New nail obsession

I am unabashedly one of those people who feel naked without nail varnish on. I started getting acrylic nails in high school and haven’t really looked back! I’ve gone from French tips to gel tips, from painting my nails nightly to match my outfit the next day (oh to have time to do that again) to painted super short acrylic. Then I found Shellac. This was the best thing to happen to me in the whole nail world. I could get my nails shaped into a short squared off nail (could never get quite as short as I wanted with the acrylic) have them painted and ready to leave the salon right after I was finished, a mega bonus for pedicures in London when strolling out of the nail salon and on to the bus and home in flippy floppys makes for VERY dirty totally ruined pedicured feet. Initially the colours to choose from were in short supply and I found myself flipping between the almost Lincoln Park After Dark purple (my very fav colour) and a coralish pink. Then Shellac took off – everyone was doing shellac polish, the colours were boundless and still as amazing as when I first got it done.

But alas, my time became not my own anymore and going to the salon for a few hours to get my nails did was not really an option. So I went back to my insane nail polish (varnish?) collection and used the old faithful Seche Vite top coat to create the appearance of a manicured nail.

Then my world was transformed.

CND – the original  shellac creators have created something else super fabulous. Maybe even more fabulous as you can do it yourself without fancy lights or a ton of equipment, or even a base coat.

The first revolution to nail polish in YEARS –  CND Vinylux.

It dries in no time, there is a fairly vast range of colours to choose from for it being the new kid on the block, it says it lasts a week…while I haven’t made it to a week with no chips I have gone about 5 days and then the last two have been manageable (as in a few chips and ‘wear’ around the nail tip but no big hunks of polish coming off).

I’ve also tried using the top coat over ‘normal’ polish and while that doesn’t last quite as long its still better than regular top coat. And the drying time, I mean you really cannot complain about that at all.

In short, this stuff is awesome. I haven't seen in it any UK retailers yet so as of now I've been ordering from Amazon (always look at the colours on their website here first…much more true to what you get than Amazon shows) and I see myself buying ALL THE COLOURS.

a xxx

 

 

 

On floods and things

So we found out last night we’re officially on ‘flood alert’. What this means in itself is unclear but it got us talking about our plans should the worst happen.

When we were looking at moving all the irreplaceable stuff like photos, memory books etc. upstairs I wanted to start moving everything…the hubs said (and I quote) ‘not to worry about the rest of the junk’ – I immediately got really offended…does he seriously think the rest of our carefully curated dining set, crystal stuff we got for wedding presents, heirlooms from grand, and great grandparents, and you know all our books and things are all JUNK. GAH! That’s not junk, to me that’s the story of us, it documents our life together, and our life before ‘us’ was a thing. I’d be devastated to lose the stuff.  

This obviously got us talking about what is important and why…I’ve always thought I was fairly separated from my material things, you know, sure I love a good pair of shoes, or something sparkly but I’m not attached to these things…am I?

He has a really clear, really defined line between the ‘junk’ and the rest. Turns out I do not. I was thinking how terrible it would be to find all the gorgeous china we were gifted for our wedding and would never be able to afford to replace was floating around or smashed to bits, or how sad it would be for me to have nothing to pass down to my tiny human and his tiny humans from their great great grandparents. That these things do matter and are important.

And I sat there stewing and I looked for the reasons why we saw this so differently (the why is VERY important to me) and why I bothered having nice things if they were regarded as ‘junk’ by the person who should be enjoying them with me.

Then it clicked. They are just things. You don’t enjoy the things, you enjoy the experiences while you use the things maybe. Things can be replaced. Maybe we won’t be able to have the exact china we got as gifts for our wedding, but that’s ok, we’ve had awesome dinner parties and great get-togethers using them and the memories from those times are what is important. And those things didn’t happen, nor were they great because of the dishes. They were great because of the family and friends and people that we shared them with. And maybe it would be sad for the tiny human to not inherit his great great grandpas decanter but actually what is important are the stories and pictures and memories passed down to him.

So you know, if we do have flood waters lapping at our door…if the sewage does start to seep (EW!) we’ll have all the irreplaceable pictures stored safely. But the most important thing is that the three of us will be safe and sound and we’ll be able to share stories and spend time with people who help us make the memories and have the experiences that do truly matter.

a xxx

How to begin...

I guess even by writing that I’m assuming someone is going to find this thing and read it. I find starting things to be almost as hard as finishing them. You know, first impressions and all. But then I think, I’m doing this for no one else,  just so I have some tiny corner to call my own, so does it matter?

Lots of change and the love of writing have finally spurred me to start doing something for me. And that is really all this is…something for me. I see albert & station as the place where I can write stuff when I feel inspired, keep track of pictures and basically brain dump…and I need this.

So this weirdly sunny Friday afternoon in February marks the start of me taking my space and filling it with the things I love, that inspire me and make me happy.

 a xxx