Let’s Talk About Fashion

Do you love fashion?

Maybe you don’t love it so much…

but, you do like to look nice and stay up to date the best you can.

I thought it would be fun to talk a bit about fashion over the next few weeks.  Trust me, I know I’m not an expert by any means, but, I do love it.  If you haven’t heard it before, here is my tiny story about me and the fashion world!

I’m sure you know my story….growing up we were extremely poor.  I guess poor is a good word. My mom raised three kiddos alone and I had an alcoholic father.  To say money and things were tight is an understatement…but, that story is for another day.  I can remember as a little girl looking at the Sear’s catalog at all the little dresses and loving everything.  To this day, I remember a black polka dot dress with a big white collar and a black bow.  I LOVED that dress and I can still see it in my mind today.

When I went in to Jr. High, my Aunt made me a set of cute tops to go with the hip hugger bell bottom jeans that I loved and of course my “waffle stomper” boots. That was before my “cowgirl” era.

I took homemaking in 7th grade and learned how to sew.  I began making a lot of my clothes.  My Aunt gave me patterns and material and I went to town. Not literally to town…I went to town, sewing up a storm.  I remember my mom using those expressions when I was growing up.

After high school I was working in an Oil and Gas office in West Texas and dreamed of going to school to become a fashion designer or merchandiser.  I eventually got a job in a department store and fell in love with everything that had to do with fashion.  I checked into Bauder Fashion College and when I found out the price, I knew it was impossible.  So, I set that dream on the back burner.  I later read that our local community college was going to offer a course on Fashion Merchandising.  I signed up immediately.  I couldn’t wait for the day that class was to begin.  The day of the class, I went to the college, parked and happily walked to my class.  As I got to the door, I noticed a sign on the door  that said, “Class Canceled Due to Lack of Interest.”  I was shocked.  “How could anyone not be interested in Fashion Merchandising!”  Again, my dream was put on the back burner.

Without going into more detail, let’s just say, “Welcome, to Beverly’s Fashion Class!”  Now that’s funny, isn’t it?  I’m sure that those that know me well, really do think that’s funny!  No worries, I’m laughing along with you.  That’s the beauty of having my own blog, I can write what I think and feel like an expert.  That’s even funnier!  Let’s get on to what I wanted to talk about today.

*Disclaimer……Trust me, I know I’m not an expert….I’m just sharing what I know!

As I was painting my nails today, I thought, “Perfect!  That’s what I’ll talk about first….Nails!”

I’ve always taken the best care of my nails as possible.  I went for many years never painting them.  I would file them and go.  As a mom, I always had my hands in something, so painting them was for special occasions.  They also would break very easy, so they were never really long.

I’m thinking about 15 years ago, I fell in love with acrylic nails.  Woohoo….beautiful nails and didn’t have to worry about chipping etc.  The main problem was….I don’t handle pain very well and each time the drill was set to my nail, I was dying inside.  I couldn’t stand the sound and when they would slip and hit my skin, I just knew I was going to lose a finger.  I will spare you the details on that, let’s just say, the lady that I went to probably hated to see me coming.  Oh, I have to share this story…..

One time, I thought I would try someone knew.  The husband of the lady that I went to regularly would do my nails every once and a while.  One particular time, he hit the side of my finger with the drill and I jumped and jerked my hand back.  He set his drill down and refused to do my nails.  I had to wait for his wife.  Yikes…if he only knew how brave I was being.  He eventually committed suicide.  I know!  Terrible!  He was a very kind man and I loved his wife.  I think he had some serious personal issues.  I hope I didn’t send him over the edge.  She was in the process of moving after the tragedy.  So….I tried a new lady at a new shop.  Oh.  My!  This lady was hilarious.  She was having all kinds of problems.  How do I know?  She was on the phone the entire time of working on my nails, yelling at whomever she was having problems with.  She used this file on my nails and took her anger out on my nails.  The skin around my nails were bleeding a bit.  She then put my finger tips in some type of alcohol.  I was on fire and couldn’t take it.  She then said “Maybe you aren’t cut out for nails.”  I said, “Maybe so.”

My career of acrylic nails was over.

I then discovered an amazing product.  Sally Hansen’s Gel.  It’s a two step process and I have been using it for about 4 years now.  Many times, the polish will stay on for almost two weeks.  Love!  It’s also very easy to take off with regular polish remover.  If you choose a polish that has glitter in it, as this one in the picture, it will take a bit more work to get the polish off.

I choose a nail color that goes with my color palette.  We all have colors that look best on us than other colors.  We will be talking about that in one of my fashion posts, too.

I also began taking the supplement, Biotin about two years ago.  Most days I forget to take it, but, I’m trusting that is why my nails are doing better.  Biotin is for hair, skin and nails.  I have very thick hair, so I don’t need it really for my hair, but, it can’t hurt, can it? We will talk hair, soon.  Do I have hair stories?  Oh, yes, I do!!!

Remember my story about my nails?  Well, I’m not much better with my toe nails.  I go to get a pedicure when I want my toesies to look really good.  I usually paint them myself, but, I love going and getting dry skin removed etc.  But…wait, there is more.  I have struggled with ingrown toenails on both of my big toes forever.  Yes!  It hurts so bad if I let my nails grow and I don’t fix them.  Yes, I could go to the doctor and get them removed, but, I may have to go on morphine just thinking about it.  I have just stayed on top of it and made sure my nails were trimmed properly.  It’s been a wild few months and I finally went to the nail salon last night and had a pedicure.  Let’s just say, IT HURT!  But, my nail tech was so good, patient and gentle.  She stopped and asked me a couple of times if I was okay.  Through my tears, I said, “yes, I’m being brave!” I will make it a point to stay on top of it better to where it won’t hurt like that again.

I have a foot cream that I use every day.  I’ve used this one for about two years and really love how it leaves my feet soft and moisturized.

The hand cream that I am using right now is by Mary Kay.

I also like using the Satin Hands set by Mary Kay about 2 or 3 times a week.  It makes my hands feel so soft after exfoliating and then applying my hand cream.  Not to mention, is smells wonderful!

There you go, that is my Fashion Talk for today.  Not too fashiony, but, you can have on a really sharp outfit and if your nails look like they’ve been caught in a cheese grater, it might take away from your image a little bit.

My Pinterest has a board with all types of nail ideas.  Click here to see.  A girl can dream, can’t she?

Do you have hand, feet and nail products that you love?  Share it with me.  I’m always ready to give something a try that works for others.

Thank you for being a reader of my blog.  If you are a subscriber, thank you!  Always know that your email address is safe.  You can always unsubscribe at any time.  Trust me, I know how it is.  I subscribe and unsubscribe from blogs regularly.  I am really loving Instagram these days and have been “hanging out” over there a lot. I usually post my blog updates, there as well.

Take care of your hands, nails and feet!

2 Comments

  1. I’m really excited to follow along on your fashion posts. I always love your background stories you give with each post.

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