SO HERE IT IS

Holy crapballs. It is SO frickin' cold out!! I've been so worried about being cold and miserable tomorrow night that I decided I'd better try to prepare. The temp there is supposed to be in the low 20's, but the wind is also supposed to be 20-30 mph. Yikes!! So I went on the Walmart site last night and found some foot and toe warmer thingies that I had Kev pick up for me today. I figure they should help, even if it's just enough to avoid frostbite. Hell, there are 10 pairs of the tootsie warmers and 7 of the hand warmers.....wonder where else I can stick those suckers to stay warm.

I then decided maybe I should buy a pair of actual winter boots. I have an old pair, but they are too tight to be comfortable. I don't even wear them when I shovel. I usually throw on Kev's huge boots for that since fashion doesn't count while shoveling.

Since I live where I live, one would think that buying snow boots should be easy, right?  Wrong. As usual, the minute I try to get something there are none to be found. I don't want to pay a fortune, but I couldn't find any at any price. It's just ridiculous. Winter boots up here should pretty much be sold year round.

Since we are leaving fairly early tomorrow, I'm hoping we can either stop somewhere along the way or at least stop at Meier when we get to Ludington. Maybe they'll have some. If not, I hope those foot warmers do the trick. I don't think it's too much to ask that I get to have fun at the ball drop without actually freezing my balls.

I decided that I would post what I had on for Christmas. It was a frustrating evening when I did this. First of all, I completely forgot about doing nails until 11 p.m. Then the first couple of things I tried didn't work out. I wanted to do a Christmas plaid....fail.  I did my nails in a really pretty Orly red and stamped a white snowflake/deer sweater pattern on it....fail.  Thankfully I had only done the left hand because when I topcoated it, the red turned the white pink. 

Off that came. By now it was probably 12:30'ish so I grabbed another red, my Konad white polish and stamped snowflakes. Then I crossed my fingers as I topcoated. Thankfully it didn't run so I finished all ten fingers.

While I was in the midst of that, Tyler and I watched the Lego movie while she wrapped presents. She reminded me that I was supposed to be building a Lego house for Griffin that she was planning to put under the Christmas tree at her in-law's house so that he'd see it Christmas morning from Santa since the rest of his Santa gifts wouldn't be there.

Now, I've never played with Lego's. I started doing it, and omg!! I was loving it!!  I don't think I'd care to make shit up on my own, but following directions to build something was super fun. It was 4:30 a.m. before I called it quits to go to bed.  The next night before Griffin got to my house for family dinner at 5, Kev and I worked on it a little bit.  After some discussion, it was decided that the only way it was going to get done so that Tyler could bring it out to their house was if she and I did it after coming home from my mom's house that night.

We left my mom's around 2 a.m. after the gift opening Christmas Eve, and Tyler and I set about finishing the Lego project. I did the house, a car, a tree and a bird, and she did a sleigh, toys, a reindeer and Santa. She left my house to go to the in-laws at 5 a.m.

She said that Christmas morning Griffin was very excited to see it under the tree, and he thought it was amazing that Santa Claus had done that. That made it worth getting not so much sleep.

I'm already looking forward to continuing this new tradition next year. We're planning to get the North Pole village for next year. Suffice it to say we'll plan a lot better so that it's done ahead of time.

Here's what I eventually ended up with. Like I said yesterday, it isn't super exciting, but at least it's Christmas red and wintery.

If I hadn't been in such a rush, I would have looked for a polish with a name. As it was, I just grabbed what I thought looked like a good Christmas red, and it turned out to be a Color Club with no name on it. I used Konad white stamping polish with the Ali Express 12-51 snowflake pattern for the stamp.

And speaking of that plate, I was pissed when I looked at it!! All this time I didn't even realize it has other holiday images, reindeer, ornaments, wrapped presents....DUH. If I would have had more time to play, I probably could have had a lot of fun playing with those, especially the ornaments and packages.

I mean, who doesn't like playing with a good package?

ANOTHER MARBLE

Christmas is over. I hate it when that happens.

Tyler, Bob, Griffin and Zero left today. I hate it when that happens, too. It's going to be way too quiet at my house, and it always takes a bit to readjust. Christmas did go well; the grandkids were all on their best behavior, and even the dogs and puppy cooperated by not adding an extra level of commotion.

On Wednesday we will be hopping in the car to make the 6 hour trip down to Kev's mom where we will celebrate the holidays with his side of the fam. Ludington always has a New Year's Eve ball drop downtown, so we'll go to that. I'm looking forward to it and not looking forward to it. 

We were there for that a few years ago, and I froze my ass off. I don't do well in the cold just going back and forth to my car. Standing outside in it for a few hours doesn't actually appeal to me. I don't own the kind of clothing required for that sort of thing. I don't even own snowboots. This year I do own a hat, which is more than I can say for last time. That year I borrowed one from Kev's sister. 

