Ritzy Reptile and Pumpkin Spice Jamicure

I'm totally in love with the Jamberry Nail Wraps. This is the best thing to happen to my manicures. For the longest time, I completely stopped painting my nails because the polish would start chipping after a few days.

For my latest manicure or jamicure (Jamberry manicure), I chose Ritzy Reptile and Pumpkin Spice. I have been obsessing for the past few days over finding a wrap that would pair well with Ritzy Reptile as an accent nail. The sparkles in Ritzy Reptile have more of a gold sparkle and I didn't have the Gold Sparkle wrap and the wraps that I have that have a gold sparkle were too gold.

The sparkle in Pumpkin Spice is the closest to the sparkle in Ritzy Reptile. The more I look at the pairing, the more I like it. Pumpkin Spice is actually a beautiful wrap and it looks a little subdued because of my complexion. I'm liking it even more than the Ritzy Reptile. LOL

I was going to use the Chameleonaire nail wrap for my next jamicure but I'm over my reptilian obsession. Isn't it pretty?

I think I'm going to use Zebra Debra with Veiled as my accent nail. I haven't seen any pictures on Instagram with long nails use this wrap yet.

My manicures last me two weeks just like the Jamberry Company claims so it will be a while before I give myself another manicure. That picture doesn't do the beautiful purple tiger print any justice. It's so much prettier in person.

If you want to see more Jamberry Nails has to offer follow the link below.
www.shavonne.jamberrynails.net

Metallic Croc

Today was manicure day and I chose Metallic Croc for my nails. Metallic wraps are a challenge to work with. To activate the glue, you have to hold the wrap with the glue side facing the heat source. However, the metallic wraps curl like crazy when the wrap is held close the the heat source glue side. So I tried to apply the wrap to my nail and then the heat. Worst mistake. I was unable to stretch the wrap to get rid of the buckles. If I haven't mentioned it before, but I have curved nails. The wraps buckle on the sides when applied to curved nails and the only way to get rid of the buckles is to stretch the wrap until the buckles disappear.  

To get around the curling, I turned the glue side of the wrap away from the heat. So I essentially heated the wrap on the pattern side. That worked like a charm. 

I don't think this manicure will last as long as my previous manicure and I think in the future I will only use the metallic wrap as an accent.  

I was going to give myself a pedicure but changed my mind. I have hobbit feet and I don't feel like shaving my toes. Yes, that's right.  I have hair on my toes. I just told you I have hobbit feet. What did you expect??

I'm going to leave you with another fabulous picture of my manicure.  

Check out the other designs Jamberry has to offer!

www.shavonne.jamberrynails.com

What Ticks Me Off

I finished watching a commercial for Kaplan University and it got my blood boiling.

I'm one of those people who believe you have to do what you have to do to get ahead. However, one of the things society keeps pushing on people is the idea of and education as being the ONLY way to move up in the world.

I'm not anti education by any means. I've spent gobs of money on a undergraduate and graduate degrees. I was told it was the only way to be successful. I didn't realize I only bought myself a cubicle and a 60-mile commute. The jokes on me and I'm out of tens of thousands of dollars.

Anyways, I bought a Macbook Air and I love it. I got the 11 inch. It's the perfect size. And it's lighter in weight than my first generation iPad.

It's Been a While

I haven't posted to my blog in a year!

What do I pay for this domain name for? I might as well get my money's worth.

I've been busy learning how to cook and staying active and learning how to invest in real estate. I'm seriously tired of working for someone else and I'm envious of those who've managed to find their niche and are making money.

I've been practicing that old saying "If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say it at all." It's been working but it's left me little to talk about on my blog.

That will have to change. I have been contributing to a video blog these past 6 months. It's a pretty boring watch. I've gotten bored with video blogging but since I've committed to doing a video 365 Project, I'm going to finish.

To start off with a little positive, I've been reading PaleOMG because the blog is just a good read. Plus, there are paleo recipes I can try. I'm new to the whole cooking thing because of my food allergies and this is one blog I turn to for recipes. Anyways, Julie posted a fashion Friday post which included a picture of one of the most beautiful bags I've ever seen. The bag is made by Kelly Moore and it's Esther bag.
Isn't it beautiful? The green is just lovely. For the first time in a I wish I were a married woman with kids that way I'd have Mother's Day or an anniversary to get an awesome gift like this.

