I suck at blogging ... here's what I've been up to.

Sooo ... why do I save all this stuff up and post a bunch and then disappear for weeks again, rinse repeat? I dunno. I'm so particular I guess that it takes me what I feel is TOO LONG to put a post together. I need to work on being short and sweet, LOL!


Let's see ... we had some vacation ... well, the kids did. I worked the whole time I was kid free while the kids were with their Nan and Titi at Yogi Bear Campground. Didn't do a DAMN thing. *pout* At least I was there for the watermelon eating contest!

Mr. Cool and Collected

Mr. I Wouldn't Smile Nice for a Pic for Mom to Save My Life ...
Seriously, this is the best I could do ... tried to catch him off guard, otherwise, got goofy faces, LOL!

The Divine Miss M and her summer hair troubles ... LOL!
Camping happens.

We had a plague of sorts ...

This is a cicada fresh out of its skin hanging RIGHT on the top of my front door. The wings were almost fluorescent (dude, I spelled that right on the first try! WIN!) green. That's Funky Colors in Bourbon St ...

A turtle was rescued:

Gives Box Turtle new meaning, eh?? Hahahaaaa!

He's CLEARLY pissed, but has no idea how lucky he is. If the neighbor girl, aka THE DEVIL, had found this critter first, she would have taken care of it to death. Instead, it just had to endure about 8 hours in my Amazon box and then I took it a mile down the road to the creek (where it prob came from, and shoulda freakin STAYED! Damn turtle and his damn wandering ...) when Mr. Raz got home with the car.



I've been on a crafting kick. I'm determined to finish Miss M's blanket. She's been salivating over the thought of a massive blankie for a full year ... yeah, I started it THAT long ago.

It's coming along. :)

My drive for sustainable living on the CHEAP has found me reclaiming fabrics around the house for use with later projects. I tore up my kids' baby bedding (kept the quilts intact, ripped up bumpers and sheets and crib skirts), then I went on a scavenger hunt to find the sewing machine I got for xmas 8 years ago. No really. It was a scavenger hunt. Someone switched it from it's original box on me. >:( NOT cool. Anyway, this is my first official thing I sewed ever:

It's a sandwich bag!

For ... silly bands??? (do YOU have sandwiches at the ready on your desk JIC there's a photo op? Thought not ... ;) )

Looks pretty good, right? Look closer ...

Whoopsie!

There's nothing in the rules that says velcro has to be affixed completely ... right??

Orrr that you have to stick to the edges ... (OPI Green-Wich Village btw)

You know, straight lines are ... soooo overrated.

Look, it looks GREAT in the first pic, k? Stop laughing at me!!

Some good cooking has been happening around here.

I made Lemon Curd A La Rachael Ray . Be sure to read my review on the recipe page! This shit is GOOOOOOOD, y'all. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD. For real. My fav thing to eat it on so far has been ritz crackers. OMG, yum.

Last night I had a craving for something I never ever liked when I actually lived in the south ... Homemade biscuits with sausage gravy. I'm not a biscuit person for the most part, but these were a HUGE hit. Fluffy Biscuits on AllRecipes.com I did a modified drop biscuit at the advice of my mom. I HATE rolling out doughs. It ALWAYS ends in disaster for me, so I avoid it at all times. So, I WAS going to just drop dipper fulls onto the parchment and let the biscuits assume whatever shape they wanted to, but mom said to use less liquid than the recipe called for and liberally flour my hands and shape the biscuits the same way you shape a hamburger patty. It worked nicely (thanks mom!). I should have taken a pic, but I didn't. Anyway, if you like tender biscuits with a mild flavor, these are excellent. As for the sausage gravy, well, I don't need no stinkin' recipe for that! But you might, so here's what I did:

Sausage Gravy by raz

1lb roll sausage
3 or 4 tb all purpose flour
Milk, 2-3 c
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook sausage in large skillet (I like to use my cast iron) until nice and browned. When it's nice and done, remove the sausage from the pan and get rid of all but 3 or 4 tb of the grease.