It is quite the party down there, though. They have vendors with beer, which unfortunately I don't drink. Maybe if I did, I'd at least not notice the cold so much. They also set up those heat tower thingies, but I found that they don't help that much when there are a bunch of people trying to squeeze in next to them. And of course it's rude for me to try to get the entire thing to myself.

I did a snowflake mani on the 23rd but haven't even gotten the pics put on the computer yet, so here's one from probably two months back.

I'm a fan of this one. I used Pure Ice Shore Bet, OPI's Taupe-Less Beach and I Sao Paulo Over There for the gradient and then used OPI Get in the Espresso Lane with some random clear polish for the marbling.

At some point I might get around to posting the boring-ass mani I wore for Christmas. Or perhaps not. It turned out well and was cuteish, but it's just disappointingly non-special. Even now I've just been wearing plain old polish since Friday. It's frustrating to me that when I really want to have something fantastic on for some special occasion, those are the times when there simply aren't enough hours in the day to get it done.

Now I have tonight and tomorrow night to think of and execute something to wear downstate for four days.

So far I'm stumped. Again.

SHOULD'VE LEFT IT ALONE

Happy 23rd! My last bit of baking, the rolls, are sitting on the cupboard rising for the last time before throwing them into the oven. I can't wait. There are few things I like more than homemade buns fresh out of the oven, and they will be my late supper and probably also a late night snack.

The German sour cream twists came out fantastic. I think I've eaten 6 of those, and the peanut blossoms Tyler made are also delish. I've only eaten two of those. So far. The night is young. She also brought me Chex party mix, which I love but refuse to make. Some things are just better if someone else does it. My ex mother-in-law always made it, and luckily Tyler started doing it because I missed out on it for quite a few years now. Yummers.

Zero is ginormous. And adorable. And sweet. He's a stalker, though, and tends to follow me wherever I go. He also likes to suddenly join me in the recliner to wash my face and has no regard whatsoever for the laptop sitting on my legs. 

I have a Christmas plaid stretchy dog collar with bells around it that I put on him earlier. I finally took it off because he's so happy and bouncy that it was ringing way too much. Then I decided I'd pull out the reindeer ears that we never use and torment him with that. 

As you can see, he was thrilled.

Eventually he got them off and just laid across my legs trying to eat them.  I'm done picking on him now.

Last week late one night I decided to do a wreath stamp on my nails.

The light green is American Apparel Office, and I stamped the wreath using the Messy Mansion MM01 plate with Colour Gossip Nature Girl.  As an afterthought, I grabbed Square Hue Joulupukin Pajakyla and a dotting tool and filled in the bows on the wreath.

That part turned out to be a mistake. I just didn't like how they looked, but it wasn't bad enough that I felt like taking them off to start over.

I will say I had a couple of people compliment them while I was out and about, so I'm not considering it a fail. I'm just considering it to be one that I'm not really fond of. Now that I'm looking at it again, I think if I had stamped the wreaths with a super dark green it would have looked better. Hindsight and all that jazz.

I'm really hoping that later tonight I'll be able to do something with my nails. I still have on the one from yesterday's post, and I really don't want it to be my actual Christmas mani.

Now if I could just decide what I want to do, that would be nice.

LET THE MADNESS COMMENCE!

My weekend didn't start off so great. I put my old car up for sale on Craigslist, and I think it was only up for about 8 hours before a guy called and said he'd come out on Friday to see it. Or maybe it was Saturday. I no longer have a clue what day it is.

So Kev calls to tell me he's on his way, and I figure I'll go pull it out of the garage. Um....won't start. Great.  I call Kev and tell him to call the guy to stop him from making the trip out to the house and hung up.  I called him back a couple of minutes later and he said he hadn't gotten through to the guy and then told me how to attach the battery charger.

So as I'm standing at the front of my car trying to get the hood open, the guy pulls up. I felt like an idiot for having the poor guy come out to see a car that won't start. Seriously. I've honestly had no trouble with that car. So the guy puts the charger on for me and then looks at the car, and he likes what he sees. He seems completely unconcerned by the battery thing. We set it up so he could come out yesterday to try again after I got the battery charged.

In the end, the battery charger was doing nothing, so I called one of my friends to come rescue me and jump it. He stopped out, hooked it up and then came in to visit while it ran for about 45 minutes.  After he left, I started it 3 times throughout the evening with no issues.

Cut to yesterday morning when I go out to start it.  Yup.  Nope. Dead again, although not quite as dead as the day before. The guy called to come out, and once again I had to tell him it wasn't starting. Thankfully he works at a car place and is still interested and will come out again next weekend. That gives Kev Friday to figure it out or buy a new battery. Honestly, what an embarrassing mess!!  It's just my luck I would try to sell a perfectly working car only to have it die when I try to sell it. I mean, I really love the car and will be sad when it goes, but I didn't figure the feeling was mutual.

