Vinylux Summer Brights Kit Giveaway!
Enter to win this awesome kit!
First things first! I’m doing another giveaway! Another Vinylux Summer Brights Kit. To enter, you just need to comment below in the comments section and tell me a favorite summer memory–you can enter once a day too if you’d like so write back each day with a new summer memory. I’ll start it off 🙂
Here are a few rules:
1. Contest ends June 14-Flag Day!
2. I’ll ship anywhere, but won’t guarentee a safe arrival of the product.
3. You can enter daily by commenting on this post and telling me some of the reasons you love summertime! Or by sharing this picture on Instagram daily and tagging me in the pic with the hash tag #chicnailstylesgiveaway. Find me on Instagram @chicnailstyles! 🙂
Becoming A Nail Tech Was A Fun Journey!
A lot of girls in the beauty industry always knew they wanted to be a hairdresser or a nail technician or a skincare expert ever since they were litte. I wasn’t necessarily one of those girls although from as long as I can remember I’ve had a fascination with wanting my nails to look amazing.
In high school I applied for several colleges and thought for sure I would go to school and get my degree, although I wasn’t sure what I wanted to major in. I went to Alaska four or five days after graduating from high school and worked at Glacier Bay Lodge for the summer and I think that threw all my college plans out the window. I had a little bit too much fun and didn’t realize college was actually fun and not just a bunch of hard work.
Coming home from Alaska, I moved back to Panaca, Nevada where I was raised, and worked as the assistant volleyball coach for a season at the high school. I then made the big move to St. George for a brief stint and then on out to Connecticut and worked as a nanny for six months which was a great experience!
After all the moving around in my early years I learned family was the most important thing in my life and settled in St. George, which is where I have been ever since. I met my husband Jason the first month I moved back and worked in his restaurant, The Fairway Grill, for over a decade. The restaurant business was reallly tough but my husband and I learned so much and it offered us so many opportunities we may never had received otherwise. We were in business with his brother for all those years and back in 2008 we finally decided it was time for us to part ways, which was probably one of the toughest decisions we have ever faced.
It was a really bad time to decide to start our lives over because the Great Recession was just starting to build in momentum and neither of us could find jobs. I eventually landed the Store Manager position at Bath and Body Works and did that for almost a year before I realized corporate retail management was not for me. Although that position was extremely demanding, I learned so many valuable insights with The Limited Brand about marketing and training and selling.
We decided when I put in my notice at BBW to short sale our house, which thank goodness did not go through because I LOVE my house. It’s the cutest little cottage right downtown in St. George. Here’s a pic:
Isn’t it adorable! 🙂 Here’s a pic of me and my hubz and son in our front yard too..
We have so many great memories at this house so I was thrilled when we were able to keep it. The short sale process was a nightmare, as I’m sure many people can relate to, and thank goodness we were able to work out a deal with our bank in order to keep it. I should tell you while we had the restaurant we were also investing in real estate and moved every two years or so–I was even a licensed realtor for about five years! We’ve had some very elaborate houses over the years but my little 1950’s downtown cottage has been my favorite home by far. I have a lot of hopes and dreams for this house…
So back to my story…I started nail school at Hot Nails Salon in Washington, Utah right after I quit working at Bath and Body Works. Jason and I thought we were going to have to move out of St. George because we were having such a hard time finding jobs. We considered moving back to my hometown in Lincoln County, Nevada and even considered moving up to Juneau, Alaska for Jason to finish his degree up there. Nail Techs are in high demand in rural areas it seems…
I honestly am a little bit surprised we decided to spend thousands of dollars on my nail course at the time because money was pretty tight, but I figured it would be something I could do no matter where we went. It was one of the best decisions we made and everything in life has been falling into place ever since….
An assortment of my first professional nails…not too shabby 🙂
Nail school was a blast and upon graduating I worked at Hot Nails for a few months before I transferred to Studio 359 just three blocks away from my house and worked there for about three years.
When I first started working at Studio 359 my husband was working from home as a Front End Web Developer so I could spend a lot of time down there building my clientele. I absolutely LOVED working in the salon and having the opportunity to meet so many interesting people! I think one day I will go back to the salon enviroment–possibly even next year as soon as Westin is in school full time.
