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.

MAYBE TOO SUBTLE?

So much for spring. I woke up to a completely snow covered yard once again. Pretty annoying. All of the old snow had melted, and the muddy parts of my yard had finally dried up. Evidently we are supposed to really get a huge dump on of that white shit later this week. I heard 7-10 inches, but I'm just going to cross my fingers and hope that my Esky banana belt status will do its magic and keep most of that away from me.

When I did a reapplication of my nails this last time, I did what I always do and chose something light colored. I wore this for two days before taking a pic, and I can see that my fingers still look a little pink from the application process.

The peachy base on this is  Zoya Lulu, which is a very sheer polish. I wanted to do something equally light and breezy for the stamping, so I chose MdU Peach and the Bundle Monster collaboration plate with Lucy's Stash, BM-XL209.

I know I was happy with this while I was wearing it. Now in looking at it in the picture, it almost seems too subtle. It's always funny to me how I can love something at the time and then look back weeks later and wonder why I ever did it in the first place. I guess it just depends on my mood on any given day.

Right now I'm wondering if maybe I should just go back to putting snowflakes on my damn nails. I don't feel like I should have to even consider that in late March. But mabes I'll do it just to be obnoxious.

And then my brain reminds me of the gazillions of times I've seen snow in May. Reality checked.

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.

PINK AND GIRLY

Last Thursday we headed off to Illinois to spend a few days with my daughter and her fam. I think this is the third year in a row that we've gone there in February. The last two times we had bone-chilling, unusually cold weather when we got there. Not surprising since shit weather usually follows me wherever I go.

It was a nice change to be there this time. They have no snow, and the temps were around 40 degrees which pretty much feels like a heatwave compared to home.

I love visiting there, and every time we do, I give serious thought about just packing up and moving to their neighborhood. They live in such a nice area that has a small town feel but has all the perks (shopping) of being in a big city. We got our shop on a couple of times, and I came home with a bunch of new shirts and sweaters and more nail polish than I've bought in months. I do love a bargain.

Zero was obsessed with me, as always, and Griffin was just beyond adorable, as usual. We went out for sushi on Saturday night, and it was amazing. Our plan had also included indoor skydiving, but they didn't have any open times for us to go. Evidently that needs to be planned in advance a little better. Lesson learned.

I even made sure to get a pic of Griffin with me, which are few and far between since I'm usually the one taking the pics. That and it's even more rare that I think I look decent enough in a picture to actually post it.

For real, how cute is this kid? I absolutely want to eat him up.

I had done my nails a few days before we left and ended up leaving this same mani on for an entire week. To say I was sick of looking at it would be an understatement. It got lots of compliments when we were shopping, though.

I used Zoya Dot for the pink base and then stamped with MdU White and the DRK Themes Enlaced stamping plate. It turned out pretty much exactly as it was in my head, so I was happy with it.

As much as I liked it, I couldn't get rid of it fast enough when we got home Sunday night. When I was playing with Zero over the weekend, I had managed to loosen both of my index finger nails so I had to completely remove those.

Once I did that, I did a heart mani that I still have on now. I'm really missing the days when I had the motivation to do a manicure every night, but I just don't have the energy or inspiration. 

It took me two days to swatch and organize the new polishes I bought, and even that took a whole lot of effort. I easily bought at least 20 polishes, and while we were gone, my Square Hue and Julep came, so finishing it up was pretty time consuming.

On a super depressing note, when we went to Sally Beauty it was time to renew my membership, which costs $5 a year. This year it only cost me $2.50.

I'm still undecided whether I'm happy about that or horrified that I officially received my first "senior discount". I'm 56.....I don't feel like a senior.

Color me saddy-pants, I think.

IT WORKS!!

Oh, man. December 20th already? I am so not ready for this week. I feel like I'm actually forgetting things I need to do. Everything I have here is wrapped, but I'm still waiting for quite a few things to arrive, thanks to the extremely late list I received from my daughter. As of right now, she's not getting anything because it's all spread out across the country as the items make their way here. It's out of my hands.

