I'm Going Dotty!

Good morning, Kitschies!  It's been a whirwind couple of days.  We've been so busy with Christmas prep and holiday parties, I haven't had time to sit down and blog!  Don't worry, though...I've still been doing my nails.  Wait.  I take that back.  For my office Christmas party, I had one coat of a holo topcoat and that was it.  That's just not right.

Earlier last week (or maybe it was the week before), I saw this cute little dotty tree on Simply Rins.  She does the best nail art and they're usually pretty fool-proof!  As soon as I saw this, I knew I had to give it a go.  And wouldn't you know it...it *was* pretty much fool-proof. :)

I started with a base of ChG Glittering Garland (2-3 coats, depending on how careful I was with application) for all but the accent nail where I used Finger Paints Paper Mache.

To create the tree, I used a couple dotting tools, some greens, a red and a yellow.

The greens: ChG Glittering Garland, ChG Starboard, Zoya Gemma.  Yellow: Let's Meet.  Red: Zoya Sooki (that's been my go-to red this holiday).  See the pinky?  Yeah.  I should've gone with 3 coats there.

If you click on this pic, you can appreciate the flecks in Garland and you can see the tree in better detail.  See?  This is a pretty fool-proof design.  It didn't take but a few minutes and it's CUTE!!

So, now that it's December 20th...are you read for Christmas?  I know I'm not!  I still have some wrapping to do and I have to make my way to the grocery store to get the makings of a sour cream fruit salad (I know it sounds gross but totally isn't - trust me) and the hubs has decided we're having his dad over for Christmas dinner so I guess we need to figure out what we're making.  *sigh*  As much as I like shopping, I abhor the grocery stores any time after 5pm.

Classic Beef Stew

Happy Tuesday, Kitschies!  It was a busy day yesterday - finished the majority of my Christmas shopping (it's amazing what a difference shopping alone on a Monday morning can make), made a slow cooker dinner (not this one), got my new stove and finished all the laundry!  Now the fun of wrapping can begin.  Blech.

The weather is cooling down quite a bit (a damned lot) and that means it's time to drag out the slow cooker.  I try to use the slow cooker at least once a week during the winter.  I come home to a cooked meal and, more often than not, we have leftovers for the next day.  I was looking for something new to try and I found this recipe at Real Simple during one of my hunts.

Slow Cooker Beef Stew
4 lbs bottom round, well trimmed and cut to 2-inch pieces
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup olive oil
2 large onions, chopped (about 2 cups)
1 6-oz can tomato paste
1 cup dry red wine
1 lb potatoes, cut into 2-inch pieces
1/2 lb peeled baby carrots
2 cups beef broth
1 Tbsp Kosher salt
1 tsp dried thyme leaves
1 bay leaf
1 cup frozen peas, thawed

Coat the beef in the flour. Heat a few tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the meat, a few pieces at a time, adding more oil as necessary. Transfer to a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker.

Add the onions to the skillet and cook over medium heat until tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and coat the onions; transfer to the cooker. 

Pour the wine into the skillet and scrape up any browned bits; add to the cooker. Stir in the potatoes, carrots, broth, salt, thyme, and bay leaf.

Cover and cook on low heat for 7 1/2 hours, or on high for 4 hours. Add the peas and heat through.

NOTES:  I reduced this recipe, basically, by half and still had PLENTY.   I didn't measure out the carrots or the peas - just added what looked like enough.  And I didn't thaw the peas - I just adjusted the heat to high and cooked for about 30 minutes.

As with most stews, this was better the second time around.  I may or may not have added a little more wine than the recipe called for.  I remember Nate ate this, but I don't remember if Mason did (he's been *super* picky about eating lately). 

Do you have a favorite go-to slow cooker recipe for when the weather turns chilly?

Winter Wonderland

Good morning, Kitschies!  It was a busy weekend here in the Harmeyer house.  I can happily say that the house is now decorated for Christmas!  Now the shopping?  That's a different story.  The docs took the day off so I'm spending some of my day "off" waiting for my new stove to be delivered (yay!) and then the rest of it will be spent cleaning around the house and shopping for Christmas.  I avoid to the mall area like the plague this time of year - especially on the weekends - but it's not so bad on a Monday morning.

In case you missed it, I did a guest post over at one of my favorite blogs, Housewife Eclectic, this weekend about Christmas traditions.  Go check it out HERE - there's some great pictures to see!

