Pumpkin Carving 2016

Right now there's quite the rain and storm going on so it's a great time to sit down, listen to the pitter patter of the rain, and do a bit of blogging. Did Halloween sneak up on anyone this year? Last Sunday Andrew and I went to our local farm and picked our pumpkins for this Halloween but usually we try to go earlier so that we get the very best selection of pumpkins. In my Instagram photo collage I showed the slim pickings we had while we searched for pumpkins. Luckily, we found the perfect pair of large pumpkins for our carving extravaganza, as well as two smaller pumpkins to decorate the apartment with. This is the photo from insta:

See the desert of pumpkins?! Usually you're still pulling them off the vines! After searching the entire patch for the perfect carving pumpkins we found two ones that were calling our names. This beauty was mine.

I forget every year who gross it is to actually carve pumpkins. You have to scoop out all this nastiness and seeds and it's slimy and gets under my nails. Ick! But once I get through that it's onto the more fun stuff! This year I decided to freehand my design. Can you guess which one is mine??

Yep, mine is the one on the right. Did the wonky heart background give it away?? It's supposed to be a bride and groom, since Andrew and I are getting married next September! The groom actually came out really well for being free-handed, I think.

We also found a tiny little green pumpkin/gourd for our little sadness figurine (you all know how much I love Sadness from the movie Inside Out!). It was perfect.

Did anyone else carve pumpkins this year? Did you dress up? Here's a throwback to Andrew and my first Halloween together. He was my Knight in Shining Armor and I was a chef!

HUGE NEWS TO SHARE!

I know so many of you have been waiting for this ever since I got the news that I passed the Bar Exam and it's now time to share!

I AM OFFICIALLY AN EMPLOYED ATTORNEY!

I repeat, I am officially back in the workforce again!

I start tomorrow as an Associate at a local law firm that does civil defense litigation. How else to celebrate this auspicious moment in history (lol) but to paint my nails?! I settled on these, the simple scales of justice:

The Scales of Justice is part of "Lady Justice", the statue of the Roman goddess of Justice. She is blindfolded and holds both a balance and a sword. It's supposed to symbolize that justice/law is blind, balanced, and powerful.  A pretty cool symbol if you ask me! I should get these as a tattoo! Jk.

I don't know what this means for my blog posting schedule but I'm going to try really REALLY hard to post as often as I can and remain up to date on as many blogs as I can! Blogging is something I really enjoy (both posting on my blog and reading other peoples' blogs) and I would hate to lose it. Thank you for your support and for reading my posts even when they aren't nail related. I'm so thrilled for this new adventure and, of course, I can't wait to blog about it!

Weekend Blizzard Fun

Ok get ready for a giggle...Remember how I recently posted snow nails with the title "Gimme' Mo Let it Snow"? Well this past weekend I got my wish and the Northeast had a bit of snow. And by "a bit of snow" I mean an almost record breaking blizzard for our area. It started Friday night (yay for skipping the gym and hustling to get some Chinese food before it started!) and didn't stop until Sunday morning. Throughout Saturday it dropped about 30 inches of snow on us...which was roughly up to my knee, and then the snow drift gave some places full walls of snow! Needless to say Andrew and I dressed in our ski snow gear and had some fun! We let out our inner five year olds and started with making some snow angels.

I was actually really warm and comfortable and almost wanted to take a nap right there. Then we took some corny photos:

Don't let his sweet face fool you! He dumped snow on my head right after the photo on the right was taken. I'll tell ya, that boy is trouble! Yes, sir. Lol. :)

Naturally, my car was going nowhere fast. Andrew and I took a walk out on our main street and we saw not 3 but 4 different cars getting unstuck from the snow on the roads (no one was hurt they just couldn't move). We didn't drive because neither of us have the desire (or death wish) to take our cars out in snow. Plus, neither of us have what I would call "snow appropriate" vehicles or tires. Does my car look like it's a fan of the snow?? 

All in all, it was a nice weekend spent snowed in watching the "Best Film" Oscar nominated movies. Not a bad way to spend a weekend. And thank you to the snow gods for making it blizzard on the WEEKEND when my sweetheart didn't have to go to work!

