My Obsessions|| An overview

Since I am redesigning my blog and relaunching "my brand", I wanted to install a new series of posts that are my obsessions. Instead of making a monthly list of favorites, I decided that I would like to take one of my favorite things and make an entire post on it because for some of my previous favorites posts, I felt that I would ramble on and on about one product and then have to cut it down to fit what I had written for other products. Some products or concepts or things I felt I just couldn't just write a sentence about, I wouldn't be able to properly say just why that thing was my favorite or why I loved it so much. Now with this new concept of my obsessions, I feel that I will be able to properly explain to you guys why you should check out this product or why you should study this concept. Now I know that many of you wouldn't want to read an entire blog post just on one bottle of nail polish, and I understand that. I don't think I would be able to write an entire blogpost on a bottle of nail polish and if I did, it certainly wouldn't be worth reading. What I mean for these obsessions is to maybe take one specific item and build off of that. For example, I have a new bottle of nail polish that is a perfect sky blue that I just love so much. So my obsessions post on that nail polish could be me talking about that specific bottle of nail polish along with other things that I love that are that same color of blue. Or I might take that bottle of nail polish and dedicate my obsessions post on other colors of blue that I love and maybe other nail polishes that I want to buy that are similar. I can form categories out of this one product and just discuss it with you and give you my thoughts. Now I know that right now this just sounds like a whole jumble of ideas and it really is just one big jumble of ideas. But I am hoping that once I start making a few of these obsessions posts, all my ideas will formulate into a perfect concept that you will all enjoy reading. Hopefully I won't have to end up back at the drawing board with this idea but you never know until you try!

Lots of love <3

What is my blog?

As you may have noticed, my blog doesn't really have a theme. I've been experimenting through-out the past few months and I just wanted to fill you guys in on what is going on inside my head. I started this out as a beauty blog (hence the name grace-n-beauty) yet I feel that I am not really fulfilling the beauty blogger criteria. I love makeup and beauty in general yet I am not like one of the popular beauty bloggers and I don't have lots of makeup or really any skill. I can't afford to buy that much makeup since I am still in school and don't have a job, so my monthly makeup favorites typically consist of the same 5 products, just in a different order and maybe with 1 more seasonal item thrown in there. I love the concept of being a beauty blogger and posting makeup tutorials and all that jazz yet I just am not qualified enough nor do I have enough resources to be good at that. I also thought of this being a fashion blog, which I guess could fall under the beauty category also, and there I fall into the same problem. I love shopping and I love fashion and clothes yet I don't go shopping because I can't afford to buy new clothes every week. To be quite honest with you, I have maybe 10 different outfits that I rotate throughout the week. So what I have decided to do is instead of this being just a beauty blog or just a fashion blog, I am going to make this blog into a lifestyle blog which basically means, I am going to post whatever I want. I will write posts about food, or nails, or music, or photography, or tech, or makeup, all the things that I love because I realized that my blog should be just as complex as I am. I don't specialize in just one thing, I love lots of things and I want my blog to be a reflection of myself because that to me really is the point of a blog. Now that I have decided the purpose of my blog and I am happy with it, I will start posting more regularly! *APPLAUSE* So I will get cracking tonight and make many many posts that I can have queued up to share with you so that i can just just share with you bits and pieces that I enjoy. Prepare yourself for many more posts and I will see you soon.

Love you lots <3

Spring songs

Recently I have been listening to more acoustic music and songs that I would consider "spring-like". All of these songs make me feel more bubbly and happy. I like to consider myself a bright and bubbly person and I feel that these songs help me feel more like myself and forget about all the bad things in life. I can be influenced greatly by something simple like a song and recently I have been catching myself being very stressed and negative and so these songs just bring me back to my normal self and help me release the stress.

Human- The Killers
I can't describe to you how happy I felt when I was sitting at my desk trying to finish my homework late at night and this song came on. Give it a listen, it is a great song.

From Eden- Hozier 
I just love this song and I love Hozier's voice, it is so relaxing to me. This song is just fantastic and its one of those slow, feel-good songs for me.

Bloom- The Paper Kites
I've raved about this song on my blog before, it is just another feel-good song and I love it. It reminds me of those summer nights when the sun is setting and it is cool out and after this freezing winter, that is what I want more than anything.

Riptide- Vance Joy
Another feel-good song (notice a theme here?) that is very relaxing and a good "chill" song.

Home/Dirty Paws- The Gardiner Sisters
I found this mash-up on Spotify and it is very well done. I like both of these songs and this acoustic mash-up is really good. I had never heard of the Gardiner Sisters before but I think I well browse through more of their music.

Reflections- Misterwives
This song is a little more upbeat compared to the other songs I listed but for me it still has that bubbly feel to it that I love.

On top of the World- Imagine Dragons
The beginning of this song is just so up-beat and poppy that it just makes me feel happy like I am on top of the world and I can't be stopped.

Laura Palmer RAC mix- Bastille
I absolutely love Bastille and this RAC mix makes Laura Palmer a less dark sounding song and makes it more happy sounding

Plant Life- Owl City
I just love how this song sounds dark and bright at the same time

Beyond the Sea- Bobby Darin
This song is pretty old but it just reminds me of summer and the ocean.

