I THINK THESE ARE PRETTY GOOD....JUST SAYIN'

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally!! I had put out a couple of old catch and release traps that I used to use because of my sneaky little escapee. I had quit using them because I can't see inside and they open way too easily when trying to move them.  But I caught me a mouse around 10:30 last night in one of those different traps I put out. I didn't even hear it snap shut, and he hadn't even eaten the peanut butter so I don't think he was in there for very long.  I checked the trap and saw it was closed, and since I can't see inside of it, I had to pick it up and kind of shake it. They weigh next to nothing so even then I wasn't sure. Finally I set it on the cupboard and put my ear next to it and finally heard movement.

And then I laid the trap in a bowl, snapped a cover on it and handed it to Tyler and said, "go for a ride".  So I'm sure he won't be back. Now I just have to wait and see if any others show up or if this little guy is the Houdini that's been laughing at me for the past three days.  Time will tell.

I ordered a sleep wedge the other day to hopefully let me sleep in bed again and still be able to after surgery on the 13th. They recommend sleeping at a pretty decent incline and actually say to sleep in a recliner, but since I've been failing at sleeping there I was kind of concerned about the next 2 months. Tyler suggested a sleep wedge which had never even crossed my mind. That girl is pretty smart sometimes. I'm looking forward to trying it.

I also finally convinced the damn doctor to give me some pain killers to help me at night. He prescribed me 30 Tylenol with codeine, one or two at bedtime. Hopefully they'll knock my ass OUT.  At this point I've kind of been wondering who I have to sleep with to get a good night's sleep.

Here's the mani I did last night. I decided I had to wear something for Halloween even though nobody will even see it.

My grey here is American Apparel Factory Grey and then I used Konad black with my Messy Mansion plates HD01 and HD04 for the tree and for the gravestones stamps. I was really not having an easy time trying to think of something to do, but I am pretty happy with this look.  

This next mani is my all-time fave Halloween mani I think I've done. I just think it's really striking. 

For my gradient I used Orly LA Sashay and Square Hue Iron Horse. Then I stamped over it using my Bundlemonster BM213 stamp and the Messy Mansion HD01 stamp for the bats. I topped all of that with my fave matte topcoat from Butter London.  I used a dotting tool and went over the bats with Seche Vite to make them shiny so they would stand out more.

I completely stole this idea from Makeup Withdrawal. As soon as I saw it on Pinterest I knew I had to try it. I love the burgundy/black gradient.

And there you have it. Another October come and gone, and now we can sit back and whine about how cold it's getting.

At least that's what I'll be doing. Wouldn't want to break a lifelong tradition.

YOU NEED TO SEE THESE! TOO CUTE-ICLE ROCKED IT!

The time is near; very near. At 12:01 a.m. on Halloween, these great polishes will be up for sale. These 3 beauts were sent to me for an honest review, and that's what you're about to see. I strongly suggest you buy 'em over at Too Cute-Icle.

Let's get right down to it, shall we?  First up, Green Tea-Ni!

How pretty is that?? If you have holo polishes, you probably know how sometimes the application can be kind of "patchy" on the first coat? None of that with this one. This sucker goes on beautifully! I have three coats here and topcoat. I actually didn't need three coats, but after two I thought, what the hell, let's see if three makes any difference. It didn't. Two coats was plenty to show off this beauty, and I didn't really see much of difference after topcoating.

Hopefully you are clicking on these pics to see them bigger. The holo effect isn't "super" strong, but it's definitely noticeable and has a nice shimmery effect to it as well. I had a pretty good time looking at this one all day yesterday.  I was really hoping for some sunshine the past couple of days so I could get some sunlight on them, but naturally it's been dark and gloomy for days. These were taken in my kitchen like most of my photos and are damn near perfection for color accuracy.

Final thoughts on this one? Really purdy, great formula and application. I was typing like a crazy woman yesterday, too, and no tip wear at all. On to the next!

This gorgeous gold is "Butter Schnapps" (detecting a name theme here).  I'm not normally a fan of true gold colors on me, but I have to say, this is one of the best tones I've seen on my "tan pretty much gone" fingers.  I kind of ran around the house taking pics for this one because I could see a stronger holo with my nekkid eye than I could catch. The kitchen shots show the color more true, but the lighting in my bathroom was better for catching that holo "line" down the center that I love so muchly.

Now, this one is a bit different from that green; it's got more "frost" to it. Sometimes I hate frost polishes because they almost always have that pronounced brush mark nonsense going on. Not so with this one; I don't know if the holo pigment is what corrects that or not, but whatever it is, it works.

Once again, application was super smooth. It dried quickly, and shown here is two coats without topcoat. I'm impressed.  Now for my personal fave of the trio, "Kahlua Sour".

This is what I have on today. I love, love, love a good brown. The fact that it's holographic just makes it yummier. This one is two coats and a topcoat of Seche Vite. Once again, I didn't really notice a difference when I topcoated it. It's another one I'll be staring at all damn day. Luckily it isn't sunny so my driving won't be affected. It sure would have been nice to photograph it in the sun, though, because I'm guessing it's going to be fantabulous!

Pretty great holo effect on this one, and the application again was awesome. None of the patchiness or streaking that I find annoying with some, like Nfu Oh, which is much pricier and always makes me do three coats to make the coverage acceptable. I'm liking that these go on more like a "traditional" polish, two coats and done.

They will be up for sale tonight at 12:01....be there or be square. A 15ml full size is priced at $8.00, and the 7ml mini is only $4.00. Worth every penny.  IMHO you should get your fingers typing to the Too Cute-Icle site and snag yours. Jess is great to deal with and ships fast, and I'm sure you'll be a happy camper once you get them.

And hey, is there anything better than nail mail? I think not. 

All polishes were sent to me for an honest review by the maker.

HALLOWEEN PAST AND MORE MICE TALES (TAILS)

So after the dramatic mouse-capades from Sunday night, I was really looking forward to what last night would bring.

Kev was home and since he sits closest to the kitchen, I swear every time he heard a noise he said there was a mouse. I'd jump up and look; nada. Finally around 10:00 he said it again, and he was right! A cute little friend under the cupboard. I volunteered him to bring him somewhere so he took him down the road. I'm not sure how far he went, but around 1:30 I again heard mouse noises from the kitchen although I never saw any droppings. Once again, I wish I knew if it was the same one that keeps coming back. I wish I could tag their little tails when I catch the bastards so I'd know.  

When Kev gets back home Friday, it's time to put some poison under the house, I guess. I don't like it, but even I am not up for an actual infestation of a bunch of meeces.

