P-cubed: Say My Name

Yesterday, lots of ladies around the blogosphere participated in a link up (with Amber @ Brunch with Amber) to share why they picked that particular name for their blog name. Well I was doing Weigh In Wednesday, so I missed it yesterday, but I decided to join in and link up just a day late :) So here's a simple story about why I picked my blog name, P-cubed/P-to-the-third, or better known as:

"Penguins, Pasta & Polka Dots."

So, I first started my blog in August 2010. I had just graduated college that April, and I moved away from the college town and a lot of my friends who still lived there. Then for the first 10 days of August, I went on an epic road trip with 5 of my best girlfriends from Florida > North Carolina > Tennessee > New Jersey > New York City, and then we reversed the whole thing back down. And it was amazing!! (And I just realized I've never written about it on this blog, so that'll definitely be coming up soon!) 
While on that trip, we got on the topic of blogs, because my friends Megan and Kaley already had them, and I kind of wanted to start one. I was afraid though that I wouldn't know what to write about, or that I wouldn't have anything interesting to say, and so I was kind of slow to take the leap. However, they convinced me that I would be good at it, and that I should just start one, for no other reason than to stay updated with my friends in other cities. 
So the very night I got back home from our road trip, I started setting up this here blog! I'm definitely a words kind of girl (meaning I love words, and hate numbers), and I've always been a fan of alliterations. Thus, I knew that's the direction I would go. And then from there, it just kinda happened pretty easily! Penguins, Pasta & Polka dots are easily three of my very favoritest things, and they just all flowed together so nicely! 

The first post wasn't anything exciting, but I sure liked writing it. And it definitely set into motion a momentum to keep me writing. I purposefully made my first post title start with a 'P'  as well, in order to mimic the title of  my new blog. Then the second one kind of happened on accident the next day. And then my friend Dani suggested I should make ALL of my post titles start with a 'P'! And decided to accept her challenge, even though I wasn't sure I could do it for very long. So as we were driving around town doing errands that day, my Mama, Papa and myself made a list of every single P word we could possibly think of, and I took notes on my little iTouch. We came up with hundreds of words that day! Now I keep a list of all the P words in a bulleted-and-alphabetized Word document, and strike through each one as it get's used. (Can you tell I'm a little weird and OCD about things sometimes? Please someone tell me you do weird stuff like this too...) Right now, there are 455 words on my list!! It gets added to occasionally as I think of new words or realize ones that have been left out. And I try to not repeat words I've already used in titles - but there are definitely still repeats. For instance - the three words penguins, pasta and polka dots have been used multiple times, but I've given those a free pass for unlimited repeats, since it is the blog title and all. But I'd say out of my 289 published posts, only about 10-15 of those have other repeated words! I hope some of you have noticed that each and every title starts with a P, because sometimes it's really tricky to think of something that makes sense with that post, but I work hard to figure it out each time! I know a couple of you have mentioned you noticed it, but only after months of following me! Haha :) I've considered trying to stray away from it, but I just can't seem to do that yet. So I'm going to try to keep it up for as long as possible on this here blog! Well, that ended up being wayyyy longer than I was expecting! Hopefully that wasn't boring for y'all, and that you still want to stick around, even after a rambling post such as this one...I'll try to be more exciting tomorrow, although I can't really guarantee that if this stupid cold won't go away! I'm still sucking down an enourmous amount of hot tea and Emergen-C, and going to bed early. Super exciting right? Anyways, at least it's Thursday, which means that we're getting very close to the weekend :) So happy Thursday!

Painted Chevrons & Mint Polka Dots

Below are TWO nail designs from this last week. Figured it would be fun to show two completely different designs all in the same post! Hope you enjoy :)

This is my second attempt with my nail tip sticker guides. I think the first time I tried them it worked out a little better, but I still like these as well! If you're interested, the instructional steps for these are the same as my first attempt, so just copy those again. But this time I did a little reversal for the accent nail on my ring finger!

But then it started chipping and peeling, and I had some time, so I took it off and set off about painting them again! So last Thursday night, I did this easy, simple design, but I'm absolutely loving it. I love the pretty mint color, as well as the simplicity of the single line of polka dots. So cute, in my humble opinion :)

And I'm again linking up with Heather at Glitter & Gloss and Heather at JustLove.Ly for Mani Monday! 

Polka Dot Perfume

Do y'all remember my little post about the things I "collect" and some of my obsessions? Well, one of them is most assuredly perfume. And yesterday I ran across a new one I think I need for my collection. My aunt and I were just walking through Dillards (because we are like those elderly people who walk laps in the mall during our lunch break), when she spotted this cute little gem, and pointed it out to me, knowing how much I would like it!

