Hi everyone!

So it really is the last day of 2014, which is pretty cool but also pretty crazy. I know that nearly everybody says this, but honestly, if you had told me last year that I would be here right now, I, well, I probably wouldn't have laughed in your face, but I would have at least given you a nervous laugh and found some excuse to leave the conversation immediately.

I loved 2014. I really did. Some bits got a little sucky and I had a rough patch over the middle, but I still loved it. I feel I have accomplished a lot over this year, more so than usual. Mentally, I progressed from being 'in recovery' from my eating disorder to being 'in remission' - which is an amazing accomplishment and I also have come a lot more to terms with my medication and have also developed a much better self help plan for when I do start spiralling downwards (read more about that here and here). In terms of my nails, I feel I have improved quite a bit from the first nail art I did this year to these and I've been particularly proud of some of my more recent ones, like my Tony Stark/Iron Man nails. My photography is still an on going struggle, but hey, nobody's perfect...

I'm proud of how much I've been learning about coding and stuff and I'm loving being able to understand more about how my blog is set up and customise more of it. I'm also really loving my instagram and having more motivation for blogging and stuff. I got qualified as a nail tech and also as a make-up artist and I'm training for my Cert III in childcare and I adore my job in out of school hours childcare.

Anyway, so these nails I am pretty happy with. Considering I was working on a limited time frame and I was also really tired from working all day, I thought these were a pretty good compromise. The fact that I was using such an amazing multichrome as a base also helps make these look 100x better.

What I Liked About December

Hi there everyone!

Believe it or not, but we have come to the end of 2014... Crazy right? I know its not the last day today, but I'm not sure when I'm going to get my New Year's nails up (or even do them) nor do I know what my schedule is going to be like tomorrow (I've been looking after a couple of kids for this week and their mother's work schedule is very prone to changing so I have no idea how long I'll be there), so I'm getting this post up a day early.

Christmas
I love Christmas, I really do. I love the present buying and the present giving. I love being on holiday, I love spending time with my family, I love the food, I love the palpable excitement in the air, I love the heat, the swimming and the unique Christmas time that we have here in Australia. I just really love it. Although I thought this year was going to be a very trying time, due to having basically my whole family here, it actually went down really well and I really enjoyed it.

Face of Australia Liquid Liner
This isn't by any means a new purchase, but something I've rediscovered. I stopped using liquid liner for a while and instead I was using gel liner, but I recently discovered this liquid liner within my collection and I'd forgotten how good it actually is.

1989
I had been coveting Taylor's latest album for months and finally got it as an early Christmas present! While I've only listened to it a couple of times, I really like it so far. I'm a huge fan of latest style of songs and really hope she keeps making more music like this.

3 Steps To Edit Better Photos

Hi everyone,

So I realised the other day that through my blogging I have gained quite a bit knowledge about photoshop and photography (although my photography is nowhere near as good as I want it...). And actually, a lot of my photography knowledge is based on stuff that's relevant to my particular nails and set-up. But, editing photos is something I am getting fairly good at (I think). Or at least, I have a little routine that I apply to every single photo I edit so I thought I would share my tips with you.

Before (unedited and nothing)

Crop
The first thing I do to any photo is to crop it. No matter how good your photography skills are, your photos will always look better after they have been cropped. Generally, I like to take my photos a little extra further away and then crop them. That way I have more luck in getting every nail in focus.
After cropping, my photo now looks like this:

Gold Glitter Gradient and Christmas Tree Nail Art

Hi lovelies,

Today I'm back to red for my Christmas nail art, as well as Christmas trees. I'm feeling a little repetitive this year...

I was pretty happy with how these turned out, although I think I need to work on my glitter gradients a bit. I used just regular craft glitter for this and I have to admit I was a little stumped on how to put it in a gradient. But after a little trial and error, I discovered the best way was just to apply the red polish as normal and when it had dried to a tacky stage, just press the glitter on with my fingers. Of course, this method did mean placement and gradient was left a lot to chance and luck!

How To Survive The Family Christmas

Hi there everyone!

So, I'm sorry that this post is later than I would have liked, but I went away last weekend and my grandparents arrived from New Zealand and then last week was pretty jam-packed due to it being the last week of school and work and my sister was graduating (from primary school) and then a bunch of relatives arrived on Saturday (also from New Zealand) and it's been a little full on. And so while I'm disappointed about me falling behind a little on my schedule I think it's been justified (unlike some of my absences).

