50 FOLLOWER GIVEAWAY!

It's finally here; my first giveaway!  I am so excited.  But I also haven't a clue as to what I am doing so, lets cross our fingers and hope for the best here.  I feel a little like Oprah in the sense that I have been able to find a few of my favorite colors to date and I get to share them with you.. MY FAVORITE THINGS!! Ok, the goods to be given away:

 8 polishes and their descriptions;


-Funky Fingers "Cheshire" - This is my favorite purple ever.  A purple creme, seen HERE

-Funky Fingers "Voodoo" - Black jelly base with teeny tiny little copper shimmers, seen HERE

-Funky Fingers "Elephunk" - Grey creme base with with the tiniest hints of a silvery shimmer, seen HERE

-Funky Fingers "Sand and Stilettos" - A DENSE silver glitter with holo glitters, too.

-Funky Fingers "Tribal" - A bright turquoise creme that is to die for, seen as the base HERE 

-Funky Fingers "Icicle Lights" - A glitter packed mix of purple, green and red tiny hexagonal glitters.

-China Glaze "Naughty and Nice" - A deep dark plum jelly.

-Cover Girl Nail Slicks "Sun Kissed" - A shimmery yellow with yellow and gold looking shimmers.

Here are some closer shots (sorry about the horrific photography here) of the polishes.

Chesire - Elephunk - Tribal

Sand and Stilettos - Icicle Lights - Voodoo

Naughty and Nice - Sun Kissed

RULES:
1. MUST be a follower.
2. MUST provide GFC name & contact email.
3. Giveaway closes at 11:59 PM on Monday, March 7th EST.

EDIT: This contest is open to the Continental United States Only; excluding Hawaii and all other countries.

Submissions are now closed; winner will be announced shortly!

Goodluck to everyone :D !!!

i was sick & qipao looking mani

For the sake of all things sweet and juicy (wtf?), it is a damn miracle that I am here to type this to you today, at 4:45am.  Technically it’s Thursday at this point, but my internal clock couldn’t tell you that, I had to check a calendar just now.

Saturday evening around 4pm my friend called me to go to the store with her because she had to pick a few things up before her baby arrived (which it has - between now and then, it’s a boy! Congrats mama!)  Anyways, the second I walked in the door upon coming home I felt a kind of slight scratchy feeling in my throat like I needed a drink of water.  So I had a bottle of water and within in the next few hours it was all downhill. 

I’ve never, ever had such a fast onset of an illness before in my life.  It literally developed within 2 hours.  By 7pm I had a 102.0 fever, the chills, an intensified sore throat, dizziness and body aches that came from the left field beyond my wildest dreams.  I managed to take my sick ass to the doctor on Sunday morning and they said it was a virus that had to run its course. OK, thanks here’s your co-pay!

So from Saturday evening til about Wednesday afternoon I had taken roughly 18 showers to try and keep warm, taken well over the recommended dosage of Advil and Exedrin to keep the fever at bay (which by the way, was at a steady 103.3 for THREE DAYS, I’m sure my liver will be thanking me later), and had not slept more than 1 consecutive hour.  I kept blacking out from delirium from my fever.  I’d wake up and not remember falling asleep, but the same episode of a show would still be on, so I was literally just going in and out of consciousness.

Didn’t do my substitute hours at work on Monday and haven’t been to class yet this week.  The only things I have eaten are popsicles and chicken rice soup and water.  I feel about 75% as of now, which feels amazing compared to how I was earlier this week.  But I am pissed, me and the boy had plans for Sunday and Monday that had to be canceled. He was very understanding and just wanted me to feel better, but I wasn’t understanding of the laws of crap and still remain bitter. 

Anyways, I am feeling a lot better and finally have the energy to sit at the computer long enough to do anything semi-productive.  Since this is a nail polish blog and not a “Cathryn what are you going to bitch about next blog” I will show you a mani I had done before the damned bubonic plague hit me.

I used a coat of China Glaze Matte Magic over my previous post's manicure and jazzed it up with some nail art.  I cannot even tell you what I used aside from white and gold nail art polish and one of the BM plates; that's about as detailed as I can get, lol.  The fever erased my short term memory.

Reminds me of one of these numbers.  A qipao it's called.  I didn't do it on purpose but I couldn't see anything else when I finished!  Image is from here, it is not my picture.

And here it is again!

