SO TYPICAL!!

I'm laaaazzzzyyyy today. Like super lazy. Well, I did sweep and vacuum, but other than that, I'm lazy. It's been a sit around, eat junk, take a nap and watch tv kind of day.

This is not what I was supposed to be doing. I was supposed to be going back up to Marquette to pick up my car.

In keeping with how everything else goes around here, I got up early yesterday and drove my happy ass up there so I could be there for the time of the appointment, which was 9:30. 

I was right on time and checked in at the service desk. Or tried to. I gave him my name, and he looked at me like I was on crazy pills. What's that? I'm not in the system? Go figure. I dug through my purse to find my appointment card. Yup, just as I thought. I'm not the crazy one.

Service guy didn't hide his annoyance very well, either, as he slunk off to find the guy that sold me the car. They never did figure out why my name didn't get into the computer, but whatever. Bottom line is there was no way they were going to get my remote starter installed yesterday.  They were supposed to do that and send the car over for rustproofing.  

So that made it possible for this lazy day because I didn't have to drive back up to get my car today. I actually won't have to drive back up there at all to get it because they said they'll deliver it since they screwed up.

They did give me the nicest loaner vehicle I've ever had before, a 2014 Forrester. Not quite as nice as my Outback, but nice!  I then made the mandatory trip to Target, where I bought a few Christmas presents and various other exciting things, like batteries. The highlight for sure was finding marshmallow snowmen and trees. Perfect timing since I had just finished off my last box of marshmallow pumpkins.

I drove over to Ulta to see if I could find any good bargains. Let's see, I think I spent approximately 90 seconds in there. I forgot how much I hate that place. They are on me like stalkers from the second I walk in. If they are constantly concerned about shoplifters, I'd rather they leave me alone while I browse and just frisk me and go through my purse on the way out. I would feel less invaded that way.

After that I hit up TJ Maxx which ended up being a place I didn't really feel like being. I absolutely love that store, but I definitely have to be in the mood to look through the racks to find something I like, and once I got there I realized I was not in that mood. I walked out of there with one bottle of nail polish and five rolls of wrapping paper. 

From there I headed home. I was looking at the growing pile of Christmas presents strewn about the house and decided to actually start wrapping. I have no good place to hide things and don't want Griffin to find things he shouldn't when he comes home for Thanksgiving. Of course, now I have to find a place to find a tempting pile of giftage. I can't win.

I'm still sporting the water marble, but here's one I did awhile ago.

This is one of those not very exciting but still good mani's. The green is Essie Sew Psyched, the white DRK-D stamp is Sinful Colors Wisp.

Like I said, it's a good mani. Don't remember how long I wore it, but I like it. I think it's a really pretty green.

Now I'm pondering what to do next. I've simply been too lazy to even think about it and too lazy to even wander the web for inspiration.

I honestly thought that today I would take the day to do some labor intensive fancy schmancy mani, but instead opted for the things I listed in the first paragraph.

Gotta' have a day like that every once in awhile, right?

MIGHT HAVE MY GROOVE BACK

My name might not be Stella, but I for sure am feeling like I've got my nail groove back. I've been feeling actual enthusiasm about manicures the past few days.  I find myself pondering what to do often during the day, just like I used to. I'm even spending some time wandering the interwebs looking for ideas.

It's been nice. It makes me feel like I'm back to normal. It dawned on me today that last year on this date I had my shoulder surgery. I guess it was at that point that my nail obsession took a hit. It took awhile for my shoulder to be well enough to really make the effort, and by then I was just in a slump about life in general because of the new work sitch, the holidays and frustration about having an arm that didn't work right.

That slump just got extended right on into what I'll call the "puppy months". So now I'm back in "let's do nails" mode. I don't know if that means I'll do them every day, but I'm sure going to be doing them more than once or twice a week.

AND I'm not just going to always do the lazy mani's. I'm going to put some actual effort into them.

Case in point, last night I did another water marble. 

I don't even remember the last time I did one of these marbles. I made sure to start before 9 p.m. because I thought for sure I'd screw some up and have to re-do them.

I started off with Fresh Paint Coconut Kiss for the base and then marbled with that along with Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Himalayan Blue, Sinful Colors Cream Soda and Sinful Colors Cool Gray.

