Friday, February 28, 2014

BY THE LIGHT OF THE SILVERY MOON (sing it with me)

Holy bajeebus, it's 19 below zero outside! I've been so busy sitting in my nice warm recliner playing with my nails that I didn't even realize it had gotten so cold out there. Since I have no plans to leave the house I haven't even looked at the weather forecast. It feels like this winter will just never end.

My cold is still making me tired, but at least my nose has stopped running. Now I get to be stuffed up instead. I'll assume the next step is back to normal nose. I do have a new appreciation for good old fashioned Nyquil, though. I get colds so rarely that I had completely forgotten what a wonderful elixir that shit is.  I've used it the last two nights, and those are the best two nights of sleep I've probably had in years.

So I wrote those first two paragraphs late last night. It's much warmer today....it's 9!! And it's snowing. Of course it is; Kev left yesterday. I guess we're "supposed" to get 1-3 inches, but once again, I'm thinking they're lying. There is already a couple of inches on the deck, and it doesn't look like it's planning to stop anytime soon. When Kev called last night, I told him I ain't touching it. It can wait until he gets home. I know, I know...I'm terrible. 

Here's another of the half moon mani's I did last weekend. I've come to the conclusion that I really don't care for half moon mani's on me.
Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Starry, Starry Night, Loreal The Bigger the Better half moon mani
I wanted to do one with a little bit of sparkle. The black is Loreal The Bigger the Better, and the silver is Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Starry, Starry Night.

It's a success but not one I would care to do to actually wear.

Right now I'm pondering doing a resume. I haven't done a resume since 1989, and I don't want to do one now. I'm not even sure where to begin.  It's not like I have anything to put on it. I didn't go to college, and I've had the same job for 24 years. So basically I can write down those two things and my name. Nice. I'm sure I'll have them beating down my door for a 54 year old with no education. Fantabulous.

If I had known having surgery would pretty much trash my nice, comfortable everyday life, I probs would have decided to just keep the shoulder pain.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

HALF MOON #1

I spent that whole week with my daughter and grandson 2 weeks ago. They both had colds. Even when my girls were small, when they were sick with anything it never stopped me from kissing them. They'd tell me not to because they didn't want me to get sick, and I always told them I wouldn't catch it from them. And I never did. 

I've always been of the mindset that if I say I'm not going to get sick, I won't. I swear this is why I rarely get colds or the flu....I will myself not to.

I went by this same theory during my visit. If you think for one second I'm going to be around Griffin and not be all up in his bizniz kissing him, you are certifiably insane. No way I can resist that face. I came and went unscathed,  just as I always did.

Well, I guess I got a bit too cocky. I can't blame it on them because if I was going to get sick from their germs, it would have hit me sooner. But I did wake up a few mornings ago with a sore throat and that feeling in my chest that let me know a cold was coming.

I don't remember the last time I had a cold. It just isn't something I normally get, but I for sure have one now.  My ass is a-dragging, and my nose has turned into a faucet. I'm pretty miserable and would like it to just go away now. The end.

On to one of the half moon mani's I did the other day. I wish I had done this in different colors. I'm not sure why I decided to go with brown. It's just a blah color for this. Oh, well....
Loreal Tea and Crumpets, Zoya Dea, Cheeky A stamp, half moon mani
I knew I wanted to have part of it stamped. I thought it would look cooler than it actually turned out.  I did a couple coats of Loreal Tea and Crumpets and stamped the design using Zoya Dea and a pattern off of the Cheeky A plate.

I think this was a good idea that just turned out unimpressive because of the colors. I tried another stamped one that kind of failed, too, but that's for another day.

I'm off to throw pork and beef roasts in the oven. Hopefully it will taste as good as it sounds.  Yesterday nothing tasted good because of this cold. 

Before I do that, I guess I'll blow my nose for the 8 thousandth time. And yes, I will wash my hands before touching the food.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

I CAN ALSO DO SUBTLE

Okay. I am 54 years old. I've been told/accused of having a lot of things wrong with me, not that I've believed half of them. Seriously, if I believed everything anybody ever called me or told me was not quite right about me, I would have curled myself into a ball in a corner a long damn time ago.

