January 2013

I'm not announcing my comeback, I'm just going to say...I have some pretty polishes to share with you.

With everything I have on my plate, I just can't blog like I used to.  I still do my nails (all the time) and I usually take pictures of them, but I rarely get the time to sit down and edit the pictures.  My plan, right now, is to compile my manis over the month and share them with you, in bulk, at the end of the month.  Sound good?  Here we go.  And, like always, all pics are clickable to make bigable!

This was my New Years mani.  It's kinda Christmas-y and it's all Winter.  I started with a base of Milani Juno.  Then, using BM14, I stamped snow flakes using ChG Designer Satin and a random white.  To finish it all off, I applied a layer of ChG Snow Globe for a little extra sparkle.

I picked up this gorgeous polish at Ulta while on a "we gotta get out of the house NOW" trip with the bestie.  I don't usually even look at the Layla polishes because they're pretty pricey, but this happened to be on sale (and I had a coupon).  Layla Ceramic Effects Green Galaxy (CE 54) is a gorgeous, gorgeous deep green jelly with green micro glitter, small round green glitter and big green hexies.  This polish wore like iron - definitely worth the money!

I was feeling in a nail funk when I did this and it snapped me out of it right away!  I started with a base of Revlon Royal (probably one of my top 10 fave polishes ever).  After that, I stamped the pretty flowers using Orly Snowcone and BM224.  I added pretty purple rhinestones in the center of one flower on each nail.

I did this one originially for a "glitter" challenge for a FB group I'm in, but I couldn't get a good picture of it.  You can't go wrong with a classic red nail!  This is Zoya Alix with Milani Glitter FX in Red.  The Milani claims to be "one coat" but for this much coverage, I started with a coat of Alix and then layered 3 layers of the glitter.  That's not what I'd call one coat!  I wore this for 4 days and love it.

This is what I ended up using for the glitter challenge.  Let me tell you...this is a mess polish!  I started with 3 coats of Orly Fowl Play then added a coat of Finger Paints Twisted (I loves me some flakies!).  And because that wasn't enough, I ended up using a coat of Milani Jewel FX in Twilight.  I am NOT looking forward to removing this (can you say "foil method"?).

So...there's January.  Maybe...if you're lucky...I'll post a review of a couple manis from last year later!

Randomness

*peeks out*  Hey, there Kitchies!  How the heck are ya?!  I've been busy (yeah, shocker.  I know.)  I thought I'd take a few minutes and share some random manis with you today!  Ready?  I have no idea when I wore any of these.  Sorry about that.

This is one my top 10 favorite polishes.  Revlon Royal is a gorgeous, squishy royal blue jelly.  I made it jelly sammich with Jordana Pixie Pink glitter.  I loved this!

I caught flakey madness like everybody else did when Finger Paints released their flakey collection.  This is Orly Charged Up with Finger Paints Twisted.  You can't go wrong with a good flakey polish, but this mani was just kinda meh to me.

Zoya Faye.  I want to love this.  Really, I do.  But I just...don't.  I want the rosy purple to show through more.  Most of the time, all you can see is the bright gold glass flecks.  It is a pretty polish in theory.  Just give me a *little* more purple...please.

This was better in my head than it was on the nail.  The green is Sinful Colors Mint Apple.  I don't remember what the blue is, but it's a pretty sky blue with just a touch of shimmer.  Maybe a Milani?  Yep.  I'm pretty sure it's Milani Beach Front.  The flowers are Milani White on the Spot and Yellow Whiz (worst. polish name. ever.).

I don't usually like white nails because they're so stark.  But, when you pair it with a pretty glitter and make it a gradient, it's a win for me!  This is Milani White on the Spot with Fuchsia Jewel FX.  I say I don't like glitter because it's such a PITA to remove, but looks like I use it pretty often when you lump manis together like this.

There ya go!  Hope that holds you over for a little while.  Sorry I've been so sporadic with posting - life doesn't slow down anymore.  Be back soon...?

Primary Colors

Happy September, Kitschies!  How is it possibly already September?  Before you know it, it's going to be Halloween.  And then Turkey Day.  And then Christmas.  *sigh*  Time is moving impossibly fast.  And because of that, I haven't been posting much.  In fact, I didn't post at all during the entire month of August.  Shame on me!!

