Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

My favorite Christmasy poem, by Robert Frost.

Manicure Monday: Essie Winter/Holiday

Gasp, I almost missed Manicure Monday!

Today's polishes are a little random...they aren't all from the same collection because I just bought what looked prettiest to me at the time.  I have a polish from Essie Winter 2010 collection, Essie Winter 2011 collection, and Essie Luxeffects (Holiday) 2011 collection.

This is Brooch the Subject from Essie 2011 Winter collection.  When I saw this bottle in the store, I fell in love with it.  But I changed my mind once it was on my nails.  It's so close to my skin color that it gives me mannequin hands, and I'm just not crazy about the way that looks.  I guess it would be good in a situation where I wanted to wear polish that wasn't too noticable.  Not too much to say, other than that it's a beige creme.  The formula was perfect, as usual.  I love Essie's formula.

This is Going Incognito from Essie 2010 Winter collection.  I think this is one of my favorite polishes of all time.  It's an emerald green creme.  Again, perfect formula.

Here's one more picture of Going Incognito.  It looks even prettier in the sunlight!

I had been searching for Essie Shine of the Times for a long time.  It's part of their Holiday 2011 Luxeffects collection, but I couldn't find it anywhere because it's been such a popular color.  My favorite nail polish store finally got it back in stock last week and I snagged a bottle.  It's a flakie glitter topcoat.  The best thing about this polish is that it shows up differently depending on the color you layer it over.  My favorite nail blogger Scrangie suggested layering it over white, so I had to try that.  Here's a link to her Essie Luxeffects post.  Her Shine of the Times pictures are waaaay better than mine.

This is the polish I chose to put under Shine of the Times.  It's Sally Hansen Polar Bare, a semi sheer white.  I love this color even by itself, but it's really pretty with the Essie top coat.

My pictures just do not do this polish justice!  Only my pinky really shows the fun color of the top coat.  This is one coat of Shine of the Times over two coats of Polar Bare.  Shine of the Times is an iridescent flakie glitter that shifts between red, pink, orange, and green.  I'll post some pictures of Shine of the Times after I put it over a darker color.  The flakie glitter really pops over black, dark blue, and purple.  It's more subtle, but really beautiful and wintery over white.  It reminds me of sun shining on snow.

Billy Elliot...is closing. CLOSING. WAAAAH!

As promised in the Newsies post, this is my rant about Billy Elliot closing.

It was embarassing because I was at a Starbucks when I first read the news on my phone, and I almost broke down right there in middle of my Chai latte.  Why, why, WHY?  I know it's about money...but this is one of the best shows on Broadway.  In my opinion, this show is the perfect formula for a Broadway musical.  The songs are amazing, the dancing is incredible, the script is well written.  It's hilarious and sad and full of heart and hope. (I sound like a commercial.  No one's paying me to say this, I swear!)  It's heavy on ballet and tap, but there are also elements of modern and jazz.  And the majority of the dancing is performed by children who range from about five to thirteen years old.

I've seen the show several times but my favorite Billy (by far) was Trent Kowalik.  He's from Long Island, but he nailed that British dialect.  He performed in the West End Billy Elliot first, and then was one of the three original Billys when it opened on Broadway in 2008.  He and the other two Billys (David Alvarez and Kiril Kulish) all won the Tony Award for best actor in a musical in 2009.  Trent was chosen to perform the "angry dance" at the 2009 Tony Awards, and it isn't hard to see why.  I don't know how such a young kid managed to channel so much emotion into a tap dance.  Do yourself a favor and watch this if you haven't already seen it...

Sadly, he's too old to be Billy now. His last performance was on March 7, 2010.  Thank heavens for YouTube!

Billy Elliot is playing at the Imperial Theatre through January 8, 2012.  If you're here and you haven't seen it, you really should go.  The national tour is still going on too, so if you don't get to see it on Broadway, all is not lost.

What's that?  You want one more Billy Elliot video?  Okay, okay, I'll help you out :)



This is a collection of various clips of the show.  It was filmed live during one of Trent's Billy performances.  It's a little hard to grasp the greatness when you're watching random clips out of context of the story, but it's still good stuff.  (There's an eensy bit of language in one of the clips, so maybe don't watch if you're easily offended)  This video is a little long, so if you don't want to watch the whole thing, you should skip to 5:20 for "Electricity."

Manicure Monday: LA Splash

A while back I was at a Duane Reade and saw a display of polish I had never heard of before!  So of course I had to make a purchase :)  I have now discovered LA Splash polish and I'm kinda in love with it.  I've never seen it anywhere other than Duane Reade (NY based drugstore) but I'm sure they sell it at other places.  I'm going to keep my eyes out for it...

First up: Diamonds.  This is a holographic, silver glitter in a clear base.

Blurry so you can see the pretty holographic-ness

I wanted to layer it over red, but didn't like the way it looked.  The glitter is so densely packed that the red barely showed through.  So I painted a layer of a red jelly polish over it.

This is one coat of Essie Limited Addiction painted over LA Splash Diamonds.  Actually, Limited Addiction isn't a true jelly, just a sheer-ish red.  Diamonds would sparkle through a true jelly even better, but I still think this looks pretty.  I love red sparkly for Christmastime!