I'm a member of Polish-aholics Anonymous (big surprise, right?) on FB and every Monday they have a new challenge.  I've participated before, but this is the first time I've linked it to a blog post.  This week's theme was snow.  I could've done something out of the box, but I decided to play it safe and I'm glad I did because I really like this one.

I started with 2-3 coats of ChG Frostbite, a really bright, icy blue as a base.

Then I sponged Finger Paints Easel Come, Easel Go (silver metallic) to soften the bright blue.

The silver showed up a little too bright so I sponged a little more Frostbite over the silver.

And with SH White On, I stamped little snowflakes using BM14.  This is much prettier IRL - the silver sparkles like snow.

Speaking of snow...it's supposed to snow here again today.  We haven't gotten rid of all the snow and ice left over from the storm early last week!  I usually really like winter, but I'm already ready for spring already.  LOL

Do you have any Christmas/Winter manis in the works?

Black and Blue

Good morning, Kitschies!  We're almost through another week...and I'm officially caught up on my days.  Being off work on Monday and Tuesday really threw me off.  But now I'm all back on track.

And what better way to celebrate being back on track than to share a really pretty polish with you?  I thought you might like that.

This beauty is Zoya Kotori.  I describe this as a blackened blue/teal shimmer.  It. is. stunning.  Kotori starts of a little thin with the first coat, but once you get 3 on there, there is total color payoff.

It's glowy and sparkly.  In the sunlight, Kotori catches the best glints of blue and teal.  LOVE this one!

And with a change of angle you can see how Kotori lights up - becomes less blackened blue/teal to just bright blue gorgeousness.  This was one of the very first Zoyas I got - I've worn it before but I've never shared it with y'all.

I wore Kotori alone for a day and then that evening, went home and did some simple nail art with Orly Luxe and black and white striping polishes.  It turned out very...nautical.  LOL

So, what do you think of Kotori?  If you have her, do you love her?  If you could only pick ONE Zoya to have forever and ever, which one would it be?  I know...that's a hard one!

I Loves Me a Glitter Sammich

Happy Wednesday, Kitschies!  I was catching up on my blogs this evening and I came across a pink Wednesday post and it made me realize that it was, in fact, Wednesday.  I've been MIA the last few days because we had our first official Winter storm blow through New Mexico between Sunday and Monday.  As a result, the schools were closed (which is good because the roads were not in good shape) and I stayed home with the boys.  Then we heard that the schools were going to be closed on Tuesday.  OK...the roads are still a little icy, so I guess I can agree with that.  So, I stayed home with Nate and the hubs took Mason to daycare.  I ventured out of the house and the snow and the roads weren't that bad - especially once I got down in to the valley.  And *then* I got a text from a co-worker telling me that the schools were going to be closed again on Wednesday because of "hazardous road conditions on secondary roads".  Seriously?!  WTH?!  Luckily, my MIL agreed to take Nate so I could go to work (for the first time in 4 days, which I'm not *really* complaining about).  The roads were fine this morning - a 2-hour delay would've been fine.  ANYway...Nate had fun with his grandma and he got to go to Explora with his cousins and I got back to work.  It has been a long and short week all at the same time.

Speaking of pink Wednesday posts, it was THIS post by Ice Queen's Nail Parlour that made me realize it was Wednesday.  And it reminded me that I have a similar mani to share! 

I'm not gonna lie.  I have *no* idea when I did this mani.  I can tell you it was in the Summer, but beyond that...no clue.  What I *can* tell you is this is OPI Do You Think I'm Tex-y, a really pretty raspberry jelly.  And sammiched in there is Milani Gems.

This was my first glitter sammich mani and I'm impressed that it turned out the exact way I'd hoped.  That doesn't happen very often.

I can't remember *when* I did this one, but I *do* remember getting compliments on this mani.  I remember "this is your prettiest one yet" being thrown around a time or two.

If you've followed my blog for a while, you probably already know I'm not the biggest fan of chunky glitter, but when it's in a glitter sammich or mattified (like I did HERE), I like it a little more.  In fact, I liked this so much, I ran out and grabbed Revlon Royal.  I had been looking for an excuse to pick that one up for some time and I finally found the excuse I needed! 

Now a question for you, my lovely readers.  What is your favorite jelly polish?

Have a great day!  See you again on the other side.

He Picked It

Good morning, Kitschies!  How is it possibly the first day of December?!  Only 31 more days left in 2011 - and I still have so much to do.  And don't even mention Christmas shopping.  I haven't even started...and I need to.  Badly.

