Nails

I love nail polish.

So much so that this will be my second post about nail polish.

Recently I have gotten a little bored with my usual self-manicures.

But thanks to Pinterest I got a bunch of new ideas and went a little overboard (Megan?...go overboard?....noooo)

I couldn't wait to try the different ideas one at a time, I had to do them all!

(FYI: all these nail polishes are Revlon, except the matte blue which is OPI)



Don't worry, I took all the nail polish off before going in public.

This nail I did by painting the nail green then cutting small strips of scotch tape and putting them on the nail and painted over with the dark silver.



(Note on using scotch tape on nails: Your polish must be COMPLETELY dry before putting it on or else it will pull off the polish when you take it off.)

This nail I painted silver, then I put a piece of tape on the tip of the nail and painted dark silver. I let that dry then covered a chunk of the dark silver with tape and painted black on the base of the nail.



This nail I painted that coral/pink color than took two pieces of tape and put them on the nail at opposite angles and painted the blue.



This nail is probably my favorite. I painted my nail with matte dark blue polish then painted the tip with a glossy top coat.



I don't like this nail at all but it could easily be improved with a better choice of colors and thinner strips of tape. I painted the nail gold then used 2 strips of tape and painted over in brown.



Ah, you counted 5 fingers and thought I was done didn't you!

Nope.

After I took all that polish off I came across a really cool trick for french manicures and did this:



These were my very first Essie nail polishes (Fiji and Chinchilly)

Now I'll never get another brand of polish!

I love love love it!

The colors are so nice and they last WAY longer than any other nail polish I have used.

I REALLY want the Mint Candy Apple color but I can't find it anywhere.

Ok so going back to the trick for french manicures...here it is..

Hole reinforcement stickers.



Genius right?

I don't know why I never thought of it.

(Guess that means I'm not a genius, contrary to popular opinion)

You just cut them in half and stick it to your nail like so:



But after all this fancy nail work, this has been my favorite manicure by far:



I can't explain why I love it so much but I just know that I want my nails like this forever.



I painted my nails with Fiji by Essie then painted two coats of Disco Lights by Milani on my ring fingers.

I can't take credit for this idea either, I saw it on Pinterest.

Hope this gives you some good ideas too!

Another Haircut for Lilo

Because I can't get enough of Lilo's before & afters

(and hopefully you can't either)

here is another one.

Before (taking her to the groomer)



After (taking her home after the groomers)



The question is, which hair style is more ridiculous?

(This is where "The Professor" AKA Stephen steps in)

Keep in mind that Lilo is essentially ridiculous, meaning that it is an attribute that if taken away, Lilo would cease being Lilo. If I took the redness from a rubber ball, a ball would still exist because redness is not an essential attribute to the ball or any ball. Redness to a ball (and if taken farther, color on anything) is what philosophers call an "accidental" attribute. As for essential attributes, a bachelor has two essential attributes: one must be both unmarried and a male. An Asian unmarried male is just as much a bachelor as a hispanic unmarried male, for the attributes of "asian" and "hispanic" are accidental or non-essential to bachelorship. So essential attributes are things required by definition of a certain object or substance, whereas accidental or non-essential attributes are not required by the definition of a certain object or substance.

But back to Lilo. Ridiculousness is an essential attribute to Lilo. Without this attribute Lilo is no longer Lilo. She is necessarily ridiculous. There exists no possible world where Lilo, if existing, will not be ridiculous. Just like there is no possible world where adding all the angles of any four-sided shape (quadrilaterals) does not equal 360 degrees or the angles of a triangle not add up to 180 degrees. We might as well make Lilo a Euclid axion.

The question then becomes, which hair style exemplifies the essential attribute of ridiculousness in Lilo?

I will let your philosophical minds meditate on that.

(Thanks for the lesson Professor!)

PS I also found our silly cat Giselle sleeping like this today.



PPS My parents are coming tomorrow! It's a good thing they like The Professor, ridiculous dogs and silly cats.

What We Do

When Stephen's family was all here we did a lot of time at the beach, the pool and Waikiki.

Though we love spending time with family, we are not much beach, pool or Waikiki people.

Or as Stephen's dad said "We would like to do things you like to do, but you guys don't really like the sun or the water."

So what do we like to do?

Well I'll give you a little taste by telling you what we have done our last 2 Saturdays.

Last Saturday we got up early and went to Honolulu for a library book sale.

We always try to get there a few minutes before it starts to get first picks.

(Yes I realize this is very nerdy)

We LOVE library book sales.

Our movers will not feel the same way.

We bought about 18 books for $25.

Then, since we were somewhat near chinatown, we decided to go and get cupcakes....at 10:30am.

