Happy Labor Day

Happy Labor Day!  I am thankful for those who labored today, so I could take the day off.

My day, and in fact my whole weekend, has been spent in a very restful state.  I have spent time working on household chores, reading the two books for my upcoming book club meetings, and catching up on magazine and blog reading.  Today I did work for a few hours to prepare for the workday tomorrow, but that has been the extent of my exertion.

I sometimes wonder if I have worked to hard to perfect relaxation and "me" time.  I have read and studied so much on the topic of relaxation and stress reduction in the past years, I think I may have become an expert.  Is that possible?  I do think I need to get back on the productivity wagon...

...Which is my reason for coming back here tonight.  I need to get back to the writing.  ANY writing.  I still haven't done that, although I have talked a lot about it.  I'm ready to be a doer instead of a talker.

So I hope you enjoyed your holiday weekend.  Did you do anything fun and exciting?

Just a Hello

I don't have much to offer on the blogging front today. I am really tired, so am laying low for the night.

I did want to post something, though, just to stay in the rhythm and learn the habit of everyday blogging.

Here's a random photo. I took this with my iPhone in the Spring. The flowers were for sale in a grocery store, and their brilliant colors captured my attention right away.

Speaking of my iPhone, I'm blogging to you by way of the Blogger app right now!

Hope you all enjoyed your Thursday!

Happy Independence Day!

photo by Hryck

Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans!  I hope your holiday was full of family and hot dogs on the grill and fireworks.  And I hope you took more than a moment to remember the reason for this holiday!

Our day was fairly quiet.  Our extended family is spread out, so we did not spend the day together.  (Sad face.)  So my immediate family (Mr. Babycakes and the two Not-So-Little-Anymore-Cakes) had a leisurely morning with pancakes and quiet relaxation.  Ahhhh!  We did get moving later in the morning and ventured out for shopping and errands.

Our plans for attending the annual fireworks fell through thanks to intermitten thunderstorms and frankly because it was too darn hot!  It got up to 101F today, and none of us were interested in sitting out in the blazing sun to claim lawn space for a fireworks show.  Even sitting in a hot car to claim a parking space in our usual parking lot on a hill would have been unpleasant.  So we all voted to stay in tonight and each do our own thing.

I took advantage of our downtime to relax with a refreshing face mask.  I discovered these masks by Que Bella at Target (less than $3!) a couple of weeks ago, and fell in love with them.  This "refreshing pomegranate" peel-off mask is my favorite, but I have two others waiting in the wings:  a self-heating clay mask and a Dead Sea mud mask.  I can't wait to give them a try.  I'll a post a review of them here soon.

Well, as much as I have enjoyed this mid-week day off, it's back to work tomorrow, so I must get ready for that.  I hope you all have a great rest of the week.

A Review: ImPRESS Press-On Manicure

I am forever working on my nails: trying to grow them, trying to make them healty, trying to make them look pretty. I've tried everything from the yucky tasting liquid that is brushed on the nails to keep from biting them, to years of on-again-off-again acrylic "false" nails.

I have reached a point in my life when I've outgrown the nail biting, and can now enjoy the beautiful nail polish colors that are available.

I was excited to receive the ImPRESS Press-On Manicure in my Mom VoxBox from Influenster. This was something new I had not tried -- a flawless, no-dry-time manicure. Just what us moms and busy women need. Who can find the time for their home manicure to dry appropriately, right?

I sat down on a Saturday afternoon for my weekly home manicure, and decided to give the ImPRESS Press-On Manicure a try.

Right away I discovered that the product was very similar to the press-on nail products that have been around for ages, and not the nail polish strips that are all the rage now (and what I was hoping for). My hopes dimmed right away, because my experience with the press-on nail kits in the past has been less than stellar. The ImPRESS Press-On Manicure is supposed to last up to a week.

I moved forward with the manicure, as I wanted to give the product the benefit of the doubt and really give it a good testing.

Applying the nails was fairly simple. After laying out the size needed for each finger, I moved along quickly by peeling the adhesive off the back and pressing the nail onto my own nails. The entire process took about 10 minutes, including choosing the size of each nail.

One of the nails tore a bit while I was removing the adhesive. That was probably because of my heavy hand, but a good indication that the nails may not stand up to heavy duty use.

I also had a hard time matching up the sizing of the nails to my own fingers. I have small nail beds, and even the smallest sizes seemed to overlap my natural nail. Some of my natural nails were also a little bit longer than the ImPRESS nails, which gave me heart palpitations. I really didn't want to trim or file my own nails after I'd worked to hard to grow them out! But in the interest of the product testing, I did.

The color of the nails was pretty -- like a raspberry pink shade -- but was not really my color. There are 36 colors and styles to choose from, though, so I don't think I would have any trouble finding one that I would like.

In the end, I removed the nails after a little over 24 hours, but not because of the product. I had a meeting at work on Monday, and I didn't want to have to worry about whether or not a nail would fall off. To be honest, though, now I don't think that would have been a problem. The nails were a little difficult to remove. The adhesive backing seemed very strong, so I feel like the nails would have lasted up to a week as promised.

Overall I was fairly happy with the ImPRESS Press-On Manicure. I think I will go out and purchase it to give it a better try. I would recommend the product to my friends for a quick and flawless manicure.

Have you tried the ImPRESS Press-On Manicure? What did you think?



Hey, I did receive this product complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes. But my opinions are my own.

I Received My Mom VoxBox Today!

I received my Mom VoxBox today from Influenster!


