THE OTHER EXTREME

Jeebus! Why am I so tired lately?? I know, I know...I shouldn't stay up so late. But since that's the norm, I don't get why I'm extra overtired. I should just be normal overtired. Even after sleeping in that extra hour in the morning, I still fell asleep after work.

And of course since I took that little snappy-nap after work, then I wasn't tired enough to go to bed early. And OMG, I did not sleep well at all!! I had some super weird-ass dreams about ants and murder that kept waking me up until I finally got up at 3:30 to try to snap out of it. Yup. Ants and murder. Cuz' that's a common thread for dreams, right?

I considered going back to bed for an extra hour again when the alarm went off but decided against it. I need to somehow get back to my "normal" schedule.  Now the goal is to stay awake during work, at lunchtime and after work. 

Luckily my after work snooze was a short nap. If I had stayed asleep longer, I might have been stuck with the traffic stopper mani for another day.  One day of that was plenty. I needed to give my eyes a break after looking at that shockfest for 24 hours.

So tonight when I woke up from my nap, I decided to go neutral. Like really neutral. 

It doesn't get much more opposite than this.  I have several of the textured polishes and never think to use them. This one is Zoya Pixiedust Godiva. I wanted to stamp over it with something subtle and my DRK-C stamp plate, and even though OPI Get in the Espresso Lane is actually a true dark brown, it stamped very muted over the texture. 

I rather like this; it's very soft looking. I considered topcoating over it but decided to leave it dull. I like when the light hits the little sparkles that are in the pixiedust polishes.

I'm kind of stumped for what I want to do next. I do have some swatching to catch up on so mabes I'll just end up leaving this one on for another day.

And hopefully tonight's dreams will include sunshine, unicorns and a gazillion dollars in my bank account.

TAKE HEED!!! PRICELESS WORDS OF WISDOM FROM THE QUEEN!

It's 11:45. I'm super tired and told myself that I would go to bed early. But am I going to go right this second? Nope! I'm going to write a blog post just for you!  How selfless of me, right??

The shitty part of me writing a blog post so late means I just finished a mani so late.  Usually what I do is after I finish a mani, I'll quick do the watermark and upload it to blogger and save it. Then when I'm pretending to work at the office, I can write my blog post.  

The difference this time is the lesson I learned. Sometimes I'm a bit slow to catch on, and something tells me I will re-learn this lesson many more times.

So what did I learn, you ask? 

I learned why it's bad to start a manicure past 10 p.m. Because what you see below is what happens:

You get a "supposedly" brilliant idea.  And like an idiot, you actually "do" this supposedly "brilliant" mani.  But is what you end up with either a good idea or a brilliant mani? 

NO. A loud, resounding NO! You get this oh-so-hideous yellow and orange nightmare.  And to make matters even worse, you started it so damn late, you're now stuck with it for an entire day!

Oh, yikers.  This is just not a good look. I should send a written apology to Orly and Loreal for this one. Orly is the yellow base, Lemonade; and the orange is Loreal's Precious Coral. I do like the actual stamp, though. It's not the stamping plate's fault that I chose awful colors. It's my DRK-C stamp plate.

So there. That's a lesson I wish I would actually take to heart, but I know I'll make the same mistake again. Hell, probs sometime within the next week.

In the meantime, I've decided to take on another job. 

You'll find me out directing traffic - this mani should work really well for that.

NEW STAMPING PLATE :)

Is it Friday yet? If not, I'd like to take a nap until it gets here. I'm sooooo tired after the weekend! It's been a long time since I closed down a wedding and then closed down a bar.

The weather was so craptastic the entire weekend. Froze at the outdoor wedding, and then for Griff's birthday party it was cold AND raining. So depressing, and that damp cold just gets into these old crotchety bones so I stay frozen for hours afterwards.

Now that it's Monday and back to work, it's sunny and mid-70's and should be all week. Um, thanks. Sunny and warm doesn't do me a damn bit of good if I'm sitting in my office wearing a sweater.

I left my marbled fingers and toes on for the birthday party yesterday. I really didn't have time to do anything else.  We got home around 9:30 last night when the party ended, so I figured I could at least do something to my nails. I knew I wasn't going to wear sandals today so I didn't even bother painting my toes.

Yup...I was lazy, and I don't care.

The shirt I'm wearing is exactly this color, American Apparel Peacock, and I used the DRK-C stamping plate I just bought from Ninja Polish for the stamp.  I think I may have all of the large stamping plates that have designs big enough to cover my nails. 

I sure wish there were companies that sold smaller plates with fewer designs that were still large enough to cover my big-ass nails. There are so many times I see stamps on people that I just love, but I can't get 'em because they're too stinkin' small. It's very frustrating!

I just took a quick break while I fell asleep on my desk. Nice. I think that might mean I'm overtired or something.  Hopefully when I get home I can stay awake. I have more tv on my dvr than I can even comprehend, and I would like to do my nails again tonight.  I need a couple of regular old boring weeks and weekends to get caught up and back to where I feel normal again. 

Or at least what I consider normal. I have no idea what you consider normal.

SMATCHING FEETS? OH, HELL, YEAH!

Since I haven't had time to post the past couple of days, I was bound and determined to squeeze one in today. Not an easy weekend to do since today is running around for a wedding, and tomorrow is running around for Griffin's 3rd birthday.

I did a white, gold and silver water marble on one hand last night for Custom Nail Solutions and then promptly removed it to do nails for today.