I also managed to pop off a nail while trying to fix a light in the house, and I popped one off under the hood of the car. I was very happy it landed where I could get it. Of course, that meant I had to soak them all off and do a reapplication which was really not in my schedule for before Christmas.

Now it's three measly days before Christmas which means it's time for the last three days of rushing around to get everything done at my house.

Yesterday I did two separate double batches of a Swedish cookie that has to be made one at a time on a cast iron thingamabop on the stove, so that takes hours out of my life. I considered just doing the one double batch, but since I'm the only one that makes these, people in my family tend to steal some to take home. And since I love them so much, I have to make sure I'm left with plenty.

I also finished up the last 12 items I needed to wrap for Wednesday. I'll have more to wrap before we go out of town next week, but for now I'm done with that.

Right now it's 4:30, and I'm sitting at work. I've basically had not a thing to do since I came back after lunch, and it's been really bugging me since I could be at home doing stuff. He did give me tomorrow off so that's good because tomorrow is bake the homemade rolls and clean the house day. 

When I leave here at 5, I'm headed home to set up the yeast-based dough for German sour cream twists. Those have to sit in the fridge for a few hours before baking. Once those are set up I'll probably do my annual "cover the big marshmallows in white chocolate for my brother" thing. He told me several years ago that it's hard to find good chocolate covered mallows, and I decided I'd try to make them for him that year. Kind of a mistake because he loved them so much I now feel obligated to make them every year. I don't want to disappoint him.

I think it was about 11 p.m. last night when it occurred to me that my nails were naked. Wonderful. I didn't have time to do anything much, but I did at least manage to get them stamped.

I don't even know what I'd call this base color. It's Orly Act Your Shoe Size, and I guess it's kind of a cross between mauve and burgundy?  I did a matte topcoat with the Sally Hansen one whose name escapes me, and then I used  China Glaze Red Dahlia for the MoYou Festive 04 stamp.

This is just an "okay" one for me, but it served the purpose of covering my nails for a day.  I really am hoping to have time to do something a little more fancy-schmancy for my actual Christmas mani, but no guarantees on that one.

Tyler is on her way home and will be here later tonight, so I'll be happy to see her. She will probably pretty much just be dropping off the dog and then heading to her dad's because today is his birthday.

Tyler was a real sweetheart last night and did up one kind of cookie that we always make, so that saves me a huge chunk of time.  I can always count on her to be helpful during Christmas week. She's a gem, that one.

Now hopefully Zero will be just as helpful and cooperative as I try to get things done.

Anyone want to place bets on that fantasy?

I KNOW...NOT FESTIVE

It's disturbing to me that next week is Christmas. Even though I'm pretty much ready except for all of the baking, it seems to sneak up on me. I shop, I blink, it's here.

Tyler will be coming home on Monday, which is fantabulous. It should be very interesting having a five month old puppy in the house for the holidays. Christmas Eve when the whole family is at my place is going to be a real zoo. Hopefully my mom and brother-in-law will survive it. They are not big fans of the commotion. My house barely accommodates the 13 of us plus dogs. Personally, I kind of like it. Even the hubby will be coming home that day. It's been a couple of years since I had everybody there at one time, and I'm hoping I remember to try to get a complete family pic.

I'm still rocking the poinsettia mani because it's just to pretty to take off.  Well, that and the fact that it took me so long to do so I figured I should get my wear out of it. I look at it a lot.

Not all of my mani's have been holiday oriented, as you can see by this one. I can't remember if this was from last week or the week before. I so cannot keep track since I do them and then throw them on here as a draft until I can get back to them for an actual post.

If memory serves, I wore the Essie Nothing Else Metals on its own for a day before deciding to stamp on it.  I hadn't tried any of the partial designs from my MoYou Pro XL 06 plate and decided I'd try it. I figured if I didn't like it or if it didn't turn out, I'd just start over with something else.  I used OPI Vant to Bite My Neck for the design, and I really like the color on top of the pink.

Overall, I really kind of liked this one. I've always been a big fan of anything that's kind of scrolled, and this one is no exception. I do think I had to re-do a couple of them for placement, but I guess I can't always get it right the first time.

Oh, man. My mom just called asking for ideas for Christmas. She's having a hard time finishing up on me. And of course, I had nothing to tell her. I thought of something I wanted the other night while I was standing in the kitchen.

If someone can possibly remind me of what that idea was, I'd appreciate it. 

I vaguely remember when I used to have a memory.

SEE? I DO HAVE A RIGHT HAND

About 10 days ago, one of my friends that I met through a Golden Retriever page posted a pic of a holiday wreath she made for her mantle. It was so gorgeous I jokingly told her I wanted it. Come to find out, she actually makes stuff to sell, so within about 15 minutes, the deal was made.

