Quotes

I really like Quotes, most of them help me in situations when I feel down and need to be reminded that everyone has a bad day once in a while or that I am loved no matter what, or they just make me laugh or make me think. I love posting them on facebook because sometimes they can tell people things how I feel without me actually saying anything. Today was one of those days were I had so many things to say but didn't dare saying it myself into peoples faces so I just said it through my quotes and it made me feel better even though I doubt the people I wanted to adress really noticed...it helped anyways. One fantastic source for quotes is Pinterest (and not just for quotes) and so i spend my day there. I will share some of them with you, those are my favourites, not just today.

Source:

Irene via Anne Black on Pinterest

Source:

Irene via San on Pinterest

Source:

Irene via Kevin Chen on Pinterest

Source: google.com

Source:

Irene via Jessica Cooper on Pinterest

Source:

Irene via Jessica Cooper on Pinterest

Source:

Irene via San on Pinterest

and my favourite:

Source:

Irene via Ryan Ahrens on Pinterest

P.S. the Drama continues...or well, it actually got worse, and while I am still willing to help, I am not quite sure if I am the right person for it (more likely she needs to find a good psychiatrist for it). Plus, I feel like talking to a brick wall, I say things to cheer her up, she agrees, it makes her stop crying and I am happy that she feels better. Next day she decides to do something totally different from what we had agreed on, is unhappy again and I am the bad person in the end... *sigh*

Irene

Drama

Oh how I hate Drama going on, but sometimes it happens and then you have to deal with it. Lots of Drama going on behind the scenes here right now, not in my own life but a friends but it kinda involves me because I am a person who is always willing to help and I sometimes even unintentionally involve myself in drama by asking if there is anything I can do to help and BOOM, right in the middle of it and not getting out so easily.

So I am pretty much occupied by that these days plus my own life and problems (which are tiny compared to the ones my friend has to deal with) so sitting down and writing something interesting and witty is not on my list right now, sorry for that.

I hope to be back soon!

Irene

Friends

Last night I was home alone (it has become a regular thing these days with hubby being gone on business trips for at least one night almost every week). I spent the evening on the couch, TV on and chatting/writing online with my friends on my Echelon FB Groups. We are mostly girls, so the majority of the time is spend discussing how hot Jared Leto is, or his brother Shannon. But we also share stories about our lives, we laugh and cry together, we share everything from “YAY, I am getting a Mars Tattoo” to “I feel so down today, it’s not even funny anymore” I can talk to them about everything. Great to have such friends you might think, lucky me to have them, good to be so close to someone you can share so many things with. Well, guess what, I haven’t met any of them in real life, to be honest, I haven’t even known them for more than a few weeks. But without giving it a second thought I call them friends. And I share my bad days with them, frustration and all.

While getting ready to go to bed I thought about it and then I decided to write a post about it. I have a weird habit, if I think about blog posts, I usually think about a title first and then, whatever is written in the post has to do with the title. I don’t write random stuff about what I did the last few days and then give it a title, if three things important happened in the last two days I would write 3 posts and address each of them with their own title (yeah, I am weird like that). I read once that titles are important, with email being the most important way to communicate; you have to catch the reader’s attention with a title. Untitled emails are not taken seriously because something untitled is considered unimportant. If you don’t make an effort to give it a title, it can’t be that important. So I tried to find a title, thought about “talking to strangers”, “communication” or “social media” but decided this would be a post about friends, old ones, new ones, strangers who became friends (and friends who became strangers) and more.

Let’s start back before 2000 and the whole internet thing, I was an Au Pair in the USA in 98/99, thousands of miles away from home. I had to use the phone, pay huge amounts of money for those calls or write letters, you know with a pen and a piece of paper, I would use this thin, blue airmail paper, one of the first things each morning would be walking outside the house to check the mailbox (not turning on the Computer to check my mailbox like today – some days I even forget my “real life” mailbox). Yes, I did have an email-address, but no one really used that way to communicate (yet). Keeping in contact wasn’t as easy as it is now. During my time as a counselor for future Au Pairs I sometimes couldn’t help but laugh. Those girls would usually ask me if they will have their own internet access at their host family because they want to talk to their parents/friends every night, otherwise they would feel so homesick. The world is so connected these days. Back then it was a huge effort to keep in contact with everyone and yet we still managed to stay friends. The funny (or sad) thing is that I lost contact to one of my oldest/longest friends (we have known each other since kindergarten, so almost 30 years) a few years ago, despite having Emails and Facebook. We wrote letters to each other every other day back in 1998, I was 4000 miles away but it didn’t matter. Flash forward 10 years, I moved 400 miles away and she became a stranger. She told me once we have grown apart, not only distance-wise but also emotionally. I guess emails don’t transfer emotions as good as old fashioned letters do. I am really sad about it. There are sooo many ways now to communicate, to keep in contact, to stay close to each other but it didn’t work. Emails are a lot faster than phone calls but not as personal. She actually told me she would end our friendship by sending me an email, she didn’t even bother to make it personal and call me. It hurt and still does 3 years later. I send her an email back asking her "why" but never got an answer, I didn’t want to call because hearing her actually say it would have made it even worse.

