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Just a note before today’s entry: this week is the last before Mother’s Day, so I’m going to be gone again until after the holiday. Hopefully, I’ll be able to jump right back in after things calm down again at the flower shop. ~Toad
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It never dawned on me that I might have to do a memorial manicure at any point, never mind one for my Step-dad. He passed away extremely suddenly on April 16th. April 27th, we held a memorial at the gaming store he frequented, oddly enough while a Magic: The Gathering tournament was going on in the other room.
When it came time to do my nails for the memorial, I got stuck. He loved so many things, how was I going to pick just one? So I didn’t. I used his favorite colors, purple and acid green along with the teal and black of his favorite hockey team the San Jose Sharks on the accent nail and chose images that made up the things that were most important to him.
I hope it’s a long, long time before I have to do this again.
Thumb: Andy loved dogs. My parents were together 22 years and we always had at least one dog, and sometimes as many as three.
Index: Biohazard symbol, for zombies in all their forms. He didn’t care if a zombie movie was good or bad, he had to have it.
Middle: San Jose Sharks.
Ring: Dice to show his love of all kinds of gaming.
Pinkie: A gun. He actually sold guns at one point, if I remember correctly, and I have no idea how many he owned.
Polishes Used:
Nail Tek Foundation II
L.A. Colors UltraNail Hardner
Pure Ice Wild Thing (green)
Wet N’ Wild On A Trip (purple)
Wet N’ Wild Teal Or No Teal (teal)
Stamped With:
Pure Ice Wild Thing (green)
Zoya Suri (purple)
Finger Paints Black Expressionism (black)
Plates:
Thumb: Shany SH219
Index: Vivid Lacquer VL003
Middle: Cheeky CH38
Ring: Cheeky CH39
Pinkie: Vivid Lacquer VL007
Man, oh man. There’s been so much going on around here. For those who may have missed my reason for being gone, my Step-Dad, Andy, passed away very suddenly on April 16th. We held a memorial the next Saturday, and the nails I did in Andy’s honor will be posted on their own tomorrow.
Along with all the “normal” things a family goes through when someone passes, my Mom and I both have Fibromyalgia. Somehow, the emotional pain translates to even more physical pain for us, so I think we’re both moving slower than we usually do.
It also means that I’ve been very lax in my blogging and picture taking. I’ve tried a few new polishes here and there and just couldn’t be bothered to haul my cookies into the other room and start the long drawn out picture process. However, I do have a few things to show you today:
April 11th: These came out SO CUTE! I wish the sparkle in Storm showed better in pictures, but overall I just love them.
Polishes Used:
Nail Tek Foundation II
L.A. Colors UltraNail Hardner
Sinful Colors Snow Me White
Sinful Colors Neon Melon
Wet N’ Wild Heatwave
Julep Sharon
Zoya Storm
Cheeky plate CH52
Franken top coat
May 4th: There are no words for how much I love this. Fairy Bread is just bright and colorful and happy and love. So many colors and shapes of glitter in a milky white base - and then matted?! Just yum, and Vivid Lacquer’s stamping plates are awesome squared. This mani earned me a compliment from the gal at my check cashing place, which always makes me feel good, especially since she has her nails done by a pro nail tech.
Polishes Used:
Vivid Lacquer Fairy Bread
NYC Matte Me Crazy
Vivid Lacquer plate VL 001
Zoya Suri
If you’ve never heard of an indie brand called Vivid Lacquer, get thee over there NAO. Anni’s polish is amazing, and her stamping plates have fabulous images (plate review to follow after the memorial service for my Stepdad next week), and Anni herself is just awesome. I’ve been working with her on a bulk order since around Halloween, and it arrived yesterday just when I needed a little boost. 28 bottles of polish and 7 stamping plates later…
I called this picture I think I need a 12 Step Program. LOL. It’s a lot, I know, so let me break it down a bit.
All the lists are from Left to Right.
Your Princess Is In Another Castle, Have Fun Storming The Castle. From the Thankful For My Console Collection there is: Spaaaace!, In The House Of Upside Down, The Test Subject’s Companion, and Woo! Tangent.
From the Evil League Of Evil Collection: We Do The Weird Stuff, You Are NOT My Nemesis, Evil League Of Evil, A Real Audible Connection, and Shiny New Australia.
Sketchbook, Composition, Notebook Paper, and from the Winter 2012 Collection: Snowjob, Step Away From The Tinsel, and I Deglaze With Wine.
Theoretical Rockstar, Moonlit Cheshire, Wish Upon A Star, Assemble, Fairy Bread, The Harlequin’s Adoration, Daisy, Hivemind and Waltraud.
So if you’re counting along, that’s 26 polishes. Anni also sent me two polishes that haven’t been released yet!
This one is called The Long Wait. It’s amazing cobalt blue with shimmer, bar glitter and large round glitters.
This color has no name yet. It’s got purple and green glass flecks in a black base. The closest polish currently out that I can think of is Hard Candy Beetle or Wet N’ Wild Night Prowl. It’s beautiful.