This morning when I got up I opened the cupboard, and the trap was moved and there were 3 little "gifts", but no mouse. When I got ready to leave for work, I opened the bedroom door like I always do when I leave so the dogs can go back to bed. Kev was super pumped to tell me we have a mouse in the walls. Fan-frickin-tastic.  It makes me glad I'm spending my nights in the recliner; it is not fun to listen to a mouse scratching around behind your head when you're trying to sleep.

That has happened a couple of times in the past. I hope this idiot is smart enough to figure out that there's food in the kitchen and then find his way to it. One year we had one that must have died in there because our bathroom smelled SO HORRIBLE for almost a month! I actually had to keep scented candles burning almost non-stop it was just so gag-inducing.

So the mouse shenanigans continue, and I'm less happy about it now that it has gone from fun to tomfoolery.

Last night I started working on the Too Cute-Icle swatches so I didn't do a "fancy" mani.  I didn't want to just post about mice so I dug out some old manicures from last fall. Just for you. Cuz' I'm nice like that.

It's anybody's guess what I used for this one. Um...black, orange and white? And a stamp? That's just my opinion, of course, but I might be correct on that.

This one isn't really Halloween, but since it's candy corn colors I'm throwing it in. And at least I know what I used; Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Hard to Get, Orly Lemonade, Wet n Wild Club Havana and I'm going to guess a Sally Hansen white. I was mostly using Sally's for my whites in my marbles last year.

Since last fall was my first year of playing with nails, they aren't necessarily perfect stamping efforts, but hey...I was still mostly a beginner back then.

Tomorrow's the day! There will be a whole bunch of pics and reviews of the very purdy polishes from Too Cute-Icle. Methinks you're going to like them. A lot.

A MOUSE (OR MOUSES) IN THE HOUSE AND A MANI

It's that time of year again; fall. The time when once or twice a friendly neighborhood mouse will find its way into my kitchen. 

I thought I had heard one the beginning of last week in the laundry room before I went to work, but I couldn't find any "evidence" of said mouse. I did, however, remove the two bags of bird seed that were next to Tinlee's crate and bring them into the kitchen.

 

Since I couldn't find anything to prove we had a mouse, I figured I'd just wait it out. Sure enough, the next morning I got up and found a couple little surprises on the countertop by the sink....just a couple.

Now, the weird thing about the mice we get, they never seem to go anywhere or be anywhere that has any food. Never in the food cupboards; never in the dog food...it's weird, right?  Whenever I figure we have one, I immediately go to the lower cupboard next to the stove and start removing dishtowels and my Ove-Gloves, because that is always where I find those little rice-sized remnants they love to leave behind.  And that's exactly what I did that morning. I pulled out all of the towels, etc. and grabbed one of my no-kill traps, put in a cracker with a smidge of peanut butter and set it in that cupboard. Then I did the same with the other trap and set it next to the toaster.

I swear, within 15 minutes I could hear my friend in the cupboard. Wow, this was going to be even easier than it usually is. Or so I thought. At that point I didn't realize I'm a doofus and hadn't set the door to the trap correctly. So much for day one.

On Friday I cleaned the entire house and didn't find anything interesting. Patience is key here, folks. Saturday night Tyler went to bed around 3:30, I think. I was still awake since sleeping still isn't really happening much for me, and I started hearing the familiar "oh, shit...I got the peanut butter and now I'm stuck" sound. Sure enough, adorbs little grey mouse in the trap by the stove. I kind of laughed and thought about waking up Tyler because she thinks they're adorable, too, but I decided against it. 

Then I pondered whether I really felt like getting in the car at 4:00 a.m. to bring him to the spot where I usually release them. I decided I did not want to do that. Instead I figured I'd take a chance at releasing him right off the deck. I actually did know this was not the most brilliant of ideas because he'd probs just find his way back in, but I decided it was worth the risk. I went to the top step of the deck and slid open the trap. He stuck his head out and kind of looked at me for a minute before deciding he should hightail it away from the restaurant.

Laughing out loud, for realz, I went back inside, cleaned the trap and reset it with a new cracker and peanut butter just in case there was more than one lurking around.

Less than 15 minutes later, I heard the familiar sounds once again, this time on the countertop trap.  By then I was really laughing. I went and got the trap; who knows if it was the same mouse or not because they pretty much all look the same. Once again I just released him at the house, but I took him to the edge of the woods this time.  And again, I cleaned and reset the trap.

Things were quiet the rest of the night.  Last night as I lay in the recliner, just kind of dozing off and on, I started hearing some activity on the cupboard. I think it was probs about 5:00 a.m. And oh, he was noisy! He was moving around and scratching in there. I was not going to get up and take care of it at that hour. I figured he could wait, and I'd just take him with me on my way to work and drop him off at his new neighborhood.

Finally at about 5:50 a.m., silence. Thank God. I figured he had finally given up and was just sitting there quietly like the first two. Having given up on sleep, I got up at 6:00 went into the kitchen.

NO MOUSE. What the hell?? I thought I had taken crazy pills or was delusional from no sleep. But nope; peanut butter gone, entire trap still set up the way it should be. I have NO idea how the hell he got out of there. I've never had one escape before. Even weirder, all he left behind was one little piece of poo....highly unusual since they poop non-stop. The first two I caught left a huge mess in the five minutes they were trapped. So no peanut butter, one poo, no mouse. Houdini's got nothing on this guy.

So the little bastard kept me awake for about an hour and then skipped out right when I was ready to get up.  Oh, well....both traps are still set. I'll get him eventually. Hilarious. I know some people are freaked out by them, and I know they are filthy little creatures, but seriously, they are so damn cute!

I was super lazy all weekend. Saturday I did what I did last Sunday; slept off and on the entire day. I never touched my laptop, not even once.  Finally yesterday I managed to paint my nails.

I must just be in a dark mood or something because I used Orly Liquid Vinyl again! Then I sponged on bits of China Glaze No Plain Jane, China Glaze Swanky Silk and Mentality Pastille before stamping on it with my Lealac XL-A stamp. And I love it.

As usual, the pictures aren't doing this one any favors, but it is just super pretty in person. It's for sure one of my faves in awhile.

Over the next day or two I get to have some fun swatching for Too Cute-icle and if you've never tried any of her polishes, you are missing out and should immediately go there and buy some. I have several already, and now I'm going to be showcasing and reviewing some new ones she's going to release.  Watch for that post this week. You're going to love them. I just got them today and already want to make out with them and haven't even tried them yet.

Sorry this was such a long post, but the mouse story is just too fun for me to not share. Well, I think it's fun; some of you probs disagree. At least I didn't take pictures to freak anybody out like I did with the snakes, so give me some credit for that. 

Truth be told, if I could have gotten pictures, I would have. 

You're lucky the traps are green and hard to see through or you'd have pics and possibly video up here of those cute little wiggly noses.

EVERYBODY FAILS SOMETIMES

I've been quite the busy little bee the last couple of days. I went to Walmart after work yesterday, and I am proud to report that I did not spend $100. Go me!! I actually only spent a smidgen over $30, and I didn't buy a single polish or polish-related item. Shocked? I am.

What I did buy was a frozen Marie Callendar's Dutch apple pie. If you've never had one of these, you are missing out, people. I grew up eating my mom's homemade Dutch apple pie, although I didn't know it had any name other than just "apple pie". I thought all apple pies had no top crust, just a yummers crumbly topping. I did try to make one myself many, many years ago, but I didn't put enough apples in the pan so it was kind of a flop. 

A couple of years ago I saw the frozen Marie's and figured I'd give it a try. OMG. I will never need to attempt a homemade one again. This pie is sooo good! When I got home I immediately baked that sucker up, and it is a delight. I actually just finished eating a piece.

I've also been dying for something pumpkin so I grabbed some of their sliced pumpkin cake. Also yummers, but it is a smidge dry. I should have grabbed some cream cheese frosting for it. Still good, tho!

Today after work I decided to clean the house in preparation of Tyler coming home tomorrow. She and the Griffster will be here for a whole week, and I am really looking forward to it. I feel like I haven't seen them in so long.  Cleaning was slow going with my arm, and it's nice that Kev has been doing the vacuuming for me. My house is now clean, and my arm now throbs.

Last night I also didn't start doing my nails until way after 11; not sure what I was thinking. I decided I would just do some kind of French mani because I haven't done one in awhile, and they're easy.

Oh, lordie almighty.  This is awful!! And since I started too late it was also too late to remove it and start over. I'm just glad nobody saw it today. I'll be taking it off tonight and hopefully doing a soakoff and reapplication of my nails.

Gawd, just looking at the picture irritates me. The light grey is Revlon Timeless, and I have no clue what the OPI is. It's one of those stupid-ass mini bottles that I hate and are even more annoying because there's no name of the color on it.  Suffice it to say it's almost black without actually being black.

I decided to throw on Essie Matte About You topcoat just to try and save this sucker. Fail. There is just no saving this horror.

I think I'll go eat a couple pieces of pumpkin cake and take a nappy-nap.  I'll just consider it dessert to the piece of pie I ate 1/2 hour ago.

Dinner of champions!

OH, I REALLY LOVE THIS ONE!

I would just like to state for the record that I think it is super lame that the damn doctor won't give me anything for pain to get me through until the surgery. Weak sauce, doc...weak sauce.

It seems I am learning to sleep in the recliner a little better. I think I only really woke up once last night around 4:00 a.m. We'll see how things go all next week since Tyler is coming home on Saturday. Hopefully me sleeping in the living room won't freak her flow too much since she has a tendency to stay up later than me on weeknights.

Lately I've been so uninspired and lacking in manicure ideas. Any time I come up with a brilliant idea, it's something that will take too long to mess with on a weeknight. I mean, it must be time for at least a marble, right? I've always wanted to completely cover all ten nails in glequins, too, but that is really going to take awhile. I can just picture starting that in the evening and having to stay up all night to finish.....def a weekend idea.

This didn't turn out quite the way I was hoping, but I love it anyway.  The goal was for that green to show up a little better on the black, but it turned out a bit more subtle.  I tried a few different greens. I even asked Kev for his opinion while I had a couple different greens on different fingers, and he chose this one. Smart guy; he agreed with the one I preferred.

Love it! My Orly Liquid Vinyl has been getting a workout lately. There's just something about this shimmery green on top of black that I think looks amazeballs. After trying out a few greens, I ended up with my Julep Megan. I had actually stamped three fingers before realizing I was using the same stamp as the light pink/darker pink floral one from a few days ago. OMG! Obvi I couldn't wear that same flower again so soon so I went through my plates for the 89th time and got this flower off of my LeaLac XL-A plate.

I was planning to leave this on until tomorrow, but I don't know if the tips of these are going to hold out while I work the rest of the day. I already have a little chip off the very ends of two nails, and that will drive me crazy if it gets any worse. Right now the spots don't show from head-on; it's just the black part I wrapped over the very tip.  We shall see, I guess!

Oh, for crumps sake; my bossman is too redonk sometimes. I'm not even on my 8 week "vacay" yet, and he's already asking if I can come in to do certain things. He is hilarious. He's all concerned about doing a mediation brief. I told him I would be able to come in; I just won't be able to type as fast. He said that's good because then he doesn't have to hire a "legal" secretary. 

I hope I didn't shock him too much when I advised him that I was not a legal secretary when I got hired. I had been transcribing/typing depositions as an independent contractor, but that was the only legal-type training I had. I told him I would also be available for phone calls from his new secretary, and she can text me if she has questions. I also told him (for the umpteenth time) that a lot of what we do I have forms I use in the computer.  It's pretty comical that he's already starting to worry.

Hell, he even offered to pay me to come in if he needs me.  Gee, thanks, bossman. You'll actually pay me to work? Seriously?

What a guy!  lol

WHAT'S BETTER THAN LAVENDER? LAVENDER + BLURPLE!

I thought maybe I'd just be lazy today and not post, but I knew I'd feel bad if I didn't. For all I know people prefer it when I take a break, but I already feel guilty when I don't do weekend posts.

I have several backup mani's waiting to be posted, but the damn things are mostly Christmas ones now.  Last night I had planned to do nails, but I had to take pictures of spilled nail polish for Bridal Guide. That was a lot more difficult than it should have been.  First off, I obvi didn't want to waste a lot of polish, nor did I want to ruin any surfaces in my house when cleaning up that polish.

The back of a black plate served my purposes, but lordie!! Who knew it would be so impossible to get my camera to focus on a splootch of polish. I did four colors, and I bet I had to have taken 50 pictures just trying to get the focus and color right. By the time I finally finished that up, it was too late to do a new mani on myself.

This one I actually did a couple of weeks ago. I seriously dare someone to find me a lavender polish I like better than this.  I have more than a "few" lavenders.....this one has been my fave since I first bought it.

Of course, I'm also sure I've shown it here before, China Glaze Agent Lavender. This time I stamped using my Ninja Polish DRK-C plate with OPI Road House Blues, which just happens to be my very favorite blurple. I also really like this stamp. 

With all of that goodness rolled into one manicure, I should probably love this one more. I mean, I do like it; I just don't love it. I'm actually not even sure how long I wore it. 

I just think you can't go wrong with pretty much any color purple. Or blurple. The hubby and I were looking at vehicles just for shits and giggles the last time we were in Marquette, and they actually had a light blurple Outback on the lot. The salesman looked at me like I was insane when I called it blurple. After I explained what that was, I showed him my nails because that just happened to be the color I was wearing. It I were buying an Outback right now, I would really be tempted to get that color. Kev wasn't really a fan of it, though.  

