New Obsession: Water Marbling

So after this weekend, I decided to conquer a new frontier in my nail polish obsession.

I had heard of water marbling before, but had no idea how to do it- I just knew I wanted to!

My first attempt (I apologize for the paleness):

I used the following nail polishes: 

17 Tropical Island, CND Raspberry Parfait, OPI Jade is the New Black, and Seche Vite Top Coat. 

I am really pleased with my first attempt, but now I think I like it so much I might run out of all my nail polish! This uses SO much nail polish, so I wouldn't use colors/brands that you are running low on or your favorite colors. 

If you're wondering how I did it, my best advice would be to check out this video, and this step by step picture:

Water marbling is so fun and lets you be really creative! I would recommend it if you have a long time, and lots of patience! 

-cb

P.S. Props to Jessie for teaching me! Check out her nail creations:

Long Time, No See

Hello there!

It's been far too long! As much as I would like to create one big fabulous post to cover the past three months, I won't bore you.

Just some things that have happened since November:

-I am a bonafied Belieber.

Not only is he beautiful, he is truly talented. The $30 I've spent on Never Say Never was worth it.

And, his music is perfect for lipsyncing alone on long drives but I've even found a version that non-beliebers can appreciate. 

-I went to NYC for NYE and then to Israel for an Alternative Winter Break. Both were awesome. For those of you who are curious, Times Square NYE is cool, but not fun. Do it once. Bucket List item for sure. 

-I have started the job search hardcore. At first I was afraid (I was petrified) of putting myself out there, but once I got the ball rolling, I am feeling good. I'm hoping that my hard work pays off and the connections I've made through the years will be there to help me out. 

-I went to my last home KU game as a student! Sad but awesome. I know I'll be back but it just made graduating that much more real. 

-School and Kansan life is good. Unfortunately I know that as soon as something miraculous happens on the job front, my motivation for school is gone. Loving Kansan life right now! All of our teams are performing so well and I am impressed more and more everyday by our new staff members!

I'll (hopefully) keep up with the blog, spilling my random thoughts and internet finds for all to see. 

-cb

I'm Still An Animal...

For those of you who know me well...you'll know that I have a slight obsession with finding new music. On Sunday Jen and I went to see Sara Bareilles at Liberty Hall and had an amazing time. Through a crazy turn of events we were able to meet her! She was so down to earth and chill. (There's a point to all of this I promise).

Jen and I with Sara!

While we were with Sara, we met her band, including her guitarist. Little did I know, that this same guitarist would be blowing up the blogosphere the next day.

Javier Dunn's (In the AC/DC shirt) cover of Miike Snow's "Animal" was on the homepage of every single music blog I follow. You can listen to it here.  It's pretty amazing.

Here is a vid of Sara singing her hit "King of Anything."

On some other notes, I have recently discovered breadpeople. Hilarious. and it's exactly how it sounds. 

Since burlesque,  I haven't gotten any new nail polish so I felt obliged to grab some of the new Essie Winter 2010 collection. I opted for Smokin' Hot and Luxedo. Perfection. 

Until next time...

cb

My Moon My Man...

This week I was set on attempting a nail challenge. I saw this photo in Glamour magazine and knew I had to try it.

I've seen this "moon manicure" or "reverse french manicure" before, especially on one of my favorite sites, All Lacquered Up. 

Here's a how to on how to do it, which I vaguely followed. My result?

It's just ok for now, but I want to keep trying at it until it looks perfecto. I used Essie Mademoiselle for the base and OPI Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow for the half moon.

On the new music front...

I'm trying out soundcloud for the first time to share with you a song I cannot stop listening to.

From Rihanna's new album, Loud, "Cheers (Drink to That)" is a stand out to me. I personally love the Avril Lavigne "I'm With You" sample, and it is a song that relaxes me, but gets me pumped up too!

Cheers (Drink to That)-Rihanna by cbatt

enjoy!

Introducing: Trends to Try

I'm gonna start up a new little section here, with trends I am dying to try. My first adventure will be Over the Knee Boots.

This style has been popping up all over campus lately and every time I see a good pair I feel myself getting jealous! Maybe this will have to be my treat soon. The hard part is finding a good pair for less than $400!