But all those new ways of communicating can also be a blessing. I found so many old friends, from Elementary school, to people from my exchange stay in Canada, to my host children from the time as an Au Pair. I can keep in contact with friends who moved thousands of miles away. I can see pictures of the baby-girl my friend from High School had, even though she now lives in Melbourne, Australia. I was able to follow the life of a friend with whom I had had a huge fight and stopped talking to, she wrote about her ups and downs on a blog and eventually after a few years we started talking again and being able to follow what had been going on in her life it was like we had never stopped talking. I can read stories from strangers who are brave enough to share them publically on their blogs and I can learn something from them. I can write down my own stories, struggles and successes. I have the opportunity to find new friends. And the anonymity of the WWW makes it a lot easier to become friends with someone. You can share almost everything, you can be silly and you can be sad. You can write down everything and people can decide whether or not they want to read it. For me it is much better than talking to someone (like a therapist).

Yes there is also a contra-side. You never know if these people are really who they pretend to be, you can get along great online but might not like each other in real life, people can act, people can be fake. But honestly, that can also happen with people you meet in real life. You meet and get along great, but then you might disagree about something and start arguing and all of a sudden that person is not someone you like and want to spend time with anymore. People can always play a role or be fake. And yes, it is kind of weird to be friends with strangers, not everyone will understand it, probably only those who have done it themselves, only people who blog or are on Facebook regularly will understand how normal it is. It’s the modern version of “pen-pals”, just way faster than sending letters.

I also make friends in real life, and great ones. I wouldn't want to miss them, sometimes spending an evening on the couch talking to a real person is much better than spending it on the couch talking to friends by typing your words into a computer. I have yet to meet some of my online friends and hope they are as wonderful and awesome in real life as they are in the alternate universe of the WWW. I am sure you can have both...

Here are two (of many) great blogs I read, check them out and see for yourself:

www.theinbetweenismine.com: one of the first blogs I stumbled upon when starting my blog-journey a few years ago. San is German, but moved to California to be with the man she loves and has been there for a few years now. I took me a while before I actually commented on something she wrote, but after exchanging a few words I was sure San was as lovely as I had already thought she is from reading her stories. We have yet to meet in person (I hope that will work out one day), but I REALLY like her already. And here is also a huge “Thank You” to her for caring about me without even really knowing me in person.

www.mattlogelin.com: a great blog from a great and absolutely brave person (I think). I came across the blog because it was mentioned on another blog I read. I recommend reading it yourself, it is too huge to explain. Matt lives in Los Angeles, he lost his wife a day after she gave birth to their first daughter, she died from a pulmonary embolism without even holding their daughter once. He wrote about the pain and the life as a single father with a newborn after losing the love of his life. He reached out to all those strangers out there and became friends with a lot of them. And they helped him get back on his feet. Read it from the beginning but be prepared, it takes a few hours because once you start you can’t stop reading and be sure to put a huge box of Kleenex next to your Computer, it will make you cry (but also laugh, I promise)

So here is to old friends, new friends, close friends, friends far away, real life friends and online friends...I love you guys!!!

Irene

9/11

So yesterday was the 10th anniversary of 9/11. I can’t believe it’s been 10 years already. 2011 also is the 10^th anniversary for me and my (now) husband. We had just started dating a few weeks earlier back in 2001.

