Officially Joining the 101 in 1001 Movement

I read a lot of different blogs around the internet and one blog in particular caught my eye because of its adorable name. Pink Champagne Problems is written by a girl in NYC and on her blog she had a list of 101 things she'd like to do in 1001 days (the idea of 101 in 1001 was created by another blogger Mackenzie Horan).  It's so true that the list is way better than a bucket list since it puts you on a shorter time frame. It also fits my obsession with making To Do Lists...so natch I wanted to create my own 101 in 1001. It seems this was most popular back 2013 but there are a lot of people still doing them! Here is my list. 

State Date: December 20, 2015

End Date: September 16, 2018

Personal (1/26):

001.      Create my own 101 in 1001 list. (Dec. 20, 2015)

002.      Complete my first cross stitch stocking.

003.      Complete my second journal.

004.      Vote in the Presidential election.

005.      Begin my Beauty and the Beast cross stitch project.

006.      Reconnect with a friend from high school.

007.      Celebrate something with champagne.

008.      Find my personal scent.

009.      Watch 26 movies, one movie with every letter of the alphabet.

010.      Answer the 50 questions that will free your mind.

011.      Watch a movie from the year I was born.

012.      Organize my closet.

013.      Dress up for Halloween.

014.      Send a postcard to PostSecret.

015.      Listen to every song in my iTunes library.

016.      Listen to the Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

017.      Complete a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle.

018.      Watch 10 of the IMDB Top 250 Movies.

019.      Inspire someone else to create a 101 in 1001 list.

020.      Complete a Pinterest project.

021.      Watch every Gilmore Girls episode.

022.      Watch 5 Ted Talks.

023.      Crochet something.

024.      Send myself flowers just because.

025.      Get a massage.

026.      Make a House of Cards.

Blog (0/3):

027.      Have 1k+ Instagram followers.

028.      Duplicate an outfit from a magazine, blog, or Pinterest.

029.      Have my nails featured on a blog, magazine, etc.

Fitness (0/18):

030.      Try a yoga, pilates, Zumba, or other fitness class I’ve never tried before.

031.      Bike 50 miles at one time.

032.      Do a headstand.

033.      Do a handstand.

034.      Do the 8 angle pose in yoga.

035.      Complete a Bike to the Beach.

036.      Be able to do a split.

037.      Do yoga every morning for one week straight.

038.      Go for an evening run every day for one week.

039.      Hike Every Trail at a State Park.

040.      Work out 3x a week for 1 month.

041.      Complete a race (like Tought Mudder or something).

042.      Comfortably fit into a pair of size 4 jeans again.

043.      Lose 5 pounds.

044.      Lose 10 pounds.

045.      Lose 15 pounds.

046.      Run 100 miles in 1 year.

047.      Fit into my skinny jeans!

048.      Try meditation.

Food & Drink (0/11):

049.      Try 10 new restaurants.

050.      Attempt 10 recipes from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

051.      Bake a Loaf of Bread.

052.      Eat at a Food Truck.

053.      Have a picnic.

054.      Try Pei Wei.

055.      Do a juice cleanse.

056.      Make my own sushi.

057.      Eat vegetarian for one week.

058.      Bake a pie with handpicked fruit.

059.      No fast food for one month.

Read & Learn (0/5):

060.      Read a Classic Novel.

061.      Learn a song on piano.

062.      Read the entire Bible.

063.      Take a free online class.

064.      Take a photography class.

Career & Finance (0/3):

065.      Get a job in the legal field that I really like.

066.      Pay off one student loan in full.

067.      Put away $1 for each completed task.

Splurge a Little/Lot (0/8):

068.      Buy a bicycle.

069.      Invest in Hunter Wellies.

070.      No shopping for one full month.

071.      Buy a new phone.

072.      Invest in a great pair of pumps!

073.      Invest in a new Burberry coat.

074.      Buy a home.

075.      Buy a pair of cowboy boots.

Travel & Experiences (0/23):

076.      Have my palm read.

077.      See a Broadway play.

078.      Go to see a ballet.

079.      Go ice skating.

080.      Go to a concert.

081.      Go skiing.

082.      Go winetasting.

083.      Make paper.

084.      Paint something at a Ceramic Store.

085.      Selfie with the Welcome to Las Vegas sign.

086.      Pose with a Wax Museum Figure.

087.      Take a Trip with My Sister.

088.      Stay at a B&B.

089.      Visit a castle.

090.      Celebrate my broski’s 21^st birthday in Las Vegas, Nevada.

091.      See a show in Vegas.

092.      Visit my buddy in Maine.

093.      Take a Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives roadtrip.

094.      Cherry Blossom Festival | Washington DC

095.      Travel to 5 new states that I’ve never been to before.

096.      Geocache.

097.      See the Rockettes in New York City.

098.      Visit Paris, France.

Doing What I Can (0/3):

099.  Volunteer for a cause I believe in.

100.  Contribute $X (value private) to a cause I believe in.

101.  Donate blood.

I will be adding this list under the top menu if you want to check back in on my progress throughout the next 1001 days. Fingers crossed that I accomplish at least some of these! If you would like to join in on the 101 fun and make your own list, be sure to comment below. I'd love to see what goals you want to achieve!

December Nail Art Challenge: Holly Nails

Today's theme for the December Nail Art Challenge is Holly, which I was looking forward to since the beginning of the challenge. I have the perfect BundleMonster stamp for holly leaves so I wanted to use that and jazz it up a bit. I'm not gonna lie, I'm psyched about how these look. So psyched that I even included a rare glimpse of my non-dominant "Cinderella" hand! Here is what I came up with:

For these holly nails, I used Essie Be Right Bag as a base and tipped my nails with China Glaze Midnight Kiss. I then stamped BundleMonster plate BM14 in China Glaze Jolly Holly (because how could I NOT use that polish in a holly design?!) on all the nails. I finished the holly design using a dotting tool to add little red holly berries in OPI What's Your Point-settia? I also dotted Zoya Snow White in descending sizes across the nail tip to add a little more pizzaz to the look. What do you think?

