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Saturday, June 25, 2016

As close to tropical as I get

Hey Everyone!  Happy Saturday to you!  I spent my entire morning running around grocery shopping a little over 3 hours 3 stores and my freaking pedometer decided on me!  The jerk!  After all that time walking and loading up the cart and unloading the cart it said I walked 113 steps WHAT IN THE WORLD?!  Clearly I need something better than my cheap ass free pedometer LOL

But that's all behind me now.  I am taking it easy for the rest of the day.  I walked all week last week and will probably take a walk later in the early evening but for now I'm relaxing and reading.  I found a new to me author I just love so I'm spending the day reading a couple of her books. Elle Casey is her name and even though she writes in the dreaded 1st person I just adore her books!

This is the mani I'm sporting today.  I got a lot of compliments on at all 3 grocery stores. I'm not sure by the kid at DQ might have been checking them out too.  I had to indulge in a small iced coffee after all that shopping!


I tried out all of my new Girly Bits stamping polishes on this mani  Ker-Minty Frog Here, Pardon My Periwinkle, Coral Reef and Silly Daffodilly

I stamped with one of my MoYou Tropical plates over my base of OPI's How Great Is Your Dane
A good brown creme is SO underrated!!! I just love this OPI it's so smooth and yummy
I know I keep saying I'm going to get better lighting set up at my new apartment but really one of these days I am going to get better lighting!

I really love these Girly Bits stamping colors they are going to be great for some summer stamping for sure!
I hope you guys are having a great Saturday!  Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Catch A Wave!

Hi Everyone Happy Hump Day!!  I pulled out some of my fun Zoya Summer colors from a few collections ago because I like everyone to feel the love in my drawers and not just the new stuff. Zoya Josie, Robyn, Reagan, Pippa & Arizona along with OPI A Roll In The Hague for a fun but simple beach towel look.  I actually tape mani'd which is so so so dreaded for me!  It's hard to use striping tape when you have long nails LOL

I added a bit of Hibiscus flowers as an accent from Bundle Monster and here's the cute look of the day!
I tried to just freehand straight without the tape but that was SO laughable!
What do you think?  Does this mani remind you of beach towels?  My coworker Jacky sure thought so!
With summer officially here it still has to be like 150 degrees before I will get in the pool LOL  Beach towels are just for show for me!

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

Sunday, June 19, 2016

A promise to a daughter

Today is Father's Day but I am a fatherless daughter.  This day is not a day of celebration for me but instead a reminder I am a ship out to sea without an anchor, a bird flying aimlessly along with nowhere to land.  Today I choose to honor my father with the sign he gave to me after he died.  That very first day I had to go out into the world and face it without him there was the biggest brightest rainbow I had ever seen.  It took my breath away and no matter my route into work that day it was always in front of me--it should not have been yet it was.

It still feels like just yesterday he was with us but no--he is gone
Even though I wanted to use black I chose white stamping instead as I truly believe the rainbow he sent to me was a promise everything will be ok
All anyone who has lost a loved one can do is hope they will continue 
Hope they will make them proud
Hope to be with them again soon

Happy Father's Day to my dad who is in heaven.  I love you, Daddy

Thursday, June 16, 2016

The Digit-al Dozen Does Rainbow--Birds

Hi Everyone!  So exciting news again today--I hit another 10k steps! Woot!  Yes I know not everyone is excited about the news but I sure am.  I honestly  did not have it in me yesterday and felt like I really overdid it.  I did manage to hit almost 7k yesterday so today I just focused and got er done.  I did have to take some Advil which I try to avoid--I actually try not to take any meds if I can help it but today I needed the big guns.  I feel pretty good too not too sore or worn out

I feel so good I was able to come home and finish my manicure!  I painted them last night and stamped today.  At first I thought I would have to freehand this design but at the last minute I found the exact scene I needed on one of my Marianne XXL plates  EUREKA!  I love it when I don't have to freehand.

My base is all pixie dusts but I topcoated them.  Hauled out some of my Zoya and Julie G's
When trying to think outside the box for Rainbow week I did some googling for different rainbow variations and I came across a picture I just loved that's how this mani came to light
I'm happy to say I did a pretty good job recreating it!  Here's the picture I found
I was totally going to try to freehand this but let's be honest we all know my freehand skills are not good.  Thankfully I found this cute bird scene on the Marianne's XXL 4 plate so I used that instead! WHEW CRISIS AVERTED!

Here's a picture of my mani with the picture.  I do love how this one turned out
It's been a pretty stellar week for rainbow mani's.  Did you see Shelly's matte watermarble?! OMG it is really cool.  You have to love to hate Shelly sometimes for her awesome marble skills




Wednesday, June 15, 2016

The Digit-al Dozen Does Rainbow--Flower Power

Hi Everyone long time no see!  Yep you are not seeing double it's just me posting twice in one day.  Honestly I'm not a fan of blogs doing this but I hate being behind.  If you know me you know that I really really really really love reverse images on stamping plates.  I just love the look and I was able to pour through my plates to find something I really loved 
This is another neon gradient for me this week using China Glaze Electric Nights from last year because I was too lazy to get up and go through polish and they were sitting out
I stamped with FUN and Messy Mansion plates
I adore how my thumb turned out!  I think it's gorgeous
I wasn't sure if I should matte it so I asked my friend Ashley from Ashley Is PolishAddicted and naturally she said yes.  She ALWAYS says yes
But seriously folks that girl knows what she's talking about!  This looks great matte!

