Trying Pastels

Nail polish is a huge thing in blogland now, so this is one of those blogger cliché posts. To be honest, I don't wear polish very often, especially now that I'm working in the library. I'm constantly handling books, shelving books, and smashing my fingers, so it never lasts more than a day without getting destroyed. So this is not be something I'll be posting about regularly; I'll leave that to those who are actually skilled in that area (see here and here).


In the past, I've only gone for red or black, excluding the time in junior high when for some reason I became obsessed with collecting bottle upon bottle of blue glitter. Up above was my entire polish collection until a few weeks ago. Red, red, red! However, I very recently dipped my toe into the pool of what I call the "Easter egg" colors. Funny enough, it was not the blog world that got me interested in the new pastel trend, but seeing a minty polish on my friend Shannon's nails convinced me to try and branch out.


The first bottle I tried out was Wet n Wild Megalast in I Need a Refresh-Mint. It looks like sort of an aqua color in the bottle, but it wears like more of a sky blue. They're not kidding though, this stuff lasts! I've been wearing it for about a week and it hasn't really come off much at all.


Most recently, I picked up Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Mint Sorbet. I absolutely love the minty color, but the polish was a real hassle to apply. Even after shaking it, it was goopy going on, and it takes forever to dry! Actually, when I was looking at the different polishes at Target, they had the "Fast Dry" kind, and this kind, and Jose said "This is the Extremely Slow-Dry... it takes eight hours... you're gonna hate it." and we laughed hysterically, but he was actually not too far off. I ended up taking it off the next day because it was already so dinged up and just bad looking. I can't sit around for two hours waiting for my nails to dry!


Mint Sorbet on the left, and I Need a Refresh-Mint on the right.

Then, I saw this post by Jenny and loved the colors and the sparkle of the Deborah Lippman polish, so I went looking for the Revlon Version. The base color comes out clear, so I spent ages looking for a light blue to paint the glitter over, and finally found Hard Candy's Sky. It bubbled pretty badly on application (the light blue, not the glitter), so I'm not in love with it, but the color is pretty and the glitter sort of covers the bubbles. It reminds me of birthday cake!


Lily approves!

Audrey Grace Magazine

Back in February, I received the beautiful Audrey Grace lookbook, illustrated by Caitlin Shearer, and I shared some of my favorite images from the book. Soon after that, I learned that Jaclyn Bethany, the owner of Audrey Grace, had created a magazine for her boutique as well, and since I loved the lookbook so much, I had to get a copy of the magazine too! Audrey Grace Magazine is filled to the brim with gorgeous illustrations, interviews with designers and bloggers, and a number of superbly styled and photographed editorial shoots. It's a sturdy, excellent quality volume, with 170 pages and no ads. To me, it's actually more of an art book than a magazine; I definitely wouldn't want to cut it up or rip pages out, it's far too beautiful!


Fashions by Alexandra Grecco and more illustrations by Caitlin.

The magazine features a lot of artwork by Natasha Thompson. I just love her art! She illustrated several different features in the issue but my favorite is the "Audrey Grace, A-Z" section. I especially like girl above since we share the same hair color of course!


It's all so charming! I love the aesthetic Jaclyn has cultivated for Audrey Grace, and it's expressed so well in this issue. I'm not sure if there are still physical copies of the magazine up for sale, but luckily, the entire issue can be viewed online here. Also, the Audrey Grace online shop will be opening on June 18th, so be on the lookout for that if you're interested in buying some very pretty clothing and accessories.

Three Years With Lily

On this day, exactly three years ago, the sweetest kitty of all time came into our lives! I don't think I've ever shared Lily's story here before, so I thought now would be the perfect time. Jose was out doing a photo shoot with his model and friend Suzanne. They were shooting in some tall grass near the railroad tracks, when a tiny kitten wandered over to them and started mewing. The poor little kitty was covered in dirt, had a sore on its nose, and looked like it hadn't eaten for a long time. They continued taking photos, and the kitten followed them everywhere. Eventually they incorporated the kitty into the photos. As they finished up, the kitten followed them to the car and got in. They bought some milk and cat food, and went to the park for lunch, where the kitty never left their side. Jose texted me that he had found a kitten and that we were keeping him, and at the time I'll admit I was not too keen on the idea. I didn't think we could fit two cats in our tiny apartment, and I was also not too happy with Sweeney, the mean cat we already had. But as soon as I saw him, I was totally in love. He had a tick in his ear, which Jose was able to remove. Kitty calmly sat through a bath, without complaint. You might've guessed that we believed Lily to be a girl - the vet told us so, but when I spotted something that was decidedly not a girl part weeks later, the name Lily suited him so well, we just kept it that way. I took the picture below the day we got him, and this is the first picture I ever took of him!


One of my favorite things he does is what I call his "meow face." He's done that silly face since he was little.


I'm so glad Jose brought that kitten home, because I can't imagine life without Lily! He's such a sweet guy; he loves to cuddle, and sleeps right next to me every night, like a loudly purring teddy bear. He also nuzzles my face, which kills me because I've never had a cat that was so comfortable right in my face before. I think he likes the sound of his voice, because he's always walking around the house chattering away. My favorite is when he jumps onto or off of something, he always lets out a little chirp, like he's saying "Here I am!" Lily has had kind of a tough life, from being abandoned as a baby, to all of his health troubles last year, but he's doing so well now. I can hardly believe it's been three years, it feels like he's always been with us. Happy three years, little buddy! AKA Lily-cat, Lily-kins, kitty-kins, floofy-tail!


Of course, some things never change! He still plays with my shoes.


Here's a silly little video made up of clips of Lily over the years. There's a clip in there from when he first found Jose on the train tracks, his meow face, running around on the stairs and other random moments. You can see photos from the shoot where Lily made his modeling debut here: 1 2 3 4.

The party hat and dots in the first photo were found in this adorable shop.
I would love to get the real hat for Lily but I know he'd never go for it.