NOW THIS IS BRIGHT!!

I'm sure you will all be very relieved that we still get to go to the concert. It got rescheduled to Monday, and luckily I struck a deal with the bossman to work a couple of different days so I can have Monday and Tuesday off. 

Right now I'm fuming. I just went outside, fell down on the ice and put a hole in the knee of my jeans. Of course they are one of my favorite pairs. I'm going to do an iron on patch from the inside. Hopefully they'll not look too bad when I'm finished.

Now my knees and the palms of my hands hurt. (insert self-pity here)

I did this mani the other night. Holy brightness.

This one wasn't so easy. I don't know why I attempt these swirly water marbles. They are a headache. My colors for this one are China Glaze Sneaker Head, American Apparel Poppy, Pure Ice Show Stopper, QRS Love is Blue and Essie The Girls are Out.

I think I had to re-do at least 6 during this process. Sometimes water marbles are no fun.

I'm kind of excited to head home. After waiting for 10 months since getting the estimate to fix all of the ceilings in our house, today was day 2 of the work. By the time I get there, all of them should be smooth. By Friday they should be completely finished. Kiss those hideous popcorn ceilings buh-bye and good riddance.

I was also very excited because I ordered a new ceiling light for my bedroom on Monday and was even more happy because it was going to be delivered today.

Imagine my disappointment when I got a text from Tyler in Illinois. Evidently I forgot to change the shipping address in my account from when I sent her some boots last fall. So she has my new light fixture sitting at her house. I'm not going to pay to ship the dang thing so now I won't get it for probably at least 2 months.

And once again, I hate when I'm stupid.  I think I really should have born a blonde since being fake blonde makes me an airhead.

OF MICE AND NAILS

I woke up 20 minutes late this sunny Monday morning, wondering why my alarm didn't go off like it should have. It was set correctly, and it took me a few minutes to decide I really was supposed to be up already.

After I got all ready for work, I was doing my usual stuff on the internet when I heard my most recent genius mouse finally wander into the trap and heard the door close. I had been wondering for about a week if I'd been hearing one but never found evidence until a few days ago. The first night I had the catch and release trap in there I heard him monkeying around, but when I went to see if he was caught, all I found was the cracker pulled out from the back and the door still open. How he dragged that cracker all the way through that tube without the door closing is beyond me. If I close the dishwasher too hard those doors shut.

I didn't see or hear him again until this morning, and this time the door closed. I was just getting ready to leave a few minutes early so I could take him for the drive a couple of miles away so I could let him go when the phone rang. It was my bossman's wife telling me to stay home. Evidently a transformer at the city's power plant exploded last night in a huge ball of flames so the entire city had been without power since the middle of the night. Not a good sitch for those without heat. It was only 1 degree out when I was getting ready to leave here.

Thankfully I'm not on City power so my electricity is fine and dandy. Parts of town have been going on and off for most of the day so far, and they are saying it might be a day or two before things get back to normal. Nice to have the day off but annoying since I got up so early for no reason.

I did have to run to the store up by my house, and of course I still had to let the mouse go. Rather than take the mouse for a ride, I decided I would just walk across the driveway to the woods and release him.  For a mouse smart enough to steal food without getting caught, he sure wasn't very smart about getting away. I  opened the one end and was trying to tip him out but nothing was happening. I was actually afraid the poor little guy had dropped dead from fright.

I carefully opened the other end, peeked in and there he was; all cute little bright eyes and wiggly nose looking out at me. I bent down to let him out, but he still wouldn't go. Finally after a few shakes, off he ran into the woods. Seriously. So effing adorable I can hardly stand it. I laughed all the way to my car.

I did put the trap back in the cupboard just in case he decides to make a return appearance. I know they are filthy little creatures, but I am always so tempted to pick them up and keep 'em.

Over the weekend I got ambitious and did 5 mani's, all of which are kind of Valentine related.  Three turned out decent; one is a super fail in pics, and this one is just a big ol' disappointment.

I had soaked off my nails before doing this one, and by the time I decided I didn't like it, it was too late to start over. 

One of the things I do like about reapplying my nails is feeling like I can wear super light colors because the nails are so tight to my cuticle area. This Zoya Bela is so light it's practically not even a color. It's pale pink in the bottle but looks even lighter on my nails.

I thought these hearts off of the Ali Express 12-48 plate were kind of cool and different so thought I'd stamp with a darker pink. Unfortunately I chose Pure Ice Taupe Drawer. I really should have gone with something darker with this stamp. I had briefly considered using black. I wish I had.

Right now I'm considering doing something else. I feel like I have done enough heart nonsense for one week. And it gives me backups for here when I don't have time to do a mani. 

