ANOTHER BUNCH

I'm not sure where time goes. It's hard to believe that tomorrow is July 1st already. 

Retirement is a beautiful thing. I did work three days last week to fill in, and even though it was only about 15 hours total, I was not a fan of it. Getting up early to get ready for actual work was not something I enjoyed. I did enjoy seeing the bossman and doing some typing, but I got over it pretty quickly. 

Other than that, my days have been spent laying in the pool, cleaning, gardening, sitting with hummingbirds and getting ready for puppies. Tinlee is due in two weeks, so we are pretty excited about that. 

As absent as I've been on here, once the puppies arrive, I'll probably be even more missing in action. As I was sitting in the pool today, thinking about how lucky I've been to have so much time to be that lazy, it dawned on me that once the puppies are here, my days of lounging from 11 to 3 in the pool are probably over. I'm sure I'll sneak some pool time in, but it sure won't be like it has been the last two weeks. I remember with the last litter I was sad that I couldn't go sit with the hummingbirds as much, so I'm sure I'm going to run into the same issues this time around. 

Puppy breath trumps the pool and the hummers, though, so it's totally worth it.

For now, here's some mani's I've had on over the past month or so. I'll list everything I used, but other than that, they are what they are.

Cult The Roxy stamped with Cult Breakwater using Bundle Monster + Lucy's Stash BM XL-209 stamping plate.

Sinful Colors Endless Blue stamped with Julep Tali. The design is from the new Uber Chic 10-01 plate.

The light purple is Zoya Kendal, and I used the Cooi 035 stamping plate with Mundo de Unas Violet.

The light blue is Fresh Paint Matte in the USA, stamped with Mundo de Unas Turquoise and a plate I got from Ali Express, XY-J13.

I do have more manicures sitting around just waiting to be shown, so hopefully I'll actually post them at some point. When I look back at a couple of them, I'm rethinking even showing them. They were ugly when I did them; they've gotten uglier to me over time.

I hope your summer is going as good as mine is!!

THREE TO SEE HERE

Nothing too much happening around here for the past week. I did finally get two days in the pool last weekend, but so far this week the weather has not cooperated. Luckily the forecast for at least the next couple of days is great.

Right now I have Seven. She has been here since about 4 o'clock and will be here until early evening tomorrow. She is dying to go in the pool. I had to make sure to lay a raft on the stairs so she wouldn't go flying in without permission. It's a good thing I did that because right after supper we went outside, and the minute I turned my back she was partway up the steps. Little stinker loves the pool so she is going to be one happy little girl tomorrow.

It's hard to do nails when she's here. She spends most of her time depositing toys in my lap. I figured since I'll probably not get to doing anything with them for at least a day or two, I'd show a few in this post.

This very bright pink is Fresh Paint Passion Fruit. I stamped on it with Mundo de Unas Tutti using my brand spanking new Uber Chic 10-03 stamping plate. I used one of my clear stampers to do this one, and it didn't pic up the design very well, unfortunately. It was way too late for a do-over. I actually was painting these around 2 a.m. the other night and told myself that I'd wait to stamp until the next day. 

Then for whatever reason, I totally forgot what I had just told myself  and just kept right on going and did the stamping, too. By the time I got done it was almost 3 a.m., and I decided I simply did not care enough to worry about trying to improve them.

This next one is from several weeks ago.

I used Zoya Kelly for the dark gray base and stamped with MdU Light Gray and the Ali Express Cooi 030 stamping plate. I really want them to make more of these Cooi full image plates. They are really nice!

My monthly Julep polishes came last week, and I loved all three that I received. This pretty coral is Julep Lindsey, and I decided I would stamp with a navy blue since the shirt I was wearing to bebop around town had coral and navy in it. I don't own a navy stamping polish, so I used Julep Marisa with my Uber Chic 5-03 plate. I have found that Julep polishes stamp very well indeed, and I loved the combination of the coral with the blue.

So there ya' go. I might not be posting much, but at least I'm throwing a few here for you to see just so you know I'm not completely ignoring my nails.

A FEW TO SHARE

It's weird, but now that I'm retired I feel like I've had less time to post. I've been doing a lot of putzing around the house, and we've been spending quite a bit of time with our friends. 

