I Was Tagged

Tilly from Matilda's Manis was sweet enough to tag me with the Cherry On Top Award. Cool. How fun.

THANKS TILLY!!!

Acceptance speech shall commence.

First and foremost I would like to thank Tilly for tagging me with such a prestigous honor. I remember being a child and dreaming of the Cherry on Top Award and this day Tilly has made that dream come true. So with that being said I would like to pass this along to the following fellow bloggers:

Candace over at it's FRESH. (told me I should give blogging a try)

ABOP at Another Bottle of Polish. (inspiring and creative manis)

Reem at reemakup. (so many pretty things to look at)

ChaosButterfly at The Phalanges Files (love this blog name and great polish selections)

Sara at Daily Polish (almost to 365 manis in 365 days, wow!)

and I would give it back to Tilly if I could, I am so happy she decided to do a blood donatation!!

For those of you I tag here are the rules:
1.Now you have to copy the award onto your blog.
2.Thank me for awarding you with such an award!
3.Select another 5 recipients.
4.Include a pic that means something to you.
5.Write 5 positive comments about yourself.


Every year my dad takes a picture of the peonies that bloom outside of my childhood home. They have been there since the year I was born and are still coming back. I love getting a picture like this from him every year.

The positives about me:
Yikes this is kind of hard writing these things down.

1. I like to listen.
2. I am very supportive.
3. I think I have a pretty good sense of humor.
4. The happiness of others is important to me.
5. I like things to be done right the first time.

Thanks again Tilly. That was fun!

Borghese Cannoli Cream

The clearance rack was where it should have stayed. Maybe that is a bit harsh but this polish is going to take to much work. First and second coats streaky. The brush didn't help. Third and fourth coat goopy. Four coats for goopiness. Maybe for something special but not this. I do like the color but I don't have the time for this one. I am glad it was 75% off.

And to top it off I can't find my hang nail clipper thing so I am stuck with these little hangnails all around my nails. I need a new hangnail clipper. Any recommendations?

The Power of Layering

Ages ago I had no idea that people layered polishes. Oh what I had been missing out on. The Sally Hansen HD polishes I picked up are so sheer that layering is always an option with them. Since I was at the end of the road with my Magens Bay Blue mani I decided to top it with some different colors to see how it looked.

Sorry for the obvious cuticles and messy edges. I wasn't investing any cleanup time in this since I knew it was coming right back off.




With Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure


Pretty. I am really in love with Hue. Funny that this was my last choice to get. Some polishes can surprise you.

Tomatoes and Stuff

I love salsa, absolutely love it. So what could be better than homemade salsa. Not to much. My mother came out a few weeks ago to help me plant some herbs she had picked up for me. Green thumb. Not me, not at all. I have the anti-green thumb. She knows it but we enjoy trying. She bought me some oregano, green peppers, rosemary, mint, marjoram and then we went to the store to get a tomato plant and some marigolds. We also got some jalepeno seeds for my daughter to plant.

The tomato is in a pot (actually everything is in a pot) so I could move it as needed into the sun. Plus the dirt in my area is horrible so I would rather leave it in the pot with so organic soil. We get everything in their pots, had a good laugh about the 5 pots sitting in the middle of the yard and crossed our fingers.

Surely if I planted it in the middle of my yard the guy who cuts the grass would have just rolled right over it to. When they came all I had to do is grab the pots and put them on my steps.


My poor tomato pot keeps falling over. Every morning it is on its side. And then the poor leaves looked so withered and sad. The blooms I had looked like they were dried up and about to die. My mom told me the blooms are where the tomatoes grow so I thought surely I had killed my poor plant.

I felt like it needed to be inside with me. Yes, I know, direct sunlight but we really do get a good amount of sun in our "sunroom". After some nuturing over the weekend I took it back outside this morning. It looked a little happier. And there was one tiny tomato on it.

When I went to take some more pictures I was pleasantly surprised to see another little tomato that I had missed.

I didn't kill it!! Yet :-( I'll try to enjoy this as long as I can. I love my plants and have always loved that my mother has a green thumb. She always laughs at my plant issues and gives me great advice to try and revive them.

Gas Prices..

Gas prices drive me bananas. Thank goodness the grocery store I shop at offers discounted gas for shopping there.

Yea, for discounted gas. My gas guzzler takes premium so I was quite please to get such a discount.

Magens Bay Blue- Diamond Cosmetics

This is my first time ever using Diamond Cosmetics and let me just say this polish is nice. I was one of the lucky winners of a giveway that ABOP did over on her blog ANOTHER Bottle of Polish. Thanks again ABOP.



