Hellooo everyone and happy Tuesday! It’s a very special day in the world of lifewithlilred because I now have over 1,000 followers! HOLY SMOKES! Thank you so much to everyone who has paid my page a visit and thought that it was worthy of hitting the follow button! Thank you to everyone for all of the likes, shares, and comments as well – it doesn’t go unnoticed and I appreciate it SO MUCH!!!
Life is good on lifewithlilred right now…I got approved for WordAds at the beginning of the month, I’ve reached a major milestone in my amount of followers, and I have the pleasure of interacting with all of you every day! I couldn’t ask for anything better and I really am pleased as punch. I started my blog over a year ago and now I’m finally getting my page to where I want it to be and it feels great – so thank you, thank you, a million times thank you!
^^^ Lol, it seemed appropriate!
Once again, shout out to all of my 1,000+ followers new and old. Thank you to everyone who has ever checked my page out. Thank you to everyone who has ever liked, shared, or commented on any of my posts! I LOVE YOU ALL! What blog should I check out on here? Who has recently gotten approved for WordAds? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah
Helloooo everyone and happy Tuesday! Most of you guys know that before I started school I worked hella retail. My days were spent slaving away in PacSun, The Body Shop, Claire’s, Piercing Pagoda, and Next for what seemed like an eternity. This year, however, I’m so excited to not work a holiday season in the mall. After working five Black Fridays in a row – I am officially free from the evil clutches of the mall during the holidays! SCORE!
On Saturday, my sister and I took a trip to the mall so she could make a few returns and do some shopping. As soon as we entered the premises, we were greeted by Christmas music, decorations, and a mall that was jam packed for an early November evening. Seriously, just being in that environment gave me anxiety and as far as I was concerned, we couldn’t leave soon enough.
Being in the mall among all of the really early holiday shoppers who seemed to be just as crazy as the last minute gift grabbers reminded me how thankful I am that I can finally have a holiday season to enjoy with my friends and family. When I worked retail I can’t remember one holiday season that I genuinely enjoyed because I was too wrapped up in working crazy hours and dealing with insane customers. This year, I don’t have to worry about going into the mall on Thanksgiving day to work a thirteen hour Black Friday shift. I also don’t have to be at the mall late on Christmas Eve to tend to everyone’s final holiday needs and clean the trashed store to perfection. *sigh of relief*
When you’re working every minute of the months of November through January, you simply forget that those times are meant to be for your loved ones. The thing that I’m most looking forward to is actually having a Thanksgiving. For the past five years my Thanksgivings were spent counting down the hours till my Black Friday shift and trying to cram in some power naps before the insanity unfolded. This year I’ll be able to help cook, prepare the table, and spend quality time with my family and boyfriend. It’s going to feel so good but SO strange because I’m completely not used to relaxing during a holiday – what does that even mean?!
I’m so thankful for everything that my years of hard work provided me with before I started college. I was able to buy my car (Little Red Love Machine!), buy clothes, purchase gifts for others, and put money towards my tuition. But this year, I am so ready to sit back, relax, and enjoy a glorious Retail Free Holiday Season! I hope everyone is having a fabulous week so far! Have any of you worked retail during the holidays? Do you have any funny/traumatic moments to share? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah
PS: My traumatic story to share from a very retail holiday season doesn’t deal so much with me as it does an unfortunate Victoria’s Secret employee who got punched THREE YEARS IN A ROW during Black Friday. #threepeat
Howdy everyone and happy Monday! I hope all of you had a fantastic Halloween weekend, I sure did! You know why I had a great weekend? Because for the most part I did absolutely nothing for the first time in weeks and it was AWESOME! Now that I’m all relaxed and ready to go, I’m here to bring you the Monday Update for the week so you guys can be on the Look Out for some exciting posts coming up in the near future!