I've also been spending time running to the vet's office getting Tinlee ready for puppy-making. Today we took the first of three drives to her boyfriend's house.

I've been still doing nails every couple of days, so I'll share a few different ones with you today.

The brown base on this one is Sephora by OPI Metro Too Chic, and I used Mundo de Unas Black and Uber Chic 7-01 for the design.

I really liked this blue one. The lighter blue is Square Hue Lake Louise, and I used Julep Sonia and Uber Chic 5-02 for the stamped design.

Finally, I had mentioned this flop awhile back.

I had just received my monthly Julep box which featured some sheer polishes. It also included a bonus white to use under them, Julep Brigitte. For some stupid reason I thought I'd try stamping with the pink sheer, Julep Kimball using a floral design from Uber Chic 4-01. 

While I will say that the sheer polish stamped very well, I loathed this mani. I did end up wearing it for a full day, and I actually had a couple of people compliment it, but I thought it was hideous. Still do.

I'd have to say the blue one is for sure my fave of this group, but I liked the brown and black combo, too.

Now I'm off to fix my thumb nail. I managed to knock it loose when I was cleaning the house yesterday. Last night I got it all cleaned up and reapplied, and for some reason the damn thing popped off after my shower this morning. I did a quick reglue, but I still don't feel like it's very secure for some reason.

I really need Custom Nail Solutions to start making the pink nails again soon. I really want to get a new set.

Oh, I almost forgot the most important thing - the hummingbirds have finally arrived!! I saw my first boy the other day, and I had a girl here this evening.

That is what officially starts summer for me, even if they are predicting freezing temperatures tonight.

PLAYING WITH FOIL

Oh, yesterday felt so good! Sunny and probably at least 60 degrees out on my deck. Nothing feels better than the first time opening up the screen door and letting the fresh air inside after months of being closed up. It just makes a body feel good to breathe in.

The past week or so I was kind of stumped on stamping ideas. I recently bought a bunch of new nail foils and water decals on Ali Express, so I've been doing some playing with those.

This first mani I left on for a few days. It seemed cuter in the night time light when I did it. I was less pleased with it in broad daylight, but people that saw it seemed to like it.

Before placing the foils, I did a basecoat with Julep Janie.

After that was dry and topcoated, I cut up specific sections of the foil pattern. One thing I'm noticing with all of the floral nail foils I bought is the fact that it takes some finagling to actually place them. In order to have any kind of halfway decent look, I did a lot of cutting up into usable pieces. If they were expensive, I'd complain about that, but they were super cheap. I also find that I rarely use any kind of foil more than once.

One nice thing about the floral type foils is the fact that topcoat has no negative effect.

Then Friday night when I was getting ready to do my nails, I thought I'd try this black and silver number.

This one required some slicing and dicing, too. It didn't really apply all that nicely. I was pleasantly surprised that using Seche Vite didn't hurt the silver part of these foils, either. But since I wasn't too happy with the whole look, I only did the one hand, took a pic and then took it off.

After I took it off, I did a stamped mani that I'll show in another post. I really was in the mood to do my nails last night, too, but I really like what I have on so I didn't touch them.

This morning some friends and I headed off to Christmas, Michigan for a slot tournament at the Kewadin Casino. We came home losers, but it was still fun. It was almost 80 degrees there. 

I probably should have just sat my ass in the parking lot and got a tan. It would have cost me less.

FINALLY I LIKE SOMETHING!

For quite awhile now I've just been really over being at work. I've been very lucky to have been working at a job I actually loved most of the time for a boss who, for the most part, is a great guy to work for. For reasons I'm not sure I understand, I'm just no longer finding the enjoyment that I used to in the work.

After many, many months of talking about it with the hubster, I finally bit the bullet yesterday and told him that I will be done at the end of the month. Of course, I also told him I'll still be around if he's in a pinch or needs help with something. Unless he can find somebody with experience, I expect I'll get occasional phone calls for awhile.

It is also a possibility that I will just switch to one day a week. He offered that to me just in case a year from now I decide I'm bored and made a mistake by quitting. At this point I'm undecided if I'll do that or not. Part of me thinks it's a great idea, and part of me is afraid that it just means I'll end up doing exactly as much as I do now but only having one day to do it. That's kind of what my three days a week has been; a five day amount of work that I get done in three.