Not gonna' lie; I'm pretty proud of the fact that I didn't have to re-do any. Not a single one. It turned out to be one of the easier marbles I've probably ever done.

Some days things just work. It was nice that it went so well, and that might have something to do with my new-found enthusiasm. Oh, and I like it, so that doesn't hurt, either!

I can't decide if I want to take it off and do something else tonight or not. Even though it did see the light of day when I went to work this morning, maybe I should leave it on for when I head up to the car dealership tomorrow. I'm dropping off my car so it can be rustproofed, and they have to install the remote starter which, in some confusing way that I won't get into, did not get installed at the factory.

And anytime I'm in Marquette, that means shopping. I'm not missing an opportunity to go to a Target or a TJ Maxx, and I'm also going to pop into the Ulta store to see if they have any good deals since a friend of mine just posted the other day that she got 5 polishes for 5 bucks. 

Even a person that doesn't need polish (in other words, me) can't pass up a deal like that.

NICE TO HAVE GOOD NEIGHBORS

I was pleasantly surprised that we didn't get much more snow yesterday. I shoveled the deck when I got home, but it had gotten a lot colder than it was at lunchtime, so I decided to say "screw it" and not shovel anything between the deck and the garage like I normally do.

This morning I got up to sunshine! It feels like it's been months since we had sun, so it was really nice to see.  It didn't feel too horribly cold when I let the dogs out, either.

After I fed the dogs at noon, I noticed that our neighbor was out there with his tractor plowing the end of the driveway. He always takes care of the bottom half of our driveway and out into the street by the mailbox.

Being the quick thinker that I am, I threw on Kev's snow boots, donned my hat and down coat and scooted outside to start shoveling. My hope was he would see me, take pity on me, and plow the upper half of the driveway, too.

Yup!!  I hadn't shoveled for very long when I heard him head on up to where I was. He took care of almost everything that I would have never done which left me with a fairly small area from the deck to the edge of the driveway. I'm so grateful because even the little bit I did was difficult. That frozen rain under the heavy wet snow that then froze was not easy to move.  That guy has saved my ass more than once in the 12 winters we've been here.

WTF......I think the sky just started dumping some rain/snow mix again.  

Okay. Looked at the Weather Channel, and it says we're suppose to get less than 1/2 inch. Whew!

Have I mentioned I hate winter?

I did this manicure last week, not sure what day it was, but it only stayed on for a day.

I'm too lazy to actually go look at the stamping plate, but I keep staring at this and wondering if those lines are supposed to be wavey like that or if I really  just did that crappy of a job.

The neutral base is OPI My Vampire is Buff.  I used Square Hue Iron Horse for the DRK-D stamp, and that was a mistake because the black looks dark grey when used for stamping. Lesson learned the hard way.

I really should break down and buy some real stamping polish. I've had Konad in the past, but I guess I didn't use them often enough because last time I looked, they were pretty much dried out and useless. If memory serves, I find that when I do use it for all my stamping, that bottle didn't last very long.

I don't like the price of their stamping polishes, even on eBay. I like using regular polishes for stamping, but sometimes I want a bolder black or white, and the special polishes are so much better for that.  I'm going to have to break down and buy some. I just need to figure out what brand and who to get them from.

I'm taking suggestions, guys and gals. Tell me what you like to use, prices and where you get them. I'm sure some of you stamping fanatics will have great suggestions.

STOP!!!!!

And so it begins. Winter.  For realz. Oddly enough, I don't like it any more than I did last year.

It started with a winter storm warning on Sunday night letting me know to expect 3-5" of snow yesterday, with an expected 6-12" more today. Fan-frickin-tastic.

First casualty, Kev unable to get home from Atlanta last night because the flight into Escanaba was canceled. Awesome sauce.

On a good note from last night, the bossman came out and plowed my driveway with his truck. A huge thanks for that!! He's basically my driveway savior when Kev is out of town.

I awoke this morning to noise on the bathroom skylight. Great. That can only mean one thing.....rain. Now, this can mean one of two things; either it's really warm out, or it's raining and freezing.