On my new music kick...

Check out this amazing mash up of Taylor Swift's "Mean" and Wiz Khalifa's "This Plane"

Listen here.

Oh, hi there

Well it has been FAR too long. I often contemplated finishing out my study abroad posts but then I realized, who would read it... I'm already back!

I also thought long and hard (well maybe not that long) about what to turn this into now that it no longer needs to serve as a diary. So I thought about what I like, what I care about it, and what I'm thinking- and that's what I'll blog about!

1) Halloween
Pretty deec this year, went as Rachel Berry from Glee and then as double rainbow on Saturday. It was fun to not really care if people recognized my costume and just have fun!

Rachel Berry on the show:


Me as Rachel Berry!


2) New tunes

"Love The Way You Lie Pt. 2" Rihanna ft. Eminem.

The follow up track to Eminem's hit song featuring Rihanna, the roles are now reversed, with Rihanna on lead and Eminem providing those rap lyrics we know and love


Although Disney's upcoming movie Tron doesn't reach out to me personally, I am excited for one thing- the music. The entire score to the movie will be written by Daft Punk and they will even have a cameo in the flick.

Check out one of the songs featured in the trailer here.

3) Mid-Term Elections
To be honest, I am just glad those awful commercials are over. But I did enjoy the more ludicrous commercials, but Kansas/Missouri didn't have anything like this

Welp, as I am in the library right now supposedly filling my brain with information about star clusters, black holes, and pulsars (ie; astronomy is awful) I guess I should get back to that!

that's all for now! And for those of you who read this solely during my study abroad time...keep reading!
cb

brrrrr

Yesterday at work I went from having no plans at all to being busy all night! After dinner, a group of KU girls and I went to Abbey Road! It really is funny when you get there because there are cars and traffic. Because of this, groups of four usually are standing at the famous cross walk waiting to walk across and take their picture and it is very stressful. Eventually the traffic lulled enough for us to get our picture taken! We then walked by Abbey Road Studios where the walls outside are covered with writing. I brought a marker for just this reason.

Us on Abbey Road!


With the Street Sign:



It was really fun to see what other people had written and see how many people do really love The Beatles!

Afterwards we had booked our evening at the Absolut Ice Bar!It was surprisingly difficult to find even though it was off of Regent street which is huge. As our time inside began, we each got a huge parka and gloves to wear inside. It really was freezing, at -5 Celsius or 27 Fahrenheit I was glad I wore boots and long sleeves. We claimed our drinks which were in glass cups, and my drink glowed in black light! All of the drinks were really strong as they were made with Absolut Vodka but they were yummy! We spent our remaining 30 minutes or so walking around and taking pictures and shivering in general. It was really funny and cool and I knew I would regret not going while I was in London!

So Cold!



Today during lunch I went on a mini-adventure to go vintage shopping back in Soho. It was a bit of a trek but I was determined. One shop was all really retro stuff but one thing really struck me. In the US I love going to vintage stores to find cool t-shirts and I was looking forward to getting some from the UK. Little did I know, that what is considered a 'cool' vintage shirt are things like Hard Rock Cafe Las Vegas, Busch Gardens Florida, Everything's Bigger in Texas, YMCA, etc. All of the shirts were American! I gave up on finding some type of cool shirt from the UK and tried the next place. This place was more like designer clothing and shoes second-hand and I ended up buying a pair of jeans for £2! I hurried back to work and finished up the day.

We had big plans tonight! Molly, Kelsie and I were set to go to The Globe to see Henry IV Pt.1. I didn't know that much about but I assumed what could be better than watching a Shakespeare play where they were meant to be acted. Molly and I met for dinner before and grabbed some yummy tapas near the river, then went inside. We splurged for the upper gallery, as seats are opposite at the Globe- cheap bad seats at the bottom, the higher up the more expensive. The show was so amazing! I feel like now that I've seen Shakespeare performed at The Globe, nowhere else can be as good. Our seats were perfect and the show was better than I could have ever imagined it. Busy week but so glad we're fitting everything in!

View from our Seats!


View of everyone who stood for 3+ hours!


More exciting London things to come this week...

cb