Thursday, January 29, 2015

SO NOT FAIR!

Well, not the best start to the weekend. I got home from work and found it was only 63 degrees in the house. That's not cool! Actually it was cool, just not the kind of cool I want in January.

I managed to get in touch with my furnace guy, and I decided I'd start cleaning so I'd stay warm. It was also at that point I realized I didn't have enough dog food to make it until Kev gets home on Monday. Dammit. That meant I had to go back into town.

After I did that, I got to cleaning. It did help me stay warm, but the repairman got here after about an hour so that wasn't too bad. He reset whatever it was that needed resetting and told me I needed to put in a new filter. Fantastic. That meant I had to leave the house and go back into town again! Once I did that, I finally managed to get the house clean and shiny, but it took me until 6 p.m. instead of the usual 3 p.m. Annoying.

It's also annoying when I keep attempting things on my nails that just aren't working.  A few months ago I had tried using foils on top of stamping with only "minor" success, which to me is a fail even though people liked it.

Now some little stinker over in one of the nail groups did it, and for her it works perfectly. She did a video which shows exactly how I'd been doing it. Only difference in it is the fact that it works for her. How is that even fair?

So last night I was determined to try it again. I had the same troubles I had last time, and I finally said screw it and gave up. Again. It's even more frustrating now that everybody else is doing it successfully. 

Once I gave up that left me with about 30 minutes to figure out what else to do.
China Glaze Deviantly Daring, Essie No Place Like Chrome, MoYou Fashionista 04 stamp
I did this quick and didn't bother to redo any that weren't centered very well. I actually really like this. The blue/green is China Glaze Deviantly Daring. It's underrated, IMHO. I think I've only ever used it in marbling way back when because I don't remember ever just polishing with it. It's super pretty.

I just grabbed Essie No Place Like Chrome for the design, which is from the MoYou Fashionista 04 plate.

Like I said, I like it. It's dark enough that it's covering the beginnings of the gap at my cuticle line, so that's a plus. It seems like it's too soon for a soak off, but I guess that might be something I have to accomplish this weekend at some point.

Maybe I'll fight with the foils some more in the next day or two. Based on what I'm seeing in the groups and all over Pinterest, I guess it's time to consider throwing on something Valentine-ish, too. What a useless pretend holiday. 

On a brighter note, I did find some Peeps today!! I scored myself 6 boxes of Easter Peeps. It might be too early for Easter candy, but I'm pretty happy about it. 

I just polished off 6 an entire row of those cute yellow chickies. I'm pretty sure the rest of that box will be gone before the end of the night.

Yummers!!!


Tuesday, January 27, 2015

ONE OF THOSE NIGHTS

I was really looking forward to getting home yesterday because I was seriously pumped about doing that water marble. I found a color combination online from a color palette site that I sometimes use, grabbed my laptop and headed into the polish room to try to match up the 4 colors on my computer screen to actual polish.

As a side note, I remember when I used to call that a bedroom. Now I just think of it as the polish room. Sad.

I did manage to find the colors I wanted and got all set up to get a-marblin'. An hour and a half later I wanted to punch a baby. (and no, I would never actually punch a baby)

First of all, two of my chosen polishes would not cooperate. They would spread fine, but they were doing that super annoying thing where they prevent the next color from spreading. Off to the polish room to choose other polishes.

So now I've got 4 colors plus black that I'm playing with in different combinations. I tried with all 5, then 4, then 3, and nothing was satisfying me.  I kept doing a basecoat on 5 fingers and attempting different things, but it just wasn't happening for me.

So it didn't.

I finally just gave up about 2 1/2 hours in. One thing about marbling, sometimes I just have days where it won't work. They just weren't pulling into any sort of loopy design, which is what I wanted. I'm sure I could have managed either the stripey or the swirly, but I wanted loopy.

I was loopy by the time I gave up.

Eventually I decided to just use another of my new stamping plates. It's one of the nicest things about stamping plates.....guaranteed fast mani.
Zoya Mikka, Julep Maria, Ali Express AP 22 stamp
I'm pretty glad I decided to just give up on the marble and do this. I really like it, both the design and the color. I'm at the point in my nail growth where I have to kind of stick to dark colors due to growout.

The burgundy is Zoya Mikka. It's a great color, but as much as I normally love my Zoya polishes, this particular one is showing quite a bit of tip wear already.

The frosty pink I used to stamp with is Julep Maria. It works fantastic as a stamping polish. For realz.  The design is from the Ali Express AP 22 plate.

This was a nice, quick mani which is exactly what I needed since I'd been monkeying around for over 3 hours by the time I was completely finished and had everything put away.

And then it was time for bed. At least that's what I tell myself every night just around midnight when I have to work the next day. I swear I look at the clock 3 minutes later and it's 12:45.  I don't know where that 45 minutes goes.

I don't know why I have such an aversion to bedtime or to getting a decent amount of sleep. I'm paying for it right now; I've hit the mid-afternoon sleepy-slump.

I'll need to get past that. I don't think bossman would appreciate me laying face down on my keyboard.

