Nailpolish Shelves

There are a lot of important things happening in the world... and clearly the fact that my nailpolish shelves are built and finished IS blog-worthy!

A couple of weeks ago I was researching storage options for my nailpolish. I was getting sick of blindly pulling colors and ruining the order of my "beauty table." I was willing to fork over the $100 for a typical clear, plastic polish display until I came across a random fellow lacquer-lover's blog. She had her boyfriend build her some wooden shelves and painted them. AHA! Brilliant!

Luckily, Bryce uses all those manly tools for his job installing art. He cut the wood and did all that drilling business. I chose my colors:

I decided I wanted ROSE GOLD GLITTER with an accent of blue-ish.

After a lot of nagging, I finally got my shelves!

and more...

Okay! I'll stop.

It took me quite awhile to go through all my polish and throw away the ones that were looking retired. Then I had to decide the color-coding... White people problems. Ha. I had to keep shifting the colors around once I'd find more reds or what have you. ANYWAY, those are my babies.

What do I do when I get more polish? I MIGHT be able to use two and half of the shelves with appliances and utensils on it. Did I already mention white people problems? HAHA! On second thought: nailpolish... Asian people problems. Ba-da-bump!

xx,
M

Health Journey (Once upon a time...)

I've probably sufficiently annoyed Facebookers with all my gym check-ins and talk about working out. Oh, but I'm not finished! Ha.

A month ago, I suckered myself into trying the Blue Print Cleanse and figured, "EFF IT! You started, you're going to continue...!" Continue with looking out for my health. I signed up for a membership at a fitness club in literal walking distance and began working out that very afternoon.

I got my free 1-hour personal training session... HOW DEPRESSING! We did a weigh-in, measurements, including FAT measurements. I died. Seriously. I'm still carrying that dead Monica inside me. I will get rid of that ho. We talked about my terrible eating habits (two big not-so-nutritious meals toward the end of the day + nighttime dessert with B) and what I should be doing. The trainer kicked my ass.

I decided to ask my parents to early birthday gift me a package of ten sessions with Nicole, my personal trainer. Sweet. I really didn't want to fork over the $750.

She set up a general workout regimen for me when I'm not working out with her. She's got me consuming a lot more protein throughout the day and loading me up with water. I feel great. I've only very recently started craving pizza, ha. At the moment I'm seeing her Monday and Wednesday. She kicks my ass so badly I wobble home. Every two weeks we weigh. Every four weeks we do all weighing and measuring. I have lost a total of 5lbs in FAT (+gained lean muscle) in this first month.

I'm kind of proud. I'm mostly very disappointed, haha. I know I'm consuming more, but creating muscle which will effectively burn off the fat "for good" as opposed to near starving myself and losing a lot of weight faster. It's SO tempting to do the latter. But she actually caught that I wasn't consuming as much protein when she did my measurements. I didn't think it'd matter, but I felt like a dumbass when I was caught, haha.

Another HUGE disappointment is throughout this month I've truly gotten to see how terribly out of shape I've gotten in these past few years. Nicole has me run up and down two flights of stairs three times, mixed with some freaking jumping jacks and I'm already wishing our hour was up! DYING. I freaking hate our routines with those damn stairs, haha. As well as the Jacobs Ladder. I'm on there for 3 minutes and I'm sweating. My ankles kill. My calves kill. My spirit deadens. Haha.

I think of how a little over a year ago I was getting back into working out because at that moment I was the most out of shape I had been (HAAA). I quit my job and for the past year I've just been gaining weight like a hungry madman (a tiny fuc...thank you to birthcontrol). I quickly gained that 15-20lbs back and why the hell not gain some more, Monica. Not to mention like 6 years ago when I was obsessed with working out and dropped 40lbs but my boobs went up a cup. Haha. Oh to be young... Now I'm working my ass of like crazy to do it healthily and kick my 18-20 year old self for falling off the wagon. I swear it sneaks up on you!