Anyway, all this talk leads me onto the subject of this post - tips to survive the mad rush of the holidays and relatives and family stuff.

While it can be great to have family around, especially over the Christmas and holiday period and especially if you don't get to see them very often but it can certainly become very stressful, very quickly. To be frank, I am really quite glad I only have to go through this every couple of years or so due to the fact that we live in a different country to the rest of the family. But here are my suggestions to help ensure the smoothest, bestest, least-stressful family occasion you can. I think most of them are pretty common sense, but I think it's good to be reminded of them every once in a while!

Avoid Controversial Topics
As boring as it may be to stick to boring, safe topics, please remember that they are safe for a reason. Talk about uni, talk about school, talk about work, talk about the weather, stick to the safe topics. Don't talk about things like whether banning women from wearing burqas in public in Australia is a good idea or not. Equally, if you have elderly or rather conservative relatives, maybe staying away from topics like tattoos and body piercings would also be a good idea. You know, just from personal experience.

Penguins and Snowflake Nail Art AKA Traditional Winter Nail Design

Hi lovelies,

After my last Christmas nail design, I am quite happy to be able to tell you that I like how these pictures turned out. It's actually quite frustrating to me how my photography and photo taking skills seem to be fluctuating so much recently... Never mind, that is a problem for another day. Although actually, today's nail's were also a truly frustrating and irritating endeavour and to be honest, if the photos had come out as bad as the holly ones, I wouldn't have bothered editing and posting them. I was so over them.

Although - how cute are these guys??

First of all, I thought my blue background was going to be too dark, so I did a test run with two different blues on paper first. All was good and I did one hand in that colour. Then I started on the penguins. Now, normally when I do my nails I do all of them at once, through different stages, rather than completing one whole nail before moving on to the next one. However, if I'm not sure how well my design is going to transfer from my head on to my nail, I'll do one whole nail first to seen how it goes. But I was totally confident in my ability to paint penguins.

So I did their little white bodies and then the little black insides and the white eyes and then I was like, hold on a minute. Something looks wrong. A quick google of penguins then proved that yes, I was wrong and they actually have black bodies with white insides (tummys? I dunno what to call it). So I had to redo that entire hand (which was my right hand, because I always do my right hand first and let me tell you that my left hand was not thanking me for that).

Emotional Hangovers: How to Survive and Prevent Them

I came across the term 'emotional hangover' a couple of months ago and I could not believe how apt this description was. I have long known that the morning after an emotional breakdown are terrible, terrible things, but had no clue how to explain this concept to someone that has never experienced one.

In case you don't know, emotional hangovers are what you get when you have a pretty rough, emotion-filled night and the morning after is a horrific ball of pain, fuzzy eyes, foggy heads and sore everything.

For the longest time, I thought all this was something that only happened to me, but then one of my friends mentioned that they always felt the same way and then I came across it happening in a book and it was great! Well, great in the fact that I wasn't the only one that felt like shit the next morning as well as the night before, not that lots of other were going through some shitty times themselves.

The reasons behind having an emotional hangover are varied and mostly depend on individual people. Maybe you were particularly upset the night before. Maybe you'd been around people for a long time (parties, celebrations etc) and suddenly found yourself all alone. Maybe you had just been feeling rather lonely the previous evening. There are so many different things that could contribute to having an emotional hangover. While the first can take you by surprise, after a couple you begin to notice a pattern, whether it be in symptoms or triggers and knowing these can help you to better survive and prevent the next ones. Personally, I only really suffer them after an night of heavy crying (actually sobbing would probably be a more apt description here) and general self-loathing and hopelessness, but then that's just me.

Anyway, after experiencing a particularly vicious one a couple of weeks ago, I thought I would put together a little list of tips and advice on how to get through them and how to prevent them from happening quite as badly the next time.

Holly Berries Nail Art

Hi there everyone,

Big surprise, I'm back with more Christmas nails, although this time at least they aren't overwhelming red like the other two designs I've done. They just are slightly red, which I think shows that I'm branching out a bit in terms of Christmas colours. :)

These turned out so much better than I was expecting. When I started these, I didn't really have a plan in mind so I was pleasantly surprised when these turned out as well as they did. Also, they did look a lot better in real life - I was once again very frustrated at how the photos of these came out.