Once thing I have never had or been accused of is having ADD.  I don't know if this is something new that I acquired as a result of old age or as a result of not having a damn job. But evidently this is a fairly new thing. 

It's like somebody that is doing one thing and then sees a shiny object. 

Mine seems to at least be a practical thing. Today, for example, all I was doing was loading a few dishes in the dishwasher, and somehow that turned into emptying out the cupboard above the dishwasher and cleaning it and tossing out half of it.

Yesterday when I was cleaning the house, I was doing the countertop by the microwave where it just so happens I have about 8 bags of different kinds of candy. And that brought back the memory of having an actual "candy cupboard" in the kitchen when my daughters were small. This was supposed to be a "mom only" thing, although just a few years ago I learned that the little bastards had been sneaking my candy the entire time.

Back to yesterday. I decided I was sick and tired of the candy pile on the cupboard and decided to empty out the cupboards above that so I could once again make myself a candy cupboard.  A bag full of "haven't used in the 12 years I've lived here" stuff later, I now have a candy cupboard once again. Yay!

Doing that led to cleaning out the cupboard where my measuring cups are which led to cleaning out the living room closet, which led to cleaning out the kitchen cabinet where we keep phone books, pens and every instruction manual for every electric or battery operated item in the house. I'm talking the furnace manual, water heater, a vacuum I no longer own and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Like I said, recently acquired ADD.  I have to say it does make me feel accomplished, and I got rid of a whole lot of crap and found a bunch of nice stuff to donate to Goodwill.  Our tax return next year will be improved a smidge.

I figured after all that ba-bling of the diamond shaped rhinestones, I would go the exact opposite direction. So this is my subtle mani. I only wore it for a little while because I just happened to play with my nails the other day and did 5 mani's. Be prepared to see several half moons in the next few days because I wanted to send some on to NailIt magazine. I'm hoping they'll maybe use one of them in the print issue.
Loreal Tea and Crumpets, Bundlemonster BM-218 French tip stamp
My neutral for this one is Loreal Tea and Crumpets. I used the MASH white stamping polish and my Bundlemonster BM-218 French tip stamp.  I was pretty pleased with how straight and centered I managed to get the tips.

All in all, I was just pretty pleased with this one in general. I think a neutral with a white stamp is always pretty, and this one was no exception. I would have worn it out of the house if I had actually been leaving the house.  I don't leave the house all that much, which I'm finding suits me just fine.

I feel like I'm back to being a bit more inspired to do my nails lately. This is a very good thing, as I was starting to worry that I was just "over it".

Hopefully I will remain inspired, and you'll see me getting back to posting most days. 

I will confess that I left the "bling" mani up for a few days on purpose just because I thought it was so spectacular. I did kind of get my ass chewed out for not doing all ten nails on that one. Even my younger daughter had a comment for that.  In her text to me; "You did that bling mani and then took it off and didn't do the other hand?!?!?! WTF Ma!!"  I told her if she knew that, that means she read the blog post and knew why I didn't. I explained it to her again, and she advised me that I'm a "boner killer".  

She seriously makes me laugh my ass off, that one. Perhaps I'll keep her in the Will.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

LABOR INTENSIVE "BLING"!!!!!!

This winter weather is crazy! Today is in the high 30's, which is awesome for my roof sitch. It's melting like mad out there. Tomorrow is going to be pretty warm, too. And then on Thursday we are expecting rain/sleet/freezing rain before it starts getting cold all over again. Kev comes home on Thursday, and I'm hoping that freezing rain doesn't make that 2 hour drive too awful. 

Lately I've been obsessed with acquiring rhinestones. No idea why, but I've gotten a LOT of them lately. I did have a plan for the diamond shaped ones, though. I've had it in my mind for quite some time to do solid stones on every nail, and on Monday I actually took the time to do it.

