I'VE ACHIEVED IT. PERFECTION.

OMG, I actually had to leave the house on a weekend. So gross. But I had a bridal shower to attend for one of my "almost" daughters, and I couldn't miss that cuz' I just loves her too much.

 

So happy that Tyler made it home for it. Of course, I'm happy anytime Tyler comes home, so that's nothing new. Griffin gets so happy as he's coming up the stairs when he sees the dogs. He just squeals and giggles, and he's so excited he literally shakes. Hilar. 

 

After the shower we went over to see Jackie's 11 day old son, Ayden. So I got to be in baby heaven for a couple of hours. What an adorable little bundle with a ton of black hair. I just love over peoples' babies. 

 

I figured that since I actually was leaving the house and going to be seen by more than one other person, I should have something fancy-schmancy on my nails. Just like usual, Tyler and I didn't even start trying to figure out what we were going to do with our mani's until almost 2 a.m.  Then I decided I wanted a water marble.  Even Tyler said that was stupid because I would never get to bed.

 

I figured I could try one nail, and if it seemed like the polishes weren't going to cooperate, I would just switch gears and stamp something.  As it turns out, everything fell right into place.  And when I say that, I'm talking perfect.....like, PERFECT.

 

Seldom do I have a marble go this easily and turn out so spectacularly. I may have to leave this on for a couple of days.  

 

Did I mention that it's perfect?  Cuz' it is.

Tell the truth; have you seen many more marbles this perfect?

 

I actually do know that there are tons of marbles out there that are more perfect, but for me, this is one of the best I've ever done, I think.

 

I just wanted something purdy, not quirky or an odd color combo or anything. Just a pretty water marble. And that's exactly what I got.  I used Square Hue Ocean Drive for the light green, Essie Naughty Nautical for the darker green and 10 Professional Lady in White as my base and in the marble.

 

I could not be any happier with this. I'm not usually one to gush over my own mani's, but I'm a-gushing over this one.

 

Sorry, but I have no VOTD, because guess what my day was......

 

PERFECT. ;)

UH-OH....GUESS WHO ISN'T HAPPY

Somebody pointed out to me that I didn't have a VOTD in my last post. Shocking, I know.

Allow me to make up for that with a SUPER VOTD. 

My name is Diane, and I am a reality show tv addict. Whew. Feels good to finally not be in denial.  That being said, my addiction started with the original Real World on MTV, although I haven't watched that in years. After that came Survivor, and my complete downfall, Big Brother. 

Oh, that first season! I'm lucky I survived it. Free live feeds 24 hours a day, and I couldn't tear myself away from my computer screen. I spent months very tired at work after sitting in from of that screen until 3 or 4 am every night. I was and still am hooked. I am a die-hard Big Brother lover. I wait for it every summer, fully realizing that there will not be enough hours in a day to watch my normal shows plus the 3 hours of live feed on Showtime After Dark 7 days a week.

Cut to this year. Eff you, CBS. Every year they do something that fails epically.  This year, they left Showtime and moved to, of all things, the TV Guide Network for After Dark. They have obviously lost their everlovin' collective corporate minds. We live for After Dark; 3 solid hours of live, unedited shenanigans and tomfoolery in the BB house. Fighting, swearing, scheming, nekkidness, craziness in general....that's what we want. It's how we learn who these people really are outside of the edited 3 hours that are shown on network tv every week.

I tried watching it. I managed to sit through about 15 minutes and wanted to stab myself in the eye. They're showing it "live" with I don't know how many seconds of a delay so they can bleep the hell out of it. But they aren't just bleeping "a" word; they're bleeping out entire sentences before and after the offensive word. With 16 people in the house, that's a whole lot of bleeping going on.

I shut it off, and I've been pissed ever since. The normal highlight of my summer tv season has been destroyed. I'm crushed, defeated....saddy pants.

I know. I'm dramatic. I wish I could say I'm exaggerating how I feel about this, but I'm not. I have yet to decide how I'll cope with this issue. Read every line on Joker's Updates, I suppose, but it's just not the same as watching. Insert heavy *sigh* here.

Now back to your regularly scheduled program, nails.  I decided to soak off my nails last night so I only had time to do a little sumpin-sumpin. Not exciting but at least they aren't nekkid.

 I really did a shit job cleaning up the glue around my nails. Yikes. I have since corrected that problem, but this pic is kind of a nightmare. The pink is Zoya Kennedy, and it's a really neutral kinda pink. I like it but thought it was a little boring. I just got Out the Door Northern Lights Hologram topcoat in both gold and silver in the mail, so I threw on 2 coats of the gold one. It isn't showing up at all in this picture, but even with 2 coats, I didn't find it showed up all that well in person, either. Color me unimpressed.  Maybe it'll work better over a dark color.

I'm not sure if I'll post this weekend. Tyler, Bob and Griffin should be here soon. Yay!! I'm excited to see them, and they're going to be here for a whole week this time. Gonna' be fun!!!

Have a great weekend!! :)

I'M GOLDEN TODAY!

When I titled this post, I didn't realize that it wouldn't just apply to my mani.

Being the complete social media addict that I "might" be, the first thing I do after getting ready for work in the morning is grab my phone. Admit it. So do you.  There are usually some Instagram notifications, sometimes Facebook, sometimes eBay....you get the idea.

This morning I clicked on my Instagram and found that someone had mentioned me in a comment. Always fun to see what that's about. I go to it, and I'll be dipped! I won one of the giveaways that I entered, AND I reached the 500 follower mark!! WooHoo!!

I have no clue how that many people even found me, but I'm happy. Here's the awesome prize package I won:

Looks like some fun goodies in there, and none of it looks like anything I already have, which is shocking.  Nice way to start the day, hey? I think every morning should begin like this.