How To Centre Your Pages in Blogger

Hi everyone,

So, in my complete blog over haul a little while ago, I did a lot of HTML stuff and coding and all sorts because I had a very particular idea about what I wanted my blog to look like. So it meant a lot of customisations and frustration for me.

But, I now feel kind of knowledgeable about some stuff and I thought I'd share my new found knowledge with you! Bear in mind that I'm still not super HTML and CSS savvy, so while you are of course free to ask me any questions that you may have, I may not be able to answer all of them.

Today's tutorial is going to be super easy, but is something that makes a huge difference, in my opinion. As you may have noticed, my blog design has travelled a lot more to the centre since I updated it and today I'm going to show you to centre your page list in Blogger. On that note, my blog is built with Blogger and I have approximately zero knowledge on how to do this stuff on Wordpress or any other blogging platform so please don't ask me on stuff like that. :)

First off you are going to need to save a copy of your current template so that if everything goes belly-up and you think you have wrecked your blog beyond repair, then you can easily restore it to it's previous state (none of which should happen because this is really easy). You can do this by going into Template and clicking on the Back/Up Restore button and selecting Download Full Template.

Christmas Presents Nail Art

Hi there everyone!

So, I'm a little behind schedule on my Christmas nail art designs for this year, so here's my second one. I had hoped to have many more by this time but then I made the decision to completely overhaul my blog's look and layout and name and everything in December. Nice work Dani. (I probably should have thought about how busy that decision was going to make me before I started). Oh well, live and learn.

To be honest, I'm not that enamoured with these nails. I did them late at night, when I was very sleepy and wanted to go to bed but wanted to have polish on my nails more.

Coping by Dissolving

Hi everyone!

Today's post is going to be a little rambly and meandering and not have that much of a point to it. It's basically going to be a little insight into a bit of my life and if that's not really your cup of tea, then I understand and I will not hold a grudge if you don't want to read this one. But, if you do, then grab yourself a nice warm beverage and settle down for a while. :)

Did you know, that for someone that loves reading as much as I do, I don't actually do that much of it.

It's not because I don't have the time and it's not like I don't have any books to read. On average, I probably have about 5-6 unread books on my shelf at all times. Books that I bought because I really wanted to read them. And I don't buy books on a whim - I don't have the space to do that. If I buy a book, it's because I am absolutely, very sure I'm going to love it, because I have others from the same series and I feel the need to own the complete set or because it was only $2. Actually, it's because of that last reason that I ended up with a book called Murder, Mystery and Mayhem: Details of Hollywood's Most Gruesome Murders (what can I say? I'm a fan of murder mysteries and mysteries in general and it was only $2!).

But I'm getting off track.

I used to read a lot. Like, a lot. In primary school I had a deal with the school librarian. We were technically only allowed to borrow two books per week, but she let me take out four. And generally, I'd be back after two or three days to borrow more. That was all I used to do after school. I'd get home and I'd read. And read and read and read. We would also generally go to the public library once a month as well and I'd get out the maximum number of books there as well, which I think was about twelve. I'd generally read them all within two weeks as well.

Then when I got into high school I read less. I still read, but I had less time.

Source

I'd probably call myself a compulsive reader. I read everything. I have to. If there is writing, I must read it. I read the back of cereal boxes, my sisters' homework, even the instructions that come with things that don't need instructions (like shampoo - who needs instructions on how to use shampoo??). I am one of those annoying people that reads over the shoulders of other people on the train. I have no clue what's going on, and they nearly always read too slowly and sometimes they hold the book so I can only see one page and sometimes I'm just starting to get into it when they get off and I'm left alone again, with no clue what the book was even called. It's all very aggravating. And yet, I still do it. I do it when I'm not alone either. I'll be trying to hold a conversation with a friend and yet my eyes will keep drifting over to the book of the person next to me. It always makes me lose my train of thought.

New Domain Name

This is just a super quick post to let you all know that I am going to be changing my domain from lissasteps.blogspot.com to http://polishpluss.com/.

I don't know how long it's going to take me to get everything finalised and for everything to be in working order so if things start not working over the next couple of days, that's probably why. :)

So wish me luck (I've never done anything like this before) and I hope everything goes smoothly and I'll see you on the other side.