Dot by Marc Jacobs. This stuff smells quite delicious, and just look how cute that little bottle is! Marc Jacobs actually does a great job making all of his perfumes not only smell amazing, but look extremely cute too. And this one has polka dots on it! Which let's be honest, just always makes things a little bit better in my opinion. My sister has Daisy, and it smells sooo nice. And it's so cute too! And she's nice and let's me borrow a spritz or too every now and then :)

I haven't actually bought or received any new perfume in quite some time, so that's why I'm thinking the time has come again. And really I don't have as many as I used to, because I've either used up the entire bottle, or I've had them just a smidge too long, and so the fragrance isn't as nice as it used to be. Either way, one more bottle of smell good stuff never hurt anyone did it?!

Family/Boyfriend - Christmas is only a few months away, so take note. It can be found at fine retailers like Dillards, Sephora & Amazon. Just in case you were wondering... ;)

Promotion Day, Polka Dots & Po'Boys

Once again, my weekend did not disappoint. I wish I could have more of them actually! But then again, who wouldn't wish for more weekends and fun time with family, friends and loved ones??

The weekend started off with our 1 year anniversary date on Friday night! We tried out a new restaurant, and it was incredible. (This is 1 of 6 new restaurants for my 25 Before 25 list!) We went to 101 Restaurant, and were quite impressed by this place. We had heard mixed reviews about it before-hand, but we left there with only good things to say about it, and would like to visit again in the future. 

We had heard the portions sizes were teeny, so we got lettuce wraps as an appetizer. They weren't the best I've ever had (um, hello P.F. Chang's), but they were decent enough. For our main meals, I had Lemon-Basil chicken and it was soooo delicious, and so much food - two whole chicken breasts in fact! (I took one home in a box because I was way too full.) Jeff got Salmon Florentine, and it was also so yummy, and such a huge portion. So whoever told us the portions were small was way wrong. They were huge! 

It's definitely a fancy place, so we'll have to wait to go again until another special occasion, but it was so nice to splurge a bit for our anniversary date night! :) 

Oh, and look at how cute he decorated the front of my card! He's the sweetest :)

Saturday I went to lunch with my good friend Callie (who is also one of Meg's bridesmaids), before we went bridesmaid dress shopping for Meg's wedding. Such a fun time, and shopping was actually fun too. Then I hung out with my parents at home, had nap time before going to church for another great night at our Awaken service. After the service, my friend Sara invited our little group over to her house for dessert and movie night. There were lots of baked yummies, and I brought some ice cream, and we watched "The Game." And whoa man was that a crazy movie. There were so many twists and turns and unexpected events in that movie, and overall I think I liked it. It's a bit confusing, and definitely a thriller, but it's most certainly entertaining! Check it out if you're into psychological thriller kind of stuff.

Sunday morning was promotion Sunday for all the children and youth, and it was so much fun! We had a big breakfast buffet for all the youth, which was delicious, and all the youth just spent time together as one big group. We had our Senior students go down to pick up the rising 6th graders and we all cheered for them as they entered the youth hallway/3rd floor. Then we had some food and fellowship, followed by a quick game and a challenge from Chad, our interim student pastor.

Such a blessing to have so many youth for promotion Sunday!!

Sunday after church, our Sunday School class all went out to lunch together, and lots of laughs and good times. Then Jeff and I went to the cheap theater to see The Hunger Games again once more on the big screen. It was still incredible, and I was still so emotional watching parts like the reaping and parts of the actual games. Can't wait for the others to come out in theaters as well!! Then we went to the mall together and walked around for a couple of hours and did some "window shopping," because even though I tried on a couple of shirts and dresses, I didn't end up buying anything. But check out how cute this polka dot dress was at Macy's. Too bad it was still $80 on sale! I am not that rich... so unfortunately I didn't get to bring it home :(

Then we had dinner at one of our favorite places, Po'Boys Creole Cafe, and had some pretty yummy Buffalo Blues Burgers. It was really good, however we both decided buffalo and blue cheese sandwiches were better with chicken rather than beef, so next time I'll stick with my usual and order a delicious Buffalo Chicken Po'Boy. Because that baby is sooo good.

Then finally we went back to his house to both show each other some random stuff around the interwebs, and watch Men In Black 2. With the completion of this movie, we've now completed the trilogy, just a little out of order since we watched 1 & 2 after seeing 3 in the cheap theater just a few weeks ago. But they're still good movies, and I actually enjoyed all three of them much more than I had anticipated I would.

Now I'm back to work and a week filled with both fun and not-so-fun things to look forward to. But one good thing for today is the finalization of Rock the Universe plans, which happens in less than just three short weeks! Yay! It's always sooo much fun, no matter how exhausting. I can't wait!

I hope everyone else had good weekends too, and your Monday isn't too horrible! :)

Much love to all.

Polka Dot Nails, Round 2

Painted my nails again last night! And attempt number two with my new nail art dotting pen thingy-majiggies went pretty good again. (HERE is my first polka dot attempt, but not with the new majiggies). I'm still only attempting some very basic designs and things, but I'm sure in no time I'll be ready to tackle something a little more complex and interesting... but for now, it was just a quick, simple set of polka dot lines!