I figure the sales guy thinks I'm some ditzy dumb blonde after that convo. I am, however, 98% sure that salesman will be using that word from now on when talking to his customers.  Because blurple is a real thing, dammit! 

If they can add the fake word, "conversate" to the dictionary, they should also add "blurple". Just sayin'.

IT'S LIKE A GAME - TRY TO SHOW THAT COLOR SHIFT

Hey! Nomorerack has 5 full-size bottles of OPI for $20.00 - new customers, free shipping. Otherwise shipping is $2.00!  5 bottles of OPI for $20. New customers free shipping; all others shipping is only $2.00 - http://vnlink.co/SaJQzdmA

Short personal post and more nail talk today because there are sooo many pictures on this one. That probs makes a bunch of you very happy because if you actually met me, you'd probably tell me to just shut my damn mouth already. Or stop typing already.

Slept like poo last night. Tried my recliner, no luck; tried the couch, BIG mistake; tried Kev's recliner, no luck. My eyes are on fire today because they're tired. I'm in a pretty good mood, though....better than the last week or so. I'm chalking it up to some stress relief, but maybe it's overtired giddiness. Or it could be the amount of Vicodin in my system. I don't really care which it is because it's just nice to feel kinda' decent.

Last night I took off that OPI glitter. It reminded me of one of the reasons I'm not a glitter fan. It's because I'm not a fan of the removal of said glitter. That one was particularly difficult even though I did the tinfoil thingie which usually I have really good luck with. Of course, I was using non-acetone because I have just enough growout that I didn't want any acetone sneaking under my nails.

I was planning to do some spiderwebs but ended up hating them on top of the 2 different polishes I tried. I stamped 3 fingers on this and promptly wiped it off and decided to just leave it plain because it's just such a pretty polish all on its own.

My underwear on this is Orly Liquid Vinyl, which lately has become my go-to black. The gorgeousness on top of it is Mari Moon HITS Daring.  Just like all of the HITS polishes I have, this is one great multichrome. It also means you're about to be subjected to a bunch of pictures.

You might want to click on some of these to see them bigger. Just cuz' I said so.

I even had to take one in the living room by my chair to try to snag that purple. Note all of my important stuff; phone, stamper, topcoat and a great big glass of Dr. Pepper.

And of course, the requisite "car shots". (yes, I was at stoplights)

This one also flashes kind of a coppery/reddish that I just could not catch at home or in the car. I couldn't think of anywhere else to try it or I would have.

As with any polish that changes color, I love it and have been moving my hand around staring at it all day. If I can think of something to stamp over it tonight, maybe I'll keep it for another day. I just can't figure out what color I want to use or what design. I don't want to cover it up too much. I dunno....I'm at a loss.

And now I'll shut my mouth already....or stop typing already. :)

GLITTER AGAIN, AND NO SURGERY THIS WEEK

After being completely mind boggled and stressed out over the whole surgery/work thing....oh, who am I kidding, stressed out over the work thing, I have decided to postpone surgery until November 13th.

I went to my regular doctor Friday for my normal 6 month checkup. He refilled my scrips and took care of the pre-op stuff for the surgery. When the nurse took my blood pressure, it was wayyyy high. Perfect. The one thing I can always count on to be awesome was complete shit, and I had to stop there after lunch today to have it taken. And it was still high. So I had to sit for 15 minutes so they could re-take it;  yup, still high. Awesome. So now I get to go back next Friday to have it done again. If it's still high I guess the doctor will figure out if he's going to give me something for that nonsense.  Just what I need, another issue. I told him about how my feet keep swelling, so he's checking my thyroid function, too, although if the blood pressure has been high for awhile, that could be causing that. 

Criminy, what the hell else needs to go wrong this year for me, and it's all such stupid crap. Home I go, and all weekend long my mind is  just in a complete tizzy; I can't stop thinking about how in the hell I'm going to be able to work next Monday when I'm not even sure how I'll be able to button my damn jeans. lol

Yesterday I slept off and on all day. And I do mean ALL day. I don't think I was awake for more than 6 hours all together. When I'm super stressed, my body puts me in doze-mode occasionally.  Sometime during all of that sleepiness, I had a brainstorm. Knowing that Kev has a bunch of days off in a row in November, I decided it might be a great idea to postpone. It will give us time to find someone to cover me at work, and Kev will be around at home to help me at first. Mabes I'll have the bossman fill out the unemployment paperwork that says it's a temporary layoff of no more than 45 days, which will mean I can avoid all the hoops of trying to get another job, checking in all the time, etc. I'll get unemployment for 45 days, and then I'll just give up a couple of weeks pay to be off for a full 8 weeks, coming back to work after the 1st of the year. Or maybe I'll jump through the damn hoops and get unemployment the entire time.

Genius, right? I figure it doesn't really make a difference; I'm in pain either way. I already have a call in to the hospital to get it rescheduled.

In the meantime, last week I was asked to provide a couple of mani's to CNS for use in Bridal Guide magazine. WooHoo!! Then I figured I'd let them know if they were going to be wanting anything within the next couple of months, tell me now because I'll probs be out of nail-painting commission for awhile. They jumped on that and had me do 5 mani's for the holiday season. I only did 2 that aren't specifically Christmasy, so I figured I'd throw one up here today.

 

This is one that they suggest as a New Year celebration mani. This is one of the Sally Hansen Lustre polishes, Azure, and the glitter is OPI polka.com. Even though I'm really not a fan of glitter mani's on me, this one is really bright and keeps catching my eye. And that's after having it on since Saturday. Tonight it will come off, but I'm really kind of enjoying it in the meantime.

I noticed last night on the Polish Sickness Facebook page that one of my admins had seen a link to a print magazine that featured a Custom Nail Solutions article with my lovely left hand in it, "The Magazine of Santa Clarita". So random. I did message them to get a copy of it because obvi I like to have these magazines, and they told me I can pick one up at their office. That struck me as really comical, and I let them know that I'm in Michigan so they are sending me one. 

Good thing because I don't think Kev could grab me one because he doesn't fly there.

GLITTER "SOMETIMES" MAKES THING BETTER

Well, last night was my first of many nights sleeping in the recliner. I'm using the word "sleeping" very loosely. I still slept like complete crapovitch, but it did make a difference as far as arm pain. So let's just call that a "half success", shall we?   Mabes I'll sleep better there after I do it for a bit. Or mabes I should switch to Kev's recliner, which is bigger. Decisions, decisions....

