THIS IS GARBAGE. AND IT SPARKLES!!!

Monday, Schmonday. Lamers. I didn't sleep for shit last night and was not looking forward to coming in to work. But I did. And just like always happens, because I'm working on a two day headache with very little sleep, we were busy. Never fails. A new case came in that we worked on all day, and it's the kind of case I despise. So yeah. Awesome.

Did you have an exciting weekend? Mine was spent mostly trying to make a dent in the tv shows I have accumulated over the past month. My dvr only had 26% available, and I worked my way up to 40% available. And then last night happened, more recording occurred, and I'm knocked right back down to 37%. It's a vicious cycle. I'll clear it eventually. I hope. Preferably sometime before I'm dead.

Other than that I did laundry. Oh, the excitement just never ends with me!!  I did go to my honorary grandson's christening, though, and got quite a bit of cuddle time with that damn cute Ayden. Gawd, I wish I could just steal him and give him back when he's about 5 or so. I guess I'm not allowed to steal babies, though. Not sure why not.

I also did manage to do my nails two times. One was a quickie job I did Saturday before the baptism so I could coordinate with the dress I wore, but that's not the one I'm showing you today.

Today's mani I did because I keep forgetting to use this polish. A bunch of my friends have it and keep posting pics, and it's so damn purdy I knew I had to do something with it.

Pictures just do not do this justice. It's another one of those that I took a gazillion pictures of, but none of them showed up the way I was hoping. Even the stamp shows up better in person.

This one is a one coat base of Julep Emilie which I topped with two coats of Orly Sparkling Garbage. God forbid I should just leave it alone, so I used Square Hue Patty's Pint and my Ninija Polish DRK-C stamp to add a design. Like I said, it shows up much better in person. 

Now I think I will get ready to go home for the day. I was hoping to hear the results of my shoulder MRI today, but I guess that was expecting a bit much since I just had it done on Friday.  I'm really over the shoulder pain, though....I just want it figured out and taken care of. 

Have I mentioned lately how it sucks to get old?  It sucks to get old.

LIKING THIS MSMD

Yikers! Guess I must be tired since I just fell asleep at my desk. Bossman hasn't been here all afternoon except for a quick check-in at 3, and I've just been bored to death. I wandered the interwebs, and Pinterest, and Facebook, and Instagram, watched some music videos and checked out some of those sites that post funny stuff.

How's that for a run-on sentence. At any rate, after all of that very stressful stuff, I dozed off. I guess my eyeballs had had enough drivel for the afternoon.

I had seen this mani awhile back and saved it in my memory banks (a/k/a Pinterest) to try.  It caught my attention last night when I was looking for inspiration and decided to try it.  I think I did a pretty decent job. The original is from Boombastic Nails.  

I copied it as closely as I could; I had half of the same colors but not that stamping plate. I went through all of mine and decided to do the little hearts just kind of bitch-slapped on them.

Normally when I use saran wrap I dab color on, but for this one I had to remove polish instead.  I started out with 2 coats of Essie Mink Muffs. Once that was dry I threw on a topcoat. I then did one nail at a time and put on one coat of Essie Case Study, and while it was still wet, used a crumpled up piece of saran wrap to dab off some of the color. 

After that part was done, I crumpled up a new piece of saran wrap and dabbed on just some little bits of a cranberry color, Essie Skirting the Issue.  

I wanted a subtle gold and used Essie Good as Gold and found that little heart on my Bundlemonster B212 plate. Another coat of Seche Vite and done.

I honestly like this one, and it was easy. The little hearts didn't photograph very well but look super adorbs in person. Just the right amount of gold without screwing up the rest of the look.
  
I am really ready for the week to be over. I just want to go home and sit my ass in front of the tv. I haven't been home on the weekend since August 24th, which is some kind of record for me. It's going to take me months to get caught up, and I have hit a new high on how full my dvr is.

