Don't Feed the Hand Models

I recently had my first hand-modeling gig. I'm adding it to my resume. Really.

As any model will tell you, modeling is hard work.

The world's best sock company, Solemate Socks was my first gig. And believe me, these people are world class. 

Here's a play-by-play of a day evening in the life a hand-model:

6:00 - Arrive at studio (cute house in NE Portland. Looks very homey).
6:15 - Eat pizza and play with one of the cutest babies I'll ever meet.
6:30 - Put on coziest socks on the planet and get in place (Hm, I have several pairs of these socks!).
6:35 - Lighting director and prop master arrange the set. Cute baby occassional complicates this.
6:40 - Take direction from both photo director (husband/dad/bicyclist/lighting director) and creative director (wife/mom/marketer-extraordinaire/prop master). Both two of the most creative people I know.
6:41 - 7:30 Do continual ab crunches as my hands are photographed wrapping around my feet to capture the bottoms of the best socks ever. Is this what exercise feels like? 
8:00 - Mission complete! Six-pack abs, check! New socks, check!

This handmodeling thing is awesome. Why did I bother going to college?

In a roundabout (really roundabout...) way, this brings me to this great set of nail polishes from Sephora by OPI. Several mini-bottles of nail polish - perfect for trying lots of different shades.

One of the best shades is Don't Feed the Hand Models. It's an opaque pink beige, pictured far right. The others are my favorites from the set.

Metro Chic, Let's Do Lunch, Keep Me On My Mistletoes, and Don't Feed the Hand Models

I also love Metro Chic, above. Lots of compliments on this. Look, I'm hand modeling again!

So, now you know a hand model. If you'd like to hire me for a gig, please note: you should feed this hand model. She likes pizza, or just a handful of wheat thins will do.

Sparkling Sand at Freddy's

As I mentioned before, PP and I took an amazing trip to Greece. I got a new camera and thought I would show off a couple of my favorite scenic pics.

Santorini, Greece

Mykonos, Greece

So, it was an awesome trip, and Greece was as great as everyone said it is. Now it is back to grind...which for me means back to the grocery store. Oh, and special shout out to Fred Meyer, who had all 16 lanes open on a Sunday with efficient, real, live grocery checkers at each one!* 

*All the other stores have decided to do the self-checkout...and for the record, NO ONE is good/fast/efficient at self check. And if I have to wait while another person asks for the code for bananas, or hear the electronic voice say "please place the item in the bag" one more time I might snap. 

After picking up a few essentials for PP, I took a gander through the nail polish aisle again and found these gems. I took these pics with my iPhone.

LA Splash Nail Polish for $3.99

These LA Splash (I agree, the name is a bit lame) polishes caught my eye because the colors are so great. And - let's be real - because they are $3.99. They have a HUGE selection, and I really like their pinks (on the right), but the glitters looked especially fun.

Pretty Jellyfish



I loved this Sparking Sand color and bought it. I have a couple of nude polishes, and I think this champagne (goldy-pink) glitter color will look awesome over the top of it. Also, since the glitter is more subtle (not huge chunks), I think it'd even look cute alone.

Sparking Sand

As a bonus this stuff is made in the USA (check labels, some inexpensive cosmetics are being made in China now, so I try to buy US when I can). It'd also be something fun for holiday parties. There you go, a bargain for under $4! 

 

This Is My Costume - Orly Purples

Halloween is not my favorite holiday. It's not that I don't like it, but I have a hard time getting into the costume stuff, party themes, and general gore.

This year though, I found these nail polish colors that will likely be my costume.

I know, watch out! Pretty scary! 

Orly's Plum Noir is a great plum-y purple, with a slight reddish undertone. Wild Wisteria is a cool, dark, blackish purple with more of a dark blue hue. Both are great, and I've always really liked the quality of Orly polish. I use it with my Orly bonder and it lasts for a week at least.

Since they're purple I feel like they might be as festive as I get this October. Not bad for less than $6 a pop.

Green with Envy - Orly Nail Color

I'm not the kind of person that needs to bedazzle everything (or anything, really), but a coworker recently showed me her bedazzled nails and I thought -

OH, I WANT THOSE.

So without going too crazy, I toned it down a little and added my favorite holiday gold-fleck nail polish, Sephora's Only Gold for Me, over my bright green Orly nail color, Green with Envy.

I think it turned out kinda fun. I mean, I wouldn't call it subtle, it's a bit flashy. But if you're wearing something conservative, add some flare with similar double-duty nails. I've decided I'm going to do it over bright red for the holidays and over black for New Years. Fun!

Cheaper Than a New Outfit - Marbelized Nail Art

In college, we used to sit in our room and do our nails for hours while we procrastinated writing papers, studying for tests or doing anything else that might be considered productive. Often we'd repaint our nails multiple times a week for no good reason.

I still love to sit and paint my nails. I think it's relaxing to go through all the steps. (And more often it's the challenge of how many seconds I can do without nicking a nail.)

Seems like painting your nails is just a fast fashion transition. It's pretty easy. It's cheaper than a new outfit. Less committed than a haircut.

I saw a YouTube video with some super cool nail art. I'm not normally into nail art but I was amazed by this. Besides the fact that this woman's nails are way too long (I'm a fan of short nails), this is pretty awesome. Remember, I said awesome, not fast.

It'd be fun to do it with more subtle colors like shades of light pink, or two shades of red, or gray and silver. Or go crazy and do your school or team colors. Just sayin'.

Oh, and while we're talking about nail polish, I really want this blue one for fall: Nars Night Series Night Flight. Love it.

The Technicolor Dream Coat - Three Essie Faves

I've gone through a few fashion stages in my day.

Age 8: The pink and gray stage
Age 10: The Coca Cola stage (Coca Cola swimsuit still my all-time fave)
Age 12-14: The Esprit Stage (begged my mom for the esprit book bag)
Age 14 -17: The Eddie Bauer Stage (strict high school dress code)
Age 18 - 21: The hooded sweatshirt and Calvin Klein jeans stage*
Age 25: The skulls stage**
Age 27: The beginning of the black and gray stage; currently ongoing.

*This coincided with an unglamorous stage in which the dressiest things I wore were khaki pants and a ribbed gray sweater. Oh, and a crimson, indestructable, stretchy velvet dress for special occassions.

**The skulls stage was not my fault. Every tshirt in stores had a skull on it during that time. PP loves to make fun of this darklord stage. I will admit, wearing a skulls tshirt to a winery may have been crossing a line.

Anyway, I think a little bit of the skull/darklord stage has stayed with me, because I've been thinking a lot about this gray nail polish that my friend had and I coveted. It's not that gray nail polish is hard-core or anything, but it's got an edge. Not your mom's nail polish.

It's an essie color 688 called Chinchilly (center) and it's described by essie as a sleek, granite, gray color. No shimmer, just a glossy finish. I love it because it seems to have noticable undertones so it stays truly gray. It seems to be just the right shade for my light skin and doesn't make me look dead like some other grays have.

Also, I have to tell you about the two other colors I bought recently and am loving:

• Essie 584 Tart Deco (left) - described by essie as "chic and modern, this dreamy coral is an artistic burst of color." This also makes you look tan and sets off diamonds and silver jewelry beautifully.
• Essie 256 Bachelorette Bash (right) - described by essie as "a creamy, juicy fuschia." I've been wearing this on my fingers, but it looks awesome on toes. Also, it looks great with pretty much every color.

Ok, those are my dream coats for now, no doubt I'll have some new favorites come fall!