March 6, 2013

What are some cute nail art ideas for Spring? What are some nail designs on white nails that look cool?

Spring is coming! It’s so close I can almost taste it. I can’t wait for the warmer weather, brighter sun, and longer days. I’m also ultra excited to start doing spring nail designs on my fingernails. Painting my fingernails is always fun and I LOVE nail art, but honestly, as a mom, I don’t have a lot of time to do amazing and intricate designs. Luckily for you, I have put together some very simple nail art ideas that are perfect for spring. They all use dots and they don’t take much time.

In case you don’t know, here is the simplest way to make dots with nail polish:

Lots of Dots

Start with a solid color for the base. I did white for my base. Next, make a bunch of dots with one color, then a bunch of dots with a second color, and finally a bunch of dots with a third color. Just do one layer of colors at a time.

Polka Dots

Start with a solid colored base. Again, I used white. Then, simply make evenly spaced polka dots all over the nail.

Shamrock

This one is just for St. Patrick’s Day! Start with a solid colored base. I did white. Use the nail polish brush to make dots that are close together to make shamrocks. Finish by using the edge of the brush to make the stem.

Line of Dots

Start with a solid colored base. I used a pastel pink. Make a thick vertical line on one side of the nail with a contrasting color. I used white for my contrasting color. Now, use the base color and make dots on top of the thick vertical line.

Dots on Top

Start with a solid colored base. I used purple. To do the nail art for this one, you will need a thin, nail art brush. These frequently come in a set, like this set on Amazon.

Begin by making small dots at the top of the nail. Next, make a horizontal line under the dots. You can stop there, or you can make a second horizontal line (like I did) under the first line.

I’ll end with just a few tips. If you are really short on time, paint your fingernails with the base coat on one day, and then do the nail art the next day. Also, I definitely recommend painting your nails with a good clear fingernail polish top coat when you do nail art. This will make your hard work last much longer. Have fun!

We've found some fun people with great linky parties. You might just see this post linked up on one of these amazing sites! Link and Learn from No Time for Flashcards Sunday Showcase from Train Up a Child Share it Saturday from Teach Beside Me Tot School Gathering Place from 1+1+1=1 Montessori Monday from Living Montessori Now Tuesday Tots from In Lieu of Preschool Show and Tell from ABC & 123 For the Kids Fridays from Sun Scholars Finished Friday from All Our Days Weekly Kids Co-op from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails Preschool & Kindergarten Corner from Homeschool Creations TGIF Linky Party from 123 Homeschool 4 Me

February 11, 2013

How can I start a quick home exercise routine that will keep me healthy without taking up too much time? What is a back workout routine I can do to help with aches and pains? How can I exercise without equipment?

I know you are thinking, Cassidy, you have no idea what life as a mom is like, you don’t have kids! That is true, but unfortunately I do know a lot about having a busy schedule. I currently shoot part time for Plain Paper Box, work on this awesome blog with Kirstylee, post on my succulent blog, am working on starting a digital scanning business with my husband, and take care of meals, laundry, cleaning and other household duties. So… I don’t really have a lot of time for exercise.

I’m not the type of person that loves going to the gym. I am always up for athletic activities, especially volleyball, and enjoy playing dance games on the Wii or Kinect. But, that doesn’t really happen everyday. I’m pretty much at a computer or behind the camera 24/7. I don’t need to lose weight but I have been getting back pains and sore muscles from lack of exercise. I want to exercise but up until a few weeks ago I hadn’t found anything that I was committed to doing everyday.

I also don’t really have any exercise equipment so if I do an exercise program at home, the routine can’t involve anything that requires additional equipment. But, I have discovered that there are a lot of exercise plans for women out there that you can do at home without equipment.

So, my goal for the new year is to exercise at least 5 minutes everyday. Simple enough right? That may not seem like enough to do any good but I will tell you that it is. Plus, I figure if I can consistently do 5 minutes I can work my way up to more. I think it’s a good way to start for beginners like me.

I saw a pin on Pinterest a few weeks ago (I didn’t like the picture or website associated with it so I didn’t pin it) that had the following suggestion for exercising:

“Do this routine before every shower: 50 jumping jacks, 5 pushups, 20 crunches, 20 mountain climbers, and 30 second plank.”

