I've Been a Bad Blogger

Morning, lovelies!  It was another busy weekend at the Harmeyer house.  Friday night's derby practice was cancelled *bummer* but since I was already at the track when I found out, I decided to stick around and skate a bit.  I'm getting a little more sure of myself on my skates, but I have a LONG way to go!  Saturday morning was spent cleaning the house (it really needed it anyway) and then that afternoon, the bestie came over with her gang and we hung out outside and watched the kidlets play in the pool.  We had indoor S'mores for the kids and then once we got them all to bed, we chillaxed out on the patio, had dinner and enjoyed the cool summer evening.  Once we had had enough of the outdoors, we went inside to rag on Fab Bagans from Ghost Adventures and I did Wendi's nails...they turned out awesome!  Sunday was spent getting caught up on laundry and such.  Good times. 

I feel like I've been a bad blogger.  I haven't been blog hopping like I usually do.  And I haven't been updating my blog like I should.  I really don't have any good excuse like being abducted by aliens or being on some swanky vacay.  I've just been busier at work than usual (which is a good thing) and I've been busier away from work (which is a good thing, too) AND my computer at home is stoopid slow.  Like, it takes over a minute to open an unedited picture in Photoshop.  So, yeah.  Sitting, staring at a computer monitor for an hour to prep maybe 12 pix is so not the highlight of my day.  LOL

I promise to get around to *your* blog soon.  Promise.  And if I don't follow you, this is your chance to plug your blog.  Leave me a link to your blog in the comments on this post only and I'll go check it out!  I recently went through my reading list and got rid of a bunch of blogs, so I need to replace them with other (new to me) blogs!!

And, since this *is* a nail blog, partly, I'll leave you today with a pretty.

This is a random bright red creme from Naughty Nails (don't remember then name of the color, but really, I don't know that you'd want to know anyway) with OPI black Shatter on top.  This mani reminds me of lava that's cooling.

So...plug your blog.  Don't think I don't love you because I haven't been to your blog in a while.  I have so many pics to prep...it's not even funny!

I have a little baby bumblebee...

Good morning, Kitschies!!  Can you believe it's May?!  And guess what?  New Mexico (central and north) got snow yesterday.  Yep...snow!  In May!  It didn't really stick, but it sure was a surprise to see.  Needless to say, we didn't get out much yesterday.  I don't think it go above 40* and today we had flurries first thing and it's supposed to get to 58*.  And, of course, it's predicted to get to 80* by the end of the week.  I guess Mother Nature is mad at us about *something*.

So, where are we?  Oh, yeah.  Nail polish.  Let me just say a little something about that before I get on to the pics.  Raise your hand if you're quickly getting over the whole crackle/shatter fad.  *raises hand*  Don't get me wrong, it looks awesome and it's easy.  But...starting with OPI and then ChG and now SH...how many do we really need?  Maybe I'm alone in this, but I get it already.  Enough with the crackle/shatter polishes.  I think it's more cool when it's not quite as available.  With that said, lets look at the last crackle mani I wore.

This is ChG Cracked Concrete over ChG Lemon Fizz.  The yellow is your typical pastel yellow (a pain in the butt to apply) but I didn't have to be too careful since I was covering it with Crackle Glaze.

Indoors with flash.  I liked how this turned out (just like I had imagined/hoped it would).  The colors remind me of a pastel or faded bee.  One of the docs said it reminded him of a giraffe.  LOL

Indirect sunlight; no flash.  And, obviously, this was done before my last water marble mani (my nails are long), but they're growing out pretty fast.  I've noticed that as long as I keep my nails polished, they grow and don't break quite as easily.

So, are ya with me on the whole being *over* the crackle/shatter fad?  What is your favorite color combo for shatter?

Two Weeks of Pink - Part 3

TGIF!  It has been one heck of a week.  Bustin' my booty at work.  Corralling the boys when I get home.  Making dinner.  Cleaning up.  Trying not to pass out as soon as my butt hits the couch.  *sigh*  I'm glad it's the weekend.

I know it's supposed to be Flashback or Family Friday, but since I'm on this Two Weeks of Pink kick (you have the bestie to blame thank for that), I thought I'd share the mani I wore for most of the week.  Pink mani #2 was pretty subdued, so it was time to kick it up a notch or two for the next mani.  I hope you're ready for a lot of pictures!

This bright, in-your-face pink is Color Club Electro Candy.  A neon pink with a purple-ish (or was it green?) flash.  I never liked neon polishes until I got my hands on the Electro Candy collection.  This pic was taken outdoors in bright sunlight.

This is indoors with flash.  I started of with three coats (because it's a neon) and while I liked the color, I didn't want to leave it quite that bright.

Outdoors in direct sunlight.  I grabbed my striping brush, black acrylic paint and a silver glitter striping polish and striped away!

This design was super simple.  It was enough of a design to break up the OMGTHATSBRIGHT, but not so much that it hid the awesomeness of the polish itself.

I applied this on Sunday evening and it had awesome wear.  I didn't change my mani til Thursday night and I didn't have any chips and barely any tip wear.

I'm ready for my closeup, Mr Seville.  My striping brush is one of my favorite tools (thanks, Mom!) - you can do so much with it.

Like I said, I wore this mani for 5 whole days without any problem...except that I got bored with it.  I had a patient ask me why I "don't just get those gel nails done".  She meant gel polish that's cured under a UV light.  For a few reasons.  #1: They last at least 2 weeks.  If I had to wear the same polish for 2 weeks, I think I'd go insane.  #2: To get a gel mani at a salon costs money.  Money I don't have.  #3: I don't have a UV lamp and I don't want to buy a UV lamp.  So, yeah.  No gel manis for *this* girl.  To break up the boredom, I grabbed my bottle of OPI Black Shatter that my most awesomest bestie procured for me (you ROCK).

This is one coat of OPI Black Shatter over the already pictured Electro Candy mani.  If you click on the pic, you can see some of the silver glitter peaking through a couple of the cracks.

I liked the neon pink mani, but I liked the switch up the Black Shatter gave it.  See how good this wore?  I took these last two pics the same evening I took the polish off.  I was afraid the Black Shatter was going to be a total PITA to remove, but it wasn't any more difficult than regular polish.  I know you've seen the shatter manis all over the place, but you hadn't seen mine.  Now you have and now you can go back about your business.  LOL

The other day, somebody commented that I didn't post enough pics of myself on my blog.  I hate taking pictures of myself, but since they said that, I thought I'd make it a point to add one.  This is me modeling my new scarf that was included in the Pinktastic Swaptastic package from Christi at g r e y u m b r e l l a.  Thanks, again, Christi - I love it!

So...happy weekend!!  Next week I'll have at least another mani to share as well as a recipe (or two).  I'm hoping to have an Etsy shop to review by Thursday of next week, too.

Don't forget my giveaway.  I've picked up a bottle of Revlon Perplex to add to the giveaway - you know you want it!