I remember the day like it was yesterday, I remember where I was when I heard the news, I can still tell you exactly what I did afterwards. I remember being in total shock, not only because of what had happened but also because it directly affected me. If my life had taken a slightly different turn a few months before I would have been there, in New York that day. I had been sad for a few weeks that my plans hadn’t worked out, but right then I was glad they hadn’t. I know, it is a historical day, usually people would say it is great to be there when history is created, but I think I am better off with not having been there.

I was living and studying in my hometown in Germany. I lived in my own apartment, about 25 minutes from my parents. That day I was on the bus, on my way to see my parents. It was 3 pm in Germany, I was going to have coffee with my mom and my siblings and we had tickets for a Circus Show that evening. My boyfriend sent me a text message while I was on my way, telling me that there had been an accident and it seems like a small plane had crashed into the WTC ( I think it said something like “a Cessna has hit the WTC, I heard it on the radio”). He was at work and was listening to the radio. I had to change from the bus to the metro outside the central station and I went inside to the main hall because I knew they had a huge flatscreen TV there. The usually busy and loud hall was awfully quiet and there were a lot of people there, staring at the screen. The second plane hit and everyone was shocked. I stood there for quite a while and couldn’t believe it. They were showing it over and over again and finally I decided I wanted to go home to my parents as fast as possible. I made it to my parents’ house and when I came in I asked “is the TV on” and my mom told me that the first tower had just collapsed a few minutes ago.  We sat in front of the TV for the rest of the afternoon; we also called my dad to discuss if we really wanted to go to the Circus that night. He came home as soon as he was able to leave work and brought some flyers they had been handing out across town about what had happened. We did go to the Show even though no one really felt like it. My dad said it wouldn’t be fair for those Circus people, who had been planning and practicing the Show. For me it kind of felt wrong to enjoy myself while at the other end of the people died.

I was even more affected by the attacks because I had a good friend who was in New York that day. I knew him from university and he was there for a Semester abroad. A few months prior I had heard that my university offered a Scholarship Program with the New School New York. It included Tuition and a small monthly payment for living expenses. They only had two places available though. I applied, hoping I would be able to spend a Semester in New York. I had come to love the USA after my year as an Au Pair and wanted to return. My friend also applied and we were already making plans about spending the semester together as we didn’t know about anyone else who had applied. Unfortunately (for me) shortly before the application deadline was over we learned that we weren’t the only people who applied and in the end he got one of the Scholarships and I didn’t. I was sad and frustrated for a while but then I met my (now) husband and was kind of glad I didn’t have to leave soon for 6 months as we had just started dating in August. I thought that I will definitely get the change to go to New York again, maybe I would just apply again the next year and I had planned to visit my friend in New York. He left at the beginning of September and I remember that he actually visited the Twin Towers only a few days before Sept. 11. He showed me pictures later on. On the day he was already in school but the other german Student who had gotten the Scholarship was still on his way to classes (he was in a few of my classes back home but I hardly knew him). He had to hide in the metro somewhere and was traumatized afterwards, he nearly gave up the program. It took two days before I reached my friend on his cell phone and heard he was OK. I was shocked that I would have been there if things had worked out slightly different.

I hate how the world has been affected by the attacks, especially the USA. I remember my year as an Au Pair in 98/99, life was good back then. I fell in love with the Country and wanted to return as often as possible, maybe even to live and work there, and 9/11 made it soo hard to do that. It just changed everything. My husband and I were in the US for our vacation (in Florida) on Sept. 11, 2002. It wasn’t intentionally, we only realized it after booking our flights and hotel that we would be there that day. I remember it was on the news and the radio all day and we felt slightly weird. We were discussing if there are any landmarks which could possibly be attacked in Florida (like Cape Canaveral) but decided that no one would probably be stupid enough to attack at the same day again. I also hate how unsecure I feel when I have to fly now. I never had a problem with flying until I was on a scary flight a few years before 2001, so even before 9/11 I already didn’t like being inside a plane, now I am already scared when I enter the airport, I start shaking if anything out of the ordinary happens, everyone becomes suspicious to me.  I used to love travelling; now I am an emotional nutcase if I think about flying. I hate the world being at war with everyone and each other, people are easily scared, nations start fighting over nothing, the war on terror now cost more lives than the attacks themselves.

Life will never be the same, never be as carefree as it used to be when I was a kid. My children will grow up in a different world. I wish they didn’t have too, I think my childhood was much better than theirs will ever be, because even though the world wasn’t perfect it was much more peaceful.