I did this to me. I'm undoing this to me.

xox,
M

Bobbi Brown Extra Eye Repair Cream

This eye cream is absolutely A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! This year I've really noticed tiny, fine lines underneath my lower lash line. ALSO, the skin under my eye feeling dry and sensitive. I suppose all the years of rubbing make-up off with regular skin cleanser. Accepting the fact that I'm 26 years old and probably should be loading my eyes with a great eye cream got me on the hunt!

Bobbi Brown's EXTRA Eye Repair Cream was that answer! The cream is $68, HOWEVER, I've been using it for two months and I've skimmed the top. I can see this product lasting 8 months, used during the day under your makeup and at night.

I've been using this cream mainly during my night routine. It's a thick, luxurious cream that can be used very sparingly. I lightly tap a thin coverage with my ring finger, let it absorb for a couple minutes the continue with my routine.

This cream WORKS! Even though I didn't start with many lines, I'd say at LEAST 90% is gone. My under eye area doesn't feel sensitive nor dry. It's what I wanted and that's what it delivered.

xox,
M

Blue Print Cleanse

I tried what the call "the cleanse for foodies" after my good (and very tiny) friend, Andrea, mentioned her experience. She lost 5 lbs and said it wasn't too bad. Of course, I think "shit I have way more to lose!" and the packaging is adorable. Yes, I'm a big S-U-C-K-E-R! To be fair, she said it wasn't like the holy experience that many reviewers tend to claim, just that it was relatively easy and she lost some weight.

There are three different levels of the cleanse Renovation (beginners), Foundation (intermediate), and Excavation (advanced). You can do as many days as you like, I went with the most they allow you to buy at once, three days. Renovation! Three days plus $10 shipping cost me $225!!!! Boo.

My biggest concerns:
-How the hell am I going to stomach cashew milk? I vehemently HATE white drinks, especially MILK drinks. 
-Will I be dying of hunger?

First concern, Blue Print Cleanse does have an option of claiming to be allergic to nuts. At first I hopped on that, but right before I was going to submit my credit card information I decided that I was just going to do what they really recommend. For those who really are allergic, or can't stomach white drinks (ha), they will send you two #4's.

Second concern, I truly was not hungry AT ALL. But my cravings were insane. I wanted pizza. I wanted oysters. I wanted sushi. I wanted steak. I wanted ramen. I wanted oranges. I wanted pickles. I wanted SOLIDS! Just the very fact that I knew I couldn't eat food made me want it so badly. 

My cooler box arrived Friday morning, but since I had a lunch date with my friend Jessica, I decided to start Saturday. Well, being as I'm off Sunday and Monday, I wish I would have just juice'd it up at lunch with Jess. Oh well. Haha.
Juices:
1&3) Green: romaine lettuce, celery, cucumber, apple, spinach, kale, parsley and lemon. This juice was my least favorite. It wasn't terrible. It tasted like tangy cucumber. I wish that they wouldn't put the apple in this one, I'd have liked it a lot better. The tangy taste was slightly off-putting.
2) P.A.M.(gold): pineapple, apple, and mint. YUMMY! This juice tasted like minty pineapple juice. I love pineapple juice. I could see myself grabbing this drink at Whole Foods just for the delicious taste.
4) Spicy Lemonade (yellow): water, lemon, agave nectar, and cayenne. YUMMY! x's 10! Had I known I'd love this juice so much, I would have just taken a gander at the Master Cleanse where it's nothing but this! (btw my friend Jessica did this for 40 days... she's a badass!)
5) C.A.B. (red): carrot, apple, beet, lemon, ginger. This one was OK. I liked the ginger in it, but all in all I was indifferent toward this juice.
6) Cashew Milk (white): cashew, water, vanilla, cinnamon, and agave. Dun, dun, DUN! I actually LOVED it! I think the fact that there was a slight gritty consistency (and I drank it in the dark...) really helped! It was really delicious. I imagine all sweet-tooth folks would like this one the best.


Day 1: Easy. Though, I did have a killer headache all day. I started around 12pm and it took about an hour to drink them since they were 16oz and I wasn't particularly hungry. I did crave food like I've mentioned.

