Thursday, April 30, 2015

THIS IS SORTA' PRETTY

My bossman made my week. I no longer feel the need to throw my computer through the wall because he got me a new one. And it is awesome!

The computer had finally gotten to the point in it's decline that even the word processor was starting to fail. That was the last straw, and while he was in court I began the search for a new one that wouldn't cost a fortune. It never ceases to amaze me what computers cost. I remember paying $1,800 back in the olden days. Staples had a couple of all-in-one desktops on sale, two of which they "claimed" were in our local store ready to pick up.

I gave him the options, let him know the sale ended on April 25th and went on home for the weekend. I left the final choice up to him. He got the one I didn't prefer, but it was such a good sale I knew he would choose it. It has a 21" touch screen which is ridiculous because I don't really need a touch screen, but it was $100 cheaper than the one I really wanted which had a 23" non-touch screen.

And here comes today's bitch of the day! On Saturday he calls me to ask something about it because he was going to Staples to buy it. Great news! I was all excited to go into work on Monday knowing he was going to be in court for 2 days, giving me lots of time to set things up.

I get to work; no computer. He comes in and tells me Staples didn't have it, they were ordering it, and we wouldn't get it until Tuesday. WTF. I was off and on the website checking the tracking like a stalker, and that computer is still on the website saying our store has it in stock, ready for pickup today.

I call complete bullshit. What a complete load of it. Tuesday I was really stalking the order tracking because I planned on flying to Staples as soon as they had gotten it. It was on the local truck for delivery at 6:15 a.m. By 4 p.m. I was furious. Still no computer. 

I looked at the Staples receipt bossman gave me and went online to take their customer satisfaction survey which gives the opportunity to win $5,000. If they base who wins on how good the survey is, I'll never have to worry about winning that. My review was scathing.

The computer was finally dropped at the store after 6 p.m. Bossman went and got it for me on Wednesday morning, and it is awesome. I started putting in the programs and such that I use regularly and then discovered Outlook Express isn't even around anymore and not compatible with Windows 8.1. And since I didn't have a clue of what his email password was, or mine, I had to suck it up and call Charter for their help. I was pleasantly surprised when they not only let me change his, they let me change my personal one as well even though I didn't have any of my actual account info. I guess they trusted me based on the fact that my name is on his account. 

I absolutely hate the Charter email setup going from the Charter site, though. Outlook was so much more pleasant to look at and easier on the eyes. So I'm saddy pants about that.

Sorry. I rambled once again.

I had kind of thought I would stamp over that Sally Hansen Prism beauty, but my nails needed a soakoff so badly that on Tuesday night I decided I'd better just start over.

This isn't what I put on Tuesday night, but it's been in my drafts folder for a couple of weeks.
Cult PCH, Mundo de Unas MdU Turrquoise,  Uber Chic UC1-03 stamp
Now that I have those stamping polishes, I'm trying to think of things to use them on. It's harder than I thought it would be. 

The base blue is Cult PCH, and I stamped over it with Mundo de Unas Turquoise and Uber Chic's UC 1-03 plate.

It's fun. Normally if I've wanted to stamp over something like a darker blue, I've always had to stick with a silver, gold or white because nothing else I have would show up. I'm enjoying being able to stamp with something other than those colors.

Right now I'm trying to decide what I'll do on my nails today or if I'll just ponder it and wait until Sunday to do them. I'm not going anywhere so if I do them, it'll only be for my own fun and for posting on the interwebs.

Oh, and one more bitch! I didn't do a good enough job securing my one waspinator on the front of the house, and the dang thing is gone. It was super windy the other day and somehow it worked its way off the hook and flew to parts unknown. I wandered around the area looking for it to no avail. 

I went out and hung the spare one but took a pliers to crimp the hook closed this time. Hopefully that'll keep it safe. 

That's what I get for putting it up myself when they came. There's a reason I'm not the ones that puts things together around here.

I can't be good at everything, right?

 

Monday, April 27, 2015

TOOK ME 3 YEARS TO GET THIS!