Trades Of Hope: I had the pleasure of sitting down with one of my dear friends, Sarah White, to chat about the company that she works for, Trades Of Hope. TOH employs female artisans in third world countries and pays them a fair living wage for the creation of their beautiful accessories, home decor, and beauty items. On Tuesday, you can tune into http://www.lifewithlilred.com for the full article and the link to Sarah’s site where she’ll be hosting a TOH party for the next few weeks. When you make purchases through the party you have the opportunity to win free or discounted items and I strongly urge you to take advantage of it because everything is gorgeous! I was gifted with the Kala Necklace from Sarah and I’m obsessed! Take a look:
My necklace was made by artisans in India and I love it so much! Once again, I’ll be posting the article this Tuesday and the links for the party will be provided in the post!
John Patrick Halling: This past Thursday I was so excited to sit down and chat with an extremely talented musician fresh out of Kent, Ohio, John Patrick Halling. John Patrick is a blues/folk/country hybrid artist and he is simply fantastic. During our meeting we chatted about everything from his most recent tour (the Boy in the Water US tour), his style on stage, and what influences him as an artist and musician. Everything during our get together was just swell, until…..
Until I made the biggest fool of myself of all time!! When I meet with new clients, our talks usually happen interview style and I record everything on a Word document on my laptop. Basically, they talk and I type. John Patrick and I chatted for a solid thirty-five to forty minutes and once I had everything I needed, I told him he was good to go. We packed up our belongings and I said something along the lines of “let me save and exit” the document. Unfortunately, a classic case of “I shouldn’t have clicked that” happened because instead of saving and exiting, I accidentally just clicked exit. It was one of those things where you do what you were saying because you were saying it and since I had “exit” on my mind and tongue, it just kind of happened…It. Was. AWFUL.
Thankfully, John Patrick was SO nice about it and I was able to recall almost everything we talked about from memory. I stayed at the Starbucks we met at after he left and retyped everything and ended up with more than I started with. As soon as I got home, I got a draft of the article ready to go and the only things that needed corrected were the brand name of a hat, the location of a venue that he played a show at, and the name of a city. Since those were the only things that didn’t ring true, I’d say I did pretty well!
I’m so happy that the article is looking good so far but you guys have no idea how embarrassing it was! My best friend, Lea, and I have discussed how difficult it is to think of a moment that was truly cringe worthy but I think I found it with that unfortunate incident. But fear not! The article is almost done and is set to publish mid-November when John Patrick releases his music video for “If I Would’ve Known”. Until then, you can check out his music at: http://johnpatrickhalling.com/#/ and make sure you give his Facebook page a like at: https://www.facebook.com/JPHallingMusic/?fref=ts ! Seriously guys, make sure you give his music a listen because it really is wonderful and stay tuned for the article on Mister Halling which will be coming out soon!
^^^ My life.
So there you have it, this week’s Monday Update: Look Out Edition! I’m so excited to share these upcoming posts with you and I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did working on them! How was everyone’s Halloween weekend? What did you do to celebrate? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah
Howdy everyone and happy Tuesday! It’s my 450th post here on http://www.lifewithlilred.com so I just wanted to take the time to thank all of my fantastic readers for their continuous love and support! As you can see by my featured image photo, my reader map is growing nicely as is my amount of followers! Over 750?! What even?! You guys are awesome, seriously.
There are a lot of really fun posts coming up which I’m so excited to share with you all soon! In fact, I’ll be starting a new one tonight for one of my clients that I think all of my jewelry lovers on here will appreciate. Which brings me to the next thing that I want to bring up…As you guys know by now, I freelance write through my blog for local artists, businesses, and musicians in the Akron, Ohio neck of the woods. So if any of you ever need any type of advertising for your product, art, music, or anything else that you can think of, please let me know!
You can get in touch with me in an abundance of ways, like:
Leaving me a comment on this post
Emailing me at: sarah.mush6794@gmail.com
Sending me a friend request on Facebook at: Sarah Mushenheim
If you plan on friend requesting me on Facebook, I do insist that you shoot me a message to let me know that you’re one of my readers. Usually I end up deleting the request when I get one from people who I have no mutual friends with or who don’t live in my general area. Once you contact me we can discuss the post, payment, and whatever else you might need! 🙂
I hope all of you guys are having a great week so far, I know I am! Who’s excited for the new episode of American Horror Story: Hotel tomorrow? Whose blog should I immediately start following? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah
PS: Make sure you give my Facebook page a like! Pretty please?!
