TWO YUKS IN A ROW

I don't know what my deal is, but I'm just hating everything I did for like the past week. I ordered a bunch of different nail vinyls from Ali Express, so I decided to give them a try last weekend.

First of all, they were super cheap at $1.44 a sheet. I bought 8 different designs from this seller. I see now they are $1.80 per sheet. I haven't looked, but it wouldn't surprise me if someone else had them for less over there somewhere.

The quality of the sheets is pretty damn good. I only used three from the sheet to do all ten of my nails.

So it isn't the fault of the vinyls that this mani is crap.

I started with two coats of the very light pink, Fresh Paint Blank Space. Once that was dry and topcoated, I placed a vinyl and sponged on Different Dimensions Coral Rose. I then used an eye shadow applicator to fill in the small spot with OPI DS Signature.

It just turned out kind of jumbled mess. Maybe I was tired; mabes I was just doing sloppy work. I don't know. I have no excuse. I was embarrassed wearing it out to dinner with the fam on Easter Sunday and was happy nobody made a comment.

The clerk at the grocery store loved it, though. I thanked her and went on my merry way back home to remove it.

Bottom line, Ali Express vinyls are a win at a great price. And I received them in 13 days, which isn't too shabby. 

I should probably stay off of that website. It makes me want to buy ALL of the nail stuff!

I HATE WHEN THAT HAPPENS

Last night I stayed up way too late. When I was at my mom's house during the holidays, I decided to steal a bunch of the old family photographs so I could scan them into my computer. I finally got around to doing it and was up until 3:30 a.m. cropping them to normal size. It was fun looking back at pics from when I was little and seeing pics of loved ones now long gone. Some of them also made me seriously question some of my "fashion" choices over the years.

When I did finally go to sleep, I vaguely remember having some kind of weird-ass dream about ghosts, and then I was awoken by this godawful beeping noise. In my stupor I reach over to Kev's empty side of the bed to practically break his alarm clock before realizing that wasn't where the sound was coming from. So I stumbled out of my room into the living room and stood in the dark trying to discern where the screeching was coming from.

Finally it became apparent that it was coming from the spare bedroom. I went in there and found Tinlee on that bed, completely unconcerned by the sound but looking at me like I was the crazy one. I flipped on the light and saw that it was the weather warning radio my mom bought me for Christmas. I wanted one basically to warn me of bad summer weather, not stupid snow. And why it chose 4:40 a.m. to start squawking about a winter storm warning is baffling. My phone has been warning me for days about the winter storm. And for the record, the damn storm started before midnight. Not only that, just exactly what kind of warning do I actually need for a bunch of white, fluffy stuff falling down in my yard?

I don't know who sends the signals to that thing, but if a tornado is coming, I'd appreciate the warning ahead of time....not 5 hours after it hits. I could be lying naked and dead in a field 2 miles from my house by that time.

So thanks for nothing, weather warning radio. You suck at life.

I shut it off.

I took off that really cute pastel saran wrap mani and did this. And if it wasn't 12:40 a.m. right now, I'd take it right back off. I hate when I take off something I really like and then follow it up with crap.

The base is a night neutral, Morgan Taylor Birthday Suit. I tried stamping on it with a couple different light neutrals and wasn't satisfied with any of them. I finally just used Mundo de Unas Cream, but it isn't what I wanted at all. I had a couple of regular polishes that I tried that I would have liked better, but they just weren't showing up. Maybe I should have just gone with white.

I got my Uber Chic 7 series of stamping plates today so I got this design from UC 7-03. Scrolly, flourishy goodness. My fave thing.

Kev will be home in the morning and then we are heading off to Manistique with Seven's parents to eat and go to the casino. Then he has to leave right away on Saturday morning. Short trip home this time around.

And after he's gone, so is this mani!

MAYBE TOO SUBTLE?

So much for spring. I woke up to a completely snow covered yard once again. Pretty annoying. All of the old snow had melted, and the muddy parts of my yard had finally dried up. Evidently we are supposed to really get a huge dump on of that white shit later this week. I heard 7-10 inches, but I'm just going to cross my fingers and hope that my Esky banana belt status will do its magic and keep most of that away from me.

