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!  :)


we've been trying to conceive since November 2010.  so far, obviously, without any luck.

i am normally very superstitious about this stuff.  i'm only now slowly opening up about trying, i've joined a trying to conceive forum and told a few friends.  but i can't shake the feeling that it is something that should not be talked about until i'm actually knocked up.

yesterday while i was out and about running errands i was sadly drawn to the baby section at Winner's.  i felt awful.  like it's never going to happen for us, like we're past our prime and babies just aren't going to happen anymore.  starting families is for people in their 20's.  not in their 30's and 40's.

so while i was feeling all down and convinced i am never going to get pregnant i saw this outfit.  and something scary took over and i bought it.

i'm kind of embarrassed about my purchase.  i didn't tell my man about it, i kept it hidden in the shopping bag so he wouldn't see it.  and now it's hidden in with some of my yarn stash.  i keep thinking that buying this baby outfit before i am even pregnant is going to jinx our chances beyond all hope :\

trying to conceive is slowly driving me insane. 

Nfu-Oh 40

this pretty came in the mail yesterday.  it took a while to arrive, thank you Canada Post strike.  the folks at FabulouStreet were really wonderful about working around the strike.  i highly recommend them if you're looking to buy yourself some Nfu-Ohs :)

i unwrapped my new Nfu-Oh while eating dinner out at a restaurant and could.barely.stop.myself from applying a coat right then and there.

as soon as i got home it went on over my skittles mani.  it has a wonderfully different effect on the different colours.  my favourite, although i could not capture it with the camera, is the funky way it creates a shimmery lilac/blue over the yellow polish. 

i'm excited to try it over black :)

pardon the second rate pictures and dry cuticles.  i was way too excited about taking the pictures and moisturizing my cuticles was a thought that got pushed to the back of my mind in a fairly quick manner because i just.had.to.take.pictures.naow.  i take my photos near my living room window to take advantage of the natural light, but by the time we got home from errands and dinner the sunlight had waned and wasn't great for capturing the wonderful magic of Nfu-Oh 40.  so expect better pictures in the future :)









the polishes under the Nfu-Oh are Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Grape Going!, Sally Hansen Hard As Nails in Fashionista Orange, Hot Yellow and Be Seen Blue.  last but not least is China Glaze Reggae to Riches (fuchsia).

skittles!

before i show you my skittles mani, i have to share what i did to the french manicure before removing it.  i found a bottle of Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Ice Queen the other day while at Rexall (a pharmacy here in Canada).  the pink and blue hex glitter called out to me and for $2ish i couldn't resist taking her home.

so i did a "swatch" (of sorts) over the french manicure.




and now onto my skittley fingers :)

the polishes i used are Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Grape Going!, Sally Hansen Hard As Nails in Fashionista Orange, Hot Yellow and Be Seen Blue.  last but not least is China Glaze Reggae to Riches.
left hand:
 right hand (now that i'm seeing the pictures i have realized i flooded the cuticle on my middle finger.  doh!!):
mmmiiiiiinnnneeee: 
i really like makeup and nailpolish.  that, we have established through this blog.

i also really like shoes.  i don't own an embarrassing amount of shoes, but i love them as much as i love makeup and nailpolish.

shoes, polish, makeup and jewelry never disappoint.  i'm not a skinny girl, i hate shopping for clothes because it never fails that i leave the stores feeling flabby and large.  but shoes, makeup, nailpolish and jewelry... those babies always fit.

so sometimes i'll throw in a post about shoes or jewelry :)

today it's shoes.  i found these cuties at Winner's weeks and weeks ago.  but i was cheap and wasn't going to pay their full price for them.  yesterday i discovered them on clearance for $24.  so they came home with me.

Harajuku Lovers.  style: Leah heel.

i used to, back in the day, wear them everyday to work and walk around in them 8+ hours at a time.

today i was sorely (haha no pun intended) reminded i am very out of practice wearing heels out in the real world.  i managed to walk through Home Depot without much problem while my love shopped for a new table saw.  i managed to get back to the car without much pain.

but when we stopped at Walmart, so i could pick up hairspray, my ankles started protesting.  protesting by turning inwards and messing with my already precarious balance.

by the time we paid and were leaving the store i stopped, right in front of Walmart, and begged my love to please unbuckle them so i could take them off.  by then my balance was fucked, if i had bent down to unbuckle them myself i surely would have ended up face down on the pavement.

so he did... much to his embarrassment.  and i did the rest of our errands blissfully barefoot.

the lesson i learned today?  i need more practice.  more time on sexy heels, less time in boring flats!  )

Simple French Manicure

i'm not even sure why i'm posting it.  it looks pretty much like every other white tip manicure, well, except maybe a little less tidy than most of them ;)

Joe Fresh un-named white on the tips.  and a few coats of Orly's Fifty Four top coat over the whole nail.  :)

this polish was hard to capture on camera.  i have no direct sunlight coming into the apartment at the moment.  it is so sparkly in bright lights and the sun!

i took quite a few pictures of this manicure but only a few ended up usable.

the polishes i used are Nicole by OPI's Me + Blue from the Justin Bieber collection.  the purple is China Glaze C-C-Courage.  and i used one coat of Orly's Prisma Gloss Silver on the fingers with the purple polish to make it match the holo of the Me + Blue.

a blurry shot to capture the holo glitter:

natural light:

flash:


under the stove light.  pardon the background!  the lighting under the range hood caught the holo glitter nicely: