MARBLED IT UP

I've never had such a difficult recuperation from anything. I'm so over it. I'm not sleeping worth a damn. I actually have a call in to my doctor's office and am waiting for a call back to ask a few questions since yesterday I noticed a couple of popped stitches. Of course I noticed them ten minutes after their office closed for the day. The whole thing is just depressing. I'm hoping at some point today I'll be able to at least clean the house because it's filthy after not getting a good cleaning for two weeks. 

I did do a water marble the other night, and I'm semi-happy with how it turned out.

I started with a base of Cult Avalon and then used that along with Julep Sasha and 10 Professional And the Winner Is.....

Instead of using my usual orange stick to marble with, I used the water marble tool I bought from Whats Up Nails. I'm pretty impressed with it. It's very pointy and cuts through the polish very nicely. I'm glad I spent the $7.75 to get it.

In looking at this one now, I'm kind of wishing I had taken the time to redo that ring finger. It looks a little cloudy to me. Since I haven't left the house in two weeks it didn't really matter, I guess. 

Right now it is thundering outside like crazy. Summer has returned this week with temperatures in the 80's and humidity to match. Even the pool water is back up to 80 degrees which at this point is downright depressing since I'm not up to actually getting into the pool. At least if it rains today I don't have to pout about missing out on pool time. Dang. Power just went out for a minutes while I was typing this. I'm glad that didn't last very long!

That's my whining for the day, hopefully. Right now I'm sitting here with freshly applied nails that are naked. Hopefully later today I'll think of something fun to do with them.

In this mood, I'm not counting on it.

SNOW, SNOW, SNOW....AND A MANI

Please, please stop with the damn snow already!! Kev left yesterday and won't be home until Sunday night. Before he left he had snowblowed the driveway and did the shoveling. I was not too happy when it started snowing late last night. It was a beautiful snowfall; huge fluffy flakes that look so pretty as it's coming down.

Unfortunately, once they hit the ground they stay there. I didn't sleep well last night. It was one of those nights where my dreams were horrible and weird, and I was up three times to get a drink of Dr. Pepper and smoke a cig in order to snap myself out of them. If I don't get up, I slip right back into the same nightmare. I wish I knew where these whacko dreams came from....so bizarre and random.

But I digress. The point is every time I got up it was still snowing. I had checked the weather before I went to bed at 3:00 a.m., and it said we were supposed to get an inch. Lying assmunches. There was easily four or five inches on my deck when I got up this morning, and it's still snowing off and on. 

Of course that means more shoveling for me. My arm had finally quit being sore from the last bit of shoveling and Christmas undecorating. But off I went to clear the deck and the area between that and the garage. It was the first time I actually had to pick up the snow and toss it rather than just push it where it needed to go, and I'm hoping I don't pay for it. It's light and fluffy so at least I had that going for me. 

Right now I'm sitting here debating whether or not my arm could maybe handle the snowblower or whether I should just let the actual driveway stay as it is until Kev gets home to do it. It is self-propelled and everything, but that sucker is huge, and I have a really hard time turning it.  I've lucked out in a major way for the past few years and haven't had to attempt using it. My darling hubby has been home every time we got any measurable amount of snow for those years. I guess it stands to reason that because my arm isn't normal, this would be the year that the snow removal is falling on me. 

My brother-in-law has a plow and had offered to help out this year, but right now he is laid up at home waiting for a call from Mayo which is where he needs to go for heart surgery. So I might be whining and bitching, but what he's going through now and what he will be going through puts things in perspective in a big way. Please keep him in your prayers for me! 

I did this mani on Sunday night to wear to work on Monday. And then I wore black to work! Oh, the horror of having brown nails with a black sweater! I'm ashamed of myself.

My tan for this is 10 Professional Moonlight. Geez, I really love their polish. I don't know where it's sold but sure would like more of it. I lucked out on eBay last year and got 10 bottles for crazy cheap and have wanted more ever since. I tried a couple of different browns before finding one that stamped good enough to use, and it's China Glaze Foie Gras. As for the stamp,  no surprise there. It's the Ninja Polish DRK-A plate. I don't think I've used that particular design before. I like it.

Today I also completed another tutorial for Les Nouvelle Esthetiques & Spa magazine for the March issue and will also be doing a different one for NailIt magazine's website. Such fun! I'm always so tickled when they ask me for stuff.

So now I'm hoping I don't have to shovel any more white stuff and can just do some playing with my nails while I watch tv. It's nice knowing the house is clean and that I don't really have any actual "work" to do this weekend.

Lazy suits me.

QUICKIE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

Well, the end of my year is ending on an interesting note. 