Last Christmas Eve Tyler and I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning putting together a Lego Christmas scene. Once we finished, she loaded it up in the car and brought it to her in-laws' house so that Griffin would see it under the tree and think Santa built it for him.

It was at that time I decided I was for sure going to buy the actual Lego Christmas North Pole set for this year. It's been hiding under the bed for about 6 months. I asked Tyler on Friday night what the plan was for it, and she said she wanted it to be set up at my house since I bought it. I then asked when she was coming home, and she told me she's hoping to come home Monday. It's a good thing I asked what the plan was, because this plan required me to get busy!

Let me make it clear I was not upset at this prospect whatsoever. I think putting Lego sets together is way too much fun. My biggest concern was where I was going to put the darn thing.

My next concern came about 2 hours in when it became clear to me that there was a piece missing from the set. I texted Tyler and sent her a pic of the missing item and told her to grab one and bring it home with her. I told her I was going to bed with the hope that maybe I was just blind and the piece would make itself appear on Saturday morning.

No such luck. Here I was, only partway through the first building, and I was stuck. It just so happens that I bought Griff two Lego sets for Christmas that were already under my tree, so I unwrapped one of them to see if I could steal the piece I needed. Of course, that set didn't have that piece. So I had to unwrap the other set, and luckily the piece I needed was there. Problem solved. I'll put the piece Tyler brings into the new set, and everything works out perfectly.

So I spent the next couple of hours playing with Legos. The whole thing was just about finished, and I was working on the reindeer, when I discovered I was missing a reindeer face. You have got to be kidding me. The reindeer faces are a common piece that simply have eyes drawn on it. So now I'm looking at the two buildings I already made, wondering if I accidentally used a reindeer face.

Well, shitballs. Next step? Start taking apart the houses I just spent hours building looking for reindeer eyes. And after all of that extra work, I discovered I did not mistakenly use it. Final solution? A black sharpie draws very nice reindeer eyes. Done.

I decided to set it up on the shelf under the tv. I'm not going to say a word about it. We're going to wait to see how long it takes for Griffin to notice it. I'm excited because he is going to love it! I will say I'm going to be a little sad to see it go home with him because it's pretty damn adorable.

I haven't done much with my nails, but I did manage a gradient and some snowflakes the other night, even though we still don't have any snow here.

This is the first mani shot with the new camera. I'm a pretty happy camper because this purple toned Zoya Carey and Zoya Caitlin gradient actually photographed perfectly.

After I did the gradient I did a bit of sparkle with Nubar Star Sparkle and then stamped with MdU White and the snowflake pattern from the Ali Express 12-51 plate.

I did this last Tuesday and just took it off tonight.

I'm really hoping the new camera is going to make my purple problems go away. I did take a pic of this mani with my old camera, and the old camera definitely photographed this as blue. Hopefully this is a good sign that there will be no more running around the house trying to get the color right. 

I'll have to do some more purples before I can say for sure it's the result of the new camera.

JUST BLUE

It's been over a week since I even thought about blogging. I'm just not feeling it lately. Of course, I did have family home for Thanksgiving, company on Saturday and other stuff going on, so that probably contributes to my absence.

Hopefully your Thanksgiving holiday weekend was at least half as nice as mine. I was happy to have Tyler, Griffin and Zero at the house from Wednesday to Sunday. On Saturday, Seven came over to play with Zero, and her family brought pizza, some extraordinarily delightful pudding shots and a homemade banana cake. I can't complain when I get good company plus good eats. Even Kevin was home for the entire time, and he managed to get a great schedule for December so he'll miss none of the holidays this year.

Thanksgiving was spent at my mom's. Every year my sister and I make the offer to take it over, but she insists she wants to do it as long as she's able. She turned 87 in September, and she is still rocking it. I'm so lucky to still have her around and in good health. The food was great, as always, and I ate way too much. As always. I was miserably full when I went home.

