Service has been Temporarily Interrupted!!

BEEEEEPPPPPP! Yes, It has been temporarily interrupted by a dance competition that seemed to wipe me OUT!!

Sorry, no manicure Monday post today. I'm hoping to film a tutorial tonight, but I have lost my voice from this past weekend and I am not quite sure if it will be back in time.  If not, I will give you a throwback from a little while ago! =)

Instead enjoy these pictures from the weekend!

The "Barbee Gurlz" On Stage (Bird is Rock Star Barbee)

The "Cute Couple" award goes to these ducks!

"Too Darn Hot" Heart

It say's "ECDT" in case you were wondering (Eight Count Dance Team) Yes, on a nasty ground waiting for dinner

Future Mean Girls Or Bridesmaids Sequel Actresses! One of the two. Bird is the Zebra print tutu

It's Competition Day!!

Today is the day!

Today is the day that our dancers have been working so hard for all year long! 

It is competition season, their first away competition and they are ready to rock the house!! I, and many other parents, have been busting out tails, offering makeup sessions, creating costumes, and props so that our girls look amazing!

Now before you go thinking I'm Abby Lee Miller or something I will tell you that I am nothing but. In fact, I much prefer to yell and scream for all the kids performing and if it were up to me everyone would get first place! I love dance, I love it's art form and how different each dancer looks when performing.  But most of all I love the little dancers faces showing how much the LOVE being out there!

So today is the day!  It is long and tiring but oh so fun!  Good luck to all the dancers performing out there today, but I am offering a very special shout out to Shining Stars School of Performing Arts, EIGHT COUNT DANCE TEAM!

#EIGHTCOUNTPRIDE!!

Packing our little Hearts Out!

Welp, it's another busy weekend!  We are packing out little hearts out b/c we are heading to the Chesapeake for weekend get-away/dance competition!  We are staying at a fabulous resort (I'll post about it next week) and getting from what seems like a great weather weekend! (AHHHHH so awsome)!

Anyway, I may not be on the blogosphere much this weekend but I will be tweeting my little heart out! So join me! I'll be posting tons of instagrams too!

Make sure you come follow me! It will be like you are vacationing with me! =) xoxo!

High Five for Friday

Every Friday I thank my lord for getting through another week of work and the other little blessings I had throughout the week.  Each Friday I see Lauren's {From My Grey Desk} High Five for Friday post and think "how awesome!" and "I really want to do that too!"  Then I thought, I already post a theme for Friday and that it's impossible.  Then I stopped listening to my brain [sometimes it tells me I can't do things, when I really can...mean brain!] and decided I am going to write two posts every Friday.  So I have decided to link up with Lauren and give you my High Five for Friday pics.

1.  My new kicks showed up on my little doorstep this week!  Had a $50 Groupon (that I purchased for $25!!!) to spend and with all the "working out" I have been doing lately new sneakers were definitely due! These are the Premier ZigFly Special Edition and so far they are pretty awesome!

2.  I found a new favorite breakfast!  Curves my appetite and is so yummy too! I wish they would make more flavors though...the other flavors include nuts...and well, I'm allergic so that is a no go!

3.  Rebecca Minkoff covered Call Me Maybe in probably one of the best YouTube remake videos I have seen...with the exception of the one my 7 y/o and her friend did earlier this week riding in a jeep! ;)  Everyone else is probably so sick of seeing & [hearing] Call Me Maybe but I just can't get enough!

4.  My Cover Girl lipstick in Temptress!  Oh how I have missed thee!  I found it shoved in to my console of my car! For weeks I have been wondering what I did with it!

5.  Dance is done. Done. DONE. At least for a couple of weeks.  Don't get me wrong I love that my daughter has found her passion at the young age of 7 but, at that young age, we moms do it all!  If I had to put makeup on and fix the hair of one more little girl for competitions, recital, and pictures one more time I was going to SCREAM!  A much needed break!  I'll be refreshed by the beginning of next season...thank goodness competitions don't start until January!  Whew!

How was your week? Did you have a lot of little blessings to be grateful for too? I would love to hear about them and I am sure Lauren would want you to linkup too!

P.S. Here's the full YouTube video just in case you missed it!

Tutorial Tuesday - KICKOFF!

Last week I gave you a little sneak peek in to what the first [of many] Tutorial Tuesday's was going to be and now here it is the finished product!

