Actually I don't know if it's new or not, but it's new to me.

After I FINALLY tried Essie last year I became a complete convert after my first bottle.  I loved pretty much everything about it (except the price), and I have happily picking up a bottle here and there.  Until recently.

I heard through the grapevine that L'oreal's new polish collection was kind of awesome and that it rivaled Essie.  That's all it took for me to give it a try.  I picked up a few pastels for spring, and love is an understaement. The pigmentation is great and the formula is smooth, but the brush is what I love the most.  It's wide and thin and lays down the polish perfectly on the nail bed.   Oh and let's not forget the price, $3 cheaper than Essie.  

Sold.

PS.  I also recently tried Butter London nail polish when it was on sale at Ulta.  I'll be honest, I don't think it is at all worth the $16 price tag (or even the $9 I shelled out).

pattern mixing

I am by no means a fashion expert, but I do love clothes and accessories and I especially love a quirky or unexpected mix of pattern.  So I've come up with my tried and true formula for mixing it up.

Exploring

I usually shop at the same places time and time again, but every so often I explore new options.  

A few weeks ago, my sister and I decided to check out Terrain in Westport, CT.  It's been around for about a year (maybe longer), and it is the most lovely gardening/home store I've ever stepped in.  They had so many interesting and different products that I hadn't already seen elsewhere.

My favorite part was the build your own terrarium section (despite my failed attempts to make my own).  They had so many options and darling little details that I was dying to scoop up every last thing.  They also have a beautiful cafe and coffee bar that I am dying to try, unfortunately I had already picked up breakfast(?) on my way...

they say a little duck tape can fix anything...

This weekend I got a little crafty and I LOVE the results.  

I found these tables on clearance at IKEA a few weeks ago.  I hated them in their original state, but knew they had potential.  My first thought was to paint them with chalk board paint.  I soon came to my senses about actually having to paint, and then after having chalk around (my skin is crawling even thinking about it), and I came up with something (I think) much better.

Seriously, there's not much to it.  I just used alternating strips of black and white duck tape (that I found at Walmart).  The tape is so thick that it's a cinch to line up.  In less than an hour, I had all four tables done.  I used 2 rolls of each color to do the four tables.  I used 4 of this table, but if I had to do it again I would get 2 black tables and 2 white tables and I would have only needed 1 roll of each color of tape, but it would have been a little more work to measure out the stripes.

Quick, easy, and cheap.  Wait, that sounds wrong...