Christmas Tree Nail Art

Hi lovelies,

So, it's December and I think it's high time that I start cracking out the Christmas nail art, don't you. Actually, to be honest, I did these in the last week of November, but that was mostly because that's when my goodies from Powder Perfect came in and I was super excited to use them.

Anyway, I kept my first Christmas design of the year pretty simple and purely by coincidence, the same theme as my first design last year - Christmas trees!

I do apologise for the slightly inconsistent lighting in these photos - I found this polish really hard to photograph and my camera was really fighting me that day...

Powder Perfect Christmas Collection Review

Hi everyone!

So just recently I got my first polishes from Powder Perfect and am so excited about them! In case you didn't know, Powder Perfect is an Australian indie brand that's based in Queensland.

While I have known about them for a while, I'd never actually bought anything from them until now. (This was mostly due to my limited amount of disposable income and the fact that indie's are just more expensive than mainstream polishes and also, shipping costs..)

However, when I saw Cassie's review of their Christmas Collection over on the Reluctant Femme, I knew I had to buy at least some of them!

In hindsight, I possibly should have branched out of the red glitters but they were both so pretty and I don't have any red glitters and I wanted them both. So the polishes I ended up with were It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas and Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal.

First up is It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas, which is a bright fire-engine red. I know it doesn't look it in these pictures, but it is actually wonderfully sparkly in real life. It's got just the right amount of holo mixed in amongst the glitters to give it an extra lift while still keeping it within the 'glitter polish' range, rather than the 'holo polish' range.

Important Announcement

Hi there everyone!

This is just going to be a quick post to let you know that things are going to be changing around here quite a bit of the next couple of weeks.

I'm in the process of completely redesigning the layout and look of this blog, which is quite exciting (and exhausting - I've never done so much stuff with HMTL ever before!) So, please bear with me and please don't be concerned if things start disappearing or moving around.

While I quite like the way my blog is now, but it's still very similar to how it was when I first began - which is over a year ago now! So much has happened since then and I am so different to how I was then that I feel that some aspects are now out-dated and irrelevant to the content I am posting now.

On that note, I am pleased, and scared, and excited to announce I will be moving over to a custom url and not only that, but I'm actually changing the name of this blog as well. From now on, One Step At A Time will be known as Polish Plus.

In case anyone is worried, the stuff on Polish Plus is going to be the same sort of stuff that's on One Step At A Time, it's just the name and the layout of the blog that's going to be changing.

In case anyone is wondering, the main couple of reasons why I am changing this blog's name is because One Step At A Time is long, a little cumbersome and a lot common and I want something a bit more unique and because I think Polish Plus gives a much better first impression of what to expect from this blog - quite a big of nail art but also a lot of other stuff. It's polish and way more! :)

For the moment, I will be staying at lissasteps.blogspot.com while I get everything together for the move and I will let you all know a couple of days before the move what my new web address will be.

What I Liked About November

Once again, it's the end of the month and that means it's time for another Monthly Favourites. So, without further ado, here is the list of the things I particularly liked this month.

Source

Begin Again Soundtrack
I saw this movie in the cinema when it first came out and I really loved it. Like, really, really loved it. It was just so different and so refreshing. It was the ending that really got me. I wasn't expecting it to end where it did and I wasn't expecting the ending that it did have. However, I was glad that it did end how it did - I thought it was very reflective of the whole tone and mood of the movie. The soundtrack is also just beautiful and well worth a listen.

Source

Melanie Martinez
I came across this lovely singer quite by accident. Her cover of Toxic by Britney Spears came up on my tumblr dashboard and I loved it. Her version is just so haunting and beautiful. So far, most of her songs that I have heard all share that ethereal, haunting, lilting quality that I really like in my songs (although my mother thinks it's just depressing and morbid - I disagree). Basically, she's a great artist, in my opinion.

Gold and Silver Leopard Print

Why hello to you all

Today's design is a simple, but lovely one (in my opinion anyway). However, I couldn't quite manage to capture it on camera very well and so unfortunately it looks a bit sub par in my photos...

Resources for the Busty Woman and Tips for Everyone Who Wears a Bra | Part 3

Hello there everyone!

Today I'm going to be wrapping up my Bra series with Part 3. Here is how to find your perfect bra size and a guide to different bra styles (Part 1) and some tips for shopping and shops for the non-mainstream bra (Part 2).

