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.