First of all this polish can go on with one coat. My imperfect polishing technique had me put on two to cover up some minor streaks but I honestly think if you know what you are doing one coat is all you need. No problem with it being to sheer either.

It dried in a normal amount of time. By normal I mean I painted all my nails and when I went back to do the second coat they were all pretty much dry. The second coat went on with ease as well as the Sunblocking Top Coat that was also part of my giveaway prize. The polish already has a nice shine and the top coat amps it up to the next level.

So far 2 thumbs up for Diamond Cosmetics. I am definitely going to check out more of their colors.

I Totally Understand Now- Zoya Charla

There are some colors that people rant and rave about that I don't see why. Zoya knocked it out of the park with this color. How could anyone be a hater of this beautiful, glittery, goodness. I was excited to get it and when I did actually didn't try it for some time. What was I thinking. Two coats of absolute amazingness.



Nothing more to say other than, Thank You Zoya!!

Ouch Ouch and Ouch

Ok, it really was that bad physically but mentally it hurt to have to cut my nail off. I'll live. I think I was gardening or something and kept banging my thumb against something. Quite obvious that I lost that battle.

Mini Beautyfirst Haul

Score!!! No not as in World Cup but as in BeautyFirst sent me a $10 coupon in the mail. When I get a coupon like that I am ecstatic. Ten free dollars is better than nothing. I went practical and got Zoya Anchor basecoat and my first ever bottle of Essie polish. Can you see the little 50% off sticker? This color sums up where I am mentally right now because the name of it is Need A Vacation.



I took the Zoya Anchor out of the packaging so you could see the bottle. Standard Zoya bottle. It seems like a environmental waste to even have all of that plastic packaging around the bottle.

My out of pocket total for the day was $2 plus tax. I was a happy camper.

Lots of Dots- Ginessa Bundlemonster Mani

It has been forever since I posted a mani but I have been doing them, just no time to blog. I am going to try to catch up over the next few days with the older pics and manis and then get back on track I hope.

Remember a long time ago when I had Zoya Ginessa on my nails, here is the BundleMonster mani I did with it. The colors are Zoya Ginessa as the base. SallyHansen XTremewear in The Real Teal and Pacific Blue.



Looks like Easter eggs to me. I used two BundleMonster plates for this mani. The BM11 is the strip of dots near the base of my nail and the BM19 is for the polka dots. It was a little tedious to do the alternating colors but overall it was a fun mani to do.

Diamond Cosmetics Win

Woooo hoooo. The lovely ABOP from ANOTHER Bottle of Polish sent me these Diamond Cosmetics polishes. She was having a birthday giveaway that she opened up from 1 winner to 3 winners and I was one of the 3. Yep. Yep!!

Here is what I got.


Aren't they pretty. From left to right:
Magens Bay Blue
Sun Blocking Top Coat
Pelican Peak Purple
South Beach Pink

I can't wait to try them. For some reason I have been on a purple kick but this blue, I can't stop eyeing it. I think we have a winner for the first one I will try- Magens Bay Blue!!

And since I didn't know where Magens Bay was I did a quick google. Anyone want to go to St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands with me? I think it is only right that if I wear a polish color named after a bay in such lovely place I should see the place in real life. Wishful thinking I know.

THANK YOU ABOP!!!!

Mani pics to come soon!!!

This is what has been taking up all of my time lately. I have a new hobby that I think will become an addiction. Just what I need. Not quite as cheap as nailpolish either.



This is our new sewing machine. Check out the blog my daughter and I are doing together dedicated to our new hobby. If you sew or have any advice tips or tricks please feel free to chime in over there. We are really looking forward to this.

On a side note:
Check out her neon nails, she always shakes her head at my new polishes but is the first one to use them.

Random Vacation Pics

Has it really been since Friday since I blogged. Seems like forever. My drive with all of my pics is taking forever to backup and currently inaccessible sooooo I am looking though the pictures I have on my local drive. Wow, what a lot of memories. I think I will just spam you with random vacation pics from over the years if you don't mind.


Atlantis

This is from the underwater tunnel at Atlantis in the Bahamas.

I would go there over and over. Scary dude!!

----------

Chesapeake Bay Bridge

Odd picture but it was kind of cool at the time. I was on a cruise to Bermuda that left out of Baltimore. We had to go under the Bay Bridge. This boat just cleared that bridge.
----------

Jungfraujoch- The highest point in Europe
This was in Switzerland. It is not the highest point, it is the highest railroad station, or

something like that. Either way all I know is it was breathtaking to be that high

up in the mountains.