In Part 3 I'm going to be discussing some tips that I have collected over the years in dealing with non-mainstream sized boobs

There will always be people that don't understand and belittle your plight
Always. I can't decide whether my least favourite is the 'Oh no, such a terrible ailment, you have big boobs, that's such a hardship' (super sarcastic voice) type or the 'yeah right, I don't believe you. I think you're lying - they don't even make bras in that size' type. Thankfully, these people are pretty easy to deal with. To be honest, your best bet is probably to just ignore them, because they are never going to understand and you're only going to get angry with them if you try. But, if you want to retort, here are some options.

From Busty Girl Comics

For the first type, you could always try something like 'Well, when you put it like that, I suppose they aren't such a problem. I mean, there is the neck and the shoulder pain and not being able to buy cheap bras or swimsuits. And the issue of halternecks giving me a headache. And not being able to wear strapless dresses. And the problem of being constantly sexualised, all the time. But nah, you're probably right. I guess they aren't a problem after all.'

Or something like 'Oops you got me. (sheepish smile) They aren't a problem at all. In fact, they are amazing at getting me whatever I want. I can use these to make the mankind succumb to my every whim and desire. The magazines are right - big boobs are better!!' (happy smile while boob jiggling for effect)

For the second type just shove your boobs in their face and yell 'Are they real now?! Do you still think I'm lying?!?!?!' In my experience, this has a 98% success rate of getting them to shut up and leave you alone. Or course, it may also lead to assault charges and possible murder charges on death by boob suffocation, depending on how big your chesticles are.

Then and Now: Biology DNA Nail Art

Hello there everyone!

Today's post is going to be super photo heavy, so be prepared! :) Back in July of 2013, when I first started getting into nail art, I did a set of DNA/biology/cell inspired nails and by the time I got around to photographing them they were kind of chipped and so I never ended up posting them. But I found these pictures the other day and thought that I'd redo them to see how my skills had improved, especially since they were the first set of nails that really relied on my painting/freehand skills. I had done galaxy nails, tape mani's and gradients before, but nothing like this. I remember being so proud of them when I finished! :) But lets have a look at them, shall we?

My first attempt

To be honest, as a first attempt for something like this, they aren't too bad. They are definitely not great, but they could be a lot worse. Also, the original pictures hadn't even been edited, so all the editing I've done just now, which is why they have my current watermark on.

Okay, now you've seen the originals, lets have a look at the ones I've just done.

As you can hopefully see, I have improved quite a bit in a year and a bit. My clean up is better (although to be honest, that is something I still have to work on because I can never really be bothered doing clean-up), my lines are much crisper and I was able to get so more detail onto my thumb nail! My photography has also improved and my overall nail shape is better as well. In the before photo my index fingernail is really short and round and it took me ages to get it into a more squoval shape so that it matched the rest of my nails. 

Inspired By: Avengers Assemble - Iron Man

Hi lovelies!

So, does anyone remember that series I begun/challenge I set myself to do nail art based on all of the Avengers? If you don't, that's totally cool because my last ones were all the way back in September. But, I decided I actually needed to complete them and so here are my latest ones!

When I first did these, I was really, really, super proud of them. I thought they were a great concept, nicely designed, within my capabilities and they executed well too. However, so far, only about 3ish have guessed who these nails are based off of. In the past 3 days. I have to admit, I lost a bit of faith in my abilities because of that... Most seem to think they're based on a woman and even when I narrow it down to a character, in a movie, that I really like, they still didn't get it. Lots also thought they were Christmas themed nails.

ILNP Holographic Bird Nail Art

Hi there everyone,

Unfortunately, I don't actually have holographic birds to show you today, contrary to my post title. Instead, I have a holographic gradient of ILNP polishes with plain old black birds. I know, boring right? :)

Inside (natural light)

Inside (natural light)

In Sickness and in Health

Hi there everyone!

So I got a little sick a while ago. It was nothing major, just a very mild stomach bug. In fact, it was so minor that I didn't even vomit, nor have to call in sick for work (although I did come home an hour early one day).  It was basically just 3-4 days of general stomach soreness and nausea. Just enough that I didn't feel like doing anything, thus missing out on an opportunity to do another Halloween nail design and spending a fair amount of time lying down and generally feeling a little grossed out by the thought of food.

In big scheme of things, it was legitimately nothing.

But it really threw me. It affected me much more than it should have. And not just because I really don't deal well with nausea. It really threw me mentally.