Australia- The Shins
Another upbeat song, not much else I can say, just makes me happy

Junk of the heart (happy)- The Kooks
To me this song is just so cute and it is just adorable. I just love it

Stolen Dance- Milky Chance
I love this song because it just has a bubbly moving base line that makes me want to dance

Shut up and dance- Walk the Moon
This song just makes me extremely happy and it is just so cute to me. The lyrics are adorable and I listen to this song on repeat and just dance my heart out.

There you have it! My "springy" songs that I can't stop listening to at the moment. I hope you like them and they make you just as happy as they make me!

Love you lots <3

Spring Nails

Hey guys! Spring feels like it is as far away as Christmas right now, but I just wish winter would end so I hoped if I made my nails look springy (?) then it would feel like spring! I got inspiration from onenailtorulethemall on Instagram and I painted these adorable floral, fox nails.

Base Coat: Wet n Wild megalast, "Break the Ice"
Flowers: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "White On", Elf "Smokin' Hot", Sally Hansen pen "Purple 370", Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Golden-I"
Fox: Elf "Smokin' Hot"
Top Coat: NYC "Extra Shiny 271"






I love the look of the flowers on the tip of the nail, its like a french manicure style which I love. This is one of my favorite designs I have done and I think you should try it out!
Hope you like it!

Love you lots <3

Triangle Nails

A while back, I was looking through the camera roll on my phone and I found out that I had taken a bunch of pictures for a nail tutorial that I never got around to posting. I don't think i have posted a nail tutorial since halloween so i think its time.

First I started off with a simple base coat and color. I used a Sally Hansen base coat and the white color is Sally Hansen Xtreme wear in the shade White On.

Next I added two pieces of striping tape to my first nail, in a traingle shape. I filled in the triangle with Sally Hansen Xtreme wear in the shade Golden-I. Then i quickly removed the tape so that the polish would set.

Then, I used a black striping brush from Kiss nail art to create an outline of a smaller triangle inside the gold one. To fill in the triangle I used Confetti nail color in the shade Black Tie. Finish it off with a top coat.  I continued this pattern on each nail. I alternated the direction of the traingle to create a sort of contrasting effect but of course you can have all the traingles go in one direction.

I hope you liked this quick tutorial on this cute triangle design! On a side note, I apologize that the coloring of some of these pictures is a little off. For Christmas I got an Ott light, which doesn't give my pictures the same kind of warmth that I would like so I am working on figuring out how to fix that. If any of you have an Ott light, let me know and we can chat! As always, send me pictures on my social media if you try to recreate this design!

Love you lots <3

Winter Cookies

Even though Christmas has past, I hadn't made any of the traditions Christmas cookies that my family normally makes. So I decided that this weekend, I would make "winter" themed roll-out sugar cookies. Here is the recipe I used:

1 cup of butter

1 cup of sugar

2 eggs

2 1/2 tsp. vanilla

3 1/2 cups of flour

2 1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1. Beat together the butter and sugar

2. Put all dry ingredients into a separate bowl

3. Add to the butter and sugar, the vanilla and eggs; beat together

4. Gradually add in the dry ingredients

5. Refrigerate for 1 hr, then roll-out 

6. Use cookie cutters to make the desired shapes, bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes

Here is how my cookies turned out: 

I used heart, star and snowflake cookie cutters. Next I make the icing for the cookies. Of course you can use a can of already made frosting but I didn't have any so I made my own. Here is the recipe I used:

1/2 tsp. vanilla

2 tbsp. milk

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tbsp. butter

1. Beat all ingredients until smooth

2. Put frosting into separate bowls and add food coloring (optional)

Here is how the frosting looked:

For the blue frosting, I used 4 drops of blue food coloring and 1 drop of green.

For the pink frosting, I used 3 drops of red food coloring and 2 drops of yellow. 

And there you have it! My winter themed sugar cookies! I hope you like them and don't forget to send me pictures on my social media if you recreate them! 

Love you lots <3 

Welcome 2015!

Happy New Year! This year is going to be an exciting one and I hope you are ready! I know that I have been lacking on my posts and I have been saying I am working on things and never getting them published but the truth is, I have been really busy and just unmotivated to post. I have made so many posts that I just don't like and I don't feel that they are good so I don't post them. I am one of those people that I have to put out my best work and that is what I am going to do this year. I am going to scrap all the posts that I was working on and start fresh, only posting when I can and not trying to half-ass anything. I made this blog because I wanted to and because it made me happy and for the past few months I haven't been happy with it. So starting TODAY I will fix my blog and make it the way I want it to be.

To start off the New Year, I thought I would follow the path of many bloggers and post my New Years resolutions.

1. Bake more - baking makes me happy and I always find awesome recipes on Pinterest that I plan to use
2. Walk my dog more often - going outside on a walk can be just what I need some days and it is good for my dog too
3. Stop procrastinating- this needs no explanation, I think we all need this resolution
4. Maintain my blog - this blog is important to me and I need to keep it up and running!

These are just a few of my resolutions that I will try to stick to this year! Hopefully 2015 will be my best year yet!

Love you lots <3