REMEMBER ME??

OMG. It has taken me 2 days to figure this out again.

First off, if you're even still here, thank you so much!! I haven't posted in many months. At the end of September I had a brain aneurysm that exploded in my brain. My husband, who was luckily home for one night, found me in bed unconscious, vomit in my mouth and totally non-responsive early in the morning. Bottom line, I had a helicopter ride to another town and spent over 2 months in a hospital bed. I came back home in early December, and I'm very lucky to still be alive and even luckier that I still have a body that works. My left eye is still wonky and I'm still too thin because of all the weight I lost in hospital, but I'm feeling pretty confident that eventually I will be back to my normal. To say it's been a very long road is an understatement.

I've been trying for a few days to get back in here to at least say hi, but my brain doesn't always cooperate the way it used to. It's weird what I remember and what I don't.

I've managed to just paint my nails a couple of times, but I haven't attempted any nail art yet. Things are difficult, let's say. But this is one I did awhile ago so I thought I would at least stop in, say hi and post a pic.

I look forward to hopefully getting back to my old self at some point, but in looking at my drafts section, I do have a few more pics I'll be able to show.

So for now, this is OPI DS Original, stamped using OPI DS Extravagance and my Uber Chic 6-01 stamping plate. I wasn't excited about this one when I did it, and I'm still not! lol

So if you're still here and still reading, I thank you so much. I've really missed all of my nail fun and really hope I'll eventually get back to it!!

Love to all of you!!

HERE'S ANOTHER THREE

It's been a good last few days. I took Tinlee to her boyfriend's house on Friday and Sunday, and I'll take her one more time on Tuesday. It's a three hour drive to get there, so it is time consuming, but the drive isn't too bad.

I've enjoyed spending time with the owner of Copper, who is the father of Tinlee's last litter. They also have Copper's daddy, who is 14 and one of Copper's sons, who is 2 and gorgeous, just like Copper. Mary, the owner, is really fun to talk to. Her husband, John, is a cutie, too. I brought them some banana cake that I made last night. When I went inside to use the restroom before making the drive back home, he had already finished his piece. It's fun to bake when somebody appreciates it.

Saturday was spent taking pictures of the neighborhood birds. It was bird-crazy at my house for some reason. I even had a female Hairy Woodpecker on the feeder. I've never seen one on my feeder before. I also had some Cowbirds and a whole lot of Goldfinches. I also took a whole lot of pics of hummingbirds. Adjusting to using my new camera is proving to be challenging. It's so much bigger and clunkier that I just can't get to it as quickly as my old point and shoot. I hope I get better with it as the summer progresses.

Sunday for the first time I had a Rose Breasted Grosbeak on the feeder, but I wasn't quick enough with the camera because I had the wrong lens on it at the time.

This first mani is from March!!

The yellow is Milani Yellow Whiz, and the scrollwork is done with Mundo de Unas White and the Uber Chic 6-01 stamping plate.

This orange thing is what I had on Friday. The base is Essie Peach Side Babe, and it's stamped with MdU Orange and the Uber Chic 7-03 plate.

I like this green one more now that I look at it again. I used Glitter Gal No Worries and MdU Green. The design is from the Cooi 035 stamping plate that I got from Ali Express a few weeks ago. 

I really recommend wandering over there and getting these Cooi plates. I'm super happy with them and if they come out with more full coverage designs, I'll for sure buy them. I bought all of the ones they currently make. They also had some plates with smaller designs, but I didn't get those. I tend to only buy full coverage designs.

Truth be told, I really should just stop buying for awhile. I have so many plates now that it makes it even harder to decide on a design. Of course, I say that right after buying the latest Uber Chic 3 set.

I suck at not buying.

TEARS FOR MY NEW SHIRT :(

It probably would come as no surprise to anyone that has seen a pic of me that my hair is colored. The hair of my youth was a nondescript mud brown color, fine in texture and thin. Luckily after having my first child, my hair did improve in texture, but gradually over the years I went from blonde highlights to just being blonde. I can't imagine ever going back to natural, especially since it's more than likely a whole lot of grey by now.

Unfortunately, with that comes the upkeep, and for some reason I just really hate going to get my hairs did. I finally went in last night for a cut and color, and I hadn't been there since November 3rd. Kind of outrageous. Luckily my hair is just worn straight, and I've learned how to cut my bangs just to avoid going in.

Don't get me wrong; I love who does my hair. She's been a very dear friend since the 80's, so we go way back. We always have a lovely visit when I do go, and last night was no exception. When I got home, I was going to heat up some supper and decided to take off my pink shirt to avoid having it splattered on. When I took it off, I was horrified to find the entire upper back of it was covered in a brownish color which I immediately knew had to be hair dye. I'm assuming it had to come from the inside of the cape I was wearing. I immediately sprayed it with Oxyclean and threw it in the washing machine and crossed my fingers.

While it was washing I texted her for ideas on what to use to remove the dye. When it came out of the washing machine still stained, I tried both of her ideas and threw it in again. While it was washing that second time, I wandered the interwebs for more ideas. Since it came out still stained, I tried the other ideas I'd found and tossed it in one more time.