She showed me pictures of a bunch of different ones, all beautiful, but my mind was already made up. The one she had made herself was the perfect one for my house, and she made it up for me and it arrived yesterday.

And this is what the mail lady brought me.

It's okay that it looks like that, though. The postmaster stamped in red that it arrived in town like this. Well, that makes it all okay then!

To say I was scared to open it would be an understatement. I just pictured smashed ornament balls everywhere. I was much relieved when I opened it and saw this.

How perfect is this thing?? It's going to go above the mantle, but since Kev isn't home I decided to let it hang on the front door for now.  Evidently they did somehow manage to damage the battery packs so I'll be looking for some new lights this week. It's either that or take advantage of the insurance, but the post office would take the wreath, and that ain't happening. 

I saw a really cute poinsettia mani on Pinterest that I really wanted to do. I guess I was having one of those delusional moments where I imagined I was capable of freehand nail art. So yeah, that was a couple hours of my life I'll never get back. All it did was piss me off and frustrate me, and I left my nails naked for 24 hours because of it.

I still wanted poinsettias, though. So last night I decided to kill three friggin' hours to water marble them. It was slow going, and I had to do a lot of them more than once. I really was trying for perfection.

I wouldn't call them perfect, but I like it better than last year's version. I'll be wearing these for at least a few days because of how much work they were. Sorry for so many pictures, but I wanted to catch the full effect.

And check this out, I DO have a right hand that goes along with my left!! I don't like taking photos out of my normal pose because I hate how my hands and fingers either look awkward or claw-like. When I first started taking pics of my nails it took me awhile to decide on the pose I use all the time. I think it shows the nails well, and I like the consistency.  I stray from it only when absolutely necessary.

I felt it was necessary today.

I find it very difficult finding reds that translate true red in a water marble. I tried 7 or 8 different ones before going with OPI Bogota Blackberry. The green is Loreal Hyde Park.

I used a whole lot of polish for this mani. A ridiculously wasteful amount. Enough that I actually felt bad about it on about nail 8. Of course I was way past the point of no return by then.

When I finished it I decided to add a smidge of sparkle with Orly Shine on Crazy Diamond. It is one of my all-time fave glitters because it's just a delicate little bit of bling. I also grabbed Orly Luxe and my dotting tool to add some centers to the poinsettias.

I'm considering this my first official Christmas manicure. I've seen so many people doing holiday manicures for weeks now.  I just was not feeling the Christmas mani mood yet.  

Or course, I did do those two snowflake mani's, but snowflakes don't count as holiday in my book. I could easily get away with wearing a snowflake mani every day for 5 or 6 months out of the year.

 

DARK - MATCHES MY MOOD

Could I be anymore annoyed with my doctor's office right now? Nope!

With new laws that went into effect on October 1st, I  now have to get an actual written prescription for my Vicodin. Now, for years I've been taking it 4 times per day for my headaches. For the most part, it has been a very good solution for me. Not perfect, but certainly what has worked the best without making me loopy or becoming an addict.

That might seem weird, the fact that I live on Vicodin with no worries about addiction. My fave doctor-man retired a couple of months ago, and he's been on board with how it works for me. Since I don't get any kind of buzz from it, it's fine for me. 

Headaches for me are a serious issue. For years every doctor, and I, pretty much assumed they were migraines. My sister gets classic migraines, and unfortunately so does my daughter and now my oldest grandson. Starting in the early 80's, I was given Fioricet, primarily because it wasn't addictive.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. SO addictive. I loved it. It gave me the nicest fuzzy little buzz, and it was so nice I did become addicted. Badly. Took a ten day stint in a rehab center to detox off of it back in the 90's.  Good times.

In the past they tried prescribing it to my daughter with the same "not addictive" line. She wasted no time calling bullshit on that and doesn't use it.

The only other thing that really helps my headache is what I consider to be the absolute best drug on earth, Excedrine Migraine. Seriously. Tylenol, Advil, Alleve.....name it; I've tried it. Nothing works but the Excedrin. The problem with that is when you wake up with a headache every day of your life, you take a ton of Excedrine. And then you get ulcers that are one-third the size of your stomach. So yeah, that's awesome, too.

In the end, my doctor determined that I don't actually have migraines. I just have what is known as chronic headaches. I think I'd be better off with migraines since there are so many medications you can take for those.

Anyway.....I was supposed to pick up my monthly supply of pills yesterday. I went through the website and requested my prescription on Sunday, knowing they would see it Monday morning and I could pick it up on Tuesday in time to get a refill.

Uh, yeah. Not so much. My new doctor, who I've seen once and am not impressed with so far, is on vacay. The covering doc needs to sign it. Fine. So sign it. I messaged them and spoke to them twice on the phone to really let them know that it needed to be done so as not to screw up my schedule. I mean, how long does it take to physically put pen to paper and sign? It's written out already.

