Matchy! Matchy!!

Hi Everyone!  Happy Monday to all!  I'm not sure if I told you all that I got a new job and while it is fabulous and I mean it really is fabulous--I have an hour drive to and from and by the time I get home I'm sort of pooped and I'm not doing my nails daily anymore.  Sadface BUT I am trying to work on doing them 2 to 3 times a week so hopefully I feel like writing up a blog post to go with them too LOL!  I don't know if I told you this either but I am a pretty lazy individual.  Yep truth be told I am not a mover and a shaker.  I am more of a "oh thank god I'm home let me get my bra off and pajamas on and play some Farm Heroes Saga and read a hot cowboy book" kind of a gal.   And of course I try to fit in my manicure too LOL.

The other night I was doing a double stamped mani that really did not come out the way I intended it too.  I was bummed that it didn't really work so I went to bed and figured I would try to triple stamp with it the next day.  Well you all do know I like to match my mani's to my clothes so I went to grab a shirt in the same color family and off to work I went.  When I got there I had a few people remark how perfectly it matched my shirt!  SAY WHAT?! Do you mean to tell me my huge fail was someone a win?  Why yes, yes I do mean to tell you that LOL!

Here's a couple of quick pics I took of matching shirt and nails

That's a rather awkward hand pose LOL!

Here's a closeup shot

And now for the close up of the mani

It's hard to tell the design really because I put the dark grey over the mint color yet at the same time this does look pretty cool and matched my shirt perfectly

One thing I noticed though was that I had tip wear on the pointer finger!  What the french?  I hardly ever get tip wear even when I wear something for a few days!

I wish I could tell you I could be bothered to fix it before pictures but I really didn't notice it until after I took pics LOL!

So here's the thing though I did triple stamp over this baby tonight but you'll have to tune in tomorrow to see how it turned out!

Sugar Skull and roses!

Hi Everyone!  Happy Monday!  I had a bee in my bonnet last night to get this mani to turn out just right and I stayed up WAY too late but yay I did it!  Today I'm wearing some sugar skulls from Messy Mansion's MM71 plate and I added some vines from MM53 with some free hand roses. Yes I think we can all agree free hand is not my best nail art ability LOL!

Check it out!  Didn't it turn out cool???? One of my fb friends told me I was letting my inner biker chick shine!

I just used some of my sharpies to color in some areas on the images and then I did a spritz of alcohol to blend them a bit

I'm actually like the vines and roses too and I'm trying to decide how I could extend this mani by replacing the sugar skulls with something else and keeping the vines.  I guess you'll find out whether or not I come up with something cool!

Thanks for stopping by!! I hope you all have a fantastic day!!

Elvis--Always In My Heart

Hi Everyone!  Last Sunday was the 38th anniversary of Elvis' death.  It seems almost unbelievable he has been gone that long but it is most certainly true.  I was all prepared to do my way cool Elvis mani and 2 things happened.  The first thing was a family picnic I had to go to and I ran out of time getting it done before the picnic.  The second thing was the water decals I got did not show up over the mani I did LOL!

No worries!  I was able to fix the decal situation and this is the mani I wore for several days last week while I remembered the music idol I've held dear to my heart for so many years

I'm wearing Nails Inc Baker St and did some stamping decals with FUN 17.

At first I tried to use a blue suited Elvis over this decal and you couldn't see him LOL!

The black was definitely the way to go!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you all have a fantastic day!

The Digit-al Dozen Does Food--Root Beer Floats!

Hi Everyone!  Happy Wednesday!  I've got a story post to go along with my Digit-al Dozen mani today.  Our fearless leader, The Crumpet, always tells me how much she enjoys my story posts.

When I was a young girl about 7 or 8 we were on our way to see the 4th of July parade.  Parking was always a nightmare and some roads get blocked off so they can have the parade on Main St here in Racine.  It's kind of a crazy affair down there and I'm sure it didn't help matters much when you were two parents trying to watch out for an 8 year old a 6 year old and a 2 year old toddler.  Somewhere in the mayhem of parking and everyone getting out of the car and lawn chairs getting taken out and blankets and all the other things little girls need with them my mom slammed my fingers in the car door.

And it was locked.


Imagine that scene if you will!  Young girl screaming her head off, her sister crying right along side her in solidarity and two parents frantically trying to get the door unlocked.   Needless to say we did not go to the parade.  Instead my dad piled all of us back into the car and took us to a real old fashioned drug store with a wooden floor and I got a root beer float!  My first ever root beer float I believe.  And just like that no more tears


And so it began--that was the first time Al Lutze fed the hurt or the scared or the sad in one of his daughters and it would continue on for years.  

When I was 8 or 9 we were camping in a pop up camper in the middle of the thunderstorm and my mom wasn't at the camp ground yet.  She was a nurse and couldn't get off on Friday night so we went out there without her.  OMG it was a nightmare!  Thunder, lightning, the rain hitting hard on the roof and our poor dog Beauregard almost drown! Oh yes for real!! He was tangled around the camper leg and we kept hearing a bump coming from under the camper and dad figured out it was Beau hitting his head as we was trying to keep his head up.  The rule of no dogs in the camper was broken that night when Beau was let in to find the safety and comfort of our young girl arms.  All three of us were bawling--me, Lisa and Lynelle--and of course we were all crying for our mom who wasn't there LOL!  Dad opened the camper cupboards took out the box of ho-ho's (that was meant to last the entire weekend)  ripped off the top and said "here girls eat these!" and we did.