Halloween Pumpkin Adventures

As you know from my last post, BF and I were planning to carve pumpkins to get into the Halloween spirit. It's hard to believe that it's already October 29th! Before I reveal the design I chose, let's start at the beginning shall we?? A couple weeks ago we went to a nearby farm that had apple picking, pumpkin patches, corn mazes, etc for a little weekend fun. The apple orchard was huge and included Pink Ladies, Red Delicious, Golden Crisp (?), Granny Smith, and a few other apple varieties you could choose from. And before anyone says "hey, Nikki, why didn't you just go buy apples from Wegmans?" the answer is: It's fun! (and it's a better deal as it turns out). Anyway, since BF doesn't eat apples (basically he sticks to meat, cheese, bread, rice, pasta, and dessert only! He's a health nut alright. Jk), we only wanted to pick a couple apples. How many apples can one person eat, ya know? Here are some photos of our apple picking adventure:

How gorgeous is that blue sky? It was the perfect fall day to get outside and pick some apples and pumpkins. The orchards were still well stocked even though I think it's considered late in the season for apple picking and there was a fantastic selection of Pink Lady apples (my new favorite). Andrew even caught me munching on one while we walked through the aisles:

I know....so attractive, am I right? Ha, oh well, I'll have to be more on guard next time! And then we took a posed one in the center of the orchard:

I know it looks mirrored but the orchard was really that long! It was nice to just walk around even when we were done picking apples. But then it was time to get back on the hayride and head to the pumpkin patches:

I love the farmer tractor pulling it. I wonder if they're hiring tractor drivers?! The pumpkin patch was also fairly large (though less impressive than the orchards) and BF and I considered so many pumpkins before deciding on THE PERFECT PUMPKINS.

It got intense, haha. We would line up our choices and then choose the two we fancied. Here you can basically read BF's thoughts -- probably going something like hmm, all three are so nice! How will we pick?! 

Yesterday we set out to carve these beauties into our chosen designs. I chose to go with Tinkerbell and some fairy dust and the BF decided on a creepy crawly spider. So at least one of us did something that would be considered Halloween appropriate. Step 1 was to tape the designs to the pumpkins and outline it with pins. I don't know the proper pumpkin carving technique but that's how we do it. After pinning the design, I used the tiniest pumpkin carving saw to get the details just right. Her hands and dress was a tad stressful. I don't know how BF did it with all those tiny chunks he had to cut out.

 And here is the result of our hard work!

I think Tinkerbell turned out pretty well! And you can *almost* clearly see her fairy dust.

Did you carve pumpkins or go apple picking this year?? If so, tell me about it in a comment below!

Pumpkin Carving Possibilities...It's Almost Halloween!

Me and the BF will be sitting down tonight to carve some pumpkins for Halloween and I have no idea what I should carve this year. There are so many options out there online and they range from scary/Halloween appropriate to "just plain cute" to "wow that's funky." And of course, many of them are WAY out of my zone as far as skills go! So many designs so little pumpkin! Many years ago in college (2010 I believe) we carved these:

Of course, the Eiffel Tower was mine :) but you guys probably already knew that since I'm OBSESSED with anything French. Seriously, if you could spend a moment in my head with me you'd realize that the soundtrack of my life is French bistro music. Ok, maybe that's an exaggeration but you get the point. We also had to use our cell phones to illuminate the jack-o-laterns because I was in a dorm room and we didn't have any candles...winning.

Anyway, as I have to make my pumpkin design decisions pretty soon I wanted to share some of the options I found online. Maybe you can help me decide which to go with?

Clearly not going for a theme that is Halloween appropriate this year either. I think BF is planning a spider pumpkin though so that makes up for it, right? Any votes for what I should do?

Big News for Nikki!

Guess what everyone?! As you know I was for the last three years a law student who struggled to post semi-regularly between classes, case briefings, and working in law firms. It all culminated in a three day exam called the Bar Exam that was the sole licensing exam for me to become a lawyer and practice my craft, a career that I spent more than 18 years preparing for. Well, the test was this past July and the results came out last Friday (October 9th)....it's now time for the results here on the Nail Files:

Andrew surprised me with celebratory reservations at The Capital Grille, an incredibly delicious and amazing restaurant that is so fancy my girl Miley Cyrus has been known to go to (lol)! I ordered the steak and lobster tails, which was quite honestly the best meal I have had in my entire life. It looked just like this:

Photo from here.

You can be sure there wasn't a morsel left on my plate when I was finished! So good!!!

