Friday, August 28, 2015

WORSE, NOT BETTER

Recuperation has been a bitch. The first two days I didn't feel too bad, but the days after that haven't been so pleasant. I noticed a hematoma near one of my stitches, so that was causing some extra discomfort. I'm glad I noticed it, though. If I hadn't, it might have required actual followup. This way I was at least able to take care of it myself.

Hummingbird action has been completely out of control. They are not only on me the second I sit down, they are even eating from the extra feeders that are sitting on the table behind me when I'm out there. This afternoon I had 6 of them buzzing and divebombing all around me. It was pure heaven.

The girls decided it's orange week, and while I do have one hand painted at the moment, this is one from a couple of weeks ago. 
Sinful Colors Skylark, Mundo de Unas Caramel, Uber Chic 4-02, stamp
It's not really orange, but this Sinful Colors Skylark will have to be close enough. I stamped with Mundo de Unas Caramel and Uber Chic 4-02.

I love the colors but hated the mani. It just looks kind of like a smudgy mess to me and is definitely not my best work. 

Right now I'm pondering a water marble. I broke down and bought the water marble tool from Whats Up nail store, and I'm kind of itching to try it out.

I've pretty much failed at the no buy. Again. I picked up 10 bottles of Glitter Gal from Llarowe the other night, too. They are blowing them out at 75 cents a bottle so I just couldn't resist.

I also just now bought a refill bottle of Seche Vite on Amazon, too, but I never feel bad about buying that. The 4 oz refill along with a regular size bottle of it is only $13.94 shipped. Can't beat that price.

Now I'm off to wander the web for color inspiration for that water marble. It's really humid, though, so I don't know if things will even cooperate tonight.

Oh, dammit. I just saw Uber Chic has plates 5-01, 5-02 and 5-03 now. Somebody stop me from buying them!!!!!

Friday, August 21, 2015

SURGERY SURVIVAL

Another easy, breezy surgery out of the way. My nails were absolutely not an issue. The only nurse that even brought it up was a nurse that had her own nail art on that she had done herself. She said her little girl is really into painting ladybugs and stuff on her nails. Very cute. 

And no, I didn't slap her when she asked if mine were Jamberry. Ugh.

My rings were really the only problem I encountered, and the only ones I could actually manage to remove were my 5 tiny midi bands. I'm assuming they taped up the rest after they knocked my ass out. Getting them back on today wasn't easy. According to the scale yesterday, I have gained a pound, probably from the ton of candy that Tonya brought me as a gift for watching Razzie last weekend, and that pound evidently landed in my fingers. 

Surgery only took about 45 minutes, and I woke up in recovery in great shape, shocking yet another floor full of nurses. I was up and walking to the bathroom within minutes. My only moment of slight loopiness came when I first woke up and asked if everything went well. When I asked the exact same question probably 5 minutes later, I immediately told them I knew I had already asked that question. I don't really know how long they kept me in the recovery room, but when I was up and about in my room getting dressed, a couple of the nurses asked if I had really had surgery.  

We were outta' there before 4 p.m. with me showing no evidence of having been put under. We stopped at my daughters halfway home for a potty call and saw the grandkids. Toni texted me last night and said the kids didn't even realize there was anything going on with me at all, no clue I'd even had surgery. It's so nice to be good at something; for me I guess it's coming to after getting knocked out.

I'm not feeling nearly as crappy as I thought I would, which is nice. Bastards didn't even give me any good drugs! Doc said if I want to I can double up on my normal Vicodin dose. Of course if I do that, I'm going to run out of my monthly refill, so that's not cool. I guess if I'm feeling miserable enough to actually double up, I'll just have to call him and see if he'll call me in an additional prescription to cover the difference. As of right now I'm thinking I won't need to do that, but I still have some numbness and am not sure if when that wears off I'll have actual pain. We shall see.

Kev left this morning for the family reunion I'm once again missing, which sucks. If this stupid surgery hadn't thrown this month out of whack, I was really looking forward to going down to Ludington for the weekend and seeing the family. They are such a fun bunch of people, and I just love them all!

I still have the red and black on, and this is one I did a couple of weeks ago when I got the newest Uber Chic plates.
Sinful Colors Sail La Vie, Mundo de Unas White, Uber Chic 4-01 stamp
The blue, not quite periwinkle, is Sinful Colors Sail La Vie and I used Mundo de Unas White with the Uber Chic 4-01 plate.