OMG, it took forever! It was so time consuming that I only managed to do the one hand. My real plan was to do my left hand on Monday, take a break and then do my right hand on Tuesday. Once the doc's office called and wanted me to come in on Tuesday, that plan went out the window. Since I didn't want to spend the entire night doing my right hand, I did the left, took pics and an hour later removed it so I could do something else to wear when I was out and about yesterday.

That's depressing to take all that time painstakingly applying one stone at a time only to take it off the same day. Lamers.

I'm also ridiculous enough to try to save the little bastards when I take them off. Nuts. I think I paid $2.49 for 1200, and I'm trying to save them? Seriously? I think I managed to salvage about 50 of them before I pulled my head out of my ass, smacked myself and gave up.
Personally, I think it looks amazing. It was a real glitter-fest in person. I took the pic a smidge closer than usual just trying to capture all that blinginess.

As much as I loved it, I don't know if I'd attempt to do full coverage with the rhinestones again. It just takes way too long to do. 

At some point tonight I need to do a soakoff and reapplication of my nails. Last night I spent a couple of hours playing with foils, once again trying to get the damn things to not get ruined by topcoat. I had bought one of the gel topcoats that need light curing awhile back because somebody said those work on the foils. Um, no, they don't. I also tried some DuBonne gel that I got years ago for doing gel nail extensions, but that didn't work either. So now I'm sitting with partially scraped off gold foil on 2 nails with the other 8 nekkid. Super attractive.

If any of you know what actually works on foils without ruining them, please speak up!! I've been trying for over a year with the damn things without success.

Color me foiled (pun intended) and frustrated.

 

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

SNAKESKIN

Some of you may remember my "roof saga" from last year. Long story short, after a very long nightmare, we had to get a completely new roof for the second time in 3 years.

After getting home Saturday night from my daughter's, Kev left for work on Sunday. Sunday afternoon I noticed a wet spot on the edge of the ceiling in the kitchen. Awesome. I dropped an email to the roofer, and he called yesterday to schedule a time to come today to check it out.

After my doctor appointment this afternoon, I came home and immediately noticed that the heat wasn't working. I opened up the door only to find water coming down from the ceiling in there. I called the roofer to make sure he was coming, and he arrived about 15 minutes later. 

This lovely winter we've been having has caused an ice buildup on the roof, and since this piece of shit I live in is a prefab, it doesn't have good ventilation. The ice was backing up under the shingles, melting and then coming inside.

Why, oh why, do these things only happen when the hubby is out of town! The guy went up on the roof, shoveled it, put down salt and made a channel for the water to drain. He'll be back tomorrow to check on it and do the front of the house. Seriously. It's always something, right? Lord only knows what this fiasco will cost.

Some of you may also recall my garter snakes in my yard. I won't torment any of you with the pictures. I just can't help but think of them when I use the snakeskin stamp that I used on this manicure.
Sinful Colors Island Coral, Zoya Noot, Ninja Polish DRK-C stamp
It's also "orange week" in my nail group, thus the color on this one which is Sinful Colors Island Coral. I stamped on it using Zoya Noot and the Ninja Polish DRK-C stamp.

I'm not super excited about this one, but it turned out okay. I wish I would have used a darker color to stamp with. I probs could have switched to something else before I did them all, but I simply wasn't that ambitious.

Yesterday I got really ambitious; just wait til you get a look at it!

 

Saturday, February 15, 2014

PINK!! HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Happy Valentine's Day. Woop-De-Doo.  My hubs and I don't really bother with it, which is fine with me. Every couple of years or so he'll surprise me with flowers, but this year we didn't even bother with cards. One thing about Kev, he never needs a special occasion to let me know he loves me. The guy is a gem and treats me like the "queen" I pretend to be. That being said, I hope someday we're rich enough so I can collect some more diamonds. I love me some diamonds.

To close out this not-so-hot bunch of VD mani's, CNS asked me for a straight-up pink. And that's exactly what I did. 