Before Kev left to go back to work on Sunday I had him bring in some of the Christmas bins from the garage. My plan is to clean the house today after work and get the majority of the decorating done. Kev is gone until next Monday, and I didn't want to wait that long to get started. The tree will go up on Tuesday while he's around to help with that. I'm hoping the decorations will finally get me in the holiday mood because I really do need to start shopping.

I have been doing nails every few days, but I'm still focusing on knitting. I have one sleeve and the hood left to knit on the second sweater. The first sweater now has a new home with Tyler, which is pretty much what I figured would happen. 

I'm not even sure when I did this one.

I started with a base of Orly Decoded and then used Zoya Kristen and the Stampaholic 2 plate that I recently received from a specialty group buy.

In looking at this now in the picture, I like it more than I thought I did while I was wearing it. That makes no sense whatsoever, but it's a fact.

I'm not sure if nails will get done at all for the rest of the week. I'll be cleaning and decorating, and I've decided to steal Razzie for the weekend. Tonya will drop him off on Friday and pick him up on Sunday. I needed a Razzie fix so I'm happy she's letting me take him just for the fun of it. I'll have to see if Seven wants to come over to play with this brother, too.

I love having "puppies" I can steal every so often. Even if they aren't little anymore, it's still just the best being able to keep my connection with them.

COMPLETE COPYCATTING

Just going to be a quickie post today. The only thing I really have to bitch about is the migration of the hummingbirds. I still had one little girl as of last evening; I'll find out later if she's still around, but last year September 21st was the last day I took a picture. I tried to get shots last night, but she was very skittish for some reason. I'm crossing my fingers she's still around.

As I wander the web, if I see a mani I like I'll pin it on a Pinterest board that I've reserved specifically for things I want to try. This mani I did over the weekend is a complete copy job, right down to two of the three gradient colors. The original mani was done by @wackylaki.

I used Zoya Kennedy, Rue and Brigitte for the gradient and then stamped with Mundo de Unas white and the MoYou Pro 10 stamping plate.

I loved this when she did it, and I still love it. I loved it enough to put it on Thursday night and leave it on until last night. It was a hit at the doctor's office on Friday, and I was determined to wear it to work at least one day. I did finally remove it last night even though I wasn't tired of it.

I was actually halfway through doing my nails last night when I noticed I was actually putting the same stamping design on all over again. I guess that means I really liked it. Luckily I was able to remove the stamping without wrecking the base manicure.

I must not be getting enough sleep or something. I consider that to be a pretty good sized airhead bleach-blonde moment, even for me.

ACTUALLY LEFT THE HOUSE

Yesterday I had my follow-up appointment with the doc in Green Bay. It was the first time I'd left the house in three weeks. The appointment went as expected, and my next follow-up is in January.

It felt pretty good to be out and about, and after we got back to town we went out to dinner. I'm kind of paying for it today because I'm pretty sore. It sure will be nice when I feel completely like myself again.

Wednesday night we rented a few movies so I played with my nails while we watched. It was the first time I'd done anything on both hands in awhile. I had kind of played just on one nail the night before but ultimately went with this foil.

I wanted my nail underneath to kind of be a natural tone so I used Zoya Loretta, which is a really sheer, very light pink. 

The foils went on reasonably well although the pinkie had to be done twice. It didn't really go on any better the second time, and you can see the missing area near the cuticle.

I'm still wearing this now, and I'm surprised at how well it's wearing. I think it's a really cute pattern. I like that the non-shiny foils aren't ruined by topcoat.

It's probably a good thing that it's holding up so well. I've got Seven here for the weekend, and since she has been bringing me toys non-stop since she got here over 2 hours ago, I don't know how helpful she's going to be if I decide to do my nails.

I'm leaning toward "not helpful". At all.

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.