It is all about pretty because this whole post is 99% pics. Of one polish. The polish I have wanted since this nail mania started when I accidentally happened upon Chloe's blog. It's still one of my favorites even though she stopped blogging 2 years ago. SO many of the polishes I own are directly her fault.

This is a Sally Hansen Nail Prism, Turquoise Opal. It's one of those amazing polishes that probably didn't get enough credit it when it was introduced, and it's one of those polishes I look at and wonder why on earth they would ever stop making it. I've occasionally looked for it on eBay, and when I searched the other night I found one for $39.99 and one that was started at $4.99. I snagged that one at the tail end of the auction for $11.50. I was more than a smidge pleased with myself. 

This is one of those polishes that needs underwear, and I this is one coat over a single layer of black. When I was swatching it, I did try it on its own, but it wasn't this good even after 5 coats. Def needs the underwear.

I think I took about 50 pictures and still wasn't able to capture every color. I finally had to give up trying. On the many shots where my hands seem to be yellow or some other odd, not quite Diane flesh-tone, rest assured the polish is showing its true color.

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 

 
 
 



Even now as I'm looking at all these pictures, I'm upset that I couldn't capture it the way it deserves. It's been awhile since I felt the need to take a picture while driving. I would have taken more but as luck would have it, I didn't hit any of the red lights. Figures, right?

I'm in love with this polish, obviously. I'll continue to search for it and hope to snag another at some point just so I have it. I'm probably going to stamp over it, but I'm not taking it off for at least one more day.

It's not like I'm going to get bored with it because every time I move I see a different color.

Saturday, April 25, 2015

JUST A STAMPED GRADIENT

Razzie is so cute, but 9 month old puppies have an awful lot of energy. And just like his siblings, he's a damn stalker. I find myself literally not getting up to go to the bathroom for fear of waking him up.

One nice thing about him is when I went to bed, he jumped right in, laid practically on top of me and went to sleep. He was really good and stayed there until 7:30. That wasn't really late enough to suit me since we were up until almost 3:00, but at least he actually did let me get that whopping 4.5 hours of rest.

Tinlee is not impressed and spends most of her time ignoring him. I guess she doesn't think her puppies are so fun anymore, probably because they are so big. She'll play hard for 10 minutes until he makes her mad, then she goes off to lay down. I'm also sure she isn't appreciating that Razzie seems to have taken over her fave spot to lay, which is by me next to my recliner. He doesn't have a whole lot of finesse with that and doesn't realize he's big. He also seems to think it's okay to walk under the end table even though his back is knocking into it. I've had to save the lamp several times. He's kind of an uncoordinated moose. But cute and sweet as can be.

I did this gradient just because I like these colors on their own and wanted to see how they'd be together.
China Glaze Thistle Do Nicely, Julep Margaret, Uber Chic 2-01 gradient stamp
The peachy color is China Glaze Thistle Do Nicely, and the blue is Julep Margaret. I like how they kind of made a small amount of pinky-purple where they blended.

Of course I couldn't just leave it alone, so I stamped over it with black and my Uber Chic 2-01 plate.

I thought this was really pretty. I've been enjoying using more summery type colors lately. I'll be enjoying it even more when I have a tan. That's when it will really feel like summertime to me. 

Of course, once I'm tan I'm sure I'll get some comments on Pinterest. Last year some beeyotch thought she should tell me to stop with the self-tanner. After I told he she was rude and mistaken since I don't use self-tanner, I deleted her comment. I don't understand the people that feel the need to be so bitchy to people. I've seen it so many times where people just tear into people about their not-so-neat paint jobs or bad cuticles. It's just mean. Don't parents teach basic manners anymore?? I know when we post, we open ourselves up for the judgment of other people, but I still think "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" should still apply.

Hang on while I get down off my soapbox.

Got me some naked nails right now. I have a water marble in my head with some of my new Kleancolor neons, but I don't know if I'll get a chance for it this weekend. It all depends on when Razzie gets picked up and how much energy I have to spend the time on it.

He's staring at me at the moment. I can see his brain working, and I know at any second he's going to be all up in my bizness. No consideration at all for the fact that there's a computer on my lap. None.