So, instead of thinking about the "C" word, let's look at some pretties, shall we?

Every now and again, I get to a point where I can't think of anything to do with my nails.  That's when I enlist the help of others.  This time...I asked the hubs.  He said I should do something with purple, yellow and green.  Not really my first thought when it comes to combining colors, but that's what happens when you ask somebody else for input.  I went to my Helmer and dug around a bit.  This is what I came out with.

This is Orly Velvet Rope - it's a really pretty deep purple...and beyond that, a description escapes me.  It's not quite a shimmer and it's definitely not a frost.  It kind of has a glow-y quality to it, but not enough to call it shimmer.

Velvet Rope also has some glitter particles in it, silver, if I remember correctly.  It looked pretty in the bottle but it just ended up looking like little bumps once it was on my nails.

By now, y'all know how I feel about a bumpy finish!  While I liked the end result of the nail art, I didn't care for the purple itself.  I used acrylic paint to make the flowers.  And, amazingly, I was able to do that design on ALL my nails!  LOL

Pretty, pretty purple.  Velvet is a very accurate description of this color.  It's a very rich looking deep purple that has a glowy quality to it.

What do you do when you run out of ideas?  Who do you go to for input?  Do you search Google?  Do you pull from the space around you?

WWtKW: Work Edition

Good morning, lovelies!  I hope you're having a good week.  After the hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving last week, this week has seemed rather mundane - but that's not necessarily a bad thing.  I had an intense derby practice on Monday and I'm *still* sore.  I'm getting the hang of this whole derby thing and I love it more and more with every practice.  The bruise I got (over two weeks ago!) is finally fading but you can still feel a knot where the impact happened.  Just goes with the territory!

I didn't hook up with this meme last week because of the chaos of the holiday, but I'm playing along this week!  So, grab a cup of coffee and join Mamarazzi, Crazymama & Queso for some questions about work.

1. What is the worst job you've ever had?

2. Have you ever been fired?

3. What would your dream job be?

4. What did you want to be when you "grew up"?

5. How old were you when you got your first job?

1.  What is the worst job you've ever had?

I was a hostess turned dish cleaner for a breakfast cafe.  Oh lord, how I hated that job.  It wasn't bad when I was a hostess, but once it turned dish cleaner, that's when it got bad. 

2.  Have you ever been fired?

Speaking of that breakfast cafe...I was *almost* fired...but I quit first.

3.  What would your dream job be?

You know...I don't really know.  I would love to do something with music, but that scene is so hard to break in to (just ask my sister), so that's out.  I'd like to be a nurse some day, but that means I'd have to go back to college and I don't see that happening right now.  Or...if I could make roller derby a full-time paying gig, I'd do that for as long as I could (you know...before I got too old - which is probably just around the corner).

4.  What did you want to be when you "grew up"?

The first thing I remember is I wanted to be a gardener.  Don't ask me why.  Then, forever, I wanted to be a teacher - then I worked in a daycare in high school.  Working in that daycare cured me of that.  I also toyed around with the idea of doing graphic design but life got in the way so I let go of that idea.  And, as you can tell from my answer to #3...I don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

5.  How old were you when you got your first job?

I was in high school and I didn't have a car yet, so I'm going to say 14 or 15 (probably 15).  I was a file clerk in a small dermatology office.  I ended up working there for 5 years and I ended up pretty much running the front office.  Started in medicine and that's where I've been ever since!

Great questions, Queso!!  Join me and link up to WWtKW - all the cool kids are doing it! :D

Nearly Perfect

Good Tuesday to you, Kitschies!  I don't know how it is where you are, but it's really starting to cool down here in New Mexico.  And that means it's time to get back in the kitchen!

I love to bake - especially when I can share my baking with family and friends.  Don't get me wrong, I could keep all my goodies to myself, but I'd end up weighing a lot more than I already do.  So, why not share the weight gain?  LOL

A while ago, a co-worker and I got an invitation to a soft opening of Paradise Bakery.  When they welcomed us in, they offered us a choice of cookies to try and I picked their chewy ginger cookies (that's not the name, but it's been so long, I can't remember the exact name).  I loved it so much (and so did my co-worker) that as soon as I got in to work, I went hunting for the recipe!  Now, this is not a plug for Paradise Bakery, but if you have a chance, go there and get one of their cookies - they. are. perfection!  This is, however, the result of my hunt.  This recipe isn't exactly the same, so I'll call them nearly perfect.

