved my long hair but with little time I have to shower or do anything with it, it was causing me more stress to keep it long. It was always up in a bun or point tail anyway and I was lookin' pretty drab. Well, now I have a shorter "mom friendly" look. I have to admit at first I did not like it, but now it has grown on me after a few days. My boyfriend thinks its "sexy" and he doesn't usually use that word so I was excited about that one :-) .

What's new?

I have tried numerous times to keep up with this thing, but sadly I am either A) Lazy, B) Busy, C) Very forgetful. I actually had to do a search tonight to find my own blog. That's sad. Anyway, with so much going on lately I decided I needed to find something minimally productive to work on when I need to take some ME time.

So, what am I into these days? Well I have a 2 year old and a 2 month old. That is the biggest challenge for me right now. One very active and one very helpless. It's quite an interesting and stressful day. Then throw in the one year old puppy that lacks obedience training and all hell breaks loose. I love my family, don't get me wrong, but I'm with them all day every day, every minute. I feel insane some days.

I'm also taking classes at Mansfield University. I started so soon because I knew I would need something to make me feel like I'm accomplishing more than just dishes and laundry everyday (if I can even get that much done.) I'm only taking 2 online classes right now while I learn to juggle family and school. Will be adding 4 more during the summer and hoping to be ready for campus by the fall for a full-time course load. I am currently undeclared because of transfering from Central Penn. I need a 3.0 to get into the Spanish Education program. I heard that they were discontinuing this major, so I have 2 easy classes to ensure I get the G.P.A. needed.

I am taking microcomputer systems and an intro health class. Both are quite easy for me. For my micro class we are exploring internet based application software. Currently working with Google Docs. I used the Presentation feature tonight for one of our assignments. My focus was my family so I'm going to share it with everyone. My Life, My Family. For health I'm doing a week long extra credit assignment. I'm keeping a food journal with calorie intake for 5 days straight. Because of this, I actually planned dinner for a week, made a shopping list, and bought only what was on the list.It was nice, I was only in walmart for 20 minutes as opposed to the usual 1 1/2 hours. I even made a simple table chart in Excel to count my calorie totals.