(It's never too early for a good cupcake...right?)

Unfortunately it was closed for some reason.

Then we decided to walk to a nearby wine store so Stephen could get a bottle of Chardonnay he likes.

Then I remembered that there was a good bubble tea place nearby and we walked to that so I could get one.

(They don't taste all that great, but I get one every once in a great while just for fun)

Then we saw a little cake shop and Stephen got a slice of cheesecake.

Then we drove to the home brewing store so Stephen could pick up ingredients for more beer.

After that we went a home and brewed beer.

Obviously this is not what every Saturday is like but you get the general idea.

Now this Saturday, we got up early to go to a new open market nearby with the hope that it would have cool stuff but the expectation that it would be lame.

(We have gone to a LOT of open/farmers markets and most have been lame)

This one was lame.

Only a few booths and most selling junk.

We did get some tasty Hawaiian sweet bread.

I was really excited about this because I had been craving french toast.

Then we went home and I made french toast and we watched Tarzan.

Yes, Tarzan, the animated Disney movie.

I really like Disney and animated movies in general.

Not to mention there is something so fun in watching cartoons on a Saturday morning while eating french toast.

Then Stephen took a nap while I, like the nerd I am, made this:





It's a 19th century British literature timeline.

I told you I was a nerd.

I am a very visual learner and I wanted to get an idea of what works were written when and who influenced who and who were contemporaries and so on.

It shows the birth and death of all (that I could think of) important authors of the time and I put dots for when their works were published.

Then Stephen got up from his nap and spent the day with his favorite things:



A book, a cat and a glass of wine.

He read an entire book on the philosophy of music.

He's a nerd too.

(Are you seeing a theme yet?)

While he did that I edited wedding pictures and cleaned the kitchen.

And that is what our weekends are generally like.

Sometimes we go to dinner and a movie.

Sometimes we go to a coffee shop and read.

Sometimes we go out with friends.

So as you see, we do many different things.

And most not involving the water or the sun :o)

A short lived daydream

We came across a listing of this house and farm land in North Carolina about a year ago.

We instantly fell in love.

It was our dream house/farm.

We had always talked about how we would like to live in the Carolinas (not that either of us had been there, but it always seemed like a nice place to live)

The house is a really cute recently remodeled 2000 sq ft 3 bedroom with 2.5 bath.

The land is 17 acres.

There are fenced pastures (for our mini cow and goats of course)

A chicken coop.

A greenhouse.

A large pond for the dogs and kids to play in.

11 acres of forest land to play in.

A creek.

A barn.

A shed with electricity and running water for Stephen to brew in.

It was perfect.

But being that we live in Hawaii we thought no more of it.

Till yesterday.

Yesterday, just for kicks, I looked it up again.

I was shocked to find it was still for sale.

And now for only $235,000!

I looked through the pictures again and fell in love again.

I sent a text message to Stephen to tell him it was still for sale and "only" 37 miles from the Army post Ft. Bragg.

He called me and that is when the craziness started.

We actually started talking about the possibility of buying the house!

That's right, buying a house that we have never seen, in a state we have never been to, near a post we may not be assigned to.

Oh the madness!

We talked on the phone 3-4 times that day talking about how we could work it.

We both got pretty excited.

I just kept saying "This is madness!"

But in the few hours this daydream went on we planned our future and it was beautiful.

We envisioned our kids playing Robin Hood in the woods, ice skating on the pond in the winter, selling homemade cheese and butter at the local farmers market, putting in built in bookcases with a sliding ladder, having a crazy amount of animals...

Then Stephen called the realtor and found out that the house is pretty much sold.

It was tragic as we watched our daydreams crumble away.

But maybe someday we will find an even better dream house/farm that wouldn't be such madness to buy.

(Here's the link if you want to see just how perfect this place is)

http://www.carolinaforestry.com/north-carolina/johnston/ww/home-and-land-for-sale-north-carolina.html

Wolfe Whirlwind

Hey everyone!

Well the Wolfe family has come and gone and like always it was a fun and crazy whirlwind of a time.

The big BBQ at our place went well.

The wedding was lovely.

The week of hanging out at the beach and pool with family was fun.

It is going to take me a while to edit all the pictures.

I took about 350 at the wedding alone.

But here is a sneak peak at a couple of wedding pictures I have edited.

(Just a reminded, you can click on the picture to see it full size)

The groom and his groomsmen.



The bride and her bridesmaids.



My favorite part of "event" or "candid" photography is catching glimpses of looks and emotions that you would never get in a posed picture.

These two are my favorite pictures (so far)

I love how Michael is looking at Patti.



I love how Patti is looking at Michael.



Ah...so romantic.

More to come.

Soon...

..ish