Yes, I totally turned this Stanley Mobile Work Center that I bought from Home Depot for $30 bucks in to a rolling train (make-up) case.  Here's the quick back story: my daughter is a competitive dancer (sort of like the t.v. series Dance Moms but without the horrid drama...yeah we're cool like that) I became sick of carrying all my daughter's and my make-up and hair items with me every where.  I have wanted a rolling train case for myself for a while but I just can't see spending on the upwards of $150 for it.....so ridic!  Anyway, this thing has made my life so much easier, but it was totally ugly to bring with me everywhere.  So, the stickers came off and new ones went on.  It was super* easy and here is how I did it:

*Disclaimer: the one sticker [see the picture of before I primed it] was a pain in the ass....next one I do, I am going to find an easier way to take this stupid thing off.  Thank you Stanley for making it almost impossible to take your trademark off.  

The top and bottom are connected by latches and if you remember there was a decal on the bottom half of the product that needed to be removed.  If you forgot what it looked like see my post about it here.  Using a blow dryer, tweezers, and a scraper, I removed the decal.  WARNING: this takes a long time FOREVER!!!!!  Once I removed the entire sticker this is what I was left with.

Before Priming

Yuck!  So I then got an abrasive sponge and Goo Gone and started scrubbing away until I got it to look like this.

Much, much better!  I also needed to try to figure out how I was going to paint on plastic and then it occurred to me...they make plastic primer paint!  So I armed myself with painters tape, newspaper, and some plastic primer (I used Rust-Oleum).  Since the primer came in a spray can I felt the need to really cover the whole thing.

Not sure why I am missing paper on the left side but I assure you I added some!

I then sprayed the whole section with a light coat of primer.  Just enough to cover it....you do not want to over do it!

While that dried (it took about 30 minutes), I worked on the decorations to the upper half.  Now please keep in mind that this is for my daughter and although I was the handywoman she ultimately got to have the final say on what goes (I helped steer her in to a better direction).

I found a lot of "bling" like stickers that she loved from the craft store and Wal-Mart and placed them on different areas.  I also found these awesome mirror letters!  They were $.99 at Michaels! 

But the faded in with the black coloring of the case. So I used good ol' puffy paint in hot pink & neon green and outlined them.

You can really see your reflection in them! Isn't it COOL!

By the time I finished all the decorating of the upper half of the work center, the lower half was done.  I used stencils and a hot pink acrylic paint to write out my daughters nickname "Bird."  It took about four coats, but I think that is b/c it was a glow in the dark paint.

I let that dry and then outlined it again with the neon green puffy paint and I was pretty much done. Birdy made some final touches with sparkling stars.  

Here's what it looks like on the inside:

1. Turn-out tray for all hair accessories
2. Mini compartment to hold things like primer and face stuff
3. Pull out tray to hold eye shadows, liners, mascaras, and other face make-up
4. This is what it looks like when it's closed
5. Underneath houses palettes and other items

I'm an idiot and forgot to take a pic of the lower half but that houses all her sponge rollers, blow dryer, and other hair tools.  BTW, not all of the items are my daughters, I have kind of taken it over b/c it is SO COOL! I believe I will be buying the bigger version of this and doing one just for me.  Had I really put some more thought in it, I would have also attached the mirrored letters to the inside!


What do you guys think of the first Tutorial Tuesday?  How about a $30 rolling train case? AWESOME right!?  What else would you like to see?  Leave me comments or send me an email!

Motivational Monday - Dance it Out!!

So things have been kind of a bummer in my life lately.  Don't get me wrong I am a super happy person, but I tend to take on more things then I think I can sometimes handle, and I worry a lot for my family members....A LOT.  Okay, Okay, way more than A LOT.  But I love them so much that I can't help it.

Also, the weather has been kind of sucky. It won't snow, yes I am praying for a big snow storm that keeps us home, but yet, keeps us all safe.  Instead we are getting this hot/cold rainy nonsense.  It is making me sick and depressed.  Then I watch the news and I am so sad for those in the Mid-West and South that it makes my funk go even lower b/c I can't be there to help all those helpless people.  My heart goes out to each and everyone of you affected by mother natures terror!

A couple of weeks ago I started this little tradition with my girls when I drop them off to the daycare at their school.  We have now made it a point to do this and I have found that it starts my day positive and motivates me to remember to be positive throughout the day.  And sometimes when I feel myself getting sad again, I remember this little number and it either makes me laugh or makes me get up out of my chair and do it all over again!

So for this Motivational Monday, although we may feel silly doing so, I motivate everyone to get up and "Dance It Out!!" You will be surprised about how good you feel after you do it.  To take it one step further I am challenging each of you to start your morning like this!  Let me know how you feel once you start doing it.

Runnin' Man's & Roger Rabbits,

Nicole