Shellac-ed!

Hello!  Sorry I've been MIA for a few days - I had a jam-packed busy weekend. But it was also such a GOOD weekend! I got to see my nephew play soccer, and we bid on items at the silent auction at our church (have no idea how much our donations ended up going for), and I hung out with one of my best friends and then watched her get married.  And a lot of our friends were in town for the wedding, too. Oh, and my speech? It went really well! My toast at the wedding, on the other hand, was a bit of a disaster, but oh well. I have lots of pictures from the weekend that I'm trying to get uploaded and organized so I can share them soon.  But first, let me tell you about the title of this post. Friday, I left work a few minutes early and headed to the Nail Bar to treat myself to a mani and pedi (had to look good for the wedding!).  My pedicure was the same as always, although I will say that I finally strayed from my normal hot pink shade and got a deep purple-y color to go with my bridesmaid dress. I've never felt like I can ever pull off the dark colors that are hot right now, but now my toes actually look sorta trendy!

Moving on.  After my toes, I moved to the bar to get my manicure.  I may have been brave with the color on my toes, but I stuck with my normal neutral shade for my fingers. (I also didn't want a bright color on my hands for all the wedding pictures.)  As I was sitting there, I overheard one of the girls working telling another person about the Shellac nail polish they had just gotten in.  My ears immediately perked up because I'd already read about this stuff online and had been wanting to try it. Of course, when I read about it I assumed it'd be months before it made its way south, but they already had some. And just in time for my mani. Score!

And then the girl working said they only had 5 colors in. Crap.  I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best while she went to go get the five colors and lucky me, one of the them was a neutral shade! Double score!

So, long story short, I got in line to get Shellac-ed and it was/is awesome! Unlike gel or acrylic tips, there is no drilling or filing of your nails with this stuff. It goes on like regular polish except between each coat, you put your hands under a UV light to "cure" the polish. There are four layers - the base, two coats of the color, and then a top coat.  And after you "cure" your top layer, it's dry! You don't have to wait at all, so you don't get any smudges or dents. (I usually smudge mine before I'm even in the car.) And - the very best part - it's supposed to last a minimum of 14 days, but can last up to three weeks.

Here's a picture I took today (Tuesday), four days since I got the manicure.  (Look at the polish, not my ugly hand and cuticles.)

I know it's kinda hard to tell since I have a neutral color, but there are no chips in that picture.  And trust me, I have been rough on my nails over the past four days.  And they're still shiny too.  Awesome, right?

So far, I'm pretty impressed with this Shellac manicure but for a complete review, here's my breakdown of pros and cons:

Pros --lasts 2 - 3 weeks --no drilling, buffing, or filing --no dry time --no odor --feels thin like regular polish, not thick like acrylic nails --can be painted over with regular polish, can use non-acetone polish remover to take the regular polish off and your Shellac manicure still looks good

Cons --more expensive (at my salon, regular manicure = $16, shellac = $35, but came with a glass of wine) --limited color options (although I think new colors are on the horizon) --application time takes a tad longer because of the curing between coats

Not Sure Yet --removal - At the salon, they can fill in around your cuticles for a fresh new manicure. I was told I could also soak them at home in acetone for 10 minutes and it should come off. I also read that Shellac has Remover Wraps that you wrap around your nail for 10 minutes and then it flakes off. This would keep you from having your fingers in acetone for so long.  I guess we'll see how it goes when the time comes for me to take it off.

I think it's safe for all of you to go ahead and get Shellac-ed, but if you want to wait and see how my removal goes and how my nails look afterwards, I'll keep you updated.

Homemade Donations

I mentioned earlier that I made some wooden pumpkins to be sold in a silent auction at my church.  Well, the pumpkins will have some company from our workshop at the auction.  Last night we finished up just about everything we've been working on. There are just a few last minute touch-ups to make before everything gets delivered to the church on Thursday. Along with the [three sets of three] pumpkins, will be this cute plant stand made by my dad,

as well as some wooden picture frames where the picture is held on by nail heads.  (Picture inserts made by my mom, frames made by me.)

I saw some wooden crosses at an art festival I attended recently, and tried to make some similar to them.

In the years past, we've learned that the members of our church looooove their Hogs. Anything Razorback-ish usually gets the most bids, so, in an effort to make sure that our auction items get lots of attention, we made some AR stuff.

An Arkansas sign and a Razorback sign made by my mom (frames made by me and Dad).

 

And finally, some Razorback blocks made by me. This was my first attempt at something like this and I think they're ok for the first go-round. I think they'll look cuter when they're sitting up on a shelf and you can really see their different sizes and heights, but here, they were still laying out to dry.

I think last year our donations may have been bigger things, but the great thing about all of these is that they were made out of scraps. No money spent is a win to me!

Hopefully on Saturday we'll bring in some cash for our church. If you're in the area, you should stop by and place a bid. There are usually lots of good items in the silent auction, plus there's a country store, a rummage sale, tons of food, and games for the kids!

Family Work Day

Happy fall, y'all!

We had a beautiful day here yesterday! The weather was so nice we were able to leave the doors and windows to the shop open and enjoy the nice fall breeze. In honor of the season, I made a set of these wooden pumpkins.  They'll be going in a silent auction at my church this weekend.

Along with the pumpkins will be several other things that we've made - a plant stand, a couple clocks, some picture frames, Razorback paraphernalia.  We have been super busy getting our donations ready! In fact, yesterday I had to enlist the help of Anna to be my personal helper so we could get everything finished in time. She is an excellent painter.

Also in the shop was a father-son carpenter team. They worked hard all day building a bench together.  The son did all the measuring and marking.