On Thursday we are heading to Illinois to visit Tyler, Bob, Griffin and Zero. Even though it's only been a month since they were here, it seems like I haven't seen them in forever.

I highly doubt there will be any nail painting Thursday through Monday. Grandkid, grandpuppy and playing Yahtzee with my daughter are for sure more fun than swearing at my nails.

 

ANOTHER MARBLE

Christmas is over. I hate it when that happens.

Tyler, Bob, Griffin and Zero left today. I hate it when that happens, too. It's going to be way too quiet at my house, and it always takes a bit to readjust. Christmas did go well; the grandkids were all on their best behavior, and even the dogs and puppy cooperated by not adding an extra level of commotion.

On Wednesday we will be hopping in the car to make the 6 hour trip down to Kev's mom where we will celebrate the holidays with his side of the fam. Ludington always has a New Year's Eve ball drop downtown, so we'll go to that. I'm looking forward to it and not looking forward to it. 

We were there for that a few years ago, and I froze my ass off. I don't do well in the cold just going back and forth to my car. Standing outside in it for a few hours doesn't actually appeal to me. I don't own the kind of clothing required for that sort of thing. I don't even own snowboots. This year I do own a hat, which is more than I can say for last time. That year I borrowed one from Kev's sister. 

It is quite the party down there, though. They have vendors with beer, which unfortunately I don't drink. Maybe if I did, I'd at least not notice the cold so much. They also set up those heat tower thingies, but I found that they don't help that much when there are a bunch of people trying to squeeze in next to them. And of course it's rude for me to try to get the entire thing to myself.

I did a snowflake mani on the 23rd but haven't even gotten the pics put on the computer yet, so here's one from probably two months back.

I'm a fan of this one. I used Pure Ice Shore Bet, OPI's Taupe-Less Beach and I Sao Paulo Over There for the gradient and then used OPI Get in the Espresso Lane with some random clear polish for the marbling.

At some point I might get around to posting the boring-ass mani I wore for Christmas. Or perhaps not. It turned out well and was cuteish, but it's just disappointingly non-special. Even now I've just been wearing plain old polish since Friday. It's frustrating to me that when I really want to have something fantastic on for some special occasion, those are the times when there simply aren't enough hours in the day to get it done.

Now I have tonight and tomorrow night to think of and execute something to wear downstate for four days.

So far I'm stumped. Again.

GREEN, GREEN, LOVE, LOVE

Let me just say that I think it's just not fair that today is gorgeous out. It's probs 80 degrees in my back yard right now. I went home for lunch, and the pool was calling my name. Figures it was in the 50's all weekend. Obvi no pool time then. It's depressing. I knew I didn't want to come back to work. If I had been smart, I would have just sucked up the pain last fall and waited to have surgery until now. Then I could have had the entire summer off.  Me = big dumbass.

They finished the bathroom and bedroom floors on Friday, and they look amazeballs! I'm not posting pics until the rooms are completely dunzo, but I'm super happy with how they turned out. Kev gets home today so my bedroom furniture will finally be out of the living room. On Friday when the flooring guys got done, they were nice enough to move the box spring and mattress to the bedroom floor so at least I've had a bed the past few days.

One big problem with the new floor; the dogs hate it. Tinlee wouldn't even walk on it, and neither of them could jump up on the bed even though it's just sitting on the floor. Once it gets put back on the actual frame, there's just no way. I don't really want to put rugs on top of that pretty floor, but unless I figure something out for them that doesn't take up any room, it's a big problem. The past couple of nights I laid the bedspread across the floor just so Tinlee could get to the bed and then jump in. Maybe that's what I'll just keep doing. I don't know. I just know that Tinlee needs to sleep in bed or I'll feel guilty.

I really had nothing to do yesterday so out of sheer boredom I made homemade bread for the first time. I'm actually dying to get out of work so I can eat some because it turned out great. Then I decided to do my nails, and this is what I did.

I love it. 

For more of a frost polish, this one went on super smooth. I don't know if I've ever used it before, but it's Pure Ice First Time which I then stamped with just a plain old Sally Hansen black polish and the MoYou Pro XL 03 stamp.

I like the kinda' abstract squares on this plate a lot. Overall, I just like this entire mani a lot. I may keep it for a couple of days unless I get inspired.

Today has been busy here at work. The printer died on me while the bossman was out of town for a few hours, and no matter what I did, I just couldn't fix the damn thing. It was irritating because I had a whole bunch of shit done that I couldn't print, and stuff like that causes me stress.  I hate when I can't be caught up every second of the day.

And now that I am caught up, I just want to trot my happy ass out of here.  There are carbs waiting to be eaten.

And I do love me some carbs.

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.