On Wednesday I finally went back for my follow-up EGD on my ulcer. I was supposed to do that in September, but life got in the way.  It hasn't healed. Super. Another round of some new meds, and I get to have that redone again in February. *sigh*

Another "awesome" thing happened on Monday. I got a call from the bossman who started off the convo by asking how long I can get unemployment. Okay....weird question. I told him I have 16 more weeks of full benefits. He then proceeds to tell me that he has decided to retire at the end of 2014. I was shocked, but I didn't think it was so major that he'd have to tell me 2 weeks before Christmas. And then he says he won't have a full-time employee anymore. He's just going to do court appointments which don't really require very much work so he's just going to get someone 20-25 hours a week. I am still in shock. For lack of a better answer at the moment, I told him I'd finish out my full benefits on unemployment but would probs want to work the 25 hours a week and finish out with him. I mean, it's been 24 years. I can't imagine  not being there at the end.  Of course, I don't know  moneywise what will be best, if I should try to find another job which is damn near impossible here or just what I should do. I'm like a lost puppy right now.  Merry Effing Christmas.

On a better note, my shoulder seems to be doing pretty well. I haven't been wearing my sling at all for the past few days. It moves pretty well, but I still have to be careful.

Back in October I let CNS know that I'd be out of nail commission and that if they wanted any Christmas mani's they'd have to let me know so I could get them done before surgery. They asked for several, so I knocked them out over a couple of evenings.

For this I started off with Sally Hansen Cherry Red and then used Kleancolor Metallic Green and Metallic Yellow, OPI Blue My Mind and 10 Professional Put a Ring on It for the Christmas lights.

It was a bit of a rush job, and I could have done it better if I wasn't trying to get things done quickly. But it is what it is, which lately is turning into my attitude about everything.

Now I'm sitting here with naked nails since Monday when I put them on. I couldn't wear polish for the EGD, and I'm finding myself so totally uninspired that I haven't done anything. I've looked at hundreds of holiday themed nails over the past week, but I'm just not feelin' it. I think I'm just overwhelmed with everything right now; the arm, the ulcer, the dentist, the job, the holidays....just too much all at once.

End of today's whine session.

BLUE. AND STAMPED. YUP.

Lordie, what a start to the week.

The first day back to work after a vacation pretty much always sucks. Since I'm the only person working here, nothing gets done when I'm gone so usually there is a huge pile of paperwork waiting for me. I always dread it because I hate not being caught up.

Cut to this morning. I was up and ready to go like normal. I even thought I'd go in a few minutes early to try to formulate a plan of attack before the bossman showed up. It seemed like such a great idea!

My vehicle, on the other hand, did not think it was a good idea.  On the contrary, I guess my vehicle didn't want me to go to work. Or anywhere else, for that matter.  When it didn't start, I was pissed....I figured it was probs doing the weird security reset thingie it does sometimes so I followed the usual procedure for that and waited 10 minutes.  Um, hello, car....you're then supposed to start. Remember?

Oh, "not so!" says my car. "Your ass ain't going anywhere if I have my way." All I can think about is how pissed the boss is gonna' be when I call and tell him I'm stranded at home. Yeah, that'll go over great after I've been gone for a week.

So I start calling the office. Over and over and over again. Evidently he didn't feel he needed to be on time today. I finally reached him at 10:00 and told him the scoop. I was waiting for the tow truck to come and drag the irritant over to the mechanic, and I was hitching a ride so I could pick up the loaner vehicle.

Got that accomplished and am now driving a not-so-shiny red.....minivan. God help me; I'm driving a gump-mobile. Hopefully it isn't going to cost a gazillion dollars to have the Equinox fixed....we just spent money on our vacation, dammit! I don't have any extra moolah just laying around! Seriously; I call bullshit.

I really did plan on doing my nails last night, but I just didn't have the ambition to even figure out something to do. So this post is actually a mani I did a couple of weeks ago. Not new to me but still new to you guys.

The Navy is 10 Professional Starstruck, and I stamped with Essie Mirror Blue Rhapsody and the Llarowe LeaLac LLC-B plate.

I like this one; it just isn't all that exciting. It was one of those last minute kinda' mani's where I suddenly decided around 11:30 at night that I just "had" to do my nails.  So it is what it is. Or was. Whatever. You know what I mean. lol

And now back to playing "catch-up" at work. I just thought I'd sneak this one in here while I had a minute. I'm hoping tonight I'll decide to not be lazy because right now I have the dreaded tip-wear. Gross. And something I'm not exactly used to and am definitely not a fan of.

