ivyPINK

Minty Mani Monday

Sorry for the late Mani Monday post

I was running late this morning & I didn't have time to type this up

BUT here's this weeks mani

It's looks like a "net" in this pic

BUT it's actually scallops

I used the RA-111 plate

Here's the polishes I used

(L-R) WNW I need a refresh-Mint

Spoiled Use Protection S046

(BTW spoiled polishes are 2 for $3 @ CVS this week)

OPI Alpine Snow

Sally Hansen Diamonds 120

(ALL Sally Hansen polishes are on sale B1G1 free @ Kmart this week)

I stamped with Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Emerald Express

 

I was really surprised by how ridiculously large

the brush was in the spoiled polishes

I did not like it all!

Here it is compared to what i consider a regular brush

 

It's thick & wide & not easy to use at all!

The WNW also has a wide brush

but it's not as thick as the spoiled brush

I just don't like either of these brushes

BUT I do love both of these polishes.

 

Also a nice find I found this week is this

Boots Rose cuticle oil

*I found it @ my Target on clearance for $2.38

(that's what made me try it)

What I like about this product

besides the rose scent, is that it doesn't feel super oily

after you apply it. It just kinda soaks in to your skin.

Another AMAZING find at TARGET......are you ready for this

GAH!!!! I found it :)

BUT....yeah there's a BUT.....

I didn't realize it was a fabric material

which makes it a little flimsy :(

It's a tiny bit too small for all my crap

(just means I have to bring less I suppose)

and I really do NOT like the magnetic closure!

BUT the print & color is even more adorable in person

I like that there's a few pockets inside :)

I'm pretty sure I'm going to keep it just cuz I'll prob regret it if I return it.

 

Other news that I'm happy about......

 

I FINALLY

FINALLY

FINALLY reached GOLD level Starbucks status

LOL it took flippin LONG enough :)

I'm so excited to recieve my GOLD card even though

I always use my Starbucks card iPhone app

The only thing I find annoying is that you have to "re qualify"

each year to stay in the gold status :(

Which means you have to purchase 30 drinks within a year

to stay GOLD doesn't sound like a lot or very hard I know...

BUT it's just the point that if you don't you lose your gold perks.

 

That's all for today

I'm leaving you with a pic of one of my lil BIG furballs Molly :)

xoxo ivyPINK

Happy Turkey Day!

I hope you guys have a wonderful thanksgiving!

I googled how to make a paper turkey hat this morning & made a miniature version for Abbey!

xoxo
ivyPINK

Field Trip

Yesterday was the Chicago Field Museum Free Day

*Here's a GREAT link to view other Chicago Museum FREE Days*

 
So, my parents & I took a "Field" trip heehee

Here's a pic of my cute parentals :)

 
I was excited that I FINALLY got to see Sue the TRex

I know it's been there FOREVER, but I havent gone to see her.

Sue's skull alone took 3,500 hours to re-build

 
Some neat pics I took....

I love this WALL!!!! I might have to scraplift & use it as a layout :)

"...From so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most

wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."-Charles Darwin

 
I LOVE this fat owl :)

 
FUN ANT exhibit there's actually tunnels with real ants inside the letters

  
FUN FUN Day :)

I want to go to the Shedd Aquarium Free Day next :)

It's a beautiful Chicago day today :) 85 degrees!

I let Abbey, Molly & Earl out to play this morning

They LOVE it when it's hot out

 
Then I gave Abbey bathies

(which she HATES)

here's a quick video of her trying to get away

*sorry in advance for the terrible video job lol

Have a FABULOUS day! :)

Happy FALL Y'all

I've been LOVIN our FALL weather here in CHICAGO so much :)

FALL is my favorite time of the year for many reasons

and I have some pics to share why :)

Like this tree in front of my house

I snapped a quick pic before all the leaves fell

I just LOVE all the colors the leaves turn

 
and my cat Earl enjoying the weather outside

soon he wont be able to go out to play any more :(

 
I also wanted to carve pumpkins since I've never done it before

BUT I wanted to pick a "practice pumpkin" first

before I pick out the most perfect pumpkin @ the patch :)

{I've never gone pumpkin picking ever either}

gosh I sure do sound deprived huh?

These we're the perfect practice pumpkins for $1.99 @ Aldis

 
It was really hard (& slimey) gutting out the pumpkin ewwww...

Although I look quite happy in that pic...

