IT'S NEW YEAR'S EVE - BFD

I find the new year holiday a complete waste of time 99% of the time. I'm only going to give it a 1% thumbs up because a couple of years ago Kev and I were in Ludington, Michigan at his mom's, and we went downtown to their ball drop. Now, this may seem like a no biggie kind of thing since Ludington is a very small town, but the Mitten Bar actually made the top 8 in the country for places to go for a ball drop. Kinda' cool.

Today I headed up to the ortho doc to have my shoulder checked. That went very well. He was shocked at how much movement I have, and I don't even have to go to physical therapy. All he said is to keep doing whatever the hell I've been doing and no lifting for awhile. Let my pain be my guide. I wish I would have had that damn surgery 2 years ago....would have saved myself a whole lot of pain. So that's a wrap on the shoulder issue. I don't have to see him any further unless I run into a problem which is highly unlikely at this point unless I lift something and re-tear it. SO not gonna' happen.

I did take some (a/k/a a LOT) of time last night to do a sparkly mani since I'm going to dinner with my mom, bro, sis and her hubster tonight. If things go as they usually do, I'll be home by 8:30 at the latest.  Tomorrow Kev gets home, and we'll eat turkey dinner at my sister's. Be still my heart.

For this one I did two coats of  China Glaze Medallion. Then I used striping tape and went over it with black. I liked it at first, but I liked my black/silver herringbone one a whole lot better.

I probs should have done something with one of my holiday stamps but nothing really got me excited. I wish something had because it would have been a whole lot faster than this thing was.

Not that it really matters that it took some time. It was Tyler's last night here so we sat up and watched movies until way too late anyway.

Now I'm off to get ready for dinner.  After that, I'll wait for the new year to start, and while I don't do resolutions, I will be wishing on a star for a better year than 2013 has been.

Happy New Year to all of you!!!

MADE FOR A "QUEEN", a/k/a ME!!!

I officially feel special! Over the past year, 20 of us in my nail group decided to send birthday giftage to each other. My birthday was December 26th, so it was a long-ass wait for my surprises. It was well worth the wait, and this is just one of the reasons why.

Too Cute-icle makes some fab polishes, as you already know from when I did a review of three of them awhile back.  One of the sneaks in the group had her make a polish just for me!! The name of this purple gorgeousness is "Queenly".  For whatever silly reason, somehow I've acquired the nickname Queen in a couple of nail places on Facebook. Queen Bee, Queen Bitch...take your pick. It works for either depending on my mood, I suppose. Either way I don't mind. It's not like I can deny the bitch part of it. LOL

I probs should have waited to post this one until I could photograph it in the sunshine since it's a holo, but I couldn't wait to show off a polish made just for me. It's such a gorgeous "royal" shade! It's packed full of glittery flecks that I'm still waiting to see the full effect of since it's just been cloudy, cold and gloomy here.

When you have a birthday on December 26th, it can tend to be a bit of a letdown. Growing up I didn't get shortchanged on giftage, but I never got a birthday cake or a party. Seriously, with a house full of of holiday baked goods, the last thing my mom wanted to do was bake a damn cake. And it certainly wasn't a great time to throw a party.

As a "grownup", after all the busy-busy of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, when I wake up on the 26th, I kind of just lay around and try to recover from everything. It was fun this year having a bunch of little surprises to open.  

Like I said, I officially feel special. :)

O' CHRISTMAS TREE

This will be a short post in the few seconds I have before I trot my happy ass back out to the kitchen.  I've been a baking fool the past couple of days, and I'm in the home stretch. My dinner rolls are shaped, and I'm just waiting for them to finish rising so I can bake them. And then eat them. Because they are a delight. 

Before I get to bake those, I have to finish dipping marshmallows in white chocolate for my brother. I think it was 5 years ago when he was saying how much he loves chocolate covered marshmallows and can never find any. Because I'm a genius, I decided I would attempt to make those for him. I think that year I just did milk chocolate. He went batshit for them so it makes me feel obligated to do that for him every year. At some point he decided he likes the white chocolate ones I did the best so I get to skip the brown ones. I already did one dipping on two bags of marshmallows, and now I have to go get the double dipping done.

Since he is even more obsessed with white chocolate covered Oreos which are only sold at Christmas, I decided I'll try a package of those this year, too. Hopefully I do not regret this decision. lol

In the meantime, here's a mani I did with striping tape for CNS back in October. I almost forgot to post it.  I guess it's now or never because I won't have any time tomorrow for a post.

Painted them red, slapped on some striping tape, painted them green and called it a Christmas tree.  I used a yellow rhinestone for the top and called it a day. It turned out the way they wanted it, so that's good. I think if I were to do it on my own, I'd jazz it up a little, but whatevs.

So now I'm off to finish the baking. I really want to wrap it up so I can at least make an attempt at a Christmas mani for tomorrow. Late last night I just slapped on a coat of red, but I want something a little more interesting than that for Christmas. Sheesh. A plain color for a holiday? 

I think not!

SOOO TIRED OF WRAPPING

OMG, we (in other words, I) buy waaayyyy too many presents at Christmas time. We buy for everybody in the family, and I have a tendency to get just a smidge carried away. Growing up I probs didn't realize it so much, but my siblings and I were pretty damn spoiled. My Christmas morning always had wrapped packages from the tree all the way to the middle of the living room for the three of us kids. To me that was just normal.  Even though I knew it was more than my friends got from Santa, when you're 7 or 8 you don't make the "spoiled" connection.

Once I got older, got married and had the girls, the going overboard with gifts just continued on. Hell, it still goes on. I cook Christmas Eve dinner, and everybody comes. It's wonderful even though my house isn't really big enough for 10 adults and 3 grandkids. When we're finished eating, my mom and siblings give the grandkids their presents to open, and then they head off to church while my daughters and their families head out to their dad's.  A bit later the girls and hubbies come back and we exchange gifts, and then we all go to my mom's usually around 10 p.m., we eat some snacks and then we open our gifts. The packages still go to the middle of the living room. 

