DIY nail polish ornaments!

last year sayanythingbr00ke posted a video on nail polish ornaments! so i decided to give them a try myself! we went over to our local cvs (with a $3 off  $10 nail polish coupon in hand) and, with the help of teh paul, picked out these five polishes. of these three brands, the i really liked the sally hansen the most. it came out the most opaque and it gave me the least trouble. the nyc polishes on the other hand, were ok; they were both extremely watery and very thin. i got the plastic ornaments from the craft section at walmart for $1 each (you can also use glass ones). if you can't find them at walmart, try looking for them at a craft store. my total cost: ~$13.

polishes used:
sally hansen xtreme wear: virtual violet
spoiled: i'm so jaded (green) & tip your waitress (pink)
nyc: chelsea (red) & east village (blue)
materials needed:

1. newspaper
2. cardboard egg carton--not styrofoam!!!!
3. polishes of your choice
4. nail polish thinner if needed
5. nail polish remover if needed for clean up
6. clear glass or plastic ornaments
7. decorative ribbon or stickers if desired
8. ornament hanging hooks

so, pop the tops off the ornaments and pour some nail polish inside. tilt the ornament to coat the inside and add more polish as needed. place them into a *cardboard* egg carton, open-side down so the polish can drip out. so as you can see, this is why you shouldn't use a styrofoam container. nail polish eats styrofoam. lol! overall, these came out awesome and i'd totally do this again. make sure you do this in a well-ventilated room and allow it to dry overnight...also in a well-ventilated room. these took me about half an hour in total to "paint". my favorites of the bunch are the green and purple. ~Lin-chan ^.~

i has a panda phone!

an update on my new phone! (link to previous phone post)

got my new phone cases in time before we went back home for the holiday! they called me on friday afternoon to pick it up! the only problem i have with it is AT&T's service with the new LTE data connection. back home, it's extremely patchy, i guess the suburbs aren't good enough! it's still new technology, so whatever, i guess it's ok. back at the apartment, i haven't really used it that much yet so i'm not sure what it's like. according to said apple store employee, his co-workers say that it's better here in BR and NOLA (i guess more central vs. suburb..). that remains to be seen. anyway, love my new cases! had to get a cute one and a pseudo-normal one. the panda likes sticking to the insides of my pockets >.< and the blingy one is nice and slim, which is what i'm used to anyway...well except for the fact that when the phone is sitting on a table, etc. and vibrates...then it scares the crap out of me, it's so loud!! well later! ~Lin-chan ^.~

on a related note; if you haven't seen it already, watch nigahiga's first world problems. it's hilarious.

more belated notd goodness! china glaze fast track

 

another belated post! i should be getting my new phone this weekend. we shall see.
belated happy turkey day, happy black friday, and early happy cyber monday. don't forget to utilize ebates* when online shopping!

this is from the hunger games collection. it's fairly true to the bottle but it looks weird on my skintone. i think i'm just not huge into nude colors in general; but it's got such a pretty gold shimmer! i think if this polish were paired with a darker color or if it were over another color it'd be better. ~Lin-chan ^.~

*Affiliate link.

how to make yaki udon (favorites)

this was intended to be part of my oct-dec favorites, which will be posted in january, but i wanted to put this up for one of my friends. ~Lin-chan ^.~

 

i'm not sure why, but i've been on a super udon-kick lately. i got the first pack of frozen noodles to try it since it's probably better for you than instant udon (see here) and because, months ago, i bought soba sauce for who knows what reason...well i do have dry udon noodles that i've been neglecting to cook and try. anyway.....and it's getting cold out; it's hot beverage season. so, tea time!

• frozen udon noodles, soba sauce, stir fry; these can be found at your local asian *cough*korean* grocery store; this brand of udon comes with 5 individually wrapped bunches for $6 and this bottle of soba sauce was $3 at the store near our apartment. i've been really liking it either alone with some soba sauce, or as stir fry (yaki udon).

1. boil some water and cook the noodles, drain, and shock them in cold water so they don't stick together and get mushy.
2. either put them in a bowl and pour on some soba sauce (1 serving, left photo--in a cereal bowl)
3. OR 2 servings (right photo--in a 1.5qt bowl): stir fry some vegetables (bite sized), sliced mushrooms, cooked meat (bite sized), crushed red pepper (to taste), and 1 tbsp garlic in sesame oil (enough to coat pan) while the noodles are boiling. add the noodles to the vegetable pan when they're done. then stir fry the noodles and vegetables together for a few minutes until they are evenly mixed. pour in some soba sauce, toss to coat and serve.
• ingredient ideas/alternatives: pre-packaged frozen stir fry mixed vegetables or fresh vegetables of your choice; chinese roast pork, plain or teriyaki chicken (marinate chicken in teriyaki sauce for 20-30 minutes and pan fry/grill--we've been using zea's thai sauce), beef; jar of minced garlic vs. fresh, dry vs. frozen udon
• if you buy too many fresh vegetables, you can always cut them up into bite sized pieces, and put them in a zip-lock to make your own frozen stir fry blend for next time!

• zhena's gypsy tea: vanilla chai herbal red tea (~$10 @ cost plus world market, 22 bags). with several heaping teaspoons of sugar--yes, i'm a sugar fiend, but...we've got dentists in my family so it's ok. =P i'm not sure if all cc's coffee has red tea like the one in lsu's library, but i think this tastes just like it...and the library is really annoying to get to from all my other classes and my apartment and i haven't checked at the other ones around yet......so yeah. ^^;

treme s3 ep7

if you haven't seen it on my instagram: a few days ago, i found myself and a friend on last week's episode of treme. (related post here) ~Lin-chan ^.~