Nail Art for the Big Game, take 2

This year the Carolina Panthers are set to take on the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 50.  As much as I like the Panthers, (especially Cam Newton, who I feel is incredibly talented and is absolutely deserving to be in the Super Bowl) I'm not ready to commit my fandom to them via nail art.  And as anyone who reads my blog knows, as far as professional football goes I bleed black and silver--so there's no way in hell I would put orange and blue on my nails!  Without having a horse in the race, however, I wasn't sure how to adequately express how excited I am for this year's showdown.  Then I realized that the Super Bowl is celebrating its golden anniversary this year and I decided to simply celebrate the Super Bowl.  Thus, I went with a minimalist golden french manicure.

To get this look, I used Revoln's 830 Golden shade and Sally Hansen No Chip Acrylic Top Coat. 

A few months ago I picked up a box of adhesive bandages from the dollar store specifically for using when doing french manicures and they have been an absolute lifesaver!  I simply cut them in half and use the rounded edge as the guide for painting the tips of my nails.  After painting I peel them off and I have a nice, clean edge.  It's probably the best investment I've ever made.

I couldn't be more pleased with the way my nails turned out and I'm super stoked to have them ready for Super Bowl Sunday!

Power Pellets and the Big Game

There is nothing so delightful as a pan of freshly made Rice Crispy treats cooling on the windowsill.  Unless, of course, it's game day and said crispy rice cereal treats are infused with the colorful power pellets that turn on the "Beast Mode" in a would-be average running back, thus turning him into an extraordinary running machine.

I usually go all out for game-day food, but being in an apartment with no TV, and roommates who aren't as into sports as yours truly, I decided to crash my cousin's Super Bowl bash this year.  That means I only made a side dish for the game, but it's a good one.

These were made using a basic rice crispy recipe (usually I just dump a bag of marshmallows into a bowl, add some butter, microwave it until the butter is melted and the marshmallows are big and puffy, then start adding the cereal until it looks about right.  If you need more directions than that, there is usually a recipe on the side of the cereal box or one can easily be found online.)  Once the cereal was fully incorporated and the marshmallows had cooled about half way, I added the Skittles and stirred them in.  Once they were evenly distributed, I dumped the mixture into a greased pan and set them on the windowsill to cool.

I'm so excited to enjoy these while watching the game!

Nail Art for the Big Game 2015!

As I have made very clear in my nail art posts, I am a big Raider's fan. Unfortunately, with only two wins on the season, they clearly didn't make it to the Big Game.  Right now, though I am living in Oregon, which is pretty darn close to Seattle (well, a lot closer than I was in Utah), and I like the Seahawks, so I decided to don some Seahawk love on my nails for the Super Bowl this weekend.

So I'll start the different tutorials with the pinky finger and work toward the thumb:

What I used:

The pinky finger is actually three different nail polishes.  The green I used isn't quite as bright as the official bright green of the Seahawks, but with a base coat of white paint I got the green to pop a bit more than it would otherwise.  So I laid down a basic white, layered the green on top of that, and when it was dry, I placed a piece of tape across my finger at a diagonal and painted the tip with the Celestial blue.

For the ring finger, I did a simple coat of the Splendid Blue color, then used a toothpick to freehand the number 24 (for Marshawn Lynch) on my right hand, and a number 3 (for Russell Wilson) on my left hand. I used the Superstar! white color to do the numbers.

The middle finger was super simple as well.  I first put on a coat of silver nail polish.  When that had dried fully I took a small rubber band (the kind used for small braids) and wrapped that around the nail to create a definite line.  Once the rubber band was secured, I painted right up to the rubber band and out to the end of the nail.  I cut the rubber band off of my finger so as not to pull it past wet nail polish.  I also didn't want to wait for the polish to dry before removing the rubber band.

The Index finger, I started by putting on one coat of white paint, then following up using the same ombre method that I've described before. This is one of my favorite color combinations so far and definitely one I'll have to remember for Summer!

Finally, the thumb. This was done starting with one coat of the Celestial blue.  Once that dried I took two pieces of tape and positioned them about 1/4" apart.  I didn't measure, I just eyeballed a good distance and good placement.  the non-torn ends (so the sides of the roll of tape) should be facing each other to ensure a clean line. Then I put some silver polish between the pieces of tape.  After removing the tape, I used the end of a paperclip that I had un-bent slightly and dipped that in the white polish to create a line of 5 polka dots under the silver line.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and I look forward to seeing your Super Bowl nails!  Go Seahawks!!

Super Bowl Food!

This post is almost as super late as the bowl itself is super...That was a bit of a stretch, yeah?  Bottom line-I know it's late, but I wanted to still get this up.  So here it is.  The big game is often tricky for our family because we have to figure out how to make and serve dinner before kick off while still attending church.  This year church let out at 4:00 pm, giving us exactly 25 minutes to get home and get served.  So anything that could be made ahead of time, or cooked while we were attending services was on the menu.  

I first decided to build the menu around slow cooker pulled pork.  

The recipe for this can be found here.  It's a sweet pulled pork and has lots of steps, but is so worth it.  The recipe calls for a bone-in piece of meat, but we found boneless cuts at Costco so we used that instead and increased the recipe by 1 1/2.

The pulled pork recipe also calls for serving the meat on hamburger buns, but we thought the pretzel rolls (also from Costco) would compliment the sweetness of the meat nicely.  We were right. :) But we also provided regular steak rolls (from Wal-Mart).

You can't have barbecue without some baked beans and mac and cheese.  The baked beans simmered in a smaller crock pot while we were at church, then I added some brown sugar and bacon pieces (from Costco) to the top before broiling for a few extra minutes.

The mac and cheese was prepared using a basic roux with some cheddar jack cheese melted into it.  The macaroni was cooked, the cheesy roux poured over it, then sharp cheddar cheese and bacon pieces (the same as the ones used in the baked beans) then broiled in the oven for a few minutes.

As you can see, it was quite a hit, with most of it getting eaten before I could get a picture.  I also sliced some green onions for anyone who wanted to put them on the macaroni.  They were an excellent addition.

Not to forget that this should be a somewhat balanced meal, a veggie tray (yes, from Costco) was also put out.

For dessert I wanted to do something that would show my allegiance to the Seahawks.  All right, I'm not really a Seattle fan, I'm just really not a Broncos fan.  But I thought, what better way to celebrate Seattle's road to the Super Bowl than to pay homage to Seahawk's Running Back Marshawn Lynch?  Thus, I give you a Skittles cake.

And the Skittles theme continues on the inside.

All in all the food was great, and was much appreciated by everyone at our Super Bowl party!