SOMETHING A BIT DIFFERENT

I am happy to say that on Thursday morning our new bathroom vanity is finally being installed. I will be one happy little camper when I can finally move back into my own bathroom. Right now I have all of my bathroom stuff in the spare bathroom and have been getting ready in there. I am not a fan of it. It's just too small for all my junk. Evidently it takes a whole lot of work and product to make myself look presentable, and it seems like the amount of things really show up when there's no place to put them.

Our deck is pretty much finished, too! All that's really left is to put up something on the sides that cover from the bottom to the ground. I can't think of what it's called at the moment. Duh.

I'm also proud to say that all of my flowers have survived so far. Knock on wood. While we were downstate I got some gorgeous lilies from Kev's aunt. I can't think of what kind they are. There were a whole lot of buds that she had hoped would bloom before the party. We brought them home in a bucket, but it was too late to plant them so I left them sitting outside so I could try to figure out where I could put them. When I woke up yesterday morning, some of them had bloomed. It kind of made me panic about planting them once I realized I simply didn't have room by the garage. This makes me sad because that's where I really see the flowers. 

Immediately when I got home after work yesterday, I grabbed my gardening stuff and cleared a spot along the front of the house and got them planted. I hope they live.

Kev put the steps and platform in the pool yesterday, too. Griffin will be here for the 4th of July, and I'm hoping it'll be warm enough for him to swim. At any rate, at least the dogs will now be able to get in and out so they can. Tinlee has been staring at it longingly, so I know she wants in.

After five days of that coral mani, it was def time for a change.  I thought I'd do something I hadn't done in awhile, use clear for marbling.

First I painted a coat of Sinful Colors white and then sponged on China Glaze Diva Bride pink, Color Zone no name yellow, Sinful Colors Bright Lights blue, Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet green and WetnWild On a Trip purple.  Once that was dry, I topcoated and then did my water marble with a Sally Hansen clear and Orly Liquid Vinyl.

I'm seriously loving this. If I'd had more time, I would have made the effort to do my toenails, too. That is a time-consuming thing that I've only done once, and since it was after midnight, it just wasn't going to happen.

Since I am pleased with how this worked, I'll probably leave it on for a couple of days. Then again, I do have part of a bathroom to paint so maybe not. 

It depends on if my "neat painter" status stays in tact.  I'm going to figure that if I was ever planning to make a mess while painting, it's obviously going to happen when I'm painting near a brand new floor.

Lattice!! That's what the stuff is called for the sides of the deck!!

Whew!! Brain function restored.

STRIPING TAPE. AND BIRDS, OF COURSE.

It was not too fantastic a weekend. Chilly and rainy for the most part. Yesterday we finally saw sun and temps in the 70's. 'Bout damn time. Too bad it isn't lasting, as mid-week we're supposed to top out in the 50's.  At least my two day weather headache finally left yesterday.

One bright spot of rainy weather is a lot of hummingbird activity so at least I had something fun to watch while I was stuck inside pouting.  Seems to me I was bitching about cold, craptastic weather last June, too. The hummers were very busy during the rain! And they are extra adorbs when it's rainy because they hunker down and get all fluffed up. Check out this little guy. I just love when I manage to catch one with their mouth open.

And here's his date for the weekend. I used a flash on this pic so the color is off a smidge, but she's still cute.

And even though I said I was going to stop being a lookie-loo at the Robin's nest.....

In all fairness, I only looked because the dad flew off as I went to get the mail. And I conveniently had my camera in my hand. Honestly, I was kind of afraid that the third egg wasn't going to hatch because it hadn't hatched when the other two did. So I was actually being very nice by looking.

Daddy, on the other hand, did not think I was being nice. While I was sneaking a peek and a pic, he was swearing at me. Loudly. Then he landed and actually ran towards me as fast as his little spindly legs could go and stopped just a few feet from me. He was bitching at me the entire time. I told him to chill out because I was already leaving. Sheesh. Grumpy old man much?

He's in for a rude awakening because I will be looking again. And again. I'm anxiously awaiting for them to get all their feathers so they'll be cute.

The weather forecast for this past Thursday was rain in the morning with sun and low 60's in the afternoon. Normally a forecast of 60's would mean it'll be around 70 at my house. When I left work at noon, I was fully expecting that I'd get some pool time. Sadly when I did get home it was still cloudy and windy, and that wind was cold!

My solution for that was heading off to the tanning place to at least get some fake sun. I walked out of there 30 minutes later to full sunshine outside. Really??  When I got home I asked Kev if the weather decided to change just because I decided to go tanning, and he said that 5 minutes after I drove off, the sun came out.  It still was no heatwave, but I figured it would be warm laying on the raft. 

Off I went to throw on the bathing suit. Then I spent 20 minutes skimming all of the tree seeds that have been accumulating in the pool. Seriously, I should have an actual tree growing in that pool by now. Onto the raft I go, being very careful to stay dry. My pool thermometer keeps saying the water is 74, but there's no way I'm buying that. Methinks I need a new, more honest version. That water was chilly!