I originally put my golden title on because last night I felt like a gold mani with stamping. I, of course, decided this around 11:30 last night. There must be something wrong with me that makes me do that to myself. It's as if the early evening hours don't exist for me sometimes. I look up from the computer, and suddenly it's midnight. Where in the hell did 7:00, 8:00 and 9:00 go?? Those would be awesome times to do nails if I would pull my head outta' my ass and get to it.

So regardless of the time factor, this is what I ended up doing.

I like. It's exactly what I was looking for today. Even though Orly Solid Gold is a matte/suede finish, I really prefer it with a topcoat. It seems to make the color look richer and more even. I used the Konad black polish with, you guessed it, my LeaLac plate B. Yeah, I know you're shocked. I'm obsessed with my LeaLac plates, and I wanted something flourishy (not a real word....don't care) that didn't cover too much of the gold. 

Mission accomplished.  This post will now self-destruct in 5 seconds.

CINNABON? CINNAMON? CINNAHON?? CINNA-WHAT??

Holy-moly. When I got home after work yesterday, it was 93 damn degrees in my house. Kev was about ready to pass out because he had been doing some more work in the bathroom, and the poor dogs were miserable even though they had been in the pool 5 or 6 times.  Even Kev took a couple of pool breaks. If it's in the mid 70's right in town where I work, that means it's mid 80's at my house, which is 7 miles away. Now, if it's mid 80's at my house, that means it's mid 90's in my house. Sounds pleasant, right?

Doing my nails didn't really appeal to me, but I did have some mani's I needed to do for Custom Nails. By the time I finished doing two of those, I only had time to slap something simple on to actually wear today.

Almost anytime I need something simple, that means go holo! Not that I need an excuse to wear a holographic polish. I adore them. They're just so fun to stare at all day at different angles in different light. Perfect for the guy or gal that gets easily distracted by "ooohhhh, something shiny!!"

I don't know if you've had the pleasure of owning a holographic polish; I know sometimes they can be pricey.  Solution, Nabi brand. I got 6 bottles on eBay for $21 shipped. That is crazy cheap, especially for a specialty-type polish. I had bought some of their magnetics last spring when I first discovered the wonderful world of nail fun and was very happy with them.

Once I saw some swatches of these 3D Rainbow Effects polishes, I knew I'd get at least a couple. I actually only ended up with 3 because I'm an idiot. I thought I was buying 3 so I only chose 3 colors. Later on I realized the $21 was for 6, and since I only listed 3 colors, I got 2 of each.  Not a big issue; my sister will get one of them, a friend wants another, and I will probs gift the 3rd.

Gosh, it is pretty!

And I figured I should at least get one shot outside in the sun. Even this doesn't really do it justice.

So there it is; the oh-so-gorg Nabi 3D Rainbow Effect Hologram polish in Cinnahon. Stupid name. It's not cinna-anything colored. It's pink. Just plain old ordinary pink that happens to be holo. If that was an attempt at a clever name, they failed.

They are successful with the polish, though, so I'll forgive them.

WELL, THAT SUCKED

Yesterday I did more work in three hours than I did all of last week which meant I couldn't even start my blog post. I just figured I'd go home, do my nails and get to it.  This was not meant to be.

Right as I was ready to start polishing, out goes the power. Oh, fan-frickin-tastic. It's the first time it's been miserably hot and humid, and the power goes off. I couldn't believe how fast it became sweltering in the house. Next plan, go sit on the deck and do nails while we hope for power.

If you didn't know this, know it now.....nail polish doesn't dry worth a damn out on a deck in 90% humidity. Just a friendly FYI. What a nightmare. I even tried the "stick 'em in cold water" trick. That didn't work either.

So now I have sticky nails as I sit out on a sticky deck, trying to do the cleanup as the light fades. What the hell was I thinking?? Plus, we were really pissed because Under the Dome was set to record at 10:00, and you really can't do that without power. That's another friendly FYI there for ya'. I am SO helpful today! 

I did find out that Under the Dome's pilot is replaying on Sunday, so at least that works out.

Finally at 10:30, the power popped back up, and we got the fans going again. We haven't put our window AC in yet because...well, because we really haven't been having much summer. Anywhosers, the nails finally dried, and I was all set to stamp. And OMG, it was just seriously NOT my night last night! Something that should have gone on in like 10 minutes took 45. 

By the time I finished it, I hated it just because it was such an obnoxious douche of a mani.

I was excited to do something, too, because my Essie Naughty Nautical collection came yesterday.  This is The Girls Are Out. You can't really tell with these unless you're nose is right next to them, but some of this collection has a bit of a shimmer to them. Hell, for all I know they all do; maybe I just didn't have my nose close enough as I swatched them.  I wanted the white to really show up so I used my Konad white with the Llarowe LeaLac B stamp, but it still didn't come out as strong as I wanted. After having to re-do four of them and some of them twice, I gave up. 

Color me over it.  If I do nails tonight, it has to go better than this one did. 

If not, watch for my nail supply sale on eBay.

IKAT? WHAT THE HELL IS AN IKAT?

Let me start off by saying how comical I think it is that my last post got more hits than I've gotten in about a week. So apparently if I say I'm a big ol' honkin' liar, people are interested? Were you disappointed at how little it was?  LMAO

Seriously, though, I would like some honest opinions from those of you that seem to regularly stop by; am I spewing too much non-nail-related stuff?  Maybe you'd rather I just cut to the chase and show the nails? Once I start writing, I'm sure you've noticed I can really ramble on and tell you a bunch of shit you probs have no interest in. I know it's my blog and all, but I want people to at least like it, and I'm certainly not trying to scare anybody away.

That being said, I'm still going to mention that my cortisone shot worked pretty well. I had very little pain when I got up Saturday morning, so I immediately cleaned the entire house while my arm worked well enough to push a vacuum. I'm not sure if I should have done that or not, but since my arm is still attached, I guess it's okay.