Cute. But pushy to the point of rude.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

TOTALLY STOLE THIS ONE

I have a minor body issue vent before I show off this mani I totally copied from someone.

Is it an old age thing? How come I weigh the same, wear the same size as I have for the past more years than I can count, but I now have a muffin top? I don't understand it. I don't remember ever being this uncomfortable in my own skin, and I'm not a fan. It makes me sad. The end.

The other day I was wandering around Pinterest looking for inspiration and found this mani. Well, it was almost this mani. She had done the stamping on only two of her nails. Doing accent nails isn't really my thing so I just tried to recreate it on all of my nails.

You can find her original of this one on her Facebook page, Esmalterapia4me. She does amazing stuff!
Square Hue Happy Creme, Cult Avalon, Uber Chic UC1-02 stamp
I don't know what colors she used, but I grabbed Square Hue Happy Creme and Cult Avalon for my pink/coral dabbed in random spots over white base. That flower is from the Uber Chic UC1-02 plate. And yes, I used my MdU for the white stamp.

I love how this turned out. Such pretty colors, I think. It feels very summery to me, and I may have to do this color combination again at some point. They might look awesome in a water marble.

I'm actually due for a water marble. I don't imagine I'll be able to get one done this weekend, though. I'm puppysitting for Razzie, and I don't think I could count on him to not run into my nail stuff. 

Seeing polish, distilled water and remover flying across the living room does not appeal to me at all.

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

MORE MUNDO DE UNAS PROPS!

When I put my window hummingbird feeders up last week, all it really did was start making me more crazy. Every five minutes I'm staring at those feeders, willing my little male to make his first appearance. It was so beautiful out the end of last week and into the weekend that I actually fooled myself into thinking I'd see one. Any minute now.

I got up this morning to snow flurries. No hummer in his right damn mind would show up here yet. Woe is me.

One thing I did do, though, was go back to my 2014 hummingbird album to see the exact date I first saw one last year. I had thought it was at the end of May. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I saw my little boy on May 8th. So that's good. Here I was pouting because I thought I might have another month to wait. Turns out I may only have to wait a couple of weeks. I thought maybe this horrible winter everyone has had might slow them down, but in looking at the 2015 hummingbird migration map (yes, we freak hummingbird fanatics have a first sighting map), it appears as though they are still on the same schedule as last year.

Hope springs eternal.

Another thing I had done since last year was try to find a way to keep wasps away. They were a huge problem last year. With having the puppies, I didn't get many chances to sit out there and hold the feeder, but on the few occasions I did, I could only stand it for short periods of time because the wasps were intense. Mean bastards, too. There were a couple of times I just stood out there with the spray can, killing as many of those mother-effers as I could. They try to attack my little bird friends. Momma' ain't having that. I saw lots of people saying to take those little brown lunch bags, blow them up and hang them. It fools the wasps into thinking the territory has already been taken.

Now, it doesn't take a Mensa member to realize that a paper bag isn't going to be very practical when it rains. There are a couple of genius companies that actually make fake nests. Of course they do. So I bought two different brands, two of each. I'm going to hang one in the front of the house, one on the deck and one under the garage eaves. And I'll have a spare if the rain wipes one out. I pray they work. If they do, I'm looking forward to sitting with hummingbirds buzzing by my head and landing on my fingers.

Last night I decided I just "had" to try the white MdU stamping polish. OMG.
China Glaze Secret  Peri-Wink-Le, Mdu white, Sally Hansen Big Matte topcoat, Uber Chic UC1-02 stamp
First off, this is China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-Le. I forgot how much I love this color. Seriously. Still one of my faves of all time. It be beautimous. I also mattified it with Sally Hansen's Big Matte Topcoat. That, too, is awesome.

So then I grabbed my Uber Chic UC1-02 plate and my white polish. Usually when I would stamp with any of the other brands, I'd have to clean the plate every couple of nails and add more polish. Not so with the Mundo de Unas.

I put the white on the top 1/3 of the design, scraped and stamped. And that is ALL I used for five nails. For the next four I scraped with just the remnants from my scraper. Then I cleaned the plate and my scraper and did the same thing for my other hand.