Monday, January 26, 2015

SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE IT, DAMMIT

Have I mentioned recently that I hate Mondays? If not, let it be known; I hate Mondays.

It was such an uneventful weekend I don't have anything to either whine or woo-hoo about. I'm a boring soul.

I stared at my left hand for two days while pondering what to do about that turquoise mani. Leave it on? Take it off? It actually was starting to get on my nerves that I couldn't decide.

Suddenly yesterday afternoon I decided I was kind of tired of it, so off I went to grab a bunch of polish, striping tape and the new plates I got from Ali Express.
China Glaze Agent Lavender, American Apparel Mount Royal, Ali Express AP 21 stamp
When I ordered them, I was a little concerned about the size of the designs, but I figured I'd give it a shot because they weren't super expensive. They are the round plates that are a little bit bigger than Konad, and a lot of them have designs that fill up 1/4th of the plate. I figured those images would be big enough, and I was right. This is the set, and I chose 12 of the 25.

Pardon the yellow hands, but it's what I apparently have to do in order to show something even resembling the China Glaze Agent Lavender and American Apparel Mount Royal that I used for this one.  The stamp is from the AP 21 plate, although I did see that other sellers have the same plates but with different numbers. Weirdsville.

While I do like the design, I wish I had used different colors.

Actually, what I really wish is that the striping tape mani that I started would have been turning out like it did in my head. I tried a couple of different things and then gave up. Sometimes I just don't have the patience to mess with striping tape. Maybe if I'd started earlier in the day I would have continued on with it. I should know better by now that to do stuff like that I need to play on a Saturday. That way if I get frustrated and only get part way done, I have Sunday to wrap it up.

Honestly, what I really wanted to do was a water marble but didn't want to bore anyone with yet another of those. 

It's still stuck in my head, though, so that might be what you end up seeing at some point this week, possibly tomorrow.

Looking down at my fingers as I type, I really wish I would have stuck with the turquoise. Someday I'll have to do that again, actually do both hands and then actually leave the house with it.

I think a lot of my mani's kind of go to waste now that I only work part-time. Well, other than the fact that I plaster them all over the interwebs.

Nobody appreciates them in real life like my interwebs nail peeps do anyway, which is why I appreciate all of you!


Saturday, January 24, 2015

TURNED OUT COOL!

Hey, ladies....and gents, too, I suppose, are your heels as in craptastic shape as mine? 

I'm not a feet fan, and certainly not of my own. After 55 years of avoiding their proper pampering, they are not exactly cute. My heels are rough as hell, and since  a)  I'm too cheap to go get a real pedi, and b) I don't like people playing with my feet, I've tried off and on to find something that I can do on my own to fix them.

Last year I discovered the Best Pedi Prep Ever from Julep, which is a roll-on solution that you let sit on your feet for a few minutes and then use a file to get rid of dry skin. It actually works quite well, and if I wasn't too lazy to keep up with it, it might have eliminated the issue.

But I am too lazy and don't really concern myself with my feet until summer hits and want to wear sandals. In the winter my feet are covered in my socks which are only off long enough to shower. 

So I had seen an add for the Amope foot file thingie on tv and decided that would be the next thing I try. I ordered it from Target. OMG. It works crazy good!! I used it once a couple of weeks ago, and it really made a difference. I did it for the second time last night. My heels are smooth. They are so smooth my damn feet are literally sliding around inside my socks. This smoothness is completely foreign to me. I'm already looking forward to wearing sandals.

Enough for the commercial that I'm not getting paid for.

I did manage a mani last night, and now I have a dilemma.
Kleancolor Pastel Teal, Orly Liquid Vinyl, Milani Gold Dust alcohol hair spray turquoise marble
I have seen the different water marbles using hairspray or alcohol, some of which were for the look of turquoise.  Since I don't buy hairspray and didn't have a spray bottle lying around to put alcohol in, I didn't think I'd ever try this method.

Well, I found a little sample bottle of hairspray in the spare bathroom so I decided to try it.

I did two coats of Kleancolor Pastel Teal, and once that was dry I used saran wrap and dabbed on some spots of Milani Gold Dust. I did a coat of topcoat before I marbled. I put just one drop of Orly Liquid Vinyl in the water and after it spread, I sprayed it with hair spray. 

Holy coolness!! I was surprised at how easily it worked. My only complaint with the method was that after spraying it, then the polish wouldn't spread for the next finger. I managed to mostly solve that problem by kind of swiping the water with a cotton ball between fingers.

I only have this on my left hand right now, so now I have a decision to make. The plan was to do a few different mani's this weekend, and now I can't decide if I really want to take this off. Part of me wants to do the other hand and leave it on until Monday night.  The other part of me wants to take it off and do a striping tape mani I've got halfway planned in my head. Another part of me wants to play with some new stamping plates I just got from Ali Express.

Decisions, decisions!! I honestly do not know what I'm going to do.

Geez, it's a good thing there aren't any more parts of me.



Friday, January 23, 2015

HOLO ON HOLO. HOLLA!