Thank you again, Anni for everything.
Everyone else, go to Vivid Lacquer’s shop. You won’t regret it.
March 26: This looked great, but bubbled like crazy for some reason, so I had to take it off before it even cured.
Polishes Used:
Nail Tek Foundation II
L.A. Colors UltraNail Hardner
Wet N’ Wild 2% Milk
Sinful Colors Tokyo Pearl
March 31: My youngest Goddaughter, Crystaline, turned one and we had a giant birthday party/family gathering/easter dealio. I wanted polish that made me happy, and nothing makes me smile like my VLs!
Polishes Used:
Nail Tek Foundation II
L.A. Colors UltraNail Hardner
Sinful Colors Cinderella
Vivid Lacquer The Ragdoll’s Soliloquy
Cupcake:
Wet N’ Wild I Need A Refresh-Mint
NYC Water Street Blue
Sinful Colors Tokyo Pearl
Wet N’ Wild Party Of Five Glitters
Julep Sharon
Speaking of birthdays! Yesterday, April 4 is my blogaversary! I started taking nail pics and putting them up on Tumblr last year. I’m going to work on a giveaway, but it’ll be a little bit.
My nails have been naked for days, because I just haven’t had any mojo. I got an idea a little while ago though, so I’m working on something I think’ll be pretty cool.
Ah, the jelly sandwich. It seems to be my go-to look. Which is great, since I have a ton of untried glitters! This look was had to take a picture of. Candy-licious is Pepto Bismol pink and with my current lighting setup, it turned out to be impossible to get the color accurate. Then I was an idjit and dented them all up. Bah. LOL.
Polishes Used:
Nail Tek Foundation II
L.A. Colors UltraNail
Wet N’ Wild 2% Milk
Color Club Candy Cane
Wet N’ Wild Candy-licious
I had two almost empty bottles of top coat, so I combined them. Seems to be working pretty well.
Thanks! And thank you for the follow.
HI! Forgot about me, didn’t you? Well, there’s a reason it’s taken so long.
Just after I posted my last entry, I was cyber stalked by a bill collector through this blog. She used the email address I had posted here and wrote me a nasty email. Aside from being horribly unprofessional, it set off my panic disorder. I freaked out.For days, I watched out the window, wondering if she was coming after me…just panic attack after panic attack. It was bad. Meanwhile, I had my disability hearing and two weeks of holiday work at the flower shop.
It all happened so fast, I didn’t have time to decompress until after the holiday was over. I keep trying to talk myself into coming back over here and getting this post up and getting some distance from it. I’ve had a WordPad document open for days that just says “Do the blog post, Weenus!” so that I’ll think of it every time I see the open document. I’ve even gone back and forth on if I should quit this whole thing or start over with another name or something. I just want to hide.
I’m trying, ya’ll. Really. Here we go.
This was February 9th. It’s NYC Mulberry Street with a glitter gradient of Butter London’s Rosie Lee.
February 10th. KleanColor Sheer Pastel Purple (which is actually a bubble gum pink) with Revlon Girly on the accent nail.
February 19th. Zoya Suri topped with China Glaze Fairy Dust. Suri is my perfect purple. YUM.
All these manis used Nail Tek Foundation II base coat and Nail Tek Quicken top coat.
There’s at least one mani missing that had fimo slices involved, but it chipped like crazy at work the first day I wore it, so it had to come off before I could get pictures. I also have to get shots of my current nails so I can take it off and do something new. Hopefully I can do that tomorrow.
As a side note: big shout out to Nails by Kayla Shevonne for the curved watermark tutorial. You can find it here.
Just as a reminder, I’m in “Vacation Mode” until after February 15th. When flowers are your life, Valentine’s Day is incredibly busy. See you after the holiday with a catch up post!
(This is my 100th Tumblr post!)
I can’t seem to stay away from the jelly sandwich! Thankfully, it’s so versatile.
Ah, Julep Sharon, where were you at Christmas time when I was looking for a beautiful deep red? This is an amazing color that I got for my birthday from my folks. I got the 2012 Winter collection, so along with Sharon I now have Hillary, Kathleen, Melissa, and O! Canada. I love them all!
I’m also in full-on planning mode for work next week. See, I work at a flower shop right around Valentine’s and Mother’s Days as their main customer service person. This will be my seventh year with them, and I love it, but they have pretty conservative rules as far as nails go. So no wild blues or greens or craziness for me for a bit, but I have plenty of reds, pinks and neutrals to play with. And stamping can help just about anything. ;) Sadly, this whole work thing means thins blog will be pretty neglected from February 5th until after the 15th sometime, when I plan to post a reflection of everything I wear during the two weeks I’m gone.
More stamping plates are on their way, I’m waiting for tape for my label maker so I can finish making my swatch sticks - busy busy!
Polishes Used:
Nail Tek Foundation II
Wet N’ Wild 2% Milk
Spoiled Shuffle the Deck
Julep Sharon
SHANY plate SH207
CQ Silver
Nail Tek Quicken