When I did a reapplication of my nails this last time, I did what I always do and chose something light colored. I wore this for two days before taking a pic, and I can see that my fingers still look a little pink from the application process.

The peachy base on this is  Zoya Lulu, which is a very sheer polish. I wanted to do something equally light and breezy for the stamping, so I chose MdU Peach and the Bundle Monster collaboration plate with Lucy's Stash, BM-XL209.

I know I was happy with this while I was wearing it. Now in looking at it in the picture, it almost seems too subtle. It's always funny to me how I can love something at the time and then look back weeks later and wonder why I ever did it in the first place. I guess it just depends on my mood on any given day.

Right now I'm wondering if maybe I should just go back to putting snowflakes on my damn nails. I don't feel like I should have to even consider that in late March. But mabes I'll do it just to be obnoxious.

And then my brain reminds me of the gazillions of times I've seen snow in May. Reality checked.

SPRING IS SPRINGING

Why does it have to be Sunday already. I'm not ready for Monday and work. Adulting can be so hard.

It was a pretty darn good weekend, though. Friday night we went to a St. Patrick's Day party. Yesterday the girls came over with Seven to watch American Idol and then left Seven her overnight. So lots of fun with good peeps and a great dog.

For the party I didn't feel like doing green again so I decided to just do a saran wrap smoosh.

I used Glitter Gal White Pointer for my base. When that was dry I put dots of the white in random spots on my nails and did the same with dots of China Glaze More to Explore and OPI DS Sapphire. Then I laid saran wrap gently on top of the wet blobs and tapped lightly to spread the colors.

I was pleased with how it turned out. Of course, that was two days ago so I got bored with it. With Seven here I didn't really want to spend much time changing them up, so I just did a quick stamping job on top of it.

I just got the new 8 series from Uber Chic so I used a design from the UC 8-02 plate and Mundo de Unas white. I wasn't sure how well it was going to show up on top of the white nails, but it turned out pretty cute.

It's at least cute enough to get me through tomorrow. Maybe by tomorrow night I'll think of what I want to do next.

The only thing I know for sure is next is placing another Uber Chic order. The 7 series were out of stock when I got this latest batch so I think I'm just going to have to get them, too.

NOT IRISH, BUT I PLAYED ALONG

Wednesday was Kev's 42nd birthday. I decided the housework could wait, and Kev and I went out for dinner instead. Oh, it was SO good! I had my usual, a filet, but I decided to spend the extra 10 bucks to have a lobster tail, too. It was so worth it.

After that we met up with Seven's parents at another restaurant for a drink. I didn't call them to go to dinner because we decided so last minute, and as it turned out, they had decided to go out, too. Then it was out to the casino for quite a few hours of playtime. We came home dead even, so that was nice. I'm always happy just to not lose.

Since we were out and about, I didn't get to do my nails last night.   I honestly had planned on doing a shamrock water marble, but I just never got around to it. I did this on Monday night so I'd have a St. Patrick's Day themed mani for work but then took it off on Tuesday.

I love my green base on this one. It's Nubar Reclaim, and it's a very pretty true green holo. I believe they've discontinued it, which is stupid, but I have two bottles. So I'm good.

I went through all of my stamping plates, and apparently the only shamrocky-clover thing I have is on this Fab Ur Nail FUN13 plate. I find it hard to believe I don't have any others, but I looked through them all twice and didn't see any. I find that weird. I just used Essie Good as Gold for the stamping.

I wasn't really feeling it so not a lot of effort went into this one. It was nice to use green and not have stained fingers, though. Thank you for that, Nubar. After the whole green fingers fiasco from that Julep holo, I've been afraid to do anything green.

If you've been out drinking green beer tonight, I hope you had a great St. Paddy's. And that you played safely and didn't drive.

EIGHT RANDOM MANI'S

It's Monday. Monday's suck. The end.

Here are eight pics that have been sitting in my drafts section feeling lonely and neglected. I decided since I'm in a craptastic mood I'd just throw them up here to get them out of the way.