I would also like the record to reflect that my internet has not gone down since the last guy came and detached whatever that thing was that had to do with a landline. Not.Even.Once. If I was single, I would marry that man.

Hopefully I didn't just jinx my interwebs by typing that.

As I wander around Pinterest I always see a ton of things I like, and I pin them for future reference of things I might someday try. This "Ikat" mani is one of those. I've seen quite a few of them. I didn't know what Ikat meant so I finally looked it up, and apparently it's almost like a tie-dye thing for fabric. That's about all I gleened from looking that up other than the fact that it's pronounced "e-kat", not "i-kate". Evs. I like it, and that's really all that matters.

This is pretty but was kind of a pita to do. I'm not sure why, but my Seche Vite was making my colors run. I don't think I've ever had SV do that to me before, and I don't appreciate it. I ended up having to topcoat between every color. I absolutely hate when that happens....so time consuming!

Other than that, it's actually pretty easy to do.  I did two coats of China Glaze Sunday Funday for my base color and topcoated. I made just kind of a sloppy, imperfect "V" with Sinful Colors Snow Me White and let that dry and topcoated. After that was dry, I add another imperfect "V" inside the white with an unnamed purple that I have and once again, topcoated. Finally, I used a dotting tool and added the little bits of black, American Apparel Assid, to go inside the purple and to outline the white. And yes, then I topcoated. Twice. 

So right now I have a shit ton of polish on.  I think it's a pretty groovy look, and the fact that it's supposed to be imperfect makes it easy enough. I just wish it would have gone a little faster. But hey, we all know I am not afraid to spend four hours on a mani while watching tv.

I'm annoyed at this weather right now. Lay in the pool? Don't lay in the pool? It's kinda sunny but kinda not; only in the mid 60's but it would be warm enough just laying on my new raft....what's a girl to do? If I get all ready and get out there, is going to get all cloudy and then rain? *heavy sigh* 

And that, my friends, is the biggest decision I have to make today. Pretty sad, right?

SO I FIBBED A LITTLE.

Went and visited my doctor. I get such a kick out of him. Gotta' love a doc I can give shit to and he dishes it right back. I remember when I first started seeing him years ago, I thought he was such a dudster with no personality whatsoever. I've trained him well.

Got me a lovely cortisone shot and asked how often I'm allowed to get them since the one from March only lasted a month. Only allowed four a year. Super duper. I told him that I do not want that frozen shoulder thing. He agreed and said, "No. No, you don't."  I told him that since only 2-3% of the population gets it, obviously that's what I'll end up having because that is typical me.  I thought he would fall off his chair he was laughing so hard at me.  So now I'm being referred to an orthopedist for my shoulder. Sounds fun.

Then I told him about my failed EGD with the useless, retiring doctor who obviously had no interest in referring me for anything or to anybody....just said to talk to my regular doc and that maybe I don't want to try another EGD, make just get an upper GI. Well, imagine my surprise when I learn today from my general doc that at my last EGD in October of 2009, I not only had ulcers, I also had Barrett's Esophagus. News to me. It was also news to me that this is something that should be checked because a very small percentage of people get esophageal cancer because of it. WTF. Isn't that special. Mabes you could have mentioned that in passing, Mr. Retiring Jackass. An upper GI wouldn't show how that little gem of a problem is doing. I'm being referred to a gastroenterologist for that.

AND since my red blood cells were too large at the last visit, he took blood again today. Doesn't big blood cells sound like it should be something super awesomesauce??  Not so much. If those are still big, he wants me to have a sleep study because that can be caused by sleep apnea. Seriously? Is that "all" the fun news you have for me today? Oh, what's that? That's not one of those at-home sleep studies? I have to go sleep somewhere else? I just called him an asshole, slapped him on the arm and we both started laughing.

Why can't I ever just get a cold or the flu like normal people. Seriously, you guys would not even believe me if I told you all of the weird things I've gotten or had happen to me over the years. Redonk. Truly.

'Nuff of that.  So I lied. I said I was going to leave that foil mani on, but I didn't. I changed my mind last night and took it off. I just felt like monkeying around a bit.  It was a quick one and didn't take much time.

I knew I wanted to do a dark red with a black stamping. I dug through my two drawers of reds and decided on Nailtiques Milan.  It's such a pretty color, but I like it even better when it's matte using Butter London's matte topcoat. Since I want the black to show up well, I used my Konad black with the Llarowe LeaLac plate B to just put a little bit of a flourish on there.

I love it. I think it's dramatic without being "out there". I was wondering how the black stamp would be about staying on during my shower since I couldn't topcoat after stamping, but it still looks great after that and after working. I keep looking at it cuz' I think it's so pretty, so I call that a success.

Now I have the weekend to just lay around. Hopefully that cortisone will do its thang so I'm not in pain and so I can sleep. A decent night's sleep without waking up from the pain would be delightful.  One day last week Kev told me I had actually woken him up because I started screaming in pain. Now, he didn't define "screaming", and I don't remember it, but I guess that means it hurt.  And I don't even lay on that side.

So here's hoping!! If it works and the weather turns nice so I can lay in the pool, that would make this a damn near perfect weekend. 

In the meantime, I'm gonna' take a snappy-nap for a bit. I is tuckered.

CURSES....FOILED AGAIN!!!

Ohhh, it is SO close to Friday I can almost taste it. I wish the weather forecast wasn't saying it'll probs rain tomorrow, though. I really wanna lay in the pool. Maybe if it rains, I'll be motivated to do something productive. Like laundry. Or cleaning.

Or taking a nice long nappy-nap. I'll lay odds on this one.