After about an hour and a half, I decided to call it a day because I had to re-shower to go out to dinner. 

And later that night, my lesson was learned. In the form of a bright red face. Evidently it is not a genius move to remove one's makeup for the tanning bed and then lay in the real sun. I so should have sunscreened before hitting that pool.  It started to itch on Friday, so I waited for the peeling to begin. And Saturday it did, but for some reason just on the sides of my face right by my chin.  Cuteness.

Actually, this is the third lesson I've learned this year. The first one I learned was that the coconut oil I've been slathering on before tanning the past couple of years is actually a natural sunscreen. Guess that explains why I didn't get as dark as I usually do.  The second lesson I learned was that if I start my tan in the real sun using tanning lotion, I burn and then peel like a mo-fo. I was so happy to see my legs get tan for the first time ever using the real sun instead of the tanning bed. I was not so happy to then peel from my ankle all the way up to the top of my legs. And not everywhere, just dead center. I guess starting in the tanning bed is still the best way to go for me because I work my way up and don't burn.

Lessons learned. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? Apparently you can as long as I'm the old dog.

In the midst of catching up on some tv last night, I grabbed my trusty striping tape to do nails.

I like the Orly Lollipop light pink, but in person it is completely hideous on me which is why I decided to three-tone it using American Apparel Sweetpea and Wet n Wild Through the Grapevine.  Grapevine is one of those polishes I have extras of because I used it in a lot of water marbles back in the day.

A huge problem with it is it doesn't stay on well at all. I think I had tip wear before I went to bed last night, and I hadn't even been doing anything.  So now I'm sitting at work being annoyed by how they look.  

I don't really feel like doing my nails today so who knows what I'll do about it. Maybe I'll just really be lazy and touch up the tips. Blech. I'm simply not in the mood.

That might change once I leave the office. The air conditioning doesn't seem to be working at all, which normally would suit me just fine. It was nice coming into work and not throwing on my sweater to ward off the bone chills. Now that the lights have been on all day and the sun has started to shine directly into my office, it ain't so great. 

I'm still hoping the bossman doesn't notice, though. I'd rather sit here sweating than have to wear that winter sweater.

SOME THANK YOU'S, A BITCH AND SOME JACK-O-LANTERNS

As some of you probs saw, I had entered a contest over on Facebook using my Frankenstein's monster mani. I entered on the last day, and today I found out that I won first place. Obvi I was pretty tickled about that! A big "thank you" to all those who took the time to vote for me, and a big shout out to The Beauty Clutch. I'll get to have some fun spending a gift certificate to their site. More polish for me! Good prices on polish over there; check 'em out and go "like" 'em on Facebook.

Once they posted the winners, of course there had to be someone who popped in on the Facebook page to bitch about the contest. This person didn't enter because; "Most of the entries looked like they were taken off the internet or done in the salon. That is why I did not enter. Maybe enter next contest if it looks like the entries are valid". Oh, really, "Marge"? That's why you didn't enter? Um, okay. I can pretend I'm buying that load of horseshit.

Dem's fightin' words, and the more I've been stewing about this today, the madder it makes me. I immediately pointed out that my nails were done by me and that I thought that remark was insulting. Some other people jumped in to tell her how insulting and wrong her comments were (she made a couple). She's claiming that she and "a group" all thought some of the entries were cheaters because the pics either come up on google images or on Pinterest. Duh.  

Since you are here and obviously already have some knowledge of the nail world, I don't need to tell you how ridiculous her line of "thinking" is. I do find it interesting to note that her Facebook page is one of those that has only 10 friends and everything on it is related to contests. Now, as a person who has been a member of a major sweepstaking site since 2003, I'm well aware that there are people who have a personal FB page and make another one to use just for sweepstakes. I believe this is more than likely the case with this particular account.  And for someone who is obvi soooo very concerned about cheating, maybe she should shut her hypocritical mother-effin' mouth.....having two personal FB accounts is against FB rules. So who's cheating? 

I'm just really angry. There were not a lot of entries in that contest. I know for a fact that the 2nd and 3rd place winners are legit, and there are others that entered that I also know are legit. KNOW it. I actually wasn't thinking I'd even win 1st place since it wasn't just based on votes. There was a crime scene mani hand-done by Nicky Nailslove that I thought was way better than mine. She entered later than I did or I'm thinking she would have kicked my ass.

I don't understand the mindset of people like that. Vent over.

That silly little mani of mine also made it to OK Magazine's online edition in the "Monday Manicure" section along with 6 other Halloween mani's. Now, that I think is pretty cool!  Made for a nice start to my day.

Here's the last of the Halloween mani's I did so far. I might still do some because I have some stamping plates that have some cute stuff on them, but I haven't decided which to use yet.

