Love Month. Day 17: Pink & Gold Chevrons.

Hi friends!

I am so sorry. This post was supposed to go up yesterday. I thought I'd have time earlier today to get a post up, but my fiancé and I ended up spending the whole day getting wedding things done! I'm really glad that we were able to do that, though. :)

Today will be a quick post to show you a manicure from about two weeks ago that I didn't share here! I can't believe I didn't, because I really loved this mani.

For this manicure I used OPI's Mod About You - one of my all time favourite pink polishes. 

I paired that with a chevron accent nail using China Glaze's I'm Not Lion, a gold holographic glitter. I have a picture tutorial on how to do a chevron nail here, but I actually used a different method for this manicure which is a bit less time consuming. Nailsofjessiek on Instagram has a video tutorial for the method I used, which you can see here. I find this way to be a bit easier & less time consuming.

Hope you enjoyed. :) ♥ Hopefully I will be able to get back on track with my posts tomorrow.

Love Month. Day 16: This Week. {Feb 10th-16th}

Hi friends! Hope you all had a fabulous weekend. I'm sorry that this post is going up a day late, once again. *sigh* Maybe doing these posts on Sundays wasn't my best idea as Sundays are probably my busiest day of the week. Woops. :P

// behind the scenes. // valentines mani. // weekend nails. // shoutout to kelcie. // square nails. // rain rain go away. // switchin' it up. //

I'm putting this post up from my iPhone, so my apologies if it looks funny! I'll edit it later on.

I had a fairly stressful week, I guess. Wedding stuff is kinda freaking me out, and taking over all of my thoughts haha. I'm feeling overwhelmed and stressed most of the time. When people said that wedding planning was stressful, I was like pshhhh, it won't be like that for us. But they were right. Haha. Even though Russ and I are pretty laid back and not fussed about half of the stuff for the wedding, it's still challenging. There's just so much to do and I don't know where to start. But I know that we'll eventually get through it. :) As of Saturday, there was 8 weeks to go! :D

Speaking of wedding stuff; I picked up my dress on Monday! I've taken a peek at it a few times (well, it's not like I'm not allowed to look at it, but I'm trying not to stare at it too much haha!). I love it so much. :)

We had the strangest weather here this week. It started off hot, then got rainy and cooler. So strange! It's now getting a bit warmer, though.

Tonight I should have another blog post for you guys! I'm so sorry that I haven't been very consistent with Love Month. I didn't really expect to be so busy lately. Haha.

Love Month. Day 14: Happy Valentine's Day!

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Happy Valentine's Day everyone! :)
Whether you celebrate V-Day or not, I hope you all have a lovely Valentine's Day and weekend! Don't forget to show your loved ones that you appreciate them (not just today, but every day) and I hope you feel loved today too. ♥
I thought I would take this opportunity to say that I love every one of you & am so so so thankful that you are here reading my blog right now!
I also want to say a big I LOVE YOU to all of my friends and family (though I'm not sure if any of you will be reading this...), and especially my fiancé Russ. :) ♥ Happy Valentine's Day!
Just a reminder, that after today, my Love Month posts will only go up on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

Love Month. Day 12: Valentine's Day Lippies.

I'm so sorry that today's post is up super late, again. :( I have tomorrow's post ready to go up at the regular time, though, so I should be back on track now!
Anyway, onto today's post...
I've only started wearing lip colour in the last 8-ish months, but I have acquired quite a little collection if I do say so myself, so I thought today I would show you my favourites, which also happen to be perfect for Valentine's Day! ♥

Love Month. Day 11: My Nail Space & Organization.

