Monday, June 30, 2014

PARTYING AND A CAR ACCIDENT

Whew!! What a weekend! 

On Friday morning we hopped in the car to head to lower Michigan for a retirement party for my husband's uncle.  This trip instead of staying with the entire family at his mom's apartment, I suggested we get a hotel.  Kev booked us at a really cute place with a nice outdoor pool, sitting areas outside each room and even a big gas grill for each room.  Come to find out they are also pet friendly, so perhaps in the future we'll just stay there and save the dogsitting fees.

Once we checked in, we headed over to his mom's and then out for dinner with the fam. Delightful! After that it was off to Meier because I didn't bother to bring a bathing suit and figured I might need one.  Then it was on to the bar to meet up with his cousins for a "couple" of drinks. Yeah, right. We bypassed couple pretty quickly and managed to close down the last bar we went to.

After getting to bed around 3:30, we did get to sleep in without dogs waking us up, so that was nice. I, of course, was hoping for pool-time, so I was very happy when I opened the patio door and found sunshine and hot weather. Since the party wasn't starting until 4, some of the other family members came over and we all spent a couple hours in the sun. 

Next stop, the retirement party where we got to see tons of family we hadn't seen in awhile. There was a whole lot of food and a whole lot of drinks. And once again, it was then off to the same bars, closing them down and then walking back to the hotel. Actually, "I" walked back to the hotel. When the group of us started to walk home, Kev, his brother and cousins decided they wanted to head off to the water tower to sit and chat. Since I have no problem with that kind of tomfoolery, I walked the last 6 or 7 blocks on my own. Gotta' love a small town where you can do that at 2:30 a.m. and make it to your destination alive.

Yesterday we had to come home, and I really hate that 6 hour ride. It was a bit more exciting yesterday, though. As we were driving along on a 55 mph highway, there was a jerkoff about 6 cars ahead of us that was only doing 45, backing up a bunch of traffic behind him. Everybody was just itching to pass, but the traffic coming from the other direction was not letting that happen.

Suddenly a vehicle just a few ahead of us decided it would be brilliant to slam on his brakes and decide to turn. Everyone slammed on their brakes. Everyone, that is, except the girl behind us. WE were her brakes. 

To say I was furious would be an understatement. As I opened the door with my sailor mouth going, Kev's only comment was "don't yell at her. Yet."  When I walked back to the car this very young girl got out, apologizing all over herself and crying. Jeebus. How could I be mad at her? I spent the next five minutes calming her down, giving her a hug and then telling her to go call whoever she needed to call. Poor thing still had a three hour drive ahead of her, and she sure as hell wasn't taking her car to do it since the front end was all smooshed with the radiator hissing.

Our Equinox has practically invisible damage, but the hatchback is closing a bit rough. But I guess that's why we still have full coverage on a 2005 paid for vehicle.

The rest of the ride was thankfully uneventful, but I swear it will take me the rest of the week to recover. I may be too old for so much partying. Well, actually I know I am too old for this shit, but I have to say I did manage to hang with the best of them. I don't remember the last time I had that many drinks.

Before we left for the trip, I had to kind of do a rush job on my nails. So rushed that I didn't even have time to take a picture. I basically then just crossed them and hoped they'd still look good enough on Sunday night to snap a pic.

Success. I'm on day five of this sucker without any signs of wear.
Sally Hansen Peach Beach, Llarowe Lealac LLC-A stamp
I thought it was a nice summery mani that went with all of the clothes I brought on the trip. The coral is Sally Hansen Peach Beach, and I stamped with white stamping polish and the Llarowe Lealac LLC-A stamp.

I actually like this one a lot. It's one of my all-time fave designs, and I love damn near anything coral colored.

I almost forgot to mention the biggest highlight of last week!! When I got home from work on Thursday, I had clear water!! Finally!! They came and installed the new water softener setup, and after months of waiting for my "ah-ha" moment, it finally arrived.  I was giddy with excitement.

I'm not sure what it says about me that the highlight of my summer so far is clean, clear water.














Monday, June 23, 2014

STRIPING TAPE. AND BIRDS, OF COURSE.


It was not too fantastic a weekend. Chilly and rainy for the most part. Yesterday we finally saw sun and temps in the 70's. 'Bout damn time. Too bad it isn't lasting, as mid-week we're supposed to top out in the 50's.  At least my two day weather headache finally left yesterday.