I was selected a couple of months ago to receive the Mom VoxBox based on a profile I completed at Influenster.com.  Based on your profile, and how active you are in social media, you can be selected to receive products to test, evaluate and recommend.  


Here are the products I received in my VoxBox:

• Ivory Bar Soap

• DenTek Comfort Clean & Fun Flossers

• Stash Tea Superfruits Tea Sampler and Nektar Sweetener

• Quaker Soft Baked Cookie

• ImPRESS Press-On Manicure by Broadway Nails

I'll be testing these products over the next couple of weeks and will post my reviews, so stay tuned.  


Have you received any VoxBoxes from Influenster?  What was your favorite sample?

Weekly Favorites

I read a lot of blogs, ya'll.  I mean, a lot.  And the thing is, they are all quality blogs.  They all give me something that makes me laugh, makes me learn, or makes me mad (Yes, I like those too.  I'm open-minded!).

So I thought I would start something new here at The Journal Keeper.  I'll share a little bit about what I've read over the past week.  I know a lot of my blog friends are doing it, and I like that it's a great way to share blogs.

Anywho, I'm choosing Monday to be my "blog sharing day" because, well, I don't know why, really.  Just go with it, ok?  I haven't yet come up with a cool name for my Monday Blog Sharing posts, so if you have any suggestions, please put them down there in the comments!

The Blog Doctor: The Non-Niche Blog @ yes and yes

I have struggled for so long with not really having a niche that I felt comfortable claiming.  But I do love the idea of sharing my thoughts and my day to day journey.  I was so happy to come across this blog post by yes and yes.  She nailed it for me, and now I just have to start adhering to some of the points she mentioned.  Be patient, I'm working on it.

How to Manicure at Home @ Petit Elefant (by way of Just A Titch)

Oh. My. Gosh.  I loved this post for so many reasons.  First, I came across it at Just A Titch, which is one of my favorite blogs to read.  Second, I love lists, and this post lists out the step-by-step process for giving yourself an at-home manicure.  Win!  Third, I am a bad nail-biter, and have been relying on getting the "gel nails" now for a while.  But I'll be honest -- I'm not comfortable with the artificial nails for many reasons, and this gives me a great way to meticulously take care of my nails.  Now, if I could just get myself to sit still long enough to give myself a home manicure, life would be great.  But that's another issue.

Why Copying Inspires Creativity @ Write To Done

When I was a pre-teen, I was reading a book about teen life.  I don't remember the name of it or who wrote it.  But I do remember that the story drew me in and it was how I wanted my teen life to really be.  And for some reason that escapes my memory, I started to copy the story onto sheets of notebook paper, except I changed it a little bit to include the people in my life.  That was my first real experience of writing.  Ridiculous, I know, but I learned something during that first "copying" experience.  We all copy others in one form or another, except we learn a little something as we go.  I think that moment of copying was what spawned my desire and my need to create and to write.  This blog post brought back that memory, and made me realize that, although I am hard on myself about how far I've come in my writing, I'm still quite a ways from where I was in those pre-teen years.

How Irish Dancing Got Started @ Videos2View (by way of an email from my Mom)

Ok, this is just silly, but it made me laugh when I really needed it.  (Thanks, Mom!)  I didn't get it at first, but I finally realized what made it so funny.  If you get it at the beginning, don't tell me.  I don't want to feel like a doofus.

Writing to Write @ Kristie Was Here

This was another "Oh. My. Gosh" post that came at just the right time.  I've been suffering from the "I can't write anything because I'm stupid and should have never tried to be a writer in the first place" plague for a while now.  Say, almost TWO YEARS.  I quit a really good job in 2008 to "finish writing my novel and get it published and make millions of dollars."  You don't have to tell me how stupid I was.  I already know.  Anyway,  this post made me realize that since that very moment when I was trying to be a full-time writer, I have been trying to write for other people.  I have been trying to write what I thought other people wanted to read.  I lost my voice.  I lost my drive.  I had forgotten the reason that I started writing in the first place:  because it was what I was meant to do.  And so because of that I have been reborn, in a sense, and I'm trying to find my own voice again.  This blog is helping.  So, thanks for that, Kristie.  :)

Alright, that's enough for me.  What other goodies do you all have to share with me?  C'mon, I'm always looking for something good to read!  Please share in the comments below!

Weekly Review

Hi there!  Happy Sunday!  I hope you've had a great week.

My week was somewhat eventful, though mostly filled by undesirable things.  I'm not complaining, though.  Everything worked out in the end.

The first part of the week we were reminded that things happen for a reason, and when you work hard to help yourself, God finds ways to give you a little boost.  Things didn't turn out the way we had hoped, but they turned out much better than they could have.  For that, we are thankful!

On Wednesday I stayed home from work with some sort of stomach bug.  I hate staying home from work. I always feel so guilty.  But I also think it's rude to go to work when you are sick and risk spreading germs to your workmates.  By Thursday I was mostly feeling better and went back to work, and by Friday I was good as new again.

Thursday was the First Day of School for the girls!  They were both sorry to see their Summer come to an end, but excited to get back to the classroom and to be with their friends again.  We have one on her last year in elementary school, and one on her last year in middle school.  Big year for them both!

Friday was spent waiting and preparing for Hurricane Irene's arrival, and Saturday was spent watching her.  We are in Central North Carolina, so fortunately for us we only had to endure her outer bands.  We did have a little bit of rain and quite a bit of wind.  Our only damage was to a beautiful tree in the circle of our cul-de-sac.

I hope you've had a good week.  Did you do anything exciting?