It's now Wednesday at 3:15 and I'm still waiting. I finally called them a few minutes ago, and it's still not signed.  I'm 6 Excedrin in at this point today. And I'm not happy.

Done venting.

I did this mani the other night. I still have it on because I still like it and sniffing polish fumes right now does not appeal.

I don't know if you can tell from the pic, but the base is a really dark green, Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Olive Branch. I stamped on that with OPI's French Quarter for Your Thoughts and the DRK-A stamping design. I was actually very impressed with how well the OPI stamped.

My sweater was this color green, and the sleeves are that color grey in thermal material, so this stamp kind of looks like that pattern.

I think I did it up good on this one as far as smatchiness. I'm thinking I may change it up tonight.

Unless that damn office doesn't call, in which case I may just paint over these solid black to continue the mood smatch.

SO DUMB!

I'm pretty sure I'm DONE Christmas shopping for my kids, grandkids and the rest of my side of the family. I'm a happy camper. Now, if I could only get Kev's side of the fam done, that would be perfection. I always leave it up to him to get the ideas. I always have a bit more time to shop for them because we don't get there until New Year's sometimes. I'm not sure this year yet if we're going down on my birthday on the 26th or if we're holding off until the following weekend.

As usual, I spent way too much money. I'm pretty sure I spent a lot more than last year. I'm not even sure how it happens. I love giving gifts so no matter what I buy, it never, ever seems like enough. I'm terrible. It's especially hard when some things are outrageously priced. I'm so old I can remember when I used to think 20 bucks for a sweater was crazy expensive. Now I look and often the ones I like are anywhere from $65 to $100. Sorry....not paying that.

Anywho, it's just nice being done. Just a few more things to wrap, and I will feel very much ahead of my game for the year.

Sunday night I started this mani with this light pink, Color Club Blushing Rose.  I really like this pink.

What I was supposed to do then was stamp on it with a darker rose (which obvi I did), so I grabbed another Color Club. For some reason there's no name on the damn thing, but whatevs. 

For my stamp I first tried out the argyle pattern on my thumb and decided I didn't want to use it. So I went with this one from the DRK-A plate instead. It pretty much turned out just like it should have.

When I was all done, I headed off to find something to wear for work. And guess what I chose without even thinking....

.....a friggin' grey and pink argyle sweater.  What an idiot. I totally missed an opportunity to be all cute-ish and smatchy. I'll freely admit that I kind of pouted about it all day.

Sometimes my brain cells just do not connect properly. It must be an almost 55 old age thing.

55? How did that even happen??  Gross.

And now I'm depressed and off to mourn my lost youth. *sigh*

A NIGHT OUT

For a Monday I'm in an oddly good mood. Odd because it's Monday, and odd because it's snowing. I am pretty tired of it snowing only when the hubby is out of town. Very frustrating.

But still, pretty good mood.

Kev and I got the house completely decorated the last couple of days last week. It would have been done in one day, but we decided to take a break and go to dinner which led to a break out at the casino. Winners!! Again!! So that was fun.

So Friday we wrapped up the decorating, and yesterday I wrapped up the wrapping (see what I did there - I am so effing clever).

I also knocked out a whole lot of dvr tv watching and did my nails. Not the mani I'm showing today, but I did do one.

This one I did a few weeks ago when I went to the bar for karaoke night. It was a last minute thing and matched my shirt perfectly, which is always fun.

Just pretend you don't see that little chip on my thumb nail. Thanks.

The hot fuschia is Loreal Crazy for Chic, and I used Sinful Colors Black on Black and the DRK-C stamping plate. Those Loreal polishes are really pretty nice. I don't see many people talking about them, and I think they get overlooked for some reason. I like 'em. I just bought a couple at Walgreens the other day that are really pretty. Even though I'm not much of a glitter fan, they had a dark purple and a lighter purple with some fine glitter that look really rich.

Had to buy them. Had to. I really need to put myself on a no buy. Like now. I was doing so good there for awhile and not buying any, and lately I've been buying like a crazy person!!

I see that the snow is slowing down now. That's good. I probably won't have too much trouble shoveling the deck when I go home at lunchtime. With any luck, the driveway will miraculously clear itself, a/k/a get done by the neighbor or my boss.

I'll probs change my boots at lunchtime, too. Like an idiot this morning, instead of putting on my black shitkickers, I wore a kitten heel boot with bottoms like an ice rink. I'm almost 55 years old and have lived here my entire life. You'd think I would know better.

I am nothing if not brilliant.

SNOWFLAKES PART DEUX

December? Unbelievable. I don't know where the year went. All I know is I want the damn Christmas shopping DONE. I am finished shopping for my daughters and grandkids, and I'm almost done with my sons-in-law, but figuring out what to get my 86 year old mother who needs and wants nothing is a friggin' nightmare every year.

