Shade Pics

Just a quick post, I'll be doing a new mani tonight but probably won't have pics ready until tomorrow, but I did snap a quick pic of the Adore koni before I took it off. The Romantique collection is so great & awesome & reflective it was hard to see the pattern in the pics I posted yesterday, so here is a shot in the shade:

Like I said, I was disappointed with my matching the edges on the double-stamp, and even just the application on the ones with 1 stamp left something to be desired. It wasn't HORRIBLE (I wouldn't have worn it even 1 day if it was LOL) but it was, at the very least, irritating.

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Not My Favorite Koni

Not enough contrast, not a neat transition on the nails I needed to double stamp, and not even good application on the ones that only needed one stamp. And apparently I need to thin my Seche, because I got bubbles. Argh!

Still, here it is - China Glaze Adore konied with China Glaze Awaken & plate m65:

I'll have to make time tomorrow to change this.

Since I'm not too happy with the mani, I thought I'd throw in something (someone) who always makes me happy; here's Frisky all stretched out, napping in the heat:


When I just recently took her to the vet, the vet tech came up and asked "I just want to make sure we have the right file - your cat was born in 1991?" and I go "Yes, she's 18" LOL we've had her so long we had to get a new little booklet where they check off her shots, she used up all the spaces in her original one.

Thanks for reading =)

~Colette

Books 29 thru 38

Catchup time! I didn't realize quite how far behind I was, hehe... So here's a very VERY long book post. I think I'll try to keep myself from dropping the ball quite this badly in the future LOL. I tried to write a little something about each book, but a couple of them there just wasn't anything that still stood out as worth mentioning after this long. Kind of filler in between other books I looked more forward too I guess. Of course, a couple are just so far down the timeline of the series it's hard to not give huge spoilers to earlier books.

#29

Curse the Dawn

Cassie Palmer Book 4

Karen Chance

You know, time travel can be tricky. There are so many ways to come at it, and of course you have to be careful with the space-time continuum. But, even though the main character does have the gift to shift herself through time & space, this book almost all took place in the present, which was kind of a nice change from the jumping around that went on in the previous 3 books.

#30
Dead And Gone
Southern Vampires Book 9
Charlaine Harris

Some of you may be familiar with the TV series based on this series of books, HBO's True Blood. The second season actually starts this Sunday, 6/14 & I am super excited to see what happens. Even though I've read the books, the TV show has already made some changes to the storyline, so I don't feel confident in what I think is going to happen next. The good thing is that so far all of the changes have been good ones - best example may be Sookie's friend Tara, who has been in the TV series since the first episode, but who didn't actually make an appearance in the books until the end of book 2.

#31
Fire Raiser
Melanie Rawn

This book was hard to enjoy because I felt like the author was kind of preaching at me. I mean, most fantasy is on the more liberal-minded side of things, but there's a difference between including it & shoving it down your throat. And this was perilously close to shoving.

#32
Dead If I Do
Garnet Lacey Book 4
Tate Halloway

I always get an added kick out of this series because it's set right over the border in Wisconsin. Lots of little midwestern jokes that probably aren't as funny to people from other areas LOL.

#33
Under Cover
Anthology
MaryJanice Davidson

An even more local author - MaryJanice Davidson lives right here in Minneapolis and many of her stories are set here. It's endlessly entertaining for me to see artistic license taken with my own area.

#34
Guardian
Time Hunters Book 3
Angela Knight

Time travel again, which as I've already said can be tricky. This series however the "present" is really in the future, and the time travel is more of the sci-fi variety (mechanical) than the fantasy variety (psychic power).

#35
Magic Strikes
Kate Daniels Book 3
Ilona Andrews

After I finished this, I looked to find out when book 4 is coming & had the disappointing discovery that while Ilona has a book set to drop in the fall, it's from an all new series & I don't see a release date for the next in this series. =(

#36
Santa Olivia
Jacqueline Carey

After I read this, I saw on the authors own website describes the genre of this book as "postmodern fable". It's a whole different kind of feel than her other 2 series, focusing around a heroine who doesn't feel fear. Even open-minded as I went into it - I was trying not to expect anything - the storyline still wasn't anything I could have expected.

#37
Backup
Dresden Files Book "0"
Jim Butcher

This little novella is actually told from Harry's brother's point of view. Most websites I've seen classify it as part of the Dresden Files (which are otherwise all told from Harry's perspective), but I really wouldn't mind a full-length novel from this angle.

#38
Skin Trade
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Book 17
Laurell K. Hamilton

Yeah, that's right, number 17 and yeah, that's a crapload of books to have in a series. Which is absolutely wonderful as far as I'm concerned. This one was quite long (almost 500 pages) but I had been looking forward to it so much I finished it in 2 days last weekend.

So, I'm caught up with books for the moment =) Now if I can just get caught up with everything else...

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Holo NOTD

Yes, that means lots of pics =) Today I bring you China Glaze BFF from the OMG Collection. The only downside to this mani is that you can see my patches in the pics ... I should have been a little more patient buffing, because although the holo does show every imperfection in the nail, I've had manis before where my patches are not so obvious. But it's OK - or at least that's what I'm trying to convince myself. On to the pics:

That's all for now - thanks for reading =)

~Colette

Green Tips & Toes

Tips first - I'm not quite sure how old this polish is, as it was a dollar store find. It went on reeeaaally badly, but I have to blame it more on the brush than the polish, I probably should heave cleaned off a different brush to use but it seemed like so much hassle... This is 4 coats later, Maybelline Celadon Shimmer konied with Green Special Polish & plate m56:

On to the toes - I am loving this color but the sucky part is it's been too cold here lately to wear sandals! Not only cold but rainy & generally dreary ... although we do need the moisture & blada blada blah. This is Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine in Glow:

I did both of these actually on Sunday, but I've been too busy since then to post. I am still waaaaay behind with so many things half-written up in drafts, but I know things will settle down soon.

Thanks for reading.

~Colette