For those that may not know me here, I've worn my Custom Nail Solutions nails every single day since May of 2012. I've had different lengths at different times, but if something were to happen where I couldn't wear them.....

Let's just say I wouldn't leave the house without gloves on.

So just imagine my horror when, as I was driving on Wednesday afternoon, I ran my index finger of my left hand over the thumb nail next to it and felt a CHIP!!  Oh, hellz to the no. This simply can't be happening. I damn near pulled over to see if I was imagining things.

It wasn't chipped when I painted them the night before, and it wasn't chipped after I showered and made myself presentable to be seen in public. So at some point between noon and 4 p.m. I chipped a nail. I wasn't even doing anything.  

I couldn't get to my computer fast enough. I needed to email the company to have them send me a new one per their guarantee. Before doing that, I checked what the procedure was and it said I'd have to send the broken nail to them. Oh, I do not think so. I took pics and attached them to the email and told them I was keeping it. I filed it down past the chip so I can keep wearing it until the new one comes. 

They emailed me back right away the next morning, and I'm happy to report that they are fine with that. They'll be sending me a replacement. I'll give them a big A+ for how quickly they responded. Rumor has it the pink material for the nails is on backorder, but I'm in no hurry. Nobody but me would ever know my thumb nail is shorter.

Whew!!

I thought I'd try something a little different than I would usually do the other night. I have mixed feelings on this one. In person, this polish is more purple, but for some reason it wouldn't photograph, not even in the bathroom where I usually have to photograph purples.
ILNP Cygnus Loop Holo, OPI DS Sapphire, Ali Express 12-51 stamp
I wasn't sure how this would go as far as stamping with a holo over holo. The base is a really pretty one from ILNP, Cygnus Loop, the holo version.
ILNP Cygnus Loop Holo, OPI DS Sapphire, Ali Express 12-51 holo stamp
My goal for the stamping was to use a silver holo, but my only true silver holo is an Nfu Oh, and from past attempts I knew that it doesn't work at all for stamping.
ILNP Cygnus Loop Holo, OPI DS Sapphire, Ali Express 12-51 holo stamp
After digging through the Helmers, I decided to try OPI DS Sapphire, which is more of a silver with a hint of blue.

The pattern from the Ali Express 12-51 plate actually stamped really well, much better than can be seen in the pictures. What I could not do was topcoat. It made the stamp almost completely disappear. I decided to see how it would go leaving it without topcoat.

It didn't go particularly well. I put this mani on Tuesday night, and by yesterday the stamping was virtually invisible, especially on my left hand.

This is something I think I'll try again, but maybe next time I'll stamp dark over light. I'll also assume it won't be something I'll wear for very long.

Now I'm off to search the interwebs for inspiration. I'm kind of in the mood to play with my nails, and it's been awhile since I did more than one on a weekend.

Having the time to do it is nice; finding the ambition to actually start is where I'm running into a problem.

Or maybe I'll just take a nap first.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

LAST MINUTE LACE

Going to be short, but I wanted to at least throw a mani out here.  With over 500 new FB page likes and over 100 new Instagram followers in the past 8 days, I really want to try and post more. 

I'm still not feeling great, but Tuesday I got my new DRK Themes  Enlaced plate. It's a beauty, and I just had to hurry up and use it Tuesday night.
CQ Gem Green, DRK Themes Enlaced stamp
Sometimes it's so hard to choose a color!! I try to not repeat myself, but even with all that polish in the other room, it still isn't easy.

This CQ Gem Green has a really pretty shimmer to it that of course does not show up here.  I used DRK's black stamping polish for the lace design. I'm very pleased with the stamping polish, and I thought it was pretty reasonably priced at only 3 bucks.

The house is all cleaned, so my weekend has officially started. Kev leaves tomorrow and with his upcoming flight schedule and stopping to watch the Super Bowl with some family downstate, I won't see him until February. 

Sometimes being married to a pilot is like being single but without all the single life shenanigans and tomfoolery.

I prefer married.



Tuesday, January 20, 2015

HOLY COPY JOB, BATMAN

For some reason, I feel craptastic. I don't know if I have a touch of the flu or what. I won't get too graphic with the deets; let's just say homemade pizza goes down and should stay there, not come back up in the midst of eating. 

I'm still feeling a bit shaky 12 hours later, and I'd like it to go away now. I'm not sure if my stomach is going to behave or go crazy like it did last night. I did go right back to eating the pizza last night, and before I went to bed I ate a scotcheroo bar and felt okay. The whole thing is just weird. 

That was a fun read, right? lol

I had seen a gradient mani that was done by heartnat that she did in 2013. It was shared on another nail page, and I thought it was so pretty I decided to do something very similar. So I grabbed a pink and a purple that were like hers, looked through my stamping plates for a floral design, and set about doing it.
Zoya Shelby, Wet n Wild On a Trip, Konad white, MoYou Pro XL 14 stamp gradient
The pink that I used is Zoya Shelby, and my purple is Wet n Wild On a Trip. I used Konad white with my MoYou Pro XL 14 stamp.