Coursera: the Science of Gastronomy

I've been taking a course at coursera.org called The Science of Gastronomy. So far I've learned I can defrost meat faster if it is in a metal bowl submerged in water. I also learned my taste buds don't work well. I had to do an experiment based on the taste map. I had to rub something sour, bitter, sweet, and salty across four different areas of my tongue to see if I could detect the sensation, and if I could, how intense the sensation was. I actually could not taste anything. 

I wish I had more to post but I'm still working on a few things. I want to get them good enough to publish somewhere online. I'd like to get paid for something I write for once. 

I hope I hear from some of the jobs I applied for. The drive to work is driving me insane.

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My Blogit Days

So I did some searching and I found that blogger I mentioned yesterday. She can be found at www.ahermitt.com. She left blogit a few years after I did and started a self-hosted blogger blog.

I need to send her a quick thank you. She was my first bread crumb.

I ended up finding my profile on that website. SCAREY!!! I'm not proud of it at all. I was a different person back then. I'm glad my idiosyncrasies haven't been completely erased from the web. I like being to see where I used to be and how far I've come in my life journey. 

I received an email from a lady I met at a meetup a few weekends ago. Networking has paid off. She wanted me to forward my resume. I'm hoping to get an interview. Even if I don't get a job, I still need the practice of selling my skill sets. 

I need to cut my nails. I'm having difficulty typing this. 

Nothing but random thoughts today. I plan on taking a rest from staring at a computer screen. My eyes have been blood shot red for the past couple of days. I didn't realize how much I missed blogging.

I'm working on a serious piece, one that I'm hoping to be able to sell. Now that I think about it, it's probably outdated as the topic is a subject that is done but the repercussions will be around for generations. I just hope I can finish the piece without it coming off as hate speech. Some topics are hard to write about even when it's done with the most tact. People don't like viewpoints unless they are politically correct.  

I Didn't Know What I Wanted

I didn't know what I wanted until someone showed me what I could have. I'm very fortunate to have found people who want me to want more than what I was used to seeing around me. And it all started with blog.

I stumbled across a blog at blogit.com written by a black woman. (Blogit is a website where you can get paid to blog.)  She was a married, Christian black woman who homeschooled her children. Not only that, but her husband (a small business owner) could provide for their family without her having to work.

I've personally never a black woman who lived like that. Growing up, I was surrounded by single moms (mostly never married). The women who were married worked and they weren't married to business owners.

Some years later I was introduced to a couple who lived a similar lifestyle to that blogger I stumbled across years ago. What I loved most about the couple is, the wife adored her husband. I could tell by the way she looked at him. She had respect for him. That's something I don't see much from married women.

I never wanted to get married or have children because the examples of marriage and motherhood were what I considered to be nightmares. But, I got glimpses of what I now what because there were people who showed me what I could have. Now, I just need to find a husband.

Shavonne (the blogs)

 

I've been meaning to post to the blog but haven't felt motivated. My main reason, I don't have much to blog about and two, It isn't easy to blog from  Tiny Mac (my iPhone). I can't seem to want to do anything if I have to turn on an actual computer. I have two apps that work great on my blogger blog, but posting to my self-hosted Wordpress blog is proving difficult from my iPhone. The images and text formatting is all screwed up. I get around that by posting a draft and doing some really painful editing on my iPhone from the Wordpress dashboard. Not. Fun. Or. Easy. At. All.

Wordpress does have a free app, but I was only able to get that to work once. When it did work, it was great. And easy. And fun. And then it stopped working. And mobile blogging to my Wordpress blog from my phone is a nightmare.

I have two options, I can find other platform to blog from (I think I'm limited because my web hosting only supports Wordpress or Blogger). But I love my blog template. I paid for it!! Graph Paper Press designs beautiful blog templates that compliment photograpy and display well on mobile devices, specifically Apple mobile devices. (Sorry Android and Windows fans, I don't use them, don't have an interest in how they work or how my blogs display on their screens). Anyone have some advice on how to solve my dilemma? Or how to get the Wordpress app to work? The Wordpress forums are useless.

It would also helped if I narrowed my focus of my blog. Then I realize, the blog is called Shavonne for a reason. It's about me. And I'm interested in everything, so I should blog about the things that interest me. Politics, food, religion, men, dating, being single, those are the things I like talking about. Lately, my obsession has been food.

I don't like dating, so I won't be blogging much about that. I blogging about dating mostly because I don't date.

