Fingernail art

I absolutely love fancy nail art. I'm always looking for new ideas. I stumbled across this ladies YouTube channel and she has some of the most fantastic manicure ideas. 

Photo snapshot from video of: SimpleLittlePleasures

www.youtube.com/simplelittlepleasures

My suggestions:

Use melted wax and an old make up brush to 'paint' your fingers around your nail. It makes clean up much easier.

If you're using expensive nail polish I would use a smaller size cup so you're not wasting as much polish or dipping two fingers at once when the pattern allows for it.

Be sure to check out her channel. If you see a video you like please be sure to give it a thumbs up. YouTubers put a lot of time into their work so show your appreciation when you find something you like.

Coloring cut flowers

This is a very simple project. It can be a little time consuming but most of the time is what I call 'wait time'. The time spent waiting for the results to happen.

Supplies:

White flowers (Carnations & daisies work the best but most white flowers work wonderfully)

Scissors

Glass vase (Glasses or mason jars work fine too. Do not use plastic because the dye will stain it.)

Food coloring (It takes a lot of coloring. Approx 22 drops per 1/2 cup water)

Warm water

Color wheel

DYING FLOWERS A SINGLE COLOR:

If you want a color other than the red, blue, yellow or green that standard food coloring comes in you'll need to remember the color wheel so you can mix the color. 

Make sure you are using healthy blooms. Do not use any that are even the slightest bit wilted as these ones will not 'drink' to absorb the coloring. Cut your flowers (under water) at an angle leaving them slightly longer than you want them for your arrangement. Cutting them under water prevents air bubbles from blocking the little tubes in the stem that the water flows through. Fill your vase with room temperature water and add food coloring. Place cut flowers in the vase and let them soak so they can 'drink' the dye. This can take anywhere from a few hours to days depending on how bold you want your colors to be. The longer they are in the dye to more intense their color will be. Once they are to your desired color be sure to retrim them before putting them in an arrangement.

If you're putting them in a vase rather than a basket arrangement using foam, you will need to re-trim them every couple of days so they can keep getting the water & food they need. Trim 3/4 of an inch to 1 inch off. Be sure to dump out all the water, clean the vase and refill with fresh water and food. Be sure to use a cut flower food to keep your blooms healthy as long as possible. 

DYING THE SAME FLOWER MORE THAN ONE COLOR:

If you would like to color your flowers more than one color you can slice the stem in half the long way starting at the bottom and working upward. An xacto knife actually works best for this. Be sure you're making a crisp clean cut. You do not want to crush the stem or it won't take up water.

Make the slice long enough so you can put one side in one container of water and the other side of the stem in another container of different colored water.

I had previously dyed the flower above with just red coloring. I have sliced it and now have one part in red and one part in blue. I'll post an 'after' photo with the results. I'd like a red/white/blue combination but most likely will end up with a purplish/white/blue combo.

If you start with a colored flower you will get a mixture of that color and whatever color of water you use. This is another time the color wheel will come in handy if you can't remember it from elementary school. 

Example: If you pick a red flower and water it with blue you should end up with a purple flower.

If you use a yellow flower and water it with blue you should get a green bloom.

(I can't verify the flower colors achieved because I have not personally used colored flowers to start with.)

You could use this as a science or art project for middle school kids. I don't recommend this project for small children since food coloring can be unfriendly and stain a lot of things. This also is probably more time consuming and would test the patience of small children since it can take hours and days to complete.

If you try this with colored flowers be sure to share your results by posting a link in the comments. I'd love to see how they turn out.

Happy Gardening!

I quit smoking

I am on Day #40 smoke free! My other half recently fell off of the no smoking band wagon. The saddest part, the day he hit the one month smoke free mark he went and bought cigarettes. He was on 10 days vacation over the Christmas holiday and used it as an excuse. He was crabby and said he didn't want us to bicker his entire vacation. I'm calling it what it is, yet another cop out. To him any reason he can find is an acceptable excuse. As long as he can come up with an excuse he thinks that negates any issues. 

Well I am determined to stick with it! The photo above is just one of my weapons in my arsenal for preventing smoking. My lung are happy and thank me but I'm afraid my foot is going to be kicking my butt when it grows huge and droops down to my ankles. I'm starting to wonder if healthy lungs will matter if I'm severely obese when this is all over. 

Murray of course thinks the snack dish is ALL his and whines whenever I take something out of it. We have tried to stay away from the mini's and stick with the fat free fruity snacks in there. Ok, the Snickers are GONE! The peanut butter cups are still there through. Amazingly, since I quit smoking and my taste buds are coming back I no longer like peanut butter cups again. 

I also discovered now that I quit smoking that I can't stand the smell of raw meat. It's like being pregnant all over again. I'm back to having people get the meat partially cooked before I can deal with it. Oh & I used to love shrimp; now... not so much. 