I was happy with how it turned out. Then as I was looking at the original that she did, I took a closer look and discovered I had actually ended up using the exact same stamping design. So I guess this one is pretty much an exact copy. Sheesh.

If you haven't ever gone to her blog, you really should. She is amazing. She's one of those nail artists I strive to be like.

In a few months it will be 3 years since I got started with these nail shenanigans. Somebody on Instagram commented that she loved one of my mani's and it happened to be one from 88 weeks ago.

Yikers....it is so bad!! I will say it is nice to see how far I've come since the beginning. 

I'm so tempted to delete the entire first year of pictures, but I guess I'll suck it up and let the crappy ones stay.

Everybody has to start somewhere, I guess.

Monday, January 19, 2015

WELL THIS IS JUST SAD

This past weekend was puppy-filled. Razzie got dropped off Friday evening. He is such a sweetheart and is as big as his momma now. He's a big boy already and has ginormous feet, so I expect he's going to be quite a bit bigger than Tinlee.

On Saturday evening his sister came over to visit, too. They rough-housed nonstop for over 3 hours. I was exhausted just from watching them.

Once Razzie went on his tail wagging way back home, I sadly sat down to take off that purdy water marble. It did not make me very happy to do so. Even after having it on for days, it still didn't have any wear on it, and I seriously was not tired of looking at it. 

I got a super cute new hoodie last week from my favorite eBay clothes seller. It's a solid off-white but has a tribal print at the very bottom of the sleeves and inside the hood. I figured I'd try to do something to match that.

Since Martha commented that she wanted to see the shirt (I just knew she was going to pull that), I decided to add this pic. In person, the colors match my nails almost exactly.
 Essie Case Study, Square Hue Iron Horse, Square Hue Scorched Summer, DRK-D tribal stamp
I used Essie Case Study as my lighter base and then used Square Hue Iron Horse and Scorched Summer to do the stamp from the DRK-D stamp.  As is often the case when I stamp something with lines, it's friggin' crooked. I was too lazy to try to redo it.

Hella-blech.

It's funny how something that is so cute on the shirt is not so cute on the nail. It's actually a really good match to the shirt, but sometimes things just don't translate the way I want them to. I'm thinking I'll ditch this one tonight because I really don't like it.

I have a feeling it might be awhile before I'm happy with a mani after that dang water marble. I've set the bar way too high for myself.




Friday, January 16, 2015

SQUIGGLY

It's Friday, and for the most part, I'm a happy camper. Razzie will be here in a couple of hours because I get to puppysit for the weekend. I'm betting he's probably as tall as his mom now. It's also a good thing he has been neutered because Tinlee came into season 2 days ago. I'm hoping it won't be much of an issue. Hopefully he's too young or dumb to take note.

I even picked up a few new toys for the occasion. Whether those toys will survive through the weekend is doubtful, but I hope they have fun with them. At least until I blink and find them in pieces throughout the living room and the carpeting covered in white stuffing.
 
A few nights ago I couldn't make up my mind on a mani so I just kind of grabbed for the first thing my eye caught.
Revlon Beguile, Essie No Place Like Chrome, LLC-A stamp
This Revlon Beguile is a really nice, dark teal. I like doing silver over dark blues so I used Essie No Place Like Chrome. After it was done I regretted using the LLC-A design. Even though I happen to love that stamp, it just covered up the blue way too much. That deep blue kind of deserves to be seen.

So, while it's for sure not a fail, it didn't exactly make me happy. I took it off after a day, which in hindsight was stupid because after this I did that hideous pink one. LOL

As of now I'm still rocking that water marble that seems to have been a pretty big success, at least according to Instagram, Pinterest and my Facebook page. Whether I get to do nails again before Sunday night remains to be seen. It depends on how long Razzie's naps are.

Playing with a puppy trumps doing nails. Every time.


Thursday, January 15, 2015

FAVE ONE IN QUITE AWHILE

It was practically summer today. It's amazing how warm 33 degrees can feel after having those awful temps for the past couple of weeks. I even wore my short winter jacket and my ass didn't freeze off. I'll put it back in the closet for now because I think it's going to get cold again.

After I got out of work at noon I cleaned the house, and then we went hunting for a new couch. Mine is 12 years old, and the dogs have taken a real toll on it. I liked it when we bought it, but the fabric choice was not the wisest.  Right now we have it narrowed down to a couple so I'm crossing my fingers that we can buy one very soon.

Last night I finally got around to doing the water marble I've been threatening to do for the past couple of days. I'm happy to say it turned out pretty much how I had imagined it in my head.
Julep Bess, Studio M Lust water marble
I friggin' love it! I've spent a lot of time looking at my fingers today, and I'm in no hurry to take it off. I did have to test out a couple of different polishes to get two that worked, but Julep Bess and the Studio M Lust that I picked up at Meijer when we were downstate worked out perfectly.

Of course, photographing it was the usual nightmare that is purple, but I managed to capture it pretty well.