Hello everyone and welcome to a very special article on lifewithlilred. I had the absolute pleasure of getting to know Nelson Morris, a teacher, an artist, and now a new friend. Nelson recently had a part of his work entitled the “1000 Faces Project” featured at the Cleveland Ingenuity Festival and it is currently being displayed at the Waterloo Sculpture Garden and let me tell you, those who can make it out are in for a treat. Learning the intricacies of Nelson’s artwork was such a joy and I know I shouldn’t be saying this but I’m going to anyways…I have never been so excited to work with someone. Take a look at the interview conducted by yours truly as well as some photos of Nelson’s creations:
Lil Red: So the first thing everyone is obviously going to want to know about is your latest creative endeavor, the “1000 Faces Project”, so tell me more.
Nelson: Of course. It started when I was a student teacher in Middlefield, Ohio. My art students never wanted to do portraits, which I think comes from the social anxiety a student can often feel from the fear of making a mistake. I fought tooth and nail with them about it and one day I set up a still life of a plaster cast and the kids drew it. Something in them clicked, similar to the light bulb moment that I had during a trip to New York City to help a fellow artist. I saw so many people and all I wanted to do was draw all of their faces. This project is about diversity and the subtle facial differences that make us unique. What makes us the same? What makes us different? I wanted to find out, so I began making casts.
LR: Approximately how many faces have you cast?
N: So far I have 165.
LR: And you think you’re going to get to 1000?
N: Yes, I really do. At the Ingenuity exhibit I was set up on stage casting audience members. I casted thirty faces there and got a great response so hopefully I can keep that momentum going.
LR: Has it been difficult finding people willing to sit for you to get their faces cast?
N: Yes! The casting part is easy, it’s finding people that’s the hardest. I can transport an 1800 pound statue on my own and it’s horrible but finding people is much harder.
LR: How have you been finding people to plaster?
N: First I started by reaching out to my friends on Facebook but then I quickly ran out. I then started adding all of the people on the “people you may know” section – I sent a friend request to anyone who looked sane! That’s how I got in touch with you!
LR: I’m glad I look sane to you! But I do the exact same thing when I want more views on my site – a friend on Facebook is a potential viewer.
N: I’ve met some great people from it, too. One time I got to cast a group of fifteen people in the basement of the Fastlane bowling alley in Barberton after it closed thanks to finding the owner on Facebook.
LR: I didn’t even know bowling alleys had basements! What are some of the most memorable moments from all of the people you’ve casted?
N: I’ve had some creepy ones, that’s for sure – but I’ve also had a lot of really fun ones too…Except for the first cast that I ever did, which was on my own face. As an artist, you always experiment on yourself first, so I was home alone at my parent’s house and I stood in front of a mirror and started to cover my face in plaster. I had straws in my nose, walrus-style, so I could breathe and after about three layers of plaster I covered my eyes and did the rest by touch. This was in June and I had hay fever at the time and the straws stuck up my nose kept on bumping and tickling me and before I knew it, I felt a huge sneeze coming on. I tried to pry the cast off but it was stuck on there pretty good and for a split second I thought to myself, “great, this is how I’m going to die – with a plaster face mask on”. But I got the cast off and I survived! However, the plaster that I used originally was very rough and gritty and when I pulled the mask off some chunks of plaster got into my eyes…I spent forty-five minutes in the shower trying to wash it all out.
LR: The things people do for their craft. Can you tell me more about the process of creating a plaster face cast?
N: Well, the process was a bit messy to start because I’ve only plastered bodies, never a face. I used to use about six layers of gauze impregnated with plaster but now I’ve got it down to only one to two layers. Like I said, making the casts is the easiest part now. All you do is dip the gauze in water, squeegee it off, and slap it on the face. I’ve got the process down from a half hour to ten or fifteen minutes flat.
