by Joey | Sep 18, 2014 | Throwback
>> Earlier this week, one of my favorite instagram friends sent me a fun package! In it was the sweetest note telling me that she found a cousin (which, by the way, I just love how she phrased that) to Bikini So Teeny and thought of me! It’s not exact, but it is daaaaaaaaang close! Hence: cousin! Oh, man. That just cracks me up. The formula is a dream and I’m totally in love with the color! Now, go make sure you’re following @thehousewifesnails on instagram! She is super duper talented!
Sinful Shine: Alfresco
(It’s showing up a little bluer in that lighting. I promise it’s a similar light blue/periwinkle shade)
>> I got a new iPhone! Don’t confuse that with the new iPhone. I got a 5s. But. BUT! This is the first iPhone I’ve ever ever had that wasn’t a hand me down! It’s so fast, y’all! haha! Also, it’s gold. And it’s pretty. And that’s pretty much all I have to say about that.
>> I’m off my running game and I hate it. I was doing 3 miles so well guys. SO WELL! I only ran 3 once a week, and 2 or 2.5 the other couple workouts a week. But I guess I got comfortable with the 2 mile distance and so suddenly now my body thinks it’s in pace training mode? I hit two miles and feel like I’m going to die. And then when I check my runtastic app, I’m like oh, that’s why! I keep increasing my speed, which don’t get me wrong is awesome, but I need to be getting comfortable with running 3 miles. Not 2! ha!
>> The husband has been on a by week schedule this week, and I’m already sort of dreading how much I’m going to miss him when things go back to normal next week. I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed meal planning (therefore not doing that 6pm tango of “I’m starving but have no idea what to eat/have nothing defrosted). I think I need to keep the habit of meal planning in place even when it’s just me. My grocery shopping is much more efficient and I’m never left with just settling for cereal.
>> I finished reading Laura Lippman’s After I’m Gone this week. I’ll give it 3.5 stars. It was good. I just had a hard time keeping up with the ever changing timeline, and I sort of feel like there was a good bit of unnecessary storyline that took away from the really interesting storyline. Overall, I’d still recommend it though! Without giving too much away, it follows the story of a man who ditched town leaving behind three daughters, a wife and a girlfriend.
by Joey | Sep 17, 2014 | Writing
I didn’t know where to start. Â I’m a little embarrassed to admit that to you since, you know, I graduated with a degree in Creative Writing. Â But here’s the thing. Â I don’t think there’s any right way to start the process. Â I think you have to figure out what works best for you.
Before I did anything, I asked for help.  I operate fairly well under self inflicted deadline, but this was too important to me.  I didn’t want to let myself down but that was a possibility. But I knew myself well enough to know that I wouldn’t let someone else down.
So I asked for an accountability partner. Zoe, my childhood best friend turned school friend (no, that had no impact on the story line, I promise), volunteered on Facebook.
I made a soft schedule and emailed it to her.  She was to expect a new chapter from me by 11:59pm on Sunday evenings.
That was the scariest part for me.
Putting that deadline on myself.
Because I knew there was no backing out
without embarrassing myself.
Without failing.
Let me make this clear.  I was working 40+ hours a week and planning a wedding.
A chapter a week. Â Seemed fair enough to me. Â The way my major operated was we were pretty much responsible for 10+ page short stories weekly on top of our other classes. Â I did my best to treat it like that.
The number one question I get in regard to the book is: how did you come up with the story.
Confession: I didn’t.
Â
Not right away, at least.
Hold on. Â I’m getting ahead of myself. Â How about I tell you how I started, and then fill you in on the rest as I get to it. Â Sound good? Â Okay, let’s get into it.
First I created Willow Point.  I got a general idea of what the town looked like.  I named the town (by hosting a poll on facebook!  I had several contenders which unfortunately I can’t remember anymore, but Willow Point won)!  I drew a map.  I got a general sense of where my characters, who I hadn’t created yet, would live.  As I did this, little ideas started to come to me.  Restaurants.  Misty Lake park.  And that’s when I decided my two main characters would live across the street from each other.
Then I made my cast.  This took a while.  A good while.  I knew I wanted a nice girl, who was going to be my main character.  I knew that I wanted her best friend to be totally different from her.  And I knew I wanted a mean girl.  The rest of the cast just kind of came to me as I was developing Annie, Laurie and Olivia.  I had a whole character tree, it was embarrassing honestly.  I tried to get to know them as best I could.  There are several characters who either never made it in, or didn’t make the final edits.  Yes, I deleted entire people.  The editing process is cut throat y’all!
It was as I developed the characters that the story started to come to me little by little. Â This will sound crazy, but it was always their story–so it only made sense that they would help me figure it out. Â Once I got a pretty good sense of who my characters were…
I started writing. I’d sit down with a vague idea–like the first chapter I knew there was going to be a bon fire.  That was it.  And with each chapter, I’d take where I left off and propel forward in a general direction.  The story would happen as I wrote.  I had no specific ideas.  I had no idea what would happen.  I had no idea how it would end.
Â
So that’s how I got started. Â But we are still leaps and bounds from where it all ended up. Â Stay tuned!