Are.You.Freaking.Kidding.Me? For all this time I've been super annoyed at how fast my stamping polishes would seem to be gone. Either gone or they'd start getting extra sticky from reinserting the brush so many times during a stamping session.

I am so in love with these I'm either going to make out with them or just downright marry 'em. And at $3.50 a piece, they are even more of a bargain than I thought they were. Totally worth the $14 it cost for shipping 14 of them. TOTALLY.

If you like to stamp, want to stamp, have had trouble with stamping, these could very well help you in your quest. I don't exactly suck at stamping, and these make it easier for me, and in turn, it makes it more fun.

I like fun.

Monday, April 20, 2015

FLORAL FOIL

Blah-de-da. It's Monday, cold, gloomy and raining. Seems about right, right? Supposedly it might change to freezing rain or mabes even some snow later. So yup....go us! We luvs it up here!

I hope the dripping sarcasm didn't get on ya.

Yesterday I was sitting around with nekkid nails and just could not decide what I wanted to do. Nothing sounded exciting. That's pretty annoying when I consider I have all of those lovely new stamping polishes. As I wandered throughout the interwebs looking for inspiration, there was just none to be found. Even choosing a color combination wasn't happening.

I seriously spent hours pondering what to do. After I sat on the bed and just stared at colors and stamping plates for what seemed like forever, I opted for trying some foils.
Flower nail foil, Square Hue WL Wet Look Too topcoat
I received these free awhile back when I ordered some foil topcoat from a lady on Amazon. I really wanted to buy some more from her, but she appears to have vanished into thin air. 

Topcoating this kind of foil isn't usually a problem. It's the glossy ones that give me an issue. Still, using Seche Vite is not advised. Without thinking I used the SV on my pinkie nail and watched the small amount of silver in these foils shrivel. Not so cute. I re-did it.

I usually work these by setting up two at a time. The first two fingers I did two coats of my foil topcoat. To add shine I grabbed the Square Hue topcoat they had sent around the holidays. It worked really well. Just for kicks I skipped the foil topcoat and just went with the Square Hue for the rest of my nails, and it worked great! At some point I'm going to have to see what it does to the the more topcoat-challenged foil materials. 

I'm looking at my nails, and the tip wear is not good. Luckily this is a pattern that really called for a white basecoat, so nobody would ever notice that I'm losing some pattern. But I do. This will be coming off tonight.

Just for kicks the other day I did a search for Sally Hansen Prism Turquoise Opal on eBay. Occasionally I do that because I want it. Bad. I found one for $39.99, but yeah, that ain't happening. I found another one that was at $4.99 with only one bid, so I added it to my watch list and crossed my fingers that I'd hear my phone warn me when there was 15 minutes left. I'm happy to report that I snagged it for $11.00, and I am one happy camper. I snagged the Burgundy Orchid one, too, just because I could.

Oh! And I also decided to buy the 12 piece Kleancolor neon set because it was only $14 with free shipping. I couldn't bring myself to buy the China Glaze set because I didn't feel I could justify spending the price when I know I probs already have some very similar polishes. But $14 for a dozen? I'm all over that shit.
 
So yeah, my no-buy is going great!!


Saturday, April 18, 2015

WHY DID I WAIT???

I didn't plan on doing nails today, nor did I plan on doing a blog post even though I do have some mani pics lying in wait. But that all changed.

About a month ago I finally decided to bite the bullet and buy colored stamping polish. I've always only had black and white and used regular polishes for my stamping. Sometimes they would work, and sometimes they wouldn't.

After I asked around for who had the best ones at the best price, I eventually decided on Mundo de Unas. I didn't mess around, either. I bought 2 black, 2 white and 10 colors. And I've been waiting pretty impatiently for them to get here. A month is a long time.

Today they arrived. After I stared at them for awhile I decided to do something I have always wanted to do. It's not anything super exciting, but for whatever reason, I have always wanted to do plain old pink roses on a burgundy background.
Square Hue Surf Gypsy, Mundo de Unas MDU Pink, Bundle Monster BM XL07 stamp
You can't see it in the picture, but the Square Hue Surf Gypsy I used for the base has some very fine glitter in it. It's a beauty all on its own.

