Tuesday, June 30, 2015

LEFT IT AT THAT

Woke up today to find fall. 50 degrees, raining and just generally crappy weather. I wanted to crawl right back into bed. 

First thing I did was go to my closet to reevaluate my wardrobe choice for the day. Yesterday it was so nice that I foolishly assumed I should dress for summer again today. Obviously that wasn't going to work so I picked out a more temperature-appropriate shirt. And for those that know me, NO, I did not choose a long sleeved winter sweater.

I turned on the air conditioning for sleeping purposes and then turned the heat on after I got up. Seriously, that is a normal thing only at my house. 

Then for some reason even though he never touched the thermostat here at work yesterday when it was hot out, today the bossman decided he should crank the air conditioner on by setting the temp to 69. Um, thanks? Maybe I really should have opted for that sweater. I'm wearing bare feet in deck shoes, and my toes are frozen. 

A while back I had this entire plan for a mani all worked out in my head. Saran wrap it and then stamp over it with either white or black. Oh, my....the stamping over it did not work at all. Completely hideous. Luckily I only tried it on one nail, realized it sucked and just left it like this.
Color Club Disco's Not Dead, China Glaze Sun of a Peach, Square Hue Yellow Submarine, Wet n Wild Club Havana, saran wrap
I hated this while I was wearing it, but I hate it less just looking at the picture. I did a base of Color Club Disco's Not Dead and then saran wrapped it with China Glaze Sun of a Peach, Square Hue Yellow Submarine and Wet n Wild Club Havana.

I really don't understand why it didn't look good once I stamped on it. But whatevs. That was so five weeks ago it no longer matters.

Monday, June 29, 2015

SOFT AND PURDY

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Mine wasn't too shabby at all. I finally got some pool time. That alone was enough to make my weekend. Even better, on Saturday my friends came over with their daughter to swim, and they brought Seven along for her first foray into my pool. To say she loved it would be an understatement.

Tinlee only went in one time. Seven, on the other hand, flew up and down those stairs probably 20 times and was in the pool at least 10. She was absolutely adorable. She liked it better when her owner was in the pool with her, though. When Laura got out of the pool and was sitting up on the deck, Seven just stood on the platform, looked at Laura and cried to try to get her to go back in. It was beyond cute. I can't wait for Zero to be here this weekend to see what he'll do. I'm also going to make sure to get Razzie and Major over one of these days so they can swim, too. Of course, Major lives on the lake so he is already a huge fan of water.

Poor Baylee can no longer navigate her way up the steps to the pool. She tried to go up them, got about halfway and then fell. I felt just terrible for her. She really wanted to go in the pool. She tried again on Sunday with the same result. I can't lift her 75 pound lard-ass into the pool, so Kev is going to need to re-do the stairs to lessen the incline. It breaks my heart to see her try things that she used to do easily, but her 10 year old hips just don't cooperate the way they used to. It hurts me as much as it hurts her.

I also managed to plant a few new plants that my mom gave me and went to a birthday party for a two year old. The weather was sunny with a nice breeze with temps around 80 at my house. Pretty much perfection all around.

After the bright mani's I had been doing, I did this softer one that I wore for a couple of days.
Zoya Lillian, Mundo de Unas cream, Bundle Monster BM XL-13 stamp
I had gotten in on the Zoya deal where all I had to pay was shipping, so I got three for $15. This slightly aqua blue is Zoya Lillian. I used the Bundle Monster BM XL-13 plate and Mundo de Unas Cream for the stamping. 

To those of you that have Mundo's, have you ever used a polish thinner in them? This cream one is way too thick. I'm debating if I should use my usual polish thinner or Seche Restore. I've never thinned a stamping polish before, and I really don't want to ruin it. So if you have thinned yours, tell me what you used, please.

This Monday is really dragging its ass. All I see is sunshine outside, and all I want to do is be outside in it instead of sitting at this damn desk. The bossman has wandered off to who knows where. Of course right after he left I actually needed him to be here. Now I'm sitting here with no way to finish what I started because I have a question about it. I hate when that happens.

I just want the day to be over. That's pretty much it in a nutshell. 

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

WATER MARBLE BRIGHT

OMG, I need a puppy fix SO bad!! I haven't had any of Tinlee's kids at the house for weeks! I've already sent word out to three of them that I need puppy time. Thankfully they are all ready to come over to visit. I might even get to steal Razzie for a night or two. I was thinking I would do that this weekend, but Kev made a comment about how he wouldn't be home. I guess he wants some puppy time, too.....not sure if I can wait for him, though.

I decided to carry on with that bright yellow for this mani.
Sally Hansen Mighty Mango, Studio M Neon Caution, Essie The More the Merrier, water marble
I had picked up quite a few bright colors when I was on vacation, and I decided I would just use a few that were sitting on the table waiting to be swatched.

