Orly Fowl Play

i know you've all probably seen this polish on blogs many times before.  i can't help but post my own pictures.  the polish is the shit.  not only is the colour pure ossim, but i wore it for over two weeks with nothing but some tip wear.  it was finally removed when i went to get my acrylics filled today.  i'm seriously tempted to wear it again now that i'm home and my nails are all fresh, naked and ready to be polished.



with flash:
i was at Winner's yesterday and this jumped off the shelf at me.  for $9.99 there was no way it wasn't also going to jump into my bag.  i can't believe i scored this for $10!  i'm a happy camper!





in bad news, AF showed up.  kinda.  she's being iffy about actually totally showing up.  damn her.  so... next step is advice from the doctor on fertility.  fun fun.

a little personal.

no nail polish in this post. 

my wonderful boyfriend and i have been trying to conceive since november 2010.  almost a year.  so far we've had absolutely no luck.  in the midst of our trying, we found out i had a polyp in my uterus.  also that said polyp might be the cause our fertility issues.  so i underwent a d&c to have it removed in the spring and we got back to trying, with more hope now, to get me pregnant again.

and here we are in October and i'm still wandering the world as non-pregnant as ever.

my dear aunt was due today.  she did not show.  i've had a conspicuous lack of the usual menstrual cramps and sensitive breasts that usually start about a week before AF is due.  2 days ago i tested and it was negative.  i called my doctor and have an appointment to talk to her about more help with our fertility issues on October 13th.  i'm guessing we're going to need some medical help, maybe drugs?, for me to get knocked up.

usually i leave it at that.  one negative and move on.  but this month it feels different.  or i have my hopes up way too high.  where are the cramps?  where are the sore bewbs?  is my body messing with me and maybe my cycle has decided to be longer this month??  why hasn't someone invented a damn instant pregnancy test?? ;)

cross your fingers for us?  if AF doesn't show by Monday i will test again then. 
i admit it, i love OPI's Teenage Dream.  i think it ranks high up on my favourite glitter polishes of all time.  :)  it's a pain in the ass to remove, but while it's on it's mesmerizing.  and i love how it's so versatile!  it's so easy to build.  i love using a thin coat to give a bland polish a bit of oomph.  i also love that it's completely possible to build up in just a few coats to a full coverage polish.

today i used it to glitterize the tips and paired it with Wet n Wild's Hannah Pinktana.  i'm not fond of the name, but i do love the polish.  it dried fast like promised on the bottle.  it took four coats to get complete coverage, but since it dried so fast i am okay with that :)  the only thing i didn't like was that it was so dull after drying.  and felt a bit gritty.  a topcoat (i used Seche Vite) fixed that up easily enough :)

on to the pictures!  most were taken in natural light.  i did include a couple using the flash so you can see the scatter holo of Hannah Pinktana.  it's so so pretty in the sunlight... the kind of pretty that makes me stare at my nails and sigh in contentment :)




over the past few weeks i was away from the blog i have received a bunch of fun nail decals/decorations via my magic mailbox.  honestly, i haven't tried many of them yet :(  but that isn't going to stop me from sharing pics of them and info on where i found them.

first off, i found nail "tattoos" on eBay.ca through a seller called FinderThings.  They have a nail tattoo for any and every occassion it seems!  i ordered sets of 20, but when they arrived they had included another 10 decals free!  sawheeeeet!

i chose cutesy skulls, kitten skulls and ebil monsters:


i'm dying to try the skull kitties and monsters!

on to more nail decoration fun.  i also ordered a set of 6 nail art wheels on eBay.  i'm very impressed with what i got... and can't believe it was so cheap!

here are five of the wheels:

they are marquis shaped crystals and round crystals (top row).  the wheel in the middle contains random pre-cut fimo, most of which are flowers.  on the bottom row are different coloured "pearls" and gold flat butterflies.

this... this one is by far my favourite wheel.  it contains small shaped confetti type decals.  they come in hearts and stars, both open in the middle and whole.  i love the colours of these.  and they're so easy to apply (see my current mani in the post below).  i know i will get a lot of use out of this wheel.  and not just for my nails :)



okay.  i'm off to find some inspiration for my next manicure.  the pink must go.  and tomorrow is the day of it's demise (well, technically, later on today).

barbie pink

that is the only way i can describe this one.  barbie.  pink.  cupcake.  whoah! 

i used China Glaze's Something Sweet as the base colour.  and then  OPI's I Lily Love You for the gradient on the tips.  the heart and star are from a random assortment of nail decorations i found on eBay.  i simply pushed them gently on to the not-quite-dry polish and then used a coat of Seche Vite to keep them in place.

it all started with the want to decorate the cover of my new journal.  well... kinda journal.  i usually buy myself hardcovered sketchbooks to use as journals.  i like the blank pages, i like being able to doodle, sketch, and paste things into my diaries.  :)

so i bought a few scrapbooking supplies to decorate the plain black cover of the journal.  and i did.  it looks pretty now.  but i could not stop buying scrapbooking supplies!!  the pretty papers somehow wound their pretty papery tentacles into my soul and now i must own.it.all.  i have fancy shmancy edging scissors.  i have card stock.  i have hundreds of papers in different patterns and prints and pretties.  i have glues, die cut decorative pieces, alphabets... gah!!!