SOFT AND PURDY

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Mine wasn't too shabby at all. I finally got some pool time. That alone was enough to make my weekend. Even better, on Saturday my friends came over with their daughter to swim, and they brought Seven along for her first foray into my pool. To say she loved it would be an understatement.

Tinlee only went in one time. Seven, on the other hand, flew up and down those stairs probably 20 times and was in the pool at least 10. She was absolutely adorable. She liked it better when her owner was in the pool with her, though. When Laura got out of the pool and was sitting up on the deck, Seven just stood on the platform, looked at Laura and cried to try to get her to go back in. It was beyond cute. I can't wait for Zero to be here this weekend to see what he'll do. I'm also going to make sure to get Razzie and Major over one of these days so they can swim, too. Of course, Major lives on the lake so he is already a huge fan of water.

Poor Baylee can no longer navigate her way up the steps to the pool. She tried to go up them, got about halfway and then fell. I felt just terrible for her. She really wanted to go in the pool. She tried again on Sunday with the same result. I can't lift her 75 pound lard-ass into the pool, so Kev is going to need to re-do the stairs to lessen the incline. It breaks my heart to see her try things that she used to do easily, but her 10 year old hips just don't cooperate the way they used to. It hurts me as much as it hurts her.

I also managed to plant a few new plants that my mom gave me and went to a birthday party for a two year old. The weather was sunny with a nice breeze with temps around 80 at my house. Pretty much perfection all around.

After the bright mani's I had been doing, I did this softer one that I wore for a couple of days.

I had gotten in on the Zoya deal where all I had to pay was shipping, so I got three for $15. This slightly aqua blue is Zoya Lillian. I used the Bundle Monster BM XL-13 plate and Mundo de Unas Cream for the stamping. 

To those of you that have Mundo's, have you ever used a polish thinner in them? This cream one is way too thick. I'm debating if I should use my usual polish thinner or Seche Restore. I've never thinned a stamping polish before, and I really don't want to ruin it. So if you have thinned yours, tell me what you used, please.

This Monday is really dragging its ass. All I see is sunshine outside, and all I want to do is be outside in it instead of sitting at this damn desk. The bossman has wandered off to who knows where. Of course right after he left I actually needed him to be here. Now I'm sitting here with no way to finish what I started because I have a question about it. I hate when that happens.

I just want the day to be over. That's pretty much it in a nutshell. 

NOT A HEART IN SIGHT

And a big hello to Monday. I slept for a solid 6 straight hours last night. I got out of bed as soon as the alarm went off just like normal, but for some reason I was completely disoriented. On any other day I would pop up, go around the end of the bed and go into the bathroom. This requires taking a right, a right and a left in a pretty short area.

Today, however, I decided I would pop out of bed and instead of taking that first right at the end of the bed I angled left which leads me to my long dresser. Too bad I wasn't conscious enough to realize that. I fumbled around for a few seconds, lost in my own damn bedroom. SO weird. 

I didn't actually figure out where the eff I was until I reached onto the dresser and knocked off my sisters angel figurine. I knew right then I wasn't going to be happy once I turned the light on, and sure enough, one sister no longer has wings. I'm sure I can easily glue them back on. Unfortunately the wings fell behind the dresser, and there is no way to get to them. Of course.

I wore this mani for a couple of days last week and didn't have time to take it off until last night. 

I'm really having a hard time picking colors I feel like wearing lately. I do like this baby blue, though. It's Zoya Blu. I stamped with China Glaze Man Hunt and the DRK Themes Enlaced plate.

Even though I liked it, I was really sick of looking at it after a couple of days. And then I had it on for 4 days longer than that. Even seeing it here, I'm sick of it.

I'm in a mood in general, I think. Slump city. Nothing I'm doing is tickling my fancy, which pretty much takes the fun out of it. I need my brain to fire on some more cylinders and get my imagination working.

I mean, everybody likes their fancies tickled, right?

 

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.

 

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.

HOLY COPY JOB, BATMAN

For some reason, I feel craptastic. I don't know if I have a touch of the flu or what. I won't get too graphic with the deets; let's just say homemade pizza goes down and should stay there, not come back up in the midst of eating. 