We always take turns opening, and there are 10 of us adults doing it, and there were many years when it took until 3 a.m. to finish up. We try to do it a bit quicker now because my girls have the other sides of their respective families to be with the next day. Lack of sleep is always an issue. For myself, I don't care. It's once a year, and I'm going to enjoy it as much as I can. My mom is 85, and I don't want to take a minute of our traditions for granted. That being said, she's a very young 85, and it wouldn't surprise me one bit if she outlived most of us. lol

It's excessive and ridiculous and I love it. I love, love, love buying for everybody.  Ever year I say I should cut back, but it never happens. This year I spent more than ever before. I just can't seem to help myself. It's just so much fun watching them open! Griffin is 3 now so he should really be fun to watch, and Peyton is 8 so she'll be a joy, too. Treyson is 14, so that childlike attitude is switching to a bit more grown up. He is a freshman in high school; I guess he wasn't going to stay little forever no matter how much I willed it.

Now that I'm probs going to be jobless, we'll see what happens next year since I won't have the money I usually set aside every week specifically targeted for Christmas shopping. I'll try my damndest, tho.

Now, as much as I like the gift giving, I do not particularly care for the wrapping. It takes hours and hours, and I always end up with a very sore back from sitting on the floor doing it.  

CNS requested this mani, and doing this wrapping was a lot less work.

This was another one of those "quickie" mani's before my surgery so I didn't even bother taking note of what I used. They asked for red, green and purple. So that's what I did. Pretty basic. I had to do the bows freehand, and as you probs know, I am not a fan of my freehand work. So for me it's just kind of "meh".

For some reason last week my right index nail came loose. Apparently all this sitting around took its toll. Weird. I pulled it off and set it on my end table so I could reapply it. A few minutes later Baylee wanders over to the table and for some reason decided she should steal it. WTF? I look over and she's chomping, and it took me a minute to realize what she probably had. Luckily she decided it didn't taste so delish and dropped it on the rug. Thank God they are guaranteed to not break because even though I saw her chewing, there wasn't a mark on it. I'm glad she didn't swallow the damn thing. I have an extra one, but still....

And I don't think Kev would have appreciated me having him "search for it" in the snow, if ya' know what I mean.

Hey! Don't forget to please go vote for my snowflake mani over at the China Glaze contest if you haven't already! :)

HOLLY AND BERRIES - A WINNING COMBO

Let the actual Christmas festivities begin!!! Yesterday we hopped in the car for our annual trek to lower Michigan to do the holidays with Kev's side of the fam. We left home around 9:30 a.m. and got to his sister's at 4:30 p.m. Lordie, I really hate long car rides. At least the roads were good.

Once we arrived we hung out for a bit and then headed out for dinner at a sushi place. Sushi = YUMMERS. I really wanted a steak to go with it, but per my usual luck lately, they were out of filet. Seriously. The restaurant was out of steak. On a Wednesday. Good Lord. So I doubled up on my sushi, which also took a hit because "white tuna" was crossed off the menu. Naturally it was; it's my fave. The regular tuna and the yellowtail were delightful, though, so I didn't complain. 

Today we are going to head out to do some Christmas shopping for his family. The gift sitch with this side of the family is much more laid-back, and we always seem to do it last minute, which I hate. No matter how many times I ask what we're doing starting right around Thanksgiving, I never get any ideas from anybody and nobody tells me what the plans are, so we end up shopping the day before. Drives me a wee bit crazy. But we'll get 'er done tomorrow.

We're staying here in Kalamazoo for another night, and then on Friday we'll head up to Grand Rapids to my other sis-in-law's house. There will be a completely ridic amount of food throughout the day; we'll all gain 7 pounds or more; and then we'll exchange gifts. I'm looking forward to seeing everybody. We'll spend the night there and then head back home on Saturday.

I finally did my nails on Sunday night, and for once I'm actually pleased with the freehand work I did. So much so that I left the mani on for the whole week. I thought this was cute enough to wear for the trip and didn't bring a single item with me to change them out. I like them that much.

I started this look with two coats of Loreal Because You're Worth It, which is a really nice shimmery gold. It tends to be one of those polishes that show the brush strokes, but I took care of that issue with a coat of Seche Vite.  

Recently I've been doing some shopping over at Nomorerack, and I've really been getting some great deals. I bought a set of 6 flameless votive candles for $9, and what's really cool is they aren't just plastic. They are actually wax and vanilla scented. I also found some toys and a few clothing items that were seriously a steal.  I love the site; shit-tons of stuff and $2 shipping. They also do 3 hour segments almost daily where shipping is free, and they send you an email to let you know when. Awesome-sauce.

I digress. While I was perusing Nomorerack, I came across a few different sets of nail art pens. I decided to get the set that had 5 pens, red, green, blue, white and silver.  I was pretty excited to try them out. You can either open them to use an actual brush or just pull off the top to get a super fine, almost needle like applicator. I tested out making holly leaves on a paper plate. Once I decided I could actually do it, I freehanded leaves on all of my nails. 

Originally I had planned to do the berries with the red pen, but then I remembered I had small red rhinestones. I'm glad I used the stones because it added a little something more than just polish would have.

I was happy when I finished, and I'm still happy with it four days later. I've gotten quite a few compliments on them, too. I also should point out that I have absolutely no tip wear. That Loreal polish is really holding up great.

So yeah....love them. But as much as I do, you just know I'll be very happy to take them off when I get home.

It's 1:15 a.m., and I suppose I should head off to bed. I'm hoping I'll be able to sleep since there's no recliner here, and I haven't slept in a bed for quite some time. If Kev snores, I'm screwed for sure. I was tired quite awhile ago, but I wanted to get a post in here once everybody else was off to dreamland so I could concentrate on the business at hand. I also highly doubt I'll get a chance to post again this week amidst all the hustle and bustle of our early Christmas.

You know I'll try, though. I do already have manicures lying in wait. I just need 15 minutes of quiet time to write something to go along with them.

Quiet time + family + Christmas = not likely.

SHAMELESS

I figure the year is ending so craptastically that I thought I'd enter, of all things, a voting contest. Just because I'm a glutton for punishment. Voting contests are notorious for people figuring out ways to cheat, blah, blah, blah, and of course bloggers with thousands of followers are shoe-ins usually. But what the hell, right?

I went through my last year's holiday attempts and decided upon this snowflake one. I liked it last year, and I still do. I know....shocking. I like something. lol

If you like it, I'd appreciate if you'd take a minute to vote for it. You actually have to vote for 3 mani's, and then you'll need to click the link in the email they send you. But it's a one-time only thing so it's pretty quick and painless.