so i decided i will list some of my new hobby in my Etsy store.  i have one set of blank cards for sale, another set that i need to take pictures of and list today, and enough supplies to make more sets than i have friends to send them to!

ooooooowwwwww.

i keep meaning to create a post about my adventure into frankenpolishing.  but... gah... wtf... there is something wrong with me.  or i'm pregnant.  either way, my stomach is not a happy camper the last few days.  being hungry leads to nausea, thinking of food makes my stomach turn (even when i'm hungry... hello stomach, mixed messages much??), having a great idea for dinner, making it and mmmmm it looks sooooo goooood.  it smells soooo goooood.  the second the fork hits my lips... blech.

and the worst part???  the nausea never, ahem, matures, into anything but "omg, my sttttoommmmmaaacchh".  i think, hey, if i could just barf i might feel better.  but nothing.  nada.  just my stomach unhappily turning and making me cry.

sigh.  so... how's that for non-nailpolish related tmi???

i've had a gazillion nailpolishes all laid out on my coffee table since the frankenpolishing.  but i've been too "omg, my ssstttooommmmacccch" to put them away or make another frankenpolish.  they're in limbo.  poor things.  it must be like purgatory for nailpolishes... just hanging out in full view without anyone oooohing and aaaahing over them.

i made two frankens.  one is pretty much a fail.  i'm hoping i can get my hands on some linear holo pigment to save it.  the other turned out pretty nicely!

and as soon as my stomach stops screaming at me every time i move or breathe or think i'll take pictures.  i promise!! 
this is a pretty simple manicure.  but oh so pretty and girly!  i really do like the combo of Senorita Rose-Alita with V.I.P.

i painted them up last night while i watch Labyrinth.  for the first time.  ever.  i had a very sheltered childhood.  my parents became born again Christians when i was 5(ish?).  by the time i was 10 they were so brainwashed that they believed almost everything was "evil" or from the devil.  Labyrinth was an evil movie, we were not allowed to watch it.  jeeezz.  i remember my dad destroying his ABBA albums because god told him to.  yeah.  strange childhood.  :)

anyway.  i liked it.  Labyrinth, that is.  but i could not stop looking at David Bowie's crotch.  every pair of pants he wore made it impossible not to look there!  please tell me i'm not the only one who's eyes wandered to his junk every time he was in a scene!

they're all acrylicized and ready for me to paint.  i cut them that short myself.  the clicking of them on the keys of my laptop as i typed was kinda making me nuts, so i cut them short yesterday.

and finally went out to have the acylic filled this evening.  they're so fresh and new!  and naked!  i can't wait to paint them.

i stopped in at a beauty supply store across the road from where i get my nails done and they had the China Glaze Metro collection on display.  i chose the mini bottles rather than getting the big ones for fiscal reasons :)  that, and chances are i won't use up the little bottles let alone a regular size one.  and of course i went with the set with the glittery polishes.  the only one that isn't in some way glittery is Urban-Night.  it's a cream purple.  very pretty.  the other colours in the set are Skyscraper (blue jelly with silver glitter), CG in the City (burgundy-ish jelly with tiny silver/gold/burgundy glitter) and Midtown Magic (a brown-ish with fine gold glitter).

i also grabbed a bottle of Orly Glam from the clearance basket.  but, as i was sitting waiting for my nail appointment, i noticed that i was charged regular price for it.  so i'll have to go back tomorrow and have that remedied.  oh, the horrors... another stop at the beauty supply store!  ;)

*runs off to eat dinner and moisturize my cuticles*

OPI I Lily Love You

and oh boy, do i ever.

this polish is just too cute for words.  i love it!

i'm still wearing OPI's Not Like the Movies and Sally Hansen Crackle.  darn manicure is wearing like iron.  part of me is happy to say the polishes are lasting for.ever.  part of me is kind of disappointed... i don't want to "waste" them by taking them off before they peel or wear or chip.

i applied one coat of I Lily Love you over Not Like the Movies and the black flower decal i still had on my nail.  on my pinky fingers only.  after i took the pictures i added two more coats and it has covered up the decal completely.  it is very pink in the bottle, but it applies fairly sheer and really works best over another polish.

i'm heading out tomorrow to have my acrylics filled in, so Not Like the Movies is finally coming off and i get to play again.  woot!



no, no i won't.  but if i ever needed to, i now know how to pop a cap in an ass.  or at least at a paper target ;)

my love took me shooting this weekend.  it was my very first contact with a real gun ever.  he let me use his .22 rifle as a start.  i was so incredibly nervous.  it took me quite a while to work up to the first shot.  i was afraid of the gun!  he took a picture of me firing off my first round.  see how far away the gun is from me?  so scared of it.  gah.

and oh, my.  what a most awful terrible unflattering photo of me.  it is, without a doubt, the worst picture of me ever, with my face all scrunched up and my arms look so chubby.  but i'm so proud that i overcame my fear of firearms that i'm going to share anyway.