 

I have been doing this for the last few weeks every time I shower, or first thing when I wake up in the morning. I also added this exercise to help improve posture. The whole routine takes 5-10 minutes and has really helped with my tense shoulders and back pains. I’m sure as I do it more I should add a few more reps of each thing, but that would be easy to do. (PS: In these photos I’m not wearing exercise clothes because I don’t usually! I’m usually in PJs or normal clothes)

Another thing I’ve done, and this was a year or two ago, was a program called 100 Pushups, 200 Sit Ups, and 200 squats. They’ve since added 150 dips and 25 pullups. I finished the whole program and could do over 100, 200 and 200 (respectively). I felt really good when I was doing that.

Kirstylee mentioned to me that she does a lot of the exercises on this website too. It is a very similar idea.

So, my advice, is to find something that works for you that you can do for just a few minutes a day before you shower. Even if I’m in a hurry I can squeeze in a few minutes of exercise before showering. If you have a certain area you want to work on, check google or pinterest for ideas of how to work that area. Then do that for a few minutes a day, everyday. I promise your body will feel so much better!

In case you missed it, another great post about being healthy is our 40 Healthy Meal and Snack Ideas for Moms!

We've found some fun people with great linky parties. You might just see this post linked up on one of these amazing sites! Link and Learn from No Time for Flashcards Sunday Showcase from Train Up a Child Share it Saturday from Teach Beside Me Tot School Gathering Place from 1+1+1=1 Montessori Monday from Living Montessori Now Tuesday Tots from In Lieu of Preschool Show and Tell from ABC & 123 For the Kids Fridays from Sun Scholars Finished Friday from All Our Days Weekly Kids Co-op from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails Preschool & Kindergarten Corner from Homeschool Creations TGIF Linky Party from 123 Homeschool 4 Me

January 23, 2013

I want to introduce you to my sister! She has some amazing sewing skills and has done some really great things lately with sewing her own clothes and also refashioning clothes. One of her projects was especially interesting to me so I asked her to write a blog post for us so we could share it with you.

My name is Brianna Northrup and I am Cassidy’s sister. I have recently been getting into sewing and refashioning clothes and have had quite a bit of success doing it. For my guest post today I am going to tell you about one of my more successful Saver’s shopping trips and refashion projects.

Over the past couple of months I have been following the blogs of people who go to places like Saver’s and Goodwill and find clothes that still have some wear in them and give them new life. I am a pretty good seamstress and thought this sounded like a lot of fun. I had some free time on a Saturday and was in the mood to sew so I headed to my local Saver’s to see what I could find. I have never been the kind of person to shop at thrift stores and upon walking in I was reminded why, but possibility of a good find was just too tempting so I made my way into the store.

After about a half an hour of looking I stumbled upon a polka dot dress that seemed like it had some potential. It was several sizes too big but the fabric still had a lot of wear left in it and other then a small tear in the seam on the front the dress was I good condition. I picked up the dress and headed up to checkout. On my way to the checkout an infinity scarf near the register caught my eye. I had been looking for one similar to it for awhile so I picked it up as well.

My purchase totaled about $6. $4 for the dress and $2 for the scarf. (Sorry about the awful picture of the dress, I was in a hurry to get sewing so I just snapped a picture with my phone).

I brought my purchases home and I got to work on my dress. I had to wash it twice before I began to get rid of the smell. Once my dress was clean I was ready to begin. There were three things that I wanted to change about the dress. I wanted to take in the sides and the sleeves and hem the dress. To get an idea of how much I would need to take the dress in I turned it inside out and placed a dress that I like the fit of on top and traced the sides (see photo).

