Saturday, January 30, 2016

HOLO TOPCOAT

I'm sad that it's Saturday already. It's been a very nice, quiet couple of days, and I wouldn't mind having a few more just like it. Wednesday I cleaned the house after work like I always do and then did a couple of loads of laundry. After that I made a banana cake which was a mistake. It didn't turn out as good as the last one because the bananas were too fresh. I didn't have the patience to let them ripen and did the freezer method instead. It's still good, but the last one was better. Lesson learned.

Yesterday I groomed Tinlee, much to her dismay. That dog does not like any part of that. I easily could make a new dog with the hair that came off of her because she is shedding like a mo-fo. Baylee tried to help by shoving her way in on the action. As I'm brushing Tinlee, that moose scoots her way right in front of me and flips onto her back which leaves me reaching over her to brush the Tinster. She is so weird.

I decided to do a brown mani back on January 11th. I chose Fingerpaints Hue Are You and then did a holo topcoat to spark it up a little.
Fingerpaints Who Are You, Essie Good as Gold, Uber Chic 3-02
I love this holo topcoat. I really wish I knew where I got it. I bought it a long time ago, two mini bottles, and whoever made it didn't put a name on the bottle. So now I want more and can't find it. I know it is spectraflair 35, but that's it.
Fingerpaints Who Are You, Essie Good as Gold, Uber Chic 3-02
I used Uber Chic 3-02 and Essie Good as Gold for the leafy kind of design.

My Essies are all I use for gold or silver stamping, and I'm kind of wondering if I should buy some actual gold and silver stamping polishes. The Essie stamps really well so I'm not even sure why I'm pondering that. Maybe I just feel like spending money.

I'll need to talk myself out of that for now. I've spent money on several random things over the past couple of weeks which is something I always seem to do right after Christmas. 

I really am going to go wander Etsy, though, to see if I can find that holo topcoat. That, I need.

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

NOT SO ME-ISH

Having Razzie for the weekend was a nice distraction since the only thing I could seem to find on Facebook was more sadness. 

Seven came over and played with her brother, and Razzie was probably the best behaved he's ever been. He seemed not quite as pesty as last time, and he actually lets me sleep until almost 9 a.m., unlike his sister, who is used to an earlier schedule than he is. It's pretty sad when I have to force myself to go to bed earlier because the dog might wake up. As always, I was sad to see him go back home. He's just a little love-bug, always quick with a smooch and a tail wag. 

It was also cute to watch Tinlee as he pulled out of the driveway. She just stood on the deck at the top of the stairs and watched them leave. I think she was actually sad about it. As for Raz, he was hanging his whole upper body out of the truck window and was still looking back at the house as they drove off. Tinlee then came in the house, plopped next to me and let out a heavy sigh before falling asleep. She was definitely in full-on pout mode.

After he left at 6, it was time to get busy and soak off my nails. Evidently my real nails just didn't grow much during the past month because my Customs were still rock solid. It's funny when they've been on for a long time, that little bit of length I gain as they grow out actually becomes an issue while typing. It's like suddenly my nails are too long, and I start hitting the wrong keys more often.

Once I reapplied, I didn't really feel like stamping or anything so I threw on the other new Julep I had gotten and then decided to throw on a glitter that I had won on Instagram last summer.
Julep Janie, KB Shimmer Precious Petals
The base is a very light pink, Julep Janie, and the topper is KB Shimmer Precious Petals. As you may or may not know, I am not a ginormous fan of glitter. When I had initially gotten this one and swatched it, I thought it was quite pretty just by itself on my swatch stick. I knew if and/or when I used it, I would for sure want it to be on something very pale. It works perfectly on Janie.

Sometimes I find glitter to be a real pain to apply, but this one actually went on very nicely. The glitter pieces dispersed without too much monkeying around, and I did two coats before topcoating.

If I have any inspiration this evening, I'll take this off, but if I do end up being too lazy or too involved watching the first two episodes of X Files, it won't break my heart to leave this on.

Besides, I'm sure if I want to break my heart, all I have to do is wander around Facebook for 3.2 seconds. I'm sure something shitty will have happened to someone.

I think I'm cried out anyway. At least for this moment.

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

2016 BLOWS.

With all of the weird health things I had in 2015, I was all set for 2016 to be the start of a happier year. 

So far, epic fail. Every day I'm afraid to turn on the computer. Losses for the world of music have been shocking. I honestly have pretty much been convinced that David Bowie wasn't even actually a human, so him dying never really occurred to me, let alone at such an early age. 

Add to that the loss of four dogs from my group of doggie FB friends, and I'm about ready to call it 2017. I know it probably seems odd to some that it even affects me, but I do consider these people friends, and when any pet dies, it hurts. Having been there, I know that pain personally and hate for anybody else to have to deal with it.

Enough of that.

