Mani Monday Jade w/ Gold Tips

I love the fall nail polish trends right now, but my favorite of the season is funky french tips. Funky french tips are french tip nails with anything other the the normal white tips. I love seeing neon, metallic, glitter and bright tips!

Today I'm wearing Avon- Jade w/ Orly- Glitz & Glamour tips.

I borrowed Avon- Jade from my lovely friend because the color was gorgeous. I absolutely LOVE the color but the formula was fairly hard to work with. The polish was very thin and streaky and it took forever to dry. I had to do 4 coats to get a nice opaque look and it took a VERY long time since each coat took at least 10 mins to dry. I usually like thin formulas because the coats dry quickly but for this one that was not the case. So I think I will be on the hunt for this color in a different brand because I'm in love with the beautiful Minty Jade color. (If you know of a good dupe PLEASE let me know!)

For my tips I used my all time favorite Gold Orly- Glitz & Glamour. I have been in love with this color from the first time I ever saw it. The formula on this dense glitter is AMAZING, it will cover your entire nail in 2-3 coats! I did 2 coats on my tips and I love the way it turned out.

I hope you enjoyed today's Mani Monday! Please don't forget to follow my blog and I'd love to hear what you think!

Wanna See more? Check out Mani Monday over at Glitter and Gloss's Mani Monday Link up.

Sunday Best Boho Chic

For today's Sunday Best I went with a chic Boho look. I'm so in love with Maxi Dresses and this is one of my favorites in my closet. I paired this very versatile dress with some boho accessories and came up with this fun look. I also curled my hair! I have extremely straight hair and it takes over an hour to make it curly so that is today's special treat.

Dress: Gap Original price: $50 I only paid $20 during Gap's Friends & Family Sale!
Undershirt: DownEast Basics $11

Necklace: Paparazzi Accessorises $5
Bracelets: Claire's Unknown price
Belt: Gap Another score from Gap's Friends & Family sale Original Price $20 I paid $6

Shoes: Old Navy Original Price $17 I paid $5 Summer Clearance item

Earrings: Beauty By Crystal  Sorry guys these lovelies are all sold out and you can't have mine. But I do have other beautiful earrings in the store.

Ring: Coming soon to Beauty By Crystal

I hope you enjoyed today's Sunday Best. Want to see more or share your look? Check out the link up at
Modern Modest Beauty.

Baked Cauliflower... Yummy Recipe!!

As you know having good health is a major part of feeling beautiful. When you take good care of your body it makes you look and feel fabulous. Food is your body's fuel and when you use "high end" fuel your body will run better. So today I'm here to share my absolute favorite healthy side dish. My kids like this one so much they fight over it! It's crazy simple to make and doesn't taste "healthy".

So here it is!

Baked Cauliflower

Ingredients:

1 Cauliflower Head

Olive Oil

Garlic Salt

Onion Powder

Ground Black Pepper

Oregano

Preheat oven to 425. Line baking sheet with aluminum foil (for easy clean up) and spray with nonstick spray.  Chop cauliflower to desired size and arrange on baking sheet. Drizzle olive oil over cauliflower. Sprinkle spices on cauliflower as desired (Or as mom always says when she gives me a recipe "season to taste".).

Bake 30-40 mins or until browned and slightly crispy. Flip cauliflower half way through.

Optional: Mix whole garlic cloves in with the cauliflower. Replace the garlic salt with sea salt or seasoning salt.

Let cool... Then watch your family go crazy over VEGGIES!

MMM Steamy Veggies!

I hope you enjoyed today's "Feel Beautiful" recipe.  Try it and let me know if you loved it!











(I had to share this picture because it made me laugh. I took it while the food was still hot and it steamed up my camera lens.)

Mani Monday + Tutorial

I am super excited about today's mani! I saw a look similar to this on Pinterest and decided to recreate it and I love the way it turned out! I have also included a short tutorial on how to recreate this look so you can try it too! 

Today I am wearing Wet n' Wild- Black Creme with gradient tips in L.A. Girl Glitter Addict- Provocative. I'm absolutely in love with this color combination. Even my husband commented "That is REALLY Cool!" when he saw my nails. Don't you just love it when they notice! 

Wanna try this look yourself?

Doing glitter gradient tips is actually very simply an requires almost no skill. First you paint your entire nail in the base color. In this case I used 2 coats of Black Creme by Wet n' Wild.

Then start at the middle of your nail and paint a thin layer of glitter polish. 

Once that layer of polish is dry start at the middle of the glitter polish and paint another layer.

 After that layer is dry paint the final layer just on the tips of each nail. This will give the glitter a beautiful gradient effect and the tips will be dense with glitter.

