These turned out really pretty! I used Zoya Pixie Dust in Destiny, then put a clear coat of Seche Vite over it, (because it's texture polish) and then I stamped the animal print (cheetah?) with my Konad stamper plate M57, (and 1 more coat of Seche Vite). I love the way Destiny sparkles in the sun! I'm getting much more used to stamping now and my shorter stamper I bought from Winstonia Store helps a lot too! :-)



(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a product when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!)

I love to read. I read every day. Mostly on the way home from work on the train, and before I go to sleep. Reading a book before bed is how I unwind. The majority of the books I read are History, Historical Fiction, Biography or Memoirs. I do read some Fiction and Classics.

Here are some books I've finished lately and purchased for my Kindle Fire HD 8.9". I definitely recommend these! (They are also available in paper or hardback).

1. Waiting to Be Heard- Amanda Knox



Wow... I just finished this. And I am started to read it again. (I like to read books through multiple times). Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This book was so well written and brutally honest. Let me just take a quote from the book that struck me to share with you:

"The prosecution said they were certain the murder had been a group attack. Why, then, was none of my DNA or Raffaele’s DNA in Meredith’s bedroom? Their answer: because Raffaele and I had scrubbed the crime scene clean of our DNA, leaving only Guede’s. That theory gave me super powers. DNA is not something you can cherry-pick; it’s invisible. Even if I could somehow magically see DNA, there is no way I could tell one person’s DNA from another’s just by looking—no one can"

This is well worth a read or buy!

2. Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness- Susannah Cahalan



I bought this for $2.99 for my Kindle Fire HD. I had heard about it on the news before. I really liked this book. I've read it 2 times already.

Here is a brief summary from Amazon:

One day in 2009, twenty-four-year-old Susannah Cahalan woke up alone in a strange hospital room, strapped to her bed, under guard, and unable to move or speak. A wristband marked her as a “flight risk,” and her medical records—chronicling a month-long hospital stay of which she had no memory at all—showed hallucinations, violence, and dangerous instability. Only weeks earlier, Susannah had been on the threshold of a new, adult life: a healthy, ambitious college grad a few months into her first serious relationship and a promising career as a cub reporter at a major New York newspaper. Who was the stranger who had taken over her body? What was happening to her mind?

In this swift and breathtaking narrative, Susannah tells the astonishing true story of her inexplicable descent into madness and the brilliant, lifesaving diagnosis that nearly didn’t happen. A team of doctors would spend a month—and more than a million dollars—trying desperately to pin down a medical explanation for what had gone wrong. Meanwhile, as the days passed and her family, boyfriend, and friends helplessly stood watch by her bed, she began to move inexorably through psychosis into catatonia and, ultimately, toward death. Yet even as this period nearly tore her family apart, it offered an extraordinary testament to their faith in Susannah and their refusal to let her go.

Then, at the last minute, celebrated neurologist Souhel Najjar joined her team and, with the help of a lucky, ingenious test, saved her life. He recognized the symptoms of a newly discovered autoimmune disorder in which the body attacks the brain, a disease now thought to be tied to both schizophrenia and autism, and perhaps the root of “demonic possessions” throughout history.

3. January First: A Child's Descent into Madness and Her Father's Struggle to Save Her- Michael Schoefield



I love this book. I have taken it out 3-4 times from my local E-Library. Then this weekend I decided to finally buy it. Michael Schoefield comes off as an asshole to some people, but to me he comes across as a father who is willing to do ANYTHING for his child.

Here is a brief summary from Amazon:

Michael Schofield’s daughter January is at the mercy of her imaginary friends, except they aren’t the imaginary friends that most young children have; they are hallucinations. And January is caught in the conflict between our world and their world, a place she calls Calalini.  Some of these hallucinations, like “24 Hours,” are friendly and some, like “400 the Cat” and “Wednesday the Rat,” bite and scratch her until she does what they want.  They often tell her to scream at strangers, jump out of buildings, and attack her baby brother. 

At six years old, January Schofield, “Janni,” to her family, was diagnosed with schizophrenia, one of the worst mental illnesses known to man.  What’s more, schizophrenia is 20 to 30 times more severe in children than in adults and in January’s case, doctors say, she is hallucinating 95 percent of the time that she is awake. Potent psychiatric drugs that would level most adults barely faze her.

(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a product when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!)