But first I have to go to the doc and hopefully get a cortisone shot in this stupid right shoulder that has bursitis or tendonitis or some shit that I didn't think you could get by doing absolutely nothing. I guess typing, holding a mouse or a remote and painting nails is extremely stressful to my right arm? Oh, wait...it can't be from the remote; I use that with my left hand. Sheesh. Can you imagine what kind of shape I'd be in if I actually exerted myself?? Not that I plan on finding out. It better work and last longer than a month this time.

I had a plan for using my nail foils last night. As always with foils, it went completely awry. It still turned out interesting, but it's not what my brain was picturing at all. I actually sat and looked at my hand, took pics and then waited awhile before doing my right hand because I was unsure if I wanted to keep it at all. I am probs letting it stay on until tomorrow, though.

Just in case it isn't obvious, I did a black basecoat. I used Orly Liquid Vinyl. It's a nice black, but after all the raves I had read about it, I don't think it's any better than some of my cheaper blacks.

Once that was dry, I used my fan brush to slap on a little ScraPerfect glue which was slightly diluted with water.  I have the actual glue that comes with the foils, but I like the ScraPerfect better.

The glue dries clear and stays tacky so you can put your foils on. I had cut little pieces of my foils and used a q-tip and polish remover to wipe of the tan-colored backing. Then I just put my foils in random spots of my nail, rubbed a bit and pulled them off.  I just wanted to leave bright flashes of color on top of my black.

Topcoat is always an issue with foils because they ruin the look, but I didn't have to worry about that with this because it simply didn't matter. If they crinkled, fine with me. 

I love foils; I just wish I could figure out a way to make them stay as pretty as they are in the bottle. I bought mine from Dollarnailart and they were only $1 each. They do require a $25 minimum order, though.  I found the ScraPerfect Best Glue Ever on eBay, if memory serves, although I'm sure there are probably actual craft stores that carry it.

So that's the full foil story. Exciting, hey?

Just as a last note, I took a break from this and actually hurt my arm by taking off my cardigan even though I made sure to leave my arm straight down. Now it throbs like a mo-fo again. See how redonk this is?? Hurt by taking off a sweater? Are you effing kidding me?

My hubster should really trade me in for a newer model.

SCRIBBLES OR SOME SUCH NONSENSE

Happy day.....my darling honorary daughter finally had her baby boy last night. I say finally but she was actually only one day after her due date. Ayden Thomas is a big boy, over 10 pounds! If you knew what a smidge-midge Jackie is, you'd never know how big that is.....he's practically bigger than her already. I'm excited for them and can't wait to meet him. Made my night when I saw the pic, chubby cheeks and full head of dark hair, just like his daddy. She got exactly what she wanted, a kid with color, since she's whiter than paper. 

Got pics of the June issue of Les Nouvelles Esthetiques & Spa magazine yesterday and figured I'd force you to see those before you see my mani. Sneak, right?

 

As always, I'm thrilled to have my nails featured. This is the third time now in this magazine. The editor-in-chief has also now asked me to do articles on my own for them. She asked me to do five tutorial-type articles that will run as a series for five months. I don't get paid or anything, but it's still pretty cool! I've already submitted my first two, which I believe will run in September and October. 

That's my brag for the day. Onto the reason you came.

I had such plans to do something more labor intensive last night, but my stomach had other plans. I didn't even start doing my damn nails until after 10 o'clock. Of course, I had to do something.....I didn't want to wear the same thing 2 days in a row. And since the hardest thing about stamping is choosing colors, this didn't take me very long at all.

I was really drawing a blank for what colors I felt like doing and figured I hadn't done grey in awhile. I love grey polishes, but for some odd reason, I only have about 40 of them. I think that's weird. I pretty much grabbed the first light one I saw, OPI Suzi Takes the Wheel and decided to use Sinful Colors Black on Black instead of the Konad stamping black. I need to buy another white and black Konad polish...mine are getting goopy.  Of course I had to use a Lealac stamping plate, and the A plate has some good geometric kinda stuff. So this is what I came up with. Methinks it's kinda-sorta cool. 

It's another one-dayer, I believe. Mabes tonight I'll start earlier and figure out something a bit more exciting to do. I have a ton of ideas I want to try, but they seem like ideas that will take a few hours to accomplish. It's never a good idea for me to do those on weeknights because I might still have my ass parked in the recliner, swearing at myself and my nails, until 2 in the morning. 

I'm super smart that way. I'd say damn near Mensa level.

WATERMELON IS DELIGHTFUL

Dear Tuesday:
You suck nearly as bad as your step-sister, Monday. 

Dear upcoming Wednesday:
Step your shit up!

Ah, the crap part of the day is almost over. Gonna' stop and do some fake and bake and then head home to see Kev, who will be home at 6:30. Of course, he leaves again tomorrow, so that blows. Another 5 days all by my lonesome. Good thing I like being by myself so much, right? Otherwise marrying a pilot probs would not have been a good choice.

Perhaps this evening we can get the bathtub out of my living room. That would be lovely, as I don't really consider that "decorating". The new faucet won't be here until Thursday, but at least I can have my living room back to normal in the meantime.

VOTD: Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.  Please drop off the face of the earth. Thank you. Sincerely, 99% of the population.

On to something I enjoy! Nails! Yay!! Somebody asked in one of the nail groups what a good Watermelon polish was, and somebody said Essie Watermelon. Five minutes later, another sale was made on eBay. I received it yesterday, and it is bright! And pretty!

See? It's very watermelony and bright and pink. I'm liking it! I'll still probably be taking it off tonight, but I like it.  I just wanted to do a nice white stamp on this. I formulated that plan while standing in line at Walmart. I was a good girl there, too....I only bought 2 polishes, and one of them is white so it doesn't actually count.

I don't know why I feel the need to grab white polishes at random times even though I know I probably have 15 bottles of it in maybe 6 or 7 different brands. Apparently I must feel like I'm constantly on the verge of running out?  Who knows. I have issues. Clearly.