I did this mani on Sunday night, and I'm still wearing it.
China Glaze No Plain Jane, Mundo de Unas Black, Ali Express 12-51 plate
This shimmery purple is China Glaze No Plain Jane. Since I didn't want it to be plain, I used the Ali Express 12-51 stamping plate and MdU Black to throw a design on it.

It tickles me purple to take a pic with my new camera and have it be color perfect. I don't have to adjust a thing when I take pics anymore. It's just so nice and non-frustrating! 

It occurred to me last night that I haven't soaked my nails off in a month. I'm not sure why they still look as decent as they do, but I really should try to reapply them at some point this week. I'll have Razzie for the weekend, and I'm sure he'd want to help which means I'd better get it done before he comes.

Sometimes those 70+ pound puppies are not the most graceful or considerate of creatures, and seeing all of my nail stuff going flying around the room does not appeal to me at all.

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

NEWEST JULEP

I'm not going to get too carried away with the bitching, but holy crap, it is COLD outside!! For the past week we've had single digits with an even lower windchill. I was really getting spoiled by all of that abnormally warm winter weather, and I think it is making this cold snap even more shocking to my system.

It is supposed to warm up a bit tomorrow. Unfortunately the weather man is also saying it's going to snow. This isn't great timing for that. I have to drive 2 hours to Green Bay for a follow-up doctor appointment, and they are saying possible freezing rain there. I'm hoping the forecast is wrong or that it will wait until I'm nowhere around if it's going to start doing that. 

Somehow I managed to forget to look at the Julep Maven box in December to see if I wanted it or not. I probably would have skipped the month if I'd remembered because one of the items for the It Girl box was their oxygen nail treatment, which I don't use. I gave the last bottle to my sister, and she seems to like it so I'll pass this bottle to her.

The two actual polishes I got are very nice. One is a very, very light pink, and the other is this really beautiful holographic blue, Tali.
Julep Tali holographic
It kind of reminds me of denim, so that's kinda groovy. I did decide to stamp on it, though.....certainly wouldn't want to go to the doctor with plain nails.
Julep Tali, Darling Diva Queen of the Night, Dana 2 stamping plate
I decided that I wanted to use something holographic to stamp with, so I use Darling Diva Queen of the Night even though I felt kind of guilty using such a pretty polish for scraping off of a stamping plate. The little flower design is from the Dana 2 stamping plate.
  
I'm a smidge in love with this one. The blue is just such a pretty shade, and I'm really glad I forgot to skip the Julep box.

Sometimes it pays to be forgetful!

Saturday, January 9, 2016

SNOWFLAKIES

Yes, I'm a slacker. I'm fully aware that I've been terrible about posting. I'm not sure if it's after-holidays exhaustion or the "I hate winter slump".

We spent the New Year holiday in lower Michigan with Kev's family. Our first night we went to dinner and then went bowling. SO fun. Long after everyone else had gone home, Kev and I stayed and bowled some more. We each bowled eight games. Somehow I managed to bowl extremely well after my first crappy game of 116. I even had one game over 200, so I was pretty pleased with myself.

I also managed to drink way too much raspberry vodka. Luckily it didn't affect me the next day, but it did make me not drink New Year's Eve. We also didn't bother going down to the ball drop because even though the temperature was quite a bit higher than last year, it was really damp out which made it feel colder. We played some games with the fam and pretty much had a laid back night. Once midnight hit, we headed back to our hotel and watched a movie. We are just way too exciting sometimes.

On Wednesday while I was at work I decided I was over Christmas so I asked Kev to start taking down the decorations. We finished that up in the evening, and I finished cleaning yesterday, so my house is officially spotless and back to normal. As usual, I immediately regretted taking everything down. The house is just blah feeling now. That's my least fave part of the holiday season. It always takes me at least a week or two to not miss the decorations and the tree.

Back before we even had snow I was doing snowflake nails. I just love using the snowflake stamping plates, and I've been forcing myself to not do snowflakes every time I do my nails. This was the first one I did for the year.
OPI My Vampire is Buff, Mundo de Unas Black, MoYou Festive 04 stamp, Sally Hansen Big Matte topcoat
I started with my fave off-white, OPI My Vampire is Buff, and I used the MoYou Festive 04 stamping plate with Mundo de Unas Black. I topcoated it with Seche Vite but then decided to make it matte instead. I used Sally Hansen Big Matte Topcoat for that.

One of these days I'm going to just have to do a post with a bunch of mani pics of the nails I've done that didn't make me very happy. They've been accumulating for awhile now, but I don't like them enough to feel like featuring them in any way. Poor things.

Well, apparently we are now going out to dinner with my sister and her husband. Kev went over there to help with something and that has somehow turned into a dinner date. Late on we are headed out to the casino to meet up with Seven's owners for some drinks and some football on the big screen. 

No football for me! Football for them means the slot machines are calling my name, and I'm more than happy to answer that call.