Mani Spam

Good afternoon, Kitschies!  OK.  I have a love/hate relationship with the time change.  Now that it's the afternoon and I'm getting closer to getting out of the office, I can say I like it.  Ask me in the morning and I'll tell you I hate it.  I especially hate driving to work when it's still dark.  And the boys are a PITA to get up and going when it's still dark.  But, we're planning on taking a walk after we get home tonight, so I guess that'll make up for the grumpiness in the morning.  Right?

I couldn't decide what to share with you all today, so I decided to do a little mani spam.  Ready?

Zoya Aria.  This isn't that accurate as far as color goes.  It's not quite as bright, but the sparkle/glass-fleck is right on.  Very pretty color, but it didn't make the cut because I envisioned something else for this mani.

Zoya Barbie.  Gorgeous bubblegum pink with just a slight bit of blue shimmer.  This was also a great color but wasn't what I was looking for for that particular mani.

Cover Girl Crackle over various colors.  I found this bottle at the Dollar Tree and swiped it faster than I could let out a squee!  I think the blue was ChG Sky High Top; green was Zoya Ivanka; orange was ChG Orange Marmalade; red was Zoya Alix; purple was ChG Coconut Kisses.  I liked how this Crackle was different depending on what color I used.  Oh...I did learn something with this older Crackle.  It does not work over top coat (it flakes right off) and it doesn't work over matte (doesn't crack - same with the new ChG Crackle and the OPI Shatter).

Confetti Blue Bombshell over SH Midnight in Manhattan.  My son wanted me to do half blue and half black and I didn't feel like doing all that so we compromised.  I liked this because it really glowed, but when I layer any color over black, I always have shrinkage at the tips.

NYC Love Letters over SH Black Out.  I had that weird layering shrinkage again, but it wasn't quite as noticeable.  I think I hadn't shared this mani because I didn't get any good pictures.  I must've worn this when the weather was crappy and didn't get a good outdoor pic.

Essence Colour and Go in Everybody's Talking About.  The bestie picked this one up for me when Ulta first opened in October.  It's a pretty color, but the color in the bottle didn't really match the color on the nail.  It looks like a bright berry here, but IRL, it was almost like a fluorescent red.  Kinda weird.  I was going to use this as one of my Two Weeks of Pink, but it turned out too red to be counted as pink.

So...there ya go!  I'll have a St Patty's Day water marble for you later this week (probably Wednesday).  In the meantime, check out THIS POST for a coupon code good for a FREE Hello Kitty stamp plate.

How Meh Turned To ROCK ON!

Good afternoon, Kitschies!  It's day 2 without my co-worker and while it's been busy, it hasn't been insane.  Yesterday afternoon was pretty slammin', but today is a bit more mellow, which is good because I have a bunch of stuff to get caught up on.  Overall, though, it's just been kind of a meh day.  Until I went out for a little errand at lunch.  Read on to see why. 

I was going to make cookies tonight, but I went to Dollar Tree at lunch and found some awesome finds!  Wanna know what I found?  I found this:

(I borrowed this pic from The Shoe Dish)

And then in my frantic searching, I also found this:

(I borrowed this pic from Scrangie)

Win #1: They came in the same pack - for a BUCK!  Win #2: They had multiple packs.  Win #3: I grabbed one for my bestie!  I haven't had that great luck at Dollar Tree in quite a while!  I was planning on leaving the mani I'm wearing now til the weekend, but since I found the crackle polish, that's not gonna happen.

OK.  Back to business.  I hope you don't mind my combo post - I was just too excited to not mention my find to you.  

Waaaaaay back....in 2004...I found this little digest cookbook (Low-Carb Recipes) at a register at the grocery store.  I'm a sucker for cookbooks, and we were trying to eat healthy (this is a thing we've struggled with on and off forever), so I grabbed it.  I've made a couple recipes out of it, but this is the one we make the most.  Well, I make the most. 

Chicken Salad

1/4 cup mayo

1/4 cup sour cream

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp grated lemon peel

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 to 1/4 tsp ground white pepper

2 cups dicked cooked chicken

1 cup sliced celery

1/4 cup sliced green onions

lettuce leaves

crumbled bleu cheese (optional)

Combine mayo, sour cream, lemon juice, sugar, lemon peel, mustard, salt and pepper in a large bowl.  

Add chicken, celery and green onions; stir to combine.  Cover; refrigerate at least 1 hour to allow flavors to blend.

Serve salad on lettuce-lined plate.  Sprinkle with bleu cheese, if desired.  Makes 4 servings.

NOTES:  I usually use light (or reduced fat) mayo and sour cream and I don't taste the difference.  I've never had it with bleu cheese, but I bet it's good!

I forgot to add the sugar in the picture.  Oh, and the lemon.  Sheesh!!  To "grate" the lemon, I use a microplaner and it makes the zest super fine.  I probably would've never bought it for myself, but one of my aunts gave it to me on a lark when we were camping.

Sorry it's not the best picture, but you get the idea.  I have this either as a sammich or just in a bowl plain.  Either way, this chicken salad is the best recipe I've found.  According to the cookbook, it only has 4 grams of carbs per serving. 

So, you know what I'll be doing tonight!  Painting my nails with a bright color topped with my awesome crackle polish (and hoping it works since I have no idea how old it is) and watching Grey's Anatomy.  Sounds like a good night to me!  And how sad is it that finding an old polish for (basically) 50-cents makes my day?

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