Loved it. Love this color, and even though I was unsuccessful in perfectly centering the design on my left hand, love the design. For some reason when I stamped on my right hand, I centered them much better. No clue why. I suppose I could have shown that hand, but for some reason I find getting the hand pose on my right hand much more difficult.

Now I'm off to refill the kitchen window feeder. Again. When we got home at 6 last night, it was empty. It was so cute because I was in the kitchen filling it, and a hummer was outside the window looking in at me. As I walked outside to hang it back up, two hummers were on me immediately. I ended up standing there and feeding one of the little girls before I even got to hang it. Once she flew off, I hung it back on the hook and came inside. Then I just stood and watched the hummingbird shenanigans for a bit.

Before we left yesterday, I had Kev grab the one garage feeder that was getting low so I could get that filled. I had him get the front window feeders down for me today before he left so I could fill those. Then I looked out at the garage feeders and was shocked to see the other two empty! What the heck? I had glanced at one of them last night and figured I'd have him bring that one in to be topped off before leaving, but somehow between later last night and this morning's early morning feeding frenzy, they managed to completely drain two of them. Maniacs!

Best hummingbird summer EVER!





Wednesday, August 19, 2015

THIS GREW ON ME

I decided I'd call the surgical nurse before I left work yesterday to ask about nail polish and surgery. Her response was, "Technically, we're supposed to tell people to take it off of one finger on each hand". After a bit of discussion about what kind of nails I have on, she pretty much said "don't ruin a nail bed trying to get them off". 

Oh, don't worry, sweetie. I won't. It was very obvious that they don't really care one way or another what I do about it, especially since I told her I'd have nekkid toenails. In all honesty, I might just soak all of them off even though they haven't even been on for two weeks. That blue from yesterday left blue stains on a couple nails all around the edges. If it's still there when I take off this current mani, I might just go ahead and remove them.

I really wanted to do a light color last night, but those blue stains made me change my mind.
Julep Nan, Mundo de Unas  black, Dana7 stamp
This red is kind of a red/orange, I guess. It's Julep Nan, and I just grabbed Mundo de Unas  black and the Dana7 stamping plate for the design.

I didn't like this much before I went to bed last night. For some reason it has really grown on me during the day. I'm half tempted to just leave it on. 

We'll see how ambitious I feel after cleaning the house and cooking dinner.




Tuesday, August 18, 2015

I NEED SOME DRUGS

It was a simply marvelous weekend, hot, sunny, muggy and full of pool time. Razzie was a complete delight the entire weekend, and he even finally managed to get into the pool all by himself. Figures that now that he has it figured out, he probably won't be back in it until next year. 

He must have taken lessons from Seven on Sunday afternoon. Seven and her people came over to play, and she was in and out of that pool at least 15 times.

Good times were had by all. I'm assuming it may have been the last pool fun for the rest of the year, but I'm hoping I might get at least another weekend or two. 

On Thursday I'm off to Green Bay for some surgery. Nothing major, and I'll be home the same day. Then I'll get a few weeks off to just lay around. 

Right now the worst part of waiting to just be done with it is the no aspirin for a week prior rule. My head has seriously been on the verge of exploding for the past few days, and I would kill to be able to take some Excedrin Migraine, a/k/a The Best Drug Ever Made. By last night it hurt so bad I went to bed at 11:15. I had already been  kind of dozing off and on in the recliner for an hour before that, and I decided to just give in and go to bed. I know it's a bad headache when it keeps me awake. My efforts to try and get a good night's sleep were an epic fail. That booming in my brain kept me awake for over two hours and then woke me up a few more times just to piss me off. I woke up with only a slightly lesser version of the headache, and as the day wears on, it's just getting worse again.

The nail group is doing teal this week, so on Sunday night I decided on this.
Sally Hansen Blue Me Away, Mundo de Unas Sky Blue, Dana8  stamp
For some reason, this leans much more teal in real life. It looked very teal on my swatches compared to my other blues, too. This is Sally Hansen Blue Me Away stamped with Mundo de Unas Sky Blue and the Dana8 stamping plate.

It's cute-ish. I like it. I'm still wearing it, but that's only because I felt too crappy last night to take it off. I'm hoping tonight I feel good enough to do something else.

I'm also wondering what to do about my nails for surgery. The doctor's office didn't mention not wearing nail polish, and when the surgical nurse called yesterday, she went through everything and didn't mention it either. I'm leaning towards leaving them painted and just making sure I have naked toes.