Told the bossman today that I wasn't sure if I'd be back right away the Monday after my surgery. Yeah, that went over fan-f***-ingtastically. Not so much. He said that maybe he should get someone else in to work for me. Um, thanks? I told him I can't afford to not be working. Then he offered to lay me off for three months and I could collect unemployment. I'm not so much a fan of that idea, either. Even after 23 years I don't feel like I'd be guaranteed my job back if he were to find someone that can do the work I do for less money. Sad to feel that way. I wish I felt from him even a smidge of the loyalty I have towards him. He knows I need to work, and he knows I try really hard to not take time off for health reasons. Hell, if I go back over the 23 years he technically probs owes me at least 10 weeks of vacay for all the years I didn't take fun time off. Too bad that doesn't accumulate so I can use it. He also remarked that I've taken "so much time off this year". So for now I guess I'll drag my ass in here on Monday, 5 days after surgery, and see how things go. Wish me luck.

In keeping with the depression that is slowly starting to creep up on me, I thought I'd take a page from a bunch of peeps who claim "glitter makes everything better".

I guess I'll agree with them a little on that.  I'm loving this mani. My gradient is with Zoya Blu and China Glaze Light as Air. It was pretty enough on its own, but then I remembered I had a pretty glitter that might look good on top of it. This one is Orly Shine On Crazy Diamond, a nice fine glitter that is actually a bit holographic if more than one coat is used. Since I wasn't trying to cover that gradient, I just went with the one coat.

I'm thinking I might actually keep this until tomorrow unless my eyes suddenly get "un-tired" enough to do nails again tonight. I feel like I need to do a bunch of mani's to make up for how sad I'm going to be if I can't do my nails after surgery.

Seriously, what am I going to do after surgery??  I've yet to figure out how I'll even use my laptop. That is seriously going to put me right over the edge. I live on the computer from the time I get up until the time I go to bed. I only take breaks to eat, potty and do my nails. I may reach a whole new level of cray-cray if I can't play on the interwebs!!

Jeebus. I wish something good would happen. I'm kind of over the crap. I know other people are going through so much more than I am, but for right now I'm throwing myself a teensy-weensy pity party.  I should have bought booze for it. Or at least an awesome choco-cherry cake. 

Dammit. Now I want cake.

DRAGONFLIES

Wowsers. I had such a "good arm day" yesterday.  You know, kinda' like a good hair day or a good eyelash day (yes, that's a thing, at least in my world). For some reason it was hurting a lot less the entire day. It was so good, in fact, that I was actually toying with the idea of not having the surgery. Yes, I am aware that this would be a stupid decision. But the whole recovery thing has me completely freaked out.

But like I said, yesterDAY was pretty damn good. Little did I know that my arm would make me pay for that good day. I would guesstimate that I got less than two hours of sleep last night. The pain was unbelievable. I feel so bad because I would wake up moaning (and not in a good way), and I'm guessing Kev probs didn't get much more sleep than I did. I was in and out of that stupid bed at least 3 times before I just gave up. My arm was just throbbing like crazy, all the way down to my wrist. 

When I was reading up on shoulder issues, most sites mention that sleeping can be a problem. One would assume that if you're lying on your bad arm, you would cause pain. I, on the other hand, do not sleep on my right side; I sleep on my left side. For some reason, when I lay flat, that arm just gets super pissed off at me, and it always hurts more during the night. Weak sauce.

I finally just got up and went and sat on the couch. Shortly after I did that my arm started feeling a little better, and I just fell asleep sitting upright. Weirdsville.  Bottom line, starting tonight I'll be spending my nights in the recliner. Hopefully I'll get more sleep that way, but even if I don't, at least Kevin will.  And so much for considering canceling the surgery. That'll teach me.

I did this little mani last night.

About the only thing I knew when I started this was that I wanted to use a brownish color. This one happens to be Square Hue Amber Lager, and it's stamped with Essie Penny Talk using my Llarowe LeaLac B stamp plate.  As with all of the Essie mirror collection polishes, this one stamped wonderfully.

I do know I must be tired because I had stamped three fingers with the dragonflies upside down. Joyous. I briefly considered just carrying on and doing them all that way, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Off they came and restamped the proper way. Well, what I consider proper. I know some people stamp the opposite direction. Hell if I know which is the right way.

As usually happens when I'm overtired, have a major headache from lack of sleep and just generally feel like shit on a stick, today was super busy at work. So busy that I didn't even take a lunch hour. Sucks to be me right now.

No candy corn lunch for me today. That really made me saddy-pants. If I go home after work to discover that Kev finished off the last bag, I cannot be held responsible for my actions. 

I figure between the pain, the Vicodin in my system and the devastation over no candy corn, no jury would even consider finding me guilty.

IT'S GOTTA' BE THOSE ROSE-COLORED GLASSES

I'm very happy to report that Tinlee has kept down all of the rice I gave her yesterday. This morning I included a little bit of her dry food in with a little bit of rice. She didn't get sick from that so now I guess I'll start slowly eliminating the rice altogether. I hope whatever it was that was making her sick is over with now. I get scared when she doesn't feel well. 

Evidently those rose-colored glasses I've been wearing are inspiring me to do pink mani's. Unless it really is the view from the glasses, and these actually aren't pink. Hmmm....so are these pink? 

I'm lucky I got nails done last night because I kept catching myself dozing off. Finally I had to put down the laptop because it was making me soooo sleepy. I figured the best way to stay awake was to start playing with my nails.

Yup! It's pink. I didn't really have a major plan when I started this one. I had no clue what I was wearing for work, so smatching wasn't considered. I kind of just went through the drawers that hold my "special" polishes and grabbed Color Club Halo Hues Cloud Nine because it was in the first row. Once I put it on, I thought it needed something extra. I picked out a few different darker pinks and burgandies and just tested them out before deciding on Zoya Mikka to stamp with. Choosing a stamp to use is always the hardest part, but I went with this one off of the Ninja Polish DRK-C plate.

It turned out nice; certainly good enough to wear for a day. 

In case I've never mentioned it, I really, really love Zoya polishes. They work great for everything! I wish I could afford to buy more of those beauties. I only buy them if they have some great special going on.

Somebody mentioned to me that the doctor might want me to remove my nails for surgery. Unacceptable! I've had a few procedures done in the past year that required me to be knocked out. Only once did I have to remove anything, and I only removed my middle finger nail just to shut him up even though they said they could use my toe instead.  I took great joy in throwing up my middle finger and telling him I removed my "statement finger" just for him. He thought it was hilarious and pointed it out to all the nurses.  The other times once I told them what my nails are, they let it slide. I'm thinking I'll just keep my head low and hope they don't mention it. It's bad enough I probably won't be able to paint my nails; having to take them off would just be adding insult to injury.

If I get there and they want them gone, I wish them luck. It's not like a travel with a bottle of acetone, and I doubt they'll want to wait for an hour while I do a soakoff.

My rings don't come off either. I have a feeling they are going to be just thrilled to have me as a patient.