December Nail Art Challenge: Candles

For the Candle manicure in the December Nail Art Challenge I have these candle nails inspired by an Advent wreath to share. I used China Glaze Don't Make Me Wine and American Eagle It's a Disco Ball as the base polishes and then used China Glaze Paper Chasing, China Glaze Tree Hugger, and China Glaze Jolly Holly for leaves of the wreath. Finished it off with a candle made from Art Deco White, OPI Tickle My France-y, and Color Club Yellow with a hint of Orly Gold Glitter, and voila!

An Advent Wreath is something that my fellow Catholics/Christians out there probably recognize and know quite well. It's a wreath with candles that appears during the month of December and has a whole bunch of symbolic meaning for people of certain faiths. During my private school days we would see them in the church at school and it generally looked like this...

Yes this photo is from wikiHow lol.

For those of you who aren't sure what an Advent wreath is, let me explain. The wreath itself is usually made of evergreen branches (symbolizing eternal life or the eternity of God) and there is typically 4 candles  (in some cases there are 5 but my church has only ever used 4). Three of the candles are typically red, purple, or blue and one candle is white or light pink. During the advent season (the month of December) one candle is lit each Sunday, with the white/pink candle being lit last. I'm not quite sure what the candles symbolize. Some say they symbolize the coming of Christ, some say the candles represent joy/hope/love/peace, and others say they symbolize expectation/hope/joy/purity. I really don't know which it is but I am completely certain that I've seen an Advent wreath in my church every year since I can remember....and now I even have one on my nails!

Star Wars R2D2 Manicure

I have never seen any Star Wars movie. I know, crazy right? But even with that being the case I know that the movie premiering tonight, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, is a BFD. So to celebrate with all the Star Wars  fans out there,  here some Star Wars nails in honor of the new movie.

For these nails we have the galaxy and an R2D2 (whatever that is) nail. The galaxy nails were made by adding China Glaze Razzle Me Dazzle Me over Orly Liquid Vinyl and a few white dots in Art Deco white. The R2D2 nail was Zoya Trixie and Art Deco white for the base layer and then Ink Nail Art in Deep Blue, Orly Liquid Vinyl, Kiss Brush On Nail Art Paint in silver, and OPI What's Your Point-settia for the details.

Are you going to see it when it comes out? Have you seen all the other Star Wars movies? Which is your favorite?

31 Week Nail Art Challenge - Week 31: Recreate Your Favorite

Everyone, today is the day! Today is the last and final post in my 76 31 Week Challenge! I had to recreate my favorite and I chose Week Two Orange because I really liked the design. It was the first gradient that really turned out well for me, the photos looked great, and I got a TON of compliments when I was wearing these nails. Here are my recreations for today:

And if you can't remember the originals, here is the photo from Week Two:

I wanted to recreate the gradient using a less yellow polish since the prompt was orange after all. For my more-orange re-creation I used China Glaze Peachy Keen and OPI Flit A Bit. Ahhh, now to relax. I've finally completed the 31 Week Nail Art Challenge! Yay!

For a review of all my posts in the 31 Week Nail Art Challenge, click here.

December Nail Art Challenge: Candycane

If you follow my Instagram you saw these nails coming so today's post is no surprise. I did these nails for Andrew's work holiday party on Friday and they worked perfectly with the December Nail Art Challenge so I wanted to save these to post today. My Candy Cane manicure is a skittlelette mani featuring two different candycanes. Plus, even my toes got in on the nail art action AND a rare glimpse at my Cinderella hand!

For these I used OPI What's Your Point-settia and Nail Deco in White for the candy canes pedicure. The pinky is OPI What's Your Point-settia with a thin layer of Orly Gold Glitter. Isn't it interesting how it looks almost silver in the photos? For the middle finger I used Sally Hansen Camelflage as a base and dotted various sizes in OPI What's Your Point-settia, Orly Gold Glitter, and Zoya Snow White. Then for the candycanes on my index fingers I used Sally Hansen Camelflage and Art Deco in White, and OPI What's Your Point-settia.

Unfortunately these photos were taken prior to clean up...so please pardon the sloppy cuticles.

I also baked some chocolate and peanut butter chip cookies for my sweetheart today. You know, sweets from his sweetie...lol....I should open a bakery.

Next Up: Candles. But before that I'm going to finish up the 31 Week Nail Art Challenge finally.

A Smidge of Holiday Stamping

Today's post is actually of some nails from a couple of weeks ago. If you follow my Instagram you know that my nails are currently painted a la candy canes since I had my sweetheart's work holiday party last night and wanted to be festive. Plus it worked out nicely with the December Nail Art Challenge so you'll see more about those tomorrow. For now, feast your eyes on this green and red holiday stamp design:

I used Icing Mint 2 Be as the base and then stamped BundleMonster plate 222 in China Glaze Phat Santa (my automatic holiday red polish). The stamping wasn't as clean as I would like but I didn't have time to fix it. What is your favorite BundleMonster plate design (if you have one)?

And the holiday party last night was so much fun. I got to meet some more of boyfriend's work buddies and of course stuff myself silly with crab fries, sushi, macarons, and whatever else you can think of. Seriously, how cute are these mini macarons?

That is a shared plate for Andrew and I and that is his finger in the photo (dreadfully unpolished lol). Do you have a favorite macaron flavor?? My favorites are the pink (strawberry, raspberry, etc) and my sister's favorite is the green (usually pistachio).