I'm really hoping this doesn't end up being a mistake. I know I'm going to miss typing all the time, and I will miss the bossman. It would be so much easier to quit if he was a jerk.

So that's the most exciting news in my life right now. The other exciting thing is I actually finally did a mani that I liked after doing several that I hated. Sadly, after wearing it for five days, I am now wearing another one that I hate. It is for sure coming off tonight.

But here's a good one. Yay!

I hadn't done any double stamping in a long while, and I really like the colors on this. The light blue base is Julep Claire. I then tried a couple of different things for the stamping. I tried doing white first and then dark blue....hated it. Then I did dark blue and used MdU white on top....hated that. The MdU white just stamped way too bold.

I finally stamped with the MoYou Pro XL06 plate and Sinful Colors Blue Crushin. When that was done, I tried a Sally Hansen white for the stamping, but that was too light. I then used Cult El Porto with the same design as the blue, facing the opposite direction, and I was satisfied with the intensity of the white. It showed up just enough while still allowing the darker blue stamping to show.

The entire time I had this on I was happy with it. When I took it off last night, I was saddy pants over it. I was even more saddy pants when I finished what I replaced it with.

Gawd, it is just butt-friggin'-ugly! I may not even photograph it. That's how bad I think it is.

EIGHT RANDOM MANI'S

It's Monday. Monday's suck. The end.

Here are eight pics that have been sitting in my drafts section feeling lonely and neglected. I decided since I'm in a craptastic mood I'd just throw them up here to get them out of the way.

Enjoy. Or not. Whatevs. After each pic I've posted what I used.

Square Hue Gibson Girl, Mundo de Unas Red, Uber Chic UC 4-02 stamp

Sally Hansen Lustre Shine Azure, Essie No Place Like Chrome, Uber Chic Christmas 01

Zoya Avery, Sinful Colors Bare, China Glaze Passion for Petals, gradient

OPI Uh-Oh Roll Down the Window, Loreal Because You're Worth It, LeaLac LLC-B stamp

Julep Winter, Mundo de Unas Dark Gray, Uber Chic 5-03

Ever After Bite Me, MdU Black,  Uber Chic 3-01

Sally Hansen Olive Branch, Essie Good as Gold, Uber Chic 5-01 stamp

Color Club Halo Hues Eternal Beauty, Mundo de Unas Violet, Uber Chic UC 5-02 stamp

And that's it for me. Even with posting all of these, I still have several more that are sitting in drafts.

I'm holding off on those; maybe they'll eventually earn a spot as their own post.

WHOA, JULEP - WHAT A DAMN MESS

What a lovely weekend it was. Kev somehow has managed to have every weekend off this month, which is very rare and very nice. Saturday we decided to have a date night, which is also very rare and very nice.

First up, the movies. We seldom go simply because for most films, I'm perfectly content to watch them from the comfort of my own home when they hit either pay per view or one of the premium channels. Then there are those movies that are just better on the big screen. This time it was Deadpool. Loved it. 

After that we went out to dinner. I'm always up for a steak even though I wasn't really all that hungry after eating popcorn. I did manage to eat all of it, though. Kev ordered a pizza with the intent of having leftovers for lunch the next day. It was a great plan since he only ate three pieces. He brought the box into the bar area with him and then left it behind. So no lunch for him.

From there we went home to the dogs, fed them, hung out for a bit and then headed out to the casino where we promptly lost our asses. We should have stayed home. It was fun, though!

I also managed to clean out my makeup drawer and the cupboards in our bathroom this weekend, too, so I managed to feel productive as well as just having some fun.

A few posts ago I showed you the blue holo I had gotten from Julep, Tali. It's a great polish so I ordered a couple more of their holos.

First one I decided to try was this one, Viv.

Once again, a beautiful polish. But what a complete nightmare. I was not having a good polish evening and between bumping a couple of them and some dog hair jumping on a couple, I had to start over again on several nails.

And that's when the trouble started. OMG. I've never seen such green fingers in all my life. I was horrified. When I was finally finished stamping with Essie Good as Gold and the Dana 10 plate, I spent another half hour trying to get rid of the disgusting mess on my fingers.

