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.

NEW HOLO TOPCOAT

A few posts back I discussed holo topcoats. After wandering the web to find some, I ended up buying two on eBay. They weren't expensive, and I figured I'd try them out to see what I like.

On Sunday night I tried out this one from Pixie's Polish. Her swatches looked great, and the price was perfectly acceptable.

I started with the light gray from Square Hue, Vice and then stamped using MdU Dark Gray and the FUN13 plate from Fab Ur Nails. Over that I did one coat of the holo topcoat.

It did make for a very nice holo effect, but as is often the case, it isn't quite as sheer as the first holo topcoat I purchased that I'm almost out of. I really wish there was a name on that damn bottle.

I'm not unhappy with the Pixie's Polish topcoat, but I do need to try it just over a color that has no stamping to see how much I really like it. If I'm feeling ambitious when I take this mani off, perhaps I'll try it over something darker on its own. For this one, I'm wishing I had done the holo and then stamped rather than covering up the stamp.

It's not a bad effect, especially in person. The stamping design is just super muted due to the topcoat. It's quite pretty in person.

Overall, I'd recommend it, I think. I like a linear holo the best, and this fits the bill even though it doesn't show that much in the photo.

One down, one more to try that I purchased on eBay from Spectraflair. I'll try that one soon so I can show you how good/bad it is.

JUST PLAYIN'

Every 20th of the month, I check my Julep Maven account to see what my monthly box is going to be. It's been awhile since I bothered to buy it. This month, though, about a week or so before that I got an email from Julep giving us a chance to get an extra free polish if we got the monthly box.

So I signed in and reserved that freebie and then hoped I'd actually want my It Girl box for September. As it turns out, the polishes for the month were absolutely something I knew I'd like. I also had enough Jules in my account to get my set for free, and I even had enough to add on another polish. So the other day I got five polishes in the mail for free. Gotta' love that, right?

I was sitting here last night and decided I would try out the purple holographic polish just on my thumbnail to see if it looked as good on as it did in the bottle. 

Today I finished swatching all five and finished painting my left hand. So this is Julep Delores.

It is much better in person. I wouldn't say it's the most holo of the holo's, but it's really pretty.

Since I'm not leaving the house anytime soon, I didn't bother painting my right hand with it, but I did decide to throw a design on it just for shits and giggles. 

Horrible picture. Just horrible. The design is actually hearts from the Fab Ur Nails FUN 13 plate, and I used the Mundo de Unas fuschia stamping polish called Tutti.

You'll just have to take my word for it being cute in person. It's actually cute enough that if I had any reason to do my nails, I'd do the other hand.

DAMN YOU, STRESS!

I wish I was a drinker. Then maybe I could just do random shots of something throughout the day to make me un-stressed. Ever since I found out in May that I'll be having a smidge of surgery later this month, my moods have been swinging, and I just in general don't feel "quite right" even though I'm not sick. 

I'm able to specifically label it as stress because whenever I'm super stressed out, the left corner of my mouth cracks. Weird and annoying. And this morning I awoke to find that the right side has decided to go along for the fun. Thankfully it's not really noticeable so at least I'm not looking all joker-ish. While I certainly don't have any desire to wish for summer to be over, I'll be glad when the end of the month is past.

Tyler, Griffin and Zero headed back to Illinois this morning, and the house seemed very empty when I went home at lunchtime. I think Tinlee is pouting because she wouldn't eat her lunch. She should have been hungry, too, since this morning her tummy was upset and she didn't eat breakfast. Zero enjoyed eating his breakfast and then hers when I wasn't looking. Little shit. 

Now I'm counting the minutes until 5 o'clock so I can go home and clean the house so I can be lazy for the weekend. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll get some pool time over the next 4 days even though my previously nice warm pool water has now dropped back into the low 70's, thanks to the night time temps in the 40's. 

Here's some nails from last week.

I was wearing a light cream colored top with tiny purple flowers so I decided to do something that was kind of smatchy using Square Hue Notre Dame, Mundo de Unas Lilac and the Fab Ur Nails FUN 13 plate.