 

With our meager little tax refund, (after I paid Citibank back a good chunk of our refund... to thank them for letting us live while unemployment took it's good ol' time to get set up- while I was furloughed from work for 2 1/2 weeks earlier this year)... I had a little extra cash to spend. This isn't all we spent it on of course! But it was nice to get a few new things

I was able to get a new shower mat for our bath/shower and a new fabric Damask shower curtain. Yay! If you've looked at my other Home Improvement posts, you'll notice Damask plays a key role. Our decor theme around our apartment is Black, White and Aqua.

I also got a new purse for myself! In... Damask... lol. I really love it. It has little metal feet on the bottom, and the handles are sturdy, yet it's light weight. Now... if it will hold up to all the crap I carry in my purse, remains to be seen... lol. I've gotten a bunch of compliments on it already. The brand is Belvah.



And as you know I'm having a Zoya Spring Giveaway! The giveaway ends March 8th, so enter while you can! I'm giving away Zoya Neely & Zoya Blu from the new Spring 2013 collection and I'm throwing in a travel sized L'Occitane Verbena lotion too!

I got to try Zoya Blu out tonight. (I bought extras for the giveaway!) Here is Zoya Blu, with Zoya Pixie Dust NYX on my ring finger. Blu only needed 2 coats and 1 top coat of Seche Vite. NYX I did 3 coats.


(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a product when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!)

My not so creative Christmas and New Year's nails. I had wanted to do red/white candy cane stripes on my ring fingers, but it turned out looking more like a bloody mummy...so yeah... I just went with something simple, lol!

These aren't new polishes. The Sally Hansen Celeb City I've owned since 2010. And my ring finger has China Glaze Make A Spectacle layered over the silver.


One of my new favorite polish brands is Zoya! I first bought three of their 2012 Holiday collection. Blaze, Aurora & Storm a few months ago. And then with the $20 Amazon giftcard I earned from Valued Opinions, I bought two more polishes.


Just a quick bit of info about Valued Opinions. I like it better than Swagbucks because you earn money faster. You do online surveys, some you may qualify for and some you may not. I joined for free in September 2012 and I earned my $20 by December 2012, so not bad at all! Even better when I claimed my $20 giftcard from Amazon, the code was sent to me instantly through email! So I got to buy my nail polish on Amazon that same night. (You can also get a Visa card, or Macy's, Itunes Giftcards, etc.)

And Zoya Roxy. Zoya Roxy didn't want to photograph correctly. But it's a magenta jelly polish with silver sparkles in it.



Disclosure: Valued Opinions did not ask me to write this blog. I wrote it because I enjoy doing the surveys & earning giftcards. The two polishes below were purchased with my $20 reward from Valued Opinions. The rest were purchased with my own money.

  

What a surprise I got on Friday morning. An email from Amazon saying my Kindle Fire HD 8.9" (16GB) was shipping that morning! (It was supposed to ship November 21st). Being the techy geek girl I am, I picked one day shipping when I pre-ordered so later that afternoon it was delivered! Whoo hoo!

Being even geekier, I made my husband bring it in the car when he picked me up from the train station after work; (we stopped by my parents house to give my 18 year old brother his belated birthday gift). I just couldn't wait until I got home to open the box and check out my new Kindle! And... wow! Compared to the original Kindle Fire 7", the 8.9" is huge! Even though it weighs just a few ounces more than the original, it somehow feels lighter in my hands. It's also much thinner.



The new HD screen is so much more vibrant in color than the original Kindle Fire. The speakers are also better placed. And... there's now actual volume buttons on the side!

Pro's:

• Bigger Screen
• Vibrant HD Display
• Slimmer design & more comfortable to hold.
• TV & Movie's sound amazing with the dolby audio.
• The keyboard is bigger and more comfortable to use. And now it even underlines your miss spelled words in red so you can correct them! 
• Amazon Silk browser is faster & more compatible with different websites. On the older model some websites wouldn't cooperate and let me scroll so I would have to use Opera Mini browser to get around that.
• Volume controls on the outside now!
• Speakers are spaced out better
• Finally a webcam & mic to Skype or take pictures and videos! (and this program I bought gives you even more options for the camera/video).