Once I decided I was going to water marble, I found 4 colors that smatched my dress pretty well. Thankfully it was one of those nights where the marbles worked out easily.

My starting base is OPI My Vampire is Buff (still my fave neutral ever), and then I marbled with Essie Very Structured, Sinful Colors Leap Flog and China Glaze Lemon Fizz.  I'm happy with how it turned out, and the color match for my dress is pretty good.

As you're about to see. While I was trying to decide which of these colors I would use on my toes, I got a brainstorm.  I did a basecoat of the OPI on my toes, and while that was drying I did the marble in my glass again. Then I grabbed my XL stamper and picked up the marble design from the water.  While my toes were still tacky, I rolled the marble onto my toes. OMG....what a great idea!! I was actually able to do the marble on my toes in a shorter time than it usually takes me just to paint the damn things.

Warning, if you have an aversion to feet; close your browser and go back to playing on Facebook.

That's the fabric of my dress with my ever-so-smatchy hands and feet.

For sure I will do this again because it was super simple and turned out pretty cool. Seriously...water marbled toes?? Bril.

Now I'm off to the wedding reception, but at least I can say I got a blog post in for the day. 

Damn, I am awesome.

SOMETHING SIMPLE

So much for getting to bed before midnight last night. Even with my best intentions, I still couldn't manage to get there until 12:45. Evidently I would have to start getting ready for bed at 7 o'clock in order to make it before midnight. Redonk. What the hell is wrong with me?  lol

My headache actually woke me up at 3:30 a.m., so that was awesome. I took some Excedrin Migraine, crossed my fingers it wouldn't hurt my stomach and went back to bed. I got lucky. My major headache was just a smidge of a headache when I got up, and my stomach even survived it. That made for a decent start to the day.

Kev is on his way home after stopping at a walk-in clinic before the 2 hour drive home. He's got strep throat, so that is fan-*&#@ing-tastic.  Just what he needs. Hopefully the antibiotics will kick in fast since we have a busy weekend coming up. He never gets sick; I feel so bad for him. 

Right after I finished eating supper I got to the nails.  I wanted to be done early. You know, cuz' I want to be in bed before midnight. LMAO

This looks quite a bit more purple in real life.  The base is China Glaze Bogie, and I stamped with the Llarowe LeaLac LLC-A plate using Color Club Fashion Addict. 

Fashion Addict is one of the first polishes I bought on eBay, specifically because I saw it on Chloe's blog. I still love it. It's just a really pretty light purple and is a "bit" holo. Bogie is just a dark brownish-purple. At least that's how I describe it.

So that's that for today. It isn't what I really wanted to do. I had seen a mani I wanted to do, but I just couldn't get the technique to work. It's one of those things I'll just have to try another day when I have the patience.

And with that, I'm off to clean up my nail supply mess before Kev gets home in a minute. As usual, we have about 6 hours of television to catch up on since he hasn't been here since last Thursday.

Someone should buy me a life.

 

China Glaze Bogie, Color Club Fashion Addict, Llarowe LeaLac LLC-A stamp plate

A NEW FAVE BABY BLUE

Not feeling particularly perky this evening, but as much as I loved yesterday's gradient marble, I didn't want to wear it another day. After swatching a couple of new Zoya's I got in the mail, I decided I'd just use one that was still sitting next to me.

I had no luck trying to get a decent pic of this. Since the blue is so light, the white isn't showing up very well. It looks more prominent in real life. Honest.

My Konad white and black polishes are pretty much crapped out so when I did my shopping on eBay to get more, I saw the Mash stamping polishes and decided I'd try them. I'm disappointed in them. They don't have the same thickness I've gotten used to with the Konad brand; they act much more like regular nail polish. It stamped well, but I think the Konad special polish might have shown up a little better. I'll keep using these, but I have a feeling I'm going to end up buying some Konad.

As for Zoya Blu, easily the best light blue I've got. Almost one-coat coverage and smooth as silk. I do always like my Zoya polishes, but this one really is amazeballs.

Since I was just going for quick, I just pulled the first stamping plate that was on top, my DRK-A plate from Ninja Polish. I order their DRK-C plate the other day even though I told myself I wasn't going to. Had to do it; couldn't help myself.

So that's it for today. I'm crossing everything I own hoping this headache is gone when I get up. I'm blaming it on the weather change.

Now my goal for the rest of the night is to get to bed before midnight.

Wish me luck.

I'M GONNA' MAKE OUT WITH THIS

How does it go from 90+ degrees to barely 60 so fast around here? I'm surprised the heat didn't actually kick on last night because it was only 40-some degrees out. Today I'm wearing a sweatshirt and socks. I don't like it.  Next weekend better be nice because we have an outdoor wedding to attend on Saturday, and Griffin's 3rd birthday party is on Sunday and is also outdoors.

Sleeping this weekend has been terrible. I can't even begin to tell you how bizarre my dreams were, but suffice it to say they were so bad I actually had to get out of bed to snap myself out of them. I don't remember having such horrible dreams when I was younger, but the last year or two it has really become an issue. I'd love to know where my brain comes up with some of this stuff. Creepy and scary.

Yesterday I took the foils off and decided I really wanted to do a gradient. They've been one of my fave things, but I've really struggled with doing them to my satisfaction. I asked for some advice from some fellow nail buddies and got some tips.  After a couple of failed attempts on a couple of nails, all of a sudden it just "worked".  Same thing happened with water marbling for me. It's weird, but I really hope this means it will always work for me from now on.