The yellow, of course, is Studio M Neon Caution. The lime green is Essie The More the Merrier and the orange is Sally Hansen Mighty Mango.

I liked how these three colors look together, and all of three of them were very cooperative for marbling. Ya' just never know what's going to work and what's not. I did have to add a few drops of thinner to the Studio M. It seems I always have more difficulties with yellows. No clue why that is. This one definitely marbled better than any of my other yellows ever have in the past.

This is damn near blinding it's so bright. That's not a bad thing, but I think I'll do something a little bit more muted tonight.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

LOVE IT? HATE IT? CAN'T DECIDE.

It is hard to get back in the swing of normal life after a vacation. Being at home seems too quiet after living with a crowd. To top it off, Kev left yesterday after being off since the 12th. He comes home Friday and then leaves again on Saturday. I miss him when he's gone so much.

I also am missing Tennessee weather. It's actually summer there. Here, not so much. We're barely cracking the mid-60's even though it's almost July. At this rate I'll never get to use my pool. Of course, even on the few days it has thought about being warm enough, it has rained. Awesome-sauce.

On Sunday night I decided to use this little sunshine in a bottle.
Studio M Neon Caution, KB Shimmer Dust in the Bottle glitter topcoat
This blazing yellow is Studio M Neon Caution. I grabbed it at Meijer while we were on our trip. I topped that off with KB Shimmer Dust in the Bottle which is a really fine glitter. It's "almost" a holo but it doesn't quite get there for me. I love it, though, since I really love super fine glitter.

I had planned on taking this off after work but instead I decided to just stamp over it.
Studio M Neon Caution, KB Shimmer Dust in the Bottle, Mundo de Unas Violet, LeaLac LLC-B stamp
For the added flowers I used Mundo de Unas Violet and the LeaLac LLC-B stamping plate.

I've been looking at this one a lot today. I can't decide if I love it or hate it. In the sunlight the KB Shimmer flashes a whole lot of rainbow specs, which is cool, but it's not like I get to sit outside all day to stare at it.

I'm already contemplating what to do tonight. I might have to break down and use something dark. It's only been two weeks, but I feel like my nails need to be redone already. The cuticle line is bugging me. I want to hold off for at least a few more days if I can.

Once my hair starts getting caught under them in the shower, though, I know their days are numbered.




Monday, June 22, 2015

VACAY MANI

Ah, vacation is over, and it's back to normal life. Boo hiss boo.

Let me start by saying that the weather was unbelievable. All of those high percentage chances of rain meant nothing. We saw about 15 minutes of very light sprinkles one evening around dinner time, and that was it. Other than that, they had record setting high temps the entire time we were there, mid to high 90's every day. I spent a lot of time sweating my balls off, and I was fine with that.

The house we rented was completely amazing. Three floors of gorgeous, five bedrooms, five bathrooms, a deck on each floor with a hot tub on two of them. Kev and I took the top floor of the house which consisted of our bedroom, a living room area with a tv, a video game, a pool table and another area that had a 73" flat screen with kind of a movie theatre setup. It was a hoot playing some of the old-school video games like Pac Man, Centipede and Tetris. For the record, I killed it on Centipede, just like the old days. 

Bonus....bears!! I think we had been there for only about an hour when a bear went and stole the garbage can from the neighbor's house because they hadn't disposed of it properly. I didn't see it happen because I was unpacking. I also didn't get a glimpse of the bear that was in the trees as we were riding down the road on our way to go hiking. I'm never looking in the right place at the right time.

The road leading to the house was a complete nightmare. Just right up the mountain on narrow roads that didn't have shoulders but had a whole lot of tight hairpin turns. For some reason I was the only one who owns ears that didn't pop from the altitude. I was actually concerned for my Outback on those steep hills. Luckily my car survived it, but my sister-in-law's Yukon did not. It died on Thursday evening going back up to the house, and I won't even get into what a horror show it was for them to get it fixed and find a way home on Friday. 

Aside from that disaster, there really wasn't too much bad on this trip. One complaint would be the fact that we didn't have a pool at the house. We had to drive to one of the three pools within the area, so that kind of sucked. They weren't far away or anything, but it still made it more of a pain to just go lay in the sun. I did manage to get two good days of pool time, though. I have a peeling left wrist to prove it. Of course I took off my watch to go in the water so that spot burned and has now been completely peeled away by my watch. Not so smart.