I used the LeaLac A plate with Sinful Colors Snow Me White for this stamp. And hey, I actually looked at the name of the SC white finally! Aren't you proud of me?? And then I put it away, forgot the name and had to go dig it out to look again to write it in here. 

Old-age brain strikes again. 

DUOCHROME + HOLO? YES, PLEASE!

Dear Monday,

You suck. Truly.

Sincerely, me.

Yesterday it was probs 85 degrees at my house. Today, I'm wearing a jacket because it's cloudy and feels like fall since it hasn't even reach 60 degrees. I friggin' hate it here sometimes.  At least it was pool weather yesterday, which made me and the dogs very happy. It felt so good to just lie on my raft, bake and watch the hummingbirds while the trees blew all kinds of crap all over me and into the pool. I must have skimmed out at least a thousand of those damn little seed thingies. As fast as I scooped, more fell in. Oh, well....still felt good!

Jackie came over last night to do her nails. I'm hoping it's the last time until she has that damn baby. She's due today and big as a house. I think she's kind of over it now and wants that son of hers to make his appearance. She wanted purdy nails for her doctor appointment today. Apparently last week's were a hit.

I just did something easy with mine because she was coming over. That's a lie. I did something easy because I was lazy. And I was so obsessed with that stamp on her from last week I wanted to use it for myself.

Coming up with a color combo is always such a pita. I decided on one of the new Kleancolor duochromes, Bright/Moody. Then I thought it might look coolio to use a holo for stamping so I chose Color Club Halo Hues Cherubic. For the record, when doesn't it look coolio to use a holo for anything! Gawd, I just love a holographic polish. So gorg.

So that sums up my Sunday. Jackie and I got our nails did and indulged in some Real Housewives and scotcheroo bars.

All in all, not a bad day! 

kk Bright/Moody CC HH Cherubic

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED (Norma)

Guess what! Charter sent another guy, and this one did something different than the other guys. Do they even work for the same company? I guess I'm the crazy one, thinking that all of the employees would have the same training. This guy removed some wires that had to do with a landline phone. You know, the kind of phone that's actually attached to your house. For the record, I don't remember how long it's been since we had one of those.

The kicker of this attempt is the fact that the guy says they've been getting tons of calls about this. WTF? You've gotten tons of calls about the exact same issue but we had to call you 13,000 times before you caught on? Well, so far so good, but we shall see. I hope this is the last time I have to write the word "Charter" for a very long time.  I need something new to bitch about.

They make me want to drink. Excessively.

One of my little wise-ass nail buddies thought she'd be sassy the other day and made a comment about me doing a water marble in the colors of the vanity top I just refinished.

Fine. Here it is. :P

I hate that this isn't translating very well. Obviously it's black and white, but I also have "10" Professional Moonlight, a light tan, in there. I can see it very clearly in person, but it's barely showing here. That does make it pretty accurate as far as smatching the vanity top, though, since there are only little blips of the tan there, too.

So there ya' go, Little Miss Norma.  This one's for you. 

ARE YOU KIDDING ME??

If you read yesterday, you already know that Charter came again. The internet worked like a champ for almost 11 whole hours!! We thought, Yay!!!

We thought wrong.  For the 3rd or 4th night in a row, it went down right around 11:30 p.m. and was still down when I went to bed at 12:45.  Result? Another call made to them this morning. Kev asked them to look at how many times it had gone down since he "fixed" it. Answer, 3 or 4 times. Come on! They're coming again tomorrow. Just shoot me already.

Anywho, when I got home yesterday I finished marbling the counter area around where the tub goes. I swear I had marbled fingers, but not the good kind. Obvi I had to make time for a mani after that.

A week or two ago when I ordered my LeaLac plates at Llarowe, I picked up a few polishes. One of those was Wardrobe Malfunction by Darling Diva. What a strange polish this is. I didn't really care much for the formula, and I don't think it got pretty until after I topcoated. It also didn't seem to be holo at all until I topcoated. Even then, I didn't find much holoey goodness. 

Oh, well, that just means stamp the shit out of it like I said I would do. Grab up my LeaLac B plate and Essie Mirror Effect No Place Like Chrome and go to town. 

I like how this turned out although I don't think there's anything special about it. The purple is really brilliant and pretty, so I'm pleased with the color, just not happy about the lack of holo.

I'm anxious to get home and see how things have progressed today without me. Kev was doing the topcoat on the countertops, and I believe he was going to do the first coat on the tub. I'm really praying that turns out. Tomorrow he'll be able to put in my new sink. I'm unreasonably excited about that. It's a sink. How sad is my life that this is a major highlight? Hmmm....

Actually, I have 12 new China Glazes to swatch, the Sunsational Collection. Wowsers, are they bright.

Now that is a highlight.

HERE'S ONE I LIKE :)

Charter arrived bright and early this morning. They gave us a window of anytime between 8 and 10 and actually showed up around 8:15.  Shocker.  So the worker, who had hair 6 inches longer than mine and ten times healthier, dealt with Kev while I went off to work.

After crawling under the house, he got rid of some splitter that had been there since we had Charter for our cable. He also replaced something up on the pole. So now it's a wait and see if that did the trick.

What I'd like to know is why none of the other 3-4 workers didn't do any of those things. Especially if these things are finally what fixes it. Does that mean of the 3-5 guys, only 1 of them actually knows his job? Not impressed.

Last night I was doing some more work in the bathroom so I didn't do a mani. Jeebus, I really want my bathroom back to normal. Right now my garden tub is sitting in my living room because I'm also going to attempt refinishing that. Hopefully I won't regret that decision. Tonight I'll finish with the marbling on the area around the tub. Then I just need to topcoat that and the sink area, and I'll never have to look at the disgusting blue that was my counter areas again. I will post pics at some point. Our new sink came yesterday, too, and I love it! I think it's all going to look pretty good when it's done, and it's a lot cheaper than gutting it, but I am tired of my house looking like a disaster.