Blog post done. Mission accomplished.

SMATCHY SPLOTCHY-SPLATTER

GROSS!! It was flying ant day yesterday.  I really hate flying ant day.  Some of you probably have no clue what I'm referring to, but there is usually one day/evening during the summer where flying black ants take to the sky....and they're disgusting. It kind of looked like there was a smidge of snow falling as I looked out my kitchen window. Get up today, none.

So that's why I (and some others) call it flying ant day. It makes you not want to go outside cuz' they run into you, land on you, just generally annoy you. So that meant no hummingbird time for me last night. No way in hell I was sitting out there with those creatures.

Then today I go home for lunch and bring the feeder in to refill it, and when I try to rehang it, a damn wasp wanted to "help". I backed away, feeder still in hand, but every time I'd think he left, he'd show right back up the second I tried to hang it. Kev finally came out and did it. Bastards.  So here's hoping for tonight.

Last night I remembered a shirt that I bought a couple of years ago. Totes forgot that I have it and couldn't figure out where it even was. After going through my closet one item at a time, I finally found it. I wanted to do a splatter mani to go with it.

I had done this once before for this shirt and had great luck. I used a straw and just blew the polish on. For some reason I could not get it to work last night. 

I finally gave up and just slapped the polish on using the edges of the straw.  I don't dislike it, but I'm calling this a fail because it didn't do what it was supposed to do.  I even included some shots with the shirt!

I did a basecoat of white using NYC French White. Then I just added little splotches of Color Club Blue Ming, Julep Susie, Sinful Colors Island Coral, Sinful Colors Poudre and 10 Professional The Little Black Dress.

I like every one of these colors in general. For my toes I just used the Blue Ming. I had no desire to splatter my tootsies.

So I guess I will call this a semi-fail instead of a fail. But only because it still looks good with the shirt even if it didn't get splattered and splotchy like I wanted.

Whatever. I'm kind of thinking I don't much care right now. I'm already pondering what to do next.

I SHOULDA' BEEN A DOCTOR

Long weekends go by way too fast. Last night I went to dinner with an old friend who I hadn't seen in many years. It was great to have a few hours to reconnect.

Today I had the day off to go have my EGD. Just imagine how not surprised I was when they told me I have an ulcer. What? Really? You mean I have exactly what I've been saying all along? Weird. I have to go back and have another one done in two months to see if the ulcer has healed. Funsies.

So no surprises on that. Apparently they gave me lots of drugs to put me under because I never was able to stay awake until around 7 p.m. tonight, and I'm still not quite normal. Save the smartass remarks, peeps; I already know I'm never quite normal.

I did this mani Sunday afternoon to wear out to dinner. It was a big hit with the nursing staff today. I had planned on taking it off tonight, but I'm not awake enough to be staring any manicures.

I started with two coats of 10 Professional Moonlight and used Essie Spinning Again for stamping. This is one of my all-time fave stamps, and it's on my DRK-B plate that I bought from Ninja Polish.  If you need plates with larger images for covering your whole nail, these are some of the best.

Tomorrow is back to work but only for a half day because I have an appointment with an ortho guy tomorrow for my shoulder. I'm interested to see how that goes. How can they figure out what's wrong when I'm not currently having any shoulder pain? That last cortisone shot is still doing its job.

Dang, my life is Fun!!!

4TH OF JULY MARBLE

I hate that I couldn't do a mani last night. It bothers me much more than it should when I have to wear the same mani for more than a day, and I've now done that twice this week. Highly unusual and extremely annoying.

Being in so much pain yesterday sucked ass, frankly. The timing of it couldn't be worse. It makes it so hard to frolic with Griffin (yes, I said frolic). A friend of mine and her daughter also decided that last night was the night they would come to visit. It was so great to see them; tons of laughs with those two.  Love 'em so very much. 

I keep thinking how glad I am that I'm having that EGD on Monday, and then it dawns on me that it's just the test. I probs won't get results right away, and I don't imagine they can actually give me any relief immediately. I'm so over it.

Enough self-pity for one day. I'll just keep popping the Zantac, Tums and Vicodin, use the heating pad, and stick to eating what I seem to instinctively know won't bother me day by day. The weirdest things ever; bread sticks from Dominoes one day; two plain hamburgers from Hardee's last night. It's like I crave odd things, and those things end up not exacerbating the problem. Cray-cray. Good thing, though...otherwise I may starve. lol

I saved this mani that I did for Custom Nail Solutions to post closer to the 4th of July. It's nice that I had it all set for posting since I know there are some days I'm not going to feel like playing with my nails.