And the dad made all the cuts.

Once they had all their materials cut and ready to go, they assembled the bench together. Doc let Wyatt use the drill to screw in the screws.

And after a few short hours, they had completed their first father-son woodworking project!

Looks like a perfect bench, if you ask me!  Hope you all had as nice a Sunday as we did.

It's just a little crush.

This week's web browsing and catalog flipping has turned up several items that I'm drooling over. Lots of things that I really want, none of which do I actually need. But, it's ok to look and ooh and ahh over them, right? I have a major crush on this table from Crate and Barrel. It would be great in our kitchen, especially since the dropleaf would allow us to scoot it closer to the wall and have more of a walkway.  (And I'll take those shelves in the background, too!)

A birdcage umbrella that's painted...wait for it...like a birdcage.  Sure to cheer up any rainy day!

Love this quilt from Garnet Hill, preferably in the turquoise and green, but I'd take any of them.

And with that lovely quilt, I'd like to have a set of polka dot sheets.

While we're shopping at Garnet Hill, I'll also take one of these coats.  I love a good ruffle.

Barndoor entryway.  Be still my heart.  (An old crush, but recently saw it and fell in love again.)

I would like to hang this wreath on my front door during the fall, but with a $50 price tag, I'll just admire it from afar.

I really, really want one of these spoon pendant lights in my next house. Aren't they so cool?

But if I can't have the spoon pendant light, I'll settle for a key plate one.

This necklace looks fun! Does it have earrings to go with?

I don't necessarily love these as pictured, but stirrup jeans seem like such a good way to keep my pant legs stuffed down in my boots.

Do I already have too many TOMS? Nah. These should be added to my collection!

This Silhouette SD machine is awesome. It's like a printer, except that it cuts out your images instead of printing them. The possibilities of things you could do with this are endless!

Ok, confession. I bought it yesterday. Sigh...

And, because it is so incredibly freezing cold in my office today, I'd like to have this right now.

That's all I've got. What are you crushing on these days?

Heimke Wedding!

Saturday morning started bright and early for me. My mom was my assistant for the day; she helped me decorate at the reception site.  We loaded up her car with aaaaalll the decorations and we were on the road by 8:30 am. We had some work to do! We worked like busy bees all morning long. We strung lights, laid out the table runners and overlays, moved tables around, laid out all the sparklers.

We also filled our apple bowls with moss,

and then added the apples.

The apples were cored so that candles could fit in them. See?

We built pyramids out of the favor boxes.

And we folded over LOTS of bags to make luminaries. Some got ribbons, some didn't. They all got sand and candles.

We arranged cute chalkboard signs outside so the guests would know which way to go.

Back inside, we arranged all of our apple centerpieces on half of the tables. (Check out that runner and "poof!")

The other half of the tables had flower arrangements on them, complete with apples in the bottom of the vase.

The bakers arrived with the delicious cake and got to setting it up.

And the DJ got his system plugged in and all of his lights going. It was show time!

(Special shout-out to my mom for her help, and for Doc and Allison for helping me finish all the decorations that afternoon. You guys rock!)

We headed over to the church and guess who we ran into downstairs? The beautiful bride!

She was ready for her walk down the aisle! We hurried upstairs to get seated.

Jenny and Darrin - they're next!

Chris and Allison - I'm sorry this picture is blurry, but look! They match! You know I can appreciate that.

And Kendra and Antonio - they're next summer!

It was a wonderful ceremony - great music, gorgeous bride, handsome groom, good scripture and vows.

I think immediately following the ceremony was the most stressful time for me. Pictures needed to be taken but I also needed to get the flower arrangements and bouquets to the reception site. It's not easy getting big branchy arrangements into your car and then carrying them into a crowded room (thanks Chris and Doc!) but we got everything there and in place.  I was tense during that transition period and felt very unorganized and behind, but as soon as the last two arrangements were placed in their vases, I looked around and took a big sigh of relief. Everything looked good. And the guests looked happy. And the wedding party had arrived and were lined up and ready to be introduced. We made it! Time to party!

Me and my handsome date for the evening:

And some of our friends:

Me and the bride!

And some more of our friends that were there:

A few minutes into the ceremony and we had a small incident with a busted bustle. We searched for safety pins - thank goodness for men's suits and their dry cleaning tags! - and headed to the bathroom to pin the bustle.

Meanwhile, the groom got things going on the dance floor.

Some more details from the reception:

There were more toasts given to the bride and groom and we all cheered and clinked our champagne glasses.

The groom spoke and thanked everyone for coming - check out that new ring on his hand!

Remember those brown bag luminaries that my mom and I worked on to line the sidewalk? I'm not gonna lie, I was a little nervous about them. Would they look right? Or would they look too homemade? They definitely could've been a  big fire hazard and I could picture myself stomping out flames later in the evening. But, I'm pleased to say they looked great! Way better than I expected! And of course, I had no idea what kind of setting to put my camera on to get a good shot of these, so here's a blurry pic. You get the idea.

It was the groomsmen/friends of the groom that enjoyed stomping them all out at the end of the evening. Fine by me - that was just one less thing I had to do!

After a few more rounds of dancing,

some poses at the bar,

a tired junior groomsman,

and empty bottles of liquor,

it was time to wrap up the party!  We bid farewell to the newlyweds with lots of sparklers, and they drove off into the night on their decorated golf cart.

And then I immediately walked to my car to do this:

Tip: the night you are trying to make sure a reception runs smoothly should NOT be the same night you try to break in a new pair of shoes.

It was a great day...perfect couple, beautiful wedding, and a great party. Congrats, Mr. and Mrs. Heimke!