STAMPING TIMES THREE

What a fun afternoon we had here today. I've had Razzie since Tuesday. He's going back home tomorrow. I figured while he's here he should have some sibling fun. Seven's owners aren't available this week due to some long work hours, but I was super happy that Major was able to come over. He hasn't been here in a long time, and it was awesome to see him.

Out of my seven pups, he's the only one that takes after his daddy at all. He's very dark red, and his coat has lots of curls and is more wiry than his sisters and brother. He does have the same super sweet disposition that the whole family has, though. 

It didn't take too long for him and Razzie to get into some rough-housing. Lots of bright, white teeth flashing and snorting with tails wagging the entire time. So cute!! Tinlee doesn't pay too much attention to the pups anymore when they come to visit. Now that she's pregnant, that's just as well because I don't really want her to engage in any rough play right now.

After Majorleft, Razzie ate his supper, and Tinlee's, and has been passed out ever since. Poor guy is tuckered!!

The other night I decided I'd do something triple-stamped. 

My purple base for this is OPI Back to Reality....TV. It's a great medium purple. On top of that I used my Uber Chic 5-01 plate and stamped first with MdU Black. After the black I restamped with MdU Pink and then one more time with MdU Velvet.

I've had this on for a couple of days and still don't know if I like it or hate it. It kind of looks like an oddly colored camouflage to me.

Since Kev is home to help occupy Razzie, I'm hoping that I'll be able to take this off tonight and soak off these damn nails that have only been on for 16 days. I somehow managed to knock my right index nail loose when I was monkeying around in the garden last night.

Only getting 16 days of wear is really annoying me. I've almost always gotten at least three weeks of wear time, more if I switch to dark colors to hide my cuticles. I'd kill to have a new set made.

I'm not going to hold my breath on that, though. It's been well over a year since Custom Nail Solutions had full pink sets available. I wish some other company would start up something similar. At this point I'd absolutely jump on a new bandwagon.

Sad.

A PARROT AND SOME GHOSTIES

Well, we went to our very first ghost hunt and lived to tell the tale! It ended up being a completely fun, amazing experience. The building was awesome! We got there a little before 7 p.m. and stayed up all night investigating, finally pulling out of there at 6:30 a.m.

I snapped a ton of pictures, and I have probably 11 hours worth of audio recordings to analyze. That's going to take some major time to do, and I haven't even begun. I'm actually dreading it, but I'm also really hoping I will have caught something.

Since we were investigating in the dark, I didn't really bother doing much with using video on my camera, but during our final walk through, I took a couple since it was a bit brighter out. I was very shocked when I loaded them onto my computer. The second to last video I took I walked into a room and caught a shadow that wasn't me moving in the room. I reviewed it a bunch of times and then sent it on to the man that works at Ashmore, and he confirmed that I did, indeed, catch something. I was pretty tickled about that.

Then yesterday morning I was going through the last video when I suddenly noticed an unfamiliar voice. I was walking slowly from room to room while I videotaped. My daughter and friend were in the next room over, and we were the only three people in the building. As I'm walking, the soft voice of either a woman or a child says something. I immediately knew it wasn't my daughter and was 99.9% positive it wasn't my friend, but I posted it up on Facebook and asked her if it was her. She confirmed that it is not her, and the workers and another investigator who is very familiar with the place also agree that I caught an evp, possibly of a little girl who is known to inhabit the estate. I haven't listened with headphones or any audio programs yet, but hopefully when I do, I'll be able to make out what she's saying.

I've been super lazy about doing nails. I've actually been wearing a plain white for almost a week. I had planned on maybe stamping over it with navy blue, but I have a feeling it might just get taken off without ever adding to it. 

Here's one I did awhile ago.

I wanted to stamp on it but not cover it up.

This gorgeous color is Parrot Polish Emerald Sands. If you don't have any of their polishes, I suggest you check them out. The owners are fantastic, and they ship lightning fast. On top of this is a design from Uber Chic 5-01 using Mundo de Unas Mint.

I thought this was a win. Can't hate on that color, and I really like how the mint showed up on top of it.

Now I'm going to head outside before it rains and feed me some hummingbirds. I've got at least two males and two females, and they've been very willing to come see me to grab a bite to eat. I've got one girl I'm calling "The Guardian". The entire time I sit out there holding the feeders she sits in a tree across from me. Every time somebody comes near me to grab a snack, she flies over, chases them away and then goes back to her perch. She's really being a brat. She lets the others eat from the garage feeders across from where I'm sitting but is just bound and determined she's going to be the only one going near me.

Every so often one will sneak in a chance, though. I had a male sit on my finger for quite awhile yesterday, and I actually had a girl on each hand for a little bit. Then she came over and chased both of them away. She's mean, but when she comes to me to eat, she's still completely adorable.

I feel like they've been brave enough to come to me sooner this year. Maybe they remember me from last year. I can't really say that I actually recognize any of the ones I've seen. I do know that my original male that was here for a few years is not around so I guess he must not have made it through the winter.

Makes me sad.

THE "OTHER" HOLO TOPCOAT

When I took off the gray manicure from last night, I figured I may as well go forward with trying out the other holo topcoat.

I didn't really have any ideas in mind so I decided it would just be fun to play. 

I started out with a deep orange, China Glaze Bend Over Backwards. When that was dry, I put on one coat of the holo topcoat I bought on eBay, Spectraflair Holographic Topcoat. 

Immediately I preferred this one over the Pixie's Polish from yesterday's post. The formula is a bit thinner, and it didn't seem to add as much of a silver cast to the polish. Don't get me wrong; I do like the one from Pixie's. I just personally prefer the thinner, smidge clearer look.

It seems to me that I got a stronger linear holo effect with this one, but part of that might simply be a result of my base being a darker color. At some point I really will need to try the Pixie's Polish over a darker color. Perhaps when I take this off I'll re-do one nail just like this and compare. Or perhaps not. I don't want to lock myself into being ambitious. LOL

I think the topcoat made this polish really pretty. On its own it's kind of just another dark orange. The holo brightened it up and made it "pop".

I could have just left it alone after that, but heaven forbid I just wear a plain polish. I hate doing that!

I really struggled trying to figure out what to use on top of this orange. I tried using a purple holo polish for stamping, but it wasn't showing up very well.

I grabbed my MdU Violet, which is a dark purple and threw it on one nail using Uber Chic 5-01 for the design. 

Hated it.

I was just not digging the flatness of the dark purple on top of all that holo goodness. I decided the only option was to once again do a holo topcoat over my stamping.

This ended up being a grand idea because this mani is the shiznit in person. I've been staring at my nails a LOT today. I really love the purple over the orange, thanks to the holo topcoating.

So there you have it. My thoughts on the two holo topcoats I purchased. If you're in the market, I've given you the links, and they are both still being sold. 

Not that I'm encouraging anybody to spend money, of course. I would never, ever do that.