----------

Random foolishness at the hotel in Riviera Maya.

They actually came over and tried the throw my husband in the pool.

One of the best laughs I have ever had!!

----------

It has been a while since I have been out of the country on vacation but am thankful for the many times I was able to go. I am trying to think where I would like to go next. Do any of you have any great vacations coming up?

Snow in June!!! Zoya Ginessa

The white shimmer of Zoya Ginessa reminds me of pure fresh fallen snow that is just beginning to melt. One coat gives you pretty decent coverage. I was pleased that it was not steaky like some of the wite polishes I have. Maybe because this isn't a creme polish. As a polish newbie I just know it isn't a creme, I can't tell you what it is though.

One coat provides pretty decent coverage as shown in the pictures below. It depends on the look you are trying to achieve.

Indoor Lighting	Sunlight

Two coats:

Another Zoya polish used and no complaints with this one either.

I tried to capture the effect of the Sally Hansen HD Hue polish that I used to stamp this design by doing a little video. It isn't as prominent as I would like it to be in the video but it is gorgeous in real life. You can see the changes somewhat mostly in the last few seconds of the video. Enjoy the lovely sound effects of nature.



This polish goes from yellow to green to blue. I think I am going to like it as a stamping polish more than a full mani polish but you never know.

On another note and I know you may think this is lame, Zoya sent a link to one of my blog posts on Twitter. I was absolutely floored, excited, honored, excited, shocked. Yes I am lame but it was a big deal to me. Here is a pic:



I thought it was pretty cool!! Feel free to follow me on Twitter. I am TakiJ there babbling about this that and the other.

My First Bundlemonster Mani!!

So here it is. My very first BundleMonster mani. Honestly it is not a full mani, it is just the right hand. I tried so many different things on my left hand I just decided to figure out what I liked and do it on my right hand and take some pictures. If you remember my post on Zoya Dea I asked for suggestions on what colors would look good with this. My initial thought was a mint green or pastel pink. Rmcandlelight *I'm wearing China Glaze Stella* of Nails Beautiqued chimed in and though that adding white to either of those colors would make it "pop". ABOP from Another Bottle of Polish thought teal would go well.

Let me tell you, I tried for at least an hour to come up with a pink, mint green, or teal that actually showed up well on this polish. Everything seemed like it was washed out. ABOP was absolutely right about the white making it pop.

Anyway, I tried layering Hidden Treasure over it which looked very pretty but I wanted to use my BundleMonster plates. I also layered Sally Hansen HD Hue over it and that looked pretty nice as well. When it was all said and done this is what I ended up with.



So who knew this yellow holo polish over Zoya Dea would produce this subtle holo greenish color. For the record the Sally Hansen HD Hue looks more yellow if you do a normal layer over tope of Dea.



Anyway I am tired after experimenting around so much so I think I am going to call it at night. By the way these pics were taken indoors this evening. I'll see if I can get a sunlight pic tomorrow if the sun manages to peep through the clouds. Good night!!

My BundleMonster Plates are Here!!

With so many fun images to choose from I don't even know where to begin. The easiest place is to lay out exactly what you have so I took a picture of each plate. This is my little BundleMonster image reference. If you haven't gotten BundleMonster and want to see photos of all the plates here is a slideshow or you can head directly to my Flickr photostream as well.



Hope this helps. Many reviews and manis to come!! I am excited :-)

Chocolate Mousse? Noo...It's Zoya Dea

Nobody can tell me this color doesn't look like chocolate mousse. Seriously, I want to take a spoon and eat it. It is Big 3 Free after all. Just kidding, no eating nail polish kiddies. This isn't the typical bright color with some sort of zing that I typically wear which is precisely why I bought it. Expanding your horizons goes for choosing polish colors as well. I purchased this as part of the Zoya Exchange program and I am glad I did. It is a nice brown the applies like butter. Two coats and you are done.

I tried something a little different with this mani that most polish addicts recommend and that is "wrapping your tips". I painted the free edge before painting my second coat and also did it for my topcoat. We'll see what kind of wear this mani gets. Enough babble, on to the picture.



Why I always think I can get in the bed and not fall asleep is beyond me. This has a layer of OPI Top Coat and Drip Dri Drops and I still manage to make a mess of them. Looks like I have a matte fingerprint on my nail. Grrrrr. I'll learn my lesson sooner or later. No worries though, I will just do a design on them to cover it up. What color do you think will look nice with this? I was thinking a pink or mint green.

