A couple Sally Hansen Xtreme Wears

I managed to get 6 of these for 50 cents each last week (incl Concrete shown in my last post). Here are Blue Icing and Golden Child.



Blue Icing is a frosty/pearly ice blue with holographic bar and regular glitter.





Something about this just doesn't work. I feel like the glitter should have been a separate top coat or something because after the 2nd coat dries, it looks like the glitter under from the first coat is a bumpy, festering mess. :( The color itself is actually really nice for a frosty sort of finish. There is a bare minimum of brush strokiness which is the major fault of a frost polish. Oh, this is actually 3 coats. I was hoping that maybe a 3rd thick coat AFTER the first 2 dried completely would hide the weird bumpiness, but it didn't. This bumpiness isn't like an ordinary glitter polish where top coat fixes the issue. It just really shows as a mar under the opaque finish of the polish. What the hell, it was only fitty cent.


Golden Child is exactly the same kind of polish, just gold instead of blue.





This is 2 coats (I used this one the other day, and decided to try the 3rd coat to see if it would solve the bumpy look problem with the blue). I think the visible nail line has to do with the lighting because I didn't notice it outside of these pics. I'm pretty bummed about this one because it's like the perfect freaking gold for my skin tone, but I won't end up wearing it because it's so damn bumpy and ucky looking. Blah.

A couple of crafty finishes and recent NOTD

I finished up some yarn wreaths that I've been procrastinating on big time. The small blue one is Miss M's and is now hanging in her room, the larger gold one is for my sister in law for giftmas, and the gold on on the wall is mine! The instructions I followed are here: Yarn Wreath with Felt Flowers



Next up is a paper garland I was inspired to make after receiving an excellent holiday card (thanks Lems!!). I originally saw the idea on whip up and can't remember the original blog the instructions were on to give credit. :( Sorry. I used all 'on hand' materials; cut the squares, triangles and circles from cardstock and sewed them together with the off white cotton thread I already had on the machine. A few clear tacks, one bump on the head and some clippy doodads I had laying around, and I am ready to display all the cards we receive this year!!




As for the tips, I'm currently wearing Zoya Irene, but haven't taken pics yet. Last week I wore Finger Paints Autumn Moonlight with a no name sheer pinkish glittery top coat over.




And just for fun, here's a pic of my cat Grapefruit. He's 11 years old, and we've had him since he was about 4 mos old. He followed my sister in law home from the bus stop, or so she says, lol. She was only 12 then, and is now 23. :) Anyway, Grapefruit is my oldest baby, lol, and he gets to do whatever he wants WHENEVER he wants. What he wanted last night was to sit on the tv and annoy the piss out of Mr. Raz! HAHAHAAAA!! I present to you "Decoration Cat."




So, there was a Payday candy bar commercial on at the time I took this pic. I find it both hysterical and embarrassing that there appears to be a nutty turd as big as life on my tv. LOLOL!!! Mmm. Appetizing. Makes me want to run right out and get one.

Lamest blogger award goes to ...

ME! I'm so lame.


Not really. I just haven't had interwebz access at home practically all summer. And I just lost my job of 10 years due to the economy. My employer had to close the doors of the retail establishment he's owned for over 25 years. :( It's all good though, I'm sure I'll be gainfully employed relatively soon. I hope ...


So, I've painted my nails umpty times since I last posted. Here's Maybelline Sweet Clementine:

Outside, slightly overcast.


Inside under crappy lighting.

With a coat of China Glaze 5 Golden Rings (or whatever it's called, from last year's holiday line) in a little bit of sun.


Inside under crappy lighting.

The color of Sweet Clementine isn't exactly as pictured. It's closer to the indoor pics though. Very creamy and bright at the same time, but not as dark as the outdoor pics show. I liked it a lot. It was so long ago that I can't comment on the wear. *shrug* I know I added the gold glitter to give it some oomph, not to hide tipwear or anything.


The Divine Miss M had her off off off off off off Broadway debut as the most incredible Who Whoville and the entire Jungle of Nool (Seussical Jr.) has ever seen ... That's right. I said it. Here's a blurry picture.


The boys were also present for the festivities. They don't have a theatrical bone in their combined bodies, but they are very interested in the technical aspect. They participated in stage crew. I *thought* I had a pic of them ... but apparently I don't. I have no idea. ... and then I had the great idea to poke around in my mother-in-law's photobucket acct. Ha! Pics! I haz them! They're from her phone though, so they're only slightly worse than the ones I take with a real camera, lol.

I don't think I have cool internet nicknames for the boys. When Mr. Raz and I are trying to talk about them when they're in the room, we refer to them as Senior Uno and El Doche (Doe- Chay), lol, so I guess that'll do. Senior Uno is on the right. He's 10. El Doche is 9. Please don't EVER ask Uno is Doche is his big brother. He gets SOOOO mad.


All 3 of my rockstars!

The Divine Miss M favors her mother with a picture. Can I have your autograph??


Mr. Raz is NOT fond of the camera. :D


I'm still working on Miss M's blanket. It's about 2/3 finished. I'm so over it, lol. Since I like to flit from thing to thing, and I ran across some really beautiful items while blog hopping, I have decided to learn to quilt. Here's the top of my first project, a table runner.


I'm pretty proud of myself. It's pretty much my first time sewing, and while my seams are crooked, and it will probably be wonky once it's all done, it's still freaking awesome.

A close up of my prints. I don't know why it's so dark. The colors are actually really bright and refreshing. They look kind of drab here. Prob caz we've had NO sun in weeks (except last Saturday, but that was then, this is now). I'd link the project I'm doing, but I'm not sure if it's allowed by the blog owner, so, umm, it's a project called City Windows Table Runner and it's at the Moda Bakeshop blog.


I guess that's it. I need to go cook dinner for the kids now. I don't feel like it, but they need to eat, right??


FIN

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!