Then I started to sew. I started at the edge of the sleeve and sewed all the way down to the bottom of the dress following the lines I had traced earlier. After I had sewn both sides I tried on the dress to see how it looked. It was still a little bit loose fitting so I sewed it in a little bit further following along the seam I had just sewn. I had to do this three times before I had it just perfect. Once I had it the way a wanted it I cut out the extra fabric. I tried it on one more time just to make sure I liked the way it looked. Now I was ready to do the hem. As you can see in the first picture the dress was almost to my ankles. I wanted it to come just below my knees so I decided to hem it about four inches. I pinned it up four inches and tried it on again. I liked the way it looked so I sewed them hem and trimmed the excess fabric and I was done! In the end it took me about two hours to do and I was very pleased with the result. What do you think?

We've found some fun people with great linky parties. You might just see this post linked up on one of these amazing sites! Link and Learn from No Time for Flashcards Sunday Showcase from Train Up a Child Share it Saturday from Teach Beside Me Tot School Gathering Place from 1+1+1=1 Montessori Monday from Living Montessori Now Tuesday Tots from In Lieu of Preschool Show and Tell from ABC & 123 For the Kids Fridays from Sun Scholars Finished Friday from All Our Days Weekly Kids Co-op from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails Preschool & Kindergarten Corner from Homeschool Creations TGIF Linky Party from 123 Homeschool 4 Me

November 21, 2012

What are some inexpensive brands of nail polish that work well? How good is the nail polish that costs $1?

In a previous post I mentioned my one and done fingernail painting philosophy. This means I paint my fingernails with one coat and I am done no matter what. Okay, sometimes I do two coats or sometimes I mess up badly enough that I redo a nail or two, but for the most part I follow this philosophy. Something else I do as a mom nail polish artist, I save money. The last time I bought expensive ($6-$15) nail polish was… never. Wow, I didn’t even think about that until I wrote it. Actually, I think I bought some expensive stuff as a gift once, but I don’t remember for sure. I always buy the cheap stuff and for the most part, I’ve been pretty happy with it.

Now, I’m not in any way saying that expensive nail polish is not worth the money. If nail polish is your thing and you prefer to use high quality nail polish, then the expensive stuff is certainly the way to go. I have a bunch Mary Kay nail polish that I got years ago as a gift and that stuff is amazing. It works much better than my cheap nail polish and has lasted several years. I think if you can afford it, expensive nail polish is much better. However, if you’re cheap like me and just can’t bring yourself to spend so much on nail polish, then allow me to review a few cheap nail polish brands. These will be in order of my least favorite to my most favorite. They were all bought at either Walmart or Target. (Just a side note: The links on the names are Amazon links and I do make money if you order from Amazon through the link. However, I just added them so you can see what the polish looks like. You should be able to find a better deal in a store, such as Wal-Mart. These online are not as good a deal as what I purchased.)

6. PURE ICE: This is Walmart’s brand I think. It is $2. It’s pretty good except I always need two coats which doesn’t work so well with my one and done philosophy. After two coats though, the color looks nice. One weird thing about this brand, if I paint over the same spot too many times it will start to take off some of the polish that was already there. It’s a little weird and makes it so I actually do have to dry a bit in between coats.

5. Wet n Wild fast dry: This one was only $1 which in my case is a huge redeeming quality. :) Unfortunately, this always needs two coats. Other than that it’s great. I like that it dries fast and the color is nice and thick after two coats.

4. Rimmel London Lasting Finish Pro: This nail polish was about $3, but it works quite well. I can usually get away with one coat, but I will sometimes have to touch up a nail or two with a few extra brush strokes. The color isn’t extremely thick, but it’s fine especially if my nails are short so you can’t see through the nail.

3. NYC (New York Color) In a New York Minute Quick Dry: I can’t remember if this nail polish is $2 or $3, but it’s pretty cheap either way. I only ever do one coat of this nail polish, but I will occasionally have to touch up a few spots. The thing that makes this polish better than number 4 is that it is a quick dry polish! I love that. The color is actually pretty thick and maybe it’s just because this is my favorite color of polish, but I love this nail polish so much! I will say though, a friend of mine has this same brand, but a different color and it doesn’t work nearly as well. It definitely needed two coats, but it was still a beautiful color after two coats and it dries fast.

2. Wet n Wild wild shine: This stuff was only $1! That makes it pretty awesome. I can always do just one coat and the color is nice and thick. I have this in black which means if the color isn’t thick, it’s extremely obvious. I wasn’t expecting this stuff to be as good as it is because it’s Wet n Wild, but I have been extremely happy with it.

