Tuesday, September 23, 2014

HEY! KLEANCOLOR! KISS MY........

Things are getting progressively quieter in the Graham household. Four of the seven puppies have now gone on to their new fur-ever homes. While a big part of me is happy about this, an even bigger part of me is very, very sad. More than a few buckets of tears have been shed.

While it was difficult letting Seven, Razzie and Zero go, it was the most difficult when Charlie left. Everyone else I had time to prepare myself for. Charlie I did not. I got a message from some people in Gladstone that wanted to come and look on Friday night. She was barely in the door when she looked over the edge and asked if that was her puppy. Rut-roh.

A half hour later they were out the door with Charlie in her arms. I was in shock. For some reason it didn't occur to me that they would swoop in and run off with my dog, I guess. So I cried the hardest for him. I have to be very happy for him, though. Spoiled rotten already. On Saturday he went to the beach for a doggy beach party and spent time in their garden, which is gorgeous. I also found out  yesterday that he is also already sleeping in bed with them. So yeah, spoiled and very loved. I can't ask for more than that. Sometimes things are just meant to be, and Charlie chose them for a reason.

Holli and Adi will leave the end of this week, leaving only Jake, Jr. without a new home. This is the four I had left on Saturday.  And no, Martha, I am not keeping Jake.
On Sunday Tyler and Griffin left with Zero. I was a bit teary, but at least I know I will see him in three weeks and every time they come to visit. Still hard, though. The following two pics did help to make me feel better. They were taken during their 6 hour ride home.
It appears that Griffin's lap was a much better place to sleep than the crate. Few things cuter than a little boy napping with his dog.
And no 6 hour car ride is possible without a potty break for all, as well as a few minutes of running to burn off some energy.

Even though Griff didn't show as much interest in the puppies when he was here (because Grampa Kev trumps puppies), it seems he's much more excited about it now that he's home. Tyler told me that the first thing he said when he woke up Monday morning was, "I'm soooo happy that I have a dog now". Be still my heart.

Last week was blue week in nail group. As usual, I'm behind. Everybody else has already moved on from it. I did the nails in time, just not the blog post.
Kleancolor Metallic Sapphire, Essie No Place Like Chrome, LeaLac A stamp
Oh, do blue, they said. No problem, said I. I'll do a nice sapphire color and stamp over it with silver, I said. It'll be super fast and easy and look nice, I said.

Bullshit, I said!! I went through all of my blues, which is three drawers full, mind you, and pulled Kleancolor Metallic Sapphire.

Perfection! Not only does it look like a sapphire, it even says it on the bottle. It's destiny so use that, I said.

Off I went to the living room, blue in one hand and my go-to silver stamping polish, Essie No Place Like Chrome in the other. I knew it would turn out super cute, all that nice silver on that blue.

It didn't take me long to really start bitching. That blue was a friggin' nightmare. I swear it stained everything it touched and possibly even some things that it didn't. Let me check my naked toes and knees; there might be some blue stains on them.

Nope. I'm good.

Once I got that nightmare of a polish on, I topcoated and got ready to stamp.  As I had planned, my silver went on like a dream and looked great. 

My mood was improving. Almost bedtime and all I had left to do was topcoat. So topcoat I did and started cleaning up my stuff so I could go to bed.  And then I looked down at my fingers to see if I needed any final cuticle cleanup.

Um, whose fingers are those?? That's not the mani I just did. I did blue with silver. What is this nonsense? I felt like I had taken more crazy pills than usual. Since when does topcoat manage to not only bleed colors but manage to do it by eating through the first layer of topcoat?

Then I took a peek at my bottle of topcoat and saw lovely blue swirls in it. Seriously?? Is this some kind of a joke? If it is, I ain't laughing. I had just refilled that bottle of Seche Vite, and now it has a slight blue tint to it. It probably won't make a difference when I use it, but that's not the point.

So yeah, Kleancolor. You can kiss this Queen B's royal ass. You are cheap, and your color evidently spreads, too....like a cheap ho. (my half-assed apologies if you're offended by that. But by now you should know you run the risk of me offending somebody.)

And that is my saga of the Kleancolor disaster.

Oh, and did I mention I actually love how it ultimately turned out? 

Because I do!!! LOL  

Monday, September 15, 2014

DOGGY DECALS

Eight week old puppies are a ton of work. The end.