If I hadn't been too lazy to walk from one end of the house to the other, I would have looked more closely at the shirt and realized that I should have stamped with a darker purple. Oh, well.

This is one of those that I wasn't fond of while I was wearing it, but now that I'm looking at the picture, I like it more. I don't know why that happens to me so often.

At some point over the weekend I really should do a soak off. What I would really like is to do all new impressions and get a new set of nails, but evidently Custom Nail Solutions hasn't been able to get the stuff to make the solid pink nails for quite awhile now. I don't know what happened there, but not cool. I've had the French tipped ones, and that white is just too hard to cover.

Of course, that's money I won't spend if I can't get them, right?

I'LL NEVER LEARN

I can just feel myself slipping into a not wanting to do my nails slump. I'm feeling just pretty slumpish in general for reasons I won't go into. And yes, I have now deemed "slumpish" to be a word.

Hopefully I'll be feeling in a better mood when August is over. Until then, I'm seriously forcing myself to do just about anything.

This one is no exception. I once again started it way too late at night. When it was done and disliked, it was just too late to start over or try to make corrections.

The "idea" was to do a neutral base with some stamping, and then do something sheer on top of it. It is actually exactly what I did; it just didn't look like I hoped it would.

I started with a base of Zoya Amminah, which I then stamped on with Mundo de Unas White and my Fab Ur Nails FUN 13 plate. Once that was dry, I added two coats of OPI Sheer Tint Be Magentale With Me.

I found that the OPI didn't go on very evenly, and even after two coats, I could see darker and lighter sections of pink. Maybe a third coat would have taken care of the issue, but it was just too late to try that.

What's even sadder about disliking this is the fact that I ended up wearing it for two whole work days. I finally made time to remove it last night. And I was shocked at how difficult that sheer tint was to remove! I probably should have wrapped my fingers with tinfoil to help move things along, but I was in the middle of a long text conversation and didn't want to be rude and end the convo.

I had to rub so hard I actually managed to pop off a thumbnail. That really did not make me any happier than I already was. I do plan on hopefully doing a reapplication this weekend, but that doesn't mean I wanted to spend time fixing just one. Lame.

After monkeying around with that forever, I barely had time to paint them. I did manage that, but I didn't get to actually do anything else other than a color. 

Boring.

WOW, THAT IS PINK

Thought I'd pop in just quickly with a mani since I really didn't have a chance to do it over the weekend. It was quite a busy one with the extra dog, the relatives, the other extra dog that came for a playdate and Mother's Day. I always feel like I need a day all alone just to feel normal again.

At any rate, I did do my nails on Sunday night. My original plan was to do a bright pink with black stamping but hated the stamping designs I tried.

After a couple of frustrating fails, I opted for white instead.

This very intense pink is Orly Fiesta, stamped with the MdU white and the Fab Ur Nails FUN 13 plate.

Not a whole lot to say about this one. I only left it on for a day because it just didn't make me happy. I can't even give you a reason why, but it simply didn't do it for me.

I also am getting the feeling that my camera might be thinking about dying on me. I'm having more and more problems with lighting and color with it, and that's just making me more and more frustrated.

If I do my blogging from work, I have already put the manicure in a blank post from my home computer. Then when I get to work, I just have to fill in the post. Lately when I've been doing this, once I open it up, my pic seems darker and my hands are a weird shade of not really my skin tone and not even really my "beginning of a tan" skin tone. 

And since I can't save the pic from the draft onto my computer, I can't edit it before I publish. What that means is now I've been publishing the post, saving the pic to this computer, editing the shot and then revising the post by removing the original pic and replacing it with the newly edited version. If that sounds like a pain in the ass, it's because it is. And it still doesn't really fix things as much as I'd like.

I'd love to get a new camera, but I haven't got a clue what I should get. I have absolutely no knowledge of how to work the damn things when I get them, and as some of you are aware, I have been unable to figure out that mother-friggin' lightbox I just had to buy. I also can't really justify anything outrageously expensive just to take pics of hummingbirds and manicures.

I'm kind of needing that ship to come in so if anybody sees it, send it my way. Then I could buy whatever I want!

That would be fun!