 Con's: 

• No more flash. Which means I can't view videos on 6abc or CNN, etc. Because Adobe is no longer making it for Android or mobile devices. Which means on older websites that still use flash instead of HTML5 you cannot view videos. (Original Kindle Fire had flash installed).
• Certain games that you may have purchased for the original are not compatible yet with the Kindle Fire HD 8.9". (Sims Free Play is now compatible!)
• Silk Browser seems to crash more often if you have 'Accelerate Pages' box checked in browser options. (Maybe an update will address this) (Update has addressed this!)
• TV & Movies sound amazing with the dolby audio, but I found playing music through the speakers didn't have the same quality. And there's no equalizer in the newer model.
• Lot's of Ad's. Supposedly you can pay $15 to disable all the ad's permanently. But, I did find in settings/applications you can turn off some of the recommendations. The only thing you can't disable is the ad's that show up on the screen when it's locked. Like I said though, you can pay a fee to disable them. It doesn't bother me too much yet though. 

Another con for some people is the fact that the Amazon App Store doesn't have as vast a selection as the Google Play Store. That doesn't bother me too much either because they have most of the app's I use. (Facebook, Twitter, Pandora, Netflix, Pinterest, Ebay, etc).

But, I did discover a way to get around this. I stumbled upon a mobile site called: 1Mobile.com. You can download so many more free Android app's & games for your Kindle Fire. To install the 1Mobile App to access the store on your Kindle, you have to go to settings/device and select on for 'Allow installation of applications from unknown sources'.

Of course, there is always a chance an app may not work or be compatible. Most of the programs I've downloaded so far have worked though. (I downloaded Instagram! The Amazon App Store doesn't even have that yet! And it works just fine on my new Kindle).

Apps I've downloaded from the 1Mobile.com Market that work on my Kindle Fire HD:

• Instagram
• 6ABC News Philadelphia App
• The Simpsons Tapped Out
• Opera Mini Browser 

I'm still getting used to things that differ from the original, but all in all so far, I'm pretty pleased with my new Kindle Fire HD.

And, because that shiny new Kindle Fire HD is now on my Amazon credit card. I am selling my original Kindle Fire 7" 8GB on eBay. It comes with the original box, original charger, 2 screen protectors, a stylus & a cute vintage sleeve case. It is in pristine condition with no scratches on the screen. (Reserve is $120).

I've taken some books out from our e-library and I've also bought a few for my Kindle Fire. (Eek! I get my Kindle Fire HD 8.9 on Nov 21st, I can't wait! So excited!) I love to read. I read on the train home from work and I also love reading at night before I fall asleep, I've done that since I was a child. My favorite genres are mostly: History, Historical Fiction, Fiction or Biography.

Here's what I've been reading lately:

1. Rena's Promise: Two Sisters in Auschwitz



I LOVED LOVED LOVED this! I've always had an obsession with Holocaust history. Of course Anne Frank started my obsession, but I've wanted to dig deeper, and this book is beyond fascinating, real, in depth & raw. I've read this 3x's already. (Rena Kornreich Gelissen).

2. Sarah's Key



I liked this, but I didn't love it. It's a bittersweet story, told from two different time periods. But I wish it was more in depth and you got to know the characters better. This fictional book takes place during World War II. 

3. Surviving the Angel of Death: The True Story of a Mengele Twin in Auschwitz



Can you see a theme with the books I've been reading lately? I actually watched a documentary on Netflix, that the author of this book; Eva Mozes Kor did. (It's called Forgiving Dr. Mengele). It was really good. This book is written more for young adults so it doesn't delve as deep in depth as I wanted it too, but it's still a fascinating read.

4. The Archivist : A Novel



This book also takes place partly after World War II and then again in the present. It's told from the point of view of a man in his 60's who is an archivist at the university library he works at. He is in charge of rare unreleased T.S. Eliot letters (the poet), that a curious college student in her early 30's wants to see & she reminds, Matt of his wife that committed suicide years & years earlier. The letter's aren't to be released yet though. There's a lot of flash backs in this book. But it's written so well... and now I'm contemplating buying a copy of this for myself. (Took it out from the e-library). It's really intriguing.

5. Anne Frank's Family: The Extraordinary Story of Where She Came From, Based on More Than 6,000 Newly Discovered Letters, Documents, and Photos 


 
I can't remember if I shared this one in a prior post, but it's another book I purchased recently. If you are interested in Anne Frank's family history this is definitely a good read. It tells a lot of the background story of her relatives.