Shoot. I suppose I'll have to call them tomorrow and find out for sure. If I have to take them completely off, I am not going to be happy.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

IT'S WHITE WEEK

Summer is back!! And it looks like it will be here for the weekend. High's in the 80's in town which means close to 90 at my house. I'm so looking forward to pool time. I managed to sneak in a couple of hours today and came inside just as it started to rain. The rain didn't last very long, but it gave us a pretty good sized jump in the humidity. It was hot and stuffy enough that I actually closed up the house when I turned on the a/c. Even with that, I was still sweating my balls off when I was cleaning the house.

My time in the pool was spent watching the Hummingbirds and warding off wasps. So part fun, part annoying. After I got done cleaning, I sat out on the deck for a few minutes and fed some birds. They are going through more nectar than I think I've ever seen right now. All day long I get to listen to them chattering out there, and they are on me almost as fast as I sit down with the feeder in my hand. 

The gang over in Nail Fun chose white as the color of the week, and I decided to play along yesterday.
Square Hue iPolish, Essie Penny Talk, Dana3 stamp
I used my latest Square Hue, iPolish, for my white. I may have a new favorite white. The formula on this one is fantabulous!! The worst thing about Square Hue is falling in love with one and not just being able to order it. I'll be super saddy pants when this one runs out.

For my stamping I used Essie Penny Talk, and I used one of my new Dana stamping plates. This design is from the Dana3 plate.

For $12 I got ten Dana plates. I had run across some random link where somebody had used them and given them great reviews. I figured for that price, I'd take the risk. I'm happy I did. 

Now I have to try to force myself to stop buying stuff! It would be easier if people wouldn't constantly post pictures of their new pretties.

No buy starts.....now.

 


Monday, August 10, 2015

I ALWAYS FORGET!

This weekend's weather sucked! I got about two hours in the pool on Thursday, but the rest of the weekend was mostly cloudy. I have a feeling my pool days for the rest of the summer are numbered, probs in the single digits at this point. Of course, I can certainly hope for hot weather that lasts throughout September. I can dream, can't I?

The weekend was absolutely fantastic for Hummingbirds, though! They have all just been crazy busy at my feeders. I have an adult male that is being super mean to a younger male, though. I've never seen anything like it. All weekend long I watched him attack this poor bird. I got some great videos and some pretty great pics, too.

The fighting went on all day Friday. I'll give the younger guy credit, though. He never backed down or flew away. He just stuck to his spot, and when the bully would leave, the little guy just went right back to eating. 

After putting the crab ass on blast over in my Facebook Hummingbird groups, I snapped a pic of him. Sassy-pants stuck his tongue out at me.
On Saturday, they were right back at it. After a couple of hours, I guess the juvenile got tired of it because at one point as the bully was resting, the younger guy flew up and knocked him right off the feeder. 

I am now ass-less from laughing.

I also spent a whole lot of time sitting in my chair in the front yard feeding the little darlings. It was seriously crazy out there. If they weren't landing on my fingers to eat, they were dive-bombing each other right next to me. I even had two that were nice enough to share the feeder with one sitting on my left index finger and one sitting on my right. It was awesome.

Last night most of the action seemed to be taking place in the back yard for some reason, and I stood and watched from the doorway as they all played and chattered and jockeyed for feeder position. Finally I had to give in and go sit on the deck, risking getting nailed by one of those wasps that are residing under the siding, but I just couldn't resist. It was worth it. Even the douchebag from the other night landed and ate a couple of times.

I did manage to soak off my nails and reapply them on Saturday and finally painted them last night.
Milani Hi-Tech, Mundo de Unas Papyrus, DRK-A, stamp
I started off with the lovely green holo, Milani Hi-Tech. Before I even started painting, I knew I'd want to get a picture of it on its own.

And then I went right ahead and stamped over it using Mundo de Unas Papyrus and my DRK-A stamping plate. So yup, I'm a complete airhead once again. You'll just have to take my word for it that Hi-Tech is super pretty all by its lonesome.

With that, here's hoping your week is wonderful!

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

DAMN YOU, STRESS!

I wish I was a drinker. Then maybe I could just do random shots of something throughout the day to make me un-stressed. Ever since I found out in May that I'll be having a smidge of surgery later this month, my moods have been swinging, and I just in general don't feel "quite right" even though I'm not sick. 