One bright spot of rainy weather is a lot of hummingbird activity so at least I had something fun to watch while I was stuck inside pouting.  Seems to me I was bitching about cold, craptastic weather last June, too. The hummers were very busy during the rain! And they are extra adorbs when it's rainy because they hunker down and get all fluffed up. Check out this little guy. I just love when I manage to catch one with their mouth open.
And here's his date for the weekend. I used a flash on this pic so the color is off a smidge, but she's still cute.
And even though I said I was going to stop being a lookie-loo at the Robin's nest.....
In all fairness, I only looked because the dad flew off as I went to get the mail. And I conveniently had my camera in my hand. Honestly, I was kind of afraid that the third egg wasn't going to hatch because it hadn't hatched when the other two did. So I was actually being very nice by looking.

Daddy, on the other hand, did not think I was being nice. While I was sneaking a peek and a pic, he was swearing at me. Loudly. Then he landed and actually ran towards me as fast as his little spindly legs could go and stopped just a few feet from me. He was bitching at me the entire time. I told him to chill out because I was already leaving. Sheesh. Grumpy old man much?

He's in for a rude awakening because I will be looking again. And again. I'm anxiously awaiting for them to get all their feathers so they'll be cute.

The weather forecast for this past Thursday was rain in the morning with sun and low 60's in the afternoon. Normally a forecast of 60's would mean it'll be around 70 at my house. When I left work at noon, I was fully expecting that I'd get some pool time. Sadly when I did get home it was still cloudy and windy, and that wind was cold!

My solution for that was heading off to the tanning place to at least get some fake sun. I walked out of there 30 minutes later to full sunshine outside. Really??  When I got home I asked Kev if the weather decided to change just because I decided to go tanning, and he said that 5 minutes after I drove off, the sun came out.  It still was no heatwave, but I figured it would be warm laying on the raft. 

Off I went to throw on the bathing suit. Then I spent 20 minutes skimming all of the tree seeds that have been accumulating in the pool. Seriously, I should have an actual tree growing in that pool by now. Onto the raft I go, being very careful to stay dry. My pool thermometer keeps saying the water is 74, but there's no way I'm buying that. Methinks I need a new, more honest version. That water was chilly!

After about an hour and a half, I decided to call it a day because I had to re-shower to go out to dinner. 

And later that night, my lesson was learned. In the form of a bright red face. Evidently it is not a genius move to remove one's makeup for the tanning bed and then lay in the real sun. I so should have sunscreened before hitting that pool.  It started to itch on Friday, so I waited for the peeling to begin. And Saturday it did, but for some reason just on the sides of my face right by my chin.  Cuteness.

Actually, this is the third lesson I've learned this year. The first one I learned was that the coconut oil I've been slathering on before tanning the past couple of years is actually a natural sunscreen. Guess that explains why I didn't get as dark as I usually do.  The second lesson I learned was that if I start my tan in the real sun using tanning lotion, I burn and then peel like a mo-fo. I was so happy to see my legs get tan for the first time ever using the real sun instead of the tanning bed. I was not so happy to then peel from my ankle all the way up to the top of my legs. And not everywhere, just dead center. I guess starting in the tanning bed is still the best way to go for me because I work my way up and don't burn.

Lessons learned. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? Apparently you can as long as I'm the old dog.

In the midst of catching up on some tv last night, I grabbed my trusty striping tape to do nails.
Orly Lollipop, American Apparel Sweetpea, Wet n Wild Through the Grapevine striping tape
I like the Orly Lollipop light pink, but in person it is completely hideous on me which is why I decided to three-tone it using American Apparel Sweetpea and Wet n Wild Through the Grapevine.  Grapevine is one of those polishes I have extras of because I used it in a lot of water marbles back in the day.

A huge problem with it is it doesn't stay on well at all. I think I had tip wear before I went to bed last night, and I hadn't even been doing anything.  So now I'm sitting at work being annoyed by how they look.  

I don't really feel like doing my nails today so who knows what I'll do about it. Maybe I'll just really be lazy and touch up the tips. Blech. I'm simply not in the mood.

That might change once I leave the office. The air conditioning doesn't seem to be working at all, which normally would suit me just fine. It was nice coming into work and not throwing on my sweater to ward off the bone chills. Now that the lights have been on all day and the sun has started to shine directly into my office, it ain't so great. 