(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a product when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!) 
 
 

*As of 2017, I currently feed my pet rats Oxbow Regal Rat. 

Since 2007, I have mainly used Nutro Natural Lite dog food for my rats base diet. It had all natural ingredients and the fat and protein contents were low. When I first started feeding them Nutro, the protein was around 15-18% and the fat 7-8% over the years.

Fast Forward to 2012. Nutro has decided to change all of their foods to a 'New and Improved'formula. The fat is still 7% but the Protein is now 23%! Which is really too high for adult rats. I'm very disappointed, as I've been using Nutro Natural Lite for almost 5 years. All of their other formulas the fat and protein contents are just too high.

(Pet rats should have no more than 8% fat and their protein should really be no more than 20% in a base food. Less is better, 5% fat and around 15-18% protein is ideal). 

Sooo... the search for a new food begins. I've fed Harlan Teklad lab blocks in the past. They are just hard to buy in big quantities because the brand mostly sells to labs or rescues. You can buy Harlan Teklad lab blocks on MRR or The Rat Shop
  
(Lab Blocks are the most nutritionally complete diet to feed pet rats). 

Harlan does sell their product under the name 'Native Earth' on Pet Food Direct. (*As of 2017 petfooddirect was sold to chewy.com, & they've discontinued Native Earth. A 40lb bag of Native Earth 4018 (4018 is equivalent to Harlan Teklad 2018), only costs $20. I've also heard of Oxbow Regal Rat. Which is supposed to be almost as good as lab blocks. 

There are also two more dog foods I was considering: Natural Balance Reduced Calorie dog food. (Very similar ingredients to Nutro Natural Lite, but the protein is 18% the fat is 8%) And a food one of my rat blogging friends recommended: Solid Gold Holistique Blendz. Another all natural dog food. With 6% fat and 18% protein.

There are also mixes you can feed like Suebee's diet, but I myself don't like those so much for their staple diet, because the rats can pick & choose what they want to eat out of the mix.

For now I've just decided to go back to ordering the 40lb bag of Native Earth (Harlan Teklad) lab blocks. Eventually, I may try either Natural Balance or Solid Gold. I was thinking about it though... and spending $14 on a 5lb bag of Nutro Natural every month, compared to the 40lb bag of Native Earth for $20, does save me some money. *As of 2017 petfooddirect was sold to chewy.com, & they've discontinued Native Earth.

Of course remember, you should try to incorporate fresh vegetables and fruit into your pet rats diet. And it's always best to check the Forbidden Food List before feeding any new food to your rats.  

Another tip for new rat owners: That bag of "rat" food from the small animal aisle at the pet store; (Petco, Pet Smart, etc), is usually no good for rats at all. Foods like Kaytee pellets, contain alfalfa which is hard for rats to digest. And other bagged mixes contain dried corn (may cause cancer) and other fattening nuts, etc; that rats should not have as a staple diet. The foods mentioned above are much better choices for the health of your pet rats. 

Check out my blog article about pet rats: Why Rats?!?

(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a product when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!)   
  

So excited! I've been following the news very closely about the release of a newer bigger Kindle Fire from Amazon.com. I've owned the original Kindle Fire since it came out on it's release date in 2011. I love it, I use it every day, on the train commuting, at home in bed, etc. (Here's my blog entry on the original Kindle Fire).

This afternoon was Amazon.com's press release to talk about the new products. (I was following along on Twitter for all the updates!) They are releasing 3 different new Kindle Fires. Kindle Fire HD 7" & 8.9". Plus a Kindle Fire HD 4G. Kindle Fire HD 8.9" also comes in either 16GB or 32GB storage. (I ordered the 16GB). They are available for pre-order on Amazon.com and will be released November 20th, 2012. I will be selling my original Kindle Fire once my new one arrives. :-)

• 1920x1200 HD display with polarizing filter and anti-glare technology for rich color and deep contrast from any viewing angle
• Exclusive Dolby audio and dual stereo speakers for crisp, booming sound without distortion
• High performance 1.5Ghz dual-core processor with Imagination PowerVR 3D graphics core for fast and fluid performance
• Dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi for 40% faster downloads and streaming
• Over 22 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, books, audiobooks, and popular apps and games such as Facebook, Netflix, Twitter, HBO GO, Pandora, and Angry Birds
• Integrated support for Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! and more, as well as Exchange calendar, contacts, and email
• Free Skype video calls with front-facing HD camera
• Free unlimited cloud storage for all your Amazon content 

I've updated my header banner with some cute little "Polaroid" photos. :-)

Click to view full size- or just look above! lol!