Over those 3-4 days, I had a very small breakfast on all of them and had a small lunch one day and a tiny dinner once or twice. Which, is totally normal when you are sick in the stomach and food just seems a little repulsive - it's not nice feeling.

However, those couple of days with very little food broke down a lot of firmly built mental walls in my mind. In case you didn't know, I've recently updated my little bio (it's on the right under my picture) and my Disordered Story page to change my 'recovering' status to one of 'remission'. And let me tell you - I felt great being able to do that. When I made that decision, I really felt like I'd made it. I hadn't had an disordered thought in months and I couldn't actually remember the last time I consciously restricted in any form, whether it by large amounts of exercise or reducing food intake.

But anyway, back to my Mental Barriers.

They were pretty strong and very firm. I was very separated from my eating disorder. I was a free woman.

Source

But then I was eating very small amounts of food for a couple of days. And once again, I'll reiterate - that was not a disordered action, it was due to a stomach bug. It was purely physical. But the effects were mental as well.

I started catching myself thinking how about how nice it was to not to have to be thinking about eating, about how much weight I could lose if I just ate a bit less and how I was silly to be eating more when obviously I could get away with eating less.

Red and Matte Leopard Print Nail Art

Sometimes I swear my post titles are just getting longer and longer and less and less interesting...

Oh well...

Today's nail art is another one that I did ages ago and that I just discovered in my un-posted file. I guess I need to check that folder more often.

Also, in case anybody hadn't already noticed the trend, a lot of my posts this month are old designs and posts that I hadn't quite gotten around to finishing. When I got back into blogging regularly at the beginning of last month, I actually got super organised and got myself a proper schedule and went though and finished or deleted all my old half-done posts, so this month is a lot of backlog of older stuff!

Anyway, I was really happy with the way this turned out. I love that red and the overall crisp look of the design. It's such a pity that looks like these aren't wearable for more than a day or two because the rhinestones keep chipping off.

I was heavily inspired by this manicure by lemmingspolish on Instagram and while it's not completely true to the original, I'm pretty happy with it. I feel it would have been much improved had it had flatter studs, like the original, as opposed to the rhinestones that I ended up using. But oh well, I didn't have any studs like that, so I guess I'll just have to buy some. :)

On Babies and Children AKA I'm Selfish and Very Selective About My Life

Hello lovelies,

In case you didn't know, I've been working at an out of school hours childcare centre for just over a year now. I started in late October last year, just before I finished my final school exams. I took the job because I needed one, desperately, and probably would have taken anything. Although really, I did take just about anything as, upon hearing about my new job, my mother's reaction was 'But you don't even like kids!'

Harsh words mother, harsh words.

But, very true.

Very, very true.

But, I really needed a job and everywhere a tried they wanted experience, experience, experience. And this was something that I didn't have. I'd never had a job - my busy school schedule just didn't allow it. But I was rapidly approaching turning 18 without ever having a job and when you get to that age and have never been employed at all - people start thinking that there's something wrong with you.

So, when this offer came through, I didn't hesitate. I really wanted a job and I wasn't going to pass the offer up simply because I disliked children.

It is no secret to anyone that knows me that I don’t like children or babies. Why would you? They stare at you. They are smelly, they can’t look after themselves, you can’t understand them and so far, I'm not really seeing any pros to them. I have told my mother in no uncertain terms that I do not have plans to have kids. She will not be getting grand children from me. Pregnancy sounds like a bitch and don’t even talk to me about giving birth… Not my kettle of fish…

My worst nightmare...

Panda Nail Art

Hi lovelies,

Today's nails are old ones, but I quite like them. In my mind, they were a lot better than they eventually turned out, but most of that was not actually my fault.

My little pandas ears and eyes are a little dodgy, but the black I was using was very old and very thick and kept leaving little strings of polish and was altogether very unsatisfactory to use. Thankfully, I have long since gotten a new bottle. Also, my green background tinted my top coat and turned all lovely white pandas a bit green.....

I generally try to do my nails mid-morning so that I can use natural light to photograph them with or I do them in the evening and then wait till the next morning to photograph them. These I ended up doing mid to late afternoon, I think, and then for some reason decided to photograph them then, judging by the light quality and background (that I have cropped out). Why I did that I don't know, because it meant I ended up with only three usable photos and all of them look practically identical!