It's purdy, right?  This is Ninja Polish Alexandrite over black, and I stamped the snowflakes with silver.  You can see how Alexandrite has a great color shift, and it was awesome in person.

Here's the link to vote if you've a mind to:   China Glaze contest 

Even if you aren't voting, there are a ton of cute mani's to look at!

QUICKIE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

Well, the end of my year is ending on an interesting note. 

On Wednesday I finally went back for my follow-up EGD on my ulcer. I was supposed to do that in September, but life got in the way.  It hasn't healed. Super. Another round of some new meds, and I get to have that redone again in February. *sigh*

Another "awesome" thing happened on Monday. I got a call from the bossman who started off the convo by asking how long I can get unemployment. Okay....weird question. I told him I have 16 more weeks of full benefits. He then proceeds to tell me that he has decided to retire at the end of 2014. I was shocked, but I didn't think it was so major that he'd have to tell me 2 weeks before Christmas. And then he says he won't have a full-time employee anymore. He's just going to do court appointments which don't really require very much work so he's just going to get someone 20-25 hours a week. I am still in shock. For lack of a better answer at the moment, I told him I'd finish out my full benefits on unemployment but would probs want to work the 25 hours a week and finish out with him. I mean, it's been 24 years. I can't imagine  not being there at the end.  Of course, I don't know  moneywise what will be best, if I should try to find another job which is damn near impossible here or just what I should do. I'm like a lost puppy right now.  Merry Effing Christmas.

On a better note, my shoulder seems to be doing pretty well. I haven't been wearing my sling at all for the past few days. It moves pretty well, but I still have to be careful.

Back in October I let CNS know that I'd be out of nail commission and that if they wanted any Christmas mani's they'd have to let me know so I could get them done before surgery. They asked for several, so I knocked them out over a couple of evenings.

For this I started off with Sally Hansen Cherry Red and then used Kleancolor Metallic Green and Metallic Yellow, OPI Blue My Mind and 10 Professional Put a Ring on It for the Christmas lights.

It was a bit of a rush job, and I could have done it better if I wasn't trying to get things done quickly. But it is what it is, which lately is turning into my attitude about everything.

Now I'm sitting here with naked nails since Monday when I put them on. I couldn't wear polish for the EGD, and I'm finding myself so totally uninspired that I haven't done anything. I've looked at hundreds of holiday themed nails over the past week, but I'm just not feelin' it. I think I'm just overwhelmed with everything right now; the arm, the ulcer, the dentist, the job, the holidays....just too much all at once.

End of today's whine session.

MY FAVE CHRISTMAS MANI FROM LAST YEAR

I'm going to completely not mention several not-so-awesome things that have occurred during the past few days. Suffice it to say some shiz has gone on that I could do without, especially two weeks before Christmas. I much prefer at least attempting to enjoy this time of year.

Last year I saw this manicure done by the folks over at Messy Mansion and abso-frickin-lutely fell in love with it. I immediately ordered the plate in order to do it and was lucky enough to get it in time to copy it as closely as I could. Someone else recreated it beautifully in one of my nail groups which reminded of it.

I'm considering doing it again this year to wear it downstate to the Graham family Christmas since last year I wore it for my side of the fam.

For my copy I used Julep Michelle for the dark sky. I sponged Orly Luxe for the gold and used a bit of Orly Shine On Crazy Diamond to simulate some stars in the sky. I did the stamp with Konad black stamping polish.

Stamping this one was interesting to do. I wanted the smallest camel to be on my pinkie finger, but the stamp was set up just the opposite. So I picked up the figure on my stamper and immediately pulled the stamp from that stamper with another stamper which switched the direction. Hopefully that sentence made sense. It took  a few tries to do it fast enough, but it worked out really well in the end.

I loved it last year; still do. I do have a couple lamer mani's in the wings to post, but I doubt I'll do anything that I think tops this for a Christmas mani.

And since I've done this post at 3:38 a.m., I'm keeping this one pretty short. 

Interesting how the posts end up short when I leave out all my bitching and moaning, hey? Don't get too used to that.

I'D LIKE MY NORMAL LIFE BACK NOW, PLEASE

First post in a week?? I hate that!! I really thought I'd feel more like my regular self by now. I'm sleeping a little bit better but still not enough, and with the holiday stuff needing to be done, I'm just tired. Just plain tired.

We did manage to do all the decorating last Thursday, and I have to say that hubby of mine really did amazingly. Since doing the tree requires a lot of arm lifting, he did the lion's share. All I did was sit back, critique and then I managed to put on some ornaments. Poor guy even had to finish attaching the mini lights to the front living room window. That job takes awhile and is a real PITA, and I did start it, but once I got to the side and was moving upward, my arm gave out so I had to have him finish. He has never done those before, and I don't know if he'd ever want to do it again. Not that I plan on making him. This year def had extenuating circumstances.

Wrapping presents is not fun for me normally because there are SO damn many!! I have a photo grouping of 20 pictures on one wall in my living room, and a few years ago I started gift wrapping those. I love how it looks and was determined to do it. It took me twice as long as normal and caused my arm to ache for the rest of the day.

Yesterday I wrapped actual presents, at least the ones I had to wrap. I still have a ton of stuff coming that will need wrapping so I'm still nowhere near done. The holiday is taking shape.  Here's a pic of the tree. I heart my tree. :)

I did this manicure before I even had surgery just so I'd have something to post. I sort of thought I'd get to posting it before now. Of course I also sort of thought I'd be posting more than I have been. I just did not anticipate being this out of sorts this far after surgery. Seriously pisses me off that my powers of recuperation are failing me this time around. I'm usually a bounce back fast kind of person.

The pink is OPI Lift the Veil, the stamping was done with Mash stamping black and the herringbone is off of my Ninja Polish DRK-A plate. Unexciting, but nobody saw it anyway.

Right now I'm sitting here with only 9 nails on, fingers stained blue from taking off the snowflake mani. I'm trying to work up the ambition to soak them off and reapply because they've been on for 4 weeks tomorrow. If I redo them now, they'll get me through the holidays so the timing is perfect.  It's my lofty goal for today.

Sigh.  Or maybe tomorrow.

FINALLY CAVED - WINTER MANI

It was bound to happen, the moment when it became clear that winter was really here. It blows.