Up until a couple of years ago I could at least buy her clothes for work, but once my brother closed his store, she stopped working. She told me last night she has clothes in her closet that she's never even worn since she has no place she really goes to wear them. 

Kill me.

I've also somehow managed to spend a shit ton more than I planned. Every year that seems to happen. It's like I blink and I've spent too much, but it feels like I've bought nothing. Things are so much more expensive than they were even a couple of years ago. Also, buying for a 15 year old boy sucks. On his list? 6 or 7 video games. Oh, that's super fun for me, and the damn things are ridiculously pricey. He also isn't really into making a list for me, so at this point he's getting what I "think" he'll like. At least he likes clothes. 

The point is.....kill me.

I did this mani for Thanksgiving. It's always hard to think of something to do that won't horrify my mom. Let's just say she is not a fan of the whole nail art thing. It's just one more thing she probably thinks I'm too old for. She's adorable and I love her, but I try not to shock her with my so-called taste.  Nobody commented on this one so I'll call that a win.

I've been using some pretty random polishes lately. I've had China Glaze Rodeo Fanatic for ages.  As in it's in my first drawer of blue polishes.  I didn't want to do white snowflakes again so I used my old standby,  Essie No Place Like Chrome. It never fails me.  The snowflake stamp is from the LeaLac LLC-A plate.

Speaking of them, does anybody know if they're ever going to make a "C" plate? I wish they would. They have the biggest images of all my plates, and I love them so much.

Oooo, I do have one semi-happy thing. Sometimes I will enter sweepstakes online. It's actually what I used to do before I became nail obsessed. I used to enter about 250 a day; now I'm lucky if I enter 20 a week. This morning I decided to enter the 7 weekly enter sweeps on my list and found my name on the winners list of one of them as a weekly winner.  I say "semi-happy" because my name was posted on November 26th, and I haven't seen an email from them or gotten a phone call. I get so much junk email every day that I'm afraid I may have missed it or tossed it by mistake. 

I've been stalking my email all day. It's a prize worth receiving since it's a $495 men's watch. 

In the meantime, I'll just keep crossing my "used to type sweeps entries" fingers and hope that email comes soon.

THE HOLIDAYS HAVE BEGUN

I don't know how your Thanksgiving went, but I won't need to eat again until Christmas. Between eating at my mom's yesterday and then heading over there tonight for leftovers, I am pretty much good to go for the next month.

Yes, I ate that much. And I have some salad and pie that I took home with me, too. Right now I'm miserable for the second night in a row. It's really not my fault, though. I was all finished eating, but there was stuffing sitting in the bowl right in front of my cleared plate, and I swear it was literally calling my name. So I went for seconds. If I hadn't done that, I'd probably not feel so crapalicious right now.

My plan for the rest of the weekend is nothing. Well, except for playing with the grandkid and grandpuppy.

Right now I'm wearing another snowflake mani, but I haven't even bothered taking pics yet. I really should probably do that soon because the tips are staring to wear.

This is one I did a couple of weeks ago.  This Above the Curve The Silence. It's gorgeous. Right now they don't seem to have this one, but they do have it here.

They do have a whole lot of other polishes that would be worth getting, though. I have several, and they are all gorg and have nice formulas. They also have a big sale going on at the moment so I recommend checking them out.

I had planned to stamp, but I thought it was necessary to show it all on its own first

I didn't want anything too shockingly obvious so I used Julep Farrah and the LeaLac LLC-B stamp.

I like how subtle this one turned out. It's like swirls of smoke over the dark.

Now I think I'll take a pic of my fingers and either decide what to paint or soak these suckers off and start from scratch. First I have to decide how ambitious I am and whether or not Zero will cooperate and let me do it. 

He's a puppy. I can't count on him just laying around for a couple of hours without getting into a wrestling match with his mom.

IT'S A 2-FER TODAY!

I'm happy to say that the Parrot Polish from the other day, Curcubeu, wore very well throughout a full day of tapping away on my computer. Nice.

Before I put it to that test I did stamp some snowflakes on it Sunday night. Unfortunately that must have been a hint to Mother Nature because the 43 degrees and rain that got rid of almost all of the snow in my yard turned into 20 degrees and about 8 inches of snow.

I'm staying away from the snowflake stamps for awhile.

After I did these, I was sorry for it. I never should have covered up Curcubeu. I should have just waited to use snowflakes until I had changed polish. The great holo and color change did still show up around the snowflakes, though, and that was kinda' cool.  The snowflake pattern is from my MoYou Festive 04 plate.

Even though it did still look great last evening, I just felt like marbling. I thought it might be fun to do a two-tone marble, one where I don't try for any specific pattern like I normally would.

This is what I ended up with.

That pretty purple is China Glaze Coconut Kiss. I just used one of the cheap Sally Hansen blacks for the marble.