We did some fun stuff: riding the mountain tram to the top of the mountain, hopping on a luge-type sled to ride down the mountain on a luge-type slide, riding the tram all the way down to the city of Gatlinburg to eat dinner and wander around the shops, mini golf, a mountain roller coaster, a hike, and best of all, Kev and I went ziplining. Cross one off my bucket list. Since it was just Kev and me going, we went to the best one in the area. It had the most lines, 9, and the mountain views were completely amazing. Best of all, it wasn't even scary. I'm so going to do that again the next time we go somewhere that has it.

This is the mani I decided on for our trip. The picture looks dark to me on this computer. If it appears darker than normal on yours, it may be partly because I did make it a little darker in order to have the colors show up.
Cult El Porto, Mundo de Unas Lemon Tree, Pink, Peach, Mint, Lilac, Uber Chic 1-01 stamp
I started off with two coats of Cult El Porto and then used Mundo de Unas Lemon Tree, Pink, Peach, Mint and Lilac for the stamping. The design is from the Uber Chic 1-01 plate.

I was so happy to be able to bring a lot of nail stuff with me, but I never did take this off. There were a couple of nights I seriously considered doing my nails, but sitting at the dining room table messing with them didn't sound as enjoyable as sitting out on the deck with the fam. And this one wore very well. I probably could have easily gotten another week out of it if I'd wanted to.

All in all, family vacay was a big success, at least as far as I'm concerned. I'm hoping we'll do it again next year, but it's going to have to be closer. Taking two days just to drive somewhere pretty much sucks, especially when the first leg of the trip home ends up taking 13 hours instead of 10. 

Overall, though, I highly recommend family vacations this way. You get to spend lots of quality time with people you may not get to see very often. This was the most time I've ever gotten to spend with Kev's family and the most even he has spent with them in many, many years. I'm happy to report I still love all of them after cohabiting with them for almost a week.

And on the other hand, if you are not a fan of some of your family members, by all means do it and rent in the mountains. There's plenty of opportunity for you to nudge one of them over the edge.

Friday, June 12, 2015

OH, THAT'S GREEN

I am really glad I'm now off until the 22nd, but it was a busy couple of days getting ready to leave town, which we are doing in about a half hour.

First up, got my hairs did. Last Thursday I got a much needed cut and color, and Wednesday after work I got a keratin treatment. Also much needed. I haven't had that done since September. I love having that done. It makes my hair feel fantabulous for months. This time I bought a new brand that doesn't need a 3 day wait until it can get wet, so that'll be nice. I hope it still works as well as the other stuff.

From there I popped into the tanning bad for a quick 20 minute snooze. After that I was hoping to finish planting the rest of the flowers. I had to wait until Kev pulled out a shrub, so he did that while I was at work. Then I'll be doing some last minute laundry and house cleaning.

Unfortunately after getting done with dinner, my stomach was hurting, so no planting got done. And of course yesterday it was misty and rainy starting from about 11 a.m. I did manage to get a couple of things taken care of in the back garden but was then forced inside by the weather. I was pissed!

I whipped up a fresh batch of hummingbird food, washed and refilled all of the feeders. I haven't seen too many birds the past couple of days. I'm hoping they're just nesting and will be back to business as usual by the time we get back home.

Finally late in the day I decided I was just going to have to go out in the mist and get the hydrangeas planted. Kev was a big help, so we managed to get it all done. The UPS man came while we were out there and brought me my new fountain. Kev put that together so even that got set up.

Tuesday night this is what I did.
Barielle Polished Princess, Mundo de Uas black, DRK-D stamp
It was actually prettier in person. The green is Barielle Polished Princess, the black is my Mundo de Unas stamping polish and the design is from the DRK-D plate.

I was a smidge irked that I did a mani using black stamping polish. My order of 14 Mundo's that I purchased through a group buy came, and even with all those colors to stamp with, I drew a complete blank on what color combo to do.

I finally came up with a mani to do last night, and once again, got all finished with it, had most of my stuff put away and then realized I once again forgot to do my toes. Seriously. So I had to get out stuff all over again and then just slapped on some light purple. Done and done.

And then I went and packed a large plastic bin of nail stuff to take on the trip. Don't know if I'll feel like doing them or even have time, but God forbid I get somewhere and realize I'm forced to leave the same thing on when I don't want to.

That would be terrible!!

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

I'M A SLACKER

Sometimes I am just not in the mood to do a blog post. Obviously. I haven't done one since last Wednesday. I don't know if anybody is stalking it to see if there's a new post or not, and if you are, I apologize.

And I also will now apologize in advance for a probable lack of new posts next week. We are leaving on Friday for a good old fashioned road trip. We will be stopping for the night at my sis-in-law's, spending the night and then going the rest of the way to Gatlinburg, Tennessee on Saturday.

The place we are going is beautimous!! It's a gorgeous, huge house near the mountains, and Kev's whole family is going there with us. So a nice 5 bedroom house for 7 adults, 3 kids and at least 1 dog. 

