Yoshi Nails and Split Pea Soup!

Hello everyone! I was feeling especially nerdy today, so I came up with a Yoshi design. For those who don't know who or what Yoshi is, he is a dinosaur type character from the Mario games. He's a fun character. He's known for having a long tongue and shooting out eggs. So I wanted to make a design using his eggs and his face. I ended up doing the design a little differently then I have intended too but here was the final result:

Left hand

Right Hand

Here's my inspiration for this manicure. A Yoshi egg and Yoshi himself. He is such a cutie!

This was the first time I went all out on doing freehand. It looks enough like Yoshi, which surprises me haha. And oddly, I am right handed but the right thumb came out best, despite me painted with my left hand. Go figure! 

                 

Left Thumb

Right Thumb

The eggs were simple to do, just paint all of your nails white and use a light green polish and dotting tools to make the three dots for the yoshi egg.

What I used:

• Base coat: Essie ridge filling base coat
• Base color: OPI Alpine Snow (three coats)
• Dots for eggs and yoshi: Sinful colors Happy Ending
• Yoshi's tongue and spikes: Essie Really Red
• Yoshi's eyes: Sinful colors Black on Black
• Background color for thumbs: Sally Hansen Blue me away.

I also have a treat for all of you! The weather has been rather gloomy and cold here in Arizona lately and on days like these, I love to just relax and enjoy a nice warm bowl of soup. Most recently I made a crock-pot full of split pea soup. It was delicious!

What you will need:

• A decent sized crock-pot
• 1 (16 oz) package of dried split peas
• 2 cups of diced ham
• 3-4 medium cut carrots
• 1/2 of a medium sized onion, chopped
• Two stalks of celery, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tsp. parsley flakes
• 1/2 tsp. dried Italian seasoning blend (includes oregano and thyme.)*
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 6 cups of hot water

*If you don't have Italian seasoning blend, use 1/4 tsp. oregano and 1/4 tsp. thyme

Directions:

1. Layer ingredients in crock pot as listed above. 
2. Pour in water. Do not stir. 
3. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours (I cooked mine for 10) 
4. Remove the bay leaf.
5. Enjoy!

If you are curious, the recipe I used (but tweaked) can be found here. What kind of soups do you like to have on a cold, gloomy day? I hope you all enjoyed my post for today! 

Until next time,

☮Erin