Lower heat to medium and dump 3 or 4 tb flour in. Wisk it like hell. You want a paste that isn't wet enough to slide around in the pan, but isn't so dry that it can't be worked with the wisk. Add more flour if necessary. You are making a roux ... the point of a white roux is to cook the flour as LONG as possible without it turning brown. If it's bubbling hard, cut the heat back further. Try to get at least 3 full minutes of cook time, but if it starts turning brown, pour the milk in QUICK!

Start by pouring 2c milk in. Wisk the hell out of it until it comes to a full boil (you may need to crank the heat a bit, but no higher than med-hi, K?), this is as thick as this mixture will ever get. It will probably be too thick for gravy, which is fine. Just add more milk until you get your desired thickness. If you put too much milk in, you're pretty much screwed to a life of runny gravy, so go slow ... 1/2 c at a time. :)

Add salt and pepper to taste then add sausage back in. Serve over split biscuits! Mmmm ... Looks like a pile of vomit, but tastes like 500 pounds. Hoooo-boy! That's how we do!


Nail polish: Of course I've been doing my nails, but not taking a whole lot of pics. I'm wearing OPI Green-wich Village right now, and I love it. I have a bit of an experiment going on ... I'll post about that soon. I've also worn BB Couture Sex on the Beach (a blog giveaway prize!!! SQUEE!), which was INCREDIBLE, but my pictures SUCKED, so I want to swatch it again ... what's that? You want to see it anyway? Ok ... just one. I want to do this right so Kim from Overall Beauty will like me, LOL! No one likes someone who takes shitty pics, right? ;)

See?? I told you, bad pics. BAAAAD pics. Does it help to know that this was after 7 days of wear though?

The end!

Sweet giveaway at Painted Lady Fingers!!

Does this picture make you want to drool??




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Tough girl FAIL, bug WIN

Soooo, this morning when I arrived to work, I was greeted by a MASSIVE BUG. It was laying on it's back all dead looking by the cash register, so I grabbed a container and an excessive amount of paper towels to brush it into the container with. As soon as I touched it with the paper, it SPRANG to life and came right for me. I swear. Right for me.


So, maybe it was just running for it's life, but still. It was about the size of a quarter, like a hybrid beetle/roach thing. Big clicky exoskeleton and ... just ugh.

Anyway, I put on one hell of a display. Screamed ... all the mall walkers were looking at me. LOL!! Then I tried to just put the container down on top of it to trap it (that's my method when there's no one around to kill things for me), but it was in a corner, and the rounded edges of the container wouldn't get it. A customer came in to get their glasses, and I said "Picking up? OK, you're just going to have to wait a minute ... I'm having a stand off with a bug, and I'm not taking my eyes off it till it's taken care of ..." (because, you know, if you take your eyes off it for even a fraction of a second, it'll be all up in your pants leg or in your hair ... THAT display would be memorable and a half for any witness)

They looked at me like I was completely stupid and perhaps crazy, but the dude got it into the container (after examining it extensively *eyeroll* I don't care WHAT it is, strangerman, I just want it GONE, preferably DEAD!), and because it wouldn't be prudent to allow him into our lab to get to the back door, and he CLEARLY didn't intend to kill it for me, he handed off the container and I ran shrieking to the back door with it and flung it outside.



It was an event. I'm good at making an ass of myself.

Orly Rage

This is just a super fast swatch of Orly Rage, but I have worn it as a full mani ...

Orly Rage is a rose gold with silver metallic fleck polish from their Foil FX line which also featured a silver and a gold.

Outside, full sun

Indoors, natural light

Sooo ... I'm a little bummed about this one because the color just seems too bland for something called RAGE (Killing in the NAME of ...). I really wanted the copper/rose aspect to show through the most, like a brand new penny, but it's nothing close. As you can see in full sun, it's rather pinkish, but very pale and almost silver leaning. While, inside it looks like a pale gold. Other than the blandness of the color, I have very little to complain about. The formula is nice and thin, goes on evenly, and dries quickly. Shown is 2 coats with no base or top. It's got lots of oomph as far as the effect goes, very sparkly and eye catching. It does dry to a satiny finish though. It wears pretty nicely, I can get 3 or 4 days out of it with minimal chipping if I use a top coat and good base.