Being a nail technician is just the same as running any business!
I have a lot of business experience so I think I understood customer service and business models pretty well and I was able to operate with a full clientele within two years of receiving my license. It didn’t hurt that Studio 359 is probably the busiest salon in town either. 🙂 It was a demanding career as well and could be extremely difficult trying to schedule my clients around my homelife, which I think ultimately helped me to decide to take some time off to be with my son more (and hopefully have another baby!).
I love that I am able to continue “working” in the beauty industry through my blog! I want to stay up on current trends and products so that when I do decide to re-enter the workforce 100% I won’t be totally out of the loop. I am also slowly working on finishing my degree through online classes and hopefully will have a Bachelor’s in Business Marketing within the next year! I currently have no intentions of pursuing a job with another company…I love being self employed and just love working on building my business and seeing it evolve on a daily basis!
If you have any questions about running a nail business, I would love to help you out!
Ask me anything about your nail business! I will try to answer as best as I can! Also be sure to enter my contest by telling me your favorite summertime activities! Or by reposting the pic on Instagram! Enter daily for more chances to win!
Oh! I wanted to share a few pics from our family vacation to Sedona, Arizona! I got to spend five days with my brothers and sister and mom and dad and stepmom and stepdad and 8 neices and nephews and my handsome hubby and wonderful son! It was awesome! It was also the reason I’ve been MIA the last ten days!
This was at the Cliffdwellers Monument outside of Vermillion Cliffs along the Colorado River
I absolutely love Sedona! We stayed at the Sedona Summit Resort and I highly recommend the 2 bedroom suite!
Tootles-Anna
I want to take Westin up to the Veyo Pool this summer! I have so many amazing memories going there as a kid–my grandparents used to live in Veyo right on the edge of Crawdad Canyon and we could hike down to the Pool from their backyard! I just LOVED it and know Westy will too! :-))))
My favorite summer memory is actually a feeling. I love the very first day of no school, sleeping in, care-free. By day two, it has worn off, but I love that first day!!
I totally understand that feeling now that Westin is in school! I missed it for the last 15 years!!!! :)))
Anna, I love the fact that you are producing/posting a more complete story of what you have done. To me, this is worth all the short guick comments which end up on FB. Congratulations! I think if more people posted their extended stories there would be more compassion and connection, as it is, they are all fragments and fragments seem to result in dis-connection. We are all related, not just as a family but as a human being connection. Thanks. check out my website and also the FB page Toulouce Art Gallery, for some reason no one (family) seems to find it even though it is there and I post art on it constantly.
Thank you so much for taking the time to write Aunt Diane! That was a wonderful thought and comment! :-))) I will definitely check out your FB page and website–I am so sorry I missed it somehow! In fact I’ll dedicate a blog post to it soon! I love hearing about your Hawaii adventures :-)))) Aloha! :-))))
I want this giveaway so bad!! Anna first off you are amazing and I am so grateful that you are blogging. I miss talking to you while I get my nails done!! You are such an amazing person inside and out. I hope you come back to do nails again an ill just drive from Farmington down to get mine done!:)
Ok so favorite summertime memory would also have to be the BBQ’ing!! Who doesn’t love BBQ’s in the summer?! That certain smell that you get from the BBQ and the all you can eat watermelon. I love when it’s a family friend event and all your friends and family are over kicking back and relaxing and enjoying the nice summer night. Making more memories but reminiscing on the old ones. I LOVE BBQ’s!
You would love this polish Aly!!!! It’s so amazing :))) I’m so happy to hear from you too!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE summer BBQ’s! One of the best things about summer time FOR SURE! :))) Thanks girlie! :))))
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Summer time at the beach is definitely one of my favorites!
I love summer at the beach too Nicole! We are heading there next month and I couldn’t be more excited! We are going to the California Central Coast, going to spend a few days around Santa Maria/Pismo Beach and then head down to Santa Barbara–I can’t wait to see that part of California!