It's probs the most success I've had marbling with red and white together. The white pretty much stayed white, although I think I redid a couple of them. Hey, not every one can go as easily as that green one.

I stuck with the same red, white and blue I used on the others; China Glaze Man Hunt, 10 Professional Bewitched and Lady in White. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, and these colors really are perfect for the holiday.

While it's not an especially exciting water marble, it works for what I needed. 

I hope you have fun plans for the 4th. As for me, I'm going to my sister's for the annual family cookout. The weather forecast looks decent, and I'm hoping for some pool time before I head over there.

I also have my 35th class reunion on Friday night, and I'm taking one of my best friends from high school as my "date". I haven't seen her in probably 25 years so we have lots of catching up to do. My town is also celebrating its 150th birthday and I got a Facebook message from another old friend I haven't seen in probably 30 years that she's coming to town and wants to get together. So this is going to be a much busier weekend than I usually have. 

Tyler and Griff are leaving Friday, so I'm saddy pants about that. The week flew by way too quickly, but at least they'll be back in 3 weeks to celebrate Griffin's 3rd birthday.

Jeebus H....where does the time go?

IN THE LIGHT OF DAY.....

As I've mentioned previously, I'm always happy to do specific manicures for the peeps over at Custom Nail Solutions for them to use in online articles for blogs, magazines, etc.  I never usually know when or where they're going to show up, but I have plenty of great nail friends on Facebook that catch these things immediately.

I get a message from a couple of those lovelies letting me know that I was in the online version of NailIt! magazine. I figured it was probs a pic they will be using for an upcoming online article on french mani's. Then when I went to look, I discovered it's another of the Custom Nails articles.  You can find it here:  NailIt!

As always, I think it's pretty cool. Examiner.com has a similar one up right now, too. 

K....all of that shameless bragging was just a lead-in to these hot messes.  I've been waiting to hear from CNS with 4th of July requests and finally heard from their PR person last week. There was a list of five that they wanted so I knocked out two of them in one night.

I'm not a superfan of patriotic "mani's fer murrica". Nothing against our good ol' red, white and blue; I just think most of the time it makes for ugly manicures. But I say I'll do what they need, so I did 'em. I dislike them so much they don't even deserve to be shown one day at a time.  AND they weren't fun to do, either. I hate doing a white stripe of any kind because there always seems to be some bleeding, but that always gets magnified when it's against red. So don't look too closely.

Oh, another thing! Of all the damn stamping plates I own, can you believe I don't have one that has single stars?? I wanted to stamp stars on those tips and still can't believe I didn't have a star stamp. I suppose I have to try to hunt one of those down now. Sheesh. So I faked it with a damn orange stick. They aren't the greatest stars, but it was midnight, and you get the idea.

At least in my vast haul of polishes I did find the perfect America blue, China Glaze Man Hunt.  I used 10 Professional Bewitched for the red and 10 Professional Lady in White for, you guessed it, the white.  The perfection of the colors is the only bright spot in these for me.

I did one more that I'll show you, maybe tomorrow, maybe later in the week. That will depend on whether or not I get a chance to even do my nails. Right now I still have on the "perfect" green marble.  Tyler and Griffin home does not make for extra nail play time. 

Hope your weekend was as good as mine. Days like yesterday are, for me, perfect. Sunny and hot, laid in the pool for four hours, a couple of those playing with Griffin. He is quite the little swimmer for not quite three years old. We swam, the dogs swam, everybody swam. The ex came over to visit with everybody, and then takeout for supper. So sun, fun and no cooking....works for me!

I'm not even saddy pants about being at work. At least not too much. It's a short work week because of the 4th....hopefully the bossman realizes I have NO intention of being here Friday.  Then next Monday I'm off for my EGD, so that all translates into five whole days with no work.

Now all I have to hope is that the weather cooperates. A couple more nice days, and I will officially look like I should live in Mexico. I'm gonna' be a prettier color than my nails.

I'VE ACHIEVED IT. PERFECTION.

OMG, I actually had to leave the house on a weekend. So gross. But I had a bridal shower to attend for one of my "almost" daughters, and I couldn't miss that cuz' I just loves her too much.

 

So happy that Tyler made it home for it. Of course, I'm happy anytime Tyler comes home, so that's nothing new. Griffin gets so happy as he's coming up the stairs when he sees the dogs. He just squeals and giggles, and he's so excited he literally shakes. Hilar. 

 

After the shower we went over to see Jackie's 11 day old son, Ayden. So I got to be in baby heaven for a couple of hours. What an adorable little bundle with a ton of black hair. I just love over peoples' babies. 