Enjoy. Or not. Whatevs. After each pic I've posted what I used.

Square Hue Gibson Girl, Mundo de Unas Red, Uber Chic UC 4-02 stamp

Sally Hansen Lustre Shine Azure, Essie No Place Like Chrome, Uber Chic Christmas 01

Zoya Avery, Sinful Colors Bare, China Glaze Passion for Petals, gradient

OPI Uh-Oh Roll Down the Window, Loreal Because You're Worth It, LeaLac LLC-B stamp

Julep Winter, Mundo de Unas Dark Gray, Uber Chic 5-03

Ever After Bite Me, MdU Black,  Uber Chic 3-01

Sally Hansen Olive Branch, Essie Good as Gold, Uber Chic 5-01 stamp

Color Club Halo Hues Eternal Beauty, Mundo de Unas Violet, Uber Chic UC 5-02 stamp

And that's it for me. Even with posting all of these, I still have several more that are sitting in drafts.

I'm holding off on those; maybe they'll eventually earn a spot as their own post.

TEARS FOR MY NEW SHIRT :(

It probably would come as no surprise to anyone that has seen a pic of me that my hair is colored. The hair of my youth was a nondescript mud brown color, fine in texture and thin. Luckily after having my first child, my hair did improve in texture, but gradually over the years I went from blonde highlights to just being blonde. I can't imagine ever going back to natural, especially since it's more than likely a whole lot of grey by now.

Unfortunately, with that comes the upkeep, and for some reason I just really hate going to get my hairs did. I finally went in last night for a cut and color, and I hadn't been there since November 3rd. Kind of outrageous. Luckily my hair is just worn straight, and I've learned how to cut my bangs just to avoid going in.

Don't get me wrong; I love who does my hair. She's been a very dear friend since the 80's, so we go way back. We always have a lovely visit when I do go, and last night was no exception. When I got home, I was going to heat up some supper and decided to take off my pink shirt to avoid having it splattered on. When I took it off, I was horrified to find the entire upper back of it was covered in a brownish color which I immediately knew had to be hair dye. I'm assuming it had to come from the inside of the cape I was wearing. I immediately sprayed it with Oxyclean and threw it in the washing machine and crossed my fingers.

While it was washing I texted her for ideas on what to use to remove the dye. When it came out of the washing machine still stained, I tried both of her ideas and threw it in again. While it was washing that second time, I wandered the interwebs for more ideas. Since it came out still stained, I tried the other ideas I'd found and tossed it in one more time.

That shirt has officially been washed more than it's been worn. I bought the same shirt for Tyler for Christmas, and I loved it so much I got one for myself in February, so I've worn it exactly twice. Color my shirt ruined, and color me sad. It took me about one second to decide I was just going to buy it again, and of course my size is sold out because they are on sale and not being restocked. I decided to risk getting the small instead of the medium. It's a long sweatshirty thing that isn't fitted at all, so I'm hoping the small will work. If it doesn't, be prepared to see me whining about it some more because it's not returnable which means I'll have two shirts I can't wear.

By the time I got done with all of that shirt drama, it was too late to do my nails, so I'm still wearing this one from Sunday night.

I kind of like how this one looks. The lighter brown base is Fresh Paint Never Go Out of Style. You know how I love my Fresh Paints. After topcoating, I stamped with MdU Black using the Uber Chic 6-01 stamping plate. I really liked the matte look of the black on top of the brown, so I did not topcoat this mani once I was done stamping.

Oh, yikers. Hopefully I will remember that if I ever do that again, it's going to have to be a one day mani, not a three day. The black design is completely gone at the tips from typing, and it's just worn off in other random spots, too. 

Now that my work week is almost over and it's house cleaning time when I leave here, I guess it doesn't matter too much at this point, but it sure ain't cute.

My plan is go home, clean the house and then do a soak off of my nails. I can't remember when I put these on last, but I smacked my ring finger earlier and knocked one loose, and when I was painting them Sunday night, the growout was starting to look bad to me. Do I feel like doing a soak off? Nope! As much as I love my nails, sometimes they are a big ol' PITA.

And I seriously don't know what I'd do without them.