I'm still feeling a bit shaky 12 hours later, and I'd like it to go away now. I'm not sure if my stomach is going to behave or go crazy like it did last night. I did go right back to eating the pizza last night, and before I went to bed I ate a scotcheroo bar and felt okay. The whole thing is just weird. 

That was a fun read, right? lol

I had seen a gradient mani that was done by heartnat that she did in 2013. It was shared on another nail page, and I thought it was so pretty I decided to do something very similar. So I grabbed a pink and a purple that were like hers, looked through my stamping plates for a floral design, and set about doing it.

The pink that I used is Zoya Shelby, and my purple is Wet n Wild On a Trip. I used Konad white with my MoYou Pro XL 14 stamp.

I was happy with how it turned out. Then as I was looking at the original that she did, I took a closer look and discovered I had actually ended up using the exact same stamping design. So I guess this one is pretty much an exact copy. Sheesh.

If you haven't ever gone to her blog, you really should. She is amazing. She's one of those nail artists I strive to be like.

In a few months it will be 3 years since I got started with these nail shenanigans. Somebody on Instagram commented that she loved one of my mani's and it happened to be one from 88 weeks ago.

Yikers....it is so bad!! I will say it is nice to see how far I've come since the beginning. 

I'm so tempted to delete the entire first year of pictures, but I guess I'll suck it up and let the crappy ones stay.

Everybody has to start somewhere, I guess.

THROW-AWAYS PART TWO

I'm bummed.  Someone was lined up to come and look at my car today, and I was really hoping it would get gone. Unfortunately, once they showed a picture of the Alero to their daughter, they found out she really wants a four door. Dammit to hell.

I'm a bit shocked that the car hasn't flown out of the garage. It's such a nice car, but I guess poor Kev isn't going to get his side of the garage back yet.

Right now I'm trying to motivate. I'm kind of doing this post because I'm stalling on doing a soakoff. I did manage to do some rearranging of my stash. I went out to the garage to grab a couple of my old plastic bins that used to store my stuff. One of them had several dried up dead spiders. SO gross!! I also heard some movement toward the back of the garage so I got the hell outta' there as quickly as I could. Mouse, squirrel, someone's cat, a bird.....I had no intention of finding out. 

I guess all I have left in my draft pile are these two. I have two others, but they are just plain polish photos. I'm not even sure why they're in there.

The nail decal thingie was originally done for Nail It mag, but I decided I didn't like it enough to submit it. 

This first one was another last minute mani I did. It's hideous, but it matched a spring sweater I wore to work. For the record, the sweater is not hideous.

I used Loreal Rendevous on this and stamped with Zoya Noot and the DRK-A stamp. 

Oh!! Speaking of stamps, I asked Llarowe if there were ever going to be any new LeaLac plates, and they said, yes!! I was so excited I almost peed myself. They are still my faves of all time because the images are so big.

On to the decal nonsense.  I know there are several different ways to do the decals, but this was the first time I tried them. I think the pics are pretty self-explanatory on what I did.

 

After I stamped the pattern from the DRK-A plate on the plastic and it had dried, I used Square Hue Ocean Drive and High School Crush, Milani Yellow Whiz and Salon Perfect Bellini to fill in the flowers. I just used a dotting tool to do that.

Once it was all dry, I peeled them off, cut them and then stuck them on and topcoated.

Technically it's a success. I just think it's kind of ugly. I wish I had used different colors. I'm sure at some point I'll try this again, possibly with the same design. It's just kind of time consuming and lately it seems I have been doing things that go more quickly.

I suppose now that I've finished this I should get off my arse and get these nails off. I wish I had done it yesterday. I considered doing them last night, but it was already 10:30 so I thought it was too late to start.

When I went to bed at 4 a.m., I was kicking myself because if I'd known I was going to be stupid and stay up that late, I would have had plenty of time to get it done. One more time where I just didn't think. 