Donating Blood- It's That Time Again

Wow does 56 days really go by that fast? April 9th seems like just yesterday but here we are, a little more than 56 days have past, and today I did my 2nd blood donation. I will give props because today I was in and out in about 45 minutes which is about half the time it took in April. The rep said one of complaints was the amount of time it takes. In fairness, the phlebotomist I had in April was new and triple checked everything (which was fine with me).



Anyhow here is the part where I encourage you to donate blood. In about 1 hour every 8 weeks you can help save plenty of lives. Please do it if you can. Check for a donation center or blood drive near you here.

Sally Hansen LCD

Sally Hansen released a new line of HD colors of which I picked up all but one. Here are some swatches of LCD.



The pinky finger shows 3 coats of only LCD. Even though it is very sheer it is very pretty. My second fave would be the LCD over the black. It makes the black look purple, me likey!!! Then for kicks I did it over a white and a pink polish to see what the turnout would be. Here is another picture in little bit darker lighting that captures the sparkle.



Which do you like the best?

Can You Do My Nails?

Recently my daughter and her friends had an event to go to and her friend asked her to do her nails. I had this waiting for them. How fun to let girls be girls and do each others nails.



The above pic is 166 polishes and however many nail art pens. It is small collection compared to lots of you gals/guys but look at what it was in November of 2009!!



How fast has your collection grown?

It's So Hard to Say Goodbye..

Just kidding..but I am kind of bummed my nail broke. I knew it was coming but patched it so when it did break the break wouldn't be so low in the nailbed. The day has come to say goodbye to my nail. So long to probably my longest nail ever. Time to start again.



This is my ring finger which seems to grow faster than the others. We'll see.

Liquid Gold- Zoya Goldie

Happy Friday to my dear readers. For the last few days I have been wearing another Zoya that is amazing. This polish was a recent part of my Zoya Exchange haul. It applies like liquid gold (I really don't know that for sure but it just sounds good) hence the name Goldie!!

The first pic is no flash and 2 coats. I would have left it at two but I tried to do something 2 seconds after painting my nails so of course I got little nics. The second pic is flash with 3 coats. The second pic is the more accurate pic.

I think this would be a lovely pedi color as well. Right now I have Zoya Gabrielle on my toes. No feet pics so I will post once I do a mani with it. Do you mind posting pictures of your feet? I haven't quite gotten there yet.

Am I A Sale Junkie

Oh, geez!! I have done it again. Walked into a store seen a sale and bought things I wasn't even planning on buying. My justification is that it was 75% off. Does that make it okay? I need some input please.

The mission was to find 75% off nailpolishes at CVS. That mission totally failed because there was no polish marked down whatsoever. They DID have some makeup items 75% off though. I strolled up and down the aisle seeing what was what and grabbed a few items. Once it was all said and done I had spent $23.25. WHAT!! The normal price would have been $93.18 so I got a great deal right?

Here is a pic of the items I got.


A lot of lip glosses, some eyeliner, and pigments.

Nine items for that price is not so bad right. The real question though is how much do I need these items or was it just the thrill of the sale. I am going to say the latter because when I left the store I had a sinking feeling that I wanted to spend that money elsewhere. Where you ask? On nailpolish of course.

So here is the deal, all of the HIP products go back because even though I got them for a steal after thinking about it, I don't NEED them and I would rather put the money elsewhere. The rest of the products get to stay. My justification for this is, at $2 a pop for lipgloss and the way my daughter loses it, I may as well stock up for the summer.

With the HIP products going back that puts $11.72 in my pocket which is going toward:

BUNDLE MONSTER IMAGE PLATES!!!

Sally Hansen Xtremewear Sale

Just a heads up that RiteAid is having BOGO on Sally Hansen XTremewear polishes. If you haven't tried them you may want to pick some up. They are great for water marbling and at the price point I would try a franken or two as well. I already have quite a few but I grabbed these because I don't have anything similar in my polish collection.


The Pacific Blue color is way off but I just couldn't get it. It is a lot more purple than this. The Real Teal is pretty close.

For a grand total of $3.17 I am glad to add these to my collection. You can check out some of my creations with Sally Hansen products by clicking here.

Happy Memorial Day- A Little Late

I hope everyone enjoyed their Memorial Day weekend. Here is a photo of the mani I sported for Memorial Day.

Wet N Wild French White Creme
Sally Hansen Cherry Red
Sally Hansen Blue It
Wet N Wild Psycho

This was the first time I tried sponging and it is quite fun. Thank goodness not as messy as water marbling. The great thing is if you mess up you can just sponge back over it with your base color. The glitter bottle just happened to be on the table for a project my daughter was doing. I didn't use it for the mani at all.