I am loving how this turned out. I've been looking at it a lot today. It also made for a very fast marble since I didn't really care what the design was. Funsies!!

I'd probably better think of something to do with them tonight. Tomorrow night Tyler will be home for Thanksgiving with Griffin and Zero. While Griff goes to bed and is also old enough to let me play with my nails, Zero is not quite so helpful.  So it's tonight or not at all until the weekend.

I think we all know I do not want to still be wearing this come Sunday. Puh-leeze.

On a sad note, one of my friends had to help ease one of her precious Goldens on to Rainbow Bridge today. Cooper fathered many puppies, and there are a lot of good genes floating around out there in the form of some beautiful dogs.

He was well-loved, not just by his human family, but from what I've seen, by every person that ever had the pleasure of his company.

Cancer claims another Golden gem.

Run healthy, happy and free, sweet Cooper!! Although many are shedding tears today, you've left a trail of happy memories in your wake. 

And you're going to have a grand old time with your buddies!!!

FAIR WARNING - YOU NEED THIS!!

I'm not even sure where I first saw a pic of any polishes by Parrot Polish.  I'm thinking it might have been on Instagram. It doesn't really matter. Bottom line is I saw a swatch and sped over to their website immediately to check them out.

My interest was piqued because they had some with Romanian names, which reminded me of my 23 days there when I was 17. I remembered that "frumose" means beautiful. I digress.

Normally I am not so willing to pay 12 bucks for a polish, but I threw 2 in my cart and didn't buy. A week later I wondered why I hadn't gotten them yet. Once I remembered that I hadn't actually purchased them, I did. For the record, they are based in Florida, and they have free shipping!

Let me say this before you look at the 8,000 pictures I've posted. Within a few hours I received tracking info with a very nice note from Dave, the owner. That was four days ago, and I got the polish today.

Once I got them opened, I was so excited by them that I swatched them immediately.  Then I was even more impressed and decided I wanted to email Dave and tell him what I thought. I logged into my email and found an email from him, just checking in to see if I had received them.  Pretty damn good customer relations.

My plan then was to do a blog post with a review of both polishes. Once I started taking pictures of this one, I knew that wasn't going to happen. I really don't normally like pic-heavy posts so there was no way I could do both polishes on the same day.

Without further ado, feast your eyes on Curcubeu, which means rainbow in Romanian.

Ya' know how sometimes holo or multi-chrome polishes need a couple of coats to look good? Or how they are best over black?  Not so with this. I did swatch over black, too, but it really made no difference in the look.  These first three pictures are ONE coat.

I'd say it's pretty amazing in one coat.

This next shot is taken with flash, and the rest have no flash.

I think this is one fantastic polish. It flashes strong green, aqua, silver, blue and quite a strong purple, but as with all things purple, I wasn't really able to capture it. I was also just looking at it as I sit here in the living room, and it also flashes that "not quite black" black color that you get with black holos. Suffice it to say it is striking. Each color that comes through is gorgeous.

This is one of those rare treats of a polish that exceeded my expectations by a mile. Their own pictures don't do this one justice. I love a strong holo, and anything that shifts colors automatically becomes one of my faves.

You can look forward (or not) to a similar post on the other one I bought, Arco Iris, which coincidentally also means rainbow, but in Spanish. I didn't know that until just now. lol

They also included a mini of Emerald Sand which is a green/blue holo and 2 of their homemade soaps which they sell for a buck.

Overall, if this is any indication of how this little company is run, they deserve the business. For the record, this rather strong opinion you're getting right now is strictly my own. They've offered me nothing, promised me nothing; I'm raving because it's just.that.good.

And in case you haven't noticed over the time period of this blog, I'm a smidge picky.

If you haven't checked out Parrot Polish before, I think it's pretty apparent that you should.

TRIED IT - FAILED

For whatever reason, I got it into my head the other night that maybe I could somehow use my nail foils with stamping.

Since I've never managed to get my completely smooth, shiny, multi-colored foils to go on and look like they're supposed to, I thought maybe they would go on in a stamp format and look groovy.

I found a design and started by stamping it in black onto a coaster and immediately put the foil down and rubbed. Pulled it off, and it looked pretty damn cool. Great, I thought. This is going to work like a charm.

I painted my nails black and topcoated. I stamped with the black, put down the foil, rubbed and pulled it off. Nope! Didn't work at all!! Well, wtf? Why didn't that work?? 

I wondered if I could stamp with foil glue. Even bigger nope. The design I was using is one that barely fits on my nails, and I decided I didn't want to have to deal with worrying about size placement. I switched to a different plate that has bigger designs. This time I did topcoat on a ziploc, stamped and did the foil. Better. 

Then I decided I didn't have the patience to do it that way. I painted my nails silver and topcoated. I stamped with black and slapped the foils on. Game over because I was o-v-e-r it.

This is what I ended up with.

