MNLL & Better Late Than Never

And here I thought I'd have to wait for my next mani to find something My Nails Look Like. I lucked out when I remembered this pen & found that, yes, it's the right shade of blue, and almost as much bling!

Also (as I promised way back when) finally got the good group shot from my friend's camera from Valentine's Night. So here's all of us girls (and no I'm not pointing myself out ... if you can figure it out, OK - if not, also OK ... I hate taking pictures but I feel protected by anonymity LOL):

I ended up having to take it off of my friend's My Space page because she couldn't get her dumb computer to let her email me pics, so sorry for the low quality.

Now I get to go sit by the phone now & wait for Best Buy to call & tell me I can pick up the new PC. Thanks for reading.

~Colette

So...

If a regular manicure abbreviates to mani, does Konadicure abbreviate to Koni?

LOL, sorry but that's all I've got this late. Have a couple pics to post but I'm too sleepy to upload, crop, etc, so they have to wait for the morning ... well, for when I wake up, which odds are it will no longer be before noon, but you get my drift. Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Weird Comment Spam

Over in the comments of this post ... The first comment I thought was weird, but hey, some people may say that about comments I leave, who knows? But then the second one was posted & it's not verbatim, but close enough... I mean, if they were trying to be slick or sneaky, they could have at least not done it 2x in the same post?

Another weird thing is that while they both vaguely reference a website, neither one actually has one listed in the comment... Kind of wondering if anyone else is getting this stuff or if I somehow brought it on myself - although it's not even a comment to the post where I actually talked about the gel resin I bought for my patch, which is funny.

I suppose I could (should?) just delete them?

Anyway, sorry for rambling a bit & not having any pretty pictures for you ... I'm not going to be able to fill the gaps between manis with hauls anymore lol. So more of these random ramblings may show up if I feel the urge to post & have nothing better. I was kind of hoping I'd have a MNLL but the blue glitter is a tough match. I don't think I've found any matches for my last 2 or 3 manis actually now that I think of it ... but don't think I've forgotten, I just haven't gotten lucky lately.

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: Hot Topic

As many of you know, there's not really a polish name on the Hot Topic bottles. We'll call this Blue Glitter just to keep it basic:

Of course it's hard to capture the true beauty of glitter polish on camera. I wish I could get a shot in the sun, but if that happens it won't be for a few days - forecasting 4-7 inches by tomorrow night, it will be snowing all day long. ♥ Minnesota ... NOT.

The snow also means even if my computer comes in tomorrow I won't be going to pick it up. I don't mind driving in the snow, I just wish everyone else would stay home. Especially after a couple weeks of above-freezing temps & ice-free roads? This could be as bad as the first snow, not to mention it's looking like the biggest storm of the year. We've had plenty, but mostly 1-2" at a time.

I could go on ranting about the snow for a while, but I think I'd rather go to bed. Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Going On A No-Buy =(

And this is why:


Well, part of the reason. The main reason, the tower, is on order & I should have in a few days. But talk about ouch in the pocket. Necessary: yes. Super-nice & shiny: yes. Good reason to start budgeting my purchases better: yes.
(PS: also yes, that's Frisky in the background. In the middle of everything as usual.)

Of course, as you know, it's not like I don't have plenty of unworns to see me through this rough time. And I have decided that I will still place my planned Konad order, but not until after I do my taxes & get my refund. Depending on how much I end up getting back I may also allow myself an online order of some holo polish I have been lemming since I saw them when I started reading blogs. But no more "just happening" to walk by the polish when I go pick up my prescriptions or "just glancing" at the polish when I'm at Target for toothpaste.

I'm both looking forward & dreading the new computer's arrival. I like my old computer. I'm not looking forward to Vista, although I am interesting in updated Word, since I got Office 2007, not to mention how can anything not be pretty cool on a 24" monitor? I will post more pics, some before & afters, once I have it set up - the monitor will fit in my current desk but just barely. I got the specs from online & measured before I bought it lol.

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: Misa Fashionista

Misa Fashionista Konaded with Black Special Polish & plate m8.


The pics come out kind of pink, IRL it is more of a mauve color. Kind of subdued after the extreme bling of Totally Cool, but I'm digging it. A little bit of the normal streaking problem with the Black Special Polish, and sometimes the smaller flower Konad designs really frustrate me, something about the shape sometimes the whole design doesn't pick up polish. Irritating but still cute.

