PINK AND GIRLY

Last Thursday we headed off to Illinois to spend a few days with my daughter and her fam. I think this is the third year in a row that we've gone there in February. The last two times we had bone-chilling, unusually cold weather when we got there. Not surprising since shit weather usually follows me wherever I go.

It was a nice change to be there this time. They have no snow, and the temps were around 40 degrees which pretty much feels like a heatwave compared to home.

I love visiting there, and every time we do, I give serious thought about just packing up and moving to their neighborhood. They live in such a nice area that has a small town feel but has all the perks (shopping) of being in a big city. We got our shop on a couple of times, and I came home with a bunch of new shirts and sweaters and more nail polish than I've bought in months. I do love a bargain.

Zero was obsessed with me, as always, and Griffin was just beyond adorable, as usual. We went out for sushi on Saturday night, and it was amazing. Our plan had also included indoor skydiving, but they didn't have any open times for us to go. Evidently that needs to be planned in advance a little better. Lesson learned.

I even made sure to get a pic of Griffin with me, which are few and far between since I'm usually the one taking the pics. That and it's even more rare that I think I look decent enough in a picture to actually post it.

For real, how cute is this kid? I absolutely want to eat him up.

I had done my nails a few days before we left and ended up leaving this same mani on for an entire week. To say I was sick of looking at it would be an understatement. It got lots of compliments when we were shopping, though.

I used Zoya Dot for the pink base and then stamped with MdU White and the DRK Themes Enlaced stamping plate. It turned out pretty much exactly as it was in my head, so I was happy with it.

As much as I liked it, I couldn't get rid of it fast enough when we got home Sunday night. When I was playing with Zero over the weekend, I had managed to loosen both of my index finger nails so I had to completely remove those.

Once I did that, I did a heart mani that I still have on now. I'm really missing the days when I had the motivation to do a manicure every night, but I just don't have the energy or inspiration. 

It took me two days to swatch and organize the new polishes I bought, and even that took a whole lot of effort. I easily bought at least 20 polishes, and while we were gone, my Square Hue and Julep came, so finishing it up was pretty time consuming.

On a super depressing note, when we went to Sally Beauty it was time to renew my membership, which costs $5 a year. This year it only cost me $2.50.

I'm still undecided whether I'm happy about that or horrified that I officially received my first "senior discount". I'm 56.....I don't feel like a senior.

Color me saddy-pants, I think.

BYE-BYE BIRDIES

It's a beautiful, sunny day. Sitting here and glancing out the window, it's deceiving. It looks warm out, but it's only 57 degrees, and my phone for the past few days is just constantly popping up with frost warnings. 

Even though my last hummer sighting was on September 21st, I've left my feeders up on the off chance that some stragglers come through on their way south. Unfortunately the only thing I've been seeing are wasps. And they're so big I catch them out of the corner of my eye and hurry up and look over, hoping I'm going to see a bird. No such luck.

On Sunday night I noticed that the DRK Themes Enlaced plate has a couple of hummingbirds. Thought I'd give it a try.

I started with Essie Sand Tropez and decided to just go with Mundo de Unas black for the stamping.

This one gave me a lot of trouble, and by the time I finished, I was so over it. For some reason I kept messing up the base, and I think I re-did the Essie on several fingers more than once. I don't know what my problem was.

The stamping didn't go very well, either. Parts of the background kept refusing to transfer to my nails so I had to keep re-doing that, too.

Mabes I was just having an off night. Not only did the painting and stamping not go so well, photographing didn't go so hot, either. I snapped my usual shots but didn't take the time to see how the pictures turned out until today. 

Mistake. Two of the four pics were blurry, and I guess I really should have photographed my right hand so the hummingbird's face showed in all the pics. Unfortunately I didn't realize that before I took this off.

Lesson learned.

NOT A HEART IN SIGHT

And a big hello to Monday. I slept for a solid 6 straight hours last night. I got out of bed as soon as the alarm went off just like normal, but for some reason I was completely disoriented. On any other day I would pop up, go around the end of the bed and go into the bathroom. This requires taking a right, a right and a left in a pretty short area.