After doing the successful gradient, I pondered what to do next; leave it? Stamp it? Oh, snap....marble it!!  I didn't know if it would turn out how I wanted, but I knew I had lots of time to mess with it. Here's what I ended up with.

Oh Em Gee....I am in love with this mani. Seriously, I think it's one of my all-time favorites.  It was fairly time consuming until I mastered doing the gradient, but I will be happy to wear this for a couple of days.

My base color for this one is American Apparel Cotton. Then I used that along with China Glaze Something Sweet and Julep Joy to do my gradient. I wish I had taken a picture before I marbled, but I just thought of that right this second while typing this. Sometimes my brain stalls. (obviously)

For marbling I grabbed a bottle of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure clear and Square Hue Wartime Romance. I wasn't really sure how using a clear to marble with would work, but it was kinda' cool to do.

 So that's my latest attempt at doing something new. It's def something I look forward to doing again.

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks!

THE NAIL VARNISH TAG (and a pic thrown in)

I left my foils on all day today, including the three hours I spent in the pool. They held up fine. I did take them off because I wanted to try one of my non-smooth finishes with that topcoat to see how they fared.  Before we get to the pics of these, I'll take care of some other bizness first.

Nail Varnish Tag!

Well, imagine my surprise when I logged onto Facebook last night and was advised that I'd been "tagged".  After running outside in a panic to look at my car and house to see what the tag was, I decided to go check out her blog to see what the hell she was talking about. So thanks a heap for tagging me, Fox Claws; now I actually have to think instead of just painting my nails.  Make sure you head on over to her page to see her responses.

Favorite Nail Polish Company

I can only pick one???  Honestly, I like so many different brands, each for different reasons. I love Sinful Colors because they're so cheap with a good formula. So I have a ton of those.  For a mid-price, I love OPI, and I wish I had more of them.

Glitter or No Glitter

I'm not a huge fan of glitter and don't wear it very often. I'm more apt to use it if it's part of some pattern I'm doing rather than just throw it on as a topcoat.

OPI, China Glaze or Essie

OPI for sure, with China Glaze as a close second.  I have a lot of Essie and like them but for some reason don't find myself gravitating to them as often as the others.

When Do You Change Your Nail Polish

I try to change them every day if I can while I'm watching tv at night. Sometimes on the weekend I'll do them 3 or 4 times just for the hell of it.

What's Your Favorite Color to Wear on Your Nails

Again...I can only pick one???  If I were told I could only wear one color for the rest of my life, I would probs choose purple.

Darks or Brights

Definitely BOTH. It all depends on what I'm wearing, my mood or what design I feel like doing.  I have no issue with wearing white after Labor Day or any nail color in any season.

What Do You Have on Your Nails Right Now

At this very second, my right hand is nekkid, and you can just scroll on down to see what's on my left hand.  It's the weekend; I'm playing.

Matte Nails.....In or Out?

I have a feeling they may be on their way out, but I don't shiv a git. I still like them.

French Manicure?

LOVE a French manicure, white or color. Always have and always will. I think it's a timeless look.

Favorite Winter Color?

Honestly, I don't have one. When you have over 1,000 polishes, it's impossible to have "a" fave.

Done. And done. Thanks for the tag, Cara.  Now I'm going to tag my friend James over at Men and Nail Polish and Nathalie of Glazed Talons. I'm looking forward to reading their answers!  :)

Back to the normal stuff now! As I said, I wanted to try a different kind of foil to see how the finish would turn out with the Suncoat water-based topcoat.  This is what I ended up with.

Well, I'm not happy with these at all. I don't know if I can completely blame it on the topcoat, however. For some reason when I applied the foils, they didn't go on completely smooth. It's like when I was rubbing with the Q-tip to transfer then, I made vertical lines on the foils. Who the hell knows. These foils are going to be the death of me. Either these or gradients, the other thing I can't seem to do very well.

So there it is. One very long post with nothing amazing to even see at the end.

I wonder what glimpse of mediocrity I can throw on here next.  I'm sure I'll think of something.

 

FOILS - I'M GETTING THERE....

 Wow.  What a weird night Thursday was. I stayed up too late (weird, I know) and got to bed at 1:30. Woke up for I have no idea why at 2:15. Got up and got a drink of Dr. Pepper and went back to bed. 

Woke up again at 3:30 to find the power out.....just in my bedroom even though the same circuit also covers my bathroom and the entire living room. Um...that's weird. I'm assuming I woke up because the fan shut off, and it was 100 degrees in there. So once I reset the circuit, I reset the alarm clock, turned on the fan and then waited a few minutes to make sure everything was going to stay on.

All seemed fine so back to bed I went. Woke up again at 5:10 when Baylee was crying....she had to go outside, and she wasn't kidding. Evidently she must have eaten something out in the yard that wanted to get out just as fast as it went in.  Back to bed at 5:20, woke up again at 5:50 and got up at 6:20. 

Crikey! I'm freakin' tired!  I was so looking forward to coming home to nap in the pool. Raced home, uncovered the pool and was in it by 12:30. I had only been laying there for about 15 minutes when the severe thunderstorm warning came on the radio. I could see the clouds off a little ways and figured it might miss me because I was laying in sun. 