Sadly, summer must officially be over. Kev got home yesterday, and the pool is being emptied as I type. Well, it might be done being emptied, but whatever. It's depressing, especially since it's sunny and 70 degrees out which only manages to give me false hope for more summer. Ain't actually going to happen, but a girl can dream.

Especially if she falls asleep at her desk.

HITS MULTICHROME GRADIENT - WAAYYYY TOO MANY PICS

I think I'll just start off with an apology for having so many pictures of this mani in one post.  But you have no idea how hard it was to limit it to the 11(12 now) shots you see here.  I did kind of warn you in yesterday's post, though. As of yesterday afternoon I think I had taken around 50; by the time I got done trying to get some decent outside pics at home after work, I probably had more like 80.

So consider yourselves lucky that you're only seeing 11 (12) of them. It could have been so much worse.  It is the reason this day is only about the mani.

I had bought these HITS polishes from Llarowe last summer. I've used them a couple of times on their own and in a couple of marbles.  I shouldn't have done the marbles because the bottles are small so I don't have a whole lot left. 

While they are pretty on their own and marbled, putting them over some black underwear made them even more fantabulous. Even with all the pictures I took, there are still some color shifts that I was unable to capture. They actually look gold and green sometimes, too.

What I did was throw on one coat of a Sally Hansen black. I had no reason to actually choose the SH; it just happened to be the black I grabbed.  Then I just used a makeup sponge and did a gradient with the HITS Artsy, Daring and Unconventional. They are all spectacular in their own right, but I really, really like them as a gradient.

I did consider removing this last night, but I wasn't done staring at it yet. I did behave myself and not take pics in the gump-mobile, though. Just my kitchen, the bathroom, inside at work, outside at work and outside at home. If I could have found another place to take some, I probs would have.

Ooopsie! I went home for lunch and when I got back I just had to take one more picture.

Same mani; completely different colors. Again. Plain to see that the HITS polishes have some pretty crazy color shifts.

And seriously, who doesn't like a good color shifting polish? I think they are the most fun things ever! Even more fun than a good holo, IMHO.

And since this is my blog, MHO is the one that counts the most. lol

GOTTA' LOVE PURPLE

Whew!! Just got the phone call about the car....just a battery.  That's quite the relief because I just figured it would be something horrid and expensive.

It does look like I'm just not supposed to be going to work on time this week, though. Today I was held up by the damn train. You should have heard the barrage of very loud expletives coming from the front seat of the gump-mobile. Then I just ended up literally lol'ing because it dawned on me how ridiculous it was to get so pissed off over a ten minute delay. Chill, woman!

Today I'm blogging about this couple week old mani because I'm trying really hard to get good pics of the mani I did last night, which is a multi-chrome gradient. And it's ah-mazing. It's so ah-mazing that I've taken about 50 pics of it between my house and the office and still can't get any I like. I'll try again after work today. It's pissing me off.

But in the meantime, I wore this for a day. While I thought it turned out pretty nice when I did it, in looking at the pics I can see where some of the lines that form the circles didn't stamp all the way. *sigh*  I wish I had noticed it when I did it so I could re-do it.

It is a really great color, though. The purple is Zoya Pinta, and it's a really rich, dark purple that's fit for a Queen (a/k/a me).  I used my LeaLac B plate for the stamp with my fave overused Essie No Place Like Chrome. Seriously, those damn mirror polishes are just the most awesomest stampers eva.

On a sad note, I guess I have seen the last of my hummingbirds this year. I haven't seen one since I got home Saturday night. The dogsitter made sure the feeder had food while I was gone, but I guess they just missed me too much and decided to migrate. I'm really missing them. I'll leave my feeders out just in case a few more come through on their way south, but I have a feeling I'm not going to see anymore.

As if I needed another reason to hate winter.

BLUE. AND STAMPED. YUP.

Lordie, what a start to the week.

The first day back to work after a vacation pretty much always sucks. Since I'm the only person working here, nothing gets done when I'm gone so usually there is a huge pile of paperwork waiting for me. I always dread it because I hate not being caught up.