I WAS BORED

Where are my damn hummingbirds! Rumor has it they have arrived 7 miles away, and the migration map shows them up here since the weekend. I'm so anxious and worried my little boy didn't make it through the trip down south or back up here.

When I got home from work yesterday I was surprised to find the water part of my kitchen window feeder in the middle of the yard. So weird. I've had them fall before because the suction cup let go, but the cup and the cover part were still attached to the window. I cannot imagine how that bottom part unhooked itself and flew across the deck into the yard. That part actually screws onto the cover. Like I said, weird.

I'm also tired of hearing what sounds like things falling down in my house. I'll hear what sounds like something fall in my bathroom or laundry room but can never find anything that actually fell. And this morning I was in the living room when I heard a loud noise of something falling from behind me. I went into the two spare bedrooms and the bathroom....nada. I knew before I even went to look that there really wasn't anything that could fall. Again, weird. 

I went to the tanning bed for the first time yesterday. I was only in for 12 minutes, and today my face is on fire. Evidently they put in new bulbs. I knew I should have asked about that. I always buy a one month unlimited in May to get the season started, but I guess I'll have to cancel today's appointment. Looking like the color of a toddler's spanked backside does not appeal to me.

On Saturday I was undecided on what I wanted on my nails for work yesterday, so I did a couple of one hand mani's, and this was one of them.

I did my base with Cult El Porto and stamped with MdU #71, Nabu. I loves me a good coral, and this is a really pretty one for stamping. The plate I used was Fab Ur Nails FUN 13.

I am still loving these Mundo's. I've been seeing some people saying how they hate the smell and that they don't dry. I'm kind of confused by that. I don't find the smell to be any more offensive than normal polish, and it's less offensive to me than a lot of Kleancolor polishes. I also find that it dries like gangbusters. To each their own, I guess.

Some people also hate the fact that the maker won't disclose the ingredients, so there is a lot of speculation on what goes into these. As for myself, I figure none of this crap is good for me; acetone, non-acetone, nail glue or polish in general so I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.


Simply Don't Care.

THIS IS FUN

It was summer today!! It hit 70 degrees. I briefly considered laying out in the sun but didn't have the ambition to either dig out a lawn chair or blow up my raft. I did sit out with the dogs for a bit, and nothing feels better than that sun. Love it.

Right now we are in the middle of our first full-blown thunderboomer of the season. I love a good thunderstorm. It's raining a little too hard for my liking, but I do love watching the lightning. It'll be interesting to see if the waspinators hold up with this driving rain.

I had a hell of a time trying to think of something to do on my nails today. I wanted to do a water marble, but these neons just would not cooperate so I did this instead.

I did one coat of white and then dabbed on some of the Kleancolor Neon collection I bought on eBay. Kleancolor Neon Pink, Neon Aqua, Neon Yellow, Neon Green, Neon Purple and Sangria Burst. 

It was a very bright blobbified mess, and I decided to mute it a little by putting Cult's holographic topcoat, Coachella, on top of it. From there I used my Mundo de Unas black stamping polish and this floral pattern from the FUN 13 plate.

I'm digging it. It has a very groovy vibe, I think. I think any self-respecting hippy from the late 60's-early 70's would approve.

Okay. I'm over it. The thunderstorm can go away and take the rain with it. There is absolutely no way I'm going to find those waspinators in tact in this. It's coming down so hard that if I step out there, I'll come back in with bruises.

So yeah. That's enough, Mother Nature. I don't know who you're bitching at, but let it go.

BLACK AND WHITE

Oh, what a wondrous puppy-filled five days I had!! Tyler got home Tuesday night with Zero. He is just a joy to have around because he is such a sweetheart. The fact that he remains pretty obsessed with me doesn't exactly hurt my opinion of him.

On Saturday afternoon Major and Razzie came to play with their brother. Three big boys in the house along with Tinlee and Baylee makes for quite the houseful. And they were wound up and having a ball.

They couldn't make it with Seven during the boy time, but she came over Saturday evening for a couple of hours. She's fun to have around, and so are her owners. I love Laura and Lisa. They surprised me this weekend by bringing over some special kind of beer for Kev as well as some fruity kind of beer that I agreed to try. I actually kind of liked it so I finally now have a beer product I'm willing to drink. In other words, it doesn't really taste like beer.