I'll be in the water all day on Saturday, so I don't expect this to last very long, but for now, I'm happy with the bright, summery results! I think maybe I should have chosen something other than white for the polka dots to get more of a contrast, but oh well. You live and you learn. Now I'm wishing I would have tried to do a tiny sunshine or something, since the yellow is so bright and sunny! Next time maybe...

What should I try next??

Happy nails and much love :)

Oh, and this is what I did the other day, even though I didn't blog about them. These nails were my very first attempt with my nail art dotting pen thingy-majiggies... (don't y'all love that fancy term?!) 

Polka Dot Nails

Remember my list of goals for April I posted at the end of March? Well I'm just truckin' along on those, and making good progress so far. (Yes there are officially only seven of them, but one of those includes my giant spring cleaning to-do list, so it's quite a lot of stuff/goals for just one month...)

Yesterday I tried some "nail art" for the first time on my very own. And I really liked the way it turned out! I painted one clear base coat and then one coat of my chosen color. Then after watching some YouTube videos (not really very helpful) and Googling a few how-to articles (only slightly more helpful), I thought about it on my own and figured out the best method for making my own polka dots.

Best (and FREE!) option - just cut the cotton off the end of a q-tip! So simple and it works perfectly. Then I used an old bottle cap to drip some of the white polish into. To make the polka dots, just dip the cut end of the q-tip into the polish, and dot your nails as much or as little as you want.

I let the dots dry COMPLETELY. I mean, for an hour or so at home, and also a couple of hours while I went and played Ultimate Frisbee with my youth. Then much later that night, I put a coat of clear top coat to seal the dots. (And then because I love them so much and am paranoid to chip them too quickly, I put another clear coat on this morning again.)

And VIOLA! Super cute fingernails :)

They're not completely perfect, but I don't think it matters really. And plus, I know that the more I try it, the better I will get! (Jeff actually had to help with the dots on my right hand, as I didn't feel steady enough with my left to dot an entire hand. So sweet of him to help me.) I also put some polka dots on both of my big toes as well. I skipped dotting the other toes because I figured they'd be too tiny to dot, and end up looking silly. But I think the big toes look real cute still on their own. 

I love the way the polka dots turned out, but my parents were making fun of me a little bit, asking me how old I was to have polka dot nails. I mean, I work with teenagers, so their trends tend to appeal to me a lot still! :) I don't mind though, because I like them a lot, and I've already gotten quite a few compliments on them. I can't wait to try more color combinations in the future! I'm thinking some bright summer-y colors should happen next. Maybe some orange, yellow or pink combo? But I also want to try stripes of some sort, so we'll just see what happens in a few weeks!

Profile Facelift

In honor of my 1 Year Anniversary of Penguins, Pasta and Polka Dots, I gave the old profile a face lift. Do we like? I know I certainly do! (I'm very much into all things yellow right now, and so I'm loving this new color scheme.)

For the record though, my blog-iversary was actually August 11. But I'm celebrating a few days later... :)

Much Love.

Polka Dot Dress

I am really liking this style of dress lately. Can't afford this specific one at all (it's like $150!! No way, Jose), but it's super cute. I found it on Pinterest (blog about that on the way shortly) and am in love with the ruffles, the tie, the polka dots, and even the gray/white combo.

Tried one on like it at Old Navy yesterday that was blue and flowery, and I really liked it. However, I did not like the price. So I didn't get it. However, tomorrow morning their having a special dress sale where select dresses are 50% off! So I'm going back in the morning in the hopes that my dress is one of the ones on sale!

Penguins, Pasta and Polka Dots

I own all of these penguins, including the penguin cookie jar. (You can make fun of me if you like, but I love my penguins...) My PJ pants are here. Mine and my sister's comforter's are both polka dots. (Mine the aqua/green combo and Meg's the pink/orange combo.) Those are also my books. And those are pasta recipes I like. ♥

Preparing for Meg's Homecoming

So, I haven't seen my little sister in what feels like forever. Even though I lived away from home for 3 1/2 years, 3 weeks seems like far too long when we're used to being with each other every day this summer. But I went on the Great American Road Trip, and now she's returning from a mission trip to Guatemala. So I'm ready to see her! They arrived in Miami this afternoon around 2:30, and then left for Tally soon after that.

Well it's taking them FOREVER, and they won't be home till around 3 am! (Due to customs, extra stops, and Lord knows what else...) So now me and the parents are sitting around waiting to pick her up from the Florida Baptist Children's home, which is who she went on the trip with. In the meantime, I made her these awesome signs for her welcome home surprise! And I think they look awesome. Also, I would like everyone to note the polka dots on her bed as well. We're twins. And this is appropriate for my blog.