PINK!! HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Happy Valentine's Day. Woop-De-Doo.  My hubs and I don't really bother with it, which is fine with me. Every couple of years or so he'll surprise me with flowers, but this year we didn't even bother with cards. One thing about Kev, he never needs a special occasion to let me know he loves me. The guy is a gem and treats me like the "queen" I pretend to be. That being said, I hope someday we're rich enough so I can collect some more diamonds. I love me some diamonds.

To close out this not-so-hot bunch of VD mani's, CNS asked me for a straight-up pink. And that's exactly what I did. 

China Glaze Strawberry Fields is very, very pink. Like, very.  I remember right after I started painting my nails I acquired a bright pink that I tried. It was horrible on me so I really didn't think I was going to like this. As it turns out, I honestly do like it.

Of course we all know there was no way I could just leave it alone. I had done this in the evening and did paint both hands for once, but the next day I was bored so I added a stamp.

For the stamp I used Essie No Place Like Chrome with a pattern off of my Ninja Polish DRK-B stamp plate. I didn't get to wear this one anywhere because I didn't leave the house, but it still looked good. Lord knows I need my nails to look good for myself.

Tomorrow Kev and my son-in-law are going to take Griffin into the city to go to the Chicago car show, and then it's time to get back to Escanaba. I'm not happy that my visit is over. I probs won't see them again for a couple of months because they don't come as often in the winter. So I'll be sad to leave.
 
Now I'm off to watch Project Runway's Under the Gun with Tyler and her neighbor. Kev and Tyler's husband will be super pumped to watch it, I'm sure. 

I hope your Valentine's Day was spent with someone you care about. Luckily I got to spend mine with more than one.

 

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!!!

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.

A "QUEENLY" ROYAL VELVET

Just curious; how sick does one have to be in order to get an appointment faster? I was just crazy enough to think that when I called my gastro's office and told them I spent Monday night in the emergency room, they just might think I need to be seen. Like fast. Apparently next Tuesday afternoon suits them just fine. Even though this does NOT suit ME just fine, I don't really have a choice in this podunk town. In the meantime I'll be stocking up on every otc medicine I can find to get me through until then with as little pain as possible. Should be a fun trip to Chicago this weekend. 

Our friend Chris is even more awake and aware now. I guess when she was shown the pics of all the red mani's, she raised her hand and said she loves red. Warms my heart, and I hope she knows there are a ton of us still worried and praying for her. Things are sure looking good, tho! Yay!!

I didn't feel too bad yesterday although by bedtime I was feeling less awesome than earlier in the day. I really had to do my nails, though...no matter what. Two days with the same nails is really about as much as I can take when I'm home. Anything that I find to be difficult like the gradient from the other day I tend to leave for 2-3 days just because I want all that work to feel like it was worth it.

This one might have to stay on for a couple days, too. We're babysitting the Griffster, and an active 2 1/2 year old and nail art do not necessarily mix. Especially since he is some kind of magical genius at opening bottles and has been since he was about 10 months old. Any kind of bottles, even childproof; it's kinda' freaky. Cute, but freaky. It makes me super vigilant every time he heads into the spare bedroom where my Helmers are. lmao

This, of course, shows up much more obvi in person.  I even tried taking pics in the morning sunlight but couldn't get it to show up any better than this. It is part of what I love about it; it's just subtle and classy. And I'm sure you have all noticed how extremely classy I am.  I would say it is easily the word most often used to describe me. 

I do love this polish; Orly Royal Velvet. The application is fab, and it's one of those weird polishes that looks purple in the bottle but navy on the nails. And then you move and it's purple on the nails. Gotta' love that! Then I just grabbed a bottle of Orly Liquid Vinyl and stamped with DRK-B and freehanded a black french tip. Easy breezy. And Covergirl had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Off to smooch that baby. <3  

 

So even though it's still my first day, most of the time I'll probs be posting late at night because I do my nails most often after work while I'm watching all of the damn tv I watch. Seriously. It's completely ridiculous how much I watch.

Continuing with the saga that started out so innocently with just "one" dark nail color.....

Right about the same time, I just happened to see a Facebook post where somebody had posted a picture of some fabulous manicure. I was amazed! I had never seen anything like it. I followed a link that brought me to Chloe's nail blog, my eyes glazed over as I perused every picture, and I'm pretty sure I stopped breathing for at least an hour. I couldn't get enough. Back then she posted almost every day, and I spent hours learning what she used, what she bought, what she liked, where she bought....if she had it, it was damn well going to be mine. I bought it all; striping tape, scotch tape, craft scissors, Seche Vite topcoat. It was a whole new world!

I spent hours trying to duplicate her work. Whatever colors she used, I hit Amazon or eBay and made them mine. I started doing my nails every night. When I look back at some of those manicures now, I cringe, but I thought they were pretty good back then. Unfortunately, my fiberglass nails which previously had been so good to me, were not holding up well with the constant polish changes. I was constantly having to redo the topcoat on them and frustration was setting in fast.  Tomorrow night I'll clue you in on the miracle product you now see on my fingers, my Custom Nail Solutions nails. :)

But in the meantime, here's what I did tonight!

  

My base is China Glaze Cheek to Cheek, and I stamped over that using Kleancolor Metallic Black and my DRK-B plate which I purchased from Ninja Polish. Those DRK plates are the best; nice large images that cover my entire nail.

I'd also like to mention I'm surprised and thrilled to have 31 followers already!! You guys are the best!! Joining the nail community via Facebook and Pinterest has brought so much to my life and goes SO much farther than "just nails". I've made some amazing new friends in the past year as well as reconnected with a friend or two from "the old days". Worth every penny I've spent. And I've spent a LOT.

Til tomorrow....