The highlights of August: Nate started 1st grade, I had my birthday, and the hubs and I got to go camping!

I know most of you aren't here to see pics of my handsome little boy or of my adventures around the state, so I'll get to why you're really here: the nails!

I'm going to start by saying that I have NO idea when I did this mani.  But, it's pretty and I like it, so I'm going to share it with you.

I believe I started with a base of white, but since it's been such a long time, I can't remember exactly.  It was either white or the yellow.

Anyway...

I liked the idea of this one more in my head than it looked on my nails.  I think I should've used a brighter blue rather than a navy.

This is my right hand.  I liked the pinky nail on this hand a lot.  And the thumb was good, too, until I knocked it on something and ended up with a big bald spot.  But, you know when you've finished a full water marble mani, you really don't feel like redoing one if it gets messed up.  Yeah.  That's what happened there.

See...if all the nails came out like this one, with the blue really bold, I would've liked it better.  Either way, it was a water marble and really...you can't completely go wrong with that.

And here's what I used.  I have yet to find a yellow that I really like.  A real, primary-type yellow.  Any suggestions?

So, there ya go.  I won't promise to post more but I can tell you that I have lots of pictures prepped and just sitting there, waiting to be shared with the blogverse!!

Happy September!

Royal Jelly

No, not *that* kind.  Sheesh...get your mind out of the gutter!

It's Wednesday night and I'm prepping this post for Thursday morning.  I have a very short fuse tonight thanks to a sore toe (the same toe I broke *way* back in October) and it's been a really exhausting week at work, so I'm going to keep this one pretty short.

Earlier in the Summer, I finally got my first jelly finish polish and I loved it way more than I thought I would.  And a little while after I found that one, I discovered the jelly sammich.  I had been eyeing this polish for a while because I loved the color but as soon as I found out it was a jelly, I went out the next day and picked it up.

This bright, bold blue is Revlon Royal.  It's a royal blue (hence the name) jelly that is great alone but I was in a glitter sammich kind of mood and threw in some silver holo bar glitter.

Yeah, there's some VNL, but it's a jelly...and that's part of what I love about a jelly.  It's full coverage but it's still a little transparent.  The bar glitter is Rush UFO.  I don't even know if you can get it anymore...I've had it since before I moved to New Mexico (so that means at least 13 years). 

I love the concept of this, but the end result didn't live up to my expectations.  You can't see any of the holo-y goodness of UFO so it just looks like white bars of stuff stuck in my polish.  LOL  As a side note, I already don't care much for bar glitter, so maybe this mani was doomed from the start.

Have you done a jelly sammich?  Which polishes did you use?

OK.  I'm done.  It's been a long day.  I hope Thursday is better because Tuesday and Wednesday left a lot to be desired. 

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. 

Truly Perplexed

Good Tuesday to you!  And you.  Annnnnd you.  It's been an...interesting...day here at the clinic.  Computer issues.  Stoopid employees.  Just a weird day.  Add to that the increasing anxiety of my impending vacay...I'm ready to go home.  Hopefully the wind won't blow in MORE smoke (it was SOOOOO bad last night).  The hubs mentioned that it's funny to think we'll be breathing cleaner air in Cali than we have here at the moment.  If only we'd get some rain...

Anyway...I don't know why I haven't posted this yet.  I have had these pics on my flashdrive for what seems like months.  And I know you've seen this polish ALL over the blogs, but you haven't seen it recently and you haven't seen it on mine.  So there.

Here she is.  The gorgeous Revlon Perplex, dupe to Chanel Paradoxal.  I wasn't about to shell out the cash for the Chanel polish, so I was super excited to hear that there was a dupe in Perplex.  It took me a while to find it, but when I did (at Ulta), I grabbed it as fast as I could.  This is indoors with flash.

In direct sunlight.  Perplex is a pretty dusty purple with an incredible purple shimmer.  At some angles, the purple looks so dusty that it almost looks gray.  I don't care how you describe it, Perplex is gorgeous!