So there ya go.

The rest of the Blush minis, skittle style.

I REALLY ought to work on my cuticle care and overall hand care ... I'm increasingly embarrassed over the shape of my hands. Blah. :(

Anyway ... here are the other 5 colors in the jelly Blush set I posted about a few days ago. From thumb to pinky they are: Stayin' Alive, Can U Dig It?, Pychadelic [sic], Hustle, and Boogie.

Indoors, natural light

Outside, bright sun

OK, so, overall? I guess I got my money's worth ($3.99) ... Blah. The red is nice, the green is just ok, the rest pretty much suck. The formula on these was just as bad as the first one I swatched. Got super glumpy and thick right away, streaky, etc. The purple was the most disappointing polish of the bunch. Look how boring!! It was more sheer than the yellow and green too! I used 4 coats for the purple and 3 for the rest.


These are definitely going into Miss M's collection ... DNW for myself.

Some Claire's bargains = NIGHTMARE!!! (pic heavy)

Sooooo, Miss M and I got the head's up that Claire's would be having their 10 for 10 clearance sale over the last weekend. Since she had a birthday giftcard burning a hole in my wallet (not a mistake, lol. Her gc, my wallet), we were in there bright and early Thursday morning when the sale was set to start. We hit the proverbial "jack-pop." She got about a gabuhjazillion pairs of earrings to play with once her ears heal from piercing, a neon orange "pearl" necklace (she insists it's her birthstone, just orange. Don't ask me! LOL), tons of crap with "Awwwww, kitties!!!" on it, lots of "lickstick" and of course mommy made a bee line for the polish ...


So, I thought I had scored BIG when I saw this set:



Cute, right?!? A set of 7 mini creme brights for a dollar?!? Weeeeelll ... maybe not such a hot deal ... When I applied the first one, I noticed an odd smell. Is that Elmer's Glue?!? But I stayed the course and continued with my skittles ... As the first coats dried, I noticed that even though they applied opaque and creamy, they dried sheer and had sparse glitter. OK. Whatever. It could be interesting. So I carried on. Three coats later, and still smelling glue, I wondered if maybe these are peel off polishes.

Here's the red, blue, orange, purple and pink.

Inside, low artificial light

Outside, full sun

The next pics have the yellow and green on index and middle, but thumb, ring and pinkie have my other finds; Emerald City, Fire and Magic. I'll comment on those three later.

Inside, low artificial light

Outside, full sun

OK, speaking JUST about the 7 polish set, they *are* cute, but definitely weird. They would never have built full opacity. I was relatively certain by the feel of the finish that they were peel off paints. Sooo, I started peeling!

OMG!!!! WTF?!?!?! That shit STAINED!!! BAD!!!

Thank goodness, the stains have since faded (remover and acetone didn't touch it, but each time I applied another polish and removed, they got a little lighter. You know when you get gum stuck to your face after blowing a big bubble, and the only thing that can get it off is a larger wad of chewed gum, the bond between the bits of gum is stronger than the bond between skin and gum? I think it was like that concept), and I'm now just a little bit yellowed, but DAMN! That was the worst dollar I ever spent!!! I'm not passing these on, I'm throwing them OUT! BOOOO Hiiissssssss ...

Onto the other 3 ...

OK, this will be short and sweet because I don't have a lot to say about any of them, lol. Let's see the full sun picture again.




Emerald City (thumb): Foil/metallic style with bits of silver and green. Similar in concept to the Orly Foil FX line, but no comparison formula-wise. Thick, goopy application. Good coverage though (pictured is one coat) and it evened out fine. It's a nice color, just not my type. For a buck though, it's a win.

Fire (ring): Neon pinkish orangish red. Pretty sheer. 3 coats shown. Nice smooth application. My pic is no where NEAR coloraccurate, it's a neon. It's just not possible for a $50 camera to do, LOL!!! If you're used to looking at pictures of nail polish though, I'm sure you can see that one stripe of neony goodness on my ring finger and imagine this one stopping traffic. I want to wear this one as a full mani soon.

