Green is good!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I have to remind myself how great green really is sometimes... Green is a fun color. I don't particularly wear a lot of it or even prefer it for jewelry. (Even though my birthstone is Emerald.) What I love most about it though, is how versatile it can be... take one shade and it's whimsical and fun, and yet another is subtle sophistication.

Perhaps you're not ready to commit to a piece of clothing for this St. Patrick's Day, well then surely a green accessory would do the trick!

I love this large pouch from Comme des Garcons, it can do the business of holding all of your essentials - while still have a light, festive feel to it. This would be the ultimate St. Patrick's Day clutch, but you'd have to LOVE green, for it to have year round longevity...

Tobi.com - Commes des Garcons Large Pouch, $138

Commes des Garcons, Large Pouch

However, something like this 'Cool Art' wrap by Diane von Furstenberg would be useful long after all of the four leaf clover decorations were put away...

Nordstrom.com - Diane von Furstenberg Cool Art Wrap Scarf, $165

When I really do get down to the business of thinking green though... I do think jewelry. Emerald is the first thing that comes to mind, if I were to associate one thing with the word green. So what better than to have your touch of St. Patty's Day green in a gorgeous pair of earrings?

BlueNile.com - Emerald and Diamond Filigree Earrings, $650

And I would also have the necklace to match, because the pieces are stunning enough to wear separately - but such a beautiful style that you want both...

BlueNile.com - Emerald and Diamond Filigree Necklace, $570

And even though these shoes look distinctly brown or dark khaki line on the computer screen, their technical color name is "Military Green" - so we'll let them slide, as they look like such a beautiful, yet comfortable heel for Spring:

Zappos.com - Miss Sixty Sydney, $92.50 on sale

Have a Happy St. Patrick's Day, and may the luck of the Irish be with you!

Why I heart Zoya nail polish!

You've probably seen me post about Zoya a time or two (and two Zoya polishes are also included in the first giveaway!), so I figured it was worth a post to tell you why I love this nail polish so much!

I stumbled upon Zoya by chance and ordered my first Zoya polishes during the "Three Free" promotion. It was instant love! The packaging design is pretty, there are colors galore to choose from, and the polishes are named after females, with rockin' names like Rihanna, Lola, and Uma! The company has great promotions that usually happen every few months, and the best part is, all of their polishes are five FREE! (Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), and Camphor free. Also vegan friendly.) So they are better to use to paint your own nails and safer than a regular nail polish for children to use.

I used to be exclusively an OPI wearer, but Zoya has helped to open up my nail polish collection to new things. Zoya is touted as being the "longest wearing natural nail polish", and I've found for most colors this is true. Miraculously, with the majority of the colors I've purchased, they do have a longer wear time than my OPI or other brand polishes. And I am pretty hard on my nails, with a baby that you're constantly using your hands to make bottles, change diapers, and pick up - along with a decent amount of typing on the computer keyboard during the day - my fingernails get a workout.

And let me just go ahead and put it out there, that I do NOT have an exclusively all about nail polish blog, because I have short (let's just be honest, kind of ugly) fingernails that refuse to grow no matter what I try on them and some short little fingers to go along with the tiny nails. (I did not win the genetic pool on this one, my sister definitely took the genetic prize for best nails.) I actually had a girl that worked in a nail salon giggle at my nails after giving me a manicure, and say, "looks like little girl's hands" one time. Which I had no snappy retort for, because, well... they DID.

In any case, I still really like playing around with nail polish and having a vast array of colors on hand. I also feel good about using Zoya polishes, knowing that they have fewer chemicals than the other brands I had been using. Now I just need to sort out a better polish remover, because the cheap stuff from Target I have been using is wrecking my nails...

So here are some of my favorite Zoya colors so far, but please - no giggling at my "little girl nails".

Zoya Mata Hari - My favorite color so far!

Zoya Deidra - my second favorite!

Zoya Brooke (Honorable Mention)

Zoya Divincia (Honorable Mention)

I'll have to share my FULL Zoya wishlist in a future blog, because it's quite comical. It takes up about one entire sheet of large sized agenda paper.

So to give me more ideas of what should end up on my own wishlist...What are YOUR favorite Zoya colors?

Deal of the Week

I'm doing the Deal of the Week early this week, because the promotion actually ends tomorrow. And yes... it's about the Gap - AGAIN. I promise I will branch out and explore other brands for deals while I'm hitting the outlet malls on vacation.

Until 3/16/11 - spend $25 and get $50 stuff! (Yes that's 50% off!) When you visit this link, you put in your cell phone number and a text message is sent to you with a code. At checkout at Gap, GapKids, or GapBaby - show them your code on your mobile phone and you get $50 worth of stuff for $25!! I didn't want to blog about it until I had tried it, but it is absolutely legit! I went into GapBaby today and picked up a few things for Cupcake...

My favorite is the cupcake tee of course.

So available until tomorrow, grab $50 worth of stuff for $25 at the Gap!

Hooray - New Carpet!

I would have preferred a new handbag... but you know, potatoe, pahtatoe.

Our carpet that we ordered from Home Depot arrived yesterday and what can I say... it's not concrete floors! I have a feeling I'll have a much better opinion of it once our furniture is all moved back in, but for now I'm just happy that it's not concrete.