Ok lovies I certainly did not forget my giveaway that I will be doing soon.  It may be a day or two behind because of how backed up I am on all other aspects of life right now but it will be up and posted by Sunday.

hidden treasure & 50 readers!! :D

So I mentioned previously about a long time lemming that a total dollface, Anne from MUA, sent me out of sheer kindness.  I would always check drugstores for it even though I was well aware it was a LE and I most likely wasn't going to find it.

TA-DA! Sally Hansen "Hidden Treasure" :D :D :D!!

Look at it, sitting there so coyly. Oh yes, I am fancy.
"Hidden Treasure" is a to-die-for iridescent flakey polish that lives up to its hype (to me at least!).  I typically don't catch onto the fuss of popular polishes aside from "For Audrey" and now this one :D Guilty!

This is 2 delicious coats of "Hidden Treasure" over two coats of Funky Fingers "Off with Their Heads!".  Which is a pink, SO deeply pink, that it appears red.  But it isn't, promise.

Anyone else seeing Chinese New Year's all over my nails.  I am, and not on purpose.  It reflects mostly gold and hints-o-green. Love (=

HOLY CRAP! 


As of right now, I have 51 readers! Well, 50 if I don't count myself, lolol.  When I started blogging again in December I had 13 (or 17?) readers and from then I have accumulated quite a few, and that is just really exciting to me.  I do this because I enjoy it, I enjoy what others post and it really is nice to be part of a community where others take an interest in something you also love.

I see a lot of people who totally link-whore up other blogger's comment sections with their own blogs.  I've never been one to do that so I really feel that people follow because they either like what they saw or take a general interest in what I am posting - and that is a great feeling.

Thank you all for helping me achieve this milestone, even though it may be a simple one.  I enjoy reading your blogs everyday, as well as your comments and I hope you enjoy mine, as well.  Ok, enough using the word "enjoy".  That was like 50 times rapid fire.

As promised, a giveaway will be held in celebration of my growing blog.  Look for a follow up later this week, I'm thinking late Thursday or Friday. xoxo!

cheshire & purple diamonds

Puuuuuuuuuuuuurple, YAY!

This is 4 coats of Funky Fingers "Cheshire" (One of my all time favorites!)  Its a pretty purple creme and I love it all over the place.

Its a pretty purple creme and I love it all over the place.

Then I added 2 coats of Sinful Colors "Purple Diamond" over it and wheeee sparkly (=  I think this is glass flecks, but I could be wrong.

Look at the curves on her!
ONE MORE FOLLOWER TO 50!!
Ok, bedtime, goodnight!

milani gems & a craptastic story

A week or so ago, a lovely lady on MUA made a thread asking about blogs.  I messaged her and gave her my link to check mine out and we got to talking about the hunt of long wanted polishes, etc.  I told her about one I’ve been searching for at stores but haven’t come across and she just so happened to have it, and not care for it.  Fast forward to today and it’s here!  She sent a “bonus” polish along with it, which is what I am showing you today.

Never had a particular desire for Milani “Gems” but I am really happy she decided to throw it in there.  My cuticles and nails are truthfully a hot mess from the damage of this week between working at the daycare, the constant washing and being too exhausted by the end of the day to even try and paint them nicely.

“Gems” is such a quick solution to all those problems!  I shlapped on about 6 or 7 coats, to make it as visually opaque as possible without creating a visible buildup of depth.  It’s so friggin’ flashy, it disguises craptastic cuticles in a second!

I've never owned, nor wore, anything remotely similar to this polish before.  Look at me!! I'm outside my comfort zone!

Such a little show-stealer (=

Reminds me a little of Little Italy in NYC.

So, I have a story that I feel obligated to share.  It’s ridiculously disgusting, which is even more reason to share.  Anybody with a child probably won’t be fazed, but I’ve never had this happen to me before and I’ve been working around children and daycares for nearly 7 years at this point in my life.

Infant room teacher has the flu and since I am a substitute and have no classes on Thursdays I said I would cover.  I was especially excited because I love the infant room and have so much fun with the babies.  Anyways, there were supposed to be 4 infants but one was a no-show, so I had 3 babies under my watch.  Two were initially terrified of my unfamiliar face but quickly warmed up; more so than their weary “who the fack are you?” parents.  I understand you don’t know me, but the second you walk out the door your kiddies will forget and be fine.  (A lot of the parents who have older children are very familiar with me because I used to be fulltime there, the new babies parents are rightfully skeptical of a new face!)

Anyways, I don’t know these kids schedules by heart. Everything was typed up by the teacher who was out.  So I was following a tentative schedule that really might as well have been a diaper because these babies were soooooo doing their own thing today!