I'm still hoping the bossman doesn't notice, though. I'd rather sit here sweating than have to wear that winter sweater.


Tuesday, June 17, 2014

BYE-BYE BIRDIE! (not the musical)

Yay! My bedroom is back together! Kev and I made quite the team trying to get that done. The furniture is solid oak and pretty heavy, and I was super worried that we would scratch my beautimous new floors. Lifting that stuff isn't possible. We have those little glider things to go under the corners, but I was even afraid of those on the floor.

So this little genius (me!) thought of using blankets under the glider thingamabobs and then sliding the dressers. It took some finagling, but it worked. Then it was just a matter of dusting off the 6 or so inches of dust on everything and putting the drawers back in. It all looks so nice in there. Now if the guy would just finally come and do the ceilings, we would be completely done with that room.

Tinlee seems more comfortable about the bedroom now that the furniture is back in. We have a rubber backed bath rug that we're using right now in combination with the bedspread. She's getting better about it. At least she'll walk on the floor so the bedspread isn't spread out from the bed all the way to the door.

It still amazes me how unconcerned people are about getting jobs done. Our construction guy, Tony, was on the ball, though. As usual. He and his worker showed up and built the add-on to the garage in a day. He was waiting for the doors to come in, and those got put on yesterday. It's going to be so nice moving the big stuff out of the garage and having some extra room in there.

Kev also put our new toilet in our bathroom, so no more potty in the living room. We are classy folk now. I'm seriously in love with that damn toilet. I just think it's awesome. I know, I know; it's just a toilet. But I really, really like it! 
I wasn't going to show anything we've done until it's all finished, but I'm showing the toilet.
Like I said, love it. I'm so glad I took so much time finding the right one. I'm glad I spent the extra 100 bucks for this one. Cuz' it's awesome.   And yes, I fully realize that it's weird to be this excited over a toilet. Don't care.

Today when I went home at lunch, Kevin advised me that one of the baby Robins had fallen from the nest. Now, I don't know much about Robins or when they are ready to leave the nest, but I was in a panic, especially when I found out the poor little guy was just roaming aimlessly around the garage because he couldn't figure out how to get the hell out of there.

He showed me where he was over in the corner by the closed garage door. At first I thought maybe I should try to catch him and put him back in the nest.  I decided against that idea and told Kev to try opening the garage door just a little bit so I could try to get him outside. He managed to open the door a little without disturbing the nest on top of the garage door opener, and I shooed the little guy/girl out the door. It didn't seem able to fly, and it hopped off and went under Kev's car. I guess when we weren't looking, he left there and I assume hopped off into the woods.

So now I was a panic. The poor thing can't fly, so now what? Then, just because I'm not always quite so bright, I climbed up on the ladder to look at the three remaining babies, and another one popped out of the nest! This one flew over onto the deck. I couldn't see it land, but Kev said it kind of hit the house.  Great. Now I'm in a double panic. I walk up to him on the deck, and oh, damn....it's just so frickin' cute! He sat there for a minute and then kind of flew over to the back door steps. And there he sat. That's where he was still sitting when I went back to work.

I figured my first job when I got back to work was to look up what Robins do at this age. I told Kev that if it was still sitting in that same spot in a half hour, to try to get him to move over to the woods.  Meanwhile, throughout this entire 1/2 hour span, the mom and dad are furious. They are bitching at us the entire time we're outside.

When I looked online, I discovered that once they have feathers, they do leave the nest, and mom and dad still take care of them for a few more days before they actually start flying.

Whew! Sigh of relief! I don't have to worry about where they ended up because mom and dad already know and are continuing to feed them. Nature is wondrous.

By the time I got home from work, the other two had also left the nest, so now Kev gets his garage back.  I did snap a few pics of the second babe that left the nest.  I love how he's looking at me with attitude here.
This evening when I headed out to the front yard, the other momma that has a nest in the shrub flew off, so I snuck a peak at that nest. And here's what I found!
I'm guessing by now the third one could very well be hatched, too, but I have to stay away from being a lookie-loo for awhile. 

This is a hurry up mani I did last week. I don't remember why I ended up being in a hurry, but I was. Maybe I waited until too late at night and didn't have the time to put any thought into it.
Not a fail by any stretch of the imagination, but I seem to be doing a lot in oranges lately. At least it feels that way, probably because I have another orange mani in my backup blog post pics.