I'm excited for this. We don't get nearly enough "whole fam" time with everybody, so this promises to be a fantastic week. I'm hoping the weather forecast is lying. If it isn't, it once again means that rain is going to follow me like it always does and try to ruin my fun and pool time. The temps are supposed to be in the 80's, which is fantabulous, but there is also like an 80% chance of rain every damn day. I don't know why black clouds insist on following me wherever I go. With any luck, that percentage means it might rain for 10 minutes and then go away for the rest of the day. I can hope.

On Sunday I reapplied my nails in preparation for the trip and then did this, which I still have on today.
China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-Le, Mundo de Unas white, LeaLac LLC-A stamp
What we've got here is China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-Le stamped with LeaLac LLC-! and Mundo de Unas white.
I like this simply because I love that color. The end.

Now I need to think of what to put on my nails for vacay. And on my toes, which are bright orange from last week. I haven't even worn a pair of sandals yet so it hasn't really mattered, but I will have to make them  presentable for the trip. I might just do a neutral so I can leave them alone for the entire time we're gone.

I will say, though, that one nice thing about driving for this trip is the fact that I'll have an entire car I can fill, I can bring a whole bunch of nail stuff if I want to. And I want to, so I'm gonna'.

I need something to do if it rains, right?


Wednesday, June 3, 2015

PINK HOLO SEMI-GOODNESS

I'm giving serious consideration to buying a new camera. Right now I have close to $300 in my Valued Opinions survey account plus a couple of random Visa gift cards. I figure I can buy a whole mess of Amazon certificates and put it towards a camera. Now it's just a matter of figuring out what to get.

I really just want something that will take good pics of my bird stalking and manicures, with the occasional dog pics thrown in. In my mind I think a new camera will solve the purple issue even though I know it probs won't. One of my extra daughters is a very good photographer so she's going to let me borrow her camera and offer some tips. She's also going to come over and try to help me figure out that damn lightbox.

And speaking of dogs, it's my baby girl Tinlee's 5th birthday today. She doesn't care, although I think she appreciated the Frito I gave her at lunchtime and the barbecue potato chip that Kevin gave her.

I'm still wearing that water marble. Third day. I really did intend on doing something with my nails last night, but I really didn't have the ambition. A friend of mine sent me a surprise package of a whole bunch of polishes, so I spent quite a bit of time swatching and organizing those buggers. After that I just sat with my table in front of me for something like 3 hours, just waiting for inspiration or motivation to hit.

It didn't happen. I finally just put everything away. I never even picked up my laptop. And if I'm not doing nails, my laptop is always open and glued to my thighs. That's how un-enthused I was about life in general.

Not even sure when I did this one.
Color Club Cloud Nine, Mundo de Unas black, Uber Chic UC 1-01 stamp
I went with Color Club Halo Hues Cloud Nine on this one and stamped with Mundo de Unas black. The design came from the Uber Chic 1-01 plate.

When I did this one, I remember that it was replacing something awesome, but I can't figure out what.....perhaps the Sally Hansen Turquoise Opal I was in love with.

Whatever it was, this one seemed super boring which is why I never even bothered to post it before now. But here it is.

Monday, June 1, 2015

BEEN AWHILE SINCE I MARBLED

Today is my grandson's 16th birthday. So gross. I'm not sure where the time went, but it seriously seems like a blink ago that he was 2. I'd like to think that since he's 16 with a driver's license and a vehicle, that means he'll take a road trip to visit me. I do, however, remember being 16, and I wouldn't have walked 2 blocks to visit family, let alone drive an hour. So I won't expect him to be pulling into my driveway anytime soon. I'll still love him anyway. 

I just wish time would hold still for a bit longer. The grandkids getting older is making me older, and I don't appreciate it.

I bought a new shirt from Zulily awhile back and since it was actually going to hit 60 degrees today, I decided I'd wear it and do a mani with colors to match.

It's been forever since I did the loopy water marble. The last couple of times I started to, nothing would cooperate. I had much better luck yesterday. Every polish I chose worked, and I didn't have a single re-do. It made it fun.
Sally Hansen Hard to Get, Cult Hollywood Hills, Sally Hansen Peach Beach, Square Hue Collins Avenue, water marble
I debated on whether I should do a white base, but I decided to go with Cult Hollywood Hills. I then used that along with Sally Hansen Hard to Get, Sally Hansen Peach Beach and Square Hue Collins Avenue.

The neon orange Square Hue, the darker pink Sally and the much lighter pinky/peach by Cult all match the colors in my shirt exactly. Crazy close in color.

I like this one a lot. Whether I'll leave it on for another day completely depends on my motivation level after work. Mabes I'll just be too lazy to do something new.

If it ends up staying on, I'm good with it.