This Is Us

  This year for spring break we took the kids to Astoria, Oregon to see where they filmed the movie, The Goonies. We thought it would be so fun, a new place to visit, and a nice getaway. We were going to leave Wednesday morning and drive all 13 hours, but we decided to leave Tuesday evening drive a few hours stay the night and then drive the rest of the way. This was really nice breaking up the travel time.  The only photos I got from Tuesday evening were of the sunset. It was so pretty. I wish I would have gotten more, but lately I have been really bad about photos.

  As I have stated in several other posts, my favorite color is pink. So of course, I used pink for spring. I have also mentioned that Melissa in Greek means Honeybee, so I of course, love them too. I did  these nails  in 2022 with a bee on my nails. I did not do very well on the bee, so I scared myself out of doing them again for a while. For Christmas I got  these nail paint pens and decided to try again. I like them a lot this time.  I used a bright pink, yellow, and white for the base of my nails. Then used the same bright pink and yellow for the flowers, and used a light green for the stems. I painted a yellow dot and then used the paint pens to draw black lines on the yellow for the bee's stripes and "bee lines". Then I used a matte finish on the pink and yellow nails and the regular topcoat on the white nails with the designs.

  When I was doing my nails this time, I wasn't in the mood to do a lot to them, and I was in a time crunch. I just painted my thumbs and middle fingers white, my pointer and pinky olive green and my ring finger with yellow sparkles. I was hoping the yellow sprakles would look like gold.

  I know Valentine’s Day is over, but I didn’t want to do green for St. Patrick’s day just yet. They wouldn’t last. I used the cream color from these browns, and then put a matte top coat on. I used these nail tools  to put black hearts on my thumbs and lines on my other fingers. I used the same black on my ring finger. Then I used the nail tools and painted a top coat over the black lines and hearts and used the regular brush to put the top coat on my ring finger. Once it’s cured I put  this pink metallic powder  over the black designs and on my ring finger. Then I put the top coat on again and cured it. I really like these! One of my favorites!

  For over 10 years I have been using deodorant that I make. I started having problems with commercial deodorant, I tried so many different brands. I would get red bumps, it wouldn't work longer than a couple hours, it would leave hard clumps on my shirts, or it would make me itch. One day I was talking with a friend about all the problems, and she said that her mom makes deodorant for her. I asked her what she puts in it and she wasn't sure, but that it had coconut oil and essential oils. After doing a lot of research I was able to put together a recipe that worked really well. The only problem is it would melt fairly easy if the temperature got about 75.  I recently found that adding beeswax would help with the melting point. I added beeswax and now it has a higher heat tolerance and it makes the deodorant have a smoother texture. It also has antifungal, antimicrobial, and antibacterial properties. I also started using unrefined coconut oil, so it smells like coconuts. I had...

  I love doing my nails for Valentine’s, why? Because I get to use PINK! It’s my favorite color!  I used  these pinks  that I got in 2024 for Christmas. I did my left hand with the lighter/pastel pinks and my right hand with the brighter/neon pinks. I was inspired by my friend Cindy. Last year she had one hand painted a light pink and her other hand painted a darker pink. It’s fun! *Side Note* I couldn’t get all the black off of my ring finger in my right hand, so that’s why there are darker spots.

  My nails usually last a couple weeks, so I just have to do my nails twice a month. So for my second set for January I painted all my nails with black, except my middle finger. That one I painted a light blue. Then on my thumb, pointer, and pinky I used  these metallic powder  and used the blue. Then on my ring finger I used  this magnetic nail polish , but didn’t use the magnet. I just wanted the blue color, but it didn’t stay blue. I don’t know… Anyway, I used the regular top coat on all my nails, but my middle finger. That one I used the matte.

  This year for New Year’s Eve we went to Nick’s parent’s house.  We made way too much food including cheese dip, 7 layer bean dip, and more. Nick’s parents also made food and it was just the 7 of us. Brichette, Sam, and Flint had plans with friends and Xander and Savannah had other plans.  I’m not sure what happened, but I didn’t get any pictures. So enjoy these two from BeReal!

  I try every year to make snowflakes on my nails. And every year I fail. Haha! For Christmas I got nail paint pens. It worked better, but maybe my nails are just to small! I used a light blue for two of my fingers, a dark blue with a hint of green on two more of my fingers, and then white with rose gold sparkles on my last finger. Then I used “these paint pens” and did a snow flake. 

For Christmas I got these nail paint pens. They are great for drawing designs on my nails! They come in fun colors and dry quickly because they are a paint and not a polish. I highly recommend getting paint pens!

  These are the second set of nails I did this year for Christmas. Again, just a simple design. I painted all but my ring fingers with black so I could use  these nail powders  to create the metallic look. Then pained my ring finger with white and then yellow/gold sparkles. I painted my right hand opposite of my left hand (red and green).

   I love doing my own nails, but there are a few months that I enjoy more than others and Christmas is one of those. This year I went simple. I painted red, green, and white, used red and green sparkles, and then used  this tool  to paint red hearts and green dots, to look like holly.

  These are some of my favorite nail designs that I have done! I used a cream color from the browns that I got. Then I used  this nail tool  and did the colored dots. I did one color at a time and cured it with the uv light. I used red, orange, dark yellow, green, and brown.

  I didn’t have any brown nail polish, so I got this set that has six different browns.  I wanted to see how they all looked, so I painted all of them on my nails. The lightest color I used to paint the pumpkins on my thumbs. I used  these tools  to paint the pumpkins.

  As I shared in  this post  my sister is getting married. I painted my nails and this post is for my toes. I painted them the same way, all of them black, then put this  purple metallic nail powder  on my big toe. Then I put the regular top coat on and the matte top coat on all the rest of my toes that are black. I really like how they turned out! Now I’m all matching for their wedding!