A few weeks ago, I had a request to show you guys my nail space and how I organize my nail supplies. It would probably be easier to show you something like this in a video, but I decided to do a post. If you'd like to see a video in the future, please let me know.
I'll be giving you an overview of my nail space, today. Mainly because my stuff is all over the place at the moment. I've been trying to condense my collection/supplies and organize it a bit better, as I'll be moving out soon and I'll have much less space there.
So, in my bedroom at the moment, I have a plain white desk. (Sorry I didn't include a picture of the whole space, it's just so messy-looking).  This is where I do all of my nail and blogging stuff. Usually the desk is super cluttered, and covered in polishes. But when I clean it off, I have a pile off to the side with my notebooks, planner, to-do lists and my pencil case. I also have a little basket that holds polishes that I need to swatch for reviews. And I have a chocolate scented candle at the moment, also. :)

To the left of my desk, I have a Helmer from Ikea. This is where my polishes live. A Helmer can hold approximately 500 nail polishes.

To the left of my Helmer, I have a plastic drawer unit from Kmart. (It's mostly just craft supplies in there.)



On top of my Helmer, I have a plastic storage box with a handle. I keep all of my mani essentials in here. I bought this because when I move out, I won't have a desk to do my nails at, so I can just grab this box and move it to wherever I want to paint my nails, and everything I need will be there.

In this box, I have a towel that I use to protect the surface I'm painting on, base coats, top coats, hand cream, cuticle cream, polish remover, nail files, polish thinner, a nail brush, cuticle remover, a cup that I put acetone in for cleaning up the cuticles, cuticle nipper, clean up brush, cuticle pusher, cotton balls (in the red box) and nail clippers! Phew!

On top of my Kmart drawers, I have an old gift box where I keep all of my untried polishes. Eek, I have too many. I'm thinking when I move, I will move these into a plastic box similar to the one above.

I am planning on doing a separate post on my nail photography set up some time soon, but here is a little sneak peek. I have two 85w 5500k studio lamps that I purchased from eBay, here, and a 30x30cm soft box, also from eBay, here (that one is 40x40x40cm but I think that would be a better size).
I keep the lamps and soft box under my desk most of the time because they would take up way too much space on my desk.

I also have a few plastic containers that hold spare top coats, base coats, cotton balls, etc. And another that holds all of my gel polish supplies.
Hope you enjoyed this post & that it was helpful / interesting for some of you! When I get everything organized a bit better, I'll update you!

Love Month. Day 10: Pretty Polished Tag.

Because I was a silly billy and ran out of time to put a proper post together for today, I have another tag post for you. This one is nail related though, so I'm sure lots of you will like it!

I promise that tomorrow's post will be a 'real' post, though. :)

I was tagged by the lovely Lindsay from Sparkly Tips (or Lindsay Does Nails on YouTube) to do the Pretty Polished tag! You can check out her video here.

I haven't found the time to put together a video so I thought I'd do the tag here on my blog instead.

Love Month. Day 9: This Week. {Feb 3rd-9th}

Hello my lovelies. I'm so sorry, this post was supposed to go up yesterday evening, ugh! I didn't find the time to complete the post until now, though. My post for today is still coming, too. :( I feel like a bit of a failure since I was so excited for this series but I let a few days slip away from me. *sigh* Oh well!

Let's get into seeing how my week was. :)

Love Month. Day 8: Gold and Pink Valentines Mani.

I've had my DSLR camera for about 2 months now and I only just figured out how to use the live view function (so you don't have to look through the little viewfinder thing). Yep, took me 2 months to figure out how to turn it on. All I was doing wrong was that I didn't press the 'ok' button. Seriously?!
Anyway. Nevermind that. Today I have a short post to show you another Valentine's Day nail look. I really like this one.

My skin colour looks fairly alien-like in these photos... Please excuse that.

For this manicure I used China Glaze Something Sweet (baby pink), Loki's Lacquer Scrooged (glitter) and OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips (hot pink).

I really like the pink and gold colour combination right now!

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend. ♥

Love Month. Day 7: The Blogger Love Tag.

Hi guys! This feels strange. I'm writing this post right before I'm about to publish it. I haven't done that in a long time! My posts are pretty much always scheduled to go up ahead of time.

I only slept 3-4 hours last night, so if I don't make a whole lotta sense, that's why!

The other day, I saw the Blogger Love Tag on Girl Loves Gloss' blog and I thought I would do it too. One of my favourite things to do is blog, obviously, and also read other blogs so it sounded fun.