I'm able to specifically label it as stress because whenever I'm super stressed out, the left corner of my mouth cracks. Weird and annoying. And this morning I awoke to find that the right side has decided to go along for the fun. Thankfully it's not really noticeable so at least I'm not looking all joker-ish. While I certainly don't have any desire to wish for summer to be over, I'll be glad when the end of the month is past.

Tyler, Griffin and Zero headed back to Illinois this morning, and the house seemed very empty when I went home at lunchtime. I think Tinlee is pouting because she wouldn't eat her lunch. She should have been hungry, too, since this morning her tummy was upset and she didn't eat breakfast. Zero enjoyed eating his breakfast and then hers when I wasn't looking. Little shit. 

Now I'm counting the minutes until 5 o'clock so I can go home and clean the house so I can be lazy for the weekend. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll get some pool time over the next 4 days even though my previously nice warm pool water has now dropped back into the low 70's, thanks to the night time temps in the 40's. 

Here's some nails from last week.
Square Hue Notre Dame, Mundo de Unas Lilac, Fab Ur Nails FUN 13, stamp
I was wearing a light cream colored top with tiny purple flowers so I decided to do something that was kind of smatchy using Square Hue Notre Dame, Mundo de Unas Lilac and the Fab Ur Nails FUN 13 plate.

If I hadn't been too lazy to walk from one end of the house to the other, I would have looked more closely at the shirt and realized that I should have stamped with a darker purple. Oh, well.

This is one of those that I wasn't fond of while I was wearing it, but now that I'm looking at the picture, I like it more. I don't know why that happens to me so often.

At some point over the weekend I really should do a soak off. What I would really like is to do all new impressions and get a new set of nails, but evidently Custom Nail Solutions hasn't been able to get the stuff to make the solid pink nails for quite awhile now. I don't know what happened there, but not cool. I've had the French tipped ones, and that white is just too hard to cover.

Of course, that's money I won't spend if I can't get them, right?

Monday, August 3, 2015

THE GRIFFSTER IS 5

I'd say "Happy Monday", but that would be a load of b.s. I don't think I know anybody that actually likes Mondays.

It was a busy few days. On Wednesday night Tyler got home with Griffin and Zero, although Griff went straight to his other grandparent's house. Zero was very happy to be "home". On Thursday I had a doctor's appointment two hours away, and then we went out to dinner with some friends. From there we lost some bucks at the casino.

Friday was hang around the house and pool time with the dogs and with Griffin. The little stinker turned 5 on Wednesday and doesn't need any kind of swimming helpers anymore. He is so great in the water! Absolutely no fear of going under or anything, and he has a whole lot of fun when Grampa Kev is in there with him. While I might not be strong enough to pick him up and throw him, Grampa surely can. Poor Kev always gets a workout when Griffin is around.

Saturday was the big super hero themed 5th birthday party. Griff assigned me to be Wonder Woman, and Tyler had bought me a t-shirt with the symbol on it. It was going to be in the 80's, though, so she made me a tank top on Friday night. Good thing because it was hot out during the party. I did my nails blue with red stars per Griff's request, and I had the bat signal on one nail, which he really thought was cool. The entire mani was so  hideous I didn't even take a picture of it. But it made him smile, and that's really all that mattered.

I did make the mistake of letting Griffin go swimming in the morning. He ate lunch and went back in for a little while. Then while the grownups were getting ready for the party, this happened.
Baylee hasn't shown much interest in her new dog bed, but Griffin finds it super comfy. He slept for over an hour and was late to his own party.

It was a good party with good food and lots of great people. I think everybody went home happy.
I wanted to eat his face. And the cake. I settled for just eating cake.

Unfortunately, it looks like last week was summer. Now it's back to cloudy and much colder. It was in the 50's last night, it's about 70 right now, and the next 10 days don't look much better. 

So much for nice warm pool water. :(

Last week in nail group we were doing blue. I actually managed to wear 2 different blue mani's last week but never found a chance to post either one. So as usual, I'm late.
Barielle End of the Rainbow, Essie No Place Like Chrome, Uber Chic UC 1-02 stamp
This is Barielle End of the Rainbow stamped with Essie No Place Like Chrome and my Uber Chic UC 1-02 plate.

I had a hard time getting pics of this one. There was just a ton of glare obscuring the butterfly. I finally gave up trying and just went with this shot, which was the best of the bunch.

This one is just "okay" for me. Almost everything I've done lately is just okay for me. I need to come up with something I'm going to love, dammit!