The Happiest Place on Earth

No...not Disneyland. I'm talking about Wamego, KS, home of the Wizard of Oz Museum! I found out a Wizard of Oz museum existed about a year ago and have been bugging Honeyham to take me ever since. A few weeks ago we finally made the trip out to Wamego, and it was amazing.

We didn't really have any plans except to check out the museum, and I was pleasantly surprised to find there was also an Oz Winery, The Wicked Stitch yarn store, and Toto's Tacoz!

The museum itself is somewhat small, but packed with Oz memorabilia. They had everything, from a full collection of books, including books in many different languages, to special edition peanut butter jars sold to promote the move. We may be heading back in October for the Oztoberfest which features a few of the original Munchkins!

I do believe in spooks, I do believe in spooks. I do I do I do I do I do!

I am OZ! Great and powerful.

Marvy's namesake. We should have brought him with us!

After the museum, we headed over to the Oz Winery where we sampled some wine and picked up a bottle of Oil Can and Emerald City Lights. While we were there, one of the employees mentioned that there was a brewery we could tour in Manhattan, just a short drive from Wamego. When Jeff found out it was the Tall Grass Brewing Co. he was pumped! We often have beers from that brewery here in Lincoln! We decided to get some lunch at Toto's Tacoz, then head to Manhattan for the brewery tour.

The tour was AWESOME! I had never been to a brewery tour before, so that was pretty neat! We got a complementary beer tasting glass and tickets for six samples. After the tour, we hung out in the front area of the building - one side had the bar, and the other had seating plus a foosball table and and old Nintendo set up.

Duck hunting

Named for American Gladiators

Overall, this turned out to be an awesome trip (despite an impromptu extension due to some car troubles). We will definitely be heading back to Wamego at some point!

On a Trip

The move is done and the new apartment is AMAZING! I'll try to get some pics of it, but I want to decorate a little first. We have all kinds of frames and art to hang from the wedding :)

This next polish I swatched is Wet n Wild Megalast in 213C - On a Trip. This polish takes forever to dry. I got it before I discovered the wonders of a quick dry top coat and got sheet marks even though I painted my nails a good 3-5 hours before I went to bed.

It's an awesome color though, I love it!

 Sorry for the cat hairs in the photo. I can't escape them!

Like I said, this color is awesome. It's pretty thick so it gives good coverage! I don't remember how it wore over a few days, I don't think it had too much chippage though.

Base coat: Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Hardener
Polish: Wet n Wild "On a Trip" - 2 coats
Top coat: Essie Good to Go along with Sephora by OPI drying drops.

Swatches

I've decided I want to go through and swatch all my polishes. Because I'm weird like that.

First up we have Zoya Astra. This was the first Zoya polish I tried...and it's ok. It's a red/silver (or maybe light pink?) glitter in a red jelly base (I think jelly is the correct term). I guess I was just a little disappointed because it's much more muted than I am used to for a glitter. It is very pretty though, and application is great. I was able to get good coverage in just two coats!

Some of my nails look like they have some bald spots or that it's somewhat sheer, but to be honest you can't really tell in real life!

Base coat: Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Hardener
Polish: Zoya Astra - 2 coats
Top Coat: Essie good to go followed by Sephora by OPI drying drops

And for my family, who I think still reads this...I promise I will put up some non-polish related posts soon. We're moving on Saturday, so there will be plenty to update :)

Water marble!

This was my first attempt at doing water marble nails. I had a lot of fun, although it was a little time consuming. I haven't tried this technique again, but now that I'm building up more of a stash and have more complementary colors to choose from, I will probably try it out again soon!

I used Essie marshmallow, chincilly, and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 340 - Mint Sorbet. The marshmallow (I think) ended up just sort of looking like my natural nail color. Like I said, I think I will try this one again soon with brighter colors, or colors that work together a little better.

Dandelion nails

I want to start of this post by saying I did not come up with the design on my own. I saw it on redditlaqueristas, but I can't remember who originally posted it.

Anyway, on to the nails!

The base is Essie chinchilly, the dandelion leaves (...tufts?) are Essie marshmallow, and the stem/dots are Sally Hansen Insta-Dri 22 - Jumping Jade. I'm not 100% sure on the green color, since I did these a while ago! I used my striping brush for the leaves and stem, and a small dotting tool for the dots.

More stamping

Here's another early attempt at stamping:

The base is Essie marshmallow, stamped with Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure 320 - Raisin the Bar. I used Mash plate 11.

First time stamping!