Love Month. Day 6: Glam Polish Fantasy Trio: Mei Mei's Signatures Exclusive.

I have a new trio by Glam Polish to share with you today. This is the Fantasy Trio, and it is exclusive to Mei Mei's Signatures (one of Glam Polish's overseas stockists).

The trio features two light-coloured creamy glitters, and one dark jelly glitter.

Out of this World is a light blue/grey base with pink, silver and turquoise glitters. A little sheer on the first coat, but the second built up nicely. I definitely feel like my collection is lacking these blue-grey colours so this one is a nice addition to my stash.

She is Elusive is a super dark purple jelly with a fine gold flake glitter and also some very small holographic glitter. This one is also a little sheer on the first coat, but the second coat builds it up. I love this so much! It's flippin' beautiful!

Unreachable has black, white, pink and gold small glitters, plus a gold shimmer, in a pink toned nude base. Lovely to apply, and opaque in two coats. It kind of reminds me of cookies & cream, haha.

This trio is now available from Mei Mei's Signatures here (at the time of writing, the trio is out of stock but should be back in stock soon). You can also buy them separately if you don't want all three.

*Product(s) in this post were provided to me by the company or PR for my 100% honest review.  For more info please read my Disclosure Policy*

Love Month. Day 5: Wedding Planning Update.

Here is my long-awaited Wedding Planning Update post! I'm so sorry it took so long for me to get this finished. I know there were a few of you waiting for it, so I'm sorry about that. But here it is. :)

Our wedding is just over 2 months away! OH. MY. I really can't believe how quickly it's coming up!

Over the November-December period we put planning on the back burner as we were planning our engagement party, and then Russ moved into the unit we'll be living in, and then there was Christmas and everything so it was so busy.

January 1st marked 100 days until our wedding and we got stuck right into planning because that freaked us out, to be honest lol!

A couple of weeks ago, I designed a save-the-date and we started sending/giving out save-the-dates to our guests! I didn't really "publicize" our exact date online until I was 100% sure it was going to be the date. I made a simpler version of our save-the-date to show you guys! :)

{For you US girls and anywhere else that writes the date with the month first. We write the day first. So the date is the 12th of April, not the 4th of December. Haha, just thought I would clarify that.}

We booked our honeymoon! We are staying here in Australia as we've both never been overseas. And we don't want the stress of having to organize our first overseas holiday as well as wedding planning.

We also picked out our wedding rings! I'm super excited about that! I love the one I chose and I think it matches my engagement ring nicely. We picked them up from the shop last week and I so badly wish I could wear it now, haha. Can't wait to show you guys a picture after the wedding. :)

We started collecting some decorations for the ceremony & reception. I love what we've collected so far and I'm excited to see how it's all going to look together. We are having a backyard wedding so we're going for a bit of a laid back theme. If you check out my wedding boards on my Pinterest (yes - plural... I'm a bit obsessed) you can get an idea of the type of theme we're going for.

Oh and... I picked out my DRESS! :D
I finally went dress shopping a few weeks ago and I picked out my perfect dress. I did wait a bit long to go dress shopping, but I found a dress that I love. ♥
Now I need to find a pair of shoes (I really want to wear sandals) that will go with it... I also found a cute little clutch, and a pair of earrings that go with my dress. I don't really know what the 'norm' is with a clutch for the wedding day (like, who looks after it for the day...? I don't want to hold it all day lol!) though. If you can help me out, please do. Haha.
I feel like a noob when it comes to wedding stuff, to be perfectly honest. I've only been to a few weddings in my life. If you have any tips at all; stuff that I may not know, or think of, please please please let me know. I'd love to have a conversation with you in the comments, or you can tweet me. :)

Oh - I'm also having trouble deciding whether I want to have flowers, or not. Although flowers are obviously gorgeous, I can't help but think they are quite a waste of money because they'll just die. I'm not sure. So I'm looking into bouquet alternatives (for my bridesmaids mainly). I've found some really cute ideas online, but I'd also like to know if you guys have any suggestions! I'd be so grateful.