So you get a rehash mani today. Sorry about that, but there are just not enough hours in a day, especially during the week.

I think this one is pretty funky and cool. And bonus, they are two of my all-time fave China Glaze colors, Secret Peri-Winkle and Peachy Keen. And black, obvi. I can't remember for sure if I did a white basecoat, but I think I see some white peeking out along the cuticle line of my pinkie. So I'm gonna' go with, yes, I did do a white basecoat.

I'm not sure what the obsession is with marbles the last few days. I mean, they are one of my fave things, but I need to show something else here pretty quick. Hopefully tonight I'll get to do my nails and stamp the shit outta' them. 

I honestly don't think I can wear the same green marble mani for a third day. That is just wrong on so many levels. It's holding up like a champ, though....not even a speck of tip wear even after typing for two days.

My pool water is actually up to a whopping 72 degrees today! I'd kill to be floating in it right now instead of sitting here at work. I sure hope I'll get some chance this weekend to lounge in it.

Of course, if it's still that cold, I have no intention of actually getting wet.

WATER MARBLE MAGNIFICENCE!

I have a VOTD today!! A couple, actually!

First off, Charter is still not working. Kev called them again last night, and he said that he finally talked to someone who actually seemed like he had a brain. (pardon my skepticism) The guy said he could actually look at something and see everytime it has gone down. WTF? If that's the case, why haven't they noticed that the last 7-8 times they've been called and then tried to fix it. Jerks. So now they are coming out again tomorrow....I believe this is the 6th time. I'll cross my fingers, but I have little faith in them fixing it. But oh, wow....they're knocking a whopping $20 off my bill. There's also some nonsense about how Kev was told that there is no longer a monthly rental fee for a modem, which is why they told him to go get a new one of theirs last week. Apparently that was misinformation as they do, indeed, charge a monthly fee. I am going to kill someone. Anybody want to be my alibi?

My second VOTD is in reference to a certain Facebook group I belong to. The nitpickiest, most anal-retentive, overly dramatic group I'm in. And I'm in quite a few that seem to have no problems. To say I feel like I'm targeted when I post is an understatement. First it started with a big uproar because people would ask questions about my Custom Nails. Holy shit. You'd think the world was coming to an end. And since I'm here writing this, evidently that was not the case. 

Next I was targeted by someone over a contest entry I did. Apparently there were 2 different rule links. I followed one, and the other person called me out and said I was cheating. That was a whole big "to-do". I was a winner in the contest, so guess who won that battle of the nonsensical? 

Now there's an issue of my blog link being deleted because when I posted it, the "wrong" mani pic showed up as the picture for the link. So even though my actual post WAS related, the thread got deleted. I'm calling bullshit on this one.  It just really pisses me off. It's a pretty big group, and obvi I want people to come here and to my FB page. Evs.

That's all I'm going to say about that. I'm taking a deep breath and moving on.

Jeepers! That felt good!!

Last night I just got the urge to do a marble. Now, normally I don't do them on weeknights because they can take wayyyy too long, but I figured I'd give it a go.  Somebody up there must like me because it went perfectly! Not a single re-do. Everything fell right into place the way I wanted it to. Made my night!

The hardest part of this was deciding what colors I wanted to use. Go pink? Go purple? Blue?  Heavens, such a quandry!! Once I decided what I was wearing to work, I had to go green.  So green it is! A single coat of Julep Shenae (does anybody else think Shanaynay when they see that?) and then I marbled with that along with China Glaze Exotic Encounters and Zoya Wednesday.

Could this BE any more perfect?? In case you're wondering, the answer to that question is "no". Say it with me; "Diane, that water marble could not BE any more perfect." 

Very good.  You get an "A" for the day.  

As do I for such an awesome marble. (I am cracking myself up today)

POLKA ANYONE? (dots, that is - I can't dance) AND some extra's!

Just another Monday. Blech. I just don't see the reason for them.  I'd like to just work Wednesday, Thursday and my half days on Fridays from now on. That would be loverly!!

Did I mention I'd want to make the same pittance I make now?  Did I also mention that this is quite the flight of fancy?

One of the mani's I was asked to do recently for Custom Nails was a multi-colored sprinkles on white. Really not a mani I would normally do, but do it I did. My dotting tools got a workout, and this went surprisingly fast. It came off surprisingly fast, too.

So, yeah....this is white. And multi-colored dots. I didn't even bother writing down every color I used because I really didn't care. I grabbed bright colors and went on my merry dotting way.

I think it turned our pretty cute for what it is. I guess mabes I'd wear it and not hate it, but I did take it off to move on to their next request.

BONUS MANI'S!!

Thought I'd throw up pics of what the girls did at my house Saturday night. Again, I didn't think to write down what they used, although Kathy was holding the bottle. That's a polish I won from The Sparkle Queen in a contest she held awhile back.

I hadn't tried it over black, but OMG....I never in a gazillion years would have thought it would show up so crazy good. I'm lucky Kathy didn't sneak that one right out the door with her. She was really loving it.  

Check out The Sparkle Queen's blog and find her on Facebook if you'd like to purchase some of her amazing polishes. It comes in other colors, and she actually puts up YouTube videos of them!  Plus, she's a real sweetheart which doesn't hurt, either.

Sheesh. Tell me to shut the hell up already!! This was more than enough for one day.

WATER MARBLE "JUST CUZ'"

Last night a few of the "gals" came over for a nail night. There was just four of us, and I don't know about anybody else, but I had a great time. Such a nice bunch of chickies. Drank a little but no drunks, they gazed in wonder at my stash and used some of my stuff to do their nails. I attempted to give a water marble lesson, which kinda' worked out; I showed how it's done but wasn't happy with it. So I didn't even do my nails.

