All Together Now

Good day, Kitschies!  It's a beautiful day here in Central New Mexico.  It's the first day in a while that I haven't frozen my bootie off as soon as I walked outside.  Clear blue skies, a slight breeze and almost 40*.  This is my kind of winter day.  Not to mention I'm at home today.  The MIL is sick and I have the boys.  I took the boys to the mall to play at their indoor play area and they had a lot of fun.  Of course I forgot my camera.  So, now we're home with full bellies and the boys are going down for a nap.  I would love to take a nap, too, but I have too much straightening up to do...not to mention I still need to take a shower.  *sigh*

Last night I spent a bit at the computer and prepped some pics (finally).  I have quite a few mani pics waiting in the wings and not very many recipes, so today I'm sharing a mani and the new love of my life: my Helmer.

After we got home from visiting my parents/family in Cali over Christmas, I didn't have time to do my nails before I went to work the next morning.  That day I went to work with nekkid nails.  *gasp*  Patients even commented about that.  I still didn't have time (or the energy) to do them that night, so before I went to work the next day, I dug out my striper brush, glitter striper and my dotting tool and threw this together.

 I started off with nekkid nails and then, using my striper brush, I drew three "feathers" using Cover Girl Nail Slicks in Classic Red.  Then between the feathers, I used my green glitter Art Club striping polish and drew two feathers.  Using my dotting tool and white acrylic paint, I dotted each nail with three dots.  Once that all dried a bit, I did a layer of Sally Hansen Nail Prisms in Cinnabar Opal for just a little bit of shimmer. 

Since I only have two pics of that "mani", I decided I'd share my Helmer (and my stash) with you.  I don't usually like to share stash pics because I don't usually readily admit to how many polishes I have (read: how bad my addiction is).  I know I don't have near as many as *some* people, but I know I have more than probably everybody I work with.  Combined.  LOL

This is how my storage started out.  Two buckets meant to hold CDs.  I had a bucket for tried, a bucket for untried and a small bucket for treatments (top coat, cuticle oil, etc) and nail art stuff.  That didn't last very long.  About 4 months of "collecting" polish, I needed an upgrade.

I got this storage container at Target around my birthday.  It worked well; it contained all my polish.  But I wasn't satisfied because I knew there was this magical container that could hold up to 300 bottles and could store them all upright.  My parents took pity on me (and my hubs) and gave me a Helmer for Christmas.

This was much easier to put together than I expected it to be.  I am usually not good at putting things like this together (I don't care for instructions), but this was easy - even for me.  I was breezing through the construction with almost everything done until I put a drawer in to see how it looked.  It didn't quite fit.  Why?  I followed the instructions, right?  Well.  I put the drawer runners on upside down.  You know what that means right?  That meant I had to take the dang box totally apart because I had to get the dang runners off.  Once I got it all apart and pieced back together again, it was smooth sailing.  It ended up taking me about 90 minutes to put together (it probably would've only taken me 45 minutes if I had paid closer attention).

As soon as I put my Helmer together, I drug out my old storage to the living room and emptied it all.  My hubs walked in during this and he was surprised at all the mess.  I'm really good at that - "cleaning up" so I can make even more of a mess than I started with.

 This is my storage now.  I tried to explain to my friends what a Helmer is and one of my coworkers said: "So...it's a tool box for nail polish."  I guess she's right because it does look awfully similar to a red metal tool chest.  It's bright red.  It holds all of my polish (plus room for a BUNCH more).  And I love it.  So, wanna see what's inside?

Top drawer: pinks and oranges on left, reds on right.

 Second drawer: purples on right, blues on left.

Third drawer: Greens on left, holos in middle and glitters on right.

Fifth drawer: Untrieds (in no particular grouping other than the Zoya in the front).

Notice I didn't include the fourth drawer?  I just forgot to take a picture of it.  It holds blacks, browns, silvers and golds.  It's not very full.  In fact, I moved about half of the untried drawer up in to the blacks drawer.  The bottom drawer is full of polish remover, my Zoya Color Lock system an empty containers.

So, after you see this, do you think there's need for an intervention?  And before you ask, there's about 185 polishes in those drawers (which means I have room for approximately 115 more bottles.  Oooh...don't let the hubs see this - he'll cut up my debit card!  LOL