Resources for the Busty Woman and Tips for Everyone Who Wears a Bra | Part 2

Hello there everybody!

Today I am going to be covering Part 2 of my Bra series.If you missed Part 1 (in which I talked about finding your correct bra size and types of bra styles), you can find it here.

In this part I am going to be talking about where to buy bras that are not mainstream sizes. This is something that I struggle with every time I go to buy bras and if I had found somewhere that lists a whole bunch of places that sells bras in my size, or at least close to it, I would have been eternally grateful!

Do be aware though - in order to get a proper fitting bra you are going to have to be prepared to fork out some decent money. On average, I pay about $80-$90 for one bra, so it is an investment!

I'm going to split this post into two parts - the first being actual stores in Perth and the second being online stores. Obviously, if you don't live in Perth, just skip the first section (which is going to be pretty small anyway).

Also, this post is also not going to be anywhere near the colossal size of Part 1, so don't be scared. :)

Part 1 - Stores in Perth

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A Cup Above
I think I have mentioned this store before, but I'm going to talk about it again because it's great. It's located in Joondalup, very close to the hospital, and stocks Australian sizes 6-18, D-K. I've always had great success with the store - the staff are friendly, knowledgeable and always willing to help. They are also willing to go that extra mile to make sure your fit is perfect - they've always been happy to order in special sizes for me even if they don't normally stock. They also do have an online store, which I've personally never used. They also have a great swimwear line. Prices range from about $60-$100 (although I have bought a $133 bra from them before).

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Bonds Bra Line
This is a line of bras as opposed to an actual store, but I do feel it belongs on here. You can buy Bonds bras at most major department stores (Target, Big W, K-Mart, Myers) and online. Earlier this year they brought a new line or bras designed at more busty women. While that was a nice thought, I still feel their line is quite limited. They run in Australian sizes 8-18, A-G. However, they only go up to a cup size G in size 02 and over. The largest 8 cup size they have is a E because of course small ribbed women don't have large boobs... However, they are much more affordable at between $16.95 and $42 a bra (regular price) but you won't get the advice that you'll get from somewhere like A Cup Above

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Myers
Before I found A Cup Above, I used to shop exclusively at Myer for my bras. They have a lot of bras and anyone who has ever been in the lingerie section of Myers will know what I mean (the choice seems quite overwhelming). However, at closer look, there isn't that much variety. They stock Australian sizes 10-26, A-G (I think - it might go higher, but I couldn't find out on the website). While you can get good bargains, most bargains are found in the lower cup sizes - bra prices range from $20-$120ish (the ones over $100 will be speciality bras like strapless ones). I also wouldn't particularly trust their advice. I've been with my mum recently and the advice they were trying to give her was jut plain wrong. They kept telling her she needed to go band sizes but she didn't. She needed to go down at least two band sizes and go up about three cup sizes. I've also never found them to be all that sensitive or friendly. I once had a woman tell me 'Hmmm... Well something isn't right is it. It's a bit bulge-y, isn't it'. Well duh, it's a boob, and also your lack of knowledge and disapproving tone of voice isn't really making me feel great nor inspiring me with confidence.

Nail Art Inspired By: Jeans

Hi lovelies,

So, I've got another Inspired By post for you today, one that I've been meaning to do for aaaaages and have been sitting around in my un-posted file for almost as long! These nails were inspired by a pair of jeans that I own and ever since I bought them I've been meaning to do a nail design based on these.

I did buy these jeans about a year ago, so it did take me a while to get round to it, but hey, I did it eventually! To be honest, mostly I was putting these off because I didn't feel my skills were up to doing it justice, but then I figured that I could do them now and then even if they were a bit crap, at least I had tried and done some practise and I could always revisit them later. :)

What I Liked About October

Hello beautiful people!

Another month over and that means it's time for another Monthly Favourites (shhhh... We'll just ignore the fact I didn't do any for August or September...).

Not quite my final look, but pretty close

Halloween
In case you hadn't noticed by my copious amounts of Halloween nail art, I rather like Halloween. Although, to be honest, I like anything that means I can throw a themed party, dress up in costumes and generally have a theme in which to base my life around for while.