Irene

Spinatknödel/Spinach Dumplings

This is one of my absolute favourite Recipes, we almost always cook it when we have guests and our friends totally love it. It's a recipe from South Tyrol, where we spend our Easter Holidays every year. Last year we even took a detour on our way home because we hadn't had the chance before to eat some.

German Recipe, scroll down for English Version

 

60 g Zwiebel

200 g Blattspinat, gekocht
2 EL Butter
2 Eier
50 ml Milch
30 g Käsewürfel
1 EL Mehl

150 g schnittfestes Weißbrot, in Würfel geschnitten, oder Knödelbrot
1 Knoblauchzehe
1 Msp. Muskatnuss, gerieben
Pfeffer aus der Mühle, Salz

Weiteres:
30 g Parmesan, gerieben
70 g Butter, gebräunt

 

Die Zwiebel und den Knoblauch schälen, klein schneiden und in der Butter dünsten. Den Blattspinat fein hacken, dazugeben und mit Salz, Pfeffer und geriebener Muskatnuss würzen. Den Spinat mit den Eiern in einem Mixer oder einer Moulinette pürieren. Den pürierten Spinat, die Milch, die Käsewürfel, das Mehl, Salz und Pfeffer zum Weißbrot geben und kräftig durchmischen. Wenn notwendig, mehr Toast oder Käse dazu geben. Etwa fünfzehn Minuten zugedeckt ruhen lassen. Inzwischen einen großen Topf Wasser zum Kochen bringen. Mit nassen Händen oder einem Löffel Knödel formen, die Knödel in das kochende Salzwasser geben und sieden lassen. Die Spinatknödel auf Teller oder eine Servierplatte geben und mit geriebenem Parmesan und brauner Butter servieren. Garzeit: 15-20 Minuten

60 g Onion

200 g leaf Spinach, cooked

2 Tbsp. Butter
2 Eggs

50 ml Milk
30 g Cheese, cut into small cubes 

1 Tbsp.Flour

150 g Toast, cut into small cubes

1 garlic clove

Nutmeg
Pepper and Salt

 

To serve add:
30 g grated Parmesan

70 g browned Butter

 

Peel and cut Onion and Garlic, melt Butter and roast them in a pan. Chop cooked Spinach, mix with Garlic, Onion, Salt, Pepper and Nutmeg. Mix chopped Spinach with Eggs and puree with a Blender or Food Processor. Mix Spinach puree with milk, cheese cubes and Flour, add Toast pieces. Mix to make a sticky dough. If necessary add more Toast or Cheese.Let sit for about 15 Minutes. Boil water in a huge pot. Make Dumplings with wet hands or two spoons, drop into boiling water and let simmer for about 15-20 minutes. Arrange on a plate and serve with brown butter and grated parmesan cheese.

 

Enjoy!

 

Irene 

The Echelon

It is not easy to describe and explain the Echelon. But I will try because I promised you a story about Me, the Band and the Echelon.

Me, you know me already, or at least that bit about me that I shared on here. I was unhappy with my life and the Music of 30 Seconds to Mars helped me and changed me. The Process of Change was fucking hard, it made me insecure, I questioned myself and I cried a lot. I am still very emotional when it comes to everything related to me and the whole Band/Echelon thing. I means a lot to me.

The Band is called 30 Seconds to Mars, they have been around since 1998 but actually became famous only a few years ago. Most people probably got to know them because they publically fought a war with their record company who had sued them for 30 Million Dollars, apparently because they broke their contract. Following the lawsuit they released an Album called ”This is War” and they have been on tour for most of the time during the last two years. They are Jared Leto, known by a lot of people because of his acting career, his brother Shannon and Tomo, who used to be a Fan himself and was lucky he is such an excellent guitarist so he would be able to become a band member when the Band needed a new guitarist.

At the beginning there was the Echelon and the Mars Army, the Army being their overall group of Fans and the Echelon being a group of dedicated Fans organized in Street Teams who would promote the band on the Streets or online, posting Flyers or doing small Missions like collectively requesting a certain song to be played on the radio, to make other people aware of the band. But over time it evolved, with the Internet, Twitter and Facebook connecting people worldwide and now the Echelon involves every dedicated Fan.