LR: What do you think the finished product is going to be like once you’ve finally cast 1000 faces?
N: It changes all the time. I think very architecturally though so the idea right now is to have the faces lined up next to each other, kind of like in the old underground catacombs. When they’re lined up next to each other is when you can truly compare and contrast them. I also want to incorporate audio into the project. I take recordings of the voices of everyone who I’ve plastered and I would like to make it so if you touch one of the faces you can hear the voice of the model.
LR: Wait what? How do you plan on doing that?
N: I know it sounds crazy but stay with me! I’ve played with this idea before with a life sized terracotta statue. The sound chip was solar powered so when the sun lined up just right the statue of the woman would begin to sing. But that was just for one statue – I had no idea how I would do it with hundreds of face casts. I started to ask around for help and the head engineer of 107.9 (a Cleveland radio station) told me about a processing board that might make the idea possible. I happened to find a hobby group dedicated to working on the processing boards in Akron and I emailed a member with the subject “For The Sake Of Art”. He replied and has been helping me with creating the codes and wiring to give the plaster masks voices.
LR: I’m so excited to see the “1000 Faces Project” in all of its concrete and audio glory. So, if you could say one thing to a young Nelson before he had a beard, what would it be?
N: Everything’s gonna turn out alright.
Pretty cool, huh? Not only is Nelson an artist extraordinaire, but he also teaches pre-k through 8th grade. How he has time to breathe is beyond me! He told me a great story about how on the first day of one of his classes he presented the students with a basket of one hundred pencils and a pair of bolt cutters. He cut off the eraser to every pencil because his students don’t use erasers in his classes so that they can learn how to fix their problems on their own. This goes along hand in hand with the mantra he tells his students daily: “Making a mistake isn’t a problem when you’re creating art work. You have to learn from your mistakes and adapt from them”.
Nelson is a self funded artist who creates customized pieces and will be selling replicas of the tiles seen in the pictures featured on this post. If you are interested in any of his art work old and new or have ideas for a custom piece, you can contact him at:
Or you can shoot him an email at: nmorri12@kent.edu
If you live in the Akron/Cleveland, Ohio area and are interested in having Nelson cast your face he now offers free house casting parties. If you can get five people to attend, he will come to you. But if you get ten or more people to come to the party, all of the guests will receive a free record of their face which will look something like this:
I want to thank Nelson so much for sitting down with me for a chat because it was seriously an honor. If you have any questions for my new friend you can reach him through any of the mediums I posted above or leave me a comment to relay to him. Would you get your face plastered for the 1000 Faces Project? What do you think Nelson’s finished product is going to end up looking like? We wanna hear from all of you, so leave us a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah
Hellooo everyone and happy Monday! I hope all of you had a fantastic weekend, I sure did! As you guys might remember me mentioning before, I figure skated competitively for a hefty portion of my youth. Thanks to my background as a skater, I’ve been given the opportunity to coach figure skating for the Special Olympics. I had my first practice with my skaters this past Thursday and it was one of the best times of my life! Let’s discuss:
Every Thursday for the next several months I’ll be at the Kent State ice arena for an hour coaching my new friends for the Olympic games in February. I had the best time during my first evening getting to know all of the skaters and their parents. It also felt so good to get back on the ice because I haven’t skated since last winter! I spent my time on the rink going back and forth between different skaters to check on how they were doing and help them improve. It was so rewarding every time a skater accomplished something that I helped teach them!
I had so much fun coaching my skaters but I also really enjoyed just standing back and watching them skate. All of my friends seemed so at peace while they practiced their sport and it was nice to see big smiles and hear laughter throughout the rink. I was legitimately bummed out when the session came to an end but I made sure that before the ice got Zamboni-ed that I was able to have a race around the rink that I promised to one of my speed skaters. He was thirteen years old and was a freaking speed demon so I can imagine I’ll be constantly reminded of his victory every session by him and his uncle, which I’m so okay with!