And this is LA Splash Glitz & Berry.

The name kind of speaks for itself on this one.  It's a berry colored jelly polish loaded with glitzy silver and red glitter.  The color on this one seemed to shift with what I was wearing (more pink with my pink clothes and more red with my red clothes).  I would call the color cranberry or raspberry.  This one is also perfect for Christmas :)

Baylor Football in NYC

Last Saturday I went to a Baylor football viewing at the Mason Jar in Midtown East.  My parents were shocked to hear that I voluntarily watched football, and I have to admit, I even shocked myself a little bit.  I decided to go because some of my Baylor Theatre friends (who live here too) decided it would be a fun way for us to have sort of a mini reunion.  It was such a fun night.  I saw some friends I haven’t seen since I graduated and some friends I’ve kept up with but just don’t see often enough.  I did do more socializing than game watching, but I watched enough to know that we destroyed UT  :)

The Mason Jar is sort of your run of the mill, upscale-ish bar, but still fun.  They serve Southern style cuisine—maybe that’s why the Baylor Alumni group picked it?  I didn’t order any food, but my friend Hillary had Sweet Potato and Andouille soup.  She said it was really good and it looked amazing!

Anyway, I love making New Year’s resolutions and I’ve already started on next year’s list.  One of my new resolutions is to see more of my Baylor friends who live in NYC.  I really need to make more of an effort to spend quality time with these lovely people.  They were my family in college and I miss seeing them every day.

Yay resolutions, football, Baylor theatre, and NYC!  SIC 'EM!!!

Dennis Quaid on The Ellen Show

Sometimes in the evenings instead of being productive, Amber likes to distract me by making me go to her room to watch YouTube clips from The Ellen DeGeneres Show.  Apparently Ellen likes to set up hidden cameras and send out celebrities who don't mind making fools of themselves.  There are some pretty hilarious clips, but this one is ridiculously amazing.  I know this is completely random and has absolutely nothing to do with my life...or New York...but this is too funny not to share.

Just try to watch this without smiling.

Shake Shack

After church on Sunday, Amber and I went to Shake Shack to grab lunch.  I don't think I've ever had anything more delicious.  I like hamburgers just as much as the next person, but I’m not hamburger crazy.  And I normally don’t even like milkshakes, but I can’t get over the amazingness of Shake Shack's food.  They are most famous for their burgers and shakes, but they also have hot dogs, cheese fries, frozen custard, ice cream sodas, and pretty much anything you can think of that might cause cardiac arrest.  There are several locations in the city, but we went to the Upper West Side location, which is near the Museum of Natural History (I've also been to the one in Midtown West--it's just as good).  It was super crowded and we stood in line for about half an hour, but it was totally worth it.  I've heard all the locations can get crazy busy, so if you're going with a group and want to eat in the restaurant, it's best to avoid the lunch and dinner crowds.

They have a different custard flavor every day of the week (plus chocolate, vanilla, and peanut butter available every day).  You can enjoy the custard plain, have it mixed with candy, or made into a shake.  I think I'll have to come back one Wednesday for a Christmas Cookie shake...

The atmosphere is cute and cozy.

They have fun merchandise, too.  I love the "small fry" onesie!

I forgot to take a picture of the food before I inhaled it...but trust me, it was perfect!  

Yay Shake Shack!

Manicure Monday: OPI Muppet Collection

Yay, it's Manicure Monday again!  :)

I'm going to show you guys two polishes from OPI's Muppet-themed holiday 2011 collection.  I really like all of the muppet polishes, but ended up only getting my two favorite...and they are both amazing.  And I also have one lone polish from Nicole by OPI's glitter holiday 2011 collection.  I wanted to get more from that collection but can't seem to find them anywhere!  I finally found this little guy sitting all alone on the shelf at a Target in Connecticut. 

Here they are!

This is Excuse Moi!, named after Miss Piggy, of course!  It's a bubblegum pink sheer-ish base, loaded with multicolored glitter.  This picture does not do it justice.  It is so amazing in person.

Warm and Fozzie is named for Fozzie Bear (obviously).  It is a coppery brown foil finish, with some pink and green shimmer (if you look really close).

And this is Snow-Man of My Dreams, the lone Nicole by OPI polish.  It's sort of like the blue version of Excuse Moi! except the glitter is a little smaller.  It's a sheer blue base with blue and multicolored glitter.  Super fun and wintery!

Happy December!

I wanted to do a crafty post today and show some of what I've been knitting over the past few weeks...but I can't because I'm giving them as Christmas presents.

So instead, I'll just do another Christmasy post :)  I am so excited that it's the first day of December.  Christmas is just around the corner!

I got this cutesy Christmas ring at Target last week. 

It's metal, and looks just like a gift wrap bow.

Amber's mom gave us each a sparkly, real mini Christmas tree to take home afer Thanksgiving! It's covered in silver glitter...so pretty!  I made the picture on the right blurry so you can really see the sparkles.

And last but not least, look what was on sale on Black Friday at Target!  Only $5!  I can't believe I didn't already own this, because I am all about Christmas movies...