Big Soft Ginger Cookies
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup margarine, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons white sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Set aside. 

In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses. Gradually stir the sifted ingredients into the molasses mixture. Shape dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly. 

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

NOTES:  In order to make the cookies look like the picture you see on Allrecipes, you do not flatten them - at all.  I just dropped them directly from the spoon and they cooked off just fine.

Of course I had my trusty kitchen helper with me for these!  Nate loves to help me in the kitchen - but the crazy boy doesn't usually eat the sweets we make...he'd rather have candy.  *sigh*

The end result of just piling the dough on the cookie sheets came out better than flattening them out.

Mmmmm!  Warm cookies.  Is there anything better than a warm cookie just out of the oven?  Yeah.  I didn't think so, either.

See what I mean?  You can see the "slightly flattened" cookies toward the top.  The dropped cookies look much prettier to me.  Don't get me wrong - the flattened cookies tasted fine, they just weren't as pretty.

I shared these cookies with my office and they were gone by days' end.  I'm sharing the recipe with you now so you can add something new to your Christmas cookie plates - you won't be sorry!

NerdLacquer: Pinin for the Fjords

Happy Monday, Kitschies!!  I had a super-long extended Thanksgiving holiday, which was really, really nice, but it's back to the grind for me today.  We were lucky to share out Thanksgiving with Makeup Zombie and her clan - lots of great food, friends and conversations!  I also got to spend all day Friday with Mr Nate.  I went to derby practice on Saturday evening and about froze my fingers off - but I didn't come home with a gigantic new bruise, so that's always good.  It's been a good mini-vacation.

I have my second NerdLacquer to share with you today: Pinin' for the Fjords!  As much as I liked Data Squirrel, I liked Pinin even more.

Pinin' for the Fjords is one of 3 fun polishes from NerdLacquer's new line: Something Completely Different.  These 3 polishes are Monty Python-themed. I. love. it!

Pinin' for the Fjords is a delicate periwinkle base with loads of glitter.  Tiny specks all the way to large hex glitter.  The larger hexes don't show up as much on the nail as Data Squirrel's, but the base on Pinin' is a bit more opaque.  But don't let that get you down...there's still plenty of sparkle going on here!

All the pictures show 3 coats - I'm a chronic 3-coater.  You could definitely get away with 2, I'm sure.  The wear on Pinin' was great.  I applied this early in the week and didn't take it off til Thursday evening - at least 4 days of solid wear with very little tip wear and only one tiny area of chipping.

I got tons of compliments about this polish.  Tons.  People couldn't believe that all this sparkle came from one polish.  Granted, they weren't people in the know like us, but it was funny to hear their reaction, nonetheless.

The only drawback to these polishes is the removal.  Because of all the glitter, you have to use the foil method, but it's a small price to pay for the awesomeness that is Pinin' for the Fjords.

Pinin' for the Fjords, along with her buddies Crunchy Frog (who doesn't love *that* name?!) and It's Just a Flesh Wound (again, awesome!) are available on the NerdLacquer etsy shop page either individually ($8, each) or as a trio ($24).  If you hurry over there, Amanda has some great gift packaging available as well as a NEW holiday collection: Holoday.

A big thank you to Amanda, the creative genius behind NerdLacquer for giving me the chance to review her beautiful geek-filled polish!

*Product provided to Kitschy Suburbia for review - all opinions are 100% my own*

NerdLacquer: Data Squirrel

Good morning, Kitschies!!  I have a little something different for you today.  I have been given the opportunity to try out and review a new-to-me indy nail polish company.  Please let me introduce to you:

NerdLacquer by the one and only...

I was first introduced to NerdLacquer by Makeup Zombie and as soon as I heard about, it I loved it.  Nerd-centric nail polish collections?  Awesome.

The owner of the Etsy shop, Amanda, asked me what colors I'm interested in and lickety split...two pretty bottles of NerdLacquer showed up on my doorstep (super fast shipping!).  This is the first of the two I've gotten to try.

This little beauty is Data Squirrel.  On the NerdLacquer page, Data Squirrel, from the IRC-ing Sparklies series, is described as: "/msg nickserv identify DATA SQUIRREL tears through the dbase of glitters, picks just the right ones for maximum impact in a shimmering russet red base (turquoise, silver, red, copper, emerald) and hoards them away for the winter. Okay, screw hoarding. Let’s use them all now."  OK...for you non-techies...IRC is Internet Relay Chat (think chat rooms, version 1.0). 