Cut to this morning. I was up and ready to go like normal. I even thought I'd go in a few minutes early to try to formulate a plan of attack before the bossman showed up. It seemed like such a great idea!

My vehicle, on the other hand, did not think it was a good idea.  On the contrary, I guess my vehicle didn't want me to go to work. Or anywhere else, for that matter.  When it didn't start, I was pissed....I figured it was probs doing the weird security reset thingie it does sometimes so I followed the usual procedure for that and waited 10 minutes.  Um, hello, car....you're then supposed to start. Remember?

Oh, "not so!" says my car. "Your ass ain't going anywhere if I have my way." All I can think about is how pissed the boss is gonna' be when I call and tell him I'm stranded at home. Yeah, that'll go over great after I've been gone for a week.

So I start calling the office. Over and over and over again. Evidently he didn't feel he needed to be on time today. I finally reached him at 10:00 and told him the scoop. I was waiting for the tow truck to come and drag the irritant over to the mechanic, and I was hitching a ride so I could pick up the loaner vehicle.

Got that accomplished and am now driving a not-so-shiny red.....minivan. God help me; I'm driving a gump-mobile. Hopefully it isn't going to cost a gazillion dollars to have the Equinox fixed....we just spent money on our vacation, dammit! I don't have any extra moolah just laying around! Seriously; I call bullshit.

I really did plan on doing my nails last night, but I just didn't have the ambition to even figure out something to do. So this post is actually a mani I did a couple of weeks ago. Not new to me but still new to you guys.

The Navy is 10 Professional Starstruck, and I stamped with Essie Mirror Blue Rhapsody and the Llarowe LeaLac LLC-B plate.

I like this one; it just isn't all that exciting. It was one of those last minute kinda' mani's where I suddenly decided around 11:30 at night that I just "had" to do my nails.  So it is what it is. Or was. Whatever. You know what I mean. lol

And now back to playing "catch-up" at work. I just thought I'd sneak this one in here while I had a minute. I'm hoping tonight I'll decide to not be lazy because right now I have the dreaded tip-wear. Gross. And something I'm not exactly used to and am definitely not a fan of.

Blog post done. Mission accomplished.

I AM THE WALRUS - IN CANCUN

It sucks to be home. I am glad that I have today to relax before going back to what I assume will be a whole lotta' work tomorrow. Yesterday was a long-ass day; up at 6:30 a.m. to get ready to leave Mexico and didn't get home until 9:30 p.m. Kev had to ditch me in Atlanta because he needed to head to Minneapolis for work today. So I hopped a flight to Detroit and from there one back here to Escanaba.

Tiring. I would like a vacay from being on vacay, please.

I only did my nails twice while I was there. I think it was Tuesday when I decided to take off the marble, and all I did was paint them with Enchanted Polish I Am the Walrus. It's so spectacular on its own I knew I'd be happy with it all by its little ol' lonesome. And I was okay with it for 2 days, even though I dented 3 fingers because it wasn't completely dry when we had gone to dinner. 

I suffered through the dents until I couldn't stand it anymore. Of course that means the next day I removed it from those 3 and repainted them. The plan was to just stamp on them with black because I really like how that looks. Easy-breezy with very little effort.

I really thought that I would do them one more time, but I just didn't feel like taking the time to do it. Seriously, it's kind of stupid that I did them at all, when I think about it. Serious addict am I.

Here's a couple pics of my happy Mexico face. The other couple in the pic we met 4 years ago at the El Dorado...they were in the swim-up casita adjoining ours, and we became friends. We've actually been trying to get there with them again, and we finally managed it this year. We didn't have adjoining casitas, but we were in the same section. We did dinner almost every night and hope to go visit them as well as plan our next El Dorado trip together, hopefully ever year from now on. 