That shirt has officially been washed more than it's been worn. I bought the same shirt for Tyler for Christmas, and I loved it so much I got one for myself in February, so I've worn it exactly twice. Color my shirt ruined, and color me sad. It took me about one second to decide I was just going to buy it again, and of course my size is sold out because they are on sale and not being restocked. I decided to risk getting the small instead of the medium. It's a long sweatshirty thing that isn't fitted at all, so I'm hoping the small will work. If it doesn't, be prepared to see me whining about it some more because it's not returnable which means I'll have two shirts I can't wear.

By the time I got done with all of that shirt drama, it was too late to do my nails, so I'm still wearing this one from Sunday night.

I kind of like how this one looks. The lighter brown base is Fresh Paint Never Go Out of Style. You know how I love my Fresh Paints. After topcoating, I stamped with MdU Black using the Uber Chic 6-01 stamping plate. I really liked the matte look of the black on top of the brown, so I did not topcoat this mani once I was done stamping.

Oh, yikers. Hopefully I will remember that if I ever do that again, it's going to have to be a one day mani, not a three day. The black design is completely gone at the tips from typing, and it's just worn off in other random spots, too. 

Now that my work week is almost over and it's house cleaning time when I leave here, I guess it doesn't matter too much at this point, but it sure ain't cute.

My plan is go home, clean the house and then do a soak off of my nails. I can't remember when I put these on last, but I smacked my ring finger earlier and knocked one loose, and when I was painting them Sunday night, the growout was starting to look bad to me. Do I feel like doing a soak off? Nope! As much as I love my nails, sometimes they are a big ol' PITA.

And I seriously don't know what I'd do without them.

THANKSGIVING MANI A TAD LATE

Well, I think maybe the holiday mood is starting to creep in. I decided to get serious the other day and did some major shopping.

Part of that shopping included a new camera for myself. I've been saving up my credits on my survey account, so I ended up getting $432 in Amazon credit to use toward the camera. I've been saving for a pretty long time, but I'm so glad I did that. I never would have bought a new camera without that extra help towards the cost. I bought the Canon Rebel 5, and it came with a big bundle of other stuff to go along with it. Hopefully I'll be able to figure out how to use it without too much difficulty.

Yesterday I took the day off. Kev and I went to Oconto in the morning for a long overdue follow-up EGD and a colonoscopy. Good times. The prep on Tuesday night was not cool. Drinking that stuff was not easy to do, and nothing started happening until after 1 a.m. which means I was up most of the night. I slept for part of the drive there. We got there at 10:45, and I have absolutely no clue what time we got home.

Everything went great and after years of problems, my ulcers have finally healed. I'm pretty happy about that. Poor Kev had to tell me my results probably five times yesterday because I was seriously out of it all day. Apparently I ate crackers at the hospital. I'm pretty sure I talked to my mom on the phone yesterday, but I'm going to call her later to find out what I said. I slept all the way home and then slept most of yesterday. I managed to stay awake long enough to watch a couple of tv shows and eat supper, and that's about it.

Since I was in a coma, Kev did the entire tree all by himself. He did a great job, and I didn't even rearrange anything. My only contribution to decorating it was some icicles that were in a box he forgot about. It's so weird how I can have a real surgery and snap right out of it, but knock me out for something like an egd and I'm useless for 24 hours.

I'm just glad it's over. I've been trying for many months to get it scheduled, and now I don't have to think about it again for a very long time.

This is the mani I wore on Thanksgiving.

I started with OPI My Private Jet and stamped with Essie Good as Gold using the Uber Chic 6-01 stamping plate. I like it. It was purdy.

Now I'm going to finish up cleaning. At some point maybe I'll wrap some presents so the tree doesn't look naked. Or maybe I'll just finish my sweater. All that's left is to finish knitting the hood, so I should have no problem getting that out of the way. I slammed my finger when I was cleaning earlier and loosened a nail so I suppose I'll have to soak them off in the next day or two. I really jammed it hard because it's painful to type.

Have a great weekend, peeps!!

SWEATER, DONE

I do love to knit, but I absolutely hate finishing a sweater. Weaving the pieces together is always something I dread. I took a break for a couple of days trying to get myself into the mood to do that. After that all that was left was knitting the hood.

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. It certainly works for me as kind of an oversized hoodie that has plenty of room to wear a sweater under it, which is how I like my hoodies to fit.

And now I'm making another one just like it. I'm going to make a few alterations in the sizing because I think I might like it a smidge smaller. I also have a feeling that when Tyler comes home for Thanksgiving, she might just take this first one home with her.

I was wearing some orange to work on Wednesday so on Tuesday night I did this mani.

The orange is China Glaze Riveting from their original Hunger Games collection. It really is a good orange with a nice metallic shimmer to it. I grabbed my new Uber Chic 6-01 stamping plate and used Mundo de Unas black for the design.

I'm ready for this one to come off, but it'll have to wait until tomorrow. I have quite a few new stamping plates that I've barely looked at and still can't decide on something to do with my nails. So frustrating to not have any kind of original ideas in my head.

Maybe I'll get lucky in the next 24 hours and come up with something fantabulous. In the meantime, my only plan for the rest of the evening is just to knit until my hands cramp up.