I'm not sure why, but I've never done a loopy one facing this direction before, and I think it's pretty damn cool.

On a completely unrelated topic, why is it that they make Peeps for Easter, Halloween ones and Christmas ones but apparently don't think Valentine's Day is worthy of its own Peeps? I'm just dying for some of that marshmallowy delightfulness and am very disappointed that they don't seem to make them. And I don't want those stupid mini's that are flavored. I want old-school, original Peeps flavor.

It's making me sad. I want what I want when I want it, dammit. So I'm calling bullshit, Peeps!

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

SUCH NONSENSE

People are crazy. I'm about 2 days away from being the person that says, "back in my day, we had to walk 10 miles to school, uphill both ways in 30 below zero weather."

One of my friends posted that her child goes to school where the kids are not allowed to play in the snow. Seriously?? I'm talking a little kid. I don't even think he's in first grade yet. In my day we were allowed to play in the snow at recess. Evidently they are concerned about snowball throwing. Whatever. Hey, teach, here's an idea. Stand outside and monitor the damn children like my teachers did. It's called playground supervision. Look it up. Do it.

Then another friend posted a story where in Idaho some 9 year old had an actual warrant issued for his arrest and he spent 3 days in custody.  His horrendous crime? He tried to steal a pack of gum.  That's right.....you read that right. Chewing gum.

I guess things in Idaho are normally so perfect that they spend their time and money chasing down those thug gum thieves. You know, that whole gum thievery is a gateway crime, leading to being a gun-wielding drug kingpin who murders innocent bystanders during their drive-by shootings.

Back in my day (see what I mean?), one of the common punishments for such a major crime was marching the kid's ass back to the store to either return it if it hasn't been chewed, pay for it, and most importantly feel the humiliation of having to confess and apologize.  Back in my day (see? I did it again), having to do that was the worst thing ever!! A good old fashioned spanking could also do wonders, but of course no child from the 50's, 60's or 70's would ever think of calling child protective services over a spanking.

I'm very happy I was raised when I was which also made me raise my children the way I did. What is going on now with the way children are raised makes me want to hurl.

Hang on while I get down off my soapbox. There.

I did this manicure the other night. I don't like it.
Square Hue Gibson Girl, Julep Shenae, LLC-B stamp
I do like the pink, Square Hue Gibson Girl. It came in my January Square Hue box. I love Square Hue. They send me three polishes every month, and they are always a surprise because they don't show you ahead of time what you're getting. While this may seem like a risky prospect, I've been a member for over a year and have been happy every month.

Right now it appears they are doing sign-up for $14.99 a month plus shipping. When I signed up I got in on it while they had a special going where mine is staying at  $14.99 a month with free shipping. You can take a break and suspend your account whenever you want and then just restart it when you want. 

Martha over at Polish Makes Me Happy does fantastic swatches of polishes and usually does theirs. Her blog is brand spankin' new, but she also has a Facebook page by the same name, and you really should go check it out. Her pics are fantabulous.

Another great thing about Square Hue is the fact that they donate a portion of proceeds to charities every month. Right now it's funding against human trafficking. Their polish is also Made in the USA.

Back to the mani. The stamp I used on this is on the LLC-B plate, and I used Julep Shenae to do it. 

I'm just not super thrilled with this one. I think I might have liked it better if I'd stamped with black. Too late now!

Hopefully today I will get to that water marble that's in my head. I've been pondering it for a couple of days now and already know what colors I want to use.  It's super pretty in my head. 

Hopefully it will also be super pretty on my fingers.
 


Tuesday, January 13, 2015

NEW STAMPING PLATE - YAY!

I really want to do a major whine-fest about work, but I will refrain from doing so.

I could also easily have a whine-fest about this weather, and by golly, I think I will. It's too damn cold out!! We haven't had a break from these frigid temps in so long I'm not sure when the temps actually went above 15 degrees, and for the most part it has remained in single digits, oftentimes below that lovely zero point. This morning it was -6 on my way to work. 

I wish I was a bear so I could sleep through all this shiz and wake up when it's hot out.

The Polish Sickness Facebook has gone crazy!! I was pretty much stuck at something like 975 followers when all of a sudden I noticed I was getting a bunch of new page likes. It was weird. Somebody finally sent me a private message explaining that someone that runs a nail page likes my stuff so they started sharing a bunch of my fingers over on that page. I've gained almost 200 followers in the past few days.

In the time it took me to write that last sentence, I got 15 new notifications over there. It's insanity. The one page has over a million followers, and that goofy ass decal mani from the other day has almost 7,000 views. Um, what the what? People are going through all of my pics and sharing them like crazy. 

It's pretty amazing to me, and I'm way flattered. My Instagram followers have increased by quite a few, too. I wish I had more time so I could make that dang page more interesting with stuff other than my blog link. If any of you are friends of mine or likers of the page and would like to contribute on the Polish Sickness Facebook page, send me a message over there because I'd love to have you post nail stuff!! 

All of that has led me to feel like I really need to put my other leg over the horse and start doing my nails more often. 