I also got a stamping kit for Christmas. Woooooooooooo. I love this thing, and now that I have some nail art pens, I have more opaque polishes that work well for stamping.

This was one of my first attempts at stamping:

This is Essie chinchilly with fishnet stockings stamped over it. I used MASH plate 14!

Another gradient

Another glitter gradient!

Sorry for the awful lighting. This one used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri 230 - Silver Sweep as the base with the same glitter as before, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in 140 - Rockstar Pink and 200 - Strobe Light.

I didn't like this one as much, maybe it would have looked better with a lighter base color.

New tools

For Christmas I got an awesome set of nail art brushes (thanks, Mom!!). So of course, I had to try them out right away!

This is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in 230 - Silver Sweep, and 20 - Pronto Purple. I used what's called a striping brush for this, and it was actually really easy! The Insta-Dri aren't the greatest for nail art since they dry so quickly, but they are also very opaque which means you can easily make designs without having to go over it multiple times. I haven't used the Insta-Dri in a long time because they chip really badly for me. And, now that I know you can use a quick-dry top coat on top of anything, I don't have to wait around for my nails to dry anymore!

Christmas nails

This was my first venture into doing something more complicated. I remember I tried to do something with red and green at first, which is why my hands look a little green in the picture. It was NOT successful.

Instead I went with this:

I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in 350- Wined Up, and Nicole by OPI Glitter in my Stocking.

I love this glitter. It's mainly gold with a tiny bit of silver and some red glitter thrown in as well. It applies really nicely with pretty good coverage!

GLITTER

Up next is a glitter gradient. I LOVE doing these, even though it's a pain to remove all the glitter. Totally worth it.

For this one I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in 140 - Rockstar Pink and 200 - Strobe Light. I do this one fairly often, but I think next time I'll use a regular polish on the tips to make the gradient more obvious.

Nails, nails, nails

I've been REALLY into painting my nails lately. I've painted my nails for as long as I can remember, but now I'm getting into more fancy stuff! I probably look for new nail polish every few days or so, and have gotten a stamping set, nail brushes, and a nail art set. I always send pictures to my mom, and she suggested I start putting them on pinterest. I'm not really sure how (or if) I can just post a picture directly to pinterest, so I thought, why not blog about it?! Woo.

I'm going back to when I first started getting into nail art, so here's one of my first attempts!

A French manicure, I think I used Essie Marshmallow for the white, and found some old nail stickers for the accent nail!

Happy month-iversary...now get out!

So Honeyham and I have been married just over a month! I was thinking it might be fun to do something special for our 1 month anniversary, just for fun, but boy was I in for a surprise.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned our apartment on here before, although anyone who knows me has probably heard me complain about it. Basically, the building is not maintained well, the landlords are not very helpful, and best of all our neighbors are terrible, terrible people. You probably think I'm exaggerating, but seriously not a day goes by where we don't hear them shouting at the top of their lungs multiple times - either at their dogs or each other.

But anyway, the day before our anniversary, we got a "nice" surprise. I was home eating dinner while Honeyham was at a meeting. I had heard and seen some construction going on in the complex, but figured they were just fixing something. While eating, someone came to our door. It was someone from the city with a notice that we were to vacate the premises immediately. Um....what?

City guy: "So, I'm sure you heard about the walkway collapsing."
Me: "Umm..."
City guy: "We need you to vacate immediately, here is the notice."

Ok, so clearly it was not just construction going on - a walkway in the complex had actually collapsed and the landlord didn't even think to notify anyone? I had even seen her earlier that day showing people an apartment! The city guy didn't really know how long we would be out for, but suggested we leave ASAP.

Obviously I didn't want to just get out, I had to call Honeyham, get the cats ready, find somewhere to stay, etc. We ended up staying at a friend's house the first night, then going to a hotel until we were able to move back in three or four days later. Thank goodness HH is in law school, as he had a good idea what our best course of action would be. Since we were out for less than a week, we are hoping to negotiate a free months rent as well as some extra money for our increased mileage to/from work and school, hotel costs, etc.

Needless to say, that was not how I pictured spending our one month-iversary, but at least we are back home, and counting down the days until we can move to a MUCH nicer apartment.

I.can't.wait.

smokin' salmon cream cheese roll up

It's been a while since my last post, but hey - I completed one of my resolutions! Jeff and I got married on March 10th, and just got back from our honeymoon last Saturday. Needless to say, the last month has been quite busy, so I'm trying to get back in the swing of things here.

