Happy Friday-day everyone! This day could really not crawl by fast enough, but work ended eventually and I got to plant by butt firmly in the sofa corner with a bottle of nail polish. Hey now, don’t judge, we all have our vices – I hardly ever go out, so I get polishes instead. My vanity AND my liver thanks me for than one! Marius and I are going to spend the night stuffing our faces and watching a movie, as soon as we can decide on which one to pick. We’re stuck between Watchmen and Star Trek right now, but who knows where we’ll end up. Marius hung up two brand new shelves from Ikea above his desk the other day, and I asked him if they’d become our new DVD shelves. “No”, he replied. “Those are for the Blurays only”. See what I’ve got to deal with? I’m not allowed to bring home DVDs anymore! And the DVDs we already own are banished to the book shelf.  I think I might smuggle them over to the Bluray-shelves when he looks the other way.

Ok, polish time! The one I got yesterday was IsaDora’s #700 “Bel Air Blue”, and I’ve got all kinds of love for it, although it’s a bit too goopy for my taste. I need to get myself some nail polish thinner.

Ok, the boyfriend is showing signs of movie-readiness now, so I have to press publish. Enjoy your Friday! :)

P.S: I made a fan page on facebook! Clicky if you want to spread the love!

There’s probably no surprise to you at all that I’m the vainest person I know. Really, I could rack my brain for days, and no-one else I know would be able to top me. Me putting on eye liner before I go to the gym is a running joke among my colleagues. And if you’ve been reading my blog for the past few weeks, you might have picked up on my growing nail polish obsession. It’s turning into a surprisingly expensive obsession, let me tell you, especially since I discovered O.P.I nail polishes (plus all those other little bits and bobs that you really really want need to keep around). So I made it the theme of day 13 of my 365 day photo project! Are you feeling my hand modeling skills?

Now, let me walk you through this, left to right:

1: Nfu-Oh’s Cuticle remover. This makes gunky, gnarly and dry cuticles – well – disappear! Miss Airam already wrote a great post about this one, so I’ll hand you over to her if you want to know more about it.

2: O.P.I Nail Envy Nail Strengthener for sensitive and peeling nails. My nails just don’t chip at all when I use this one. It’s perfection!

3: O.P.I Top Coat. Shiny Goodness.

4: Gosh #540 “Ocean”. The color of the day.

Now, I’m not going to pretend I’m some sort of expert here – Let’s be honest, I’m the newbiest newb that ever newbed – but I do know where to send you if you want to learn how to do a great manicure.

First of all: Nails for dummies. Feeling a bit more advanced? How to make your manicure last. Fretting about getting the nail shape wrong? This is how you get it right.

I’d add more links, but come on. They’re nails, not brain surgery. You can figure it out from here. Have fun! ;)

P.S: I cannot recommend glass nail files enough. They make such a difference. Mine has little Swarovski crystals on it, because I’m fancy.

A few minutes later I had a small bag in my hand, and had been convinced. Never more goopy hair or hairy lips. Colored teeth? Not if you take a few extra seconds to check the mirror. Dry lips? Buy a moisturizing lip stick, silly! Afraid the color will wear off? Here’s a trick: After one layer, press your lips against a tissue to remove excess color. Then take some face powder – yes, powder – on a brush and dust it over your lips, and follow with another layer of color. Volià, you just added a few more hours of wear! All in all, I’m a total convert. There’s no going back now – I’m a lip stick girl.

And speaking of, you know the gift card I won last week? A great opportunity to try Chanel’s new Rouge Coco. It’s supposed to be the perfect thing for those of us who want to go from gloss to stick – super moisturizing and long lasting. I went for a nice summery coral called “Égérie”, and it’s really quite lovely.

It’s probably the most expensive piece of makeup I’ve ever bought, but it also oozes quality. Something tells  me I’ll be picking up a few more shades as soon as I stumble across a tax free store.. :)

What it looks like on…

Keeping within the Chanel theme, I figured it was high time to break out the duo-tone tights. Big thanks to Airam for keeping me from looking like a harlequin! :)

Oh my.. The most aptly named gadget ever!