So, wedding planning is definitely a little stressful. But I am enjoying doing most of the planning myself (with the help of others, including my fiance, of course - I could never actually do it completely alone), and researching different things and finding inspiration.

If you have any questions, comments, or tips, PLEASE leave me a comment (or tweet me)! :) I would really love to talk to you guys about wedding related stuff!

Love Month. Day 4: Cutesy V-Day Water Decals.

Valentine's Day is less than 2 weeks away, so I created some cutesy nail art to share with you today. (How poetic of me!)

A super easy way to create nail art is by using water decals, like these ones I have used from Born Pretty Store.
These decals (pattern BLE1774) include pictures of little bird cages, birds, roses and some little quotes that don't really make sense. You get 21 decals for $2.86.

I used China Glaze Something Sweet for my base colour, and Rimmel Aurora from the Space Dust line for the accent nail. These colours are both perfect for a Valentine's Day manicure!

I really love the bird cage decals especially!

If you'd like to know how to apply water decals, I talked about that in this post.

I couldn't resist sharing a close up shot of Rimmel's Aurora.

You can get 10% off your Born Pretty order using the code CAL91. They do free worldwide shipping all the time.

*Product(s) in this post were provided to me by the company or PR for my 100% honest review.  For more info please read my Disclosure Policy*

Love Month. Day 3: V-Day Polish Picks.

Hi guys! For the third day of Love Month, I thought I'd share my favourite polishes for Valentine's Day with you. I have quite a few to share, so I'll get right into it!
Pink and red are obviously the most popular colours for Valentine's Day, and I think OPI does pinks and reds the best.

Three of my favourite light pinks from OPI are Mod About You - a very pale, opaque baby pink, Pink Friday - a classic lighter Barbie pink, and Chic From Ears to Tail - another pastel pink, but with a subtle silver shimmer (I only have a mini - I need the full size!).

If you're into a more sheer pink, my favourite is I Theodora You, also from OPI.

If you're into textured polishes, OPI's Liquid Sand in Magazine Cover Mouse is a pretty red with a gold shimmer.
A classic hot pink that I love is Kiss Me On My Tulips. Or if you're more of a lavender girl, you can't go past Lucky Lucky Lavender.

Another beautiful hot pink, with a purple undertone is Flirt by piCture pOlish (appropriate name for V-Day! ;)). This one also has a flawless formula. You can get away with just one coat!

February is summer time here in Aussieland, so I had to include a nice neon pink. My favourite is Bottoms Up by China Glaze. The formula on this one is less than perfect, so it will take a bit of patience, but the end result is awesome.

A classic bright red option is Ever Reddy by Covergirl, from the Outlast Stay Brilliant line. This one is available pretty much everywhere. It has a jelly-ish sort of finish.

For the glitter gals! Ulta3 Disco Fever is a great red glitter that's pretty easy to find, and only $2! It would look cute over any of the light pink polishes I mentioned above, or a red.

Haley Good Lookin' is a pretty rosy pink glitter from Nicole by OPI. NOPI is now available at most Target and Woolworths stores here in Australia, so it's fairly easy to get your hands on, if you come across a well stocked stand! This would go well over any colour, really. It has great coverage with just one coat, also.

If you prefer a purple look, China Glaze's Put a Bow On It from the 2013 Holiday collection is a nice full coverage glitter.

Last but not least, some indie glitter options!
Hearts Aflutter is a cute glitter mix that Gloss n Sparkle released for Valentine's Day last year. It's an assortment of pink, lilac and silver glitters in a clear base. It includes cute shapes like hearts and butterflies also. Ruby Soho by Emily de Molly is a nice red glitter in different sizes that would look pretty over a baby pink. And for the hot pink lovers, Blossom by Love Thy Polish is a great mix of hot pink holographic glitters.
I hope this post helped you decide what polish you might wear for Valentine's Day, or just gave you some new polishes to add to your wish list. ;)
What are your favourites for V-Day?! Let me know in a comment. :)