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June 12, 2012

Outfit of the day: Yellow, Black & White

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Clothing, Jewelry, OOTD

Yellow is a thifted tank top & vintage costume jewelry bracelet from my late great aunt’s stash.
Black is the short sleeve jacket from Target (purchased a few year ago) & Bauble Bar bracelet via on of my Birchboxes (though I didn’t participate in this contest and it creeps me out a little that Justin Bieber apparently wears this bracelet.)
White is the stripes in the tank top, another vintage bracelet, & the earrings I made from a pair of vintage clip on earrings.

What do you think? Good combo? Overkill on the arm candy? 🙂

March 21, 2012

NEON NAIL Mix N Match – “Bikini” pink & “Did I dye it too blonde?” yellow

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Makeup / Cosmetics

Sinful Colors in "Bikini" 1101
First I started with a coat of Sinful Color base, then Sinful Colors in “Bikini” which is a BRIGHT pink shade. And to think, at the beginning of February I thought that Zoya’s “Lo” was bright.

I have now reapplied this color when it started to chip. AND it’s stayed on without chipping for a very long time (I’m thinking around 7 days) before chipping. And I’m not gentle to my nails. I love how smooth this polish goes on and the fact that both times I’ve used it, I’ve been smudge and dent free on top and stayed that way.

Then I found this at CVS: Spoiled by Wet N’ Wild in “Did I dye it too blonde?” 🙂 And I was thinking “let’s take this to the next level, it’s only $2, I want to try this neon yellow thing out too.”

Next was several failed attempts at applying this yellow. It’s rather sheer:

The first try I just applied it to my existing color which made for a really nice orange shade but it wasn’t what I was looking for.
Second attempt I used it just on top of a base coat. It lacked “oopmh.” It looked very plain, very boring, still sheer. I could have more color on my nail if I used a highlighting marker.
Third try was the charm. I used a coat of white first and finally got that in your face shade I was seeing in the bottle.

Love it!!

Pictured here with the heart nail file from one of my previous Birchbox’s.

Review of the polishes (not the colors) below:

I will say I’m not amazed by this particular brand nail polish, Spoiled, just because it IS so sheer and it does stay as clean and smooth looking as the Sinful Colors. I’m not sure if this is the entire brand or the color itself. I would give both a second chance. I do think I might invest in a better neon yellow though if my second attempt doesn’t go so well with this yellow.

I am in love with the Sinful Colors “Bikini” pink though because it goes on and stays on so well. I do think the quality there is almost on par with $7-10 nail polishes (did I mention Sinful Colors is a $2 nail polish as well?)

It IS a cheap way to give neon a try.

Affiliate link below (the opinions above are my own, I only sought out the affiliate link because I like the product so much!)

March 1, 2012

Predicting Trends?

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Clothing

I was noticing something in my analytics – that a post I made about mix and match nail polish back in April had started picking up. I’m not the only one who noticed this back in April so it’s not like I’m claiming to be some sort of genius here. I just find it interesting.

I have started to see more of this on pinterest and I’ve spotted it a couple of times locally. Mostly the two toned nails with most nails painted one color and then 2-3 nails painted something else usually vibrant or glittery.

I have actually done this several times now myself as well instead of just compiling a bunch of photos from other people.

I’m wondering if things like Pinterest will escalate the speed or adoption of certain trends though. I don’t think I currently subscribe to enough fashion magazines to tell how they’re affecting this trend in particular.

My next prediction? We’ll start seeing denim shirts paired with brights and whites in the spring. I gathered that in October which wasn’t exactly the right season for that look but I do really like it. It’s almost timeless looking though so I don’t know if it’s can also be trendy. 🙂

January 11, 2012

Revlon “powder puff” nail polish

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Beauty & Skin

Not the best nail painting going on in the photo but I think it’s a really fun color. A matte white with a hint of something else (blue? shimmer? I can’t figure it out.) It reminds me of snow though.

December 11, 2009

Photo of the day – Dec 10 2009

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Clothing

Some basic business attire from yesterday. The red flats I recently bought, a pair of dark dark grey pants with a tiny light green pinstripe that are at least 3 years old, and a white acrylic sweater I don’t remember buying but it feels so much like cashmere I checked the tag before I tossed it in the wash. Earrings, gift from mom from Greece trip, and the necklace is a couple dollars worth of flea market finds someone brought to a beading party (thanks Betsy!)

FOTD12_10_2009

A bit of non-clothing info: I am LOVING the beadboard WALLPAPER I put up in the dining room that you can see here. $25 a roll and I almost did it in one roll (would have been able to if I hadn’t messed up a few pieces.) So $50 and the room looks SO much better. Inspiration from Southern Hospitality’s blog here:
http://southernhospitalityblog.com/beadboard-wallpaper-party/

Check it out and the links to the beadboard wallpaper projects other people did as well.

Next house project is removing the textured ceiling and giving everything in there a good coat of paint. I plan on doing a light ale yellow above the chair rail.

The tree in the photo was the display tree that was over half off and came with the lights on it. I love the urn base.

I have a small live arbor vite(sp) in the living room where the palm tree was this summer that is decorated and will get planted after the holiday season. This artificial one will go in that spot next year. The palm tree started to struggle … it’s sitting under the plant light in the bedroom now with the dwarf lemon, dwarf orange and dwarf blueberry plants. I hope to have fruit in a couple of years!

Now, off to prep the computer for a hard drive and OS upgrade (I’m a geek…)

April 4, 2009

What I wore today … well … umm a few days ago…

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Clothing

Well it’s better than a photo from a few months ago this time. I’m so happy with my new palm tree and I brought in one of my granny’s chairs from the garage not expecting it to look so good. I’m loving the whole new arrangement though.

POTD April 1 2009

Earrings: Liz Claiborne silver oval hoops – Christmas gift
(probably about $18)

Necklace: Kmart clearance $1.50

Cardigan: Ann Taylor – gift
(Mom bought for me while we were in Vegas at the Outlet mall so $10? I think my teal one was the $30 Cardigan)

Dress: No idea, swapped some makeup for it so mostly free.

Scarf: vintage (either my mom’s or granny’s, not sure)

Flip Flops: Kohl’s clearance $2 or under last summer
(they’re bronze and I probably should have worn dressier shoes)

I really like this dress and there are a few things you can’t tell about it in this photo:

it’s a nice chocolate brown
it has a brown crocheted section across the chest area which is a nice bit of detail without calling too much attention to that area
it’s a simple cotton dress and feels like wearing a big comfy t-shirt
it has an elastic empire waist
it’s a sort of cross between a sleeveless and capped sleeve … I don’t really know how to describe it.

In an effort to get the slippery scarf to stay in one place I actually tied it around the button cardigan which I don’t know that I would do again. It worked really well in regard to keeping the scarf in place and centered but I felt like it has the potential to wear out the cardigan faster or lose the button or misshape the button hole.

Anyone have any scarf belt tricks? I’m thinking about buying some more fun fabrics and making more if I can get that figured out a bit better.

And I’m starting to wonder if I know the price of most of my clothes off of the top of my head like some odd sort of visual memory recall… scary…

FYI – I live in what used to be my grandmother’s house hence the sort of oddness about chairs from the garage and not knowing who the scarf belonged to. I did actually find it here. It took me three months I think to get to the point that I could move in and I’ve been slowly cleaning everything out ever since (my mom is a packrat and stopped helping after I moved in because she doesn’t want to part with any of it.)