Wow! I really loved reading this latest post in your blog, Anna. Sometimes I have felt like “I haven’t done anything of importance” (except raising my family which I feel is The Most Important/Worthwhile thing I have or ever will do in my life) but, in the way of working at a job….until I write a resume or read one I have filed. It makes me remember all the things I HAVE done, work-ways.
Your blog post, listing all the jobs you have had since leaving HS is fascinating and I am amazed at the wonderful experiences and VIP jobs you have had, even in your very early stage of entering the job market.
I still miss Fairway Grill so much. You just can’t find that kind of good, totally made from scratch, kind of food anywhere in town and different people I run into all lament on this; everyone of your faithful customers misses it badly. Those were special days for sure.
I need to add a pitch for my business at the time of my “Wall Art” (custom painting). Harv and I have many good memories of painting walls in the Fairway. I loved the music you had going on that great radio, add-free station and we would stay late at night, painting and listening to those great songs at kept us going. 🙂 After you chose to have the women’s bathroom painted that deep purple color (which I loved) but others complained it felt like a cave (I like cave feelings) and asked us to redo it…we literally stayed up ALL NIGHT painting that…you were open 7 days a week so it was impossible to do a full day job of painting in there and that bathroom took all night to redo! 🙂
I was very proud of you for your various jobs, coaching the B Team Girl’s Volleyball right out of HS, your great love (and it showed in all our beach reunions as it never took too long to get the volleyball games underway and even some of the g’kids joined in on those and were good at it!)
You made Bath and Body a fun experience. I never was really “hooked on it” much, although I loved the scents in there. But you added all the little touches customers love and made me feel so special the minute I walked into the door. You took that job very seriously and I think, brought the whole store up to a new level! (Loved the personal hand massages I would often get; a prelude to your nail tech business. haha)
Okay: My favorite summertime memory: One of many but I want to post this as it is a memory from long, long ago. I grew up in Las Vegas. People think of it as always being warm. Not so. The winters were icy cold as the winds would blow down off of Mt Charleston and it was freezing many times. I remember as winter gave way to spring and as the weather began to warm up enough and my mother would allow me to go barefoot for the first time of the new summer. Stepping out on our lawn with bare feet. It was just a thrilling feeling. I can’t even describe it. I think it was a combination of total freedom (no shoes) and planting my feet on Mother Earth unencumbered and the grass tickling my toes for the first time after a long, cold winter…it just was a very strong sensation for me. Maybe it symbolized SUMMER.
When you do my feet, you gag at the dead skin on my heels and work hard getting the bottoms of my feet back to feeling baby-soft again. They feel so good, I swear I won’t ruin them by going barefoot but now that I can make my own choices; I succumb to my natural instinct to dump the shoes as often as possible. It’s just easier to run around barefoot I guess. This is why the bottom of my feet have all that built up callous and dry skin on them I guess.
Anyway; this has been one of my favorite posts on your blog. I think it has touched a lot of your readers at a core level. As Diane said, when we share meaningful things and not just “chatter”, it is like warm honey to our souls.
We live in such busy times. We really need to take the time to slow down and connect. In the end, those are the things that mean the most.
I hate to think of the day you go back to work full time though. I hate to see mothers who have to split their home life with their work life. I think kids need Mom “on call” 24/7. I was one of the lucky Mom’s who was able to just stay home. The few little jobs I had when I was raising you kids made me think, yuk! I don’t want to bring all these other people into my private life and make the things they do and say (some very mean) anything I have to deal with. I loved just staying home and creating my own little environment and not dealing with a whole new set of people that had little to do with my “real life”.
Again…good post, Anna! Thanks for the memories of your life. It was fun strolling down memory lane with you as I read it. Love you. Mom
Haha thanks for the post Mom! I don’t gag when I do your feet…I just reprimand you…and I feel for you 🙂 I know dry feet can hurt…but now that I know about your favorite summer memory I will lay off and let you enjoy your callused barefoot feet 🙂 Thanks for all the nice things you said! It makes me feel good to know you think it’s good that I’m not working full time…I question it on a daily basis right now whether I should stay home or go back to work. It’s good to hear reassurance from other people 🙂
We need to make some fun summer memories this year! :))) love you!
Sorry that was so long!
don’t be sorry! Sorry it took me so long to respond! 🙂
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