I was wrong. As I saw the clouds moving closer I figured I'd better pick up my stuff and go inside. I made it just in time. No sooner did I get in and close the door when the wind started. Holy shitballs...I actually became a bit concerned there for a minute. I left my bathing suit top on and threw on some shorts and decided to wait it out, hopeful that it would pass and get sunny again. It did, so I went back out. And a half hour later it clouded up again and looked like it might rain so I gave up. In typical fashion, 15 minutes after I was all dressed, it got sunny again. By that point I just said screw it. I'll wait til tomorrow.

Decided to play with my nail foils for the umpteenth time. I had read somewhere to use a water-based topcoat on foils to preserve the finish. I immediately ordered one so I was anxious to see if it would really work.  I also bought one of the Sally Hansen gel topcoats to try, but since that would have to be soaked off, I won't try that until I'm ready to soak off my nails again.

I'm calling this "half" a success. It's for sure the best result I've had with a smooth foil, and I think on some of the non-smooth it might really work well. Mabes I'll try that tomorrow. I only did my one hand because I'm just playing, and since I'm not going anywhere this weekend, I might try some others before I put on whatever I decide to wear on Monday.

I really love this foil. Actually, I really love all of my foils. I gaze at them longingly all the time, just wishing I could use them.  But until I perfect keeping the finish, I doubt I'm going to leave the house in them.

I got my foils from Dollar Nail Art. They are only $1 a roll, and they have a lot to choose from. The only downside with their site is you have to have a $25 minimum order which can be difficult because all of their stuff costs a dollar. I did a group buy with my daughter and a couple of local friends to make the minimum.

I searched around for water-based topcoats and settled on one made by Suncoat. Nothing much to say about it; it's a topcoat. 

So that was my Friday!  And it was just about as exciting as it sounds. What's that noise....

Are you SNORING???  Rude.

MY APOLOGIES

I wish somebody could grant me a couple of extra evening hours. I hate that I've been unable to do my nails every night for the past couple of weeks. It makes me feel like I'm letting myself, and you, down.  I know that's probably ridic, but it's how I feel about it.

I fully intended to do nails Wednesday night, but I just wasn't feeling well.  I knew for sure I would have to do them Thursday, but even that got messed up. When I took my shower this morning my hair was getting caught under my index fingernail by the cuticle, so I knew I'd have to do a soak off and reapply. That cuts into actual manicure time by a lot.

So by the time I got home, made and ate dinner and some other household stuff, I didn't even get started with soak off until almost 8 p.m. That pretty much boils down to doing a quick manicure at 11 p.m.  So that's exactly what I did.

I got 11 new Loreals on eBay that are sitting on my end table waiting to be swatched, so I just grabbed the Greycian Goddess because I was going to wear a grey and black shirt to work today. It's a nice basic medium grey, nothing special. Then I figured I might as well stamp on it. Gawd, it's so friggin' boring! 

I used my Llarowe large LeaLac plate B for the stamp. I do like this stamp, but I think it would probs be much more fun with different colors.

And to make matters worse, as soon as I finished it, it dawned on me that very recently I did a grey with a black scribbly stamp.  I must be seriously overtired to do something so similar so close together. So now I'm even more pissed.

You can choose any of the above complaints as a VOTD....they all work.

Evs. I'm not gonna' be wearing it for very long. I'm hoping to have another go with my foils this weekend. I have a new topcoat to try that I'm hoping will not ruin the foils.

So we shall see! If I have my druthers, you'll see some purdy foils at some point. If things go the way they usually do with the foils, you'll end up seeing who knows what.

Sorry I've been missing so many days. Maybe it's a summer thing. Or maybe it's the 90+ degree heat wave at my house and not sleeping worth a damn because it's like 80 something in my bedroom at night.

THAT was not a vent. At all. You will never see me actually complain about hot weather. We get so little of it and for such a short time, I'm going to love every second of it.

SARAN WRAP - NOT JUST FOR LEFTOVERS ANYMORE

Can you believe that damn drain still isn't installed? I'm SO over it. I swear I'm never going to ask for something to be replaced again. Ever. For realz. Either that or it's going to have to be things that can be accomplished without my assistance. I'm not having fun, and that is unacceptable.

I was so glad that the next needed trip to Menard's wasn't going to happen last night. That meant I could just watch tv and do my nails. Of course it also means that I get to help "fix" the bathtub again when I get home from work.

He also decided that chicken and corn on the cob on the grill was a great idea, neither of which I have ever done. Should be interesting. Suppose I should google that shiz. I remember when I was 18 and tried grilling chicken on one of those cheapo tiny charcoal grills, and the chicken never did cook through so we threw it out. Disgusting. I wasn't much of a cook back in those days! lol

I did end up doing a mani I really like so I may keep it until tomorrow. Unless I somehow get inspired between now and tonight. Doubtful.

I forget how much I like saran wrap mani's until I do one. Then I always wonder why I don't do them more often. Duh.  They're so easy!

As soon as I figured out what shirt I was wearing today, I knew I needed blurple. And the perf blurple is OPI Road House Blues. Hands down. Best.One.Ever. I dabbed that on top of Sinful Colors Cool Gray along with OPI Plugged-In Plum.

Pretty, right? Maybe I should have done my bathroom countertop in these colors instead of the grey/white/black.  Hindsight, 20-20. 

You do realize I'm kidding, I hope. Yikers. That would be really a sight to behold; blurple countertops.  Disgusting.

And oddly enough, it would still be better than the blue I got rid of.