PANICKED BUT STILL PRETTY IN PINK

I'm officially panic stricken. Shoulder surgery is for sure on the 23rd. In my mind I thought the whole thing was kind of a minor blip. Unfortunately, it appears I am mistaken. When they told me how difficult the recovery would be, I thought they were talking about if the worse case scenario happened, which would be them finding damage to my rotator cuff.  Once I got home and started thinking, I realized I didn't ask a couple of questions about how "my" recovery was going to be for him going in and just taking off part of a bone. Imagine my surprise when I was told 6 weeks in a sling and a whole LOT of pain. Not happy.

So here I am, going along with each day still wearing those rose-colored delusional land glasses. The ones where I have the surgery, go back to work on the 28th and wear a sling for maybe a week. I think it was last night when it hit me that this really isn't going to be walk in the park. Not that I ever walk in the park, but I hear tell it's pretty easy.

All day today for everything I've done, I've tried to pretend I can't use my right arm. News flash; this is a real problem!! I should probs tell the bossman that I may have been mistaken when I told him it's not that big of a deal. I'm thinking everything I do is going to be a big deal and hopefully not for weeks and weeks. Ugh. I wish I could change my mind.

If I disappear from here for awhile, you'll know why. At this point I highly doubt I'll be doing any nail art. I think I'll be lucky if I can even paint them. That's depressing.

As if that's not enough, Tinlee started throwing up on Thursday night and continued right on into Sunday. Finally I had to call the vet and get her in for an emergency visit. Everything seemed normal, and they gave her a shot to help her tummy.  She kept down some rice for breakfast this morning, and I'll find out after work if she kept it down from lunchtime. She's making me a damn basket case.

On to normal stuff; nails.

Not a whole lot to say about it. It's pink. It's pretty. It lasted 2 days. The base is Essie Neo Whimsical, and it's stamped using the Llarowe LeaLac XL-B plate and China Glaze Admire. 

I actually did a better job than it looks like I did. The glare is making it look like it's a slop-fest of a mess with missing pieces of designs. It's not! I swear!

I'm in such a slump today. All I want to do is go home to keep an eye on Tinlee. I'm uninspired with my nails, too. That's annoying because I would love to have a stockpile waiting in the wings for blogposts when I can't do my nails. Even if I can't polish, I'm thinking I could manage to type a post with just one hand.  

I think I liked my rose-colored delusional land glasses better than these damn clear ones.

MY HUBSTER IS GOING TO REPLACE ME

What a pleasant day yesterday! No drama to be found anywhere!! AND I got my first prize from the contest, $50 to spend.  Now I just need to figure out what to order. There are so many things I want. Go figure. Thanks again to The Beauty Clutch!

I left work early today and headed on up to the doctor-man to find out about my shoulder. Basically  he seems to think the rotator cuff is okay, but there is a bunch of fluid built up, and my bones are grinding against each other. Sounds painful because it is painful. Looks like I'll be having surgery, so that's awesome.

He's going to go in arthroscopically and cut off a piece of my bone. Lovely. He also told me if he gets in there and discovers that my rotator cuff actually is messed up, he's going to fix it and that I need to be aware of that possibility ahead of time. He's not sure what he'll find, and he ain't waking me up to get permission. If that happens, that is not good. At all. That's a minimum of 6 weeks in a sling, even while sleeping. Not sure what I'll do if that happens. It's my right shoulder; I'm right-handed; I type for a living and do nails the rest of the time.

I'm screwed.  Cross your fingers for me, please! I don't mind having surgery, but I really need for it to just be the more minor problem. Otherwise my darling hubby might decide it's time to trade me in for a newer model. Poor guy. But that's what he gets for marrying an older woman!

Wednesday night I spent some time doing requested mani's once again. I guess they'll be in Les Nouvelles Esthetiques and Spa magazine as part of a Custom Nail Solutions article. Christmas stuff this time. Nice and early for that, but it was an "urgent" request so I had to have them done the same night. Luckily they wanted a few of my older ones so I actually only had to do two new ones. Not so bad.

Right now I have quite a few blog mani's on backup, which is nice! If I get lazy and don't do my nails, I'll still have something to post. I love when that happens.

The other night I did this one after playing with the Halloween stuff. I like the subtle colors, especially after I had been playing with orange and black for a bit.

I did a gradient using L'oreal Tea and Crumpets and American Apparel Mouse. It blended just the way I wanted it to, really soft and pretty. I wanted to stamp over it with something dainty that wouldn't be super loud on top of the muted colors. I decided to use the pretty scroll pattern from my Llarowe LeaLac A plate. In my attempt to keep it subtle, I planned on using an off-white for stamping, but it didn't show up at all.  I had to go with white for the stamp, but since the pattern has such fine lines it worked out perfectly.

I actually left this on for 2 days. It was one of those that I enjoyed looking at throughout the day.  And we know that doesn't happen all that often.

And now I am off to hopefully take a little snappy-nap. I'm so tired lately because my shoulder just will not let me sleep without waking up during the night.

And hey, it's the weekend!! If I want to be lazy and take naps, it's my prerogative. :)

SOME THANK YOU'S, A BITCH AND SOME JACK-O-LANTERNS

As some of you probs saw, I had entered a contest over on Facebook using my Frankenstein's monster mani. I entered on the last day, and today I found out that I won first place. Obvi I was pretty tickled about that! A big "thank you" to all those who took the time to vote for me, and a big shout out to The Beauty Clutch. I'll get to have some fun spending a gift certificate to their site. More polish for me! Good prices on polish over there; check 'em out and go "like" 'em on Facebook.

Once they posted the winners, of course there had to be someone who popped in on the Facebook page to bitch about the contest. This person didn't enter because; "Most of the entries looked like they were taken off the internet or done in the salon. That is why I did not enter. Maybe enter next contest if it looks like the entries are valid". Oh, really, "Marge"? That's why you didn't enter? Um, okay. I can pretend I'm buying that load of horseshit.

Dem's fightin' words, and the more I've been stewing about this today, the madder it makes me. I immediately pointed out that my nails were done by me and that I thought that remark was insulting. Some other people jumped in to tell her how insulting and wrong her comments were (she made a couple). She's claiming that she and "a group" all thought some of the entries were cheaters because the pics either come up on google images or on Pinterest. Duh.  

Since you are here and obviously already have some knowledge of the nail world, I don't need to tell you how ridiculous her line of "thinking" is. I do find it interesting to note that her Facebook page is one of those that has only 10 friends and everything on it is related to contests. Now, as a person who has been a member of a major sweepstaking site since 2003, I'm well aware that there are people who have a personal FB page and make another one to use just for sweepstakes. I believe this is more than likely the case with this particular account.  And for someone who is obvi soooo very concerned about cheating, maybe she should shut her hypocritical mother-effin' mouth.....having two personal FB accounts is against FB rules. So who's cheating? 