I hate it. A lot. I can't believe I actually did both hands and still have it on. The silver base I used is the Nfu Oh 61 holographic. I had also forgotten what a difficult application that particular polish has.

Basically, this whole manicure was a nightmare. Perhaps I'll attempt it again someday using some different method.

It ended up being even more frustrating when somebody posted a video where they were stamping a design on bare nails with black and putting foils on and it was working like a charm.  Bitch.

I do think if I were to try this with a design that doesn't cover so much area it would probably have worked better. At this point I also have to wonder if a couple of my foils maybe just aren't that great to begin with.

It was a cool idea in theory. It should have remained just a cool idea.

HELLO, HOLO

Holy crapovitch! It is so friggin' cold outside! That pretty, bright sunshine is very deceiving. I never did understand why when it's sunny out in the winter, it makes it feel colder. Why is that?  Not that there's any chance in hell it could feel warm. It was 9 degrees at my house when I left for work. 

Bossman left here at 2 to go back out to camp, and I decided I would brave the cold and go outside to smoke. Normally I just use my e-cigs at work, but since I still have the loaner and couldn't smoke on my way to work, and since I have no actual work to do, I wandered out there. 

I speed smoked about  half that sucker and got my buns back inside to my space heater. Nope....I didn't need a cigarette that bad.

Last night I did decide to finish that striped mani and did the right hand. Why it went so much easier the first night is anybody's guess, but man, it was really giving me trouble! I had to re-do two of them and almost called it quits, but it seemed like such a waste to be almost done and then give up. I'm probs going to take it off tonight, though.

I think I had mentioned a few weeks back about a good deal on Nomorerack for Cult polishes. If memory serves it was 5 for 20 bucks. I didn't have any Cults so I got two sets. I like them so much I ended up buying more from the actual Cult site when they had a sale.

They actually have decent deals on polish quite often there. I know right now they have sets of 5 OPI for 20 bucks, and they have Essie's, some other brands and nail art stuff, too. Shipping on that site is only $2, which is nice.

One of my Cult sets had Coachella, which is billed as a holographic topcoat. Actually, if you do a couple of coats it's a nice silver holo all on its own. For this mani, though, I did use it as a topcoat.

I started the mani with Wet n Wild Mauve Frost, which is pretty much just some random medium pinkish/reddish/mauvish toned polish that I don't remember ever buying. I have no clue where/how/why I got it. Maybe it came in some lot on eBay way back when I was constantly hunting down lots of polish for next to nothing.

It actually is a very pretty color all on its own. Throwing the Cult Coachella over the top of it was kind of an afterthought. As you can see from the pic, even with a stamp over it, it did a pretty nice job of making the polish holographic. I was impressed. As I always find with holographic topcoats, it did lighten the color of the polish quite a few shades, but that was fine with me.

For stamping I used Sinful Colors Black on Black and the LeaLac LLC-A plate. Overall I'll call this a successful mani.

I do have to say that I'm really not sure why I've used this stamping design as many times as I have. Today I'm looking at this picture, and I don't even think I really like it.

Now that I said that I'll have to make sure I don't use it for awhile.

I GOT MOTIVATED

Ah, Sunday. I have a love/hate relationship with Sundays. I love them because I'm home, and I hate them because they mean I have to go to bed before 1 a.m. (or at least try to) and then it's back to work on Monday.

There's a twisted little part of me way deep on the inside that wishes it was last year. I may have been in some pretty major pain, but it was the start of 4 months off work. Of course it was also the beginning of the end for my work life as I knew it. If I had never had that damn surgery, my job never would have been turned into a part-time, you now earn less than half of what you did but basically do the exact same amount of work kind of thing. It makes me kind of hate having to go there now, but unfortunately I still need to work and certainly don't want to work anywhere else. The one bright spot of that job is the fact that I really do love my bossman 99% of the time. I know that not everybody can say that about the person that writes their paychecks.

Last night I decided to do a mani that I've actually wanted to do for probably over a year. It was pretty much copied from one that I saw on Pinterest that came from Lucysstash. She did her stripes wider than I did and is more perfect than what I managed, but I still think it's pretty.

I don't own any of the polishes she used, so I started with OPI Did You Ear About Van Gogh. For the stripes I used striping tape with a dark brown Color Club that has no name, Julep Rachel and Starlet, which is a polish I got from Frederick's of Hollywood for 50 cents.

I only had time to do one hand last night, and now I'm sitting here wondering if I want to do the other hand today or just take it off and do something else.  It's still early so I'll decide later.

I see I left the attractive hanger laying on the cupboard for my pic. I'm hanging onto it for when Kev gets home so he can break off the pinchy ends for me. Those things make great chip clips! It's not something I had ever thought of, but my friend that watches our dogs when we're out of town had one on something she had brought here. Genius!

There ya' go....you not only got a mani, you got a handy little kitchen tip.

You're welcome.