I think I was happy about all the seeds lol

Are you ready to see my masterpiece?

 
 TA-DA!!!!

what do you think :)

M made one too, we had a pumpkin carving battle lol

 

Mines better LOL :)

The next day I baked my pumpkin seeds before work 

 & It made the house smell super yummy!

quick recipe

1 1/2 tablespoons margarine, melted

1/2 teaspoon salt (I used Rock Salt)

1/8 teaspoon garlic salt

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

a dash of chilli powder

& Bake for 30 min mix in between

& ENJOY!!!

I hope you guys have a GREAT week

I want to go to a haunted house Sat.

 so if you have any suggestions of a good one to go to let me know :)

yahoooooooooo!!!!

 
xoxo

ivyPINK

So about Sunday...

Part 2 of eventful weekend :)

Sunday was another birthday celebration

My friend Jolynn had a crafty get together at Stampology.

BUT, before Stampology I went to pick out her present at Paper Doll 

Which was my first time there

SUPER CUTE stationery store

Extra CUTE cuz this lil cutie was also at the store

Meet Maude :)

 

She even had her own business card up at the counter with her "stats"

soooo CUTE!

 
They had lots of goodies there!

 

 I Bought a couple Snow & Graham wraps for a project I'm working on ;)

 
Then at Stampology I worked on more of these pretties & started packaging them

They will be available at the store soon :)

 
 After Stampology the "foodie crew"

I like to call it the foodie crew

cuz our get together's usually revolve around food lol (& someones birthday)

This time the food pick was German

I was so excited cuz I've never had german food before :)

and what perfect timing because its....

OKTOBERFEST!!!!

Take a look HERE for a brief story about Oktoberfest history

We ate at Schnitzel Platz in Glendale Heights

 
They had specials on Oktoberfest beers...

here's a pic of me with M's liter cuz I dont drink beer!

After that he also wanted to try their sampler :) 

 

 For appetizers we ordered Veal Brats

 & Potato pancakes

 

(which is my new favorite!!!)

they served it with apple sauce & sour cream

its like an EXTRA SPECIAL hash brown YUMS!

and for dinner I ordered a

Wiener Schnitzel

 

{Breaded Veal Schnitzel with Lemon Served with home Fries and Red Cabbage}

 I loved how it was crispy..I like crispy foods ;)

 Although, it is also available with gravy.

 
while dinner was happening we were provided with  some entertainment

buy these 2 cute grandpas :)

This picture was during a sing-a-long

they we're soooo cute!

Soooooo FUN!

Oktoberfest @ Schnitzel Platz runs from Sept 3 through October 31st

Be sure to visit :)

How was your weekend?

iPhone pic weekend recap

Did today feel like the longest day EVER

to anybody else or just me? LOL

I have some iPhone pics to share

to recap my weekend  :)

Friday I went to visit my friend Sammy who is OBSSESED with turtles!

He just got a new turtle the day before so now he has 3 :)

and now I want a land turtle a cute teeny tiny one! LOL

It was around feeding time & this one was faster than all the others!

she was ALL over this yummy goodness :)

 

Then Saturday M said it could be "Ivy's Day"

so I dragged him to this new scrapbooking store I wanted to go to

in Antioch called Hannah's

{I thought he'd complain but he didnt he even planned a whole day around it!}

Hannahs has a variety of deprtments within the store

 such as  beading, scrapbooking,floral department,

jewelry,Vera Bradley & home decor

definitely worth the drive it was about 50 min from my house

If you are looking for a gift for someone I'm sure you'll find it there :)

I wanted this cute cupcake memo cube!

But I currently have like 4 or 5 different memo cubes on my desk at work right now

sooooooo....I didnt end up buying it....BUT i'm regretting it!

Its sooo flippin cute!

more reason for me to go back there :)

 

After Hannahs we stopped by my FAVE place for lunch & to buy cheese bread {YUM}

Mars Cheese Castle is building a new place & its going to be shaped as a real castle!

They project it to be finished around March 2011 ;)

I cant wait!

After that we shopped at Gurnee Mills

I havent been there forever

and I saw this @ the middle of the mall

a cute little mini donut maker machine ;)

I want it lol

If it made donuts that tasted like funnel cakes or elephant ears

 It would so be mine!!!

we bought a dozen to taste & it was just ok

They sprinkled your choice of powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar

& one more I cant remember the flavor 

 Then on Sunday I made more rice crispies

this time strawberry flavored cuz I only had a few of the ones

I made on Friday & I was craving it

I paired it up with my other favorite purchase from Mars

Sarsaparilla Rootbeer (The GRANDADDY of all rootbeers) YUM!