By the time I got done scrubbing with a toothbrush, first using toothpaste and then using baking soda, I still had quite the green tint going on. Except now I had sore fingers to go along with it.

I finally gave up and planned for some extra work in the shower the next morning. I used a ton of Julep exfoliating hand scrub and was finally satisfied that I could go to work not looking like the Grinch.

It took me two showers before I was comfortable enough with them to even take a photograph. It's a pretty polish, but I'm pretty disappointed with it because of the staining. I know I've had problems in the past with Kleancolor polishes staining, but I was not expecting that to happen here. 

Pretty annoying and certainly took the fun out of doing my nails that night. So I'm not recommending this one to anybody unless you are the perfect painter that never makes a mistake causing a do-over.

And that is certainly and obviously not me.

NOT SO ME-ISH

Having Razzie for the weekend was a nice distraction since the only thing I could seem to find on Facebook was more sadness. 

Seven came over and played with her brother, and Razzie was probably the best behaved he's ever been. He seemed not quite as pesty as last time, and he actually lets me sleep until almost 9 a.m., unlike his sister, who is used to an earlier schedule than he is. It's pretty sad when I have to force myself to go to bed earlier because the dog might wake up. As always, I was sad to see him go back home. He's just a little love-bug, always quick with a smooch and a tail wag. 

It was also cute to watch Tinlee as he pulled out of the driveway. She just stood on the deck at the top of the stairs and watched them leave. I think she was actually sad about it. As for Raz, he was hanging his whole upper body out of the truck window and was still looking back at the house as they drove off. Tinlee then came in the house, plopped next to me and let out a heavy sigh before falling asleep. She was definitely in full-on pout mode.

After he left at 6, it was time to get busy and soak off my nails. Evidently my real nails just didn't grow much during the past month because my Customs were still rock solid. It's funny when they've been on for a long time, that little bit of length I gain as they grow out actually becomes an issue while typing. It's like suddenly my nails are too long, and I start hitting the wrong keys more often.

Once I reapplied, I didn't really feel like stamping or anything so I threw on the other new Julep I had gotten and then decided to throw on a glitter that I had won on Instagram last summer.

The base is a very light pink, Julep Janie, and the topper is KB Shimmer Precious Petals. As you may or may not know, I am not a ginormous fan of glitter. When I had initially gotten this one and swatched it, I thought it was quite pretty just by itself on my swatch stick. I knew if and/or when I used it, I would for sure want it to be on something very pale. It works perfectly on Janie.

Sometimes I find glitter to be a real pain to apply, but this one actually went on very nicely. The glitter pieces dispersed without too much monkeying around, and I did two coats before topcoating.

If I have any inspiration this evening, I'll take this off, but if I do end up being too lazy or too involved watching the first two episodes of X Files, it won't break my heart to leave this on.

Besides, I'm sure if I want to break my heart, all I have to do is wander around Facebook for 3.2 seconds. I'm sure something shitty will have happened to someone.

I think I'm cried out anyway. At least for this moment.

NEWEST JULEP

I'm not going to get too carried away with the bitching, but holy crap, it is COLD outside!! For the past week we've had single digits with an even lower windchill. I was really getting spoiled by all of that abnormally warm winter weather, and I think it is making this cold snap even more shocking to my system.

It is supposed to warm up a bit tomorrow. Unfortunately the weather man is also saying it's going to snow. This isn't great timing for that. I have to drive 2 hours to Green Bay for a follow-up doctor appointment, and they are saying possible freezing rain there. I'm hoping the forecast is wrong or that it will wait until I'm nowhere around if it's going to start doing that. 

Somehow I managed to forget to look at the Julep Maven box in December to see if I wanted it or not. I probably would have skipped the month if I'd remembered because one of the items for the It Girl box was their oxygen nail treatment, which I don't use. I gave the last bottle to my sister, and she seems to like it so I'll pass this bottle to her.

The two actual polishes I got are very nice. One is a very, very light pink, and the other is this really beautiful holographic blue, Tali.

It kind of reminds me of denim, so that's kinda groovy. I did decide to stamp on it, though.....certainly wouldn't want to go to the doctor with plain nails.