THIS IS A SNOOZEFEST

Good God, I hate that piece of shit house I live in. Any little thing we try to do is such a major pita. All we want to do is put a new drain in the tub in the spare bathroom. Isn't that supposed to be "simple"?  According to youtube it is. Lying bastards.

Oh, I forgot. If you have crap-ass well water, it corrodes everything so badly it's like the metal of the drain has just grown itself with tentacles to the surrounding areas. It's like trying to fix things in a 100 year old house. But my "house" isn't even 20 years old.

I felt so bad for Kev; he has to crawl under the house all the way to the opposite side to try to detach everything while I sit in the bathtub trying to help. And believe me, I am pretty much useless with my spaghetti arms that have no strength.  We did finally manage to get the drain out and put the new one in.  And of course it leaks. Shocking. So now he'll go to Menard's for the 50th time since we starting doing stuff to get some new parts. 

I think I should just grab my laptop and my dogs and burn the whole thing down.

After playing around with all that and then finally getting dinner, it didn't leave a lot of time for nails. That's my excuse for this bore of a mani.

I actually thought I would just go with the Nabi 3D Rainbow Effects Red and leave it at that, but I just couldn't do it. I find it very difficult to just have plain nails.  I pretty much grabbed the first easy thing I found in the drawer and stamped.  I used Essie Mirror Effect Nothing Else Metals and LeaLac LLC-B plate for the stamp. Whoop-de-frickin-do.

I have had one minor success; I've only seen 3 or 4 ants since yesterday morning. Stalking with vinegar did the trick. 

ANTS, WASPS AND A NEON WATER MARBLE

Okay. The ants are making me crazy!! I spent a lot of time cleaning, re-cleaning and stalking them yesterday, and I was very pleased when I didn't see any today in the cupboard, on the cupboard or in my kitchen sink. Success!!

Or so I thought. After spending a couple of hours laying in the pool I came inside and there were dozens around the base of the dishwasher next to the fridge, and a bunch about 4 feet over in the laundry room.  WTF??  Once again I grabbed my spray bottle of vinegar and paper towel and got to murdering the little bastards.  Then began the stalking again, going in every 15 minutes or so to repeat the process. I just cannot figure out where they are coming from, the kitchen or the laundry room. So I drew a line in the doorway with the vinegar to see where they would continue to show up, and it appears to be the kitchen. I haven't seen any now for a few hours, but I wonder where they'll show up tomorrow. Dammit.

And speaking of the pool, that was supposed to be relaxing, but I spent an awful lot of time staring at that tall shrub by the garage again. Evidently spraying it last night accomplished nothing because it was a swarm-fest again today. When Kev called tonight, I advised him that I think I want that shrub gone. It's just an ugly wasp playground, as far as I'm concerned. Just exactly what are those nasty little buggers doing over there??

Such drama in my life, hey? lol

I decided to just play with my nails now that I'm done ant-stalking for the night. On Wednesday I did that neon marble on my friend's nails and knew I had to use the same colors in a marble for myself. I love it.

I painted a  Sinful Colors Snow Me White basecoat before including that with Square Hue Yellow Submarine, Essie Sunday Funday and Essie Secret Story for the marble.

For the record, the colors we used matched her dress exactly, which I guess is in advantage of having over 1,000 polishes. At this point I should be able to match damn near anything.  

It was also a red letter day because the yellow worked. I have the worst luck trying to marble with yellows. It's a very rare thing to have the right color yellow ever work for me. 

I'm super happy with this one, so I guess I'll have to finish it and do the right hand, too.  The hardest decision I have is what color do I do on my toes.

Tomorrow's going to be another pool day, and I'm leaving this mani on for work Monday.  So don't be surprised when I don't show up here tomorrow.

Try to miss me at least a smidge. ;)

EVERYTHING'S COMIN' UP ROSES (too bad they're dead)

The other day was a really, really good mail day. I got my monthly  Square Hue box which is always fun. So far I've loved every polish I've gotten from them. Happy me.

Also, I got a pretty big box from a contest that I won on Instagram. I knew from the picture when I entered that it was a pretty large amount of stuff, but holy bejeebus....it's a major damn haul!  I got 22 bottles of polish, glitter, hand cream and a wheel of little adornments to attach to nails. Nice, hey? I swear there was more stuff in that box than there was in the picture, but I ain't complaining!

So I had to spend some time swatching all of these goodies last night as well as the 8 Color Clubs and 3 Sinful Colors I bought on Tuesday.  I hate having to do swatching when I get a lot. It's much easier when it's just a few new things at a time.

By the time I finished up with that it was too late to get too involved with my actual nails, so I did the usual quickie, a stamp.  And I'll tell you right off the top, I don't like it.

 

I just reached over and grabbed one of my new Sinfuls, Out of Bounds, and used that as my main color. Unfortunately I did have to get off my lazy ass and pick a stamping color and a stamp. I went with American Apparel Berry and my Llarowe LeaLaC stamp A for the rose design.

Like I said, I really don't like it. At all. But it was good enough for my half day of work. I'm not even sure what it is I don't like about it, but I'll be glad when it's gone.

While I was laying in the pool today I spent an awful lot of time watching a bunch of wasps around the tall shrub by the garage. I have a feeling there must be a nest of something in there. Not cool. It's hard to take a snappy-nap on my floatie when I'm paranoid about getting stung. As it was I got bit/stung by something on my ankle today while I was out there. I finally decided after an hour and a half that I wasn't having any fun so I came inside.  I haven't decided if I'm going to try to deal with that issue on my own this evening or not. 