Yesterday was finally my post-op appointment up in Marquette, which is just over an hour away. I decided that I would leave my sling off for the ride. Trust me when I tell you it is not fun trapping one arm inside a winter coat even for a short ride. It's not like I'd be using it in the car, right? When we got there, I put it back on so I wouldn't get scolded by the doctor. As it turns out, it was fine. 

My arm is progressing nicely. Stitches off, he moved it around a little, had me move it around a little, and then told me he'll see me in four weeks which is when we'll talk about physical therapy. That bummed me out cuz' I was hoping I could skip out on that little bit of nonsense and just do it all on my own. I asked about the sling wearing, and he told me I don't have to wear it 24/7 anymore, just be careful with whatever I'm doing.

With that bit of happy news, I threw it in the car and off we went to Christmas shop since we always hit up a few stores that my stupid town doesn't have.  After shopping for a few hours and driving home, I was hurting. I knew I would continue to sling it up for bed, but I woke up pretty sore this morning and didn't sleep worth a crap because it kept waking me up. I was a smidge pissed about it and commented to the hubster that I didn't think I had done anything to use it all that much, but he seemed to feel like I had done a lot with it.

I hate when he's right. Lesson learned. I'll behave. Today I've only had it off long enough to do my exercises. I'm saving up to leave it off while we decorate either tonight or tomorrow. Still, all in all I'm pretty happy. Normally that sling would be a constant for at least 6 weeks so I feel ahead of the game. Go, me!

On Monday night I glanced down at my hands and thought I'd better do something. No way you are actually leaving the house for only the second time since surgery and having boring ass nails. If I'd known my nails would foretell the weather, I would have painted sunshine.

Instead I went with my first snowflake mani of the year, and we woke up to a minor snowstorm, the first of the year. Perfect. Snowy roads when we had to travel. So typical. But the nurse really loved them so it was worth it.  That weather was actually better than what it has been today. We got enough snow for Kevin to actually use the snowblower on the driveway, and now it's been raining like a mo-fo most of the day. Snow, then rain and then cold coming in. What a great combo!!! We'd be much better off with just snow at this time of year, and I hope everybody is careful out there on the roads once they turn into an ice rink. People have a way of forgetting how to drive during the snow season around here, especially the first couple of times the roads get bad....like they've never driven in it before. Idiots. 

So here's what I did. It's not my best work, but it's still difficult to play with my nails. I'm trying, though!!

I started with a nice navy, OPI I Saw U Saw We Saw Warsaw. I don't know who names OPI polishes, but they crack me up. For a smidge of sparkle I add Orly Shine on Crazy Diamond. Then I  used my white MASH stamping polish and my HD05 Messy Mansion plate and some other unknown brand HB23 plate to do the snowflakes. It needed something so I put a little rhinestone in the middle of each snowflake, and I'm pleased to say I haven't lost a single one.

Like I said, it's not the most spectacular thing I've ever done, but it has a bit of holo shine from the Orly so it's nice when the light hits it. I'm tired of looking at it now, but I have to save my arm for tree and house decorating so I'll probs leave it on until at least Friday.  

I'm excited to get the house decorated. Usually we wouldn't do it until probably next week, but I want it up a week early this year. Normally we head out of town to Kev's family for our holiday get together after Christmas, but this year we are going the 18th-21st. I told Kev if I'm losing out on a few days of looking at the tree before Christmas, it has to go up early to make up for it.

I always love my tree and decorations. It makes the house feel warm and cozy. It's a pita to do, but it's the only time I ever think my house is pretty. If I can manage to get a decent pic or two, I'll post some here eventually.

I heart Christmas. Gives me the warm fuzzies.

MY THANKSGIVING MANI

Ah, it's Monday. It's hard to believe I've been off work for almost 3 weeks already. It's still weird to be sitting home on a weekday, and I'm having a hard time remembering what day it is most of the time. It's a strange feeling, and I'm undecided as to whether I love it or hate it.

The Michigan unemployment system is trying to make me crazier than I already am. After I filed, I immediately received a letter telling me that I was waived from having to register for work until March since I have a return to work date. Last Wednesday was my assigned day to do my first check-in which has to be done every two weeks in order to get my moolah. I went online to do that, and the system walks you through several questions in order to certify each week. 

Part of those questions involve whether or not you worked, looked for work, etc.  Obvi I have not looked for work so I chose "no" for that question. Then there are additional questions when you choose no for that question. Now, wouldn't you think that one of the choices would be because I'm waived from doing so?  Nope!! That would be way too easy. 

Since I was stumped on how to proceed, I decided I'd better call in to the customer service people to assist me in how I should do this every two weeks. I can't even begin to guess how many times I called. Every time I got the same thing; all reps are on other calls, try your call again later. Okay. I'll do that. Non-stop from 9:00 a.m. right through to 4:35 p.m. when I got the message that they're closed. Fan-frickin-tastic. 

I decided to go ahead and fill out that stupid incomplete question section and not answer that question about why I didn't look for work because it gives the option of answering those additional questions right away or do it later. I thought maybe that "later" part might give me the spot where I could mention that waiver letter. Nope!  I used their system to send a question about this, hoping they'd respond via email.

So even though they're closed, they still managed to send me an email telling me I have a new message in my account, and I fully expected to go to my account and find the answer to my question.  Nope!!

Instead I got two letters telling me there's a problem with my claim because I didn't answer about the looking for work stuff, saying I may lose my eligibility. Seriously, this is a royal pain.

I tried calling on Friday, but of course they were still closed for the Thanksgiving holiday.  Cut to today, where I started calling at 8:30 and still can't get through.  Hell, I can't even get far enough to be put on hold.  Another option is to go to the problem resolution office. Too bad the nearest one is an hour away. 

It's a damn good thing I don't count on that money to pay for minor things like rent or food, and I feel badly for someone that is dealing with this shitty system for their real bread and butter. Turrible; just turrible.

On Wednesday night I decided I just couldn't have plain nails for Thanksgiving even though my family couldn't care less about what I have on my nails. I still care. It was difficult and a little painful to do, but I managed to at least stamp them. It did take me a little longer than usual, though.

I didn't bother trying to figure out anything theme oriented. I decided to just go with a fall-ish color.  Enchanted I Am the Walrus over black is just pretty on its own and is honestly one of my favorite polishes of all time. I like it so much I've used half the bottle and already know I want to get another. Hopefully they won't discontinue it. It's really hard to find it in stock most of the time.  I then used one of my all-time fave designs off of my Llarowe LeaLac A stamping plate. Done and done.