I decided that I wanted to use something holographic to stamp with, so I use Darling Diva Queen of the Night even though I felt kind of guilty using such a pretty polish for scraping off of a stamping plate. The little flower design is from the Dana 2 stamping plate.

  

I'm a smidge in love with this one. The blue is just such a pretty shade, and I'm really glad I forgot to skip the Julep box.

Sometimes it pays to be forgetful!

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.

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.

THIS GREW ON ME

I decided I'd call the surgical nurse before I left work yesterday to ask about nail polish and surgery. Her response was, "Technically, we're supposed to tell people to take it off of one finger on each hand". After a bit of discussion about what kind of nails I have on, she pretty much said "don't ruin a nail bed trying to get them off". 

Oh, don't worry, sweetie. I won't. It was very obvious that they don't really care one way or another what I do about it, especially since I told her I'd have nekkid toenails. In all honesty, I might just soak all of them off even though they haven't even been on for two weeks. That blue from yesterday left blue stains on a couple nails all around the edges. If it's still there when I take off this current mani, I might just go ahead and remove them.

I really wanted to do a light color last night, but those blue stains made me change my mind.

This red is kind of a red/orange, I guess. It's Julep Nan, and I just grabbed Mundo de Unas  black and the Dana7 stamping plate for the design.

I didn't like this much before I went to bed last night. For some reason it has really grown on me during the day. I'm half tempted to just leave it on. 

We'll see how ambitious I feel after cleaning the house and cooking dinner.

JUST A STAMPED GRADIENT

Razzie is so cute, but 9 month old puppies have an awful lot of energy. And just like his siblings, he's a damn stalker. I find myself literally not getting up to go to the bathroom for fear of waking him up.

One nice thing about him is when I went to bed, he jumped right in, laid practically on top of me and went to sleep. He was really good and stayed there until 7:30. That wasn't really late enough to suit me since we were up until almost 3:00, but at least he actually did let me get that whopping 4.5 hours of rest.

Tinlee is not impressed and spends most of her time ignoring him. I guess she doesn't think her puppies are so fun anymore, probably because they are so big. She'll play hard for 10 minutes until he makes her mad, then she goes off to lay down. I'm also sure she isn't appreciating that Razzie seems to have taken over her fave spot to lay, which is by me next to my recliner. He doesn't have a whole lot of finesse with that and doesn't realize he's big. He also seems to think it's okay to walk under the end table even though his back is knocking into it. I've had to save the lamp several times. He's kind of an uncoordinated moose. But cute and sweet as can be.

I did this gradient just because I like these colors on their own and wanted to see how they'd be together.

The peachy color is China Glaze Thistle Do Nicely, and the blue is Julep Margaret. I like how they kind of made a small amount of pinky-purple where they blended.

Of course I couldn't just leave it alone, so I stamped over it with black and my Uber Chic 2-01 plate.

I thought this was really pretty. I've been enjoying using more summery type colors lately. I'll be enjoying it even more when I have a tan. That's when it will really feel like summertime to me. 

Of course, once I'm tan I'm sure I'll get some comments on Pinterest. Last year some beeyotch thought she should tell me to stop with the self-tanner. After I told he she was rude and mistaken since I don't use self-tanner, I deleted her comment. I don't understand the people that feel the need to be so bitchy to people. I've seen it so many times where people just tear into people about their not-so-neat paint jobs or bad cuticles. It's just mean. Don't parents teach basic manners anymore?? I know when we post, we open ourselves up for the judgment of other people, but I still think "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" should still apply.

Hang on while I get down off my soapbox.

Got me some naked nails right now. I have a water marble in my head with some of my new Kleancolor neons, but I don't know if I'll get a chance for it this weekend. It all depends on when Razzie gets picked up and how much energy I have to spend the time on it.

He's staring at me at the moment. I can see his brain working, and I know at any second he's going to be all up in my bizness. No consideration at all for the fact that there's a computer on my lap. None.

Cute. But pushy to the point of rude.

HMMM...NOT SURE

In looking back at blog posts from April 2013 and April 2014, I believe I shall no longer consider April to be spring. I'm not even whining; I'm just stating the facts. 