We took a cab into Playa Del Carmen to have dinner and walk around. After dinner we passed by this place and realized we had eaten dinner there last time so we stopped for a drink. The place was pretty empty because it was getting late, but the workers were hilarious and very happy to give us some great drinks as well as free shots along with handmade flute-type instruments for Tricia and me. The shots they gave us were lemoncello, which I found disgusting but everybody else liked. Maris asked about the brand, where to buy and how much, and the waiter went to check. When he came back he had another guy in tow, and evidently he makes it himself.  It really caught him off guard when Maris asked to buy a bottle. I don't think he had a clue how much he should ask but finally said $20. That was a great price for it, so Maris walked out with a bottle. The guy should start selling it in the bar; he'd probs make a lot of money.  Maris looked it up on the interwebs, and now he'll be able to make some for himself.....much cheaper than going to Playa.

This one is just some general swing silliness at one of the bars at the resort. We may or may not have been drinking.

I just realized that this swing incident took place while I'm wearing the same shirt as the first pic. And since this photo was taken after coming back from Playa Del Carmen, the evidence of drinkage is already in the other picture.  Oopsie....my bad. They have quite a thing about swings in bars at the El Dorado. For some reason there are quite a few in this bar, and on our walk back to our section our drinks ran dry. God forbid! So we stopped to get a refill at an outdoor bar, one of several conveniently placed along the way, and they had swings at that one, too. So of course we also had to give those a test run.  They weren't as wide, and we have decided we prefer those. We may have to do some re-testing next year to be sure.

Our last night there, Friday, Kev and I had a candlelight dinner on the beach. We had done that 4 years ago, too, and enjoyed it so much we decided to spend the $140 to do it again. We were a bit disappointed with it this year. The filet was good, but we just weren't all that impressed with the rest  of it. I think by Friday we were both just kind of dragged out and just didn't feel that great. I would say we won't do it again, but the next time we go it's included in our package so we will. Mabes we'll just do it earlier in the week instead of waiting until the end.

We asked our waiter to take a pic (of course). It's pretty damn similar to the one from 4 years ago. Kinda' comical, I think.  Not so much a fan of seeing 4 years of the aging process in such a real-ass way, but whatever. Not much I can do about that. I think I'll blame it on the lighting differences and different camera. Yup. That works.

I think in keeping with the animal theme of this blog's polish name, I'll post a couple of pics in the next post of some of this year's wildlife at the resort. It was a pretty amazing year for that, much better than last time when I think I only saw little gecko lizards running around.

But for now, I do believe I'll take a little nappy-nap. I know I should try to accomplish something, like laundry, but I figure since my sun-dress-donning-shorts-wearing-tank-top-sportin'-bikini days are over for this year, it can wait.

FOR CANCUN IT SHALL BE (at least at first)

So here I am, Tuesday of our week long Cancun vacay. Saturday is coming way too fast.

Sadly, this trip has not been quite what I was hoping for this time around. The last time we were here we had sunshine, lollipops and rainbows for all but one night around 11 when we got a downpour.  I got so tan that the Mexican servers were holding their arms against mine for comparison. For the record, we were the same color.

Flip to this year, and we have had the exact opposite. Gale force winds most of the time, and rain off and on every day so far. In looking at the forecast, it appears that's what we're stuck with. Even though I've managed a smidge of time in our private pool, an even smaller smidge was actually in sunshine.

The good part is that when we were here 4 years ago, we met a really nice couple from California, and they booked their trip this year to coincide with ours. We've been spending every evening with them, dinner and more than a smidge of drinking. Good people; good fun. If they hadn't been here, I'm afraid I would have been in a very bad mood.

The night before we left for our trip, of course I had to do a mani I would want to leave on for a bit. I decided a pastel water marble would work well, so I slapped one on Friday night before leaving. We had to leave our house at 4 a.m. to drive 2 hours to the airport to catch our flight, so for me it just made more sense to stay up and sleep in the car and on the plane. I guess I closed my eyes in the recliner from about midnight until 2 and then got up and took a shower, and off we went.

For whatever reason, this ended up being kind of a hurry-up marble, and I didn't even think to take the time to write down any of the polishes I used. They're pastel. Boom.