Day 2: Didn't wake up hungry at all. Killer headache second half of the day. Didn't drink the cashew milk since I was tired and had 5 and 6 left, so I chugged #5 and was too full, so gave Bryce the cashew milk.

Day 3: OVER THE JUICE. No headache or anything. Before going to the gym I told Bryce I didn't want my juices anymore so he drank #5 and #6! Ha. Thanks...

Anyway, I honestly wouldn't recommend. Won't repurchase. It was a nice waste of money. Haha. I lost 5lbs, but after doing research I wish I would have done the Master Cleanse because that was so yummy!

No thanks to cleanse!

xox

Couch and Cajun

After waiting over 4 months, I finally got a couch! But it wasn't from the original furniture store. I've had the WORST buying experience with Fingers Furniture. I won't even go into the details, because I'll probably get irrationally annoyed and itchy. With the awesome advice of Austin Payne, I decided to take my business Gallery Furniture and got my new couch day of purchase! And spent a fraction of the price. They SAVED me MONEY! Can't beat that. Fingers still owes me $500. Gah.

(Camera focused on lamp...)

It's super comfy. The boys aren't allowed to get their stinky selves on the couch. We need some kind of rug, I think! AND Bryce needs to hang all our art, as you can see. It's embarrassing and ironic that Bryce is an ART INSTALLER! Anyway. Somehow already there is a smidge of INK on the couch. Anyone know of ways to remove? If not, I'll google soon. Fantastic does NOT work, ha. 

Lately I am OBSESSED with crawfish. I used to just avoid it, since it seemed like a pain in the ass to eat. It's still a pain in the ass, but I have cravings, damnit! The other day, I ordered crawfish to go, and peeled away, sucked brains happily while watching random Tyra Show clips (gay for pay, anyone?!) but I couldn't help but notice the little bastards ruined my nailpolish! Can one wear latex gloves to break open mudbugs?

 My other (life) obsession has been oysters. I've always loved raw oysters, so I've been eating more than my fair share of that. Did you know, you can eat almost 81 lbs of raw oysters a week before worrying about mercury poisoning? Google told me! How tempting that sounds... Slurp, slurp! There are only a couple more weeks of April left, then it's the dreaded months without "r"! :( If I weren't going on a juice cleanse this weekend, I'd be crawfish, shrimp and oystering it up! I guess I'll "ease" into solids by eating oysters. Heee. :)

xx,

Moni

NOTD

Nails Of The Day! Haha. I'm sure there are other people who truly keep up with all their nail looks. My goal is to do two different looks a week, because FRANKLY I have way too much nail polish not to change it out at least twice a week! The downfall... my new favorite nail polish remover (The Stripper) is $18 for 4oz. Ha. Seriously, Monica? Seriously.

Speaking of goals, I failed blogging every day for a month. I made it exactly 2 weeks. Womp womp...

Onto the nails! Main color + accent photo.

Hello Kitty- Minty (crappy brush and a bit streaky)

Ring finger: butter LONDON's Henley Regatta (lovey)

+ Seche Vite's fast drying topcoat (THE best!)

xx,

M

Swinging in the park...

 ;)

Bryce and I watched some Harry Potter tonight, ate Crave cupcakes (red velvet MMM!), and then had the joy of cleaning up a bit! Milton chewed up Sorrel, my alligator claw back scratched (UGH!!!) so that caused me to want to clean up our bedroom. Not to mention my clothes were exploded everywhere.

Thinking it was cool out, I suggested we hop over to Menil park and hang out and listen to our ipods and stuff.  I pushed Bryce on the red swing for a minute. I hopped on and two minutes later a douchey cop in a truck obnoxiously shown his bright light on us until we walked over to our car. I guess the park is closed by 10:30pm? Whatever. We didn't get to make the park pretty.

Bryce and I decided to go to the swings on Allen Parkway, but then the place we needed to make the block was closed off. So, we went home. Bryce was frustrated and a poop.

xx,

BBC ;)