This ‘n That

Clockwise from top left:

1) Last Sunday I decided to try out some of those nail stickers that have become popular. I’d bought them at HEB several weeks ago out of curiosity but hadn’t gotten around to actually applying them because I was waiting for my nails to all get to a decent length. (Supposedly pregnancy is supposed to strengthen nails, but I think it’s made mine more brittle!) They weren’t too hard to apply, but it did take longer than I expected since there’s not really any room for error once you start to stick it on your nail. I could’ve gotten 10 nails done a lot faster just painting them like normal — but then of course I would’ve had to sit around waiting for them to dry. So that’s the big advantage of the stickers! No drying time!

I get pedicures all the time, but I don’t paint my fingernails very often because they chip so quickly. (I’ve been wanting to try one of those gel manicures too, since they’re supposed to last longer.) I was interested to see how long the stickers would last, and I’m happy to report that they are doing pretty well 5 days later. I didn’t have a single chip until last night, and at that point it was only on my thumb. We’ll see how they do through the weekend. I consider 5-7 days pretty darn good, considering that I am not gentle with my hands at all.

2) My OB moved to a new office at the beginning of the month, so when I went for my 35-week appointment on Wednesday I was greeted with a new layout, new furniture, and new accessories in the waiting room like this very colorful pillow. It was made out of a slick taffeta-like fabric so it wasn’t exactly a comfortable throw pillow, but I liked the design of it and couldn’t help taking a closer look to inspect how it was constructed. I concluded that it would actually be pretty easy to make a pillow like this on my own, and just use more desirable materials. And yes, this is how my brain works these days — I see something, and inevitably start to wonder how I could make one myself!

3) It has rained basically non-stop all week. We got 5 or 6 inches here at our house, but other areas to the southwest of us and on the northwest side of Houston got 10, 12, even 15 inches of rain over the last several days. I have not complained one bit and don’t plan to start! After last summer’s horrible drought, I’m kind of enjoying the deluge. And more importantly, it’s keeping the temperatures down — we had several days in a row where the high barely broke 80 degrees! Ahhhh. Heavenly.

(I am, however, reserving the right to complain about the inevitable clouds of mosquitos that will follow all this rain.)

4) I was at Joann a few days ago — because yes, I go there more often than pretty much any other store these days — and was just wandering around when I came across several cute baby items in the cross stitch section. I was very tempted to buy this cute baby announcement to make and hang in the nursery but in the end I managed to resist. When it comes to cross stitch, I’ve learned that my eyes are most definitely larger than my stomach. It takes me forever to finish anything.