I went through all of my plates, and quite a few of them have some type of rose on them, but this BM XL07 plate from Bundle Monster has just what I wanted. A plain old rose. No leaves, just a rose. 

The MDU polish is amazing. It has a really nice consistency for stamping, in my opinion much better than Konad. It also felt like I needed less of it which is awesome. In the past it seems like whatever black and white stamping polish I buy it's gone in a blink.

I think it literally took me less than 90 seconds to stamp this. Even with a large area to fill on the plate, none of the polish got scraped out of the design which I sometimes have trouble with using normal polish.

If I wasn't so afraid I'd break my nose, I'd punch myself square in the face for not buying colored stamping polish before now. I'm thinking my stamping life is changed for the better. 

My day is made.


Friday, April 17, 2015

FRIDAY GREEN

I'm doing a little add-on edit here - I think my post yesterday misled some of you. I was in no way trying to imply that I want people to take time out of their day to actually post comments on my posts. I was only talking about the view count that I can see for each post. As an example, most of my posts get between 200-300 views. The black/white one at the time I wrote yesterday had under 70. It caused me to wonder why. That's all I meant. Please do not feel like you have to comment. Ever! If you do, know that I am extremely happy to see and reply, but that's just a cherry on top of the sundae for me. I personally just like looking at the numbers and knowing that there are people out there that are interested enough to even look at the page. Now back to the originally scheduled post.......

Even though it's been about a month of working Monday through Wednesday, doing it still messes with my mind. Yesterday felt like Friday, and today feels like Saturday. Sometimes it's confusing, but it also somehow feels like some tiny victory when I realize that I still have one more day off then I thought I did.

It's been so nice here the past couple of days. Summer seems so close. And just to piss myself off I looked at the weather forecast and see there's a possibility of snow next week. Seriously? Unnecessary, Mother Nature. Get it together already.

Yesterday Kev and I did random stuff around the house. We put the trim back up around the bedroom ceiling finally. I also had to go around the ceiling and wash off all of the ceiling stuff the ceiling guy got all over the walls. Nice. I'm glad the ceilings are done, and they do look 100% better, but man, perfect they are not because they didn't take down any of the trim before doing it. 

I also had the hubby take the bathroom light fixture globes off so I could wash them. Much swearing ensued. I made the mistake of asking if I could do anything to help, and he told me I could buy a different light fixture. Ouch. That thing does not come apart or go back together very easily. It had to be done, though. That dead wasp needed to go, along with the dust.

On to nails.
Square Hue WPA, FUN 15 stamp
I got my new Square Hue polishes a couple of weeks ago, and this green was in the box. It's nice! I do love me my Square Hue! This one is WPA. No clue what that means or stands for, but it's a pretty green. The stamped design is from the FUN 15 plate.

I've been having a whole lot of stamping fun with all of the new plates I've gotten recently. I'm really glad I haven't seen any more new ones I need to have. I've had little to no self-control lately when it comes to getting nail stuff.

Sometimes it's just hard to say no. And just when I think there's nothing I have to have, somebody sends me an email with another great deal. Yesterday it was Cult who had a buy one, get two free deal happening. Of course I had to jump on that. I have almost all of their colors at this point, but I did grab three more of their white and six colors I didn't have. I'm thinking it might be time for a no-buy. *sigh*

I really hate self-imposed no-buys. 




Wednesday, April 15, 2015

WHERE'D EVERYBODY GO??

Did I offend a bunch of people? I'm thinking I must have because it appears nobody is stopping by much. At least not according to the number of views on some of the latest posts. For those of you that don't use Blogger, from my account I can see how many views a post gets. And the white and black one is apparently a ginormous flop.

Either that, or like I said, I've managed to offend the world and sent them running in the opposite direction of me. While I know it shouldn't bug me, it does. 

Oh, well, not a thing I can do about any of that, and I'd probably keep posting even if only two of you were bothering to look. Sometimes it's pretty therapeutic to come on here and vent. 