The base on this one is an American Apparel, but it doesn't have a name on it. I hate when that happens.  I used Square Hue Scorched Summer and, shocker, the MoYou Pro XL 03 stamp. 

Those MoYou's have for sure been my go-to's lately. I have quite a few that I haven't used yet because they are mostly flower patterns. I haven't had the ambition to make leaves green and flowers a flower color so I haven't used them. At some point I'm just going to say screw it and stamp them using one color. 

In other words, I'm lazy.

Monday, June 16, 2014

GREEN, GREEN, LOVE, LOVE

Let me just say that I think it's just not fair that today is gorgeous out. It's probs 80 degrees in my back yard right now. I went home for lunch, and the pool was calling my name. Figures it was in the 50's all weekend. Obvi no pool time then. It's depressing. I knew I didn't want to come back to work. If I had been smart, I would have just sucked up the pain last fall and waited to have surgery until now. Then I could have had the entire summer off.  Me = big dumbass.

They finished the bathroom and bedroom floors on Friday, and they look amazeballs! I'm not posting pics until the rooms are completely dunzo, but I'm super happy with how they turned out. Kev gets home today so my bedroom furniture will finally be out of the living room. On Friday when the flooring guys got done, they were nice enough to move the box spring and mattress to the bedroom floor so at least I've had a bed the past few days.

One big problem with the new floor; the dogs hate it. Tinlee wouldn't even walk on it, and neither of them could jump up on the bed even though it's just sitting on the floor. Once it gets put back on the actual frame, there's just no way. I don't really want to put rugs on top of that pretty floor, but unless I figure something out for them that doesn't take up any room, it's a big problem. The past couple of nights I laid the bedspread across the floor just so Tinlee could get to the bed and then jump in. Maybe that's what I'll just keep doing. I don't know. I just know that Tinlee needs to sleep in bed or I'll feel guilty.

I really had nothing to do yesterday so out of sheer boredom I made homemade bread for the first time. I'm actually dying to get out of work so I can eat some because it turned out great. Then I decided to do my nails, and this is what I did.

I love it. 
Pure Ice First Time, MoYou Pro XL 03 stamp
For more of a frost polish, this one went on super smooth. I don't know if I've ever used it before, but it's Pure Ice First Time which I then stamped with just a plain old Sally Hansen black polish and the MoYou Pro XL 03 stamp.

I like the kinda' abstract squares on this plate a lot. Overall, I just like this entire mani a lot. I may keep it for a couple of days unless I get inspired.

Today has been busy here at work. The printer died on me while the bossman was out of town for a few hours, and no matter what I did, I just couldn't fix the damn thing. It was irritating because I had a whole bunch of shit done that I couldn't print, and stuff like that causes me stress.  I hate when I can't be caught up every second of the day.

And now that I am caught up, I just want to trot my happy ass out of here.  There are carbs waiting to be eaten.

And I do love me some carbs.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

YUP! IT'S OFFICIALLY A MESS!

Today the floor work began. Not only do I still have a bathtub in my living room, it has now been joined by a toilet, a nightstand, two dressers, a bed and a 3,000 pound mattress set.  I must say, it is quite the look.
The rest of our bedroom is piled on the bed in the spare room and what didn't fit in there is piled in the computer room. If I didn't have two dogs, I would have hightailed my happy ass to a hotel instead of coming home after work.

Part of the bedroom floor is done, and the bathroom floor is ready for the tile to go in. The floors will be done tomorrow. Unfortunately for me, Kev left today and doesn't come home until Monday, so I get to have my living room mess over the weekend. Isn't that special?

Someone on Facebook saw my post from the other day and asked to see a picture of the pool water that I was complaining (i.e. bitching) about. Since I had taken pics to send to the water softener people so I could "remind" them how disgusted I was, I figured I'd go ahead and post one here.
So waddya' think? Isn't it just the loveliest shade of baby shit green you've ever seen? Wouldn't you just love to take a dip in all of the murky awesomeness?

Yeah. Me, neither.

I am happy to say that it's not like that anymore, but it's still not where I want it to be. It is at least good enough that I'll go in if it ever gets warm enough.

