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monday morning

monday morning, a photo by lula mae barnes on Flickr.

I woke up super early today and decided to paint my nails before I had to go to work. I had started painting them last night but I got this terrible migraine and just ended up messing them all up. Originally I had planned on using a really pale shade of pink that leans towards white but I ended up going with Insta-Dry in Sonic Bloom which is an orangey-red shade. I love this polish so much. Seriously, one coat and you're good to go. It really does dry in a minute or two, too. I found this Essie base coat on sale at Target yesterday which was nice because, even though I hate base coat passionately, I really need to start using it. My nails have been splitting really easily lately. I'm not about to blame my short nails on weakness because I'll openly admit to the fact that I bite them but I really have been trying to cut that nasty little nervous habit lately. Unfortunately, every time I've let them grow a bit they snap right off. This base coat is supposed to strengthen your nails and promote growth so we'll see how that goes. 

the best lunch, a photo by lula mae barnes on Flickr.

After work, which started off really nicely but then managed to end terribly, I went to lunch with my mom at the Cheesecake Factory. I was mad because of work and because I had to go by school to pay for my summer classes and my mom appeared to have had a bit of a ruff day as well so we settled for comfort foot and split some onion rings, artichoke hearts, stuffed mushrooms, and mozzarella bites. Everything was so delicious! I want to feel like eating there two days in a row is a bad thing but I just can't seem to talk myself into it. I know their food is far from good for you but it's so tasty that I can't be bothered with carrying sometimes. We did skip dessert, though, so at least that's something. Last night we split a slice of their new red velvet cheesecake and it was the most decadent slice of heaven ever served on a plate. I swear I'm not even exaggerating. 

hunger games, a photo by lula mae barnes on Flickr.

My mom wanted to go check something out at Borders after we ate. I'd like to take a moment right now to express my anger at the fact that my Borders is still very open. I love Borders and don't actually want it to close but I know so many people that have gotten the most amazing deals of their book buying lives in the weeks leading up to a Borders close. Anyway, a friend of my mom's needs some help with a website so she wanted to look at a book on html. My mother is the least computer capable person on the face of the entire planet so I'm not sure the book was as helpful as she'd hoped. I went ahead and picked up a book for myself while she looked around. I bought The Hunger Games which everyone else in the world has probably already read by now. I have very strong feelings about investing my emotions in any book series. Harry Potter stole my heart when I was just a little kid and has never let go and Twilight made it impossible for me to even hear the words glitter and vampire in the same conversation without reacting irrationally. I almost got sucking into the Percy Jackson series but then I misplaced the firsr book before I finished reading it so I really can't say much in it's favor or otherwise. I only bought The Hunger Games because a friend of mine from work was telling me about how amazing the series is and after listening to her praise it for a few minutes I was sold. I know there will be tears  and, even though I'm just a few pages in, I know the movie adaptation will make me want to throw things but I'm embarking on this journey anyway.

Once we got home from our little mom and daughter afternoon and I had to rush and change into gym clothes so I could make it to yoga. I had never gone on a Monday night before and I really didn't enjoy it much. I love my Tuesday yoga and Wednesday yoga is different now that we have a new teacher but still great. On Thursdays my pilates instructor teaches yoga which I love because he really focuses on form in a way I feel my other instructors don't and finally Friday yoga is my favorite. On Fridays I have this really lively and funny, incredibly flexible little instructor called Ernesto that's always pushing for us to try harder and learn more while really making us work out. I didn't even crack a sweat tonight. I wasn't in the mood to go to the gym tonight to begin with so forcing myself to go just to be let down by my class was not definitely not the highlight of my day. After that was done with I came home and watched a few episodes of Goosebumps with a friend. I miss my 90s TV shows more than I could ever even try to explain. 

Tomorrow I've got spinning at the crack of dawn (which is actually in about two and half hours) and then I think I might spend the day cleaning. My room is a bloody disaster right now. There's clothes everywhere and none of my nail polish is put away where it belong. I've got books all across my desk, coffee table, and nightstand and I've really got to vacuum. I always tell myself I don't mind a mess but the truth is that any disorder at all makes me twitchy so I really need to get this under control. 

relax, take it easy

relax, take it easy, a photo by lula mae barnes on Flickr.

I've been meaning to post this forever now and I'm finally getting around to it only because I bought a few new LUSH products today and I don't want the things I plan on reviewing to pile up. Anyway, there are three bath bombs in this picture (from left to right: Twilight, Golden Slumbers, and Sex Bomb) but I'm only going to talk about two of them right now because I've yet to use the last one. I'm going to start with the one didn't really care for which was Golden Slumbers. This bomb is describes as a soothing and relaxing with a lavender fragrance that, as the name implies, helps you get to sleep. I popped this in the bath, after a particularly long day, expecting a long and relaxing bath but what I got was just disappointment. Let me start off by saying that taking the large size of this bomb into consideration it fizzed out in no time at all. Most of LUSH's larger bombs float around in my bath for fifteen minutes at the very least but this one was gone almost immediately. The scent also wasn't as strong and lingering as some of their other products. Much like the scent the color and texture that came from this bomb were less than amazing. I expected it to at least tint the water a bit or add a bit of fluff but it failed to do so. Although those three factors were definitely let downs they weren't the deal breaker for me. This bomb has little bits of lavender sprig in it that absolutely drove me insane. There's nothing peaceful and relaxing about tons of tiny little pieces of nature floating around in my tub. Picking them out of the tub after my bath was a nightmare and even though I washed my hair after soaking for a while I still found lavender bits on my pillow the next morning. In it's defense I did get to bed rather quickly that night so it does do what the name implies. This is, by far, my least favorite LUSH product to date and, although the lighter scent might be nice for those more sensitive to fragrances, I wouldn't recommend it unless you actually enjoy a bit of a clean up after your bath. 

Now onto the good since no one likes to leave on a bad note. The Twilight bath bomb was actually one of the best LUSH products I've tried to date. This picture definitely doesn't do it justice but it's got a bit of star pattern going around it and is really just as lovely to look at as it is to use. I love when they do something more creative than just a ball you drop in the bath. A lot like Golden Slumbers, Twilight is also supposed to be a very relaxing bomb with a lavender scent. This little gem takes quite a long time to fizz out and starts out tinting the water pink with little bursts of orange and slowly fades to purple before finishing off with a dark shade of blue. There's also some glitter that fizzes out as the colors change that felt reminiscent of stars in the night sky. Normally I find bath bombs with glitter to be extremely annoying because of the clean up involved after their use but Twilight had just the right amount and didn't leave me or my tub looking like a sunbathed creature from a Stephanie Meyer's book. The scent this one gives off is just as impressive as the color. The lavender and vanilla fragrance envelopes you while soak and just makes all of your worries fade away. When I went into the bathroom the next morning I found that the scent was still faintly lingering around which I found nice. My skin felt smooth and my mind at ease after about an hour of floating in Twilight filled water. This is definitely a product I would recommend to anyone looking for a little relaxation or just a beautiful bath since the colors really do looks like a sun setting.