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Coupon-Inspired Mini-Haul

So, I got a discount coupon in my email for spending like $25 with my Sally Card last month ... I wanted to buy my mom some base coat, and some Seche Vite for my aunt, and a present for my friend who just graduated a class she is taking. So I thought, well, I've got 15% off this purchase, what else can I find for myself? So I picked up a few colors, some supplies for my cracked nail, and then made a quick jaunt down to the Dollar Tree at the other end of the strip, and this is what I came home with:


Not bad. Overall, with my regular discount, $5 coupon, and 15% off coupon, I ended up saving like 26 bucks.

Tomorrow, if I can come to terms with spending so much money, I'll be buying a new computer. My current computer is about 5 years old and it makes disturbing sounds when I turn it on that the IT guy at works says could either be the fan dying or the actual hard drive dying. This aside from the painfully slow process of ... well, to be honest, EVERYTHING. And while I don't precisely need a new monitor, 24" wide-screen shiny-ness is hard to resist.

Anyway, I've pretty much made my decision, but anytime I spend over like a couple hundred bucks I get kind of anxious feeling. Like, am I really SURE this is the one I want? Do I REALLY need 6 gigs of RAM instead of 4? My printer still prints (crooked, but it prints), do I HAVE to get a new printer? I think the answer to all of those is yes. But I know I won't rest easy until it's purchased, set up, my somewhat massive iTunes library and everything else is safely transferred, and it's been running smoothly for like a week.

So, if I happen drop off the face of the blogosphere for a few days in the near future, that means that the transition did not go smoothly. Or maybe that it went too smoothly & I'm too distracted playing with my new toy to post about it lol. Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: Milani Totally Cool

No, seriously, that's the name. And holy crap do I love this polish. You can tell by how many pics I took, trying to capture it's uber-ness. So many pics that I will put my explanation in front of them instead of after.

Milani Totally Cool is one out of yesterday's mini-haul. And I CANNOT seem to photograph it properly. I don't know what else to say - I was hoping the pics would say it all for me. It's a purple glitter with pink duo-chrome effect ... I think. I can't really tell if it's purple glitter that looks pink sometimes or pink glitter in a purple base color. Really cool either way. Much less blue than it comes out in some of the pics. I would totally hate my camera if I hadn't read other people complain of the difficulties in shooting certain shades of purple.

Still, I gave it my best shot under a plethora of different lighting conditions. So many that I don't remember all of them, but I've labelled what I could. Excuse the lack of focus, some of it is on purpose in an attempt to show the glitter better, some just turned out that way. So here we go (PS: I highly suggest enlarging these):

And a few featuring just the bottle for good measure:

I guess I'm glad I'm posting this instead of seeing it on someone else because if this weren't already in my hands (& on them) I'd be lemming it. I don't know if this is rare or maybe new, but I am pretty sure I have never seen this color before (because if I had I would have bought it at that time).

To make a long story (post) short: I'm very happy with this very distracting color. Thanks for reading.

~Colette

2 Mini-Hauls

Yesterday, the top row, was 3 Hot Topic polishes: Purple Glitter, Red Glitter, Blue Glitter. Then Sinful Colors Purple Diamond & the Black & White Sally Hansen Nail Art Pens. Today, the bottom row, was Sinful Colors Daddy's Girl & Milani Totally Cool (which has got to be one of the best names ever, even though it has nothing to do with the color). My mom couldn't tell the difference between these two, but come on, just because they're both purple glitter doesn't mean they look ANYTHING alike. I also decided I should have the Gold and Silver Sally Hansen Nail Art Pens.

I decided on the Milani for my next mani. So those pics will be coming next - on my newly-short nails. I decided to bite the bullet & cut them down to match my short pinky. Because even though I'd like to think the short nail will eventually grow out to match the long ones, reality is working with uneven nails seems to lead to more breaks & they'd end up even shorter than I trimmed them to.

Doesn't mean I have to be happy about it though =( Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Misa NOTD

Misa A Sin Worth Committing Konaded with China Glaze Devotion & plate m15:

It's OK ... don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Misa, I love the color, but I am not totally pleased with my Konading skillz at the moment. It was a little past my bedtime, and I ended up having placement issues & take my word that the right hand is significantly worse. So this may not stay on that long, but that just means a great excuse to wear one of the other Misas.