Today, however, I decided I would pop out of bed and instead of taking that first right at the end of the bed I angled left which leads me to my long dresser. Too bad I wasn't conscious enough to realize that. I fumbled around for a few seconds, lost in my own damn bedroom. SO weird. 

I didn't actually figure out where the eff I was until I reached onto the dresser and knocked off my sisters angel figurine. I knew right then I wasn't going to be happy once I turned the light on, and sure enough, one sister no longer has wings. I'm sure I can easily glue them back on. Unfortunately the wings fell behind the dresser, and there is no way to get to them. Of course.

I wore this mani for a couple of days last week and didn't have time to take it off until last night. 

I'm really having a hard time picking colors I feel like wearing lately. I do like this baby blue, though. It's Zoya Blu. I stamped with China Glaze Man Hunt and the DRK Themes Enlaced plate.

Even though I liked it, I was really sick of looking at it after a couple of days. And then I had it on for 4 days longer than that. Even seeing it here, I'm sick of it.

I'm in a mood in general, I think. Slump city. Nothing I'm doing is tickling my fancy, which pretty much takes the fun out of it. I need my brain to fire on some more cylinders and get my imagination working.

I mean, everybody likes their fancies tickled, right?

 

GUESS I'M A BIG HONKIN' LIAR

I actually got some sleep last night. Not a lot, but certainly more than Friday night. And it was a consecutive almost 5 hours which made it even better. Did I want to get up at 7:45? Not really, but I've gotten lots of puppy play and tv in today.

Seeing the -17 temperature wasn't so great. Poor Tinlee and Seven were having a very hard time with it. They would go out, and their feet were so cold they could barely walk. Tinlee would try to come in but would only take a step or two at a time because it was hurting her. It makes me feel so bad when that happens. It's warmed all the way up to -3 now so it isn't quite as terrible for her. I imagine later tonight it won't be good.

On a good note, I finally sold my old car! She's coming to get it this week. I'm happy for her, and I think she's going to be happy with it. At least I hope she is. I want her to love having it as much as I did. And even better, Kev will love having his side of the garage back.

I completely forgot I had this mani in my drafts. Probably because I had temporarily titled it "failure". I had put the good mani in as well as the craptastic one so when I was doing my posts, I didn't even look at it because the fail is so bad I decided not to post it at all. 

So I lied about no more hearts. This one was supposed to be my actual Valentine's Day post because it's red.

I used Kleancolor Metallic Red with Konad white and the new DRK Themes Enlaced stamping plate. The Kleancolor metallics can really stain, so I did this one because I knew I'd be soaking off my nails later that day.

It's red; it's got hearts; it's cute; I like it. That's all I need to say about it.

Now.....I promise that's it. No more stinkin' hearts for awhile!  I just need to think of an idea for this evening after Seven goes back to her actual home. 

And then keep my eyes propped open long enough to do it.

Kleancolor Metallic Black, Kleancolor Metallic Red, DRK Themes Enlaced roses Valentine stamp

LAST MINUTE LACE

Going to be short, but I wanted to at least throw a mani out here.  With over 500 new FB page likes and over 100 new Instagram followers in the past 8 days, I really want to try and post more. 

I'm still not feeling great, but Tuesday I got my new DRK Themes  Enlaced plate. It's a beauty, and I just had to hurry up and use it Tuesday night.

Sometimes it's so hard to choose a color!! I try to not repeat myself, but even with all that polish in the other room, it still isn't easy.

This CQ Gem Green has a really pretty shimmer to it that of course does not show up here.  I used DRK's black stamping polish for the lace design. I'm very pleased with the stamping polish, and I thought it was pretty reasonably priced at only 3 bucks.

The house is all cleaned, so my weekend has officially started. Kev leaves tomorrow and with his upcoming flight schedule and stopping to watch the Super Bowl with some family downstate, I won't see him until February. 

Sometimes being married to a pilot is like being single but without all the single life shenanigans and tomfoolery.

I prefer married.