Am I old enough now where I can use that as an excuse?

I REMEMBER NOW WHY I HATE GLITTER

If you happen to live where it's warm, be advised that I hate you. In my neck of the woods it is currently a -14 degrees F, with a wind chill that makes it feel like -35. I'm not making that shiz up; that's right from the weather apps on my phone. I shouldn't even have those apps because it's a constant reminder of how horrid the weather is.

The remainder of our trip to lower Michigan was great. On Friday I was back to feeling my normal self after my drinking shenanigans. We had a plan to go bowling, which I happen to really enjoy. I was actually in a bowling league for many, many years. 

I was a bit surprised at how well I managed to do. We were bowling two games simultaneously using two lanes, and on the one lane I only had a 124 but managed a 165 on the other. Go, me!!

There was a minor glitch to the fun when my ring finger nail decided to escape and land halfway down the lane in the gutter. I guess I must not be the first person this has ever happened to because the lady working that had to retrieve it didn't even seem shocked. I'm just glad it landed where it was retrievable, and since I always carry glue, I simply put it back on when we finished up. After dinner we bowled a third game, and I finished with a 192!! Maybe I shouldn't have quit the bowling league after all!

I thought I'd share a professional pic that was taken of where we were for New Year's Eve. It's such a spectacular shot that was taken by Brad Reed Photography which is located right in Ludington. I'm sure you can see me; I'm over in front of those buildings on the right. Fine. You can't see me, but I'm there.

The ride home was uneventful, and we made it back alive. As always, the dogs were very happy to see us.

Last night I happily took off that glitter mani. It was then that I was reminded why I hate glitter. A lot. Because I had used that loose glitter, removing it was a nightmare. Not so much so getting it off my nails, but getting it off of everything else was not fun. My fingers were once again full of it, and the bottle of Seche Vite I had used on application is also pretty much trashed because there's glitter in it. Luckily I have a new bottle waiting in the wings, but I'm still pissed. Even the mani I put on afterwards ended up with random flecks of glitter on it that shouldn't be there. I'm pretty sure I've finally gotten rid of it all.

What I'm showing here is not what I'm currently wearing, but I haven't had time to take pics yet so I'm showing one from awhile back. One of these days I'm going to go through the bunch of drafts I have on here and just do a massive post of all of the mani's that I hate that I haven't blogged about.

I was in the mood for a neutral when I did this, and I used Zoya Chantal, Zoya Taylor and some striping tape to get the quilted look.

I'm not sure why I haven't posted this one before. Looking at it now, I like it. I think quilted mani's are cute-ish, and this one turned out just as I wanted.

I also wanted to share a really cute pic my daughter posted of Griffin and Zero. They had been cuddling on the floor, and while I know I'm biased, I think they are both too cute for words.

I adore both of them. 'Nuf said.

BLUE FOR GRIFFIN

Wow. Newborn puppies are exhausting! I didn't realize when I got myself into this that it truly was like having a real baby. Sleeping at night is still intermittent, and I've spent the last two nights on the couch trying to sleep, "trying" being the operative word in this sentence.

Not only is the not sleeping difficult, leaving the house is also problematic. Today was Griffin's 4th birthday party, and since I don't dare leave them alone yet, Kev and I went to the party in shifts. Geez, at least with a human baby you can pack the diaper bag and go.

I was nervous just taking a shower today after Kev had gone for his party shift. This has got to get easier, right? Luckily the cuteness makes up for a whole lot of inconvenience.

 I mean, seriously....just look at those faces!!

Griffin was very specific this year about his color scheme for his birthday. Blue and black. He wanted 10 blue presents from his grampa; he wanted a blue and black semi truck cake; and he wanted his Gramma Diane to do blue and black nails.

 

You'd actually be surprised how much he takes notice of things like my nails. It's pretty hilarious. Very often he asks to see them and then says, "Oh, those are really cute, Gramma". He also happens to think my Coach purse is very cute. The kid is hilarious and owns my heart.