I woke this morning to find about 3 inches of snow on the ground. Really. I wasn't even aware that it was supposed to snow until Tyler texted me last night and said she didn't even want to come home to visit because it was 67 degrees at her house yesterday. Can't say I blame her. Well, I would blame her if she actually doesn't come, but I'm sure she'll pack up Griff's winter jacket and head back here, hopefully tomorrow. She was going to come today, but Griff has a doctor's appointment for some nasty cough.

So while I wait for them, I keep right on waiting for spring. Who know....maybe she'll bring it with her!

Here's one a wore for a hot minute a week or so ago. I don't even remember if I did both hands. I think I did, but I'm guessing.

I don't really like how this one turned out. It just looks kind of muddy to me. The base is Julep Gabrielle, which I happen to really like. I also happen to really like China Glaze Admire which is what I used for the stamping. It just ended up being a pattern off of the Bundle Monster BM XL04 plate that I just don't much like. 

Sometimes a design just is too much of a design, and this one covered way more real estate than I wanted it to. Oh, well. It happens.

I'm looking at my tips in this picture and at my actual hands right now, and I think I'm going to have to break down and file these damn nails. I am really not appreciating how they are starting to round themselves. I guess I'll grab a file and carefully flatten them back more square.

I really need to go back to some of my old, old pics and see my nail progression. I don't remember my first pink fashion length set wearing like my past couple of sets. And I've only had these a few months. I'm starting to wonder if the company has made some slight change in the material they use to make the nails.

Whatever the reason, I am not liking this issue at all. If I have to file them every few months to keep them straight and square edged, I'll end up needing new nails at least once a year which in my mind kind of defeats part of the reason for the lifetime guarantee.

Geez, now that I wrote that, I'm even more irritated about it.

NO IDEA WHAT TO CALL IT

Ahhhh, it's April!! I don't know why that fact somehow means it's really spring now, but that's kind of how I think of it. I'm still wearing a winter coat, though, so maybe I should rethink and try again in May.

I'm attributing my office cleaning as spring fever. I feel so accomplished at what I got done over the past few days. I think there's now enough room in the storage closet to get us through the next couple of years. Our conference room, on the other hand, is a disaster. I dragged all of the old files that need destroying into that room. I didn't want to leave them hanging out in the hallway area by the closet. Obviously people's personal bizniz can't be sitting where Joe Schmo can see it.

My whole body aches from moving and lifting those damn boxes, though. I was going to have Kev come and help me but decided to just go it alone. So it's done, but I'm paying for it.

In the springtime spirit, the last few mani's I've done have been leaning towards brighter colors. And on this one I used a bunch!

I started with a base of Sinful Colors Snow Me White and then dabbed a bunch of colors on my Bundle Monster BM XL16 stamping plate and let the colors spread out however they wanted.

So this is Sinful Colors Endless Blue and Boom Boom, China Glaze Grass is Lime Greener, Julep Daisy and Essie The Girls Are Out. Once I finished stamping, I used Butter London's matte topcoat to dull it down.

This didn't turn out quite the way it was in my head, but it's okay. I'd do it again but probably use a different stamp pattern. I do think it's fun using more than one color on a stamp, though. I just don't seem to do it very often.

I took a break from this post to clean the house and make Rice Krispie bars. I'm going to go eat a row of those for supper and watch some tv.

I'm tired from not sleeping very well the past couple of nights, so this is going to be a no-nails-night for me. 

Translation: I'm uninspired and lazy.

GOT ME SOME PEEPS

After exhausting myself last Wednesday after work, I decided to hold off and clean today instead. Actually, when I got up I thought I'd just kind of do a lazy cleaning and just concentrate on the living room and kitchen.

I should know better. I'm one of those people that is either doing it or not doing it. There is no half-assing it. So not only did I clean like I normally do, I had an A.D.D. day where as I'm cleaning one thing, the idea of cleaning something else pops into my head.

I started with pulling one of the pans out of the ammonia and cleaning that off. Now I have the last two pots and covers sitting in the fumes until tomorrow.

As I cleaned, I decided to wash some windows. And then I decided I'd get out the Old English and wipe down all of the wainscotting, and that carried on to doing all the furniture in the living room and my bedroom. Somehow from that it occurred to me that I should scrub the track on the patio door. Obviously there is no rhyme or reason to anything I do. I considered cleaning inside the oven, but it really doesn't need it. Which was good because I was sorta' over it.