The next recipe from the Hungry Girl cookbook was the "smokin' salmon cream cheese roll up." I actually made this one quite a while ago, but forgot to write about it...oops! This one was actually really tasty. My only complaints were that the fat-free cream cheese had a strange texture, and smoked salmon is freakin' expensive. I might make this one again, but definitely not very often.

Next up is an oatmeal recipe. I have all the ingredients for it, but we got a blender as a wedding gift and I've been making smoothies lately so it may be a while before I get around to the oatmeal.

super-duper veggie scramble

This is the next recipe from Hungry Girl. This one was goooood and giant! I think I like this one better than the breakfast burrito. I may have put more vegetables in than the recipe called for since I didn't really measure, but I figure more veggies can't hurt! The one thing I need to get used to is adding some seasoning to these recipes, my first try always comes out bland. I think I've gotten the hang of cooking the fake eggs too, no more watery mess!

This morning, since we don't have any of the ingredients left except the veggie patty, I made the veggie patty with a fried egg on top. I'm sure it wasn't as healthy as the original recipe, but it made a pretty good breakfast too!

Next up is a smoked salmon scramble. I love salmon so I'm already drooling over that one.

Did Target read my blog?

I'm pretty sure this is what happened with Li'l Scoopia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd2kJS8QoMw

Li'l Scoopia

Jeff and I have two cats in our little apartment. One is a giant named Professor Marvel (bonus points if you know what that's from!) who goes by Marv, the other is a normal sized cat named Livia.

                                                          Marv is the black one

I got Marv when I was teaching on the Pine Ridge reservation. I picked him out from the Humane Society, but really, he chose me. While I was trying to decide which cat to look at first in the cat room, Marv stuck out his paw to tap my arm. When I got him out he immediately nuzzled into my neck - how could I say no! Since I've gotten him, the poor guy has suffered through tapeworm, round worm (maybe? I don't remember), and now asthma. I've just started giving him an inhaler twice daily...probably a post on that to follow.

Livia we got after we moved to Lincoln. The first year I had Marv my roommate also had a cat, and I figured he was lonely now. A month or so after moving, I finally convinced Jeff to just go look at some cats at the Humane Society here...just so we could think about getting one! Of course we ended up with Livia that same day. Little did we know she has a slight heart problem, but nothing major.

Needless to say, they provide us with endless amusement. They love to run, jump, cuddle, and burrow under the blankets. In fact I'm typing this now with Marv on my lap and his head covering the keyboard. We of course have many many nicknames for them - Marvy, Marvejandro, Marvecito, Barfy, Poopies, Poopia, Biteya. Livia got her nickname Li'l Scoopia after an interesting morning a few weeks ago...

I have a fountain for our cats and Livia LOVES that thing. Every time I fill it up, no matter where she is in the house, she will come running up to sit and watch. Afterward she'll sit there, watching the fountain, occasionally batting at it, sticking her paws in the bowl. She does this a lot.

One morning I was sort of half awake, but the alarm hadn't gone off yet so I was still in bed. I could hear Livia enthusiastically splashing in the fountain, but I didn't think much of it. My alarm goes off and there's Livia, in my face, paws soaking wet. I get up to feed the poopies and follow Livia into the kitchen. Now, I know she's just a cat, but I swear she looked so proud, prancing around, looking back at me...but why? I walk into the kitchen to find the floor covered in water. It seemed like it was flooded. My first thought was the kitchen sink, since we'd had an issue with that before, but it wasn't that. I look over to the cat fountain to see it's completely empty. Practically dry. And there was Li'l Scoopia was just standing there, looking up at me, so proud. "Meow??" She had spent the morning scooping every last drop of water out of that fountain.

Thankfully it hasn't happened since.

Breakfast biurrito

First up from the Hungry Girl cookbook was the "yumtastic breakfast burrito". I already had to make a substitution here - regular bacon instead of turkey bacon - because the turkey bacon I bought the other day at the store has mysteriously disappeared. I'm hoping I just didn't end up getting it...otherwise it's been sitting in Jeff's car for a few days.

I was pretty pleased with this recipe, but next time I will definitely make a few changes. I will NOT be using American cheese again (I'll try to use up what we have, but after that, no more!). I really didn't think it would make much of a difference but I could definitely taste it, and I still don't like it. I was a little skeptical about the egg substitute, as this was my first time working with it. I like it though, and I had a realization...is this what restaurants use??? I've never been able to make scrambled eggs that look like the ones you get at restaurants, but these actually did! Next time I need to remember to add some salt and pepper, and even though they looked like they were cooked, I think they needed to go a little longer because my burrito turned out a bit liquidy...