The first picture was taken indoors with flash and you can see how the reddish-pink-with a touch of orange base has a bit of a shimmer to it.  I don't know whether to call it a jelly or a creme because it's more opaque than a jelly but it's more transparent than a traditional creme.  So...crelly?  LOL  This picture was taken outdoors in direct, bright sunlight.

Look at all those sparklies!!!  NerdLacquer does glitter perfectly.  I was afraid the finish of this would be a bit on the bumpy side and/or eat up top coat, but I'm happy to report (I don't like my mani to be bumpy - bug!) that neither was the case.  All that awesome glitter packed in a shimmery base and the finish is very smooth.  I used 3 coats of Data Squirrel (but I probably could've gotten away with 2) and 1 coat of ChG Fast Forward.

You get a bit of a different color depending on the light source.  The above picture was taken in the shade and the bottom picture was taken in bright, direct sunlight.  This is a work-appropriate color, IMO, with just a little bit of bling without being in-your-face.  I got a LOT of compliments on this one Wednesday!  LOVE!!

I've only worn this polish for a day (at the moment) but the wear has been great!  No chips, no tip wear (I'm lucky to get a day of good wear out of some polishes) and no lifting of any of the glitter.  Application was effortless - I didn't need cleanup!  

In addition to Data Squirrel, Amanda threw in a *new* polish for me to try.  I'll be posting about it soon, but it's from a new 3-piece collection with a projected release date of this Friday: November 18th!  And...wait for it...it's Monty Python themed!  How awesome is that?!  And as much as I liked Data Squirrel, I have a feeling I'm going to like Pinin' for the Fjords even more.

Amanda was great to deal with - every question answered, happily!  I'm so happy to hear that she's increasing her collections (as if 25 unique colors weren't enough?!) and I hope she adds more and more and more.  And did I mention shipping was fast?  Yeah, like, 2 days!  NerdLacquer is available through Etsy for $8/bottle or you can customize a trio of geekery for $21.   

*Product provided to Kitschy Suburbia for review - all opinions are 100% my own*

WWtKW: Musical Edition

Good morning, Kitschies!  I didn't play last week (kind of a busy week that one was), but you can bet I'm going to join up today.




This week's We Want to Know Wednesday questions come from Alicia aka Queso.

1.  Do you have any musical talents?

I played flute and piccolo in high school - was in marching band and everything!  I used to be quite good (really, I was), but it's been a long time since I played.  I played for a while back before Nate was born but I haven't really been all that interested in picking it up since.

2.  What role, if any, does music play in your life?

Music is everything.  It sets my mood (accents or augments), it helps me express myself when my own words escape me.  Music is memories, feelings, markers in space and time.  I would say I have music on 95% of my waking hours. 

3.  What is your all time favorite song?

Really?  I have to narrow it down to just one?
I thought about this on and off all day on Tuesday.  My favorite song isn't a song at all, but a piece of music.
A very old piece of music: Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A Major Op 92 Allegretto.  Seriously.  What a strong, passionate piece of art.

4.  Do you sing in the shower?

In the shower?  No.  In the car?  All. the. time.  Mason tells me to sssshhhh! sometimes.

5.  Has a song ever made you cry?

Yes.  More than a few of them, actually.  Here's a short list.  These get me every. single. time.
Clair de Lune
Winter
God Bless the USA
Gravedigger
Charging Fort Wagner (and most of the Glory soundtrack)

I think these questions are my favorite out of all the 31 weeks of questions!  Thanks to Queso for these great questions.

Believe Me!

Good morning, Kitschies!  We're head long in to another work week.  I had derby practice last night.  Well, actually, it was skills test night and while I didn't expect to pass (yet), I did much better this time 'round.  I made it about 2/3 of the way through this time.  I was doing really well until I took a hit - I wasn't ready and I tumbled back and ended up with my right skate under my right hip and now I have a large bruise (that's probably only going to get larger) about 3" in diameter in the exact shape of my wheel.  How my right skate wheels ended up almost to my butt, I'll never know.  Either way, I stopped the skills test at that point and was happy I had made it that far.  I did much better than I expected I would, especially for not skating for the last two weeks.  There's a test every month, so I'm hoping to pass in early 2012.

Enough of that.  On to the sparklies!