I did like this Friday night when I did it.  I'm not sure why, but I thought just putting the white on my toes would look good for the trip. OMG, it was awful! I did just a crap job and was actually embarrassed by that pedicure.

So yesterday before dinner I took all of it off.

What...did you think I went somewhere for an entire week without supplies? Puh-leeze. To do a marble for the week sounded great in theory, but I knew there was no way in hell I would want to wear anything for a week. So I brought polishes, stamping stuff, remover, cotton....everything I would  need to switch 'em up.

So last night I changed them to a plain polish that I just got done stamping over a bit ago. But I'll save that for another day.

Now we are off to the new Italian restaurant at our resort. Yummers.  Who knows what's happening after that, but I'm sure drinking will be involved.

NOT SO MUCH ME

It's almost here; time for our week long foray to Cancun. That's good news. The bad news? The forecast is all rain. The other bad news? Leaving here at 4 a.m. tonight.

I don't even know how to pack for rainy Cancun; I've only ever been to gorgeous and sunny Cancun. I did find a solution, though. My closet is now empty.  No joke.

Of course I'm already concerned about the trip home because apparently I am on my own for the last two legs. From Atlanta Kev has to go to Minneapolis because he has to work on Sunday.  That sucks for him. But it sucks for me because I'm so used to just following him around at airports I'm going to be like a lost 5 year old.  My last flight does get me right to Escanaba, so that's nice. 

Getting my luggage into my car should  be a good trick since I couldn't lift the medium sized bag into my car when I went to Dani's, so lifting the big one should be really interesting. Yes, I am a weakling, but my shoulder has been getting progressively worse again over the last couple of weeks. So that's awesome, but I couldn't really do anything about it with our trip coming up. Once we get back I'll have to get the MRI and go back to the ortho dude. Lamers.

I am very much looking forward to meeting up with the couple we met the last time we were there. I guess we're going to take the ferry over to Cozumel one day and also go to Playa del Carmen another day. Should be fun! Playa is awesome; there's a whole section of town that's got no cars, and it's all shops and restaurants. Love it.

Now for the nails. This mani is really not me, and it's not a polish I ever would have bought for myself. I got it free in the mail; I think through the Vogue Network on Facebook, but I'm actually not sure.

I'm wondering how long these textured, pixie-dust, liquid sand polishes are going to be all the rage or if they'll go the same route as the magnetics.  This one is by OPI, Magazine Cover Mouse from some Disney themed collection (I think).

It doesn't look bad, and it kind of grew on me over the day I wore it, but the textures just don't excite me all that much. Which is too bad because I think I have like 8 of them now. lol

Well, if you don't hear from me, it just means I'm having too much fun in Cancun to play on the computer, although I am bringing it with me. I also already have a couple of mani's on standby so if I find the time, I can whip out a blog post at night.

I wouldn't want ya'll to forget about me!

PINK "V"

Gawd, the design is a "pink v"....where exactly did your minds go?? Sheesh.

This gem (and I use the word loosely) is a quickie I did while at Dani's.  No, not that kind of quickie.

Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you people?? Get your minds back on polish where they belong!

I must be tired; my mind doesn't normally think that way. Honestly, I really am tired, and I have a headache that is getting progressively worse as the day goes on. It sucks, and I see absolutely no reason for that.

But I did think I could at least take the time to post a mani for you. How nice am I? Pretty nice. See how I'm always thinking of others? I.Am.Awesome. Just ask me; I'll tell you.

I think I described this pretty well in the title; it's pink. And it's a "v". Or a checkmark. Or whatever you'd like to call it. 

I haven't the slightest idea what colors I used. Something about being at Dani's made my brain lock up, and I wasn't even drunk. Lamers. I do think this is one of my stamps, but I didn't even look that up. It's either from a LeaLac or on the DRK-C. Since I'm at work I can't run to the other room to find out for you. Get over it. You'll live.