Top it off with a nice quick dry top coat I used Sally Hansen Insta Dri and you are good to go!

I hope you enjoyed today's mani Monday! Don't forget to follow my blog and leave me a comment if you loved this post!

Sunday Best

As a stay at home mom I don't get many chances to dress up during the week. I am always busy doing something like running my kids to school, playing at the park, story time at the library, play dates, cooking meals, cleaning house, soccer practice, grocery shopping, doing laundry, going to the post office, or exercising to name a few. I always try to look my best but I usually end up in a T-shirt, jeans and flip flops (on really busy days I've even been caught in yoga pants and a baggy T-shirt).

That makes Sunday my special day to dress up. I love putting on my "Sunday best" and heading to church. Since I love my "Sunday Best" outfits so much I decided I would share them here with you weekly. I will let you know everything I'm wearing and where I got it.

Now on to today's Sunday Best!

I wore a gray Grecian styled summer dress (from Ross). I love this light weight dress it's perfect for these hot summer days. I also wore polyester knee length tights (from eBay seller Lenovo Dress in China) and a black undershirt (from DownEast Basics). I added the undershirt and leggings for a fun layering effect.

I paired this outfit with my absolute favorite pair of shoes! I love these ultra high black and white stripped wedges. I purchased these from an amazing fellow eBay seller air1112 at Got 2 get it Shoes.

I accessorized with these fabulous Twiggy inspired earrings from my dear friend at Whippy Cake.

The necklace and bracelet I wore are from a  Paparazzi Party (I LOVE Paparazzi Accessories everything is so cute and nothing is ever over $5!)

And you can't forget about my crazy huge peacock cocktail ring that I got from Kizzy Beautifuldiva-pina at Copious.com

Well I hope you enjoyed today's "Sunday Best" post and I am looking forward to doing more! If you want to see more "Sunday Best" posts please let me know! If you hate them and never want me to do one again let me know! Or if you have any questions or suggestions let me know... I love to hear your feedback so please feel free to contact me. Please don't forget to follow my blog!

♥ Crystal

Look, Feel, and Be Beautiful.

To look, feel, and be beautiful is what mostly every women strives to achieve. I hope in my small way I can help you achieve it. Mostly all the posts on my blog will deal with either looking beautiful, feeling beautiful or being beautiful.  Below you will find a beak down of each category, I will also have a page for each category where you can find all the posts related to that topic.


Look Beautiful:
When you look good you feel good. I love anything fashion/ beauty related. So in this section we will talk all about make-up, mani's, hair, skin care, jewelry, accessories, fashion and anything that will help you look your best.


Feel Beautiful:
Feeling beautiful on the inside means taking good care of your body and your mental health. Over the past couple of years I have turned my life around and have started living a much healthier lifestyle (and lost 20 lbs in the process). So I will be sharing with you healthy recipes, fitness tips and encouragement, stress relief tips, and pretty much anything that deals with keeping your body and mind clean and healthy. Nothing makes you feel more beautiful then when your body is strong and healthy.


Be Beautiful:

I believe that being beautiful isn't just about looking good but being good too. You can be the best looking person in the world and still be one of the ugliest. Being beautiful means caring for yourself and others around you. Here I will discuss topics like having a positive self image, being a good mother, loving the people around you, service and anything that has to do with the best form of beauty... Inner Beauty.

Mani Moday!

One of my favorite blogs Glitter and Gloss hosts a link up every Monday where you can check out her mani and see all the other link ups of fabulous manis. Anyone who knows me at all, knows I am obsessed with doing my nails! I do my nails at least 2-3 times a week. Doing my nails after my kids go to bed is like my meditation  time. It relaxes me and provides me with the "Me Time" I so desperately need. So from now on I will be sharing all my fun, fancy, crazy, sophisticated, glitter, sweet, or wild manis every Monday. You can also see my past manis Here on My Pinterest Page, I will continue to post my nails on Pinterest too.

Now for today's Mani:

I had "sophisticated" nails for about 2 weeks so I went a little wild with this one. Plus summer is almost over so I thought I would wear a neon as a last hurrah for summer!

I am wearing Funky Fingers- Ectoplasmic. Ectoplasmic if a funky lime green neon. In the bottle it appears to have a fine shimmer but on the nail the shimmer is only visible in direct sunlight. I felt like the plain green was a bit boring so I added the pink checkered heart to give it a bit of a "punk" look. I love the end result even though its a bit youthful for my age. Now I want to dress like a 16 year old with my skinny jeans and  converse.

Thanks for looking and I hope your having a fabulous Labor Day!