China Glaze Strawberry Fields is very, very pink. Like, very.  I remember right after I started painting my nails I acquired a bright pink that I tried. It was horrible on me so I really didn't think I was going to like this. As it turns out, I honestly do like it.
China Glaze Strawberry Fields
Of course we all know there was no way I could just leave it alone. I had done this in the evening and did paint both hands for once, but the next day I was bored so I added a stamp.
China Glaze Strawberry Fields, Essie No Place Like Chrome, Ninja Polish DRK-B stamp
For the stamp I used Essie No Place Like Chrome with a pattern off of my Ninja Polish DRK-B stamp plate. I didn't get to wear this one anywhere because I didn't leave the house, but it still looked good. Lord knows I need my nails to look good for myself.

Tomorrow Kev and my son-in-law are going to take Griffin into the city to go to the Chicago car show, and then it's time to get back to Escanaba. I'm not happy that my visit is over. I probs won't see them again for a couple of months because they don't come as often in the winter. So I'll be sad to leave.
 
Now I'm off to watch Project Runway's Under the Gun with Tyler and her neighbor. Kev and Tyler's husband will be super pumped to watch it, I'm sure. 

I hope your Valentine's Day was spent with someone you care about. Luckily I got to spend mine with more than one.

 

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

NO WORDS FOR HOW MUCH I HATE THESE CANDY HEARTS

Another lovely Illinois day. Evidently the good weather will be here next week. Typical. I arrive and it sucks. I leave, and it will be good. Who the hell jinxed me??

One thing nice about coming here is Sushi Train. No place to get sushi in No-Wheresville-Escanaba. Six pieces later, and I am stuffed. Plus watching a 3 year old wolfing down miso soup is hilarious. That kid is redonk.

Kev arrived today so the Griffster is one happy boy. He is obsessed with his Grampa Kev. That's one of the best parts of having a grampa that isn't even 40 yet...he's still young enough to act like a 3 year old.  Of course, he was also a grampa at 25 so he's got some experience under his belt.

A few weeks ago CNS requested mani's, and this is one they wanted. I hate it SO effing much!! I just cannot manage writing anything small enough for my damn nails. 
candy hearts, Valentine mani
Seriously, every time I look at this I'm annoyed. I'm so glad I didn't have to be seen in public with it. I'm even more annoyed that it might show up on some other blogs somewhere. Maybe I shouldn't have watermarked it. Unfortunately for me, my damn hand pose gives me away a lot of the time. lol

Gotta' give me credit, though, people. At least I'm a good enough sport to show the crap mani's, too.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

GARDEN OF HEARTS TUTORIAL


Still freezing my ass off here in Plainfield, Illinois. I don't even want to leave the house to go shopping. Thankfully tomorrow it's going to be at least 20 degrees....a veritable heatwave.  

Folks are still not feeling so great here so nothing exciting happening. I did motivate long enough to shower so at least I'm not a complete scrub, and I made chicken for supper. Now for the rest of the night it'll just be more sitting around in front of the tv. In other words, it's just like being at home! 

Here's another mani that I did for Nail It magazine along with a tutorial. I forgot to post the tutorial for yesterday's mani. Oopsie. You may see it on the Nail It website at some point.
 Orly Lift the Veil, heart rhinestones, Valentine mani
Since I had just taken off that mani from yesterday's post, I just stuck with using Orly Lift the Veil as my base. (translation - too lazy to go find something else)

I wasn't originally planning to do a "garden".  Actually, I don't remember what my intention was. Somehow whatever I was trying turned into this. In reality, I just wanted to play with the heart rhinestones I had just gotten from eBay.

For all of the green I used my Nail Candy pens. They still have them on Nomorerack, and you should consider getting them.  They are $12 for five of them. I love that they can be a needle point or a brush. I'm really happy with them.

I just checked over on that site, and they have some other decent polish-related bargains. 

Guess I'll end this now so I can peruse the site and try to not buy anything.