Cruise Recap: Island Adventure - Cozumel, Mexico

Today's post is the final in my Cruise Recap series. If you missed any of them you can read about the ship we were on and our days in Haiti, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica. The final island was Cozumel, Mexico and this one may have been my favorite of all of them.

We arrived in Cozumel but traveled to the Yucatan Peninsula so we could visit the Tulum Mayan Ruins in Quintana Roo, Mexico. Tulum was one of the final cities inhabited by the Maya and survived about 70 years after the Spanish started to occupy Mexico. I'm talking 13th to 15th centuries here! It was surreal to be standing somewhere that an entire civilization used in a time I can only imagine. The buildings were incredible and we were told that Tulum has a few of the best preserved ruins. We had an amazing tour guide who gave everyone headphones and packs so we could hear him without having to follow him too closely. It was so cool to get the history and hear stories about the Maya.

The focal point was clearly the Pyramid El Castillo (which translates to "The Castle") and I couldn't take enough photos of it. Seriously, when I was going back through my photos I had like 40 shots of it!

It was SO hot that day! I felt like I was baking at a few points. There were also some iguanas that just lounged around and crawled into the buildings. A few of the ruins you could walk through which was pretty neat.

The picture below is of the God of the Winds Temple . So incredible.

There were also really pretty flowering trees and crazy iguanas that were huge and just chilled out in the sunlight.

So there you go. I have now bored you with my entire trip! I hope you at least enjoyed the photos!

Cruise Recap: Island Adventure - Cayman Islands

Today's post is the a follow up to the Cruise Recap series and will talk about our day in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. If you would like to read about the ship and stuff, our day in Jamaica, or our day in Haiti.

Cayman is seriously gorgeous. There was shopping of course all throughout where we were but we decided to do a bit of snorkeling first. I never snorkeled before but it was so much fun!

 The excursion we did was "Reef and Wreck Snorkeling" and was basically just snorkeling in two different locations. The first location was a shipwreck and then we also went to a reef to see all the fish. The boat had a glass bottom and enabled you to see the bottom between the locations. I saw one of the largest sting rays I have ever seen in person or on TV. The thing had to be 2 feet wide! Unfortunately I didn't have my camera ready for that so I didn't get to snap a photo :( Just FYI, the snorkeling gear is super stylish and the mouthpiece gave me the best looking lips ever....

 

Seriously, who needs botox? Just walk around with a snorkeling mouthpiece on. Jk, that'd be a little weird. Anyway, a sneak peak of the reef is behind Andrew in this photo:

All in all, the snorkeling was so much fun and I can't wait to try snorkeling again! And if you can believe it, this was the only nail photo I took the entire trip! I figured having the backdrop of a reef underwater was too good to pass up. Pardon the chipping nails!! 

Cruise Recap: Island Adventure - Falmouth, Jamaica

Today's post is another followup to my Cruise Recap series talking about specific places we visited. You can also read about the ship or our day in Haiti. Today we're up to Falmouth, Jamaica! I'm sure you won't be surprised when I say Jamaica was also gorgeous. We docked near some shopping but first Andrew and I went to Chukka Good Hope Estate, an incredible former sugar cane and rum plantation that now does citruses and accounts for a crazy percentage of America's citrus fruits!

The estate is a preserved plantation from like...the 1700s and encompasses 2,000 acres near the Martha Brae River. It had amazing views because it was on a mountain (hill?) and you could see forever. Can you get better than this view?

There was no air conditioning BUT you really didn't need it because the breeze just floated through the windows of the estate. It was incredibly comfortable and so interesting to hear the history of the place and the stories behind it. Google it if you are interested in learning more about it! It truly was breathtaking and fascinating.

The estate also had bird aviary you could walk through and the woman let Andrew and I feed some parrots and love birds! She also started singing Bob Marley....which was perfect for Jamaica obviously! She said something interesting to me though. She asked where we were from and then she said "You are the lucky ones. You get to travel. You are lucky enough." After thinking about it in my mind I thought she lives on this beautiful island, has such an amazing culture, she actually calls the place we want to travel to "home." So my response to her is "You live on a gorgeous island that I dream of visiting. You are lucky enough too." Am I right?

I couldn't get the parrot to eat from my hand but Andrew was basically the bird whisperer and the parrot had no issue taking the orange from his hand! That parrot was sexist! Jk. At least a lovebird enjoyed the food I had to offer. I named him Paul.

So from me and my new bird friend,