Bella Carina

Pinterest Challenge : Winter Edition

Posted on March 8, 2012 by karen

It’s that time of season again! You know, the one where a few awesome bloggers toss out the challenge to all of us pinners in the world to stop pinning and starting creating! (See where I talked about it the first time here.) I’ve already participated in this challenge before when the Fall Edition of the Pinterest Challenge came around. See that project here.

The Pinterest Challenge (which is not at all endorsed by Pinterest, btw) is put on by a couple of my most favoritest bloggers out there Sherri from Young House Love and Katie from Bower Power. This edition, they have asked two other lovely bloggers to co-host with them; Erin from The Great Indoors and Cassie from Hi Sugarplum.

If you want to participate (you should!) then it’s all going down this Wednesday, March 14th. All four hosts will have a link party where you can upload your projects to share with the whole bloggy blog world!

As for what I’m doing, I haven’t decided. A lot of the projects I’ve pinned have been art and since I’m not sure where everything is going to land in the new house (we’re moving in just a few weeks! eeek!) it’s hard to decide what kind of art I’ll need. But, ever since we got engaged I’ve been itching to do something with my soon-to-be new last initial. So…some sort of B monogram may be involved!

Check back next Wednesday for the big reveal and be sure to check out the lovely hosts’ blogs as well!

Posted in Arts n' Crafts, Decor | Tagged Arts n' Crafts, Pinterest, Pinterest Challenge, winter | 1 Comment

Shellac Update: Day 7

Posted on March 8, 2012 by karen

So, for those of you who have waiting with bated breath for this whole week for this update…here it is!

They are actually holding up quite well. My only issue that I’ve had with them is that some of the shellac was overlapping on my cuticles. It wasn’t a big deal at first, but as it started to grow out slightly, those overlapping parts started to curl up a bit since they weren’t attached to the nail. Kinda gross to think about actually. Anyway, I resisted the urge to peel these and used a nail file to carefully file down any shellac that started to peel. This seemed to work well.

I did have one instance where my urge to peel got the best of me and there wasn’t a file around…oops. Luckily, it’s just one pinky and since the color is pretty natural, you can’t really tell.

Interestingly, my right hand (which probably gets the most abuse since I’m right handed) looks great!

I will mention that I have been slightly more cautious to protect my investment like using rubber gloves when I cleaned the kitchen sink with Comet (don’t judge, but I usually just bare hand it…ya, I know it’s probably not good for my skin or body to touch cleaner, but oh well). But, I’ve still been washing all the dishes with bare hands and taking showers (yup…I shower ;)) and everything, so I haven’t been too careful.

The guy who did my nails, Max (not to be confused with my brother, Max), said that it is perfectly fine to file the shellac, so if I get sick of them being too long as they grow out more I can file the ends. He mentioned to just be sure that I kept the file perpendicular to the nail so I don’t scratch the top surface.

Overall, I’m liking the shellac. I’m don’t think it’s something I’ll keep up considering how expensive it is and considering the fact that I don’t have a job that is actually making money (I’m not jobless…I’m a blographer, as Dane calls me ;)), but I could see getting it done for my wedding. One thing I might ask though is to be sure they don’t get it on my cuticles next time. Anyone from my hometown in Cali know of someone that does a really good job at the gel/shellac?

Posted in Life, Wedding | Tagged life, wedding | 1 Comment

Quick Tips: Cleaning Your Sponges

Posted on March 7, 2012 by karen

Every once in a while, when I’m cleaning my house or sewing or just living life in general, I come across something that I think might be worth sharing to the masses (or the fews considering the amount of people who read my blog ;)). A lot of times, I’ll decide not to share something with you all based solely on the fact that I think it is likely common knowledge. But, then I started to think…all these quick tips that I use in my daily life weren’t always in my brain, I had to have picked them up somewhere along the way. So, just in case these might be of use to someone somewhere…here ya go!

Today’s quick tip is about cleaning your sponges. Sponges, in general, are usually homes to all kinds of nasty bacteria and what not, but I still like using them to clean my dishes. So, when I picked this tip up somewhere along the way, I thought it was great. Each time you run your dishwasher, wash your sponges, too!

They come out smelling good and sanitized…both good things. And this way, you are able to get a lot more time out of each sponge, which saves you moolah in the end…yay for moolah saving!

Posted in Home & Garden | Tagged cleaning tips, Home & Garden, life | Leave a comment

~ Michaela ~ 4 Months

Posted on March 5, 2012 by karen

You may remember Michaela from a few months ago when I took her newborn pictures (she was actually 3 weeks old if you want to get technical). She was such a perfect little model then and she did pretty well for this shoot, too! She managed to stay happy even through a few outfit changes…the camera loved her!

We started off with Michaela in this super cute pink tutu…I die!

Then we switched it up to get some festive photos with her bunny.