 that picture is even worse than the one of me camping, day feels-like-we've-been-here-forever without a stich of makeup or a wink of sleep:
but wait... look... i clean up pretty decently:
okay, back to shooting.  my first go kinda sucked:
but at the end of the day i was getting pretty comfortable with the whole process and my love and i had a bit of an impromptu competition.  after i managed to punch a great hole in a target at 25yds, he had to one-up me.  so he said he'd do it without using the bipod.  heh.  and since i will not let my thunder be stolen, i decided i had to do it without the bipod too.  his target is the one on the upper right.  mine is the lower right.  i kicked his asssssss!
i bought this one a few days ago.  it took all of my willpower not to bring each and every colour of Crackle Overcoat home with me.

now that i've tried it, i'm glad i didn't buy more than one bottle.

i got Vintage Violet.  and i do love the colour.  but i can live without just about everything else about this polish.  i applied it over OPI's Not Like the Movies.  it is wearing very well from my last manicure.  most of the flower nail decals are long gone, but the polish hasn't really worn at all.  it's like iron!

first thing i noticed is that it is Stinky.  with a capital S.  okay.  no prob.  i have a few stinky polishes in my collection, i can deal with the smell.  second thing i was disappointed in was the size of the brush.  do i have monster nails or is it tiny?  i had to redip into the bottle three times to cover my ring finger nail.  and thirdly... it applied like crap for me.  it clumped up so quickly.  there was no time for going over any of the strokes, it clumped on the nail before i could redip the brush.  it's kind of hard to explain.  if i went over a stroke before it was dry it just got thick and lumpy rather than mixing in with the new stroke.  does that make sense?

it applied very thickly for me.  i tried on four nails and i just could not do a thin coat due to the small brush and quick clumping action.

it took a little longer than OPI's Shatter to crack, but i do like the crack effect.  yay... a positive!  lol.

i took all these pictures before adding my Seche Vite topcoat.  it adds a nice shine to the Sally Hansen Crackle, it dried semi-matte.  even with my trusty Seche Vite, it is still a bumpy manicure because the Crackle applied so thickly.





oh hai! pardon my reflection in the plastic.
i went to Winner's again today while my love was at the nearby Telus store buying us time for our cells.  i'll take any excuse to check out what's new at Winner's.

and i'm glad i did.  they had a bunch of new polishes.  quite a few Color Club sets, but they were mostly neon colours, and i'm not a neon kind of girl.  the other set they had was the Alter Ego Under Cover and i already have it :)

but, i did find this Kleancolor set.  and i can't resist glitter!  so it came home with me :)

these two are 172 V.I.P and 171 Kiss Goodbye.  V.I.P has small and large red and silver glitter and Kiss Goodbye is micro wee tiny multicolour glitter.  i see purple, blue, green and yellow in it, but the purple is the dominant colour:

 these are 188 Black Out and 169 Grand Finale.  Black Out looks awesome!  it boasts silver glitter in different sizes, right up to big hexes, in a black jelly base.  i can't wait to swatch this one.  Grand Finale is has long confetti glitter in a clear base:

and last but not least, 132 24 Carat and 32 Peaceful Heart.  when i was in the store purchasing this i thought 24 Carat was just plain gold glitter in a clear base.  on closer inspection i see that it has diamond shape pink glitter in it too.  they're rather large, like the hex glitter in Black Out.  Peaceful Heart has green/yellow glitter with teal hearts suspended in a clear base:
alrighty kiddos.  i'm off to answer texts and eat the wonderful steak my love has cooked up for us.  he is an awesome cook :D

OPI Not Like the Movies

so... i'm sitting here at a total loss for words.  what do i say to go along with this post?  i dunno.  it's a simple manicure.  with happy little black lacey flower nail stickers and a 3D pearl.  the pearl is my first bumpy addition to a manicure and it's taking a lot of willpower not to pick it off.  lol.

while taking off my last manicure last night i realized i need to go in for a fill very soon.  so i thought i'd keep the new look simple so as not to draw too much attention to the space between where my cuticles end and the acrylic starts.  that naked space.  i wonder if there is a name for it.  hrmmm.

anyway... on to the pictures.



broken promises

sorry readers!  i said i'd take macro pictures of the fimo canes today.  instead i went out to run errands and came home with a migraine.  so i've been in and out of bed all afternoon/evening.  i hate saying i will do something and then not doing it without letting people know that i honestly intended to get it done but something stopped me.

i apologize :)  i did take a few photos with the macro and flash.  i don't like them as much as macro in natural light, but i'll share them anyway.

here's the whole bundle face up in the plastic baggie they came in (click to make bigger.  much bigger):


and the most curious cane of the bunch.  does anyone know what it is?  it is obviously a face with a yin yang sign on it's forehead, but i'm wondering if it's a figure with meaning in the east :)

Fimo Canes!

lookie what i got in the mail today!  i'm just going to post the pic of them in the bag because the lighting is horrible for more pictures.  i'll take some macro shots of them tomorrow during the daylight :)

i found them on eBay.  they were $8ish for 100, including shipping.  not sure if that's a deal or not, but i don't really care much at the moment cuz i'm just so verklempt with their cuteness!  :)