the hungry asian strawberry

The first challenge is red nails! I did one layer of a base coat (OPI Start to Finish), one layer of China Glaze Poinsettia, then one layer of The Hungry Asian Strawberry. It's such a fun red polish with really fine black glitter to mimic its namesake fruit. The lovely Kae from The Hungry Asian makes her own nail polishes! She has better swatches, too, so go check her blog. My camera refused to photograph the glitter for some reason, so I had to use my iPhone... not that it's much better!

Here's the whole schedule, if you'd like to do it as well!

I realize the challenge is supposed to be completed in 31 days, but I just don't have the time (or patience) to do a new nail color or design each day. I'm going to bend the rules a bit and do the 31 manicures at a snail's my own pace.

sun scones

I made these scones a while ago, but I still wanted to share them! I like using a cookie cutter to make different shapes. I use this recipe from epicurious, but I've tweaked it quite a bit. You'll need:

3 cups all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, diced

1/2 cup (or more) chilled whole milk

Position rack in top third of oven; preheat to 375°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. 

Whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and 1 cup sugar in large bowl. Add chilled butter; using fingertips, rub in until coarse meal forms. Add 1/2 cup of whole milk. Toss with fork until dough comes together in moist clumps, adding more half and half if dough is dry. Gather dough into ball; divide in half. Press out each half on floured surface roughly 1-inch-high. Use cookie cutter of choice or cut traditional rounds or wegdes. Transfer to baking sheet.

Bake scones until golden and tester comes out clean, about 18 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Scones are naturally a little bit dry and crumbly, so people usually pair them with clotted cream and jam or honey. I like to make a mascarpone cream to go with it. You just need three ingredients (1 cup mascarpone cheese, 1/3 cup chilled heavy cream and a 1/4 cup sugar) and a whisk or an electric mixer!

china glaze omg

I'm wearing China Glaze OMG right now - it's a really fun holographic polish that I bought a few years ago and have kept in my ever-growing stash of polishes. I want to try nail art (pondering on whether to buy stamps and mini rhinestones/beads right now), so I'm going to attempt a 31 day/manicure challenge I found on Emerald Sparkled!

In thinking about what sort of stuff I want to post about from now on, I've come up with a few categories and silly names to keep me organized. So there's the "nailed" category for nail polish. I'll share the other names with you when I actually getting around to posting about those categories!

random snapshot

Little shoes, big shoes.

B and I have oddly similar taste in "everyday" shoes. And it always makes me smile when I see we're wearing the same pair of shoes. 

I especially love it when we have these Adidas shoes on at the same time. Before, I had to defend my (so-called) stubborn decision to wear these everywhere - which might explain why they are so beat up. B never questions my choices regarding shoes; in fact, he loves it just as much as I do that we own and wear the same shoes. It's a really nice feeling.