I seriously can’t wait until next Thursday so I can see my students and their families again. It was so touching how gracious the parents or guardians were after I got off of the rink but I should be the one thanking them because I think I got much more out of my time than the skaters did! I’m so excited to go on a coaching journey with my new friends and their support systems and I’m so ready for another wonderful session this week!
In other news, my boyfriend Kyle and I had our two month anniversary on the 20th which is really exciting stuff! I also got to sit down with one of my good friends to discuss her Trades Of Hope campaign this past Thursday so you can expect an article about that in a few weeks! AND after skating this upcoming Thursday, I’ll be staying in Kent for a little while longer to meet with a really talented musician, John Patrick Halling, to chat about his cross country tour this past summer! It should be a lot of fun so keep your eyes peeled for lots of cool new posts. 🙂
I hope all of you are having a great start to your week and make sure you tune in at http://www.lifewithlilred.com for all of the latest and greatest! What was everyone up to this weekend? How do you plan on celebrating Halloween? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah
Hiii everyone and happy Monday! I hope you all had a great weekend! When I returned home from my boyfriend’s house yesterday afternoon I was so excited to see that I was nominated for the Liebster Award by my friend at A Maple Girl! It was such a pleasant surprise so I decided to make a Monday Update out of it! Here are my answers to all of the fun questions provided by A Maple Girl:
Long nails or short? Long – although I’m currently wearing my nails natural and short at the moment. I had extremely long acrylics reminiscent of talons for over half a year but now I’m giving my real nails some recovery time before I get a new set on.
Red lips or pink? Red!! Haha I would be nothing without my red lips and red hair!
Favorite YouTube beauty Guru? I don’t really have one…I’m not a big YouTube watcher and I’m honestly so set in my every day makeup routine that I rarely switch it up.
Favorite season of the year? AUTUMN!!!! I love the fall so much! Fall clothing is my favorite: cardigans, peacoats, fingerless gloves, hats, and cable knit sweaters – I love it all! I really want to get to a haunted house with my boyfriend soon! We actually might be going to Halloweekends at Cedar Point this upcoming weekend. 🙂
First job? I worked as an actor at a haunted house, Carnival Of Horrors. I was fourteen or so and it was so much fun. I also got to do all of my own makeup which was a blast.
If you could only use one makeup brand for the rest of your life, which would it be? The Body Shop, hands down. However, I would have to cheat and use NYX for my lipstick because their matte lippies are the best!!
Dream vacation destination? This is an easy one – traveling through Europe!!
Favorite book you’ve read recently? I just finished rereading one of my favorite books, Night Film, this past Friday. It’s so fantastic and is in production to be made into a film soon! I liked this book so much that I got one of the quotes, “Do I dare?”, tattooed on my inner left arm.
Why did you start a blog? Lifewithlilred originally started strictly as a fashion blog because I had multiple people tell me daily that I should start one. I have a very unique personal style and I was flattered that people recognized that and liked it, so I figured “why not?” Now lifewithlilred is more of a lifestyle blog, covering everything from beauty and literature to silly ramblings and mental health.
Celebrity crush? I have tons! Haha I love Johnny Depp, Jack White, Julian Casablancas, Britney Spears, and Gwen Stefani just to name a few! For more on my celebrity crushes you can tune in to lifewithlilred every Monday and Wednesday for my Man Crush Monday and Woman Crush Wednesday segments!
Answer the questions set by the person who nominated you.
Nominate 5 blogs with less than 500 followers
Leave a comment on their blog to inform them of their nomination.
My questions for you are:
What’s the one beauty item you couldn’t live without?
Who are three of your favorite bands?
The best gift you’ve ever received?
The weirdest food you’ve ever ate?
Favorite childhood movie?
Your favorite pair of shoes?
A story of the worst date you’ve ever been on?
Favorite book?
Do you have any pets?
What is your favorite subject to blog about?