My reward for all that work was some Peeps which I totally stocked up on yesterday on my way home. 

I even picked up some other types of candy. The rest of the weekend I'll probs spend an inordinate amount of time just deciding what candy to eat. Is that bad? 

I did this mani Monday night. I should have waited to take the pic until Tuesday because I see some yellowish fingers happening here.

I really love this color. It's Julep Evangeline. It has a really nice suede finish, but I always end up putting topcoat on it even though I shouldn't. I used the MoYou Fashionista 04 plate for the stamp.

This one was a hit. The mail lady commented and so did one of our clients. That's a win no matter how I slice it.

I'm trying to think of something fun to do with my nails right now just because I feel like playing.  I'm just drawing a blank, though. I guess I'll have to wander around looking for some inspiration.

Or mabes I'll just eat a box of Peeps and take a nappy-nap. That sounds fun, too.

IT'S A GREY DAY

Today after work, I watched my cute red Alero drive away for the last time. I'm happy for the young lady that bought it, and she was super excited about it. When we were messaging early this afternoon she said she was considering taking a nap so the time would go by faster.

So she's happy, and I'm sad. I really will miss that car, especially when (if) summer ever gets here. I like driving an SUV in the winter, but I loved having a smaller car when it's nice out. I'm assuming I'll like my Outback in the summer since it has a moon roof just like the Alero. I'm just going to convince myself of that.

Oooo, I got my Macy's card in the mail today, too! When we were in Illinois shopping, I decided to sign up at checkout because it saved me an extra 20% off everything I bought. After she finished ringing up my rather ginormous sale, she told me that not only did I get the 20% off that day, she said when my statement came I'd be getting an additional 20% off. As soon as the card came I set up my account online, and sure enough, an additional $68 was taken off the bill. Super sweet!! Definitely worth getting the card that I'll probably never use.

I'm so tired of this weather. It's just cold and wintery and gloomy, and I am over it. Well, I was never under it, but at this point I would be thrilled to just have some 30 degree weather. That'll practically be shorts weather.

Last night I decided to do a mani that reflects the mood of the weather.

I actually forget to use grey polish. It's the only color I keep on that fantabulous polish rack that Cara from Fox Claws made. Somehow even though it's hanging right there above my Helmers, I just never think to grab a polish off of it.

But last night I did. I even used one with an appropriate name, Julep Winter, which is the light base. Julep Janae is the darker grey I used with the MoYou Fashionista 04 plate.

Speaking of stamping plates, I got an email from Bundle Monster today advertising their new XL designs. I didn't think I'd be interested, but then I made the mistake of looking at them. I had to buy two of the three sets, and I'm excited about it. They are larger versions of earlier designs. 

I'm going to be happy to get them because I have most of these designs on the original round plates. I bought them from Amazon way back when I first started doing my nails, and I can't use any of those because the images are way too small. So many of them I really love and wanted to use but couldn't, and now I'll be able to.

I guess it didn't take me long to spend that extra Macy's savings. It did make me feel less guilty about buying them, though.

NOT BAD

Life is back to normal in my little town, and we have that fancy electricity just like they do in the big city. Bossman had me go in an hour early today so we could catch up on what didn't get done yesterday. Since we were supposedly going to still have rolling blackouts, I wore way too many clothes. I fully expected it to be about 60 degrees in the office, but everything was normal.

Even though I didn't actually have to get up any earlier, I'm super tired. I'm not sure why going in at 8 instead of 9 made a difference, but it did. I've been fighting to keep my eyes open ever since I got home. I'm trying to think of a mani to do just to keep me awake, but so far I haven't come up with anything.

Last night I was very happy to take off that weird-ass heart mani, and this is what took its place.

I stared at a whole lot of polish before deciding on this one. The base is OPI Don't Bossa Nova Me Around, and I stamped using Julep Olivia and the Ali Express AP 17 plate.

I'm liking how this turned out, and I'm pretty pleased with those stamping plates. I have to say I do wish the designs were a smidge bigger. Getting full coverage is a challenge. I really have to stamp them in just the right spot, especially on my thumbs. The design is in a triangle shape, so it can be tricky.  I only had to restamp a couple, so it wasn't unbearable.