I did this one last Friday before heading off to my granddaughter's birthday party. 
HITS Mari Moon  Trendy, Uber Chic 1-03, stamp
I did one coat of black on my nails and then did two coats of HITS Mari Moon Trendy. There is a smidge of a color shift on this, but it doesn't show up very often. 

The stamped design came from my Uber Chic 1-03 plate. I'm really enjoying the UC plates. They're pretty big designs although I do have to be very careful with placement on my thumbs and middle fingers. They will cover, but I have to get them just right.


Off to watch The Americans with the hubby. I think we are four episodes behind. After work I cleaned the whole house, threw in a load of towels and made supper, so now I'm free as a bird until I go back to work on Monday.

Speaking of birds, I also put out my window hummingbird feeders. I'm a few weeks early, but I just thought I'd throw them up and cross my fingers. Last year I never saw one until May 9th, but I'm crossing my fingers that I'll see some early.

I'm glad they're up, but I'm already glancing sideways at them every 30 seconds thinking I should see something. 

At this rate, it might be a long month.


Monday, April 13, 2015

BLACK AND WHITE

Oh, what a wondrous puppy-filled five days I had!! Tyler got home Tuesday night with Zero. He is just a joy to have around because he is such a sweetheart. The fact that he remains pretty obsessed with me doesn't exactly hurt my opinion of him.

On Saturday afternoon Major and Razzie came to play with their brother. Three big boys in the house along with Tinlee and Baylee makes for quite the houseful. And they were wound up and having a ball.

They couldn't make it with Seven during the boy time, but she came over Saturday evening for a couple of hours. She's fun to have around, and so are her owners. I love Laura and Lisa. They surprised me this weekend by bringing over some special kind of beer for Kev as well as some fruity kind of beer that I agreed to try. I actually kind of liked it so I finally now have a beer product I'm willing to drink. In other words, it doesn't really taste like beer.

The best thing they brought me was a ginormous Easter basket filled with.....PEEPS!!!! Hilarious! I should have known Lisa was up to something because she gets such an excited happy face when she is. I love it. They are the best.....they let me steal their dog AND bring me presents. 

With Tyler, Griffin and Zero home I didn't do much nail play, but even though I was exhausted last night, I did manage these.
Cult El Porto, Uber Chic Girl On Fire glitter dust, FUN 13 stamp
I again used Cult El Porto for my white base, but once that was dry I mixed up some Uber Chic Girl on Fire glitter dust with some Seche Vite and gave the white an iridescent finish before using black and the FUN 13 plate for my design.

The glitter dust looked quite nice and added some depth to the white. In person it really showed up well under the black design....much better than in the picture.

Very different for me and even after wearing it all day, I never did decide if I liked it. It's gone now, though, so I guess it doesn't matter anymore.

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

CAN'T FIGURE IT OUT

Oh, man....today is a crab-ass day. Let's begin, shall we?

It actually started last night. I had one hell of a time falling asleep and right about the time I did, the dogs started barking because Kev came home from work. Normally not so much an issue, but I then had another hell of a time falling back to sleep. And I just couldn't stay asleep. I have no clue how many times I woke up, but I know my ass is really dragging today.

Because of no sleep, I also have one doozy of a headache. Four Excedrin Migraine already today, and they haven't touched it. 

Driving back and forth to work was causing me road rage. People are idiots. Either drive at least close to the speed limit or get off the damn road. If you can't choose an actual lane to stay in, get off the damn road. If you've forgotten that turn signals are for using, get off the damn road. And lastly, how am I apparently completely invisible in an SUV? Jackasses. All of them.

My computer at work keeps freezing up and being slow as hell, much like the drivers on the road. 'Nuff said about that.

Final vent of the day? Trying to photograph purple. I'm so over it. It's so frustrating that purple is my fave color polish and the one that causes me so much grief. If someone would please come over and teach me how to use that light box I bought, that'd be awesome. Thanks.

I finally gave up and went with this pic. In real life that shower curtain is pure white. The only way to get the polish color right was to give again give myself yellow hands. Cute.  I'm sure some idiot on some website will take the time to point it out to me, too. I love people that do that.
Darling Diva Nightbird, Color Club Halo Hues Eternal Beauty, Uber Chic 1-01 stamp
This polish is just beyond gorgeous. It's Darling Diva Nightbird, and it's a blackened purple holo. Amazeballs. I tried a couple of different holos for stamping and finally went with Color Club Halo Hues Eternal Beauty and my new Uber Chic 1-01 stamping plate.