Well, this is where my 40 days of not smoking has gotten me. My lungs are healthier but my butt is bigger. I can't stand most smells anymore because my nose was sensitive before I quit smoking now it's even more so. My taste buds are revolting at all of the strong flavors. My darling other half hates me and I'm actually not liking him too much right now either. 

He goes back to work tomorrow and swears he's not smoking once he goes back. I'M HOLDING HIM TO IT! If he falls off of the wagon again I'm going to run him over with it. :)

PS: I love my other half even if I don't like him sometimes lol

Sand Candles

From Martha Stewart, here is a super easy sand candle project!
You can find the original post here: CLICK HERE



This is going to be one of my first projects of summer!
I'm not really into stripes so I will most likely do one of each in solid colors.

Relationships 101

RELATIONSHIPS 101 

When people ask me for relationship advice I always pass on the few rules I live by.

RULE #1 - NOTHING comes before your relationship. Not kids, family, friends, work, etc. If you put the kids first, what good will that do if Mommy and Daddy can't get along or are getting divorced? The relationship has to come first so you have a strong enough relationship to survive children, work, family and all of the stress that brings.

RULE #2 - Don't take an bulls&%t! People will treat you how you LET them treat you. People make mistakes but if someone treats you poorly more than once then it becomes your fault for putting up with it.

RULE #3 - When you have a problem ask yourself: Can I live with this if nothing changes? If the answer is yes then it really isn't that big of a problem. If the answer is no then you have two options, either fix it or get rid of it.

RULE #4 -  Never fight too hard to stay with someone who is willing to let you go & never hold on too tightly to someone who is willing to walk away. Have more respect for yourself than to ever beg someone to stick around. If they are willing to leave hold the door open for them.

RULE #5 - Property becomes that of the couple. You are a unit and it's important to think and act like one.  It's our house, our money and our things! If you start keeping a record of what belongs to whom you are automatically inserting a small wedge between you from the very beginning. Over time that little crack will turn into a huge valley that all of your little problems will slide in to eventually opening it up to the Grand Canyon. People come before things. Never forget that.

You have to fight for and work at any relationship. When it becomes more fighting than loving and all work rather than enjoying each other that's when you know you've got big problems and only the two of you can decide if you're going to fix it. You can't salvage any relationship if you both aren't committed to it. 

Missing my Marine

Wish you were here....

I wrote this for him when he first deployed. I thought once deployment was over it would make being apart easier as long as he was in the US. It did for a little while but spending another Christmas without him feels just terrible. He spent the day online with his Dad playing video games. I'm grateful they get that time together and that it helped them cope but it didn't help me feel any better or make me miss him any less lol. 

Christmas 20 to the 12

Well I survived another Christmas. After fully decorating our artificial tree TWICE we ended up deciding it was well past it's sell by date. We bought a real tree. About two days after fully decorating the second tree it started to look rather sad. It had plenty of water but that thing would have needed the fountain of youth to survive. It will most definitely be coming down tomorrow.

Our Marine didn't make it home for the holidays. I can't even describe what it's like to be separated  If you've never loved a person who serves in the military you can't understand. Regardless of what people think it is NOT like having a kid in college.

I got through it by telling myself he'll be home next year... I hope.

We managed a nice quiet Christmas at home. We had a dinner with just the three of us and the dogs. I'm rather disgusted with myself as I have turned into one of 'those' women. The ones with the yappy little dogs they dress up in those silly little outfits. Ok, Murray isn't yappy in the least bit. He barks when there is someone or something around that is not a resident here. The outfits .. well they're cute and he happens to get all excited when I pull one of them out so I take that as a sign that he is happy to have a nice warm coat on when we go out in the snow. Well, those are all of the reasons I give myself for dressing the poor little guy up like a Christmas puppet. He still looks at me adoringly and turns inside out when I return home so I figure as long as he still loves me then he must not mind the cloths. 

Neither of my furbabies were happy about me staying up all night. This was taken at 7 am and both of them were literally whining for me to go to bed. Missy wound up being mouthy and crabby all day while Murray was cracked out on Christmas cookies and bloated from the meat and cheese tray. He was stealing food which he never does. It was a nice Christmas but I'll be happy to wake up tomorrow knowing it is over. 

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas filled with family, friends, love, happiness and many memories!

Christmas with a broken heart

Sometimes knowing you are supposed to be happy makes it even harder to actually BE happy. That's when we paste on the smile for the sake of those around us.

This is my Dad, Ed. This is how I try to remember him. Back before diabetes and age took their toll. It's a terrible feeling when you know the end is near. We didn't know the exact date or time but we knew it was coming. It was growing more near with each passing day. When his day came, even though I thought I had prepared myself, it rocked me to my very soul. It has been over four years now and there are times the pain still takes my breath away. Nights I am still robbed of sleep missing him. Days when I would gladly go back in time and do it all over again no matter how hard it was. Left behind with a ton of regrets for the fights and all of the visits I didn't take the time to make.

I take solace knowing that in the end he knew how much I loved and adored him. He knew he was loved, wanted, needed and would be missed.

I love you Dad!
Merry Christmas in Heaven