Sorry my posts have been sorely lacking in substance the last week or so; it's only going to get worse until I get back from Cancun on the 21st, and even then I'm sure it will take me a few days to recuperate. I love how I need a vacation after a vacation. Flying standby is stressful. And exhausting.

But if you happen to be married to a pilot and it gets you somewhere for free, you suck it up.  Of course it also means you might get stuck sitting in an airport for a long, long time. Still, it's worth it.

And now I am off to make up some food for the hummingbirds...gotta feed the migrators as they stop by on their way south.  I used up the last of what I had to refill one in the backyard, and there was a hummer there before I even got back into the house. Love it.

BEETLE MARBLE? YOU WON'T SEE IT HERE.

Don't feel good; making this a short one.

While we were all just chillin' at the nail get-together Labor Day weekend, Dani pulled out a ton of swatch sticks. She had originally bought them to actually do swatches for her polishes. Sha', right.

Instead she and Deb decided it would be much more fun (and I'm sure it was) to just try out a whole lotta' different things on each stick. So now she has a whole bunch of fancy-ass sticks but no swatches. Ha!

On several of those they have marbles, and one of them we all found interesting. It was done by using Orly Space Cadet, and if you don't own it, what the hell is wrong with you.

It is simply one of the most spectacular multichromes on the face of the earth. True story. BUY IT.

Since I had never used it in a marble before, my interest was piqued so I decided there was no time like the present. Or the past since that was actually a couple of weeks ago. Whatever.  You get my drift.

They had done it with a neutral/nudie color, so that's what I did, too. Do I know the name of it? As with most of what I did that weekend, I have no idea.  Dani, if you're reading this and remember, let me know and I'll edit this to include the name.

I don't remember being disappointed with this marble when I did it, but looking at the photograph now, I am hating it. If memory serves, in person it shows some color shift that just isn't making it into this pic. Bummer.

I'm thinking I'll have to use Space Cadet in another marble at some point, but maybe do it with black instead of a neutral. We shall see. Earlier today I was pretty much challenged to do a different marble.....too much pressure, people!! 

Actually, I just don't have time to play with marbles when vacay is coming up.

As with every other great mani I want to try, I say, "someday I'll get to that one."

WELL, LOOKIE THERE - WAY TOO MANY PICS HERE

Just throwing this out there, but the fact that it is 80 degrees out is simply not fair. It would be fair if this would continue into Friday because then I could get one last day in the pool. Unfortunately, in typical Escanaba, Michigan weather, Friday is only supposed to hit 58 degrees. Doesn't seem right.

I was hoping that the warm weather was going to mean I could sit outside with the hummers tonight. Instead it has decided to downpour. Fan-frickin-tastic. Thanks for nuthin', Mother Nature.

I'm also gonna' toss this out there....for two days in a row I have worn just polish. Honest! No designs, no marbles...nada!

Fair warning; I have thrown in way too many pics of this one. Last night I had done a bunch but couldn't capture any color change. But we all know how good things show up while driving, so I snapped a bunch more on my way to work after lunch.

I thought I should show a bottle shot with the standard swatch nail I always attach to every bottle of my polish.  As you can see, it's a duochrome or multichrome and is not super opaque even after 3 coats with nothing underneath.  

The rest of the pics are all taken using one coat of the Kleancolor Wicked Angelic over two coats of Orly Liquid Vinyl.  Of course I was trying really hard to catch every color it flashes....impossible. I do suggest clicking on pics to see them bigger because the colors show a bit better.

 

Sorry there are so many pics; I just couldn't decide which to not use, and I can see slight differences of color in all of them. 

I don't always put a dark basecoat on when I use a duo or multi chrome. It's a mistake not to. In fact, if you have some weird looking polishes that don't impress on their own, slap 'em on over a coat of black just to try it. You never know what you might end up with.

Now I'm off to watch some tv and maybe do nails, maybe not. Or mabes I'll soak these suckers off.  Or mabes do a pedicure because my heels could use some attention.