Thought I would share two albums I'm listening to right now:



Favorite songs off this album:

1. Teenage Dream    
2. Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)      
3. California Gurls
4. Firework    
7. The One That Got Away    
8. E.T.
9. Who Am I Living For?    
11. Hummingbird Heartbeat
14. Part Of Me        
15. Wide Awake    


Favorite songs off this album:

1. One More Night
2. Payphone    
3. Daylight
4. Lucky Strike  
6. Love Somebody  
12. Beautiful Goodbye
13. Wipe Your Eyes

(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a product when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!)  

I hate the original Croc's. I think they are so ugly! My Dad bought a pair of knock off Croc's and he wears them in public, lol. In the Philippines when my husband and I would walk past the Croc's store I would cringe.

But.... lately, I've been having some foot issues. My left heel has been bothering me for awhile. I have really high arches and I think it may be plantar fasciitis. I also get a lot of charley horse cramps in my calves. I do a lot of walking with commuting to work and this year with these new aches & pains my Havaiana's flip flops just aren't doing it. And I cannot wear sneakers or shoes in warm weather, I just can't!

So I looked online and did a little research and discovered... Croc's has some really cute style's now. They even sell high heels! All of the reviews say their shoes are really comfortable. So I gave in and went to the Croc's side. I ordered the Adrina Flip Flop. In Aqua/Celery. I got them on Zappos.com.


I've been wearing them for almost a month and they are so comfortable. Plus I love the tread on the bottom of them, it's more like sneaker tread. I've noticed the pain in my left heel has decreased significantly even though it hasn't disappeared.


I just ordered another pair of the Adrina Flip flops on Amazon.com today. I got the Magenta/Purple ones. Can't wait to get them, I really do love them!


(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a product when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!)  


 

I LOVE my Kindle Fire. I use it every day. I use it on the train to read or listen to music or browse the web. (I use my T-Mobile Sidekick 4G as a router). I use it on the train platform waiting for my train because there's free wi-fi at 30th Street Station. At work on breaks I might read a book or look at a magazine. At home sometimes instead of my laptop I'll browse the internet and read books before bed. Sometimes I watch Netflix on it too.

I've had my Kindle Fire since the day it was released. (About 5 months). When I would play a game and then exit the game, sometimes there would be this burned image of the game on my screen sort of invisible. I thought it was a just a glitch, so I'd restart my Kindle and it would be fine.

But then it started doing it with other things. Sometimes the search bar would burn into the screen & the navigation bar, so that when I rotated my Kindle I would have 2 dark stripes running alone the screen and if you looked closer you could see the ghosted icons. That wasn't going away even when I would restart. I would sometimes get the keyboard burned into the screen, or the icons on your home screen. It was getting really irritating. I tried to doing a factory reset which wipes out everything from your Kindle Fire, but that did not help. The ghosting was still happening.

I searched for the issue on the Amazon website, on their Kindle Fire Help Forum. There was topic about the ghosting and burned images. It seems a lot of people are having this issue. It's some sort of defect with some of the Kindle Fires.

I contacted Amazon by using their 'Contact Us' button. They must be there 24 hours because I called on a Saturday night at 9:30pm. The customer service rep asked if I had done a reset (holding the button down for 20 seconds). I told him I had done a factory reset and that hadn't resolved the ghosting on the screen.

He told me Amazon would send me a replacement. I just had to send the damaged one back in the box of the replacement with the prepaid UPS label they would email me. They ask for the last 4 digits of one of the credit cards on your Amazon.com account. If they don't receive the damaged device back within 30 days they will charge your account the full price for the Kindle Fire plus shipping.

My replacement Kindle Fire arrived in 2 days! (So I didn't have to go through Kindle withdraw too long, hehe!). Then I packed up my old Kindle and we dropped it off at a UPS store to be mailed. Amazon got my old device back within 2 days also.

Soooo... just beware my Kindle Fire fans. This is an issue with some of the devices. If your Kindle is under warranty Amazon will replace it. My 2nd Kindle Fire is working perfectly and I hope it does so after 5 months of use. Hopefully there will be no need for anymore replacements!