I hate cheaters! Sorry, I'm watching Army wives and the Sherwoods are cheating on each other. Army Wives is my guilty pleasure. I served in the Army, but I was never an Army wife, so I'm seeing it from a very different perspective. I couldn't marry a soldier. I witnessed too much cheating and I'm a clingy woman. I wouldn't want my man away from me for too long. My heart doesn't grow fonder with distance and time.

Must get cook my cilantro lime cauliflower then get some shut eye. Happy Independance Day.

The weekend

I went to a Game Night meetup at The Charleston in Santa Monica last night. It was fun. I met some really great people. I even got a job lead out of it. These events are really great for networking because getting a job nowadays is all about who you know, not what you know. I've been wanting to get out of my field of work for a while now.

Speaking of getting out of my line of work, it's one reason I haven't been blogging much in the last year. I'm really passionate about politics. I've wanted to blog about some pretty important issues but because of many of the government scandals, I'm glad I've kept silent. But I can't keep silent too much longer. It just doesn't feel right. So look for more posts about politics.

As far as my reading goes, I've been reading mostly Paleo cookbooks. I will be sharing the names of these cookbooks at a later date. I've cooked at least one recipe out of each cookbook and they turned out wonderful.

I need to get working on my resume and continue my job search. If I plan to move to the Los Angeles area before the end of this year, I'll need to find a job ASAP.

Good night.

Lost

I feel like I've been traveling on this road and I don't know where I'm going, I don't know why I'm on it, and I feel like I've been on it FOREVER with no turn offs or end in sight.

My life. This past few years I've been to weddings, I've seen babies born, marriages fall apart and my life has stayed exactly the same.

No love. No new job. No nothing. Just me living in what feels like the middle of nowhere with nothing to show for it.

This picture is a perfect representation of me. Of my life this far.

I've prayed and had others pray for me. I've questioned whether there is a god. Does he hear my prayers? Is his answer to everything I pray for 'No'?

Doors are supposed to be opened but it feels like they are being shut in my face. Urgh! That's not supposed to be. I'm not supposed to feel this way.

Maybe I need a vacation or something.

Strawberries

Strawberries are in season and I'm loving it! I bought some at the farmer's market this past Saturday but they weren't sweet. The ones o bought today are much sweeter. Yum.

I'm watching The Amazing Spider-Man. I thought Peter's love interest was a redhead?

Memorial Day

Veloster

I went to test drive the Hyundai Veloster today. It is a nice car. I'm not sure if I want to get it though. I want to look at some more cars before I make my decision.

The dealer I went to today tried to give it to me up the pooper. I'll be going over the hill to see if I can't get a better deal.

The Word

I went to my mom's church for Bible study tonight. It was okay. I'm not used to that style of teaching. It was a little light on scripture. I prefer lots of scripture. It's the only part of going to church I love. Reading God's word.

Time for another car.

My car just died for the final time. I will have to get another car this weekend. I can't do anything without a car.

My oil thingee busted and I don't have circulating on my engine parts. If I drive this car any further, I will kill the engine for good. Dang. Makes me wish I had sold this car a year ago instead of holding on to it. You snooze you lose.

Battleship

I went to see Battleship today. It was a decent movie. It wasn't as good as The Avengers but it was entertaining.

It looks like there will be many great movies this summer. I've got at least five on my list of must sees.

Bowling

I went out tonight with a couple of folks from my meetup group. We had fun. I discovered I don't like bowling and pool is only fun when I'm playing someone I can't play.

Sadly, I don't have pictures of my meal or any of our games.

Untitled

As you can see from the number of pictures I have on my blog, I spend a lot of time in my car. I don't have anything to blog about. I've been unmotivated to do much of anything.

Happy Mother's Day

Santa Monica

I took my mom trikking at the beach in Santa Monica. Not the best bike lane for riding. There were too many people walking on the bike lanes.

Then we had lunch at BP Oysterette. I had the grilled hangar steak and my mom had the lobster mac and cheese. With much regret, I did not get a picture of my steak and I suppose it was because it wasn't much to look at but it sure was good. My mom's lobster Mac and cheese wasn't that great but I has something to do with the fact that I don't like paste and I'm not a fan of lobster. Sadly, I didn't get pics of her food either.

After finishing my steak I found myself still hungry, so I ordered a side of garlic spinach. It was good much like my steak. I'll have to eat there again so I can take pictures of my meal.