Outdoors, direct bright sun.  In the upper pic, you can see how this almost looks gray.  It's funny, it took me weeks to find this polish.  Then, on a whim, I stopped by Big Lots and I found quite a few bottles.  So, I grabbed those, too, and gave one to the bestie, one to a coworker and then shipped one off to a fellow blogger.  I think I even have another one sitting in reserve in my Helmer!  I don't know what I'm doing with a reserve...it's not like I'll even go through an entire bottle on my own!

Well, the smoke has rolled in again.  It smells like a giant campfire outside.  Not to mention you can't even really see the mountains to the east of the city.  I'm off to do some work (imagine that)!  Enjoy the rest of your day.  See you tomorrow!

Bright Beginnings

If people were meant to pop out of bed, we'd all sleep in toasters. ~Author unknown, attributed to Jim Davis

Good evening, Kitschies! I hope this evening finds you well. It was another great day in the neighborhood and the house is finally starting to quiet down a bit (read: kidlets are in bed). Technology is cooperating with me - so far - so I bring you the post I was meaning to do last night. Ahhhh...what did we *ever* do without computers? Or cell phones? Or caller IDs? Or voice mail? Or DVRs? We actually had *gasp* conversations with real people!! Wow - those were the good 'ol days. HEY! I'm not THAT old...but I do remember rotary phones. And the milk man. Really. Enough for the trip down memory lane. This post has two parts: food and polish. What could be better? First things first: food!!

When my parents and sister were visiting last week, my mom clued me in to this wonderful recipe she found on Allrecipes. I love this site! If there's anything I'm craving, I hop on Allrecipes and find whatever it is that will satisfy my need for new recipes. Now...I'm not much of an egg person, so I didn't scarf this one down, but everybody else liked it, so it can't be all bad. The hubs even had it for leftovers yesterday morning! I made a few alterations to the recipe which I will mention at the end of the recipe. This is a great recipe when you have a crowd of people to feed. I have a 4-quart slow cooker and it was filled to the TOP!! It was so nice to get up in the morning and have breakfast already finished (who doesn't love THAT?).

Slow Cooker Western Omelet

1 (2 lb) package frozen shredded hash brown potatoes
1 lb diced cooked ham
1 onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
12 eggs
1 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste




Lightly grease a 4 quart or larger slow cooker. Place 1/3 of the hash brown potatoes in a layer on the bottom. Layer 1/3 of the ham, onion, green pepper, and Cheddar cheese. Repeat layers two more times. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs and milk, and season with salt and pepper. Pour over the contents of the slow cooker.

Cover, and cook on Low for 10 to 12 hours.



NOTES: I basically used what I had on hand. I traded out the ham for sausage patties (just cut them up in chunks), and yellow bell pepper. The recipe says this will fit in a 4-quart slow cooker - mine was filled to the absolute top and I really don't think the entire recipe would've fit - unless it was smashed down and then I don't think it would've cooked properly. I decreased the recipe by 1/3 (it still used 8 eggs!) and cooked for 9 hours.

Now for part 2!

I had an apple with my lunch today and it was blech! I had quite a bit of time left at that point, so I decided to go to the grocery store to get a new, hopefully better, apple. I found an apple, still not that perfect apple I was in search of, but I found something better! Of course I wandered over to the cosmetics section and found they had a big table full of clearance/last chance stuff. I searched through every one of those boxes and found one lonely polish. At the discount price of $1.44, I don't think it would've mattered what the brand or color was. I grabbed it (Oh! A piece of candy!) and trotted my happy butt up to the register. Apparently, it's from a Summer 2008 collection, but the formula still looks good. It might end up being a toe pedi color because it looks pretty sheer - and if looks sheer in the bottle, that means it's going to be *super* sheer on! Here's what I found...

Revlon Glimmer Gloss in Apricot Freeze

A close-up, blurry pic to show the pretties

I don't think I'd call this apricot, but it's a pretty, sheer orange base with pink and gold glitter(?) shimmer(?). If it were a current color, it would be a jelly, but this is much too thin to be a jelly. I'm looking forward to trying this one out as soon as my current mani (a challenge accepted) requires replacing.

That's it, my girlies. I hope you have a great evening. Check back early. Check back often. New posts will be made soon!! Thanks for stopping by.

Listening to: Not Only Numb by Gin Blossoms
Mood: HOT!! (and not in a good way)