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Scarecrow Deluxe Vampire Fangs in Small
I got these for my Halloween costume this year (I went as a vampire, in case you hadn't guessed) and I was thoroughly pleased with them. I got them from here on Ebay and I would recommend both the seller and the teeth. They were straight forward to apply and fit (although the paste was a bit gross tasting) and while I couldn't bite together with them in, I had no problems speaking. The teeth were a good size for my mouth and I would highly recommend getting the smaller ones as opposed to the larger ones if you are going to be wearing them for long periods of time.

Pumpkin Halloween Nail Art

Hi lovelies,

So, I was meant to have two more sets of nails up in this time, but unfortunately I was a bit sick over the weekend, so no nails...

But, since these are my (probable) second last set of Halloween nails, I definitely reached the goal I set for myself of doing at least 5 sets of Halloween nails. All up, I feel it has been a much better effort than last year!

However, it would have been nice to have had a slightly better set of nails to show you as my second last set. I had hoped my Halloween nails would have gotten better over the month, but alas, no. I can't quite decide whether they are worse than my witch nails or not.

Black Cat Halloween Nail Art

Hi lovelies,

Today's nails are not quite as Halloween-y as others have been, but I feel that it's enough to warrant lumping them in with the rest of my Halloween nails. :)

I'm back to black and white again (what is with Halloween? Why is there so much black and white??). I was really happy with the way these turned out - I feel that they really show off my improved freehand skills. :) Also, a major bonus is that only one person didn't know they were cats. And that person is the same sister that thought these were Shaun the Sheep so she doesn't really count, as least in my book :)

Health at any Age?

Hi lovelies,

Would you look at me - another post after just two days! I am doing well, aren't I? Actually, I went a little gung-ho on the Halloween nail ideas and now I've had to boost up my posting frequency to make sure I get them all in. Also, isn't gung-ho the weirdest word to write down. When I first wrote it, I was convinced that it was actually made up, but it isn't, it's a real word. Anyway, moving on from the linguistics lesson, lets crack on with today's post, shall we?



I feel like this post might be a bit of a Unpopular Opinion one, but it's something that's been niggling at the back of my mind for a while now.

Can you be too young to be 'healthy'?

By itself, even I can see that's a pretty weird question. Being healthy and well is what we all aim for in life and so why would there be age restrictions on that?

Had you asked me that a year ago, I would have resolutely disagreed with my above question - health is for everyone! But now I'm not so sure...

Isn't this the cutest picture. Source

As some of you may know, I work in child care and a couple of months ago, one of the kids said something to me that sparked off the above question in my mind. I had been trying to get the kids up onto the oval because we had a soccer coach that afternoon and I was trying to get the kids enthused about going up playing with him. I had succeeded in convincing about half and was walking with them up to the oval. That's when one girl turned to me and said,

'I don't know why everyone doesn't want to come up to the oval and play sports. It's such a nice day and I love doing exercise because it makes me feel good and it makes me strong and it gets you healthy'

And I was like, 'Mmmmhmmm. That's nice, yes it's a nice day and I like sport too and what? Oh yeah, it does make you healthy, I guess?'

I don't even really know why I was so taken aback by the last bit. I guess because I wasn't expecting it. That's what I like about working with kids. They tell it like it is. They do what they want to do. And yes, sometimes that's infuriating, but for the most part, it's pretty refreshing. They don't have ulterior motives. They tell it too you straight.

Halloween Blood Splatter Nail Art

Hi lovelies,

So, guess what? I've got more Halloween themed nails for you today. Yay! These ones are some gruesome blood splattered ones, which I am rather proud of. I've seen a lot of this style around recently and thought I'd give it a go. To be honest, from the pictures I'd seen, I wasn't that enamoured with the concept, nor the final look, but I thought that I'd give it a go as it did fit in with my Halloween theme and it didn't look too hard nor time consuming. However, when I had finished them, I completely changed my mind - they look amazing! I couldn't stop staring at them all afternoon.

Also, I took a lot of pictures. Just to warn you. :)

Originally I had planned to put a Devil's Trap over my ring finger as a tribute to the Devil/Satan/Hell aspect of Halloween (and to slip in a reference to Supernatural..) but once I'd done all my splattering, I felt like adding any more would just over-crowd the design. So, alas, that will have to wait until another design (although I have used a Devil's Trap in an old design). Also, once I'd done all my splattering, I was both so happy with the final look and so horrified by the amount of clean up that I was going to have to do that I couldn't bear the thought of doing any more to the design.