Ok, deep breaths. Phew! As you might have deduced by now, I’ve received my new phone, the HTC Desire. I got it yesterday morning, and ended up leaving for work 45 minutes early just so I could pick it up from the post office on my way there and get some extra fiddling-time before work.

First of all:

Cutest box ever? Oh yes, I would think so.

So I plugged the phone into my PC at work to charge it, and switched it on. First impression: The screen is gorgeous. Big, crisp and clear. Setting up my Gmail took about 2 clicks, and it was the same for my Flickr account, Twitter account, Facebook and secondary email. Syncing contacts from my old phone was a piece of cake, and if I click on a contact I get the option to link it with the person’s Facebook, Gmail and Flickr account. I have downloaded WordPress to it so that I can blog on the go, and if I visit another city it will automatically notice and change for instance weather or time zone settings. At one point I thought to myself “Hm, I wonder if it’s difficult to sync it to my google calendar?”, only to notice that it had already done so by itself.

I finally have a smart phone that is actually smart. Hooray! This is my first HTC phone, and I am more than pleasantly surprised. No doubt, this is my new favorite gadget :)

1) The smell of leather. I could smell this thing all day.

2) The charm of handwritten notes and the joy of being able to cross things out when you’ve the things you planned to do that day.

2) Blank pages, waiting to have new ideas scribbled on them.

3) To do lists. Checking boxes is just as fun as crossing things out! (For you English readers, the to dos for 2010 are “work out three times a week”, “save up money”, “find apartment”, become tidy”, “Eat breakfast”, “Get long hair” and “Become blood donor”)

4) Award stars to the local takeaways.

5) Plan outfits and draw on bob-haired naked lady.

6) Knowing what you’ve got to look forward to.

7) Keep life’s necessities close at all times :)

1. Daily planner. Despite being obsessed with gadgets, I still prefer to keep my daily plans in pen and paper. There’s just an extra charm in a hand-written, leather-bound journal, you know?

2. Wallet

2. Glasses (Yes I wrote 2 twice, sue me!)

3. Card holder

4. My business cards, despite the fact that I do not actually have a business :)

5. Headphones/handsfree

6. Lip balm / Lip stick

7. Black and red pens

8. Kleenex

9. Hand sanitizer

10. Black kohl eye liner

11. Mirror

12. Phone

13. Another phone. Yes, ANOTHER phone. I have a spare phone number you see, for when I borrow phones from work. And I can’t just have a simcard floating around in my bag, so I put it inside an old phone to keep it safe.

14. Painkillers / Antique pill box

15. Key card

16. Bag holder from vesker.no. It’s a small hook that you put on your desk/café table to keep your handbag off the floor! Neat, huh?

17. Last but not least, my keys.

When I walked home from work yesterday, at 8pm, I felt like le poo. I’d been getting strange people on the phone all evening at work, strange beyond the usual head,-meet-desk slash facepalm variety. We’re talking notalwaysright.com levels of strange. So I trotted home through the ice and slush that covers the streets of Bergen these days, passing passing people on their way out to parties while trying not to glare at the girls in stilettos and mini dresses and thin thin pantyhose. I thought to myself, “I don’t care how hot you may look, it’s not worth getting your bits all frozen!”. Then I realized that I sound like I’m about 50 years old, and felt even crabbier.

It did get better, though. I met Maren and Kenneth on my way home, I got to whine a bit and I got a hug. Aw, friends! Then I got home, where Marius had prepared dinner for me. I had told him I wanted gratinated pasta, and he had completely misunderstood me. I’m not allowed to elaborate on this – I asked over and over again if I could please get to photograph his dish, but no luck. I still spent some good ten minutes laughing, though. Aw, boyfriends. I did give him an A+ for effort.