Now I'm off to stalk the ants that are appearing in my kitchen. I'm so annoyed!! We haven't had any ant problems for quite a few years; don't know why I am now. It makes me feel like I'm living in filth even though everything is clean. Disgusting little bastards.

These bugs are sucking the joy out of my day. Jerks.

FAN ME - I'LL SHOW YOU HOW

It's tutorial time!! This is a mani I did a couple of weeks ago, and I actually decided to take pics as I went. I wasn't sure if I'd ever post it, but since I was busy marbling my friend's nails last night, I didn't have time to do my nails. Saddy-pants is me cuz' I really wanted to.

Before you start looking, don't get your expectations too high. This is kind of a new thing for me so perfect it is not. I'm shocked at how hard I find it to get a decent pic of just one nail. For some reason when I'm doing this, my right hand holding the camera wants to move. 

Oh, well....it is what it is. So here it is.

My base blue on this one is Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Himalayan Blue. I then used the fan brush to add Sinful Colors Snow Me White,  China Glaze You Drive Me Coconuts and Happy Go Lucky.  After it was dry I did a topcoat of Seche Vite.

I wish I would have had a yellow that was a bit more sheer. Then it would have made some of the blue turn green. Same with the pink. It would have been nice if some purple could have popped up. I didn't really want to fan brush any more colors on after this. I think it would have gotten too murky.

Done and done.  I like fan brush manicures because they are SO simple to do, and other than letting each color dry, they go pretty quickly.  I honestly don't know why I don't do them more often. They're great for when I'm feeling lazy.

And after all the running around this past week, I'm ready for some lazy. I foresee a lot of lazy this weekend; it's Thursday, and the pool is calling my name.

DON'T FORGET THE GIVEAWAY!!

Just a friendly reminder for you to head on over to Fox Claws so you can enter her fab giveaway! Some great prizes up for grabs, including one of her delightful hand-made polish racks! How can you pass up a chance at that??  Now get your ass over there and enter.

Just because the Queen told ya' to.

DOES THIS LOOK BLUE TO YOU?

So after my EGD on Monday, yesterday I made the trek an hour away in the opposite direction to see the orthopedic guy about my shoulder. I've been saying for the past couple of weeks that it seemed pointless since the cortisone shot has made me pretty much pain free.

Once again, I was right. My x-rays showed nothing, and he said the next step is an MRI. He didn't recommend doing it right now and said if/when the pain comes back, we'll do it then. He also told me I have maxed out the number of cortisone shots I should get because I could be causing more harm than good. Evidently the MRI will show some kind of stress or an actual tear in my rotator cuff....probs surgery either way. Methinks I'll just cross my prettily polished fingers that it doesn't come back. I'm not askerred of surgery, but the rehab following it would be a big issue with work.

Since we were in Marquette, we decided some shopping was in order. They have more stores than Esky. A trip to Target and TJ Maxx and dinner at Red Lobster. There's $350 I'll never see again. 

We also went and looked at cars. I'm not sure why. I'm dying to get a new car, but I am not dying to have a car payment. But I am dying to get a new car. Can't really decide what I want; a Tribeca? An Outback? Or that cute little red Mini Cooper Roadster convertible that Kev made for me online. I really should decide to not get one, but I guess we're still figuring that out.

I did actually get home in time to do my nails. I'm not liking that I haven't had much time to do them this past week or so. Hopefully life is getting back to normal so I can start doing my nails more often.

Between mail and shopping yesterday, I got a bunch of new polishes, and this is one of them from the Color Club Blossoming Collection, Blue-Ming. Sorry...looks green to me and is even a perfect smatch for the green shirt I'm wearing today. So I call bullshit. Because they're wrong. End of story.

I knew I wanted to stamp with silver on it so I used my Essie Mirror Effect No Place Like Chrome. As always, it stamped like a champ without any re-do's, and I used my Llarowe LeaLac plate LLC-B for the stamp.

I'm super happy with how this turned out. And since my old high school friend that's in town for a wedding wants her nails done tonight, that's probs a good thing. I highly doubt I'll have time to do hers and my own. 

Gosh, I am such a wonderful person, putting her needs ahead of my own. 

Karma might owe me one.

I SHOULDA' BEEN A DOCTOR

Long weekends go by way too fast. Last night I went to dinner with an old friend who I hadn't seen in many years. It was great to have a few hours to reconnect.

Today I had the day off to go have my EGD. Just imagine how not surprised I was when they told me I have an ulcer. What? Really? You mean I have exactly what I've been saying all along? Weird. I have to go back and have another one done in two months to see if the ulcer has healed. Funsies.

So no surprises on that. Apparently they gave me lots of drugs to put me under because I never was able to stay awake until around 7 p.m. tonight, and I'm still not quite normal. Save the smartass remarks, peeps; I already know I'm never quite normal.

I did this mani Sunday afternoon to wear out to dinner. It was a big hit with the nursing staff today. I had planned on taking it off tonight, but I'm not awake enough to be staring any manicures.

I started with two coats of 10 Professional Moonlight and used Essie Spinning Again for stamping. This is one of my all-time fave stamps, and it's on my DRK-B plate that I bought from Ninja Polish.  If you need plates with larger images for covering your whole nail, these are some of the best.