 

I figured that since I actually was leaving the house and going to be seen by more than one other person, I should have something fancy-schmancy on my nails. Just like usual, Tyler and I didn't even start trying to figure out what we were going to do with our mani's until almost 2 a.m.  Then I decided I wanted a water marble.  Even Tyler said that was stupid because I would never get to bed.

 

I figured I could try one nail, and if it seemed like the polishes weren't going to cooperate, I would just switch gears and stamp something.  As it turns out, everything fell right into place.  And when I say that, I'm talking perfect.....like, PERFECT.

 

Seldom do I have a marble go this easily and turn out so spectacularly. I may have to leave this on for a couple of days.  

 

Did I mention that it's perfect?  Cuz' it is.

Tell the truth; have you seen many more marbles this perfect?

 

I actually do know that there are tons of marbles out there that are more perfect, but for me, this is one of the best I've ever done, I think.

 

I just wanted something purdy, not quirky or an odd color combo or anything. Just a pretty water marble. And that's exactly what I got.  I used Square Hue Ocean Drive for the light green, Essie Naughty Nautical for the darker green and 10 Professional Lady in White as my base and in the marble.

 

I could not be any happier with this. I'm not usually one to gush over my own mani's, but I'm a-gushing over this one.

 

Sorry, but I have no VOTD, because guess what my day was......

 

PERFECT. ;)

LUSTROUS MARBLE

Back in March I was lucky enough to have some of my manicures featured in an article in the Les Nouvelles Esthetiques and Spa magazine. Quite the thrill even though I didn't receive any type of credit for it. My panties aren't in a bunch over it; I'm simply tickled that it happened.

And yesterday, I found out that some more of my "semi-famous left hand" are in the May issue, too!! WooHoo!! What a fun thing to have happen to a little nobody that lives in bumf*** nowhere that has no training or anything that would even remotely qualify me to be doing any of this.  Brag over. :)

I did do a manicure last night but decided to pull out an older one instead for tonight. No reason; just cuz' I can. 

Short and sweet, here it is:

I've tried several times to get a multi/duochrome marble to turn out the way I want, but they never do. I'm sure I'll try again! But for this attempt I did a basecoat of "10" Professional black and then did my marble using the Sally Hansen Lustre collection, Scarab, Plume, Lava, Copperhead and Firefly.

Looking at this really does make me want to try another marble. I heart marbles and have to make a concerted effort to not do them all the damn time. They are for sure one of my fave things to have on my nails. 

I'm fresh out of snark tonight. Hopefully I'll have a fresh supply soon because I am bored with my own post this evening.  So I'm outtie. 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN??????

Are YOU ready for Halloween? Costume all figured out? Undead nails all set to go?

I didn't think so.

I'm a bit confused why a magazine would want what I consider to be a Halloween mani for a spring/summer issue, but who am I to question the powers that be at Les Nouvelles? If they use this one, I'm interested to see what the article is going to be about. This one sure as hell doesn't fit in with anything else they asked for.

All in all, it's kind of a fun mani. If I was under the age of, say, 20? I certainly don't know where I could ever wear something like this. Can you picture me showing up at the law office in this one?? The bossman might even notice, although in the past year the only one he's ever commented on was my snakeskin foils. I'm pretty sure he'd have something to say about this look.

Festive, right? I mean seriously, who wouldn't want blood-dripping nails for everyday wear? 

This was pretty fun to do, though. I did three coats of Julep Jennifer as my base. I wanted something just a little pink-toned but neutral and thought this suited my purposes pretty well.  I looked through a lot of my red/burgandy polishes trying to choose one that wasn't too bright and settled on "10" Professional Holiday in Spain. I think it's a great color for blood. Personally, I'd prefer mine to be blue, but it's not. Thanks a heap, mom and dad.

I had never heard of "10" Professional before but found a lot of ten on eBay awhile back that I think I paid something like $16 for. It was such a good deal with such good colors, I decided to grab it. It was awesome because I ended up really loving these polishes. I still look for it on eBay hoping for another bargain. I'd like even more colors, of course.

Again, I digressed. I plopped a pretty good-sized amount of the burgandy right along the top edge of my tips and then dragged it down with my smallest dotting tool. I didn't bother to topcoat it because I preferred that the "blood" not get smoothed out with the base. 

I figured in real life, if I somehow managed to get blood all over just the tips of my nails like this, once it was starting to dry it wouldn't be all blended in and smooth. Ya' know, cuz' for sure that could happen. Just ten bloody tips with no blood anywhere else. Yup. True story. Believe it.

Although with that zombie apocalypse coming......