I was going to do a water marble last night, but I got two new MoYou plates yesterday before the mailbox was destroyed. (and yes, I'm still pissed about that)
OPI Taupe-Less Beach, OPI Get in the Espresso Lane, MoYou Fashionista 04 stamp
This is off of the MoYou Fashionista 04 plate. It's a great plate. It feels like they made the design area a smidge bigger on this one. It fully covered my thumb without issue.

The base for this is OPI Taupe-Less Beach, stamped with OPI Get in the Espresso Lane.

Love the plate; love the mani. I don't have a single critical thing to say about this one.

First time for everything, right?

Monday, January 12, 2015

OH, GET READY FOR SOME MAJOR BITCHING

Oh, and a happy Monday to me. I woke up with a huge headache, and then I got to work and immediately got cranky about a case. That should have warned me about how the day was going to go.

I went home at lunchtime and was in the living room when I heard a big noise outside, and the dogs started barking like maniacs. So I look out the front window to discover an SUV buried in my front yard. Right through the mailbox, which is now laying in pieces in the snow.

This isn't the first time this has happened, but it hasn't for the past couple of years. Why people don't have brains enough to slow down on the curve on a snow-covered street completely baffles me. So as I'm fuming from that, it's time to come back to work. I see that the guy is walking up my driveway, so at least he isn't hitting and running. Not that he could run since his car is completely stuck.

So he comes up to talk to me. He is super apologetic and nice. He asked to borrow a shovel, so I tell him where one is that he can use. Poor guy has no gloves, so I tell him I'll let him use a pair and to just toss them in the garage when he's done. He gives me his name and number and tells me he lives in Marquette and of course he'll pay to fix it. Great. So that means he isn't local and will not be around to rig up my mailbox somehow.

So now I won't get mail. Kev isn't home, so that screws that. I guess I'll call the post office to see if they'll hold my mail so I can go there to pick it up. Pain in the ass, but I simply hate not getting mail. I heart mail.

As I'm standing talking to the guy, I glance over at the passenger side of my Outback. Hmmm....what's that on the rear quarter panel. Dirt? Let me just rub that with my glove. Not dirt. A mother-*!@*ing DING. On my brand new car. 

Isn't that just fantastic? I guess some random *!@*tard in some random parking lot must have hit it with a car door or a shopping cart. It looks to me like it went all the way through the paint, too, so to say that I'm pissed would pretty much be the understatement of the century. I've only had it for 3 months. I'm fuming. It's either that or cry, and since I'm at work, I'm fuming. I might cry later.

Deep breath.

Last night I did finally motivate and soak off my nails. I was happy it was done, but it screwed my plan of doing a water marble since I had to keep my hands out of water for 3 hours. So I did this instead.
Square Hue Lincoln Road, Orly Liquid Vinyl, Sinful Colors Outrages and Wisp, dotting tool dry marble
I started off with a grey base using Square Hue Lincoln Road and did the swirlies using Orly Liquid Vinyl, Sinful Colors Rages and Wisp. I just used a dotting tool to swish 'em around.

I really like how this turned out. I've always been a fan of pink and grey together, and my only criticism would be that I wish I had carried it closer to the cuticle line on my index and middle fingers.

All in all, a success. It didn't satisfy my desire to do a real water marble, though, so maybe I'll do that tonight. 

Of course, considering how the day is going, maybe I should not open any polish or polish remover bottles.

With my luck, I'll knock them over and the only thing painted will be my carpeting.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

THROW-AWAYS PART TWO

I'm bummed.  Someone was lined up to come and look at my car today, and I was really hoping it would get gone. Unfortunately, once they showed a picture of the Alero to their daughter, they found out she really wants a four door. Dammit to hell.

I'm a bit shocked that the car hasn't flown out of the garage. It's such a nice car, but I guess poor Kev isn't going to get his side of the garage back yet.

Right now I'm trying to motivate. I'm kind of doing this post because I'm stalling on doing a soakoff. I did manage to do some rearranging of my stash. I went out to the garage to grab a couple of my old plastic bins that used to store my stuff. One of them had several dried up dead spiders. SO gross!! I also heard some movement toward the back of the garage so I got the hell outta' there as quickly as I could. Mouse, squirrel, someone's cat, a bird.....I had no intention of finding out. 

I guess all I have left in my draft pile are these two. I have two others, but they are just plain polish photos. I'm not even sure why they're in there.

The nail decal thingie was originally done for Nail It mag, but I decided I didn't like it enough to submit it. 

This first one was another last minute mani I did. It's hideous, but it matched a spring sweater I wore to work. For the record, the sweater is not hideous.
Loreal Rendevous, Zoya Noot, Ninja Polish DRK-A stamp
I used Loreal Rendevous on this and stamped with Zoya Noot and the DRK-A stamp. 

Oh!! Speaking of stamps, I asked Llarowe if there were ever going to be any new LeaLac plates, and they said, yes!! I was so excited I almost peed myself. They are still my faves of all time because the images are so big.