Yesterday I was trying to think of what color to use and realized I hadn't used one of my all-time faves in a very long time. I actually had a hard time finding it. Of course, at the moment it's kind of hard to even get to the Helmers to find anything.
China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-Le, Julep Char, MoYou Pro XL 06 stamp
As usually happens when I use anything purple or blurple, I had to run around trying to get a pic where the color was right.  I managed to get it, though! This is China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-Le. Truly one of the bestest colors eva. I stamped over it with Julep Char and used the MoYou Pro XL 06 plate for the floral stamp. 

I love, love, love it. I'm probs gonna' take it off tonight, but I love, love, love it.  I was also very pleased with how well the Julep polish stamped.

I figure I may as well do nails since I can't get to the chair or out the front door to sit with the hummers. In fact, I can't even see the hummers right now because there's a mattress in the way.

It's just so much fun here!!

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

AND IT NEVER EVEN LEFT THE HOUSE

It looks like the water problem may be solved. Supposedly. Allegedly. We shall see, hopefully by the end of next week. Kev called a well place and found out that to bleach the system costs $60-$80. We'll need to do that twice a year. I can live with that price. Much cheaper than the cartridge thingies they wanted us to buy for the other fixup for the system. They say that they should be able to make the modifications to our system at the end of next week. I'm crossing my fingers, but I'm certainly not going to get my hopes up again.

I did take all of my clothes and shoes out of our closet last night. Man, that was quite the job! It did inspire me to get rid of two garbage bags full of shirts and sweaters and a garbage bag full of shoes. So my side is completely empty, and I can no longer see the bed in the spare bedroom. No idea where the hubby is going to put his clothes. I also have no idea how I'm going to dig through the piles to find clothes for work tomorrow.

Whenever I water the flowers in the front yard, I pass shrubs on the side of the house. A Robin flies out of one every time. Last night I finally took the time to snoop to find the nest, and here's what I found. 
I didn't even notice but others pointed out that the nest is heart-shaped. How cute is that! The mommy was not thrilled with me for peeking, but she better get used to it since I'll be doing that a lot. This one is in such a nice, easy place to get to....so much better than the one in the garage. I can stay on the ground, which is much preferred to the top rung of a ladder. I'm looking forward to the babies.

Lately it seems that everybody is doing fancy-schmancy stuff with their stamping. I decided to try something a little different, too. I got those four new MoYou plates and completely forgot that the one I bought I got because there was a hummer on it.

I started out by doing a light blue, and then stamped on that with white. Then I took my smallest dotting tool and filled in colors over the white. This worked fine on my left hand. Doing the right hand was not as easy, but I did manage to get 'er done.

When all was said and done, I thought it turned out pretty cute. And after all that work (and it was work), I never wore it anywhere. I did it on Saturday night and took it off Sunday night to do something else. Dumb.
MoYou Pro XL 13 stamp
I don't even know what people are calling it when they do this, but I'm sure it has a name.   And don't even ask what colors I used because I have no idea. It took forever, and I put everything away without even thinking about taking down names. All I know is the stamp, MoYou Pro 13.

As I'm typing this and looking at it again, I think I like it more than I originally thought.

Guess I should have left it on for at least another day.


Tuesday, June 10, 2014

THIS IS GONNA' BE A PITA

After work yesterday I stopped at Menard's and bought stuff to shock the pool. As soon as I got home I dumped in a whole pound of it. It made an amazing difference within just a few hours. Today at lunchtime I threw in another pound. There's probably enough chlorine in there now to bleach a load of socks. I'm hoping by tomorrow it will be the appropriate color for pool water. As in, not green.

Speaking of green water, our water system nonsense still isn't taken care of. I'm pretty tired of looking at yellow water. Yesterday they gave us two options for fixing it. A new system that will require a bleaching of the well every six months or a different system where we have to pay for some cartridges that cost $255. And they have no clue how long one of those cartridges will last. Kind of hard to make a decision. If a cartridge lasts 6 months, that's one thing; if it lasts 3 weeks, that's a whole other thing. I'm so over it. So, so, so over it.

I managed to maneuver the ladder in the garage last night to take a peek at those baby robins. They are not cute. At all. All four of them don't have feathers yet, and they were sound asleep. So asleep that I was afraid they had died. As I was standing up there trying to take pictures, all of a sudden four little heads popped up, mouths wide open. And then momma or daddy flew in to feed them, took one look at me and promptly left. I'm lucky I didn't fall off the damn ladder since it was about a foot from my head. The babies immediately dropped back into sleep mode. Kind of amazing, actually.  I'm going to take more pics, but I'm going to wait until they are actually feathered and cute.