I found a really cute pic online the other day and I'm attempting to recreate it for tomorrow's mani--wish me luck!

The Digit-al Dozen Does Rainbow--In the dark!

Hi Everyone!  I'm behind this week.  I didn't get home until after 8 pm last night AND I had my first milestone walking day yesterday and I reached 10,000 steps. It just about killed me and that is no lie.  I came home and literally crawled into bed.  I had my day 2 done but there was no way it was getting posted so there is going to be double duty going on with posts LOL

I got these plastic rhinestone like things ages and ages ago and thought about doing a full manicure with them but after doing one finger I said NOPE not happening.  So I went with a rainbow in the dark theme when I paired my accent nail with L A Girl 3D Effects in Black Illusion
It was another hot one today at 87 so I had some nice full on sun to get pics

I walked in the warehouse today since it was so hot and got a few compliments on my rainbow.
Here's the thing that sort of cracks me up I always say I can't see shizz in my glasses and if you look hard enough you can see some fuchsia in with my red LOL

I think no matter what everyone just seems to like and appreciate rainbows





Monday, June 13, 2016

The Digit-al Dozen Does Rainbow--Neon Triangles!

Hi Everyone Happy Monday!  This weekend it was 92 degrees so we are officially in Summer so that means--neon. I'm not a huge neon fan and I say all the time I'm not a huge neon fan yet I find myself doing some neon nail art LOL.  This did turn out pretty cool though so I guess I should try to embrace the neon a bit more often.  I hauled out last years China Glaze neons--the Electric Night's set and did a gradient and then stamped with FUN19.   FUN19 has a bunch of skull images on there and I was >< close to doing skulls but decided on these triangles at the last minute
I definitely took sun shots of this mani but for some reason all of them looked washed out so I went with shade shots
To be honest it always seems like neon shows up better in the shade which sort of defeats the purpose LOL
This is pretty cool though don't you think?  I absolutely love all my FUN plates
Of course I couldn't leave well enough alone and I did try matting it as well
Turns out I'm not as much of a fan of the matte as I am the shiny
I'm seen some pretty cool stuff from everyone today.  Some of us went traditional rainbow colors and some of us non traditional.  I haven't seen my girl crush Serene's mani yet but so far my fave has been from Tammy.  Lots of detail in hers!  Gurl is going strong after all these years we've both been stamping!


Monday, June 6, 2016

Hang In There!

Hi Everyone!  Happy Monday!  So I've decided do something about my health and my weight. The years between my sister's terminal cancer diagnosis and the year after she died I gained over 120lbs.  Sad by true.  I've always had problems with my weight and have successfully lost almost 100lbs twice in my life and here I am working on lucky number 3.  Before Lisa died I was doing low carb for about 2 years and had gotten down from 280 to 200 and then we found out her cancer had again returned and was terminal.  Between that year--2009 and 2010 I gained all that I had lost and more.  I'm a depressive eater and believe you me no one says salad makes them happy.  Mashed potatoes and gravy, chicken & dumplings, tapioca pudding, mac n cheese those are the things that make me happy.  So that's what I ate and ate and ate and ate and soon here I was heavier than I had ever been at over 300lbs.  For the longest time I didn't care.  I didn't care it happened to me again, I didn't care I knew better and shouldn't have let it happen.  But then slowly things in my life started to level out and I realized how lucky I am at my age--53 and my size 323lbs I didn't have diabetes like my father had or like his mother my grandmother had.  I was lucky I still had my gall bladder.  I was lucky I didn't have high blood pressure.  And honestly how long was that going to last??? I am like a ticking time bomb for some serious health issues to hit.  So I could either just give up and be old and fat or I could do something again about my weight.

So I started back on low carb.  Which as a blood type of 0- works really well.  It's actually not difficult for me at all to do low carb even though all my comfort foods are high carb foods.  In February I started following a low carb lifestyle again and in April I started walking.  Walking is hard for someone who is large like me and it hurt like hell.  I started by simply walking around my office once every hour.  Then I started going into our huge warehouse and walking that every hour.  Then I started going in early in the mornings so I could walk around the warehouse twice.  I graduated to walking around the warehouse several times on lunch and on Saturday I did my first 4k walk in forever.  I wanted to do it very badly and even though I had only been able to go for 35 mins at one time I was successful on Saturday.  I did the whole 4k AND I didn't come in last!  I had A LOT of support from my family and friends.  Even though I was pretty wiped out on Saturday I walked a mile on Sunday and today for lunch I walked two miles.  It's hard and it's hot and it's sweaty as hell which is so gross but I'm doing it.

I'm doing it because I have to.

I'm doing it because I need to.

I'm down 29 lbs I still have a long way to go.  I'd like to only weigh 200 lbs for my niece's wedding June 2017.  If I don't make it, I don't make it but it's not going to stop me from trying.

I have to give myself these little pep talks so last night I decided to do this really cute little "Hang In There" mani
How cute is this??  Born Pretty Store BP-59 over OPI Susi Says Feng Shui and Kiko 655
I topcoated my Kiko because I need to have glitter in my textured polish LOL!
Even though all I've been doing isn't easy I keep saying to myself "just hang in there" I can do it I just need to stay focused.

To anyone fighting the fight against obesity and working on getting healthy--HANG IN THERE!