I'm just really angry. There were not a lot of entries in that contest. I know for a fact that the 2nd and 3rd place winners are legit, and there are others that entered that I also know are legit. KNOW it. I actually wasn't thinking I'd even win 1st place since it wasn't just based on votes. There was a crime scene mani hand-done by Nicky Nailslove that I thought was way better than mine. She entered later than I did or I'm thinking she would have kicked my ass.

I don't understand the mindset of people like that. Vent over.

That silly little mani of mine also made it to OK Magazine's online edition in the "Monday Manicure" section along with 6 other Halloween mani's. Now, that I think is pretty cool!  Made for a nice start to my day.

Here's the last of the Halloween mani's I did so far. I might still do some because I have some stamping plates that have some cute stuff on them, but I haven't decided which to use yet.

It's another one I had to do freehand....hate it. Not even sure why I'm posting it. For some reason I feel like I should post my epic fails along with the good stuff. Keeping myself honest, I guess.

Good colors again, tho! Wet n Wild Megalast Club Havana and American Apparel Hassid. As far as oranges go, I think this one really is the truest, orangiest orange I have. Hopefully I'm done using toothpicks for awhile.

Wish me luck for tomorrow; I get to take the afternoon off to drive to the orthopedic doctor to get my MRI results. I don't really know what result I should be hoping for. I just know I need some kind of resolution for this shoulder.

Is it weird that one of my biggest concerns is that I'll need surgery and then won't be able to type or do nails?

FRANKENSTEIN

I'd like to officially state that I kinda' want to smack some of my nail group friends. I'm trying so very hard to not buy, and they keep finding and posting all kinds of spectacular polishes. I managed to resist the new Mentality holographics, but come on! I'm only human!  Honestly, if you've never had the pleasure of owning one of their polishes, you really should consider it because they are ah-mazing. 

So today I caved and ordered 3 of the damn things. And while I'm busy hanging my head in shame, the "ladies" are over on Facebook snickering. A-holes. Such a turrible, just turrible, bunch of instigators.

Since I was busy posting this Halloween mani all over Facebook yesterday, shamelessly asking for votes, I may as well post it here today.  I didn't even know about the contest until yesterday, and it ended last night. As far as I know, I did manage to get the most votes, but the winner is chosen by votes AND a judging panel. I think that is a fantastic idea. I don't often enter voting contests because they are notorious for people figuring out how to cheat, and bloggers that have a gazillion followers can really corner the market on votes. There are 3 prizes, so I'm hoping I'll snag one of them. Why wouldn't I want to win free polish, right?

So here's my Frankenstein mani that I did by request.

I'm never a huge fan of anything I have to do freehand, but this turned out pretty much exactly like I wanted it to. And oh, hellz bellz, I just realized I didn't even take note of what color green that is. We'll just call it "puke green". If you want to duplicate this one for the holiday, just dig through your greens until you find one that looks kinda' pukeish. Then grab a black and a toothpick and have at it.

I will say I do like it better than the candy corn mani, and I wouldn't have minded leaving it on for a day, but I had to move on to the next thing.

Right now I'd like to move on to going home for the day, but I still have almost an hour to kill. I don't have any work to do; bossman wandered out of here about 45 minutes ago with an "I'll be right back", and I haven't seen him since. I hate when he does that. People call and get annoyed when I don't know when he'll be here or where he is. Mr. Laid-Back just doesn't seem to think I should  know the scoop. I should be used to it after 23 years, but it still irks my ass.

I wish I had trained him better.

CANDY CORN - BETTER FOR EATING

Oh, my! Such a dilemma first thing on a Monday!! Do I show the mani I did  yesterday, or do I start posting the Halloween mani's I did for Custom Nail Solutions? Decisions, decisions. Hopefully it's the most major decision I'll have to make all week.

I decided I'll just start throwing out a Halloween mani on random days. At some point in the next couple of weeks mabes I'll do some designs of my own choosing, but in the meantime....

Very unexciting, I know. You've probs seens dozens of these floating around the interwebs already during the past couple of weeks.  This isn't one I would normally do, but since it's what they asked for, I did it just as they wanted it. Candy corn? Not so much. Left to my own devices I don't know that I would have done just straight lines, but whatevs. It was only on for 15 minutes so I don't really shiv a git.

I did pick good colors, though! Very true to the candy corn that I've been mounging on the last couple of days. That shit is seriously addictive. Technically I bought it because Kev likes it. Then I made the mistake of opening the bag and putting it on the end table next to me. I ate so much it started being gross. Then  Kev got home last night and did the same thing. He told me he needed to stop eating it. 20 minutes later he was still going. I finally moved it over to my side of the table so he'd stop, and then I started! It was so unnecessary because we were both so damn full from the ham dinner I had made. I went to bed miserable. I was super thirsty because we had that ham, but every time I took a drink I just got more full and more miserable. I should know better. One bag almost empty; one more to go. lol

The colors in this mani are Sinful Colors Snow Me White, China Glaze Happy Go Lucky and Wet n Wild Megalast Club Havana. I didn't even bother using striping tape for the lines; I just freehanded it. When it was all said and done it occurred to me that I should have done this as a gradient. Duh. I had already moved on to my jack-o-lantern mani so I just let it slide as is.

I did accomplish what I wanted to over the weekend. On Friday I was just a lazy ass. Sat around and watched tv and wandered the interwebs. On Saturday it rained all day so I was miserable. I hate rain more than anything. It actually rained so hard it knocked my hummer feeder right off my picture window. I was leaving it up just in case I had some migrating visitors, but I didn't put it back up. My hanging ones are still up, but I doubt anyone will use them now. Woe is me.

I also managed to soak off my nails and do my new impressions. Now I just need to send those off so I can get me some new nails. I'm asking that they do them just a smidge longer. If they're too long, I'll just file them a little bit.

I watched a TON of tv, too! Now my dvr is only 63% full instead of 76%. I had to stay up until 4 am both Friday and Saturday night to get it there, but it literally causes me stress to be so far behind. Over the next couple of days we'll get caught up on the shows that Kev watches with me. If we're lucky maybe we'll even get to some of the new shows I recorded. I record almost all of them so we can test them out to see if we like them. I'm hoping we hate them all.

I figure I'll be caught up by January 1st. Of 2030.

DAMN YOU WALMART

Yay for Friday! I am soooo looking forward to going home and not leaving the house for the entire weekend. I even cleaned the house last night so I don't have anything that I need to be doing other than parking my backside in the recliner to watch tv. 

I do have to run to Wally-World before I go home to pick up a few things. The trick will be to not spend $100. For some reason I can't seem to walk out of there without spending around that much. I'm not sure why that is. I might only need toilet paper (which reminds me, I need toilet paper), but I still manage to add enough random shit to my cart that it adds up. Anytime I do manage to spend less, it's like a small personal victory that I happily brag about to the hubster. WooHoo!! I went to Walmart and didn't spend 100 bucks!! Go me!