Tomorrow is back to work but only for a half day because I have an appointment with an ortho guy tomorrow for my shoulder. I'm interested to see how that goes. How can they figure out what's wrong when I'm not currently having any shoulder pain? That last cortisone shot is still doing its job.

Dang, my life is Fun!!!

HAPPY REUNION....or I AM TOO OLD FOR THIS

Well, last night was my 35th class reunion. I had heard from one of my best friends that I haven't seen in probs 20 years, saying she was in town. So I asked her to be my "date" and then got ahold of my ex hubby to see if he wanted to join us even though he graduated a year before us. So off the three of us went to the bar to have dinner before the party started.

First of all, I rarely drink anymore and really didn't know if my stomach was going to behave itself, but I have had a really good few days now without pain. Boy, has that been nice!! I still get nervous everytime I eat, but so far so good. Before I left for dinner last night I popped an omeprazole and a Zantac, kind of a preemptive strike, and I had my trusty Vicodin with me just in case. I even got brave and ordered a drink with dinner, and since it went fine, I had "a few" more drinks throughout the night.

It was fun seeing people I haven't seen in awhile. I can't tell you how many times people said "hi" and then immediately grabbed my hand to see what was on my nails. For a few people, my new name is apparently "The Nail Lady".  I'm a bit concerned about that; am I the crazy nail lady....you know, like a crazy cat lady? I certainly hope not. lol

So I had fun. I did want to go home around 1:00, but the ex was driving, and his response to that was, "too bad".  That's not as douchey as it sounds. He can talk like no other, and he was just having too much fun visiting with our old friends. It wasn't really a big deal, but it's been a damn long time since I closed down a bar and gotten kicked out. But that's exactly what we did.  Then we came back to my house, and since Tyler was still up, he came in to visit for a bit since she left today. (translation - didn't go to bed until 4)

I didn't drink too much, probs had a bit of a happy glow going, but this morning I remembered what it feels like to wake up after staying out too late and smoking way too many cigarettes. Ugh.  The drinking has never bothered me the day after, but that excessive smoke surely does, and I felt like shit. I am not 35 anymore. *sad sigh*.  A good 3 hours in the pool cured it, though.

Of course I had done my nails for the reunion. I suppose I should have done them in black and orange since those are my school colors, but I thought that would just be too cheesy for words.  These were a hit, though.

I was very happy with how this turned out. I love these colors, and as it turned out, I did wear a light peach-toned shirt so I ended up kinda' smatchy.

I did a basecoat of Sinful Colors Snow Me White and then marbled wth that along with Julep Clara and Susie, China Glaze Peachy Keen and Salon Perfect Robin's Egg. They're all purdy colors on their own and turned out well together.

Now Tyler and Griffin are gone (boo), and it was nice to have the day to myself and feel back to normal again. This girl is tiiiirrreeed. Hopefully I'll have brains enough to go to bed early.

Doubtful. Highly, highly doubtful.

OH, BOY.....WHAT "NOT" TO DO

Hope you've all had a fun 4th!  Mine was pretty decent; the dogs let me sleep in until 9:15 which is highly unusual. Woke up and no stomach pain! WooHoo!! Then I got 3 hours lounging in the pool before getting ready to go to my sister's for the annual cookout.

 

Griffin was adorable, as always. For some reason he is obsessed with my car and is constantly wanting to play in the "red car". If Tyler or Kev have it, he's wanting to know where it is. Then he found the spot where the spare change is kept, and just so you know, according to the Griff, it's a million dollars. Gawd, I just love that kid.  I'm hoping they decide to stay until Saturday so we can swim tomorrow.

 

Now, this mani is an example of why you do NOT decide to do your nails at the last minute. I was going to do them last night but fell asleep in the recliner instead.

 

I knew I wanted to use my Nabi Cinnahon again because I was bringing my extra bottle to give to my sister and wanted her to see it on. It seemed like such a great plan to do some fireworks with the Nabi red. Ummmm.....FAIL.  And then I didn't have time to take it off to do something different. Oh, well.

 

Also, this is an example of not remembering to take a pic until after I started taking it off. Thus, the nekkid thumb. Super attractive. lol

So there ya' have it; my weak-ass actual July 4th mani. Guess I should have saved that water marble.

And now that it's 11:35, I guess I will go try to figure out what to do with my nails before bed that won't take 5 hours. Obvi I need something fantabulous for the class reunion tomorrow.

Gotta' be more impressive than this, that's for sure!

4TH OF JULY MARBLE

I hate that I couldn't do a mani last night. It bothers me much more than it should when I have to wear the same mani for more than a day, and I've now done that twice this week. Highly unusual and extremely annoying.

Being in so much pain yesterday sucked ass, frankly. The timing of it couldn't be worse. It makes it so hard to frolic with Griffin (yes, I said frolic). A friend of mine and her daughter also decided that last night was the night they would come to visit. It was so great to see them; tons of laughs with those two.  Love 'em so very much. 

I keep thinking how glad I am that I'm having that EGD on Monday, and then it dawns on me that it's just the test. I probs won't get results right away, and I don't imagine they can actually give me any relief immediately. I'm so over it.

Enough self-pity for one day. I'll just keep popping the Zantac, Tums and Vicodin, use the heating pad, and stick to eating what I seem to instinctively know won't bother me day by day. The weirdest things ever; bread sticks from Dominoes one day; two plain hamburgers from Hardee's last night. It's like I crave odd things, and those things end up not exacerbating the problem. Cray-cray. Good thing, though...otherwise I may starve. lol

I saved this mani that I did for Custom Nail Solutions to post closer to the 4th of July. It's nice that I had it all set for posting since I know there are some days I'm not going to feel like playing with my nails.