It has a slight square design to it and the walking scuffs don't show up as much in real life as they do in my pictures. I tried to get a color of carpet that would compliment the wall colors down there and also go with our couch color. (Plus something a bit more stain resistant than what was down there before, since we have 2 cats + 1 kid.)

I ended up ordering a 100% nylon carpet that was made by Martha Stewart from Home Depot. (Not because it was by Martha Stewart mind you... but because it was 100% nylon and on sale.) Apparently, nylon is supposed to be better for carpeting than the polyester type, and wear better in the long-term as well. (And if anyone knows to the contrary... do not tell me!! We just spent the equivalent of a really nice handbag, some cute shoes, the start of a Spring wardrobe, and possibly a wedding band upgrade on this stuff!)

So without further ado...  the before - yucky concrete (after the old carpet was pulled up), bare wood on the stairs, and an unusable room:

And the after:

Please tell me it was worth it. That's all I want to hear... even if it maybe wasn't... just tell me it's fabulous regardless.

Oh, and Cupcake seems to like the new carpet too:

Vanity Restyle

I'm in that age range where you transition from your young adult years, when it is still moderately acceptable to a bit whimsical in your daily life - to a full fledged adult - when you are expected to be all responsible, organized, and put together. (And stuff.) I actually really enjoy organization (I'm sure my husband would declare otherwise), but I just get so caught up in the routine of day-to-day living, that sometimes I have to step back and look at things from a different perspective in order to see the disarray.

Case in point, was my vanity area. I bought this vanity because the house we lived in just prior to our current one didn't have a built-in vanity (which I had been used to having from the house previous), and just had a small open room with bare walls to use for a vanity and dressing area. So I found this vanity to solve the problem of having a place to do my makeup.

When we moved to our new house that we live in currently, it didn't have a separate dressing OR vanity area either - so I had to take up a corner of our bedroom with my vanity. (I sacrificed having a separate vanity area when we narrowed it down to this house from the other ones we were looking at, to give my husband a space to have his "man cave" area - just want that on record. Ha ha!) With a new baby and just getting settled into the new house, it was too easy to walk past my vanity on a daily basis and just ignore it. I used my makeup out of separate makeup cases and could never find anything!

The before:

Not really a pretty sight to look at, was it?

So one day, I was inspired and realized that I needed to do some re-organization... desperately.

I purchased two clear drawer acrylic containers from Space Savers (which I've also since purchased one to organize my daughter's changing table), two glass vases, and some vase filler from Michael's. I started sorting through things and found things I had forgotten I even had! I sorted the items I used the most into categories like face, eyes, and lips. And for brands like Nars, I had enough to have one drawer dedicated to holding it.

This was the result:

Everything was out in the open and easy to spot! I was amazed that this actually help cut down on the time it took me to get ready too!

In the vanity drawer, I organized all of my Bare Escentuals shadows, Benefit powders, and extra brushes:

And inside the acrylic drawers ended up looking like this:

Overall, it was a relatively inexpensive project that made a big impact! I happily can now find all of the makeup items I own quickly, and also have been using different products in my makeup routine, since I can find more than just my go-to items!

Mom's Got a Brand New Bag First Giveaway! Enter here!

Mom's Got a Brand New Bag blog has met the 50 follower giveaway goal and is ready to do our first giveaway!

You're entering to win a 6 oz bottle of Philosophy 3in1 Shower Gel in Chewy Chocolate Lollipop, 2 Zoya nail polishes (Gemma & Jules from the Spring 2011 Intimate Collection), and a few surprise goodies!

To enter, please click on the link at the bottom of this post and fill out the form. When you submit the form you will get a confirmation from Google that your information has been accepted. Comments will not count as an entry, but of course are always welcome just to show some love!

First Giveaway Official Rules

1) An entrants must be a follower directly on the blog, Mom's Got a Brand New Bag (see link to left), or on our Facebook page. Your user name on the blog or Facebook name is required on the entry, otherwise your entry be invalid.

2) To enter, click on the link below, fill out the form, and submit. You must submit a valid email address, this is how I will contact the winning entrant to get their mailing information.

3) Commenting on this post will not enter you in the contest... but you know I love the comments, so they are always welcome and appreciated out of the kindness of your heart! :)

4) Giveaway is for US residents only.

5) The winning entry will be chosen using random.org - a random number generating system that will pick a number at random out of the entries to be our winner.

6) One entry per blog follower name OR Facebook follower name. (So if you "like" me both places, you get a double entry!)

7) Winner will be notified via email with 24 hours of the closing of the giveaway. The winner will have 48 hours to reply through email with their shipping information before they forfeit and another winner is chosen. The winner will also be announced on the Giveaway page here at the blog.

8) Giveaway will close on MONDAY MARCH 28th, 2011.

*~* Click HERE to enter! *~*

Painting Rainbows Giveaway!

Painting Rainbows is having a giveaway of a huge haul of nail polishes and beauty products! Tons of great colors for Spring and a lot of great manicure/pedicure tools are included as well!

Head over to Painting Rainbows blog to follow and enter to win!! Giveaway closes on March 19th!

Painting Rainbows Blog Giveaway details are HERE.