Last night for some reason I was just too tired to do nails, so here's another one from a few weeks back. It didn't turn out at all like I wanted, but it's not horrid or anything.
Ludurana Aurora Boreal Emocionate and Show, HITS Trendy, Ninja Polish DRK-C stamp

Ludurana Aurora Boreal Emocionate and Show, HITS Trendy, Ninja Polish DRK-C stamp

I started out with a black base and then sponged on both Ludurana Aurora Boreal Emocionate and Show, and I also sponged on some HITS Trendy. I took black stamping polish to do the "v" shape from my DRK-C plate.

I couldn't get a good picture of this no matter what I did. It looks much more solid blue in the pics than it actually was. It looks like there's only two colors when there were actually three. It really was better in person. I hate how that happens sometimes.

Tonight I believe I'll get to work emptying out the bedroom closet. On Thursday the flooring peeps are coming to do the bathroom and bedroom floors. Finally we'll be able to get the bathtub out of the living room, and my new toilet can get put in. The damn vanity won't be here for another couple of weeks, but at least there's light at the end of the tunnel. Why it takes 3 weeks to get a standard size vanity is beyond me.

Lordie, I just thought about how many pairs of shoes I have to move. Trust me when I tell you this is a very scary thought, indeed. 

If somebody would like to come over and do it for me, I'm okay with it. And while you're there, you can also move my bedroom set out into the living room. 

Thanks.

Monday, June 9, 2014

NAILS, A WOODPECKER, AN ORIOLE (and a Partridge in a pear tree)

37 degrees when I got up this morning. Seriously? Did I blink and miss summer again? It had jumped to 50 by the time I left for work, but just the fact that I had to turn the heat on this morning pisses me off.  I guess I shouldn't be all that surprised. Now that we installed air conditioning, it figures that summer will now be so cold that we won't need it.

For some odd reason, the pool water was up to 74 yesterday. I'm scratching my noggin' on that one. Usually when we fill it, it takes a good week of sun for it to get anywhere near that. For some reason the temp of it jumped right up even before I put the solar rings on. Weirdsville. Not that I'm able to use it anyway. I probably would have attempted to float yesterday afternoon, but even I have limits to how green the water can be. I hope I can get it cleared up soon.

Yesterday morning I was in the living room and saw a flash of yellow out of the corner of my eye. Scared me! Then I looked and saw this sitting on the hummingbird feeder.
I knew we have Orioles here, but even though I live near the woods, I've never seen one. He's a beauty. I felt kind of bad for him because his beak is too big to fit in the feeder hole. I guess now I have to get a damn Oriole feeder even though I have no clue where I'll put it.

This morning when I went into the kitchen, I glanced out at the feeders like I always do, and I saw this guy grabbing some breakfast. I was so glad I was able to catch some pics.
This big guy is a Red-Bellied Woodpecker. I always hear them in the trees and have only seen him one other time, but he flew away too quickly for me to catch a pic.  Well, I did catch one pic when he landed on the utility pole, but basically it was just a pic of a blurry butt.  

My hummers have been kind of quiet, which is annoying me. I did see a new babe on the feeder one morning. They're so damn cute when they first leave the nest, all fuzzy and short and chubby. I wish I could have gotten her pic. Woe is me.

My Robin eggs have hatched in the garage, and the mom and dad have been in and out constantly to feed them. I really want to get up on the ladder to take a picture, but right now there is too much stuff in the way. It's also going to be hard to find a minute when one of the parents aren't there. I don't want to disturb their schedule if I can help it.

Are you tired of all the bird stuff yet? I hope not because right now they are taking up more time than my nails. lol

I have been doing my nails; I'm just finding it hard to get my blogging done. It's much easier to do it when I'm at work in my free minutes. At home with all of the stuff going on, there don't seem to be many spare moments. Hell, I even helped with the building of the deck last week! I told Kev when it's done, I'm taking credit for it. 

I did this one with one of my MoYou plates. I really like those plates. So much so that I just received four more. Gotta' love having a PayPal balance!
Sinful Colors Out of Bounds, MoYou Pro Collection 01 stamp
For some reason I didn't notice until after I took my pictures that my pinkie nail is screwed up. By then I didn't think it was worth it to drag all my stuff back out to redo it. I also wish I hadn't black tipped it. That black tip was a friggin' disaster by the time I got done with worth the next day. It didn't hold up to typing. At all.