 
















Monday, February 10, 2014

PITIFUL FREEHAND HEARTS




My younger daughter, Tyler, came home on Friday night so she could see my granddaughter in Charlotte's Web on Sunday. She came to my house and then planned to stop and see the play on her way back to Illinois.  On Saturday night around 2:30 a.m. I was pretty much whining (for the umpteenth time) about the fact that she didn't bring Griffin with her on this trip. And she (for the umpteenth time) told me I would just have to go to Illinois for a visit. 

At that point I half-jokingly said that maybe I would just stowaway in her car and go back with her. Ten minutes later I was packing.  So Sunday we headed off to see the play, and home I went with her. Now here I am in Plainfield, and Kev is home alone for a couple of days without me for the first time. He's going to come here on Wednesday, and we'll go home on Saturday.  So a whole bunch of days with my sweet boy. 

He was sleeping when we got here last night, and it was soooooo hard to not be able to see him right away. And the poor kid has a nasty cold. He was pretty surprised to see me this morning. We've been having a ball. Luckily other than a cough, he doesn't really feel or act sick so there's no crabby kid syndrome.

I did bring a few polishes with me but nothing to do anything fancy. At least I have a few things I can post in the meantime. This is one that Nail It asked for. I think it's awful, but they seemed to like it.
Orly Lift the Veil, Valentine heart mani, rhinestone hearts
For the pink base I chose Orly Lift the Veil. It's a good pink that covers well and evenly. I used my Nail Candy nail art pens to do the hearts and then added some rhinestone hearts.

Once again, not a fan of anything I do freehand, and this one is no exception. But it's not like I actually had to wear it anywhere. 

On. Off. Done deal.

 

Saturday, February 8, 2014

STILL FUSCHIA WITH HUGE-ASS HEARTS

Is there such a thing as a stomach transplant? If not, I will happily volunteer to be the first to have one. I have been trying so hard to do everything right to get this ulcer to heal, but here I am, still hurting. Me = disgusted.

I can see, though! I think my new trial contact lenses will be the ones I order. It's nice not seeing double and being able to read street signs.  I decided I'd get new glasses, too, even though my insurance only covers either/or each year. I haven't gotten new specs for about 4 years and figured since my prescription had changed so much I'd just pay for them out of pocket. 

Now, I've worn glasses since I was ten years old. And I hate wearing glasses. I'm jealous of people that look cute in their glasses. It's just not fair. So anytime I decide to get new ones, my one goal is always the same: find a pair that I will be willing to leave the house in. When I started wearing contacts in my 20's, being seen in public in glasses ceased happening. I just hate them on me. Hate them.

Since I figured I would price out a pair before deciding to buy them for sure, I started trying on frames. The pair I have now are a wire rim, my theory being if they are wire, they will be invisible. Not true. This time I decided I'm going to go just the opposite.....bigger and in-your-face bold.  Of course I see a cobalt blue pair, throw them on and think they're kind of cute. Price of that frame? $249. Oh, hellz to the no. I'm not paying that for something I'll never leave the house in.

Then I found a flat black metal pair that I thought I liked. And they were on sale for $50....much better! I look up and discover they are men's glasses.  Fantastic. Then I went to the unisex section and the "trendy" section. I just wasn't seeing anything. The girl asked me if I wanted plain or bling. I told her I was too old for bling. And then started laughing when I realized I was wearing a rhinestone garden of hearts on all ten nails. Ooopsie.

I finally threw on that men's pair and asked what she thought, and she said as long as they fit, it doesn't matter if they're in the men's section.  I decided to go with that pair. Then of course add in the fact that they are bifocals, and $275 later I'm on my merry way home. If things go like they have in the past, I like them right now in my mind and when I get them home, I'll hate them just like ever other pair. Whatevs.

Before opting for the stainfest of removing my KC Metallic Fuschia, I threw on a heart stamp just for funsies.  I should have used black stamping polish because the Sinful Colors Black on Black that I used didn't really stamp black enough.
Kleancolor Metallic Fuschia, Llarowe LeaLac LLC-A stamp
For the hearts I used my Llarowe LeaLac LLC-A stamping plate. It only took me like ten minutes to do. If I had actually been planning to go somewhere I think I for sure would have switched to stamping polish.