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by Joey | Sep 16, 2014 | beauty, Loves
OVERVIEW:
I picked up the set (the miracle gel topcoat and the miracle gel shade in grefitti) from Walgreens. $7.99 each. You can also pick up a box set for around $14.99, but not all of the shades are available in a box set. You can find these at any drugstore or big box store. There are about 47 shades to choose from.
HOW IT APPLIED:
The base coat is “built in,” but you know me. I used my regular base coat. I don’t mess around with that. But the color applied beautifully. The formula was streaky on the first coat but opaque on the second. It wasn’t overly gloopy and I allowed each coat to mostly dry in between coats and the top coat. The first coat dried in about 3 minutes. Second in about 10. Top coat, which wasn’t particularly thick, dried in about 25 minutes. I was extra cautious about dents though. Once the system dried, it was shiny and felt like it wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
**click photos to see larger images**
HOW IT WORE:
Let’s be clear. The claim is that it lasts 14 days.
By day three, there was some minimal wear and tear on the tips, but nothing outrageous. I’m going to say this–I change my polish every two days usually. And usually by then I have a few tiny chips in standard polish. On the 7th day, I had some chips though small. I also had some cracking in the topcoat (see pointer in the final series of pictures–middle picture). I think for a drugstore polish that doesn’t require a light, they still looked pretty dang good on the 7th day. I would have kept it on, but I can’t commit 14 days to a polish. Would this have lasted 14 days? Yes. Would it have looked perfect on the 14th day? No. I was perfectly happy with the 7 days of wear I got out of it.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
My personal experiment with this set was to find out if this was a product that I could use if I were going on some kind of week long trip. And the answer is yes. I would be okay painting my nails with this the night before I left for a trip and be confident that it would still look good (enough) on my way home. I love the color selection, and the topcoat is definitely some kind of gel like polish (unlike the revlon trickery). Now that I have the topcoat, $7.99 for an individual polish doesn’t seem outrageous at all to me, especially for how it wears. I’d recommend it and repurchase it.
THE VERDICT:
two polished thumbs up.
**this is not a sponsored post. I purchased this kit with my own money and all opinions are my own.
by Joey | Sep 15, 2014 | Throwback
Making the decision to go after something you want isn’t as easy as it might sound. Sure, saying you want to make jewelry and own an etsy shop sounds easy enough, but what if you already have a full time job that drains you. But that full time job is also the reason you want to do something else?
Except with writing. Because trust me, you don’t want me making you any jewelry. Well, except maybe a friendship bracelet. I can make a mean friendship bracelet.
Anyway, we’re getting off topic.
It can be a suffocating feeling, being trapped in the system. You’ve graduated college, you’ve been kicked out of the bubble, and you have to work to pay your bills. And before you know it, the job you settled for just after graduation just until I find something else is the one you go to every morning years later and you hate yourself for it.
But what can you do?
There are two steps to making something happen. It’s as simple and as difficult as that.
Much like the oh so famous Avett Brother’s quote: Decide what to be and go be it, it’s really kind of that simple. Simple, yes. Easy? Not even a little bit.
The part that’s really hard is making the decision to try. It’s easy to be lazy. You’re tired. You’ve already worked a full day. You get off work and all you want to do is turn off your brain, veg in front of the TV and sip wine. I get it.
And making the official decision to change that routine takes commitment. Because you want the final product. You want the change. But you won’t want to put in the work. No one will judge you for that. It doesn’t seem fair that we have to work while we work to do the work we want to do. How many times can I say work in the same sentence? Challenge accepted!
So, some things you have to be okay with to make your dream a reality:
- Sacrifice. It has to be your number one priority. Nothing else (you know, within reason. God, family, etc of course take precedence, to a degree) can be more important. You’ll miss out on things. You’ll have to tell people no. You might have to give up a couple shows and your weekends might not be weekends anymore. Not for a little while, anyway. I promise you the sacrifice is worth it.
- Failure. You will fail. A few times. And you’ll feel defeated or like it’s all for nothing. Take a day, wallow. Get back up, take a deep breath and try again. Learn from your mistakes.
- Exhaustion. You will become delirious, especially if you’re working a full time job (or parenting, or whatever) while you’re chasing your dream. There will be days where your sentences don’t make sense and you’ll feel like you’re in a fog. Power through.
- Being selfish. No one is going to make this happen for you. And unless you respect yourself enough to allow yourself the opportunity to make it happen, it won’t. It’s okay to want this. It’s okay to make yourself a priority.
So go. Do it. Art Williams said it best. I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy. I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it.
by Joey | Sep 12, 2014 | beauty, Loves
kiss nail art silver. sinful colors candy coated. revlon ginger melon. sinful colors dream on. essie chinchilly. opi can’t find my czechbook
I struggle sometimes with creativity when it comes to my nails. But
Bailey taught me a while ago to find inspiration
every and
anywhere. So I’ve taken to browsing pinterest and spotting color combinations that strike my fancy. Today’s mani was inspired by
this pin.
This week was absolutely insane. I’m wary to say oh, wow! It’s already Friday because as the days were happening, they felt so long. But now that it’s Friday–I feel like the week just flew on by. Either way, I’ll take it. And I’m looking forward to a little down time this weekend!