Magic (pinkie): Sigh. I don't really have anything *bad* to say about this polish, but I don't have anything *good* to say either. I know a lot of people really like this one, and some people even have it on their lemming list, so I feel bad for not loving it, but ... It's a darkish blurple jelly with golden shimmer. It's a fine color, but it's just ... not my thing, I guess. Here's a pointless close up indoors:







The end!

Miss M's birthday money nails ...

MEOW!!!!

Betcha can't guess how long these bad boys stayed on ... LOL!!! Oh well, it was good fun for the 80 cents she spent on them (thanks to mama and her bargaining ways!!). And how jealous are we of all those silly bands??? Very.

All grown up, my brave girl

Last night, The Divine Miss M was treated to dinner by her Nan as a belated birthday treat, and it just so happened that she chose a restaurant in the mall ... I also work in the mall, so I joined them when I got finished up. After our ice cream, we headed over to Claire's to see if they had anything good to spend her birthday gift card on. M immediately headed for the clip on earrings, because, at 7 years old, she had not yet worked up the nerve to have her ears pierced.

When I saw the price for the clip ons, I was appalled. $12 for 3 pair of crappy plastic 'lost in 5 minutes' clip on earrings is crazy! I couldn't, in good faith, let my poor daughter get hosed for that! Soooo, I said "Hey, I bet you can get your ears pierced for the same price as the bunch of clip on earrings you want! You could spend your bday money on that instead ..." She looked at me with eyes that showed the wheels churning in her head. "But it's going to hurt!" she said. "It's only a quick pinch, baby. I bet it hurts less than when I snag a tangle combing your hair," I replied. She said "Nah, " and shook her head.

THEN, Nanny came in the store (she had been at Hallmark). When she heard that I had suggested M get her ears pierced, she shrieked "M, baby, if you get your ears pierced tonight, I'll buy you any pair of earrings you want ..." I then said "I bet they have your birthstone ..."

I think we convinced her!

Click to enlarge to see her pretty purple tourmaline earrings! They didn't have pearl, her true birthstone, tourmaline is the alternate I guess. Once they heal enough to switch out the earrings, I'll get her pearls.


She didn't cry at all. The first ear, she had tears well up in her eyes, but I think it was more nerves than pain. The 2nd ear was easy peasy because she knew exactly what to expect. Within 2 minutes, she was skipping through the mall singing "It doesn't even hurt one bit!" That's my girl ...

iNOTD: Blush Funkadelic (ETA better pics)

As if I have an iPhone ... HA! No, these pics are instead coming from the worlds SHITTIEST phone, the Motorola W490. Oh well. I'm sure you understand.

So, I have this teeny little set by the brand Blush that I picked up last summer at Ross for 3 bucks that I LOVE. Great colors, all jellies, great formula, great price ... So when I saw ANOTHER Blush set at Ross with similar, but slightly different jelly colors and slightly bigger bottles for 3.99, I was ON it! I did not HESITATE to spend my coffee money to obtain these pretties. LOL!!

So, first up, a sideways bottle pic. YAY! (FTR, I took these at work, which is also where I completed this mani, LOL, so, that's why you can see the random things like my tote and a industrial blow dryer for glasses, lolol!!)


From top to bottom, you see Boogie, a boring in the bottle dusty mauvey pink. There's always a meh in collections, right? Next is Stayin' Alive, a BRIGHT orangy red. You'll just have to trust me that it's super bright because it looks pink in the pic. Funkadelic is next, a bright but dusty aqua turquoise teal jelly. Could you DIE?! I could. After that is Can U dig it?, bright spring green. YAAAYYY!!! Next is Pychedelic [sic] which is a hot sunshine yellow jelly. Last is Hustle, a dusty medium-dark purple. The only one I couldn't care less about is Boogie. The rest are exciting! :)

Ugh, I hate that I'm posting such terrible pictures, but I'd rather post something than nothing at all. Here goes ... First pics, then review.