Or mabes do like last night and just take a nap.

COBAIN'S GOT NUTHIN' ON ME

Wow...I am so behind!! The trip downstate was crazy busy. I had my laptop and never turned it on. Not even once. I don't know if that has ever happened before. Usually no matter where I am I find at least some time to get things done on the interwebs. I even had mani's already uploaded and ready to go.  Even this is going to be short because I've been playing catch-up all day at work; it's amazing the amount of work that accumulated from me taking off a half day on Friday. Redonkulous, in fact.

Once I finally decided which dress to wear for the wedding, then it was time to try and figure out a way to smatch it. This was quite the procedure, figuring out which dress and which mani to do. In fact, I was so undecided that I brought my other dress and all of the colors I had used when I marbled my toes and fingers to smatch that dress. Just in case. I thought if I decided to go with the long dress instead, this mani I did on Thursday night would just look completely awful.

Luckily I did not have to change the mani; I wore the short dress. Whew!!  So here's the dress:

And here's the grunge acetone pull I did to try to smatch it.

Don't ask me what colors I used because I haven't a clue. I did this way too late on Thursday night to even worry about what they were. I was just happy to get it done and put all of my junk away so I wouldn't leave a big ol' mess when I left town.

I did actually add a bit more pink to a couple of my nails between the service and the reception, but overall it was a decent attempt at coordinating. It was good enough that people commented on how cool it was that my nails matched my dress. So I was pleased. 

I was not pleased at wearing it from Thursday night all the way to Sunday night. Yikers!! I don't know how people wait for a week or two to have their nails did. I just kept looking at the tip wear and hating that; and then just looking at it and thinking how tired of it I was.

Tyler and Griffin had been home for the weekend, and last night when we got home was the only little bit of time we had to spend with them. Sucks.  After she brought Griff to his other grandma's house for the night, I did just a quick mani just so I'd having something new on.

Of course you'll see that one another day. I'm already itching to take it off.

I HEART THIS

I really think my hummers have begun to migrate south for the winter. Color me saddy-pants. The past couple of days have been very quiet. I'm still only seeing one at a time. My adult male is still around, though, so I'm just not sure. Supposedly the males migrate first so I guess I'm just not sure what's happening. They do say that sometimes that even after the usual birds have left, those coming from farther north might stop in for a visit and a bite to eat. Mabes the male I'm seeing isn't even mine. I don't know....I'm just sad they are going to leave. I'll miss them. *sniff*

In the meantime, though, I'm thinking I'll buy a window feeder to keep the cardinals around for the winter. I haven't seen much of them, but they are still around and don't leave when it gets cold out. So that might be fun, too!

Tomorrow we leave for lower Michigan for a family wedding, so I don't know if I'll have time for blogging. I do have mani's on standby so if I get a chance, maybe I'll manage to quickly throw one up here. No promises.

This is a marble I did over the weekend. I had done a successful heart marble once before. I then tried to show someone how to do it a few months ago and was majorly disappointed in myself because I just couldn't get it to work. It finally kind of dawned on me what I was doing wrong, and when I tried it again, I had very little trouble getting the pattern to work.

The grey is Spa Ritual Basalt, and the yellow is Fresh Paint Alex's Lemonade.

I really like heart marbles. I think they are seriously groovy and since they are misshapen, I'm sure some acid-tripping hippie from the 60's might think so, too.

And no, I'm not old enough to have actually experienced the psychedelia from back than. 

SOME KINDA STAMP - AND A PUPPY!!

Anybody want a puppy? A really, really cute 8 week old puppy? My friend that was Tinlee's breeder has one little darling left in the litter, and he is a little sweetheart. He needs a loving furever home, so I thought I'd throw up a tempting little pic of him. He's located in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Oh, if only I could have another....

