Book 17, 18, 19

Being able to read this many books in a series in a row is a treat. Usually either I've already read the whole series & I'm waiting for the next to be published, or there are wait lists involved, or I get something else from the library at the same time that I need to return first.

#17
Dead Beat
Dresden Files Book 7
Jim Butcher

Harry walks a dark path to do the right thing. Every book he has to make a little bit more difficult decision. How far is he willing to go to protect those he cares for?

That all came off kind of dramatic, but really! This isn't one of those series where everything is just black & white & cut & dry. Harry often works in the gray areas.

#18
Proven Guilty
Dresden Files Book 8
Jim Butcher

I honestly LOVE it when I find a really good author with an established series that has a ton of books for me to read. I already read all but one of Jim Butcher's other series (The Codex Alera, which became one of my favorite series EVER, final book of which is due out at the end of 2009), and I am unfortunately nearing the end of the Dresden files. Well, of the available Dresden files. I have not heard or seen anywhere that there is a set number for this series. But, honestly: write faster Jim Butcher. He's one of those authors I'd read every day if I could.

#19
White Night
Dresden Files Book 9
Jim Butcher

It gets harder & harder to talk any word at all about the plot without giving too much away. And this particular book had even more twists than usual so I'm not going to even try. See, if I haven't explained, while this is urban fantasy, and there's plenty of magic being slung around, Harry is a private investigator, and there's always a little bit of the mystery element as you gather clues with him to solve the case. Even if the case involves creatures most regular PIs would never have to deal with. So I don't want to give away a clue & ruin this if any of you go out to read the series (which I certainly hope I can inspire a few people to do).

I'm currently actually reading 2 books at once right now, which blows some people's minds if I say anything about it. But some books are so good that I really don't want to take them to work, where I get a 15-minute break or a 1/2 hour lunch & then I'm expected to put the book down right at the best part (it never fails. It's ALWAYS the very best part when I have to go back to my desk) and go back to work. So I'm savoring Book 10 of the Dresden files in the peace & quiet of my own home & have a new series to read while I'm at work.

Yeah. I'm a gigantic nerd. I've made peace with this fact =) Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Misa NOTD: Flipped

No, the polish is not called Flipped (although I think that sounds like something that could be a cool color - anyone know a polish actually with this name?), I have flipped the colors around from my last mani because I couldn't get the idea out of my head otherwise:

Misa Chocolate Icing Konaded with Misa Ghetto Fabulous & plate m62. Obviously Ghetto Fabulous looses a little bit of it's bling factor going over such a dark color, but I like it. This is one of my favorite Konad tips, it reminds me of fire.

I ran into what I at first thought was application problems using this color for Konad. It can leave kind of a glittery golden residue on the rubber stamper, even after cleaning, and some of my nails pre-top coat looked almost a little dusty, and the gold looked slightly dull. But, the good news, both these issues pretty much disappeared after a coat of Seche Vite. Excuse the little lumps, had some other application issues on my thumb but this was the only finger left when I decided I wanted a pic pre-Seche:



Overall, I think I like this version of this color combo a little better. Maybe it says something about my mood as of late that the other one was just a bit too bright and happy for me at the moment.

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Wagon? What Wagon?

Oh, that no-buy wagon? The one I just fell off of? That wagon? Hehehe ... well see what had happened was ... events conspired against me. Yeah, that's it.

Horrible day at work + wanting ice cream + Cold Stone Creamery right next door to Sallys + I heard the Summer Days Collection was in stores + 15% off coupon burning a hole in my pocket = my first haul in over a month. Which I don't think is too bad overall. I mean, it had to happen sooner or later. It could have been worse. And look what I have to show for it!

Left to right: Watermelon Rind, Raspberry Festival, Strawberry Fields, Grape Juice, & the lonely little Orly Prepster is Cashmere Cardigan because somehow with all my polish I don't have a nice lavender & it fit the bill. Add the liner brushes - since I was not satisfied with the one I got at Michaels - and I got myself another 15% off coupon for next month. Gotta love the Sally Card, if you don't have one please go get one, because they make ChG just over $3.00 which is obviously awesome.

Probably change my nails tonight but posting of pics depends on how late it is when I finish. I'm going to reverse my current mani & try Chocolate Icing with Ghetto Fabulous as the Konad. I don't usually have it planned out this far in advance, but the idea's been in my head since I finished with my current version.

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

The Kreativ Blogger Award

I just received this award from Body & Soul & I'd like to start out by saying thanks! For a long time I wanted to start a blog & kind of put it off because I didn't want to log on every day to "0 comments" & "0 followers" & feel like I might as well just keep a journal in a notebook. I really appreciate all of my readers & getting awards like this just totally make my day & I'm really flattered.

The guidelines for this award are to list 7 things that I love, and then to pass the award on to 7 bloggers that I love. Since I just tagged 10 lovely blogs a little bit ago, I'm going to spread the love around & pic 7 different blogs, leaving them a post to make sure they know I think they're great.

7 Things That I Love (in no real order):

1 - Nails, polish, Konad, etc (of course!)

2 - Reading - lotsa lotsa books - and writing

3 - Family (if this list were in order they'd have to be at the top)

4 - Pets - you've all met Frisky, one of these days I'll have to introduce our dog Dude

5 - Friends - because I don't have very many (more online than IRL sadly enough) but the ones I have are really good friends

6 - Music - just about anything honestly. I'm pretty sure my iPod has a little something from every genre, from rap to rock, country to classical.

7 - Summer - this is on my mind because we had a teaser on Saturday, I spent a long time sitting in the sun, but today it is chilly & raining

7 Blogs That I Love (in alpha order)(and more on the sidebar of course):

1 - Body & Soul

2 - Dr. Frankenpolish

3 - Fifty-Two Flavors

4 - Gettin' Nailed

5 - Never Too Much Glitter

6 - Polishaholic

7 - Trendy Nail

So, now off to notify my winners. But before I go, I know I haven't had a My Nails Looks Like for a while, and I happened to get lucky & stumble across today:

MNLL a manila envelope LMAO. The color isn't exactly as bright, but the tone is right on in most lights. Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Misa NOTD

So, after that freehand experiment I wanted some nice, reliable Konad. Of course, starting off thinking that I ended up having some application issues =( But I'm still pretty happy with how this turned out. Oddly enough I did the tips better on my right hand then my left, so you get to see that hand today also. Misa Ghetto Fabulous Konaded with Misa Chocolate Icing & plate m62:


Very bright after a could dark-colored manis in a row. Don't know how long I'll wear it since I'm not totally in love with it though. Thanks for reading.

~Colette