Tomorrow is my after surgery followup appointment. I'll be glad to get these stitches out. I think that might sting a little since I've had them in almost a week longer than I should have. I'm healing pretty well; hopefully the 4 spots won't scar too badly. 

I've been doing my exercises a couple of times a day which causes me to be pretty sore, but I think I'm moving pretty well. Of course, I really don't have any idea of how I'm supposed to feel. 

Griffin and I were playing on my bed on Saturday and he slammed my shoulder pretty hard with both feet. It was my own damn fault because of what we were doing, but holy hell did it hurt!! I actually had tears in my eyes from it. The way he hit me didn't concern me as far as doing any damage, but I made damn sure we started playing a different game.  There were quite a few times he wanted me to pick him up, but in general having him here wasn't too difficult with my gimpy arm.

He's such a fun kid, and everytime he was at my house he didn't want to leave. We have a definite system of what we do together, and I "may" be spoiling him a little. He's obsessed with Hot Wheels in almost a fanatical way.  Awhile back I decided to keep new ones set aside in the closet so I could give him a new car as a surprise every now and then. You know, "pick a hand" game.  Now he expects that every time he walks in the door. And now he gets that at least a couple of times when he's here. I think I gave him 4 this trip. He makes sure he has his new cars when he leaves here, and I steal 4 or 5 of his to keep here. He has something like 140+ cars already.  Once he gets his new car, he grabs my hand to help him, and we bring his race track into my bathroom which is where he wants me to go with him to play cars. My bathtub has a great ledge around it which works perfectly for racing.

Every since he was old enough to stand, he spends a lot of time lining them up. Perfectly. In a row, two by two, three by three....it's weird. Tyler said the first thing he did yesterday when they got home was grab some cars and line them up.

Those are just the cars he had in the little case he came here with!! Anytime they come, he chooses which cars will make the trip and puts them in a small zippered case so they can go everywhere with him. Crazy. For Christmas I bought him a case that holds 100 cars that looks like a little suitcase, complete with wheels and a pull out handle.  I'm thinking I should have bought two since he collects cars like a crazy person.

Kind of the way I collect nail polish. Uh-oh......

ANOTHER UNDER-RATED....HAVE YOU EVER SEEN IT?

Holidays are exhausting. Tyler and the fam have been here since Wednesday, and as usual, we are staying up until the weeeeeee hours. It's ridiculous. As if my lack of sleep wasn't already messing with me enough. At this stage of the game, my body isn't sure when it's night or when it's day. I'm sleepy at 4 p.m. and wide awake at 4 a.m. Last night Tyler got back here around 1:30, I think. After we sat and watched some tv, she decided to do a bit of cleaning for me so I stayed up to keep her company. I think it was almost 6 when I finally went to bed. So yup, I is tired.

The other day when I took off Grey's Anatomy I was just looking through ye' ol' polish stash for something to throw on. It's still not easy for me to do my nails, so I'm trying to stick to plain. I completely forgot I had this. I don't think I've ever used it. I'm sure it was a random "wander through Walmart" grab.

This black is Sally Hansen Night Lights, and it is seriously a nice holo in person. And it probs cost me around $2 instead of the $8-$15 I usually pay for a holo.  Is it as striking as something like the Color Club Halo's or by an indie polish maker? Nope! But if you want to just walk into a store and pay a normal amount for a "fancier" polish, I suggest this one.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. If you braved Black Friday, hopefully you came out with no bruises or broken bones. Personally I don't go out shopping during that mess. I tend to sit home and see what great deals I can snag on the interwebs. 

And snag I did. I also found myself buying for myself because some of the deals were just too good to pass up. I think at last count I had bought myself 4 or 5 new sweaters. Shameful!!

I still have quite a few people to buy for, and writing this was a nice, much needed little break. Time to eat some dinner and perhaps try to finish up a few more people. 

I'll be glad when I'm done shopping and when life in general goes back to normal. Maybe then I can get back to tending the blog like I was before. I hate that I'm not getting as many entries in as before.

A blog without new entries just isn't any fun!

A MANI FOR JULES

I'm pretty sure that in the past I've mentioned the many wonderful people I've met online either through the nail or Golden Retriever communities, all starting 3 1/2 years ago when I got Tinlee. In that time, they have become some of the most important people in my life. Some I've had the pleasure of meeting in person, and others simply take the time to share their joys, their sorrows and their lives with me. They allow me to do the same and have shown  kindness to me in many different ways.

One of these beautiful people is MJ. I first encountered her via our mutual love of Goldens, and she owns two gems, Jazz and Jules. They even have their own Facebook page!  She has never failed to make me smile with the pictures she posts. She even got sucked into the nail community so I get double doses of her.

Sadly, in what seems to be the blink of an eye, Jules went from seeming fine to a cancer diagnosis that took him from MJ, Larry and Jazz just a few days ago. Just as that filthy scum of a disease took my Shannie from me too young at age 8, it took Jules just a little shy of 7 years old.  Shocking does not begin to describe it. Devastating does not begin to describe it. There simply are no words.  

Once again a group of people from all over the country who have never met sobbed together for a beloved furbaby we didn't have the pleasure of ever seeing in person. The tears flow again as I do this post. Once again Kevin looked over at me like I'm a crazy person as I dissolved into gulping sobs that didn't even allow me to speak to tell him what was wrong. I hate it. I could throw out a bunch of expletives here to emphasize how much I hate it, but I'll spare you the many four letter words I use when this happens.

I'm sure there are many who think it's ridiculous to get so worked up. Those of you who have pets that they love will not think it's ridiculous. It's a fact of life for us; we love our pets with the same depth that we love our people. Yes, perhaps it is a different kind of love, but that loss is felt just as strongly. They are our family. If you don't "get it", I think that's your loss because you're missing out on a bond that only can happen between a pet and their human. 

I'll get off my soapbox now. The purpose of this post is simply to show my love and sympathy.  I'm sincerely hoping MJ won't mind that I've stolen a few pictures of Jules for this post; it was done with love.

This is Jules....such a handsome boy.

Here are some of the many smiles that were given to so many over the years. It was just a couple of weeks ago that I had shared these with the hubby.

And this is one of the most hauntingly beautiful pictures I think I have ever seen, taken only a month ago. Beautiful Jules, absolutely bathed in what to me looks like a heavenly light. This one makes me cry when I look at it.