I do need to do something else tonight because tomorrow I am leaving the house. My granddaughter is in a play tomorrow so we are heading to Marinette to watch. She's playing Wilbur in "Charlotte's Web", and I'm so excited for her! She's been in several plays, and she is one talented 8 year old.  It should be fun. I always love seeing the grandkids on stage. :)

In the meantime, I'm off to decide what, if anything, I can eat for supper without ending up doubled over in pain. No drinking of pumpkin pie booze for me tonight, I guess.

Bummers. :(

Thursday, February 6, 2014

OH, THIS SHIZ IS GONNA' STAIN

Geez, where did the last few days go? I just realized I haven't posted in damn near a week. Shame on me.

I don't really have an excuse; I'm once again not working until who knows when. I've cleaned some random things around the house. I did all the laundry only to discover on the last load that the freakin' thing was leaking again. What's more fun that having to pull out the washer and dryer by myself to clean up a lake? Answer: almost anything.

Yesterday I cleaned the entire house. I bought a new floor steam cleaner because my 4 year old one finally died. My new one has a hand-held section that comes off, so I lifted the top on my gas stove and got to steaming. I love the thing and keep looking around the house to see what else I can use it on.

Other than all that fun I spent quite a bit of time working on CNS requests and a couple of tutorials for Nail It.  CNS wanted fuschia, and I always go through my previous pics to see if I have anything to submit. Evidently I don't wear a lot of fuschia. All I found was one that could barely be considered fuschia so I had to do a couple last night. It's a good thing I did this one last because when I take this off, something tells me I'm going to have very pink fingers.
Kleancolor Metallic Fuschia
This is Kleancolor Metallic Fuschia.  And there is no denying it's fuschia.  When I first put it on my left hand I thought it was a bit much. After living with it for about an hour I actually decided to put it on my right hand, too. I'll probs wear it for today and then maybe stamp over it with black tonight. We'll see.

And now I'm thinking I might just grab the steamer and do the grout in front of the fireplace.  Just for funsies.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

LOVE ME SOME BLURPLE

Hey! Have I mentioned lately that we have "some" snow?? Here's a couple of pics I snapped from my patio door today. It looked worse yesterday, but the bossman was kind enough to come and plow the driveway last night.

This first shot is looking to the right.  That blue thing is the plastic tarp over my deck table. As you can see, there's a "couple" of inches there.
Off to the left is where the majority of the snow builds up from snowblowing and plowing. Baylee doesn't mind plodding her way through that huge-ass snowbank, but Tinlee won't even attempt it anymore. I wish the pic showed how high the snow really is.
I would love nothing more than to wake up and have it magically disappear.

On to the nails!

For Christmas this year one of my lovely nail/Golden Retriever friends sent me a bunch of great polishes. I was happy when I opened the package and saw a fantastic China Glaze "blurple".  I do love me a good blurple. Then I turned it over and saw the name of it and started to giggle. It's called Queen Bee. I have no idea how she managed to find a polish with my "name" on it, but suffice it to say, I love it. The color and the name.

Since I had only swatched it I thought I would attempt a water marble. I pulled 4 colors to go with it, set up my new "work station" in front of my recliner and got to it. Yeah, right.

Sometimes that damn heart water marble comes together, and sometimes I just can't get it to work. I went from 5 colors, to 4 and then tried just 2 colors. No luck with it at all. 

It was at that point I said, "screw it"....all I could see were drops of my precious Queen Bee going to waste. I finally just used the last 2 colors and did the easiest one I know of to do.
China Glaze Queen Bee, Essie Absolutely Shore water marble
At least when I do this pattern, it's a one shot deal with no do-overs. So this is the beautimous China Glaze Queen Bee marbled with Essie Absolutely Shore.

It turned out, and after all of the issues I had been having, I'm happy with it.  I'm betting I will still try to accomplish a heart water marble before the big V-Day.

I'm also betting it will take me many tries and a whole lot of bitching before I get it to work.