I've shown off a couple of different Darling Diva polishes now, and I'm just going to say this: Run off to their website right now and just buy up all the holos. For realz. Their polish is just fantastic.

Whew!! I feel a whole lot better now that I've done all that complaining. Sometimes I just hold all that crap in because I don't have anybody to talk to. Just one more reason blogging is therapeutic. 

Does a body good to vent.

Monday, April 6, 2015

HMMM...NOT SURE

In looking back at blog posts from April 2013 and April 2014, I believe I shall no longer consider April to be spring. I'm not even whining; I'm just stating the facts. 

I woke this morning to find about 3 inches of snow on the ground. Really. I wasn't even aware that it was supposed to snow until Tyler texted me last night and said she didn't even want to come home to visit because it was 67 degrees at her house yesterday. Can't say I blame her. Well, I would blame her if she actually doesn't come, but I'm sure she'll pack up Griff's winter jacket and head back here, hopefully tomorrow. She was going to come today, but Griff has a doctor's appointment for some nasty cough.

So while I wait for them, I keep right on waiting for spring. Who know....maybe she'll bring it with her!

Here's one a wore for a hot minute a week or so ago. I don't even remember if I did both hands. I think I did, but I'm guessing.
Julep Gabrielle, China Glaze Admire, Bundle Monster BM-XL04 stamp
I don't really like how this one turned out. It just looks kind of muddy to me. The base is Julep Gabrielle, which I happen to really like. I also happen to really like China Glaze Admire which is what I used for the stamping. It just ended up being a pattern off of the Bundle Monster BM XL04 plate that I just don't much like. 

Sometimes a design just is too much of a design, and this one covered way more real estate than I wanted it to. Oh, well. It happens.

I'm looking at my tips in this picture and at my actual hands right now, and I think I'm going to have to break down and file these damn nails. I am really not appreciating how they are starting to round themselves. I guess I'll grab a file and carefully flatten them back more square.

I really need to go back to some of my old, old pics and see my nail progression. I don't remember my first pink fashion length set wearing like my past couple of sets. And I've only had these a few months. I'm starting to wonder if the company has made some slight change in the material they use to make the nails.

Whatever the reason, I am not liking this issue at all. If I have to file them every few months to keep them straight and square edged, I'll end up needing new nails at least once a year which in my mind kind of defeats part of the reason for the lifetime guarantee.

Geez, now that I wrote that, I'm even more irritated about it.



Saturday, April 4, 2015

MY EASTER NAILS

I'm not going to ramble on and on today. I'm enjoying a Saturday of puppysitting Seven until tomorrow evening. She is not so much a fan of me sitting with my laptop on my lap.

Right now she is passed out under the kitchen table. She finally got bored and fell asleep because Tinlee didn't want to play anymore. So I thought I'd do a quick post while they are recharging their batteries.

Since I knew it would be a dog filled couple of days, I decided I would do a mani last night. If my Easter Sunday goes as it usually does, we'll be going out to dinner with my family. I figured I may as well do something Easterish.
Cult El Porto and The Roxy, Square Hue Yellow Submarine, China Glaze Spring in My Step, Sinful Colors Bright Lucite gradient, MoYou Pro XL03 Easter stamp
I started by putting on just one coat of white using Cult El Porto. It's my favorite white because the formula is just so nice. We all know what a pain white can be sometimes.

Then I did a gradient with Cult The Roxy, Square Hue Yellow Submarine, China Glaze Spring in My Step and Sinful Colors Bright Lucite.

I looked through all of my stamping plates and was rather shocked that I don't really have anything Easter-egg-like. I finally chose this design from my MoYou Pro XL 03 plate.

I'm pretty happy with this. I love the colors in the gradient, and all of those polishes worked really well on the sponge. My only bitch about this is the fact that I didn't get the stamping design on straight. It was too late at night to be a fuss budget about it, so I let it slide.