And finally, what I could manage as a mani that wasn't just plain using my gimpy arm. Not nearly as special as I would like, but it was done with love nonetheless.

The gold is a polish I got online from Frederick's of Hollywood, Starlet and then I used Out the Door Northern Lights holographic topcoat in Gold before adding the puppy pawprints.

And now that I've one-handed typed this, I'm off to throw some cold water on my face and dry my eyes. Again.

You were loved by many, Jules!

SADLY, SO UNDER-RATED

It's good to know I am still not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. I don't know why I was thinking that my recovery time should be much more miraculous than what anybody said it would/should be. I slept in bed for the past couple of nights, and I actually slept for two hours both times without waking up. Of course, other than those two consecutive hours per night, a lot of wake-ups were still happening.

Overall, though, my arm actually was feeling quite good. As I explained to the hub, my actual shoulder never did hurt either before or after the surgery. It's always been from the shoulder down to my wrist that had pain, and according to the doc, that's the norm. For those first 5 days after surgery, holy shitballs....it was like the world's worst toothache radiating down my arm whether I was moving or not.

Cut to Tuesday, where I found that my arm was feeling pretty damn good. It made me wonder why on earth I could possibly need this sling for the probable two months. I did leave it on except when changing clothes just like I was told, though. Unfortunately, me in a sling means little if I'm not in pain, and I found myself moving and using my right arm and hand quite a bit. 

Back to "I'm an idiot". On Wednesday my arm was throbbing pretty good when I was trying to sleep, and Thursday it hurt more again. Even the top of my actual shoulder hurts a little now. Methinks I made a mistake thinking I was all cool and shit because I could move so well. Lesson learned. I'm going to really have to try and concentrate on not using it even if it feels fine. I googled it. Yup. Mistake made; lesson for sure learned.

Today I'm just showing a polish I threw on last week. I've had it forever, and I think it is the first multichrome I ever bought. With all of the fancy, pricier duo and multi's out there that we all rave about, this little beauty has never gotten its fair share of praise. It's kind of a shame. If you don't own it, run your bunz over to Walmart and grab it. I think I paid around $2 for it. Keep reading to see what it is. ;)

Of course, I couldn't capture all of its beauty, but I tried. There are several colors that the camera just wouldn't pic up.

This one rivals any of my other color shifters and cost a whole lot less than most of them. That doesn't mean I don't want some more of those expensive ones, but people really should make more of a fuss over this one. 

I suppose you might want to know what this cheap little beauty is. After I did underwear of Orly Liquid Vinyl, this is two coats of Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy. Seriously....go buy it. You won't be sorry.

I'm dying to do my nails and stamp on them or something. Anything! I just wander around looking at nails and then pouting because mine are still naked. Maybe today I'll try again, but if it hurts at all, I have to make myself stop.

Like I said; lesson learned.

I'M BACK FOR A HOT MINUTE

It's really difficult to do a lot of typing with just one hand because it simply takes way too long, but since I had a mani in the wings, I thought I'd at least pop in to say "hi".

Surgery was last Wednesday, and it went pretty well, I think. I guess I won't really know for sure until time goes by and I see whether or not my arm goes back to proper working order. Bad news, my rotator cuff was torn which is what we were hoping would not be the case. He repaired that and also removed a bone spur. I guess just having the bone spur is what I was expecting based on the MRI. I don't go back in until the 3rd so hopefully I will get more info then since right now I feel like I know nothing. Other than it hurts like a mo-fo.

For some reason I thought that right after surgery sleep would be in my future. Wrong! Oh, so wrong. My arm still hurts much worse at night, and now it's stuck in a sling so I can't even move around to try to make it better. I did manage to sleep for 2 whole hours in a row last night. Sad though it is, that's a win at this point.

Before I had my surgery, I did this water marble specifically so I'd have something to post. I would have shown it before now, but it also hadn't occurred to me that trying to do a blog post with one hand would be time-consuming, and I just haven't had that kind of ambition. I miss doing it, though, so I'm sucking it up for today.

I started off with my fave neutral, OPI My Vampire is Buff.  I was in the mood for some kind of Army green and grabbed OPI Uh-Oh Roll Down the Window, OPI Stranger Tides and Sinful Colors Nirvana.

Looking at this is really making me want to do my nails. I did do one hand the other day because I had forgotten to do one for CNS that I had promised to get to them. It was a painful process just doing the one hand. I guess you don't notice how you're moving until you do it wrong. For now my nails are naked which is really bugging me, but I don't think it's worth hurting myself just to do them.

It's not like I'm going anywhere.

THIS IS SPECTAC - I'VE OUTDONE MA'SELF

Finally heard from the hospital this morning. They did the usual run through with me, "do you have this", "have you ever had that", "what medications do you take", and on and on and on.

Once we finished up with that always boring bit of business, she told me to be at the hospital at 2 p.m. That's right, 2 p.m. At first I was really happy about it because I honestly thought they would make me be there at 6 or 7, which would have suuuccckkkkeeeed.

After thinking about it, now I'm not quite as happy because it means I won't even get home until at least 10 p.m. For some unknown reason that really chaps my ass. Oh, well. I just want it over with.

I considered saving this one for some other time, but I just can't do it. I'm too in love with it to not share. And you even get a half-assed tutorial with it! How lucky are you all feeling right about now?

TA-DA!! Here's what I ended up with!

And here's just a shot of it all by itself in its full-size glory. Hot damn, this is one fantabulous mani!!

The glitter polish base is two coats of Studio M Magic Attraction. It is a really pretty glitter, one of my favorites. I just used Sally Hansen black on top of the striping tape.

I actually copied the design off of a Konad plate that I love and had to have specifically for this pattern. And like everything else on my Konad plates, the design is way too tiny for my nails. So yeah, I'm loving this.

Oh, for cripes sake. I'm in the middle of typing this and just got an email that this is already up on the Nail It magazine webpage. Sheesh. That kind of takes the fun out of putting it here. 

Nail It has told me to submit any tutorials I do from now on. After I finished this one up on Saturday night, I emailed it to my contact person.  She didn't waste any time using it.

Can't say I blame her; it's friggin' gorg. IMHO, of course.