1. REVLON top speed: This is by far my favorite of my cheap nail polishes. The truth is though, I have no idea how much this is normally. I bought it on clearance for $1 so it might in fact be expensive. The color goes on nice and thick and it dries fast which is always a plus. I have to be pretty careful about how I paint because there are streak lines if I’m not careful. Still though, I can get both of my hands painted and dried in under 10 minutes so that makes it amazing!

If you know anything about cheap nail polish brands, you will notice one common brand that has been left off my list. Sally Hansen. This is probably the most common brand of cheap nail polish. So, why did I leave it off my list? I hate it. Pure and simple. ☺ First of all, they have a bazillion different kinds at varying prices so you never know if the kind you are getting is an okay kind or a terrible kind. Besides that, I have never had good luck with Sally Hansen, ever. It always starts chipping after one day, or always needs two coats, or always has streak lines in it. My sister just told me that her Sally Hansen had bubbles in it because she shook the bottle before she painted her nails and the bubbles stayed after it dried! Weird. If you love Sally Hansen go ahead and keep using it, but you will never be able to convert me to it. ;)

One last thing before I end, if you want high quality nail polish and don’t mind spending more money on it, here are a few great brands: Essie, Butter London, Sinful Colors, O.P.I., Lippmann Collection, and China Glaze. Happy fingernail painting!

We've found some fun people with great linky parties. You might just see this post linked up on one of these amazing sites! Link and Learn from No Time for Flashcards Sunday Showcase from Train Up a Child Share it Saturday from Teach Beside Me Tot School Gathering Place from 1+1+1=1 Montessori Monday from Living Montessori Now Tuesday Tots from In Lieu of Preschool Show and Tell from ABC & 123 For the Kids Fridays from Sun Scholars Finished Friday from All Our Days Weekly Kids Co-op from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails Preschool & Kindergarten Corner from Homeschool Creations TGIF Linky Party from 123 Homeschool 4 Me

November 13, 2012

What are some ways that I can create my own notebook or journal?

Yesterday I talked about The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor and mentioned that I’d be giving you some ideas for creating your own journal. If you haven’t already you can look at using this handy little sheet I created called Thinking Positive as a way to get started quickly. Or, jump right in and create a journal using one of these ideas! My sister, mom and I really enjoy making books using the Coptic stitch. We learned locally from a gal named Karliegh Jae Haywood of Badger and Chirp. Her blog has some tutorials and she has an awesome Etsy shop with tools for bookbinding as well as books she’s made. Take a look! We’ve made quite a few books using the Coptic stitch and they have been used for various things. But, there are a lot of other great ideas out there too!

Make Your Own Journal

• Coptic Stitch Journal
• Embroidered Journal
• Use the Japanese Stab Technique
• Another Stab Technique
• Use a Cereal Box!
• Use Index Cards
• Long Stitch Method

Spruce Up a Journal You Already Have!

• Decoupage the Cover
• Use Nail Polish
• Use Washi Tape (you may remember I bought some of this for the inside of my journal)
• Chalkboard Paint Cover
• More Washi Tape
• Fabric Cover

With so many options for crafty people as well as Pinterest… I’m sure you can find a bunch more ideas or come up with your own! We would love to see what you come up with whether you make your own or just buy something. Hopefully this cute new journal will motivate you to keep writing things you are grateful for even once the Thanksgiving season is over!

We've found some fun people with great linky parties. You might just see this post linked up on one of these amazing sites! Link and Learn from No Time for Flashcards Sunday Showcase from Train Up a Child Share it Saturday from Teach Beside Me Tot School Gathering Place from 1+1+1=1 Montessori Monday from Living Montessori Now Tuesday Tots from In Lieu of Preschool Show and Tell from ABC & 123 For the Kids Fridays from Sun Scholars Finished Friday from All Our Days Weekly Kids Co-op from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails Preschool & Kindergarten Corner from Homeschool Creations TGIF Linky Party from 123 Homeschool 4 Me