You'll also notice my pinky is on the gimped side now ... that's because when I took off my Valentine's mani, I found this underneath:

I couldn't bear to cut it all the way down, but I did take off quite a bit. You know, that little tip of your finger that's usually covered by your nail? It drives me crazy when I can't avoid having them that short & it's all naked & sensitive & unprotected. But it's still pretty short & SO lame. I mean, I admit to being a total klutz, but somehow I'm still always surprised when one of my nails breaks. It's like, it doesn't break when I do something really bad, but then it cracks spontaneously, out of the blue, right at the bottom (if not lower). I wish I'd started biotin 6 months ago instead of only 1 month ... maybe by summer this won't keep happening to me.

The good news is that I know it won't take that long for them to grow out, if I could just keep them all from breaking (ha ha) & get an honest to goodness decent, even, long manicure. I had a few breaks at the end of last year, and here's an older pics of when my nails were on the stubby side just a few weeks ago at the beginning on January. Bear with me, as I think this was pre-learning-my-camera-had-macro-mode:

I like this pic because it's just out of focus enough to catch the holo. I don't remember what the base is, but it's got China Glaze Fairy Dust making it sparkle & the Konad plate is m59. I came across this the other day & couldn't believe my nails had grown so much in only 5 weeks (pic was taken on January 10th). I must be doing something right lately because they didn't used to grow that quickly. Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Quick MNLL

It was too funny - I think I've mentioned before that they have a decent polish selection at the grocery store, and I couldn't resist a purchase even though it's both pink & glitter which is normally not my thing. But, as I was bagging it up, I had the realization that My Nails Look Like my new polish: Wet n Wild Wild Shine Sparked:

Of course, the finishes are totally different, but the color is a surprising match. Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Books 8, 9, 10 & My First Poll

HA! Bet you almost forgot about the books & I've really been slacking pretty bad ... last year I was going strong 10+ books a month, and here we are mid-February & I'm only on number 11. I've got to get my butt in gear, but considering I just spent most of my day off napping ... well, there's always tomorrow!

#8
4th of July
Women's Murder Club Book 4
James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

So instead of just ending with a twist, this one also started out with a twist. Can't tell you what the twist is without spoiling it of course, but I was surprised by the path this one took, a lot different than the first 3 books.

#9
Really Unusual Bad Boys
MaryJanice Davidson

This was a nice break from the Women's Murder Club. Instead of trying to figure out the twist or identify the killer, I'd classify this as pretty light reading. Technically an anthology, still all 3 of the stories kind of linked together so that it kind of like just one book.

#10

5th Horseman

Women's Murder Club Book 5

James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

In addition to a twist, this one ended on something of a cliffhanger. A girl at work that has also read the series promised that things would be explained in the next book, but my friend has 6 (even though she hasn't finished 5 yet...) so I've got another copy on request & until then have a couple books from other series I will be catching up with.

So, I also set up my first poll! Check it out in the upper-right corner.

After my friend wanted to borrow a gold for Valentine's Day & I ended up pulling down literally every shoebox, I'm reconsidering my sorting system. Right now everything is by brand, and I'm strongly considering switching to by color. I mean, when I'm looking for a color for myself, I know exactly what I want, but when someone else is requesting something, they're usually not as sure. The next day my mom asked for a gold, and I kind of had a "d'oh!" moment because I'd had them all out & put them all back away in their respective boxes.

So, how do you store your polish? Vote in my poll & let me know! I think I'll leave it running through the end of the month. Thanks for reading!

~Colette

My Misa Haul

So, I promised pics of my Misa haul that arrived on Friday.

From left to right: Push Upon It, Dirty Sexy Money, Right Here Now No More Later, A Sin Worth Committing, Dreamy Purple, Forbidden Lust, The Grass is Greener on My Side, Chocolate Icing, Ghetto Fabulous, Toxin Seduction, Fashionista, Dying Love. I'm not sure which one of these is going to be worn first, they're all so pretty!

Next, there will probably be some more pics from last night's outing, but for now, just a couple.

The interior of the limo - my first time in a limo might I add. I should have taken a pic without the flash, there was some cool lighting ... but I didn't, so here it is with flash:

Sushi! I tried it for the first time ever last night. This is obviously after we'd already been digging in, when it dawned on me I should immortalize the moment:

My nails & my friend's nails (details of mine are in my last post, my friend is wearing Fingerpaints Butterscotch Cookie topped with Sinful Colors Paris):

With the problems I'm currently having with my camera - spontaneously changing out of picture mode into video mode - I didn't want to hand it off for someone else to take a group pic & have it act up, so I'm waiting on emailed pics from everyone else that was out. We ended up with 8 ladies total, and had a total blast with no men - safe to say funnest Valentines Day I've ever had, single or when I was in a relationship (eons & eons ago). Thanks for reading.

~Colette