a very busy bunny, indeed.

In a couple of hours I'm going to be focused solely on kicking the Rhody Run's ass, then I'll inevitably spend a couple of days feeling tired, sore, and extremely blistery. In the coming week I have a sewing class to teach and an unschooling conference to attend. I know this is a lot less than a lot of people manage to do on a regular basis, but my plate is more of a dessert/salad plate than a traditional dinner plate, and I've got a lot of stuff on it right now.

I'll be back after Life is Good with all sorts of goodies! In the meantime, you can stay abreast of my OMGSUPERINTERESTING life via twitter and tumblr.

It's Friday, I'm in Love: nailzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Self-care is super important, you guys. It can mean anything, really: getting enough sleep or dancing or watching your favorite movies or re-reading cherished books or getting your hair did or going shopping or hiking or bird-watching or swimming in the ocean or eating burritos or knitting scarves or... doing your nails.

I love painting my nails. I generally only do it once a week or so and haven't been doing it on a regular basis for super long, but with the wide array of inexpensive polishes available, it's a fun and relatively cheap self-care ritual.

Marina, bb.

I also get a kick out of looking at what other people have done to their nails. Sometimes I get inspiration from it, and other times I just sit there, happily drooling over the prettiness. Predictably, I reblog A LOT of manicure pictures on ye olde tumblrs. Here's a collection of such pictures.

I need more pastel polishes in my life. I own a couple of pastel pink shades, but this minty green is quite lovely.

Glitter, glitter, glitter. I am ALWAYS on the lookout for sparkles in different shapes and colors! I love the big square chunks in this one.

I rarely grow my nails out long enough to do proper tips, but this is pretty fabulous. If I were to ever get gels again, I might consider doing a matte nail with a glossy tip. It would probably look good in almost any color.

HARDCORE GLITTER. It looks like teensy-weensy sequins!

All black. All matte. All the time. This would fit my aesthetic rather nicely, don't you think?

I dig a good ombre nail, and although red and gold aren't a go-to color combo for me, it looks rulllllllllll good here. I may have to try that in the future. Or at the very least try out a gold glitter.

More gold glitter, this time in a reverse ombre over jade green. I love the idea of doing full glitter only on the ring finger. Femme-flagging FTW.

I've tried out my matte topcoat over glitter and it didn't look nearly this cool. I'm thinking I need to do it over an opalescent polish, rather than a chunky glitter. This looks like a nebula.

I have a polish in my collection that matches my skin almost perfectly. I've done the mannequin-hands thing a couple of times and have liked the effect, but I never thought to outline it in neon! I'm debating picking up a few of those nail-art pens they sell at the drug store.

And of course, more ombre. I cannot get enough of glitter ombre nails. These look dip-dyed!

Are you also a manicure junky? What's your favorite look right now - glitter? matte? stripes? each nail a different color? Embrace your inner 15 year old and tell me what's up!

thrifted thursday: I've been framed!

I've been working on assembling a gallery-style wall of picture frames since we were in our tiny little apartment uptown, slowly adding to it two or three frames at a time. My ultimate goal is to have it fill the wall, but I'm a long way from getting there, as the wall the arrangement lives on is on the high side of the vaulted ceilings (which are 11' at the highest point). I keep trucking along, though.

I've thrifted these various frames for anywhere from 10 cents to $1 each, depending on the size and quality, and have painted them all in the same glossy dark brown spray-paint. Recently I became interested in air plants and realized that if I thrifted some chintzy little wooden shelves, that I could incorporate them into my gallery wall. I picked up 5 of these funky little plants at a shop downtown (and it appears they don't have a website, or else I'd link to them... it's 2012, who doesn't have a website? C'mon!) and went to it.

I happen to LOVE the effect. Four of the little guys are nestled in this funky shelf, on top of some random beach rocks that I've collected over the years.

The other one sits up top of this tiny series of shelves, also with some rocks, shells, and a piece of petrified wood!

Overall I feel like the arrangement finally feels complete. Like I said, I ultimately would LOVE to fill the wall, but from this point on, I won't feel like it looks unfinished or sparse.