When I was 10 my mom had to go in to the hospital to get false teeth.  She had to be admitted overnight because it was dental surgery and back then they didn't do the whole you're in and you're out in a hot minute.  Dad was trying to explain to us what would happen because we were afraid for our mom--we were worried it would hurt.  He told us they put her to sleep--well that is not the right thing to say to me for sure because I was positive she wouldn't wake up and then I would never see her again so BAM the waterworks start. And back then if Laurie was crying so was Lisa and so was Lynelle.  Poor dad he went to the freezer took out the huge bucket o vanilla ice cream he bought by the gallon and just stuck 3 spoons in it and said "here girls eat this!" and we did.

Many times in my life food has been a great comfort and I can tell you this--it's never been celery.  Give me mashed potatoes and gravy and macaroni and cheese and chicken n dumplings and tapioca pudding and cherry turnovers.

When Lisa died our entire family was present.  We were all at her bedside watching her take her last breath and for me it was especially hard because I was so glad my sister--my beautiful sister--was no longer suffering.  But she was also gone--my best friend for almost 45 years.  We all felt a little lost.  We spent days with her in the end, no one left the house, no one moved too far from her bedside, and now suddenly she was gone.  Dad gathered the family together and said "I want everyone to go home, freshen up, change clothes, and we'll all meet at the diner in an hour".  So there he was once again at the saddest, most difficult time in our lives trying to ease the pain with food.

We grew up laughing at these things and teasing him but really these are some of the most treasured moments I have of my dad.  Despite the hardships I did suffer occasionally throughout my life my dad was there for me--my rock and many times my savior.

Today's mani is a celebration of all the wonderful memories I have of him

Here's to you Dad!

It's hard to see how gorgeous it is in this lighting but I used Bat Crap Crazy from 6 Harts for my root beer brown--it is a gorgeous brown with micro holo glitters in it!

Thanks for letting me share my story with you tonight!

An InLinkz Link-up

The Digit-al Dozen Does Food--Pizza Night Out!

Hi Everyone!  I'm sure it will come as no surprise to you that when a Digit-al Dozen week  is coming up many of us share our ideas and even give sneak peeks to our mani's.  You just knew there was going to be more than one of us doing pizza this week LOL!  So we decided to post together on the same day and have a pizza party!  Unfortunately this might be the only way we'll all be together somewhere for pizza.  Ah if I could only dream that we could all be together eating pizza--no pepoeroni for me please!

Today Jacki from Adventures In Acetone, Sheila from Pointless Cafe , Ashley from Ashley Is Polish Addicted and Victoria from Vic And Her Nails and me of course were all eating pizza!!!

I decided to just go classic and do some black, white and red for my mani today.  I used the new Messy Mansion MM61 plate which is a must for pizza lovers and one of my fave striped images from FUN 17.  My red is one of my fave reds ever OPI's Wocka! Wocka!

It's definitely a step away from all the yummy looking pizza everyone else  posted--this has a more vintage look and feel to it

I love my chef up at the top on my thumb!  He's putting the pizza in!

ooooh stone hearth pizze sooooo yummy!

I am very lucky to live in Racine, WI where we have authentic Italian pizza at the ready with a quick dial on the phone!  Hot delicious pizza! I like mine with cheese, sausage, mushrooms and onion--how about you?

Here's a look at the pizza plate from Messy Mansion--it's available in the shop now!

It's a must have plate if you love pizza!!

I'm heading over to see what everyone else has on their plate--hahah get it??!!! Food----on their plate! Ha I KILL me!!!

An InLinkz Link-up

The Digit-al Dozen Does Food--Citrus!

Hi Everyone!  Happy Monday!  This week the Digit-al Dozen is showcasing food.  Recently I got some really fabulous polishes from Painbox Polish and one of them is just SO sparkly and pretty and when you look at it it's just citrus in a bottle!  So I hauled out one of my MoYou Tropical plates and went to town! 

I don't know what it is but I just love a citrus or fruit mani!

The real star of the show is the gorgeous Waimea Waters.  Check out this beauty!

I used a couple of my Mundos for the stamping, Military Green and Fig Tree

All of these colors together are just a match made in Heaven!

What a fun mani for the nearing to the end of Summer!

I'm popping over to see what everyone else is eating!

An InLinkz Link-up

From the comfort of my own home!

Hi Everyone!  Happy Monday to all!  I got a few of the new Messy Mansion plates in the mail on Saturday which means of course it was a great day! The first one to catch my attention was MM64 which is a coral and wave themed plate.  I think we all know I love wave images!  I decided to play around with it and since I was wearing Dance Legend Holy Diver I just stamped over it!

This is just a super simple black Mundo over Dance Legend's Holy Diver.  I love this cool bubble and seaweed look!

This is sort of cool!

Here's what the plate looks like

Lots of really neat images on this one!!

And as always it stamps like a dream!

Here's everyone in the pool--the tide pool that is! LOL!

i didn't stop there though! oh no!  I kept right on going.  Last night I put on the way gorgeous Blue Above The Bay by Paintbox Polish and did some more MM64 stamping! Check it out!

I love the snorkel mask!!!!!  It's as close as I'll ever get to one in real life trust me!

No swimming with the sharks for me thank you very much!

Look how lovely Blue Above The Bay is !  Lots of nice shimmery flakies in here!

Again just another easy stamping with Mundo Avocado and  white for the snorkeler *snort*

If you are going on vacay and just want to have some fun in the sun this is definitely a great plate to pick up!

And it's available in the shop right now!  Check it out HERE

Thanks for stopping by!!! I hope you all have a fantastic day!!!