I'll give you one guess as to which one it's doing here. I hopped in my lovely new vehicle and even with that nice all wheel drive, the fact that my road isn't plowed (and probs won't be for days) means the road was trying to pull me every which way but straight. And of course, because it's raining, I had to stop and get gas. I can't believe there isn't a damn full service gas station anywhere because today I would have liked that.

I got to work and after firing up the computer, I figured I'd message Kev to tell him what the weather is doing. He messaged me just as I was about to and told me he was getting on the plane to Detroit and wanted to know what I thought his odds were of making it here. Ummm.....not good. But since he has nothing better to do, he decided to risk it. Worst case scenario, he said he'll get to Detroit, eat some Taco Bell and then hop a flight back to Atlanta. Unfortunately, if that happens I won't see him for another week because there's no point in coming home for 8 hours.

So yup. Great start to our Tuesday.

I did do my nails again last night. That's two days in a row! Go me!!

This one is a little different than my normal stuff.

I have to say I rather like this one! The brown is China Glaze Soft Sienna Silks. I did the usual Seche Vite topcoat before stamping with Sinful Colors Black on Black and the DRK-A stamp. Then I used the Sally Hansen Big Matte topcoat. I'm a fan of the topcoat and this mani.

I'm sitting at work waiting for the boss to make his revisions on a divorce judgment. After that I have no clue what we'll be doing. The courthouse is closed for Veterans Day, and we have no clients on the calender. 

When I drove into work, it looked like half the damn town was shut down because of the weather. I swear, not only do people forget how to drive during the first couple of storms, they act like this weather is foreign to them. I understand the schools being closed but don't understand the wusses that are evidently sitting home right now. Seriously, you DO live here, correct?

It's not like this stuff is abnormal. It's Upper Michigan. It's winter. Same shit, different year.  You should have learned how to function in it by now.

Crap. I just checked the flight status. Delayed. Just as I thought, doesn't look too promising. 

GRADIENT + WATER MARBLE = WIN

Weekend's over. Back to work tomorrow. Blech.

There's also a winter storm watch starting tomorrow, too. I'm hoping it's going to miss me here in Escanaba, the lovely banana belt of the Upper Peninsula. There was a smidge of snow on the ground this morning, and it was snowing when I ran to the store, but thankfully it melted.

I did go to the bar Friday night, and when I was standing outside smoking heard some voices calling my name. Then I heard a voice yell, "Gramma Diane". As it turns out, my grandson was next door. My ex's sons were at his place for the weekend, and they had driven to Marinette to pick him up for the weekend. I chatted with them for a few minutes, and they said they'd come out to visit.

 

I was surprised last night when they actually did come out. Right when they got there, they mentioned that they should have brought Razzie out to visit. I told them that would have been nice, but no big deal. They insisted on driving back into town to get him. I just thought that was super sweet of them.

 

So off they went and came back 20 minutes later, puppy in tow. Obvi I was pretty happy with that sitch. And it was nice to have the boys here for a couple hours. Of course I'm always happy to see Treyson, but I also really do enjoy having Tim's boys around. They're always very nice to me, and his youngest never fails to tell me how much he likes my house because it feels cozy and warm. Adorable coming from an 8th grader.

 

Today was nice because I decided I would actually do nails and take the time to really "do" something.  It's also teal week in the nail group, and I'm playing along.

I thought it might be fun to do a gradient and then water marble over it. It's actually the second time I've done this method in the past month. I just haven't gotten around to showing the other one yet.

My gradient for this one, from light to dark, is China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint, Loreal Now You Sea Me and Sinful Colors Blue Crushin.  For the marble I had to use clear with my white.

Finding a clear that will work in a water marble is torture. I don't have many clear polishes, and none of them were working. As a last ditch attempt, I tried doing it with my Seche Vite topcoat, never figuring it would work since it's a fast dry polish.  But it did! While I'm not a fan of wasting my SV, I'll probably use it from now on when I need a clear for a marble.

I must be feeling back to normal as far as nails because they are back on my mind, and I'm wandering around the web looking for ideas again.  It feels kind of nice to be doing that.

 

Maybe I'll even do something else tomorrow night! I don't even remember the last time I did my nails two days in a row, but I'm going to feel pretty accomplished if I do.