Today I had to do some work on that damn countertop, and my first attempt sucked ass. Once it dried I did it over again and am much happier with the results. 

Then I took a little nappy-nap because I can't stay asleep at night. My shoulder is really giving me trouble, and it wakes me up every hour or so. Then I ate dinner and the stomach started really hurting. I swear, it's always something....it sucks to get old. And my nails still weren't done.

It just hasn't been my day, I guess! Even now I only have one hand finished, but I wanted to at least get it posted so I can finish the other and hopefully go to bed a littler earlier than normal.

I painted my nails white with just one coat of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Hard to Get.  Then I used that along with Orly Lemonade and Wet n Wild Megalast Club Havana for the marble. I had to try 4 different yellows before I could get one to work. I don't know why, but I always seem to have a problem with yellows when I marble. They're just obnoxious, and I can't figure out why.

Oh, well....it's a marble. And it has yellow. So I'll be satisfied with it.

And now I'm off to do my right hand. Hopefully it will go as easily as this one did! 

G'night, all!

NOT A DAMN CLUE WHAT THIS IS

Sorry for the lack of a post yesterday. My internet wouldn't stay connected for more than 10 minutes at a time all last evening until really late when it just finally quit working altogether. I was pleasantly surprised to find it working when I got up, although it still isn't being very trustworthy.

Charter's latest "idea" for fixing it was having us get a new modem which they "claimed" should fix the problem. Epic fail. Assholes. If they were as good at service as they were at bothering me to get their tv and landline things would be great. And it's shocking how many different numbers they call me from. I have Mr. Number on my phone and laugh when I see that they've gotten blocked, sometimes 7 or 8 times a day. But then they'll manage to sneak in a new number like they did on Thursday night. I will give the woman credit, though....she wasn't pushy at all and once I told her we had DirecTv, she wrapped up the call. And then I went to Mr. Number and blocked this latest number they called from.

I don't want to talk to Charter. Ever. 

Now here's a mani I did back in April for Custom Nail Solutions. I haven't a clue what I used to do it. In fact, I somehow managed to delete it from my computer. The PR person asked for it yesterday minus my blog name watermark, and that's when I realized it was "poof"....gone.

I found it by going back through my sent emails and snagged it from when I emailed it to them the first time. So at least I have it, even if I don't know exactly what it is. It has glitter. And it's blue. 

I do remember they had asked for something kind of ocean/glitter inspired.  The only other thing I know is I obvi used striping tape to do this.

*EDITED* Martha from my nail fun group did her usual detective work and found where I had actually posted this mani. She's the absolute BEST at doing that! The colors are Sinful Colors Gorgeous and China Glaze Prismatic Optical Illusion.

Got some local nail addicts coming over for a fix this evening. My daughter was supposed to come from Marinette with her friend to join us, but she's sick and isn't coming. I'm pretty saddy pants about this because I was really looking forward to having "girl time" with her. I never get to see just her, and sometimes it's nice to be able to do that.  Maybe next time, I guess. :(

If things go well tonight, perhaps I'll be posting pics of mani's other than mine!  I figure it'll be fun trying to get them to do my hand pose.

REVERSE POLKA DOTS

Ah, medical bills. You can suck it. And my insurance company can suck it, too. So far all of my ridiculous medical stuff that accomplished nothing has taken over $1,000 from my bank account. I'm sure there are probably more bills coming. Just shoot me. It would be cheaper. 

Today I'm throwing up an older mani because I just got a request from Custom Nail Solutions to provide them with a few things that they need right away. So tonight I'll have to do those instead of just doing something for myself.

I like this one and have been thinking about doing it again in some brighter colors. So many to do; so little time! I'm already wondering how long it will take me tonight to do the other mani's when I really should be starting work on those countertops. Ugh. I need more hours in a day. On to the fantabulousness!

I've got two of my fave greys on this one. I think I actually have backups of both of these, Pure Ice Kiss Me Here stamped with China Glaze Concrete Catwalk. Both of them are just really nice, true greys. For the dots I used my DRK-B plate. No way in hell I would try to freehand this, although it probs wouldn't be that hard to do. If I can get away with stamping, though, that's what I'm going to do.

I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday! My house is filthy from all the messing around. Yesterday was the first time I'd seen my dining room table in a couple of weeks because it was covered with a plastic dropcloth since there were pieces of woodwork all over it in the process of being stained.  

So after work I'll get to cleaning. A few of my local nail peeps are coming over Saturday evening for some nail fun and apple pie shots. That house has to at least be presentable.  I was hoping the ex would come over tonight to fix my chair, but he can't come until this weekend. Poop. Ripped chair will still be ripped when company comes. Weak sauce.

Maybe they'll get so wasted on the apple pie shots that they won't notice.

TROPICAL COLORBLOCK

Oooo, my bathroom is coming along nicely. My new light fixture came today. A new sink is ordered along with a new scale and toilet paper holder. Tomorrow night I'll probs start refinishing the top of the counter. That'll be a few days kind of job. 

I think I almost have Kev convinced that we should buy a kit to refinish the tub and shower. That sounds like a nightmare to do, but it will really make me happy to not have the disgustingly well-water stained crap we have now. Even when it's clean, it looks dirty, which makes me feel like a slobster. I'm not the neatest person on earth, but I am no slobster.

Anywhosers, I did this mani last night and would have posted earlier, but we decided to go out for dinner tonight and then stopped at what we jokingly call our mall so I could get an upholstery needle for fixing that rip in my recliner. My ex offered to fix it for us, so I'm hoping it will at least look good enough to not annoy me every time I look at it.

I got striping tape happy last night. I'm loving the Square Hue polishes this month so I just had to use two of the immediately.