UNUSUAL ONE FOR ME

Last week the boss' daughter came in to visit. A few months ago she spent some time in the office doing some of the work while she was looking for a new job. She got a good job so off she went. Well, she stopped in to ask about working in the evenings while I'm off work for "two weeks". Somewhere along the line between my boss, his wife and her, two months turned into two weeks. In other words, after I was nice enough to postpone my surgery so he'd have time to find somebody, somebody still hadn't been found. Unreal.

When he came back after lunch I mentioned that she had stopped in, and he said that he was going to have her come in at night to do the typing. Um...okay. He still hadn't found anybody to actually "work" during the day. He informed me that his goal was "to not panic" when I leave. 

Today I texted his daughter to wish her a happy birthday, and she asked me if I knew that he'd found someone. What? Honest to God, he is enough to drive a person to drink. Excessively. Evidently his son's girlfriend is just going to come in and answer phones 5 hours a day, and Dana will come in at night and do the typing. And people wonder why I feel bad when I leave. Sheesh. He's like a child sometimes. But I guess I don't have to worry about it anymore. Dana knows she can text or call me, and I'll help her if she has any questions.

The biggest stress on my mind now is the whole unemployment thing. I've never had to get that before, and I guess I have to apply for jobs and prove it twice a month. Um, I don't want a new job, people. So I'm freaked out by that whole process.

The weekend was quite uneventful. Got the house cleaned on Friday, and that pretty much sums up the extent of my ambition. I did manage to make some tuna salad last night so I have something to eat without having to cook after the surgery. Next up to cook will be some chili soup. Other than those two things, maybe I'll just live on sammiches. 

I was determined to get a couple of mani's done over the weekend, and I did do three. I was just kind of messing around trying different things, and some of those were epic failures. If everything I tried would have actually worked, I probably would have six to post. Oh, wellz; not everything works every time.

I have quite a few of the stamping plates with the French tip designs on them. I used one many months ago and wasn't overly excited about it. I found it difficult to get them on straight across. On Saturday I decided I'd give it another try.

It's funny how in the pic it looks like I didn't paint my nails. Those of you with the Custom nails in pink know that they look quite similar to how these look here. Actually, they are painted with Sinful Colors Glass Pink. It's super light and has a slight shimmery sparkle to it. Photo fail!!

Then I tried stamping with an off-white OPI because I wanted the tip design to be subtle. It didn't show up at all, so I called that too subtle.  I decided I'd better use my actual stamping polish to make it show up. It still ended up not quite bold enough, but in person it wasn't bad.

I had a really hard time deciding which tip design to use, too. There are several cute ones in the bunch I have, but I like this one from the Bundlemonster BM216 plate.

While it isn't a very exciting mani, it is dainty and I suppose might be cute for a wedding mani or some such nonsense.  Of course before I found out about all this nail stuff, I would have thought this was the best shit ever! Now, not so much.

I have a couple of good mani's left to show, and I'm just going to say this much; one of them is a showstopper! I'm not sure if I'll post it tomorrow in case I'm out of commission for a bit or if I'll hold on to it for when I come back, but I think it's one of the grooviest mani's I've ever done.

Consider yourself teased.

A LAST MINUTE "LOVE IT"

I really hate stupid people.  And last night I discovered that I am a stupid people. As I'm sure you're tired of reading about, my effing arm hurts! Not a news flash, I know. Well, last night Kev was asking how it was doing, and I was telling him how it just hurts all the time now. Then I was saying how I had never let it go this long; before I would have gotten a cortisone shot and never given it a chance to get this bad.

So yeah, it was right about at that moment where I said, "Ya' know, if I was smart, I would have asked the doctor if I could get just one more shot to hold me over until surgery."  Great idea, right? Would anybody care to explain to me why the hell I didn't think of that brilliant, logical idea before now? I mean, it's pointless now, but holy shitballs; I could have saved myself a whole lot of pain and sleepless nights if I had even half of a brain. I'm so pissed at myself!

On a brighter note, though, instead of taking one Tylenol with codeine before bed last night I popped two of those suckers and slept a little better. Woop.

We were watching the telly last night and I dozed off in the middle of a show and slept kind of off and on for about 90 minutes. It was a restless nap because my arm kept waking me up, but when I finally decided to stay awake, I hadn't even thought about what to do on my nails.

I took off the red and gold, but then I just still felt kind of sleepy and unmotivated until suddenly it was midnight, and I still had naked nails. Well, that's not good! (like I said, I am a stupid people)

My Essie Good as Gold was sitting on the end table next to me, and since I didn't feel like going to search for anything else, I slapped on two coats of that, topcoated and planned on just going with that.

Of course I couldn't just leave it alone. I went and grabbed my DRK-A plate, my MASH black stamping polish and quickly did what I have here. It went really fast, so I still got to bed at my normal time.

I actually love this pretty damn much. I don't think I've used this pattern before. It's one of those that cover a nice amount of the nail but still let the base color show through, and those are usually my faves.  Yup, a last minute winner, in my opinion.

Now it's Friday; I've cleaned the whole house because I'm thinking I won't want to be doing that next weekend. I was probs funny to watch while doing it. I was trying to use just my left hand and not move my right arm. Holy-moly, that was hard! I am definitely not so coordinated without my right hand. 

I think I will go make some peanut butter cookies for supper just because they sound delightful and I can't think of anything "real" food that sounds as good as those.

Peanut butter = protein. Justified!

 

IN A BLAZE OF GLORY? NOT REALLY.

I'm feeling saddish today. My friend lost her best friend, her "Baboo", her hubster, yesterday afternoon. After months of questions about what was really wrong with him, they finally found out just a few days ago, and he passed quietly, peacefully and with dignity with perhaps his fave bluegrass music playing in the background to ease the way. Tons-o-love going out from my heart to hers right now. 

I tend to get more than a little emotional for stuff like this. I wish I had a dollar for every tear I've shed for people I've never actually  met or for their pets whenever life takes a big ol' shit on them. Sometimes it sucks being a mushball on the inside and a hardass on the outside....tends to confuse people. Oh, well. Such is life, I guess. We all deal in the best ways we know.

I had the worst headache I've had in months yesterday. Normally I pop two Excedrin Migraine when I get to work to keep the headache I have every day from getting worse. Since I'm having the surgery next week, I had to stop taking anything containing aspirin until afterwards. Guess they're askeered I'll bleed to death from my blood being all thin and stuff.  Whatevs. By the time I got home from work I wanted to just chop my head off with a steak knife. It would have hurt less. I broke down and took some Excedrin, so if you never hear from me again after the 13th, it might just be that I didn't make it through surgery. Then I closed my eyes for about 45 minutes and that, in turn, made my arm throb. I can't win.

