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!

NOT A DAMN CLUE WHAT THIS IS

Sorry for the lack of a post yesterday. My internet wouldn't stay connected for more than 10 minutes at a time all last evening until really late when it just finally quit working altogether. I was pleasantly surprised to find it working when I got up, although it still isn't being very trustworthy.

Charter's latest "idea" for fixing it was having us get a new modem which they "claimed" should fix the problem. Epic fail. Assholes. If they were as good at service as they were at bothering me to get their tv and landline things would be great. And it's shocking how many different numbers they call me from. I have Mr. Number on my phone and laugh when I see that they've gotten blocked, sometimes 7 or 8 times a day. But then they'll manage to sneak in a new number like they did on Thursday night. I will give the woman credit, though....she wasn't pushy at all and once I told her we had DirecTv, she wrapped up the call. And then I went to Mr. Number and blocked this latest number they called from.

I don't want to talk to Charter. Ever. 

Now here's a mani I did back in April for Custom Nail Solutions. I haven't a clue what I used to do it. In fact, I somehow managed to delete it from my computer. The PR person asked for it yesterday minus my blog name watermark, and that's when I realized it was "poof"....gone.

I found it by going back through my sent emails and snagged it from when I emailed it to them the first time. So at least I have it, even if I don't know exactly what it is. It has glitter. And it's blue. 

I do remember they had asked for something kind of ocean/glitter inspired.  The only other thing I know is I obvi used striping tape to do this.

*EDITED* Martha from my nail fun group did her usual detective work and found where I had actually posted this mani. She's the absolute BEST at doing that! The colors are Sinful Colors Gorgeous and China Glaze Prismatic Optical Illusion.

Got some local nail addicts coming over for a fix this evening. My daughter was supposed to come from Marinette with her friend to join us, but she's sick and isn't coming. I'm pretty saddy pants about this because I was really looking forward to having "girl time" with her. I never get to see just her, and sometimes it's nice to be able to do that.  Maybe next time, I guess. :(

If things go well tonight, perhaps I'll be posting pics of mani's other than mine!  I figure it'll be fun trying to get them to do my hand pose.

REVERSE POLKA DOTS

Ah, medical bills. You can suck it. And my insurance company can suck it, too. So far all of my ridiculous medical stuff that accomplished nothing has taken over $1,000 from my bank account. I'm sure there are probably more bills coming. Just shoot me. It would be cheaper. 

Today I'm throwing up an older mani because I just got a request from Custom Nail Solutions to provide them with a few things that they need right away. So tonight I'll have to do those instead of just doing something for myself.

I like this one and have been thinking about doing it again in some brighter colors. So many to do; so little time! I'm already wondering how long it will take me tonight to do the other mani's when I really should be starting work on those countertops. Ugh. I need more hours in a day. On to the fantabulousness!

I've got two of my fave greys on this one. I think I actually have backups of both of these, Pure Ice Kiss Me Here stamped with China Glaze Concrete Catwalk. Both of them are just really nice, true greys. For the dots I used my DRK-B plate. No way in hell I would try to freehand this, although it probs wouldn't be that hard to do. If I can get away with stamping, though, that's what I'm going to do.

I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday! My house is filthy from all the messing around. Yesterday was the first time I'd seen my dining room table in a couple of weeks because it was covered with a plastic dropcloth since there were pieces of woodwork all over it in the process of being stained.  

So after work I'll get to cleaning. A few of my local nail peeps are coming over Saturday evening for some nail fun and apple pie shots. That house has to at least be presentable.  I was hoping the ex would come over tonight to fix my chair, but he can't come until this weekend. Poop. Ripped chair will still be ripped when company comes. Weak sauce.

Maybe they'll get so wasted on the apple pie shots that they won't notice.

TROPICAL COLORBLOCK

Oooo, my bathroom is coming along nicely. My new light fixture came today. A new sink is ordered along with a new scale and toilet paper holder. Tomorrow night I'll probs start refinishing the top of the counter. That'll be a few days kind of job. 

I think I almost have Kev convinced that we should buy a kit to refinish the tub and shower. That sounds like a nightmare to do, but it will really make me happy to not have the disgustingly well-water stained crap we have now. Even when it's clean, it looks dirty, which makes me feel like a slobster. I'm not the neatest person on earth, but I am no slobster.

Anywhosers, I did this mani last night and would have posted earlier, but we decided to go out for dinner tonight and then stopped at what we jokingly call our mall so I could get an upholstery needle for fixing that rip in my recliner. My ex offered to fix it for us, so I'm hoping it will at least look good enough to not annoy me every time I look at it.

I got striping tape happy last night. I'm loving the Square Hue polishes this month so I just had to use two of the immediately.

I started off with a base of American Apparel Cotton. I love this polish; it's white without being too white.....know what I mean?  Then I grabbed my striping tape and taped off my sections before filling them in with Square Hue Collins Avenue, Ocean Drive and Sinful Colors Savage and Sweet Nothing.  I wasn't thrilled with it shiny so I used my Butter London Matte Topcoat. Done deal.

It really didn't take me as long as I thought it would to do this. I like it so much I'm keeping it another day.

Truth be told, I'm only keeping it because it's too late tonight to take it off and do something else. But at least I'm wearing something I don't hate for two days. 