All in all, I'll call it a success.

I hope you all have a great day tomorrow and that the Easter Bunny brings you some goodies. My mom still handles that for me by buying me a large chocolate fudge egg from our local candy store. Sometimes she'll also get some little bunny decoration, too, if she finds a good deal somewhere. 

You're never too old for Easter goodies. 

Thursday, April 2, 2015

DISAPPOINTMENT

Today it actually is spring. It didn't start out very well because it was rainy, but by the afternoon the sun came out and it was almost 60 degrees at my house. I don't know if the dampness was getting to me or what, but I spent almost the entire day just freezing. I just could not warm up even with the thermostat cranked up to 73. Once the sun started to lower and stream in through my patio door, I finally got warm.

I was hoping this warm day meant even warmer temps throughout the next week, but the ten day forecast has us back to mild winter-type weather. Lamesville. I'm itching to put my hummingbird feeders up, but I'm still about two months too soon. As soon as I get spring fever, I also get hummingbird fever. Let's face it; I just want sunny, 80 degree weather. Every day. I simply should not live here.

Sunday night while we were watching the finale of Walking Dead, I did this mani.
China Glaze Grass is Lime Greener, Sinful Colors Endless Blue, Ali Express AP 20 stamp
I always feel bad when I make Kev pause the tv while I run off to pick nail polishes, so I just went with two that were still sitting out. The base is China Glaze Grass is Lime Greener, and I stamped with Sinful Colors Endless Blue, both of which were used in yesterday's post. The lacy floral design is from the Ali Express AP 20 stamping plate.

I liked the idea of using the blue over the green, but I wish I had used a different blue. If we weren't so involved in the show, I would have gone and grabbed some different ones to try, but I decided to just go with what I started even though I was a bit disappointed that the blue wasn't as bold as I wanted.

It was well-liked enough to actually do both hands and wear it to work, though. My eyes were drawn to it a lot because that green is bright! I might not be doing any kind of actual Easter mani, but I'm sure using a lot of bright spring colors this past week. 

I might have to switch it up soon and do one that's dark and gloomy lest people think I'm perky or something. I don't want anybody getting the wrong idea since we know that is simply not the case.

Perky is definitely not my middle name.


Wednesday, April 1, 2015

NO IDEA WHAT TO CALL IT

Ahhhh, it's April!! I don't know why that fact somehow means it's really spring now, but that's kind of how I think of it. I'm still wearing a winter coat, though, so maybe I should rethink and try again in May.

I'm attributing my office cleaning as spring fever. I feel so accomplished at what I got done over the past few days. I think there's now enough room in the storage closet to get us through the next couple of years. Our conference room, on the other hand, is a disaster. I dragged all of the old files that need destroying into that room. I didn't want to leave them hanging out in the hallway area by the closet. Obviously people's personal bizniz can't be sitting where Joe Schmo can see it.

My whole body aches from moving and lifting those damn boxes, though. I was going to have Kev come and help me but decided to just go it alone. So it's done, but I'm paying for it.

In the springtime spirit, the last few mani's I've done have been leaning towards brighter colors. And on this one I used a bunch!
Sinful Colors Endless Blue, Boom Boom, China Glaze Grass is Lime Greener, Julep Daisy, Essie The Girls Are Out, BM XL16 stamp
I started with a base of Sinful Colors Snow Me White and then dabbed a bunch of colors on my Bundle Monster BM XL16 stamping plate and let the colors spread out however they wanted.

So this is Sinful Colors Endless Blue and Boom Boom, China Glaze Grass is Lime Greener, Julep Daisy and Essie The Girls Are Out. Once I finished stamping, I used Butter London's matte topcoat to dull it down.

This didn't turn out quite the way it was in my head, but it's okay. I'd do it again but probably use a different stamp pattern. I do think it's fun using more than one color on a stamp, though. I just don't seem to do it very often.

I took a break from this post to clean the house and make Rice Krispie bars. I'm going to go eat a row of those for supper and watch some tv.

I'm tired from not sleeping very well the past couple of nights, so this is going to be a no-nails-night for me. 

Translation: I'm uninspired and lazy.