The other thing that happens when I try to do that in the recliner, for some reason the dogs just cannot leave me alone. That damn Baylee can seriously ignore me for a week unless I'm feeding her, but if I try to lay down, that cold nose of hers nudges me non-stop. And, if God forbid I don't open my eyes to look at her or reach out my hand to touch her, then she'll just try to climb up onto my lap. Meanwhile I have Tinlee on the other side of me doing the same thing. It's amusing but inconvenient. I do love those damn dogs.

After my little "nap", I broiled up some steak for supper for Kev and I, and then we settled in to start watching some tv. I decided that even though my head was killing me, I just couldn't bring myself to leave that polish on for a 3rd day. Just couldn't.

Somebody wore this the other day, and it reminded me how pretty it is and that I hadn't used it in awhile.

Zoya polishes are such great polishes, and I love this one, Blaze. It's a great deep red with a nice shimmer to it.  I knew I wanted gold over it but didn't want to cover it all up, so I pulled out my Cheeky H stamping plate. It's a great plate with all scroll-type designs. I tried a couple different golds before deciding on Orly Luxe. It's more of a metallic gold. Purdy!!

Now I just need to think of something to do for tonight's mani. I am bound and determined to do them every day for the next few days. I'm seriously starting to panic about not being able to do nails after surgery. Or how I'll play on the computer. Or get dressed. Everything I own goes on over my head, and I just can't picture me doing that anytime soon. Right now it's easy to get things on, but getting them off at night is another story altogether. Every day I feel my shoulder getting just a little bit worse. Not a fan. I've never let it get this bad before because normally I would have gotten a cortisone shot. I hope this damn surgery works.

If it doesn't, you'll be reading a rather huge VOTD on here.

PLAIN, THEN NOT - A TALE OF TWO MANI'S

First thing I'm going to do here is ask you all, if you're the prayin' kind, to please throw a few out into the universe for a friend of mine. I won't go into much detail for obvious reasons, but she will soon be suffering a major loss in her life and could use some good vibes. 'Nuff said. Thank you.

I guess the meeces really are gone. I haven't heard a peep or seen a poop outta' them since I caught that last one. It's so cold and rainy out today, I feel a bit sorry for them. But I'll get over it.

I thought I slept fairly decent last night, but I guess I was wrong. When the alarm went off, it wasn't pretty because I could not move my right arm. I probs looked pretty ridiculous as I stumbled into the kitchen with it stuck in an "up" position. It took probably 10 minutes before I could take my left hand and gradually move it back into place. Ouchers! I guess one advantage of having a sling will be that I can't stick my arm into positions it does not belong. Glass half full.

One morning when I went on Facebook, the very first thing I saw was a pic of this new polish by Avant Garde. For whatever reason, I decided right then that I was going to buy it. Hell, it was on sale for $5.00 so why should I resist? I shouldn't! So I didn't!

I received it last week and swatched it. I don't think it lives up to the pic that made me want to buy it, but it is very pretty.  It's holographic, although not as much as some other brands, and it also has a pretty good color shift to it. Not that I could catch either of these things very well. You'll have to kind of take my word for it on this one.

Here's how I wore it yesterday. It did take 3 coats for me to be satisfied with the coverage.

This pic I took while I was just sitting in my chair, and I used the flash which I never do. It does show the holo effect better so I included it here.

Last night I fully intended on taking this off and doing something else, but I was chatting with my friend on Facebook instead. When I finally decided to do nails, I decided I would just stamp right on top of this.

The name of this mauvey-purpley pretty is Avant Garde Dancing Through Fire, and I stamped the hearts with my Llarowe LLC-A plate.  I didn't originally want to stamp with black. I wanted to stamp with a dark creme that would match the polish color. Unbelievably, with over 1,000 in my stash, I didn't have one that would work. I was annoyed and shocked by this.

I guess that means there is at least one more polish I need to buy.

I'M ABOUT TO LOSE MY EVER-LOVIN' MIND

Ugh. I'm so bored with my nails lately. And I don't want to be bored; I want to be doing a bunch of mani's because I know I'll be out of commission starting next Wednesday. I'm sure by next Friday I'll be complaining about not being able to paint 'em. But I can't do a bunch if I can't think of a bunch to do. Woe is me.

I shouldn't be in such a shit mood today; I slept in bed last night and actually did some sleeping for a change. It was kind of a nice surprise to wake up and realize I hadn't woken up 15 times during the night. Hopefully that's a trend that will continue for awhile, and hopefully I won't go back to not sleeping once the surgery is done.

No mouse action last night at all, so I'm thinking I've caught them all. I'm going to leave the traps out for another week just to make sure, but I'm pretty sure I've seen the last of them for this year. They are cute, but good riddance. The dish towels sitting out on the counter are not considered good decorating. It's def a look; it's just not a good look.  Martha Stewart would be horrified.

On a bright note, I reached 1,000 Instagram followers yesterday. That is crazy!! It never ceases to amaze me when I get a new follower, whether it's here, Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram. I know it's a small number compared to a lot of other nail painters, but I'm pretty happy about it. It certainly isn't anything I would have imagined when I first tried out that first color back in April of 2012. I do love my small slice of the nail polish/nail art world, and I hope it continues for a very long time.

Here's the mani I wore yesterday. Once again, not exciting, but I got both of these Zoya's fairly recently and never used them and thought they'd look nice together. I was right. 

Don't laugh! Sometimes I AM right.

The lighter color is Zoya Neely. I snagged it on eBay for $4, and I love a good light green.  Zoya Evvie is one that I got with my gift certificate from winning the Halloween nail art contest on The Beauty Clutch FB page. I used my DRK-A plate for the stamp. This design is one of my all-time favorites.

I suddenly decided just now that I need my hairs cut. Well, I actually decided that about 3 weeks ago; it just took me until this minute to actually do something about it. I got lucky because she has an opening today right after I leave work. I don't know why I always put it off for so long; it takes all of 10 minutes. So rather than going straight home and possibly eating dinner, I'll lose some split ends.

Good times.  I can barely contain my excitement at the prospect.