I used Sinful Colors Out of Bounds, and I stamped with the Mash black stamping polish and the MoYou Pro Collection 01 stamp. For the tip I used Sinful Colors Black on Black. Evidently that was a mistake.  Needless to say, even though I liked this one, between the pinkie mistake and the effed up tips, it only stayed on for a day.

And now, I shall work. Because it's Monday. Blech. Hate it; don't even know why we have it.




Saturday, June 7, 2014

THIS STAMP ANNOYS ME

My garden is still alive, believe it or not. Even my Supertunia seems like it just might survive the drowning I tortured it with. Not quite sure about the Snapdragons yet, but I'm hopeful.

Kev helped me plant my two rose bushes in the small section by the garage, and at that point I decided that rather than put those two and then some other random flowers, I should just go and get two more rosebushes.  And since we had to yet again go to Menard's for some other items, that's exactly what we did.  Hopefully that section will eventually just be a whole bunch of coral and white roses. Since they are just newbie plants, it might take years. With any luck I'll keep them alive long enough to get actual flowers.

While I was in the nursery section and he had run off to get some drywall, I wandered around just kind of looking for things I may want to plant along the front of the house. At first I thought mabes I'd do all roses. And then I walked out to a different section and saw this:
Um, hello! I couldn't walk over to those fast enough. A periwinkle colored huge flower? Are you effing kidding me? I am in love with these. Hydrangeas. Now, obvi I've heard of them, but I had never seen them this color before. And they are in big pots and already well-established. At that second I knew I wanted them, but I figured I'd better find out how hard or easy they are to keep alive. Based on what my Facebook friends tell me, I just might have good luck with these. If I had actually seen these before I planted those two rosebushes, I would have done that whole section in just these.

Once I was done drooling all over those, I continued to wander and found Lilacs!! These are probably my fave flower of all time. They bring back fond memories of childhood when my friends and I would make up bouquets of them and sell them door to door to everyone in the neighborhood. And more importantly, they smell delightful! I'm always jealous when I see them blooming at people's houses and wish they were in my yard. My mom always says they're hard to keep in check, but I really think I need to find that out for myself.  Right now I'm thinking Lilacs on one end of the house front and Hydrangeas next to the front porch. What's going in between, I haven't decided  yet.

As an added bonus, not only are my flowers still alive, evidently I am now growing Sunflowers. Not on purpose and not where I would plant them if I was. I'm not even a fan of Sunflowers.  It seems that if you put a bird seed feeder above the garden that has black oil sunflower seeds in it, the damn things will actually grow. I did not know that and haven't decided if I should yank them as they grow or just let them be to see what I end up with. 

Now for the nail failure.

When I did that stamped gradient the other day, it was supposed to be for a gradient theme in one of my nail groups. I guess I should have read the challenge with my eyes open, because the gradient was supposed to be the actual stamp, not the base.  Dummy.

I decided I'd give it another go since I didn't have anything more exciting planned.
Square Hue Ka'ahumanu, Square Hue Glacier Skies, Zoya Blu, Ninja Polish DRK-B gradient stamp
This is a fail. Big time.  I started off with my new Square Hue, Ka-ahumanu.  I grabbed my Ninja DRK-B plate and decided to use one of my fave designs. I took Square Hue Glacier Skies and Zoya Blu to do make the stamp a gradient. It looked great on my practice spot but failed miserably on the nail.  Not only that, no matter what I did I could not get this stamp design to not be smeary looking.

So by the time I finished, I was completely annoyed and disgusted, and it was too late to do anything else. I hate when that happens!

Off to water the flowers and change the nectar in the hummingbird feeders.  

And that's going to be the extent of my weekend excitement.

Monday, June 2, 2014

STAMPED GRADIENT

Well, most of the garage garden got planted on Thursday afternoon after work. Or should I say Thursday afternoon into early evening. That was a whole lot more work than I expected it to be, and these old bones are still screaming. The chiropractor will be seeing me at 5 p.m. Then I can start all over again. And then I'll need the chiro again next week.