 

I'm hoping that's what happens. I'd really like to get back into blogging more than once or twice a week. Hopefully you'll like if that happens, too.

 

And if not, don't say anything to me about it. What I don't know works just fine for me. 

A MILESTONE

It is such a gloomy day again today. I would love to see some sun. I'm pretty sure it's possible to have sunshine even when it's cold out. It would be nice to see it happen.

I actually woke to a bit of snow on the ground. Horrifying thing to wake up to!! It didn't stay around for very long, but I am really not ready for winter to start. It is November in Michigan, though, so I could easily wake to a foot of snow any morning. 

Rumor has it the winter is going to be brutal again this year. Last year at this time I had my shoulder surgery and didn't leave the house much, thereby avoiding the freeze. This time I'll have to suck it up just like everybody else. 

When I got to the blog today, I noticed how many views it has had since I started it, and it hit the 100,000 mark! I am shocked, humbled and grateful that there have been so many lookers. For those of you that have taken the time out of your day to pop in, look, read and feel it was worth coming back, thank you! You are honestly and truly appreciated, and I thank you from the depths of my normally cold, hardened, black heart.

Seriously, though....THANK YOU!!

Now on to what brings us here, nails.

I actually did this one even before going to Cancun.  I have quite a few manicures in draft form from when I would manage to do nails during the puppy months.  

I seem to recall having a specific reason for doing navy blue, but damned if I can think of it now.  When I was going through my swatches I landed on this navy, Ruby Kisses  Deal with the Devil. It is a nice deep and true navy blue which can actually sometimes be hard to find. The stamp was done with Essie Blue Rhapsody and the Ali Express 12-52 stamp.

I liked this one. And I can always count on those Essie mirrors to stamp well. When I bought them, I wanted them for the supposed mirror finish which I ended up being kind of disappointed in. I don't even know why I cared; it's not like I wear a plain polish normally. The fact that they are great stamping polishes turned out to be a bonus.

Now I need to decide if I feel motivated enough to shower. The bar I used to be part owner in with my ex and his sister is having karaoke tonight. I knew about it because the bar sent out invites on Facebook, but it hadn't really occurred to me to actually go. Then last night the ex texted to ask if Kev and I want to go.  As is typical with the timing of things, Kev left yesterday. 

Back in the day it would have been a no brainer, and I would have already been planning to go.  I used to love karaoke! And bowling! And after league bowling late shift on Wednesday nights, karaoke followed every week. Had a lot of fun in my mid 30's. Now I think I might just go and watch. Don't quite have the singing confidence I once had, but I do enjoy listening to my former family sing.

The voice, as is true with many things, is an "if you don't use it, you lose it" kind of thing. I'm thinking I may have to rest on my past laurels and keep that secret to myself.

It's these stupid little physical tidbits that remind me that I'm way past my prime in almost everything. 

Me --------->> mourning lost youth.

CANCUN MANI #2

Work day ended at noon, the laundry is all done and the house is all clean and shiny.  Kev is gone for the weekend, so I guess it's going to be a very quiet few days.

It feels weird here already because I'm alone and it's quiet. It won't be as much fun as last weekend when I had Razzie here to play with and keep me busy. Sometimes I really wish I had kept one of those dang puppies.

I figured since I posted Cancun mani #1 on Tuesday, I may as well post the one I did mid-week of the trip. I regretted it the minute I started it. Even though I had tried it on one nail before I left home, the yellow really gave me trouble once I started doing it for realz.

It's a really nice yellow, Orly Lemonade. For some reason when I tried it at home, it did fine with two coats. I don't know if it was a weather or air conditioning issue in Cancun, but it took three coats, and even that was difficult. That third coat had to be pretty thick. 

The grey I used to stamp with my AliExpress 12-51 plate is Sinful Colors Smokin.  This is one of those rare cases where either my memory is fuzzy or this actually looks better in pics than I think it did in person.  I know it couldn't have looked too bad because I had several women comment on it during out thousand hour layover in  Atlanta on the way home.

Gee, I guess that's all I have for today. I've been starting at the blank area on this post and can't think of a single interesting thing to say. 

But at least I posted a mani!