It's another one I had to do freehand....hate it. Not even sure why I'm posting it. For some reason I feel like I should post my epic fails along with the good stuff. Keeping myself honest, I guess.

Good colors again, tho! Wet n Wild Megalast Club Havana and American Apparel Hassid. As far as oranges go, I think this one really is the truest, orangiest orange I have. Hopefully I'm done using toothpicks for awhile.

Wish me luck for tomorrow; I get to take the afternoon off to drive to the orthopedic doctor to get my MRI results. I don't really know what result I should be hoping for. I just know I need some kind of resolution for this shoulder.

Is it weird that one of my biggest concerns is that I'll need surgery and then won't be able to type or do nails?

CANDY CORN - BETTER FOR EATING

Oh, my! Such a dilemma first thing on a Monday!! Do I show the mani I did  yesterday, or do I start posting the Halloween mani's I did for Custom Nail Solutions? Decisions, decisions. Hopefully it's the most major decision I'll have to make all week.

I decided I'll just start throwing out a Halloween mani on random days. At some point in the next couple of weeks mabes I'll do some designs of my own choosing, but in the meantime....

Very unexciting, I know. You've probs seens dozens of these floating around the interwebs already during the past couple of weeks.  This isn't one I would normally do, but since it's what they asked for, I did it just as they wanted it. Candy corn? Not so much. Left to my own devices I don't know that I would have done just straight lines, but whatevs. It was only on for 15 minutes so I don't really shiv a git.

I did pick good colors, though! Very true to the candy corn that I've been mounging on the last couple of days. That shit is seriously addictive. Technically I bought it because Kev likes it. Then I made the mistake of opening the bag and putting it on the end table next to me. I ate so much it started being gross. Then  Kev got home last night and did the same thing. He told me he needed to stop eating it. 20 minutes later he was still going. I finally moved it over to my side of the table so he'd stop, and then I started! It was so unnecessary because we were both so damn full from the ham dinner I had made. I went to bed miserable. I was super thirsty because we had that ham, but every time I took a drink I just got more full and more miserable. I should know better. One bag almost empty; one more to go. lol

The colors in this mani are Sinful Colors Snow Me White, China Glaze Happy Go Lucky and Wet n Wild Megalast Club Havana. I didn't even bother using striping tape for the lines; I just freehanded it. When it was all said and done it occurred to me that I should have done this as a gradient. Duh. I had already moved on to my jack-o-lantern mani so I just let it slide as is.

I did accomplish what I wanted to over the weekend. On Friday I was just a lazy ass. Sat around and watched tv and wandered the interwebs. On Saturday it rained all day so I was miserable. I hate rain more than anything. It actually rained so hard it knocked my hummer feeder right off my picture window. I was leaving it up just in case I had some migrating visitors, but I didn't put it back up. My hanging ones are still up, but I doubt anyone will use them now. Woe is me.

I also managed to soak off my nails and do my new impressions. Now I just need to send those off so I can get me some new nails. I'm asking that they do them just a smidge longer. If they're too long, I'll just file them a little bit.

I watched a TON of tv, too! Now my dvr is only 63% full instead of 76%. I had to stay up until 4 am both Friday and Saturday night to get it there, but it literally causes me stress to be so far behind. Over the next couple of days we'll get caught up on the shows that Kev watches with me. If we're lucky maybe we'll even get to some of the new shows I recorded. I record almost all of them so we can test them out to see if we like them. I'm hoping we hate them all.

I figure I'll be caught up by January 1st. Of 2030.

WATER MARBLE "JUST CUZ'"

Last night a few of the "gals" came over for a nail night. There was just four of us, and I don't know about anybody else, but I had a great time. Such a nice bunch of chickies. Drank a little but no drunks, they gazed in wonder at my stash and used some of my stuff to do their nails. I attempted to give a water marble lesson, which kinda' worked out; I showed how it's done but wasn't happy with it. So I didn't even do my nails.

Today I had to do some work on that damn countertop, and my first attempt sucked ass. Once it dried I did it over again and am much happier with the results. 

Then I took a little nappy-nap because I can't stay asleep at night. My shoulder is really giving me trouble, and it wakes me up every hour or so. Then I ate dinner and the stomach started really hurting. I swear, it's always something....it sucks to get old. And my nails still weren't done.

It just hasn't been my day, I guess! Even now I only have one hand finished, but I wanted to at least get it posted so I can finish the other and hopefully go to bed a littler earlier than normal.

I painted my nails white with just one coat of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Hard to Get.  Then I used that along with Orly Lemonade and Wet n Wild Megalast Club Havana for the marble. I had to try 4 different yellows before I could get one to work. I don't know why, but I always seem to have a problem with yellows when I marble. They're just obnoxious, and I can't figure out why.

Oh, well....it's a marble. And it has yellow. So I'll be satisfied with it.

And now I'm off to do my right hand. Hopefully it will go as easily as this one did! 

G'night, all!