Becoming an Echelon means entering a worldwide group of fiercely dedicated fans, People who would live and breathe the band every day, who discuss every little thing about them, who listen to their music every day, who go to see them live as often as possible and much more. Some of them even follow the band around the World/Country/Continent they live in. But the Echelon is more. I am sure there are other bands with equally dedicated fans that follow them around. But the Echelon is also about connecting with others, connecting people around the world, the love for this band brings together people from all age groups, religions, gender, believes  and countries. Most of them feel that the music has helped them during difficult times in their lives. All of them will be able to tell you how Mars and their music has helped or changed them and how happy and grateful they are for meeting others who can relate. If you enter the World of the Echelon you are greeted with a warm welcome, you are accepted as who you are, people won’t judge you, and the Echelon know if you love the band, you surely can’t be a bad person. We, the Echelon, call ourselves a family and the Band also calls us their own, worldwide, kind of crazy and dysfunctional family. As there are members all over the world you are never alone, no matter what time one of us is online, if you ask something or need someone to talk, there is always someone there.

I read something about Jared Leto once where he said he was always kind of an outsider, an odd kid; he and his brother grew up in communes, the parents separated and their mother became part of a group of hippies, always on the move, so they already kind of grew up in a dysfunctional family environment. The music they make is also kind of odd and special, it doesn’t really fit, same with the Music Videos, they are all special, especially the one for Hurricane, which was banned from a lot of TV Stations for being too sexual.

I was an Outsider as a kid and even though it bothered me, I didn’t think about adapting to fit in. I just became friends with others who were like me. But when you grow up, get married and have kids it is necessary to adapt to the life and world around you, to fit in with the other normal, married couples with kids (or at least that is what I thought I had to do). I did that, but apparently it didn’t fit me. I wasn’t myself anymore and therefore unhappy. Finding Mars and becoming an Echelon helped me realize that no one should adapt just for the heck of it, people either like you the (crazy) way you are, or not. I learned that everyone should follow their dreams, to be the person they are or want to be, no matter what others think. That everything is possible if you just believe in it and yourself.

I have found friends through the Echelon, that are like me, right now they are still only online friends because they are scattered around the country and the world, but I hope to see some of them soon at one of the concerts. I feel like I can tell them a lot of things and they will still like me, they will care and help, laugh and cry with me. I have never made friends so fast like I did with the people I met on my Echelon Groups.

The Echelon in a Phenomenon, who knows if it is just a trend and will long be forgotten in a decade or two. It is odd and weird, most people call it a Cult, it makes them uncomfortable that people care about it so much, some people have called it a sect and say that everyone of the fans has been brainwashed (which by the way is not true). It is different, it is something new, that hasn’t been there before, it is worldwide and that probably scares a lot of people. If you are not a part of it you won’t understand it. That is OK as long as you respect me and the others for what we do and like and for who we are. I might not be part of it anymore in 10 years but I will always remember how it helped me in a time when I really needed it.

As Jared Leto once said:

“Some people ask us if this is a cult, I say this, it’s something special, it’s not for everyone, it’s only for those who understand”

If you want to learn more, ask. Or go online. There are hundreds of pages on the web that will tell you about the Band and the Echelon. BBC 1 shot a short film and also recorded a one-hour Radio Documentary about Mars and the Echelon. Listen, read and enjoy…

Be who you want to be, follow your dreams……..Jump and touch the Sky!!!

Irene

Obstacles

Well, I am still not sure about posting my whole story but I will tell you an important part of it.

Life hasn’t been easy during that last year. First of all, hubby got promoted, which is actually a very cool thing and I am happy for him. But with it came a lot of responsibility and a lot of travelling. When he got the offer he told me he will probably be gone at least one night a week, maybe more or sometimes even a whole week. When he asked me if I would be OK with it I said sure, go for it, while at the same time I was dreading being alone with the kids and the stress and the feeling of loneliness, but it was good for him. We had considered moving back closer to my parents as we had to find a bigger place anyways, now that we had two kids. And for his business trips he usually has to go to his Company’s Headquarters which are close to my parents anyways. But we both decided we rather wanted to stay here with all the friends we had made. In the end I think it wasn’t the best decision, but oh well. I had to get used to spending days or weeks alone with the kids, it was stressful and drained a lot of my energy.