On to the decal nonsense.  I know there are several different ways to do the decals, but this was the first time I tried them. I think the pics are pretty self-explanatory on what I did.
 Square Hue Ocean Drive and High School Crush, Milani Yellow Whiz, Salon Perfect Bellini, Ninja DRK-A stamp, stamped nail decals
After I stamped the pattern from the DRK-A plate on the plastic and it had dried, I used Square Hue Ocean Drive and High School Crush, Milani Yellow Whiz and Salon Perfect Bellini to fill in the flowers. I just used a dotting tool to do that.

Once it was all dry, I peeled them off, cut them and then stuck them on and topcoated.

Technically it's a success. I just think it's kind of ugly. I wish I had used different colors. I'm sure at some point I'll try this again, possibly with the same design. It's just kind of time consuming and lately it seems I have been doing things that go more quickly.

I suppose now that I've finished this I should get off my arse and get these nails off. I wish I had done it yesterday. I considered doing them last night, but it was already 10:30 so I thought it was too late to start.

When I went to bed at 4 a.m., I was kicking myself because if I'd known I was going to be stupid and stay up that late, I would have had plenty of time to get it done. One more time where I just didn't think. 

Am I old enough now where I can use that as an excuse?





Friday, January 9, 2015

THROW-AWAYS PART ONE

Feeling pretty blah today. When I finished up at work yesterday, I knew I was going home to take down the decorations. Even though I wasn't ready yet, I figured we'd better do it since Kev had to leave for work today and won't be back until Tuesday. Having them up until January 14th is too long even for me.

I was not looking forward to it, but I was extremely happy when I got here to find that Kev already had the tree down, almost all of the ornaments back in their boxes and also had quite a few other things already accomplished. That doesn't mean there still wasn't a lot to do, but he sure did a huge amount on his own.  I see all the time where women post about how their husbands are pretty much useless when it comes time for decorating and un-decorating, and I am fully aware of how lucky I am. That handsome guy I was lucky enough to marry does so much around here to make things easier for me. He is, in a word, amazing.

So now the house is un-Christmafied. I hate it. I love that it's clean, but I hate how blech everything looks now. Oh, well....only 11 more months until I can Christmafy it again. 

Once he had hauled all of the stuff back out to the garage, I set about cleaning. I still had some sweaters that had been under the tree so I tried those on so I could put them away. Luckily they all fit. Unluckily I guess I need to do another closet purge even though I just did one in October. I really don't have room in there for the 9 or 10 new things I got. Dammit!

The rest of the weekend is going to be lazy. I "might" readjust a couple of drawers in the Helmers; I "might" do a soak-off; I "might" do a water marble; or I "might" just do not a damn thing.

One thing I did do is decide to finally just knock out a blog post with a bunch of random mani's I've done in the past year that I never bothered to show. Hell, the red/green one is from October of 2013!

I'm not even going to say much about them. If I had the info for what I used, it's posted. If not, I guess I didn't even think they were worthy of keeping note.

American Apparel Downtown LA, Sinful Colors Black on Black, Llarowe LeaLac LLC-A Stamp
The red is American Apparel Downtown LA, and I used Sinful Colors Black on Black with the Llarowe LeaLac LLC-A Stamp.
Not a clue what the red or the green is. Custom Nail Solutions had asked for this way back in October 2013.
Urban Outfitters Mermaid, white DRK-D stamp
There's nothing wrong with this green one. I guess I must have done something better after it that I wanted to post first. The green is Urban Outfitters Mermaid with a design from the DRK-D stamping plate.

DRK-D snakeskin stamp
Just a snakeskin from DRK-D over some random tan.
Sinful Colors Cupids Arrow, Nicole by OPI Back to Reality...TV, MoYou Pro XL 03
I probs didn't bother posting this one because I couldn't get a good picture. Sinful Colors Cupids Arrow stamped with MoYou Pro XL 03 and Nicole by OPI Back To Reality....TV.
Sinful Colors Boom Boom, Black on Black, DRK-A stamp
This one I actually remember doing. It was the night I went to karaoke a couple of months ago, and I was in a huge hurry. And it shows. The pink is Sinful Colors Boom Boom with Black on Black and DRK-A used for the stamp.

Even after posting these, I still have 5 or 6 more that I haven't posted. I'm thinking if I can get these damn things out of my drafts pile, I can pretend they never happened in the first place.

 


Monday, January 5, 2015

I REMEMBER NOW WHY I HATE GLITTER

If you happen to live where it's warm, be advised that I hate you. In my neck of the woods it is currently a -14 degrees F, with a wind chill that makes it feel like -35. I'm not making that shiz up; that's right from the weather apps on my phone. I shouldn't even have those apps because it's a constant reminder of how horrid the weather is.

The remainder of our trip to lower Michigan was great. On Friday I was back to feeling my normal self after my drinking shenanigans. We had a plan to go bowling, which I happen to really enjoy. I was actually in a bowling league for many, many years. 

I was a bit surprised at how well I managed to do. We were bowling two games simultaneously using two lanes, and on the one lane I only had a 124 but managed a 165 on the other. Go, me!!