Overall though, I would definitely make this recipe again. It was indeed yumtastic, and although it looked kind of small, it was surprisingly filling!

A resolution update

And another post right away because I got excited.

I've gotten the ball rolling on going back to school this summer! I'm in the process of setting up a meeting with a faculty adviser...I'm so excited!

Trying to cook...

So, I'm not really much of a cook. I love baking, but cooking has just never really interested me. Of course, that's never stopped me from buying cook books! I don't have that many, but I do have a few that I've collected over the years, and Jeff's grandma gave us a cookbook of family recipes for Christmas.

I've decided I'm going to start cooking my way through all my cookbooks. I don't want to go too crazy and say I'll do a recipe a day, or even a recipe a week. But I think I'm going to just pick a book start with and work my way through each recipe. I will most likely have to skip some given that we don't have most of the more specialized/unusual cookware, but I'll do what I can.

My first book is Hungry Girl by Lisa Lillien. The recipes in this book are mostly single serving and are all low-cal, low-fat. I've made a few things from this book and they were delicious, so I'm excited to try out the rest. I'm going to try and stick with the ingredients listed (yes, even American cheese) since the whole point of the book is to reduce the amount of calories/fat, but I'm sure I'll end up making some substitutions based on what's available at the grocery store here.

We're going to the store this weekend, so I'll hopefully be trying out the first recipe in a few days!

Don't break the chain!

I discovered (...ok I saw it on reddit) this website to keep track of daily goals - chains.cc. It's basically an easy way to keep track of stuff you are trying to do everyday. You enter in a goal and click a bubble each day you do it! You can customize the look a little bit, and can disable certain days of the week for each goal if you want. So far, I'm using it to keep track of a few random things like reading and not hitting the snooze button.

I've also decided to use it to keep track of my workouts and therefore how much money I can spend (up to $1, woooooo). I had been trying to think of a way to keep track of my workouts that was a little more exciting and visually appealing than just tally marks or checks on a calendar. I thought about putting actual dollars in a jar or something but I didn't really want to go to the bank to withdraw $30 in ones. I figure creating a chain for it will be a little more practical and still fun. It's just clicking a bubble each day, but it still adds a little something!

Resolutions 2012

I decided to start blogging again, and that required a new blog! Because, well...I'm a little embarrassed to still have a livejournal account. I decided to keep the same blog title at least, since my love of the Wizard of Oz will never die (my mom even got me ruby slippers for Christmas!) and I can't think of another title. There was almost a disaster when I couldn't find a url I liked that wasn't already taken, but Jeff (my fiance) stepped in to save the day by suggesting Marvejandro, a nickname for one of our cats.

So, onward to the resolutions! I hadn't really thought about even making resolutions for this year until today, since mine are always vague and I never keep them. But then I thought...why not. I'll make some, try to make them more focused, maybe I'll even stick to them!

1. Be more social. I still don't really know many people here - I never realized how hard it was to make friends when you aren't starting school with everybody else, or starting a new job like in TFA. While I'm not the best at socializing, I think I can make this one happen. Jeff and I got a bunch of board games for Christmas, half of which require more than two people to play, so I think we'll start having game nights every now and then. Maybe I'll even invite some people from work!

2. Work out more. This one will probably remain pretty vague. I don't want to set a days per week criteria because I mess up one week and get discouraged and never go back. It's kind of silly but I think I might start a money reward system. I'm thinking a dollar per half hour workout or something like that. I'm always so tempted to shop around after work, this way I'll only be able to spend a limited amount of money, and if there's something I really want I will theoretically have to work out more in order to get it. We'll see how it goes.

3. Blog more. I've tried to blog off and on for a while now. After reading a bunch of blogs, I think I finally figured out what I was doing wrong...instead of posting about my day, week, etc. I need to come up with more focused posts. Instead of a re-cap I need to write about a book I recently read and enjoyed, a project I finished, or something funny the cats did.

4. Go back to school. I really want to go to school for speech pathology. Lucky for me the university here has a great program! I can't apply for the masters program yet since an undergrad degree in speech and communication disorders is required. Instead I need to do lateral entry, meaning I take the undergrad classes I need as a "non-degree seeking student" and apply for the masters program through that. I've been putting of setting up a meeting and registering for classes because that's just what I do! I'm setting a goal for myself to start classes over the summer. That means I need to meet with an adviser and register for classes this semester. No time to waste!

5. Get married! hehe

And now the more vague, general ones I probably make every year:

6. Read more

7. Knit more

8. Take more pictures (hint hint, I really want that camera we put on the wedding registry!)