I started off with a base of American Apparel Cotton. I love this polish; it's white without being too white.....know what I mean?  Then I grabbed my striping tape and taped off my sections before filling them in with Square Hue Collins Avenue, Ocean Drive and Sinful Colors Savage and Sweet Nothing.  I wasn't thrilled with it shiny so I used my Butter London Matte Topcoat. Done deal.

It really didn't take me as long as I thought it would to do this. I like it so much I'm keeping it another day.

Truth be told, I'm only keeping it because it's too late tonight to take it off and do something else. But at least I'm wearing something I don't hate for two days. 

 

WELL, THIS IS DIFFERENT....NOT VERY "ME"

Can someone please tell me where my cardinals went?? They were around non-stop all weekend. Yesterday not a sighting, not even a peep was heard. I'm assuming the babes are now gone from the nest. I guess they only stay there for around 7 days. But does that mean they're just "gone" now? Dammit. If that's the case, I'll miss seeing them.

Ah, those new LeaLac plates!! So much fun to have new designs to mess around with. I wish more companies would make plates large enough for my nails.

I got my monthly Julep Maven polishes yesterday; 3 great colors so I immediately decided that the baby blue was the way to go. I really like being a Maven. I've found it to be really fun. The best part is finding out on the 20th of each month what's in each style box and being able to skip a month if I want. I joined last spring. I've jumped in on more mystery boxes than I can remember because those are always fun when they do those. I have skipped several monthly boxes when I wasn't thrilled with them, but I love their polish. If you want to check it out and maybe join, please use my referral link: Julep Maven.  If you don't end up liking them, you can also cancel without any trouble. Anywho, enough plugging for that. I love 'em....just sayin'.

This mani is SO not a Diane mani. I'm not sure if I like it or hate it. It seemed really stark to me, so I did add a holo topcoat which softened it even though the holo doesn't come through much. Maybe I should have done 2 coats of that. Evs.

I love this baby blue, Julep Bess. I also love a good dark blue and have some (translation-dozens), and I decided on Zoya Ibiza because it has a shimmer to it. That, just like the holo topcoat, did not really translate very well. This Llarowe LeaLac plate is LLC-A. 

Centering this bitch was not easy at all!! Holy-moly! It's the first time I think I've used a design that really needs to be centered. If I use one again, hopefully I'll get better at it. Just one more thing I need to learn, I guess. Gross. Old dogs don't like learning new tricks.

Nice to see that my mani is as off kilter as its owner.

MISERABLE, MARBLEY MALARKY

Ugh...it's Monday, and I feel lazy. I really need my ship to come in so I can retire and just play with my nails and watch tv all day. 

One thing I love about weekends is having extra time to work on mani's. It's really the only chance I have if I want to do something labor intensive like tons of tape work or marbling. 

Because you just never know with the damn marbles.....they tend to have a mind of their own. And that mind is bent on ever-so-slowly pushing me towards the doors of a psychiatric hospital. And yet I still do them. Crap. Maybe that means I really am crazy!!

This was easily one of the strangest marbles I've ever done.   Even though my polishes were spreading out fine in the water, they gave me nothing but trouble when trying to make a design. I gave up after doing my left hand and figured I'd do my right hand the next day.

So I did. I wish I had taken a picture of it. Exact same everything, and it looked like a completely different marble with completely different colors. It was crazy!! My ivory base came through more, and the other colors were all about 3 shades lighter. I wasn't a fan of either hand so I took it off and just did the green daisy mani instead.

There's 2 hours of my life I'll never get back.  Good thing I have plenty of hours to spare. I really wanted a marble, too....saddy pants is me. Try again some other day, I guess. *insert heavy sigh here*

You can't see it, but I used American Apparel Cotton as a basecoat and also included it in the actual marble. The other colors are China Glaze Fade Into Hue and Beauty Treats Apricot.

Not everything is a success, and while I understand that, it really effing pisses me off.

On a brighter note, I now have over 300 instagram followers, which is nutz!! Man, there are some super talented peeps posting on there! It never ceases to amaze me how people have thousands and thousands of followers on blogs, FB or Instagram. 

When I grow up, I want to be just like them.

IT'S A "KATHY" MANI

Today I finally completed the refinishing of all of the wood cabinets in the bathroom. Thank God. Now I just need to wait for Kev to be home so he can remove the sink so I can start refinishing the countertop. I'm so excited to do that part and kiss that blue goodbye.

I also spent a good part of my day bird watching. I'm now officially obsessed with cardinals, and they are apparently obsessed with hanging out on the railing of my deck. Which is fine with me because I get good pictures. 

When I was sneaking up to the door to snap pics one time today, the momma' was directly in front of me on the railing. I glance to the left, and there are two goldfinches perched on my shephard's hook. What the what?? I'm not sure why my deck area is bird heaven this summer, and I've never even been a fan of birds, but I am completely enjoying this. So before I show you my "Kathy Mani", here's a couple of my birds. :)

S

 

 

For whatever reason I guess my pics are all weirdly sized, probs because I crop them to get closer shots. Oh, well. Sorry.

Anywho, here's my mani, dubbed a "Kathy Mani" because this is totes the kind of thing she would do, and not so much the kind of thing I usually do. But I likey.

I did this using Colour Gossip Nature Girl, stamped the daisies with my LeaLac LLC-A plate and Konad white, and did the yellow centers with a dotting tool and Milani Yellow Whiz. 

I had never heard of Colour Gossip until I saw them on Instagram, and they sent me a sample. Nice, right? It came yesterday, I swatched it, and it is really nice polish. It goes on like a damn dream. I had looked at Colour Gossip a couple of weeks ago and love their colors.  Consider me a fan.

I'm going to assume you're tired of this post now, so I'll just let it be done.