It's probs the most success I've had marbling with red and white together. The white pretty much stayed white, although I think I redid a couple of them. Hey, not every one can go as easily as that green one.

I stuck with the same red, white and blue I used on the others; China Glaze Man Hunt, 10 Professional Bewitched and Lady in White. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, and these colors really are perfect for the holiday.

While it's not an especially exciting water marble, it works for what I needed. 

I hope you have fun plans for the 4th. As for me, I'm going to my sister's for the annual family cookout. The weather forecast looks decent, and I'm hoping for some pool time before I head over there.

I also have my 35th class reunion on Friday night, and I'm taking one of my best friends from high school as my "date". I haven't seen her in probably 25 years so we have lots of catching up to do. My town is also celebrating its 150th birthday and I got a Facebook message from another old friend I haven't seen in probably 30 years that she's coming to town and wants to get together. So this is going to be a much busier weekend than I usually have. 

Tyler and Griff are leaving Friday, so I'm saddy pants about that. The week flew by way too quickly, but at least they'll be back in 3 weeks to celebrate Griffin's 3rd birthday.

Jeebus H....where does the time go?

GINORMOUS GIVEAWAY!!

Hey peeps!! A good friend of mine is have a birthdanniversary giveaway on her blog, Fox Claws.  You should all check it out! Fantabulous prizes from several sources, including yours truly.

The Fox Claws Birthdanniversary Giveaway 

Now rush over there and enter....and check out her blog and etsy shop. She is one talented gal and sells the most adorbs polish racks in her Etsy shop.  Tell all your friends; they don't wanna' miss this one.

WHAT IS THIS STAMP?

My apologies in advance for the short post today. My stomach is giving me a ton of trouble, and all the idiots at the doctor's office will say is "go to the emergency room". Yeah. Maybe if they want to pay the cost of it for me. Then I'll go.

In the meantime, I'm really hurtin'. Hopefully it will ease up soon so I'll feel better tomorrow. 

I did manage to do my nails last night, although I didn't get to do anything too fancy. I just did something as quickly as I could, and I have a feeling I'll be wearing it again tomorrow.

I'm not sure what this stamp is supposed to be, but I decided to use it anyway. It turned out well, so I guess that's all I care about at this moment.  The orange is China Glaze Life Preserver and I used Konad white and the Llarowe LeaLac plate A. 

Exciting, I know.  But at least I gave you something to look at.

IN THE LIGHT OF DAY.....

As I've mentioned previously, I'm always happy to do specific manicures for the peeps over at Custom Nail Solutions for them to use in online articles for blogs, magazines, etc.  I never usually know when or where they're going to show up, but I have plenty of great nail friends on Facebook that catch these things immediately.

I get a message from a couple of those lovelies letting me know that I was in the online version of NailIt! magazine. I figured it was probs a pic they will be using for an upcoming online article on french mani's. Then when I went to look, I discovered it's another of the Custom Nails articles.  You can find it here:  NailIt!

As always, I think it's pretty cool. Examiner.com has a similar one up right now, too. 

K....all of that shameless bragging was just a lead-in to these hot messes.  I've been waiting to hear from CNS with 4th of July requests and finally heard from their PR person last week. There was a list of five that they wanted so I knocked out two of them in one night.

I'm not a superfan of patriotic "mani's fer murrica". Nothing against our good ol' red, white and blue; I just think most of the time it makes for ugly manicures. But I say I'll do what they need, so I did 'em. I dislike them so much they don't even deserve to be shown one day at a time.  AND they weren't fun to do, either. I hate doing a white stripe of any kind because there always seems to be some bleeding, but that always gets magnified when it's against red. So don't look too closely.

Oh, another thing! Of all the damn stamping plates I own, can you believe I don't have one that has single stars?? I wanted to stamp stars on those tips and still can't believe I didn't have a star stamp. I suppose I have to try to hunt one of those down now. Sheesh. So I faked it with a damn orange stick. They aren't the greatest stars, but it was midnight, and you get the idea.

At least in my vast haul of polishes I did find the perfect America blue, China Glaze Man Hunt.  I used 10 Professional Bewitched for the red and 10 Professional Lady in White for, you guessed it, the white.  The perfection of the colors is the only bright spot in these for me.

I did one more that I'll show you, maybe tomorrow, maybe later in the week. That will depend on whether or not I get a chance to even do my nails. Right now I still have on the "perfect" green marble.  Tyler and Griffin home does not make for extra nail play time. 

Hope your weekend was as good as mine. Days like yesterday are, for me, perfect. Sunny and hot, laid in the pool for four hours, a couple of those playing with Griffin. He is quite the little swimmer for not quite three years old. We swam, the dogs swam, everybody swam. The ex came over to visit with everybody, and then takeout for supper. So sun, fun and no cooking....works for me!

I'm not even saddy pants about being at work. At least not too much. It's a short work week because of the 4th....hopefully the bossman realizes I have NO intention of being here Friday.  Then next Monday I'm off for my EGD, so that all translates into five whole days with no work.

Now all I have to hope is that the weather cooperates. A couple more nice days, and I will officially look like I should live in Mexico. I'm gonna' be a prettier color than my nails.