Then I got a notice from my doc, during a regular check-up they found something unusual which required another closer check. I don’t want to go into detail but in the end I had to have surgery twice to remove tissue which showed signs of abnormal cell growth, which most likely would have turned into cancer if left alone. I was shocked, as soon as my doc said cancer; I was thinking “I am going to die”. As it was found very early, not even close to being malicious, I am definitely not dying from it. But it required surgery, being anesthetized, spending 2 weeks on the couch both times, check-ups, and more check-ups and a lot of waiting for the results. I was told that usually they get all of the abnormal cells removed in one session. There is only a minimal risk of needing another surgery. So yay, lucky me hit the jackpot and needed another. I fell into a hole after getting the results from the first surgery and they said there might still be some cells that haven’t been removed. I felt miserable, I cried, I didn’t have energy anymore. It was during the winter months and so on top of that I got a really bad case of the flu, I had migraines and back problems from all the coughing. I cried all the time and stayed in bed for days. I tried to “keep my shit together” for the kids but couldn’t. I was one of the worst times in my life. I had also somewhere in between lost my job and we had moved which came with lot of work because we had to do some renovations at the old apartment and settle into our new house.

.

The second surgery came and went, I spent some days on the couch and waited for the next check-up. Healing was slow, but OK. I overall felt a little better, still very stressed, easily upset, tired ALL.THE.TIME, had mood swings and couldn’t concentrate very long, but sure everything would work out in the end. We went on vacation with my mom over Easter and I tried to relax as much as possible. Afterwards I called the doc who had done the surgery for results and he said all the cells have been removed. I was happy!! But as always, there is a BUT… I had to see my doc for a regular check-up and he told me that there is something odd with my results. So I had to see the doc at the clinic again and I am now waiting for the latest results. I am soo sick of this rollercoaster of good and bad, up and down, happy and sad.

During this last year I have changed a lot. Even more that I have in the years before. At the beginning I was a housewife and mother of two, working as a freelance Counsellor from home. Then I became sick, lost my job, moved, was upset all the time, tired, frustrated, couldn’t stand my kids being loud and rowdy and drawing away from my husband, I didn’t like my life, myself or anything around me. It got better at times and then it got bad again, then better, then worse. And then I found something that helped me,  that brought back my old self. Not the one from before the miserable time but actually the ME that I had lost a few years ago, the happy one, the crazy one, the one that would walk around singing. I found music that described how I felt; I found a band that I liked. I became a fan again, just like in the old times when I was still young; there was something that made me happy. I connected with other fans and found out that the music had helped a lot of them through equally hard times. I will tell you the story later, it is an odd story. It involves me, a band called 30 Seconds to Mars and a huge, kind of dysfunctional, worldwide family of fans called the Echelon.

I am still not over all of this, there is still a long way to go until the day when I can say “I achieved what I wanted, I am happy with my life and I wouldn’t want to change a thing”. There are still days when even my music doesn’t help, days I will spend on the couch, knowing I should be doing something, even if it is just the laundry, but finding even that too hard to do.

Today is one of these days.

Nailpolish

Something light and funny today, even though I wrote a VEEERY long post/story about myself and the process of change that is happening in my life right now. But it's not only very long, but also very personal and kind of dark and moody so I will keep that for a day when I feel about sharing it. And as it is almost bedtime i will keep it short today.

Let's talk weird hobbies and addictions right now. I am addicted to nailpolish. It has been worse before, especially in my teens and twenties but it is slowly coming back (part of the change process I guess). I used to paint my nails all. the. time. I wouldn't go out with naked nails, I spent hours and hours painting them (one reason I stopped, with two kids you don't have hours and hours for it). Different colours on each nail or pink, black, green, purple, glow-in-the-dark, french, you name it...whenever I go shopping and there is an aisle with cosmetics and nail polish I have to stop and always find something nice I would  like to have. Nowadays I usually stop myself from buying more because I rarely use them, I have so many different kinds that still have nailpolish which is 10 years old (but still good).

Now that my kids are a little older and there is no risk that one of them will eat my nailpolish because they suck on my finger (which actually didn't happen much even when they were babies, only while teething I think) I think I will get back into the habit of painting them. I like painted nails, it looks good, and cultivated and It makes my hands look longer (they are kinda short and chubby - like me) :) And my daughter loves getting her nails painted so it's a fun mommy-daughter thing to do now.

I'll say good night now and leave you with a pic of my collection and my nails coloured in my newest addition - neon pink:

Irene