I've seen these polishes all over the blogs and I finally found them about 2 weeks ago.  I picked up two but ended up giving one to Wendi because I had something really similar to it already.   I had just chopped down all my nails because I was getting some bad breaks, so I used my new polish to console myself.

This is WnW Believe Me, It's Real.  I knew it's a bit on the sheer side, so I started with LA Colors Static Electricity as a base and then used two coats of Believe Me on top.

The bling in this polish is pretty enough to overlook the fact that it eats top coat - two coats and still a bit bumpy (I use ChG Fast Forward).

I love macro shots!  Believe Me is little blue glitter suspended in a sheer blue base with larger purple hex glitter thrown in for fun.  The contrast of the purple against the blue makes it really pop.  So pretty!!

I'm throwing this over-exposed pic in just for fun.  I was having a hard time capturing the purple (who doesn't?!) and got this kinda cool pic. 

The draw back to these beauties?  They're a pain in the buttocks (kinda like the pain I have today!) to remove.  You definitely need to use the foil or felt method for removal. 

Have you picked up any of these glitter bomb WnW polishes?  Which is *your* favorite?

Got It. Didn't Like It.

Good morning, Kitschies!  It's Friday AND it's Veteran's Day - both good things.  It's been an insanely busy week and I finally have a few moments to do another post for you.

A while back, I took a coworker with me to Sally Beauty to take a gander at all the pretty polishes.  She was amazed at how she could pick up any number of polishes and name them without even thinking about it.  It's that whole got-it-got-it-got-it-need-it-got-it gag from The Big Bang Theory. 




I loves me some BBT!!  Anyway...this was one of two she picked up, and of course I had to borrow it from her.

This is ChG Tempest - a really, really pretty purple/blue duochrome.  The blue shift is so strong in this one, it's easily more blue than purple.

I did this mani just before I left for work one morning and I didn't have time to add nail art.  But, I did have a bottle of Revlon Grape Fizz I hadn't used yet, so I slapped on a couple coats on my ring finger and thumb.  I love the color of this polish - a purple jelly base with purple, pink and blue shimmer.  Sounds awesome, right?

The color *is* awesome.  However...Grape Fizz is scented and it is WAAAAY too sweet for my liking.  I hated to do it, but I had to take the polish off soon after I got to work.  This mani didn't last more than 3 hours because the sweetness of Grape Fizz was sickening.  I want to love that polish, so much, but I just can't.

Did you pick up any of the scented Revlons?  Were you able to tolerate the scent or am I just being too sensitive?

Have a great weekend!!  I've got more posts up my sleeve for next week. 

I'm Blue Over You

Happy Monday, Kitschies!  I had a pretty good weekend.  I got to have some alone time with the hubs on Friday night.  We went to dinner then a bar to see one of his favorite bands (Mr Gnome) perform.  It was a super small place, so no matter where we were, we had good seats.  I enjoyed their set and it's always nice to "find" a new group.  Then Sunday, I got to skate!  WOOT!!  I was supposed to go to practice on Saturday but I didn't have my helmet and the woman who has it wasn't at that practice, so I got caught up on some of my shows.  I ended up skating about 9 miles and my legs feel really good despite not having been on my skates a lot lately.  I fell on my butt trying to walk down a hill instead of skating it and now I feel like I have whiplash (FUN!), but other than that, it was a good outing!  LOL

I have a mani that's been sitting in my pending folder for a LONG time.  I couldn't tell you when I wore this.  If I had to guess, I'd say July-ish?  I know...I'm bad.  I'm trying my best to get all my pics prepped - I'm getting there!!  On to the pretties, k?

This is OPI Austin-Tatious Turquoise from their Spring Texas collection.  It's a gorgeous glass-flecked turquoise with a faint shift of purple.  Sorry this pic is so blurry, but it's the only one I got that captures the purple flash.

Here's a flash pic.  It's such a pretty, pretty color.  The downside?  It's super sheer!  I ended up using a base color (LA Colors Static Electricity - a blue creme) and then using at least 2, if not 3, coats of ATT.

Natural light.  I like that this polish changes a bit depending on the light source.  It looks a lot more blue in this pic than turquoise, but no matter what way you look at it, it's great!  It kind of reminds me of a sparkling blue pool.

What do you think of this blue beauty?  Do you own it?  I only picked up this one and Do You Think I'm Tex-y from the OPI Texas collection.  Though I'm thinking about picking up the orange "sorbet", too.

Have a great rest of your day!