How cute is he!! I can hardly stand it. Just think; unconditional love, cuteness and puppy breath! Such a fantastic combo! Here is a link to the wonderful couple that bred this little gem. They are some of the best people you'd ever have the good fortune to meet. They don't just breed willy-nilly, and when they have a litter, you have never in your life seen such a bunchful of love lavished over a litter  of pups.  You can find out more about them here: Golden Pawprints  If you love puppies (and who doesn't), go check 'em out!

Wow, I am so sick of looking at that red/gold water marble! It feels like I've had it on forever. Tonight it absolutely has to come off. Criminy, I even have tip wear! Craziness, I tell ya'....craziness!! How do people stand it??  After having it on since Sunday night, I'm hating it. It's got to GO.

Luckily I have a few already done so I'm still here, at least.  We were all just kind of playing with ideas over the weekend, and since I had just bought the polish on one of our polish shopping excursions, I used it for this.

Why I was using my own polish when I could have been borrowing Dani's or Deb's stuff that I don't have is beyond me. But I was just not inspired enough to dig through all of their goodies. This was sitting right in front of me. It's China Glaze Bend Over Backwards, and it is a really nice, deep orange. It's actually a bit richer looking in person, but I was having a helluva time getting good pics in Dani's kitchen.

Ah, the lengths we will go to just trying to catch a good picture. That goofball in the orange is Dani....she really needs to install better lighting if she ever expects me to visit again.  And over there on the left in yellow is Laurie from Dressed Up Digits who came to join us for several hours.  That woman is seriously amazing!! I've never seen anybody knock out mani's faster. Crazy good.

I have no clue what I used for stamping. We were so busy monkeying around that I never thought to write anything down. I know that in looking at this one, I don't like that design because it just looks like I made mistakes and left holes where there should be dots. Trust me; it's a pattern.

There ya' have it; puppy, mani and friends. Great combo, I'm thinking.

CANKLE UPDATE!!!

I know your last few days have been sad because I wasn't here. Admit it. You've missed me so very much. I know you have.

Firstly, I am very happy to say that my cankle problem seems to have resolved itself. Unfortunately, I'm guessing that probs also means that summer is over. Which sucks. Completely. This weekend we are going downstate for a wedding, and if the weather forecast is correct (no, really...sometimes it happens), it's going to be perfect weather. I may even opt for the short dress instead of a maxi!! Woohoo!!

I will say I'm not actually counting on the forecast being right. It was believing in last weekend's forecast that inspired me to bring 2 swimsuits to Illinois. That might have worked if I had been there Friday morning instead of late afternoon, but no such luck. The weather just did not cooperate so no pool time at all. 

We did get some storms, though, so that was fun. There were some huge winds Friday night, and although there was no damage at Dani's house, there was a lot of damage very close and pretty widespread. A TON of huge trees down. Another storm came in on Sunday night, and it was absolutely breathtaking to watch. We weren't in the middle of it, but the lightning show was stunning.

Luckily swimming was not the main focus for the weekend. Mani's and polish shopping were, and that was a major success. I'll be sharing some of the fun mani's the "ladies" did in another post along with some priceless moments. Suffice it to say, we laughed. A lot. Mabes inhaled a few too many fumes.

I didn't do quite as many as the others, but part of my time was spent teaching water marbling. I did do a few, and this is actually the last one I did on Sunday night before heading home yesterday.

I realized late last night as I was putting the pics on my computer that I didn't write down the names of anything I used. Luckily this red is one that I bought at TJ Maxx, Orly Torrid. Oh, it does really have a great shimmer that doesn't show up in the marble. For the gold I used China Glaze Gold Fusion, which is actually one of their magnetic polishes. It marbles really well, and I hear they are fantastic for stamping.

Finding out that magnetics are good for marbles and stamping is a big plus for me. I'm over the whole magnetic thing, so now I can use them for other stuff. Otherwise I would feel like my money was wasted since I think I have 7 or 8 of the damn things.

It's going to be a fun couple of days posting. I have a few more of my own to put up, and I have quite a few that everyone else did. Oddly enough, I spent a lot of time not doing my nails.

Mabes I didn't inhale enough fumes!