We are supposed to change diapers every two hours, but check in between for poo and if we notice they need a changing (pee or the poops) we do it.  Anyway I felt this 3-month-old’s diaper and she was dry.  I took her out of a bouncer and put her on the mat for some tummytime.  I got up and walked to the sink and she went balls-to-the-wall ballistic on me.  I went over and picked her up and decided to change her diaper because she felt wet all of sudden.

Oh, it was beyond “wet”.  She had just been changed 45 minutes prior and technically wasn’t due for a changing, but there really is no technical aspects to a baby so I should have seen this coming.  And then it happened. I got the whiff of a lifetime.  I am so used to poop at this point but holy hell was this a dump.

All of a sudden, my hand is wet (I’m still holding her.)  UGH.  Crap all over my hand. Crap all over the baby. Crap all over my shirt.  This little peanut of a baby has crapped through her onesie and her outfit onto my hand.  So I lay her on the changing table and realize the paper towels are out of reach as well as the sink.  I can’t leave her unattended and I don’t want anymore crap on my shirt so I ended up putting a glove over my hand which at this point still has poo on it.(I bet that's GREAT for cuticles!)

She’s in a pleasant mood since releasing the dump-of-all-dumps and is squirming and giggling, so getting her clothes off was like solving a labyrinth with no eyesight and a hangover.  They needed to be pulled over her head (since baby clothes designers decided THAT is the most convenient tactic for infant clothes removal!) and obviously they’re COVERED in crap.  That all took a solid 5 minutes.  Finally I have her nakie and I’m wiping her down and used nearly ½ a pack of wipes but really had no other choice.  So shes laying there all giggly and nakie and I reached up to grab her bin to get a new outfit for her.

I look down.. I’m not even making this up, she has pissed all over the changing table.  And now her head is soaked.  Now the other baby in the room realizes she’s due for a bottle.  And the third baby took her socks off and went to town on her eczema.  (Luckily she didn’t break the skin this time because I was able to catch it in time by calling for help.)  it’s like they mentally radioed each other for those 15 minutes and decided just screw with me.

It was a straight scene out of a movie.  I've never, ever, had any scenario come remotely close to this one.  One screaming hungry baby, one itching feverously in a panic and the third literally rolling around in pee.  Still, I couldn’t pick up the baby because I didn’t want to destroy my clothes anymore.  I was able to get a teacher from another room to feed the hungry baby and put socks back on the itchy baby while I cleaned up the damage from bladder control baby. 

The whole entire ordeal lasted about 25 minutes.  Between sanitizing the changing table twice and bagging up multiple soiled outfits, having to cool down the bottle that was now over heated for hungry baby.. holy jeez.  On top of all this, there was a tour arriving at 4:15 for parents interested in the infant room.  All I could do was laugh.  You have to in a situation where you’re being tag teamed by a bunch of infants.

guest nails x3

Well I haven't posted at all this weekend, so to make up for that and to ease my guilty conscience, I am posting 3 guest nails that I've accumulated over the past few weeks.  I took the pictures right when I was finished but not showing them til now. I hope you enjoy these pretties!

These are the roomie's nails.  A base color of Funky Fingers "Mad Hatter", three coats I believe.

Pretty blues (=  We topped it off with two coats of a sparkly topcoat of China Glaze "Blue Hawaiian".

As cute as this was, it chipped the next day when she was washing dishes.  Not just a little chip, but basically sheeted right off her nails.  Sad sad!

These are my sister's nubbins.  She expressed interest in growing them out and asked me how to.  I explained to her she needed a constant manicure and before she knew it, they'd be longer than she expected!

This is 3 coats of Funky Fingers "Cheshire" and I used some Art Club polishes to the little designy lines on her ring finger.

Last but not least is my BFF from grade school.

This is two (or three?) coats of China Glaze "Ruby Pumps" with Orly "Liquid Vinyl" for the tips.

Incredibly, I am only 3 followers away from my milestone making 50!  As promised, there will be a giveaway once 50 is reached.  However, it will have to be scheduled around my pay period, lol.  So if 50 is reached before I get paid again, then I will make a notice about the giveaway being stalled a little bit until that day comes.  I have most of the stuff for the giveaway already, but I've never sent nail polish before and I haven't a clue how much shipping will be.  It was also be a USA only since it is my first and I don't want to overwhelm myself quite so soon!

Also a TOTAL DOLLFACE from MUA sent me a polish I've been FIENDING for!  Much more then a lemming, much much more.  I'll keep you on the edge of your seats until it arrives.

Thanks for reading & as always, images are clickable for enlarged detail!