The rest of the weekend is tv and nails. I gotta' soak these suckers off, do my new impressions and then put these suckers back on. I don't know if I'll do all that in one sitting or if I'll spread it out over the next two days, but I really must get 'er done. Cleaning the house last night when I have so much outgrowth reeks havoc on them.

I did manage to save my mani from Wednesday night, though. I just didn't feel like doing them last night after cleaning and was happy to just leave this one on for another day.

I was wearing a teal shirt yesterday so I smatched myself using a base of OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui and then topped it off using the DRK-C stamping plate and OPI Can't Find the Czechbook. I was glad the lighter blue stamped over the darker as well as it did.

Well, I wrote all of that around 11:30, before the Wally-World trip.

$128 later, I guess my one month no-buy has ended. I knew I shouldn't have walked down that cosmetics section. I almost made it, too! But then I took that one last turn, and right there on an end cap were the damn Salon Perfect holos. *sigh*  I pulled out my phone, and sure enough, I don't have any of them. So maybe I could just buy one or two; they're only $3.52. Oooo, a gold one! I for sure need that!  Oooo, that green one is pretty, too!! So I'll just get those two and go grab all of the stuff I'm supposed to be buying.

Off to the lawn and garden center where I found two bird feeders that I grabbed along with a couple of bags of bird feed. I'm hoping this will sway those cardinals back into my yard for the winter. I need some birds to watch, dammit!

Oh. And I walked outta' there with seven of those damn polishes. I'm just hopeless.  A new no-buy starts now.

AND THEY QUIT MAKING THESE WHY?

Does anybody else have a tendency to fall in love with something only to have it get discontinued? This phenomenon has become a standing joke at my house because it happens all the damn time.

For many years I kept my hair blonde simply by using a John Frieda hair gel that was made with a small amount of peroxide. Using my blow dryer and flat iron kept my hair light, and in the summertime my hair would go really blonde from the tanning bed and just being out in the pool. Cost for said gel....around $4.50. Loved it. Used it religiously for years. Asshats discontinued it. Since I didn't really want to do salon color because of the damage to my hair, I promptly found it on eBay. Cost per bottle after discontinuation? Anywhere from $40 to $80 a bottle. Still cheaper than going to a salon because a bottle lasted a long time, but still.....eventually I did find a cheaper replacement from La Bella; under $10 for a big 8 oz bottle. I've been using it for a couple of  years now. And when I went to buy more for this summer?  Yup!! Asshats discontinued it!! eBay didn't have any of it, but I got two of the last few bottles Amazon had.....$20 each. Kill me. Guess who now has to go to the salon to stay blonde.....this girl.

My perfume?   Pique by Paula Kent for Redken. Fell in love with it in the early 80's, and it was my signature scent. Almost anytime I wore it at least one man would mention how good I smelled. And I did! It was sold in hair salons, and I remember how pricey I thought it was at the time for the big 2 oz. bottle; $14.95. Late 80's, asshats discontinued it. I really tried to find other things I liked as well, but I just was never able to do it. Right over to eBay I go; it's one of my "saved searches" in my account, and I check it every day because anytime somebody lists that 2 oz bottle, it gets scooped up immediately. In the past year I have managed to stockpile 4 of the 2 oz sprays. Cost? $65 for one (cheap!), $95 for one, and $125 each for the other two. I also snagged two of the big body splashes which are 8 oz, but those just don't smell the same. For awhile the splash was all I had, and when I got my first bottle of the spray, I saved it for only occasional use. Now that I have 3 bottles on backup, I use it every day again. Crazy to pay that, but dammit, that smell just makes me happy.

My fave summer body lotion? Jergens shimmer stuff; can't think of the name right now, but it goes on and just leaves the slightest bit of golden sun-colored shimmer which is super pretty over a summer tan. Asshats discontinued it. *sigh*  A year or so ago I bought a lot of 6 on eBay....I think I paid around $60 for that, so it wasn't "too" bad.

Just once I would like to have a stockpile of some popular item that gets discontinued so I could make a killing over on eBay. I'm living proof of what a desperate fool will pay.

Then I got an email a few months ago from Borba saying they were having a going out of business sale. I figured I'd just go check that shit out. I picked up a couple of things. Of course, I love 'em, so I rush back over to get some more, and they are sold out. All of their stock went quick, and I can see why. Great products; sad they are now gone. I did pick up a couple of their items on eBay, but the mask stuff which is amazeballs hasn't shown up anywhere. This one is my own fault because I totally set myself up for that.

So that's just 4 things off the top of my head, and there are others I'm not remembering right now. Probably so painful I've blocked them from my memory banks.

When I started doing my nails, I guess it never occurred to me that polish companies pull this shit, too.  I think all of them do it. I think it's just plain mean-spirited. The only discontinued polish I know of that actually had a reason was Clarins 230, and that was because they could no longer get some pigment they needed to make it. So I'll forgive them for that even though I would KILL for a bottle of that amazingness. I won't, however, pay upwards of $90 for it. Because I'm really not insane. Honest.

But the OPI DS polishes? I call bullshit, OPI....there was NO reason to stop making these. Even my poor husband has had to venture out searching for them in different cities when he's working. I managed to get DS Original and DS Signature, but the others that I want are just way too expensive on eBay. Even Sally Hansen and Cover Girl have done it. I have been searching for Cover Girl Perplexed for a year now with no success. I haven't even seen it on eBay. But seriously, go look at it, and you'll see why I want it:  Perplexed  Pretty, right?  And then we have Sally Hansen Prisms. Really, Sally? What the hell is wrong with you? Check this one out; I have never seen it anywhere. I love it. I want it. I need it. Who do I have to sleep with to get it?  Turquoise Opal

I guess I'll just call that portion my VOTD, although it could actually be considered a "vent of the year" because it's an ongoing thing.

So here's one of those DS beauties that I threw on after playing with Halloween mani's the other night. I had no time left for nail art but still wanted something pretty. When that happens, I will usually grab something holo because they stand alone in their gorgeousness.                              

This one is OPI DS Signature. It's pink, full of holo yumminess, goes on like a dream and is just fun to look at. Especially while driving. I behaved myself, though, and waited until I got home to take an outside picture.

I have gotten increasingly cranky while writing this post. I trudge along very happy with my collection for awhile, and then something reminds me of the ones I can't get, and it pisses me off.  In my mind I should be able to get whatever I want. Always.

Instead, here I sit, on a self-imposed no-buy since Labor Day weekend, wallowing in self-pity over these gems I can't find or have.  

Yes, I most certainly know there are real problems in life, but right at this very second (and it could change 5 minutes from now), me not getting what I want seems to be a really awful thing.