Bags of dirt are heavy! I had stopped and gotten four more bags to go along with the five we had originally bought, and I still didn't have enough.  As I figured, I also need a lot more flowers. I didn't even get to start the small section. Sadly, I don't think the Snapdragons will make it. I think they were in their tiny pots too long, and I think frost got to some of them while they were in the garage after we first bought them.  If I have to dig those suckers up to plant something else, I will not be happy.

When I first started, I thought it was kind of fun. About halfway through I thoroughly changed my opinion. It looks pretty good, I think. When I grabbed those four bags of dirt, I also grabbed three Daylilies. Those seem to be pretty well established and are super pretty. I hope they make it.

I didn't have the Equinox over the weekend, and my Alero isn't really conducive to loading anything so I told the hubby we'd have to get more stuff when he gets home.  Being the impatient person that I am, on Saturday I ran to Menard's to buy more dirt. I grabbed one of the big flatbed push carts to grab the bags. Of course, I got the one that wouldn't steer. At all. I spent a lot of time trying to not run people over. When I got to the bags of dirt I wanted, the bags in front were broken open which meant I had to stoop under the railing and drag those damn bags out. By the time I grabbed the fifth bag, I could barely lift it onto the cart. 

It was at that point that I knew five would be all I was getting. Whether that'll be enough or not remains to be seen. I then saw they had rose bushes on sale for $3.29. I know that I need to replace the one in front of the house that didn't survive this winter, but I bought two really pretty coral ones to put by the garage. I really hope they live cuz' I do love me some roses.

After I paid for those, I actually asked for help getting them loaded into my trunk because I knew there was no way I had any strength left to lift them. Then I went to the main part of the store and bought every kind of mosquito repellant known to man. Those little bastards are out in force this year!! I don't recall them ever being this bad. A lady that was looking at the same stuff told me that mosquito stuff is sold out everywhere in town, which explained why the Menard's selection was so picked over.

When I got home, I immediately went to the front yard and sprinkled the stuff I bought all around where I sit to feed the hummers.  And then I sprayed fogger just for good measure. Then I waited for the magic time when my birdies are most active, grabbed my folding chair and headed on out to play.

And was immediately attacked by a gazillion mosquitoes, who evidently had just been waiting for a snack. Crikey!! I ran back in the house and sprayed myself down with the other repellant I bought, added one of those clip-on things and went back outside. Luckily that finally did the trick, and I was able to feed a couple of my little friends.  That's an awful lot of bug stuff just to feed a few birds, but whatever. If I don't get to go out there, I pretty much stare at the windows and pout, so I have to try.

I watched all weekend to see if the birds would use the birdbath. I didn't see a single bird in it. Of course, that doesn't mean they haven't, but I can't stalk that in the back yard at the same time as stalking the front window. Geez. I'm only human.

On Saturday before I spent some time laying in the sun, I grabbed the hose to fill it up with some fresh water. I was standing a few feet away with the water streaming, and all of a sudden a hummer came over and hovered right in front of my knees to play in the water. Um, hello, little boy....there's an entire fountain to play in. I stayed very still and watched him, and then he flew off to a feeder. This put a big ol' smile on my face.  After a few minutes he came right back and actually sat down on the ground right by my feet and drank out of the little puddle the hose had made.  I don't know if he's stupid or what, but he sure was being cute. He stayed there for a long time. Still, use the damn fountain I bought. And tell your friends.

I think it's been awhile since I did a gradient with a stamp, but I could be wrong. I have completely lost track of what I did and when because I haven't been doing my nails as often because I've been too busy around the house.
China Glaze Spring in My Step, Julep Winter, Sinful Colors Snow Me White gradient, MoYou Sailor 06 stamp
This one is China Glaze Spring in My Step, Julep Winter and Sinful Colors Snow Me White with a MoYou Sailor 06 stamp.  I do realize that Sailor stamp is probs suppose to be used with oceany colors, but I don't care. I'm like Honey Badger and just don't give a shit. 

I liked it. I am a big fan of pink and grey together. Always have been, always will be. I just think they're pretty colors together. The only problem with this one is maybe I should have used a color other than white because the stamp doesn't show at the tip. 

Is it 5 o'clock yet? I just do not want to be here. I would just like to be at home even though it's rainy and gloomy outside. I could still probably dodge the raindrops and get some more dirting done.

Luckily Kev got home late last night and can lift the bags of dirt out of my trunk. There was just no way I could manage it yesterday.

If I had tried, he may have found me laying in the driveway when he got home at 2:30 a.m. last night.