In other news, I finally received the moonstone ring I ordered! The photo doesn’t quite do it justice, so click here if you’re curious about what a moonstone looks like :)

My dirty mouse mat doesn’t quite help doing it justice, either.

I’ve also borrowed a Nokia n900 from work. As far as phones go it’s a giant and weighs a ton, but I love it. It can do everything and then some. I no longer want an iPhone. Let me put it this way – I haven’t owned a Nokia phone since my Nokia 3410. But now they’ve won me back over.

Ok, time to start the day! The landlord is coming over to inspect the apartment later today, so I need to do a bit of tidying :)

New earrings. I had a gift card left over from Christmas (Thanks sis!) that I had to use, and found these pretties after work yesterday. I went straight back today and got them :)

A rubik’s cube. I don’t know why my workplace wants to hurt me, they must not know how  scared to death I am of any kind of IQ-type game. I can do colors, I can do words, I can hit notes and draw a mean giraffe. Puzzles leave me sweating and angsty. I still haven’t started twisiting it, because once it’s messed up, it will never look this way again, ever.

Nokia sweeties! I guess my job don’t want to hurt me after all. I must say, of all the phone manufacturer sweeties I’ve tasted so far, Nokia’s knocks everyone elses out of the ballpark. If the whole phone thing ever collapses, they should start selling these!

Nokia backpack. Supported by my foot, because I’m classy like that. Only the hallway had proper lighting, shut up.  Notice the lack of huge logos. Love it!

Another freebie – more snow than I’ll ever know what to do with. Spring is right around the corner, right? … Right?!

In other news, we’re going to see our new apartment again tomorrow, and I’ll ask very politely if I can take a few photos to show you. Sunday is contract signing day, and on Tuesday we’re having the first person to come over who might take over the apartment we live in now. Things are moving so fast, I absolutely love it. Only thing left to figure out is who’s available to help us move – we don’t have a car at all, we’re not muscle men, and we have tons of stuff. I have a driver’s license, but I’ve never driven in Bergen before, so that’s out of the question. I have a feeling we’ll have to whip out some serious bribes :)

1. I’ve written two bachelor papers – one on the use of Medusa in art, and one on the land art movement. I didn’t have to write two, I chose to :)

2. I still own a Furby.

3. I hate robots.

4. I used to play the flute and sing in choirs.

5. I hoard perfume, I’ve got way more bottles than I’ll ever empty. I currently switch between Chanel’s Chance and Boss Orange.

6. I LOVE note books.

7. I’ve watched the movie Mean Girls more times than I’d like to admit.

Phew! Ok, on to part two of the post:

Things that appear out of nowhere.

What’s that big black square in the corner..?

I came home one day after work and THIS was in our apartment. I had to give back my borrowed Intuos 3 before Christmas (BIG thanks to my brother-in-law Tom for lending it to me!) and was very sad to see it go. So imagine my surprise when this thing appeared out of nowhere! Marius has decided to pick his drawing hobby back up, so he bought himself this baby without telling me. I’ve been assured that I’ll get to borrow it as often as I want. Whee! <3

It’s fluffy and I love it and I ordered it in black as well.

I also cleaned my makeup brushes, because clean brushes feel really nice

And I tried my new purchases from MAC – Studio Sculpt foundation, Select Moisturecover concealer, and Select Sheer/Loose Powder.

Actually, I’ve had today off from work because I’m working Saturday instead. It was grand – I got to sleep in, watch Oprah, drink tea and read blogs all morning. It was just like being a student again! Then I went to meet up with Maren in town to see “Valentino – The Last Emperor” at Bergen International Film Festival. Highly recommended for anyone who has an above average interest in fashion! Now I only need to get my hands on those two Coco Chanel movies plus “The September Issue“… Maren wanted to do some shopping afterwards, so I tagged along – without buying a single thing. I am saving up for when it’s time to move, after all!

That’s basically it – I have a busy weekend ahead of me, so I don’t expect I’ll have time to sit down and breathe again until Sunday. Got to go enjoy the rest of my evening :)