The best thing they brought me was a ginormous Easter basket filled with.....PEEPS!!!! Hilarious! I should have known Lisa was up to something because she gets such an excited happy face when she is. I love it. They are the best.....they let me steal their dog AND bring me presents. 

With Tyler, Griffin and Zero home I didn't do much nail play, but even though I was exhausted last night, I did manage these.

I again used Cult El Porto for my white base, but once that was dry I mixed up some Uber Chic Girl on Fire glitter dust with some Seche Vite and gave the white an iridescent finish before using black and the FUN 13 plate for my design.

The glitter dust looked quite nice and added some depth to the white. In person it really showed up well under the black design....much better than in the picture.

Very different for me and even after wearing it all day, I never did decide if I liked it. It's gone now, though, so I guess it doesn't matter anymore.

SOME PINK AND SOME PUPS

Happy Saturday, Peeps! I hope you are all having yourselves a fantabulous weekend. It's sunny and beautiful here, deceivingly so because as good as it might look, it's only 30 degrees. Lordie, I want summer. I have a cart full of Dinair airbrush makeup in my summer shades and can't bring myself to hit the buy button because it still feels like winter.

I'm still rocking that hot-ass water marble, but I'm thinking I'll take it off shortly to play a bit since I have nothing better to do. I'm just waiting for some inspiration.

I had this one on for a day a couple weeks ago. I had gotten a couple new Sinful Colors I had never seen before and decided to see if the bone color would stamp.

Unless I go to Walgreens I don't know what's new and what's not with the Sinfuls. I always check at Shopko when I'm there, but their polish selection is so random that I never know what's what. I just know when I saw these, checked my phone list and saw I didn't have these two, I needed to buy them. That's right, needed to.

The pink is Rose Dust, and the light one is Beaches and Cream. As you can see, while it did stamp, it's very light and sheer. I'm not going to try it again as a stamping polish, but it is still a really nice off-white neutral. I used the FUN 13 plate for the stamp.

In a completely unrelated matter, one of my puppy owners posted pics of all of the puppies today. They turned 8 months old last week. I have been seeing a few of them because they come over to play or a dogsit for a weekend. This is Seven's second home and I've had her for a few weekends; I've had Razzie for 2 weekends; Major came over for the first time last Sunday; and of course Zero is here every time my daughter is in town.

I threw all the pics at the bottom so you can stop here if you want.

If you are still reading, aren't they just the cutest bunch of puppies?? They all have their mom's face. All but Major have the same hair as her, too. Major is darker red and has much coarser hair just like his daddy. Tinlee made good babies. :)

I love them all so much and am still kicking myself for not keeping one. I'm so thankful I have contact with all of their owners and get to see 4 of them when they come to play.

It's simply a winning bunch of puppies - and a winning bunch of owners. Love-fest!! 

SHAMROCKS

Well, I give up on the glasses. Considering how cheap glasses are, maybe I'll just buy new ones. I'm over it. All my pan covers look awesome, though!

The only other exciting thing I did was laundry. So not so much a "fun" four days off, but at least I accomplished something.

Now I'm just waiting for the hubster to get home around 9. He went out with his brother last night so I'm wondering what kind of shape he'll be in. I'm guessing tired. My bet is he'll stay up long enough to watch Walking Dead and Talking Dead and then go to bed. Nice rhyming there, hey?

Not a drop of Irish in this gal, but I did do a couple of green manicures. I did this one yesterday.

I got a couple of new stamping plates, FUN 13 and 15. The images are barely big enough for my thumbs, but they are pretty good sized otherwise. I did manage to make it work on my thumbs. Nobody ever looks at those anyway.

The light green on this one is Essie Absolutely Shore. I used the shamrock design from the FUN 13 plate and stamped with Barielle Date Night.

I like the color combo of the super light green with the true green. And I do think shamrocks are cute.

That's about it for tonight. I just don't have anything worthwhile to say. My brain appears to be in lockdown for some reason.

Maybe the ammonia fumes finally got to me.