Once again, I’m so thrilled that I was nominated for the Liebster Award and had such a blast making this post. To those of you who want more of me, you can friend me on Facebook at Sarah Mushenheim, follow my page, or email me at sarah.mush6794@gmail.com! How was everyone’s weekend? What is the weather like in your neck of the woods? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah
Helloooo everyone and Happy Monday!! Thanks to a fantastically lazy weekend, I’m feeling refreshed, rejuvenated, and ready to go! My week days are always so crazy now so this weekend I finally got to do exactly what I wanted…nothing! There were lots of things that made my weekend great, like not having to drive, catching up on leisure reading, and lots and lots of sleep! Take a listen to the Bruno Mars theme song to my weekend and then let’s discuss:
During the week I’m constantly on the run in the Little Red Love Machine, driving siblings, driving to school, driving to boyfriend, meeting clients, and running errands. So needless to say, one of the best parts of this weekend was that I didn’t have to get behind the wheel of my car one time! It. Was. AWESOME!! My parents handled all of the driving this weekend and I handled the laying in my bed doing nothing this weekend. 😉
But seriously, you never really realize how nice it is to have someone else drive you until your tucked away in the backseat of one of your parent’s cars. For example, we went to see the new Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro movie, TheIntern, and the movie theater was less than five minutes away but even the smallest amount of chauffeuring was great! The movie was so cute and funny, too – I just love Anne Hathaway and her and De Niro made a great pair. The Intern was kind of like a more lighthearted version of The Devil Wears Prada and I really enjoyed it.
My favorite part of the weekend, however, was finally catching up on my pleasure reading! During the past few weeks I’ve been so exhausted before bed that I could barely finish two or three chapters in my book, Night Film, before falling asleep. Usually I’m a ridiculously fast reader – I can finish a five hundred page book in three days flat easily, so the whole “reading barely one hundred pages in one week” thing killed me!
Lucky for me, this weekend I had no school work to worry about so I was a free woman! I got to spend my afternoons snuggled under my blankets for hours on end and was able to complete over one hundred pages each sitting, which is definitely more like it! Reading is one of my favorite past times so the fact that I got to have entire afternoons dedicated to relaxing and flipping through the pages of a book that I love so much made my lazy days perfect. (If you haven’t read Night Film, give it a try! It’s wonderful…so wonderful that one of my tattoos is a quote from the book!)
Last but not least, I got to sleep, sleep, sleep this weekend! If there’s one thing that I love, it’s not having to set an alarm in the morning. These past two days, I got to sleep in to my hearts desire without the incessant buzzing of my phone and iPod to wake me up. On Saturday I slept until 11:15 and it was absolutely amazing! I woke up around seven and nine that morning and it was so nice to be able to look at the time and realize that I could continue sleeping for as much as I wanted. By the time I woke up on Saturday, I decided that it was too late to bother with makeup so I’ve spent both of my weekend days au natural! I definitely could get used to this homebody thing!
So there you have it, this week’s Monday Update: Lazy Weekend Edition! Now that I’m well rested, I’m ready to take on another crazy week! How was everyone’s weekend? Was it lazy like mine or jam packed with cool stuff? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah
Hi everyone and happy Thursday! I was going to save this friendly reminder post until Saturday but I have quite a bit to do today so I figured I’d keep my daily post short and sweet. What am I so busy with? Well I’m glad you asked! I have the pleasure of penning a new article for an incredibly talented artist fresh out of Ohio, Nelson Morris. His work on the “1000 Faces Project” will be on display at the Cleveland Ingenuity Festival this weekend as well as at the Waterloo Sculpture Garden. Yesterday I got to sit down over coffee with Nelson and chat away about his creative endeavors. I’d like to get a rough draft of the article done today while everything is fresh in my noggin so I don’t completely jack up describing all of the technicalities that Nelson told me about. This guy is the real deal so you’re all in for a real treat once the interview is published!
I’m not going to post Nelson’s contact info just yet but I do encourage you to show some love to the Facebook pages of yours truly, Recipe of Life, Millstone, and Daffodil Blue Photography! Please, please, please? 🙂
I don’t ask for much on the ol’ blog but I really would appreciate it if you guys took the time to give a quick “like” to any and all of these pages. Supporting local artists who use their talents to not only express themselves but relate to others is so important and I wouldn’t be doing my job properly if I didn’t showcase all of their amazing work on lifewithlilred. Thanks again!!