There was a minor glitch to the fun when my ring finger nail decided to escape and land halfway down the lane in the gutter. I guess I must not be the first person this has ever happened to because the lady working that had to retrieve it didn't even seem shocked. I'm just glad it landed where it was retrievable, and since I always carry glue, I simply put it back on when we finished up. After dinner we bowled a third game, and I finished with a 192!! Maybe I shouldn't have quit the bowling league after all!

I thought I'd share a professional pic that was taken of where we were for New Year's Eve. It's such a spectacular shot that was taken by Brad Reed Photography which is located right in Ludington. I'm sure you can see me; I'm over in front of those buildings on the right. Fine. You can't see me, but I'm there.
The ride home was uneventful, and we made it back alive. As always, the dogs were very happy to see us.

Last night I happily took off that glitter mani. It was then that I was reminded why I hate glitter. A lot. Because I had used that loose glitter, removing it was a nightmare. Not so much so getting it off my nails, but getting it off of everything else was not fun. My fingers were once again full of it, and the bottle of Seche Vite I had used on application is also pretty much trashed because there's glitter in it. Luckily I have a new bottle waiting in the wings, but I'm still pissed. Even the mani I put on afterwards ended up with random flecks of glitter on it that shouldn't be there. I'm pretty sure I've finally gotten rid of it all.

What I'm showing here is not what I'm currently wearing, but I haven't had time to take pics yet so I'm showing one from awhile back. One of these days I'm going to go through the bunch of drafts I have on here and just do a massive post of all of the mani's that I hate that I haven't blogged about.
Zoya Chantal, Zoya Taylor, striping tape, quilted
I was in the mood for a neutral when I did this, and I used Zoya Chantal, Zoya Taylor and some striping tape to get the quilted look.

I'm not sure why I haven't posted this one before. Looking at it now, I like it. I think quilted mani's are cute-ish, and this one turned out just as I wanted.

I also wanted to share a really cute pic my daughter posted of Griffin and Zero. They had been cuddling on the floor, and while I know I'm biased, I think they are both too cute for words.
I adore both of them. 'Nuf said.


Thursday, January 1, 2015

I GUESS I'M OFFICIALLY A LIGHTWEIGHT

We managed to get to our destination yesterday despite running into some pretty rotten weather for part of the drive. We stopped along the way to get in some last minute shopping, and I managed to find a decent pair of snowboots and some mittens for what promised to be a very cold night at the ball drop.

First up, though, was dinner with the fam, gift opening and some game playing. And for me, quite a bit more drinking than I am used to doing. My goal was pretty much to get a good enough buzz on that I wouldn't even care about the cold.  Mission accomplished. A little too accomplished. Damn.

Since it was so vicious outside, we decided the smartest thing to do was to just go downtown a little bit before midnight. We stopped at the hotel and got bundled up and we probably got to our spot about 15 minutes before midnight, giving us just enough time to take a few pics before the ball fell and signaled the start of 2015. The fireworks that followed were pretty good, and from there we headed back to spend more time with the family.

I did a bit of drunk texting to my girls before we headed back to go to sleep. I slept like a rock and woke up feeling not so hot. I still feel not so hot. I don't know if I'd call it an actual hangover, but I've for sure felt better than this before.  I figured after eating shrimp and crabcakes I'd feel okay, but my stomach is definitely pissed off at me. I have a lot of booze here with us that I will not be imbibing. Color me done.

I did manage to do what I planned for my New Year's mani, and it turned out almost like I expected.
Fantasy Makers Confetti Confettis glitter, Kleancolor Black Metallic, Messy Mansion HD05 stamp, HB23 stamp, snowflake, New Year's Eve, winter, holiday
For this one I did a coat of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Starry, Starry Flight, and while it was still wet I sprinkled Fantasy Makers Confetti Confettis glitter. As that dried I kind of pressed it in, and then I repeated the process using a clear polish.  After I was completely glitterfied, I did a couple of coats of topcoat to smooth it out.

I used Kleancolor Metallic Black and the Messy Mansion HD05 and HB23 plates to make my snowflakes.

I had glitter everywhere. My table, my hands, my clothes.....lordie, what a mess!! I do love that loose glitter, but it sure is a nightmare to clean up. I had to take a nail brush to my fingers to get rid of it all, and I had to wait until after showering to even attempt photos.

The sad part is I think I could have gotten the same amount of glittery shine with maybe one of the polishes I own. If I ever try something like this again, I'm going to have to really peruse my stash to see what I have.

I am thankful it's wearing well. I was afraid that it might start chipping off, and I had warned Kev that we might have to make a trip to buy polish remover and polish.

To be honest, I'm a bit sick of looking at it already, but I'll suck it up and leave it on until we get home. We're heading back on Saturday so hopefully I'll be recovered enough from the trip to take this off on Sunday.

I hope you had a great New Year's Eve, and I wish for all of you a healthy and happy 2015!! Hopefully when 2016 arrives, you'll still be here reading about my ever-so-exciting life. 

(Insert eye-roll here)