That being said, they're still cute. And since they are so cute, right when I decided to breed Tinlee, I also decided I should have nails that have Golden Retrievers on them.

Onto eBay I went in search of the perfect decals, and I found these little cuties.
OPI My Vampire is Buff, Golden Retriever water decal

OPI My Vampire is Buff, Golden Retriever water decal
I was really happy to not need a white base for these, and I went with OPI My Vampire is Buff which is my fave neutral and added some little hearts.

I much preferred these decals to the hummingbirds I used awhile back. Rather than needing to put them in water and then applying, I cut them, peeled off a plastic layer and pressed them right onto my nail. Then I put a drop of water on them, and the backing slid right off.  Some topcoat and done.

I was very surprised when I went to remove them last night. All of the polish and rhinestones were gone, and those little buggers were still stuck tight. Even using pure acetone took a little more effort than I expected. So I'm calling these a win.

I left them on for almost a week. Of course, lately I'm leaving everything on for at least that long. Right now I have just polish on. By the time I did a soakoff last night, it's all I had time for.

If I didn't work part-time, I'd never even get a blog post done, let alone nails.

Thanks a lot, puppies.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

JUST NAILS!

Ten minutes ago I decided I'd do a quick post since I'm all caught up at work.

The only nod to pups today is the fact that they slept from the time I went to bed at 1 a.m. all the way to 6 a.m. That's a record. I figured when I went to bed at 1 that they'd wake me at 4, which is about how long they usually stay asleep. I was surprised (pleasantly) when my alarm went off instead of puppies going off.

Here's another mani I wore for over a week. At least I really liked it.

I had seen swatches of the China Glaze Giver collection and really wanted all of them. When I went to 8ty8beauty and saw them for $3.25 each, I put all of them in my cart.

Then I pulled my head out of my ass and remembered that I probably have dupes for most of them. I limited myself to just a few.
China Glaze Giver Collection Friends Forever, Right and Release, DRK-D stamp
One that I knew I had to have was Friends Forever, Right? because it's a light pink, and I do love me a great light pink. This one is very different from any of my others in that it's almost white with just a hint of pink. LOVE.

Since it was sitting next to me, I chose Release from that same collection for the stamp, which is off of my DRK-D plate.

I was and am really in love with this mani. It's just so soft and delicate, just like me. 

That's going to do it for the post today because after that last comment, I'm feeling a bit nauseous.

Monday, September 8, 2014

I REMEMBER THE DAYS.....

To those of you who have followed me for awhile, do you remember when I used to post almost every day?  I do! Now I'm squeezing in a mani and having to leave it on for over a week. To say I hate it would be a fantastical understatement.

As sad as it makes me to not do my nails, I'll be much sadder in a couple of weeks when the puppies move on to their fur-ever homes. I've teared up a few times already thinking about it, and knowing me (and I do), I'll cry for days, maybe longer, when they leave.

They are 7 weeks old today. They get bigger and fuzzier and cuter by the minute. I cannot believe how fast they grow!! I don't even carry them 2 at a time anymore. I won't torture you with a ton of pics, but here are a couple of recent ones before we get on to the mani.
 Not quite sure who won that tug of war.
 This is what I'm greeted by whenever I walk into the room.
 Nosy as hell!! I was emptying the dishwasher and turned around to see this. At one point one of them actually climbed all the way in.
How dare I take a shower. They swear they didn't do it, but I know they aren't as innocent as they look.
They make up for the brattiness when I catch them like this, all seven sound asleep in a bunch. Just effin' cute.

So last night while they were taking a snooze, I decided I would try to get my nails done. Usually right about the time I want to do it, they wake up and spoil all my plans.  Even though I managed to get them done, including my toes, a short time later when I went to play with them, one of them grabbed my damn big toe, bit down and actually snapped part of it off. Cute. 

The nail group color for the week is brown, and I was just bound and determined I would get something done for it.
Nubar Jewel, Sinful Colors Black on Black MoYou Sailor XL 06 stamp
I'm happy I took the time to do it, because I'm a fan. It seems I don't use brown very often. Geez, I only have 2 Helmer drawers of browns! 

This one is actually really holo in the sunlight, Nubar Jewel. I used Sinful Colors Black on Black and the MoYou Sailor XL 06 plate for the stamp.

It all went on first try even though I didn't really make much of an attempt to center or match up the design from nail to nail. I really like the black over the brown.

Good thing because it's very possible I'll still be wearing it next week.