Alright everyone, it’s almost the weekend so hang tight for just a few more days! Does anyone have any big plans coming up? Who is one of your favorite local artists in your neck of the woods? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah
Hellooo everyone and happy Monday! I hope all of you had a wonderful and relaxing weekend! So something kind of crazy happened this weekend that is so out of character for me that I have a hard time believing it myself…I took my acrylic nails off. Those of you who are familiar with my blog will know that I am (was) simply obsessed with my longer than life talon-esque fake nails, but something happened this weekend that just made me snap. Check out the story behind my breaking point and then we can mourn in my loss together:
On Saturday everything was running smoothly. I had a great few days with my boyfriend that I returned home from in the morning and my mom and I had a lovely shopping outing in the evening. But then…then a tragedy happened. As I was sitting on my bedroom floor scrolling through Facebook on my iPod something inside of me made me get up from my laziness to go downstairs and work on homework. I reached my hand back onto my bed to hoist myself up and then CRACK, the acrylic on my left hand middle finger broke clean in two.
“Well shit,” I thought to myself, “what am I going to do now”? It was too late for my salon to be open and it’s closed all day on Sundays (the following day). Then all kinds of thoughts began swarming in my head. Should I hold out until Monday and get it fixed? Should I bite the bullet and go to a different salon tomorrow? And then I began to inspect my natural nail that was visible from my unfortunate uh-oh. My nail was brittle, cracking, and dry as a bone. Honestly, I wasn’t surprised…I haven’t worn my nails natural since November of 2014 but I had no idea that they were that bad.
Upon further inspection of my nails, I decided that they desperately needed some TLC. After I made this realization I took a deep breath and began to gather the supplies needed to take my claws off at home – because after I thought about it, I refused to pay ten to fifteen dollars for something I could do from the comfort of my own bathroom. I grabbed a glass bowl big enough to fit both of my hands in, acetone nail polish remover, and nail clippers then I headed into the loo to take care of business.
I sat my sweet ass on the floor of the throne room and got to work by clipping my acrylics down to the nub. This was painful physically and emotionally. My clippers are obvs not salon quality so I had to apply hella pressure to get my nails declawed. With every snap crackle pop of the acrylic being cut off my heart sank deeper into my butt….But finally, the deed was done. I filled my bowl with the nail polish remover, pulled myself together, and descended downstairs to watch Arrested Development as my nails soaked off.
After my TV time, my nails were loose enough that I could pry them off and just like that, my acrylics were gone. I stared down at my bare hands and looked at them as if I were seeing them for the first time. “Jesus Christ…What did I just do?” I continued to gaze down at my nails with a critical eye and all I could see were stubby fingers and the most unhealthy nails ever and I seriously could have cried. After a “you’re a strong independent woman who don’t need no nails” pep talk, I did what had to be done…Apply enough lotion to fill up a bathtub onto my hands, put some socks on over them, and walk around my house performing sock puppet theater. #Ihatemyself
The next few days without my nails were weird, to say the least. Texting on my phone and typing on the computer without hearing my claws clacking away felt foreign and strange. Running my hands through my hair without feeling my talons grazing my scalp felt uncomfortable. Even scratching an itch with my bare nails felt unfamiliar. I was so lost…and then I got used to it.
I took my acrylics off for a reason, which was to get my natural nails healthy and damnit, that’s what I’m gonna do. It will definitely take some time to grow accustomed to life without my long fake nails, but that’s okay. It’s going to save me money to not have to get my nails filled every month and most importantly it’s going to get my real nails back to normal, which is something I’m taking very seriously. #gosarahgo
So there you have it, this week’s Monday Update: Farewell Fake Nails Edition! Have any of you lovelies had an experience similar to mine after taking off their acrylics or another beauty staple you use? What are some tips that you have for healthy natural nails? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah
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