So of course I had to do my nails last night with blue and black. And when I got to the party, I got an "Oh my gosh! Those are cool, Gramma!"  So yeah....if the kid asks for specific nails, he's gonna' get 'em.

I went with my favorite light blue, Zoya Blu. I grabbed my American Apparel black to stamp with, and I used my brand spankin' new DRK-D plate. Since Ninja Polish is no longer, I kind of figured I would never get another DRK plate. Even when Ninja was still around, the D plates only came as rulers. You couldn't get all the designs on one big plate like the others. I didn't want to buy them that way.

One of my nail buds posted a link a couple of weeks ago that showed the full DRK-D designs on one plate. I wasn't even aware before that you could buy directly from DRK. Duh. Why I  never thought to check into that before is beyond me. At any rate, I bought it immediately. And if they make an E, F or any other letter of the alphabet, I'm getting those, too! I just love them!

Now I am going to change the blanket in the puppy pen. Again. I seem to be doing a lot of that. My washing machine is going to get a real workout in the next two months.

BATHROOM - DONE!! (VERY pic heavy)

I'm just going to go right ahead and show the mani first. That way if you so choose, you can just skip going on to all the bathroom pictures, especially those of you who already saw them all on Facebook.

I had the hardest time thinking of something to do the other night. I kind of just perused my polish drawers looking for something I hadn't used in awhile until I came across this neutral. Then it took me another three hours to decide what the hell to do on top of it.

This is Zoya Amminah. I don't remember buying this one. *shrug*
I do like it. It has kind of an opalescent shimmer that isn't really showing in the pictures. I decided to go with something black and kind of frilly for the stamp, and I really like how it turned out. The stamp is from the MoYou Pro XL 10 plate.  That Zoya looks pretty good all by itself on my tootsies, too.

On to the finished (finally) bathroom! First up, the pics of what the craptastic (see what I did there?) bathroom looked like when we bought the house.

 

 

Holy hideousness, right? Seriously; who puts cream colored carpeting in an effing bathroom. AND this exact same carpeting and blue vanity top was also in the other bathroom.  Not only that, who puts cream colored carpeting up the side of a tub surround. I'll tell ya' who, the cheap bastards that built the house. That's who.

Last summer I decided I was just so sick of looking at that hideous cobalt blue that I went online and looked for something to get rid of it without spending a shit ton of money. I found Gianni countertop refinishing stuff and Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations and went to work. So last July 2nd, this is what we had.

 

Since we weren't looking to spend a ton, I was very pleased with the fake marbling I did and the change over to black cabinetry. I was also completely in love with that sink. SO cute!

We didn't bother getting a new shower at that point because I refused to buy anything new that would get stained by our gross water.

I'm going to assume you've already read about the trials and tribulations of the bathroom remodeling we've done over the past couple of months and just post the finished product.

There's my brand new, shiny, white shower. I love it but keeping completely clear glass spot free was making me kind of crazy. I bought a squeegie to use after every shower. When I told Kev that we had to do that, he said he was never  using that shower again. Obvi he was kidding, and he's pretty much been quite the little squeegie expert since we got it.

That's my new black vanity with the nice built-in sink. I can't think of what it's called when it's smoothly connected. Whatever. I like it more than I thought I would. I was really attached to that other sink I bought. We couldn't have used it anyway since we now actually have a standard sized vanity instead of the mini version.

And here is a good shot of the new flooring and the bathtub. I want to make out with that bathtub. Judging from the comments on Facebook, I am not alone in that feeling.

So there you have it. As I was hoping, all the trouble did turn out to be worth it in the end.  It's nice walking into that bathroom and not wanting to run screaming in the opposite direction.

And who knows; maybe someday I'll actually try out that tub. I'm not a bath person at all. I think I tried the garden tub one time in 12 years. Now I feel almost obligated to plop my happy ass in there at least once.