 

I also managed to make these lovely embellishments for the shop

which I will put up soon after I package them

they are vintage & modern buttons with hand quilled flowers!  

 

Thats all I've got for now :)

Its so nice out right now & I'm about to take a walk

it's these kind of nights I wish I had a lil doggie to walk :)

xoxo

ivyPINK

Woot Woot worthy FINDS!

I was online surfing tonight

& thought I should post some of my woot woot worthy finds :)

Like guess whats back?

YUP new POLAROID! can I hear a woot woot?

for only $89 @ J&R

i know, its kinda shaped like the Instax...thats cuz

according to cnet "the new Polaroid shooter was indeed developed in partnership with Fujifilm"

I hope it comes out in PINK! :)

On to another find....saw this @ Paulas blog

and I think I'm in LOVE with Ticings = EDIBLE icings?!?

what a flippin great idea!

 

I know I also said a while back  I'd share some of my Hong Kong finds

(But I kinda forgot to do that :( oops)

Sooooooo, I'm sharing one of the places/things I found

Ta-Da.... A HOLGA store in Hong Kong

look at all those beauts!

I bought this cute little mini Holga model :)

{its actually a keychain)

Look how teeny tiny it is :) SO CUTE!

& today on the MSN homepage I had this image flash on the screen

& of course I clicked on it cuz it was about hedgies :)

and I saw the cutest little video of this

Little Baby Hedgehog

Leaves you a little warm & fuzzy doesnt it?

hahaha

He'res a LO I made of Miss Abbey this weekend :)

That's all for now

HAPPY Cinco de Mayo!!!

Mexican sure sounds tasty for Lunch :)

Sweet weekend

I had a pretty busy week this whole week & I was so glad when the weekend finally came around

But even the weekend was busy.

Saturday was Daves 50th Birthday Bash

(such a cute pic of him!)

we had a mexican fiesta dinner from Nuevo Leon

 

and for dessert Dave had a Mollys Mini Cupcake Bar!

The Red Velvets were a HIT!!!!

 

Then Sunday....

we had a crafting get together at Kristas house

(BTW take a look at Kristas super CUTIE cat named MUNCH!}

Since I did not do anything creative

for NSD I made up for it on Sunday

I was inspired by THIS POST at the Sassafrass Blog

{*make sure to check out the SWEET sale that sassfrass is offering that is WAY too good to pass up!*}

and created this layout.

The pics we're from last year when my cousins from West Virginia came to visit,

my aunt wanted to make sure she got the FULL Chicago experience

& that included a visit to Giordano's to eat a deep dish Chicago pizza :)

Oh I almost forgot to mention the sweet treat I brought over to Kristas house...

BUT first I'll tell you how I found out about it,

So on Friday my co-worker who's getting married next week

brought a cake in to work to celebrate her last Friday being single :)

This is what she brought:

YUMMY in my TUMMY Red Velvet cake!

Guess from where?

C O S T C O

and only for $9.99

It was SUPER delicious!!!

Nice and fluffy {but not super fluffy}

the cream cheese frosting was not super sweet,

it's one of the best commercial red velvet cakes I've ever had :)

I was talking about it at Dave's party & decided to bring it over to Kristas

yup that slice right there was my 3rd piece since friday and we still have 1/2 a cake left over

{Krista made me bring the left over home}

Bad idea! I checked the cals: 900 for the whole cake(?) can that be right? lol

I promise that it's SOooo WORTH it :)

I hope you guys had a super SWEET weekend like I did!

NOW..... back to the grind {happy  M O N D A Y}

xoxo

ivy

VOTE for ABBEY!

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She's LUCKY #19

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She'll give you LOTS of kissies if you VOTE! {please please please} heehee

Muahh Muahh Muahh :)

How can you resists that CUTE face?

she even SMILED for the camera :)

Sweet Thoughts

Abbey & I just wanted to wish all of you

a VERY SWEET Valentines Day :)

 

we hope you gets lots of kissies

muahh muahh muahh

xoxo

 

and LOTS of SWEET treats

we LOVE treats!!!

Have a Super SWWWEEeeeeeeeeeeettttt Day!