Funkadelic under fluorescent light ... 3 coats with Borghese Presto top coat.




Outside, overcast light.




SUN!!!! I got SUN!!!! ;)

OK, so it's photographing a little on the light side and slightly dustier, but overall, the color in the pics is pretty good. The first one is the best in terms of color. It's slightly neonish, so I'm not sure I would get better results with my real camera ... but I'll certainly give it a shot. At the very least, they won't be blurry, lol.

I had high hopes for Funkadelic based on my previous experience with the Blush brand of polish, which of course means that I was disappointed. :'( I LOVE the color, but this formula SUCKS! It was SO gluey and stringy, it felt like I was using decades old white out on my tips or hot glue or something. Coverage was pretty bad, these pics are all 3 THICK coats, I had no choice. I had to lay it on thick or deal with a huge, impossible mess. Even after 3 coats, it's still sheer in spots, but Presto did a decent job of evening it out. The worst part? Bubbles. I can see them down there ... lurking ... just waiting till I go to sleep tonight to rise to the surface and make my nails look STUPID!!! EEEK!!! As if they don't look doofy enough all filed waaaay down to make the 3 nubs (left pinky, right thumb and middle) look like they belong ...


*grumble grumble* Now my excitement for the other colors has turned to dread. I'll do a skittle swatch to see if any of them are salvageable, and if not, The Divine Miss M will love playing with them. Le sigh.


The End

ETA: Decent-ish pics

This was in my bathroom ... a little too blue.





This one was taken in the living room under regular, indirect CFL lighting. The white CFL washed the color out BIG time, but this is pretty close. It's just a tad more 'vivid' IRL.

Dollar Tree find: Maybelline Boot Leg

I'm kind of embarrassed to show these pictures because I've had this polish on since Saturday (so, as of today, 5 days), and it still looked pretty good this morning ... however, throughout the day, I got a ton of chips on my picture hand, lol! So I took some cruddy right hand pics tonight. *shrug*


So, this is one of the colors polish addicts have been scouring their dollar stores for, and I was lucky enough to find it last week! Woot!


True color was hard to capture on this one, at least under artificial light (I think it's just the nature of the purpley blue though, I haven't seen any color accurate pics elsewhere ...). Imagine a deep dusty blue with a vibrant purple flash loaded with silver shimmer ...



This one shows the purple off a little, aaand shows off my crooked middle finger. It was an owwie break. I'm working through it.


Can you tell I chew my thumbnail a little as a nervous habit? LOL



Ugh, hands are icky. Handwashing dishes + allergic to most lotions = dryyyyyy LOL! But let's talk about the polish. I used this over 2 coats of Essie Fill the Gap (don't want any stains! My niece's wedding is SATURDAY and she expects her bridesmaids to have sheer tips. Her auntie will comply even though it hurts ...), and topped it off with Seche Vite. So, what you see is 2 coats base, 2 coats color and 1 coat top. Boot Cut was THICK, but relatively easy to control. I had some glumpiness issues on the 2nd coat, and it was tricky wrapping my tips, but I managed. This wasn't going to dry all that well on it's own. You know how you can just TELL? Yeah. It was like that. However, after I added a thick coat of SV, it dried hard as a rock. Killer! All of these pics were taken on the FIFTH day of wear, and my 'hard on my nails' days are Sunday through Tuesday, so they took a beating. I am happy happy happy with the performance of this mani. I will definitely be scooping up a few more from this line (they had some bronzes I would have liked to have, just didn't have the muneez at the moment, so I'm going to go in with crossed fingers that the ones I wanted are still there tomorrow afternoon) if I can!

Anyway. It's 2:30 in the morning ... I just got finished baking The Divine Miss M's cupcakes because she was born this day at 6:54 PM 7 long years ago. *sheds tear* Tomorrow I'll have to devote a post to her to show you what I scored for the little lady off of FreeCycle tonight and what I found on my camera several weeks ago when I came home from work one night. It's so stinkin' cute, I guarantee you'll squee!

Night!