 

Now I'm off to watch The Blacklist. It's such a good show, and James Spader has never played a better character. IMHO, of course. But there is just something about that guy!

 

I know some of you ladies will agree with me on that.

ONE OF THOSE NIGHTS

I was really looking forward to getting home yesterday because I was seriously pumped about doing that water marble. I found a color combination online from a color palette site that I sometimes use, grabbed my laptop and headed into the polish room to try to match up the 4 colors on my computer screen to actual polish.

As a side note, I remember when I used to call that a bedroom. Now I just think of it as the polish room. Sad.

I did manage to find the colors I wanted and got all set up to get a-marblin'. An hour and a half later I wanted to punch a baby. (and no, I would never actually punch a baby)

First of all, two of my chosen polishes would not cooperate. They would spread fine, but they were doing that super annoying thing where they prevent the next color from spreading. Off to the polish room to choose other polishes.

So now I've got 4 colors plus black that I'm playing with in different combinations. I tried with all 5, then 4, then 3, and nothing was satisfying me.  I kept doing a basecoat on 5 fingers and attempting different things, but it just wasn't happening for me.

So it didn't.

I finally just gave up about 2 1/2 hours in. One thing about marbling, sometimes I just have days where it won't work. They just weren't pulling into any sort of loopy design, which is what I wanted. I'm sure I could have managed either the stripey or the swirly, but I wanted loopy.

I was loopy by the time I gave up.

Eventually I decided to just use another of my new stamping plates. It's one of the nicest things about stamping plates.....guaranteed fast mani.

I'm pretty glad I decided to just give up on the marble and do this. I really like it, both the design and the color. I'm at the point in my nail growth where I have to kind of stick to dark colors due to growout.

The burgundy is Zoya Mikka. It's a great color, but as much as I normally love my Zoya polishes, this particular one is showing quite a bit of tip wear already.

The frosty pink I used to stamp with is Julep Maria. It works fantastic as a stamping polish. For realz.  The design is from the Ali Express AP 22 plate.

This was a nice, quick mani which is exactly what I needed since I'd been monkeying around for over 3 hours by the time I was completely finished and had everything put away.

And then it was time for bed. At least that's what I tell myself every night just around midnight when I have to work the next day. I swear I look at the clock 3 minutes later and it's 12:45.  I don't know where that 45 minutes goes.

I don't know why I have such an aversion to bedtime or to getting a decent amount of sleep. I'm paying for it right now; I've hit the mid-afternoon sleepy-slump.

I'll need to get past that. I don't think bossman would appreciate me laying face down on my keyboard.

FAVE ONE IN QUITE AWHILE

It was practically summer today. It's amazing how warm 33 degrees can feel after having those awful temps for the past couple of weeks. I even wore my short winter jacket and my ass didn't freeze off. I'll put it back in the closet for now because I think it's going to get cold again.

After I got out of work at noon I cleaned the house, and then we went hunting for a new couch. Mine is 12 years old, and the dogs have taken a real toll on it. I liked it when we bought it, but the fabric choice was not the wisest.  Right now we have it narrowed down to a couple so I'm crossing my fingers that we can buy one very soon.

Last night I finally got around to doing the water marble I've been threatening to do for the past couple of days. I'm happy to say it turned out pretty much how I had imagined it in my head.

I friggin' love it! I've spent a lot of time looking at my fingers today, and I'm in no hurry to take it off. I did have to test out a couple of different polishes to get two that worked, but Julep Bess and the Studio M Lust that I picked up at Meijer when we were downstate worked out perfectly.

Of course, photographing it was the usual nightmare that is purple, but I managed to capture it pretty well.

I'm not sure why, but I've never done a loopy one facing this direction before, and I think it's pretty damn cool.

On a completely unrelated topic, why is it that they make Peeps for Easter, Halloween ones and Christmas ones but apparently don't think Valentine's Day is worthy of its own Peeps? I'm just dying for some of that marshmallowy delightfulness and am very disappointed that they don't seem to make them. And I don't want those stupid mini's that are flavored. I want old-school, original Peeps flavor.

It's making me sad. I want what I want when I want it, dammit. So I'm calling bullshit, Peeps!