 

WELL, THIS IS DIFFERENT....NOT VERY "ME"

Can someone please tell me where my cardinals went?? They were around non-stop all weekend. Yesterday not a sighting, not even a peep was heard. I'm assuming the babes are now gone from the nest. I guess they only stay there for around 7 days. But does that mean they're just "gone" now? Dammit. If that's the case, I'll miss seeing them.

Ah, those new LeaLac plates!! So much fun to have new designs to mess around with. I wish more companies would make plates large enough for my nails.

I got my monthly Julep Maven polishes yesterday; 3 great colors so I immediately decided that the baby blue was the way to go. I really like being a Maven. I've found it to be really fun. The best part is finding out on the 20th of each month what's in each style box and being able to skip a month if I want. I joined last spring. I've jumped in on more mystery boxes than I can remember because those are always fun when they do those. I have skipped several monthly boxes when I wasn't thrilled with them, but I love their polish. If you want to check it out and maybe join, please use my referral link: Julep Maven.  If you don't end up liking them, you can also cancel without any trouble. Anywho, enough plugging for that. I love 'em....just sayin'.

This mani is SO not a Diane mani. I'm not sure if I like it or hate it. It seemed really stark to me, so I did add a holo topcoat which softened it even though the holo doesn't come through much. Maybe I should have done 2 coats of that. Evs.

I love this baby blue, Julep Bess. I also love a good dark blue and have some (translation-dozens), and I decided on Zoya Ibiza because it has a shimmer to it. That, just like the holo topcoat, did not really translate very well. This Llarowe LeaLac plate is LLC-A. 

Centering this bitch was not easy at all!! Holy-moly! It's the first time I think I've used a design that really needs to be centered. If I use one again, hopefully I'll get better at it. Just one more thing I need to learn, I guess. Gross. Old dogs don't like learning new tricks.

Nice to see that my mani is as off kilter as its owner.

MISERABLE, MARBLEY MALARKY

Ugh...it's Monday, and I feel lazy. I really need my ship to come in so I can retire and just play with my nails and watch tv all day. 

One thing I love about weekends is having extra time to work on mani's. It's really the only chance I have if I want to do something labor intensive like tons of tape work or marbling. 

Because you just never know with the damn marbles.....they tend to have a mind of their own. And that mind is bent on ever-so-slowly pushing me towards the doors of a psychiatric hospital. And yet I still do them. Crap. Maybe that means I really am crazy!!

This was easily one of the strangest marbles I've ever done.   Even though my polishes were spreading out fine in the water, they gave me nothing but trouble when trying to make a design. I gave up after doing my left hand and figured I'd do my right hand the next day.

So I did. I wish I had taken a picture of it. Exact same everything, and it looked like a completely different marble with completely different colors. It was crazy!! My ivory base came through more, and the other colors were all about 3 shades lighter. I wasn't a fan of either hand so I took it off and just did the green daisy mani instead.

There's 2 hours of my life I'll never get back.  Good thing I have plenty of hours to spare. I really wanted a marble, too....saddy pants is me. Try again some other day, I guess. *insert heavy sigh here*

You can't see it, but I used American Apparel Cotton as a basecoat and also included it in the actual marble. The other colors are China Glaze Fade Into Hue and Beauty Treats Apricot.

Not everything is a success, and while I understand that, it really effing pisses me off.

On a brighter note, I now have over 300 instagram followers, which is nutz!! Man, there are some super talented peeps posting on there! It never ceases to amaze me how people have thousands and thousands of followers on blogs, FB or Instagram. 

When I grow up, I want to be just like them.

IT'S A "KATHY" MANI

Today I finally completed the refinishing of all of the wood cabinets in the bathroom. Thank God. Now I just need to wait for Kev to be home so he can remove the sink so I can start refinishing the countertop. I'm so excited to do that part and kiss that blue goodbye.

I also spent a good part of my day bird watching. I'm now officially obsessed with cardinals, and they are apparently obsessed with hanging out on the railing of my deck. Which is fine with me because I get good pictures. 

When I was sneaking up to the door to snap pics one time today, the momma' was directly in front of me on the railing. I glance to the left, and there are two goldfinches perched on my shephard's hook. What the what?? I'm not sure why my deck area is bird heaven this summer, and I've never even been a fan of birds, but I am completely enjoying this. So before I show you my "Kathy Mani", here's a couple of my birds. :)

S

 

 

For whatever reason I guess my pics are all weirdly sized, probs because I crop them to get closer shots. Oh, well. Sorry.

Anywho, here's my mani, dubbed a "Kathy Mani" because this is totes the kind of thing she would do, and not so much the kind of thing I usually do. But I likey.

I did this using Colour Gossip Nature Girl, stamped the daisies with my LeaLac LLC-A plate and Konad white, and did the yellow centers with a dotting tool and Milani Yellow Whiz. 

I had never heard of Colour Gossip until I saw them on Instagram, and they sent me a sample. Nice, right? It came yesterday, I swatched it, and it is really nice polish. It goes on like a damn dream. I had looked at Colour Gossip a couple of weeks ago and love their colors.  Consider me a fan.

I'm going to assume you're tired of this post now, so I'll just let it be done.