Sally Hansen Salon Effects - Halloween!

Hi there! Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated! I've been sick for entirely too long this time, but after lots of antibiotics and incredible amounts of rest, I'm finally feeling like a human being! Thanks to this, I can show you a couple of items that I want you to see before Halloween is over with!

If you're like me, you want to do fun Halloween nails to go with your costume, even if your costume is simple. Sally Hansen has just the solution for you! The ones I'm wearing in this image are called Numbskull, and they're just the cutest little skulls and crossbones!

There's one thing that I really dislike about these, although it's a small thing. The pattern is unidirectional, meaning it only goes in one direction. This means that if you happen to use both ends of the strips, you're left with skulls facing in two directions! I'm neurotic enough that this does bother me, although at a glance they look perfectly fine.

I also learned something else about these strips. When I applied them last night, I had sections of the strips that weren't actually sticking to my nails worth a darn, and I was sure they'd be peeling by morning. However, I pressed everything down as best I could and went on to bed. Once I woke up, I found that they'd settled down and are now solidly adhered to all my nails!

So don't worry if they aren't perfectly adhered right at first. They will settle down! Just press them down as well as you can and leave them alone for a few hours.

Overall, I really like this design. I also think it would be lots of fun as accent nails, or trimmed down to use as french tips. The little skulls are so cute!

Also, have I mentioned these strips tend to wear like iron? If you haven't read it, you can see my wear test for these starting here, where I rave about how amazing they are. I wound up finally removing the strips after 15 days of wear, and the only problem with them was a chip at the tip of one nail where I'd broken it!

This year's Halloween collection includes five designs- Numbskulls (shown here), How Corny (a silver-white background with repeating candy corn that looks the same whether it's upside down or not), Batty For You (black bats on a purple background that can be worn either way), Patch-O-Lanterns (orange jack o'lantern faces that can be worn either way),  and Spun For You (black spiderwebs on a silver background that can be worn either way). These can be found in drugstores near you for $9.99 a box. Go get some, before they're gone!

Sally Hansen Salon Effects in Numbskull was provided by the brand for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Crafting as Pain Management? Sign me up!

I've gotten several people asking if I'm doing ok, since the blog is being neglected a bit and I'm not quite my usual bubbly self. While I can't say the last few weeks have been super-awesome happy fun time, I'm actually doing pretty well at the moment. I had a few situations come up that would have been annoying on their own, but when they all happened together turned out to be downright difficult to get through.

For example, the weather has been yo-yoing back and forth between 80s and 20s. I'm not exaggerating- it will literally be 83 one afternoon, and 27 the next night. Weather changes make my fibromyalgia grumble, and the more dramatic the change, the more intense the symptoms. I also ran into some problems with one of my daily medications, which led to me being out of it for several days. That made the fibro grumble too, as did coming down with a general crud. Cold, flu... something. It's been loads of fun.

So now the fibro is in full flare, meaning I'm very limited in what I can do and how much energy I've got. It's improving lots now, but it's been hard to be upbeat the last few weeks. However, I'm thrilled because I've found several new things that help manage the fibro pain.

I've shown you some of the drawings I've done lately. However, I've also found some other things to distract myself from the icky fibro bits. If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen some of these. If so, you'll see 'em again. :D

I've been making barrettes. I'm using snap clips, which seem to work nicely in my hair and are easy for me to find. I found several tutorials that showed people covering them with various materials, and one night when our power had gone out I decided to figure out how I was going to accomplish it. Turns out it's easy, even though I didn't save any of those tutorials!

I made my own simple pattern and have been experimenting with various ways of fastening the covers. I've made several types of barrettes: embroidered felt, zipper roses, and cute skully barrettes on ruffles or felt circles. I'm in love with the skullies. They've made me giggle, and I have several more skully patches to use for various designs.

I'm imagining more skully barrettes, skullies with tiny pink bows, skullies on big bows... I absolutely love skulls, and these are the perfect size! I'm thinking I'm going to wind up with an enormous pile of barrettes if they don't sell on Etsy.

That's right- you too could own a Layniefingers original! *giggles* I haven't decided on prices yet, but I've had several friends tell me I HAVE to sell these, since they're so darned cute. We'll see, right?

Till next time!

Snap clip image from Thaicraft.com.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

My Obsessions Are Contagious!

Ok, I have to be honest tonight. I have entries planned, but haven't had a chance to make them happen yet. Everything's photo'd and cropped and tagged and ready to go, I just haven't had the time to sit and actually write the stupid posts, but I'm hoping that'll change tomorrow. I'd gone out with the family tonight to spend some time and wound up falling asleep in the car, so once my husband woke me I took myself straight to bed... where I crashed with the laptop, only to wake up to find it's cold and I'm awake.

Again.

So, I figured what better thing to do than write a blog post! *laughs* I know. Not some people's first choice of actions, but that's why I have a blog, and they don't! So, work with me on this, yes?

I wanted to thank you all. Between twitter, the blog, email... I got so many warm wishes for my anniversary, and it helped make the day even better! My husband, sweetheart that he is, took me out to our favorite little Mexican restaurant, the one where everyone there knows us and they smile when they see us come in. (I'm talking about Taco Bell, for those of you who don't know. We're not fancy!) Yes, I chose the restaurant- husband gave me the choice of going just about anywhere I wanted, and I chose the Bell. Don't judge me!

On our way out the door, I noticed there was a poster up for their kids meals. They were giving away Skelanimals watches! I got so excited, and my husband thought it was adorable, so we talked for a few minutes.  I didn't want to buy a kid's meal because we'd just eaten, but since it seemed to be a Halloween them we didn't know how much longer they'd be available. Since it was our anniversary, my husband suggested I go ask if I could buy one on its own.

So there I was, so giddy I was absolutely bouncing, standing at the counter like I'm a five-year-old who's been told Santa is right around the corner! One of the guys who works behind the counter came up to see what I needed, and I asked if they had anymore of the Skelanimals watches. He asked if I was interested in them, and I said I am! He said hang on, then came back with two. He said they were the last two left, and to keep them both.

As if that's not nice enough, a girl who also works behind the counter came up and asked what he was talking about. The guy I'd been talking with told her I was asking about the Skelanimal watches, so she went and showed him the box that was leftovers. She pulled the other two out and said, "Here! Enjoy!!"

I was absolutely GIDDY!! I thanked them warmly and we continued on our way, heading to WalMart to walk. Unfortunately, I can't afford a gym membership and sometimes I need something to hang on to when I walk, so going to WalMart works- it's inside, it's climate-controlled, there are places to sit if I need to rest, buggies to push if I need something to hold on to, and lots of things to look at while I walk!

Well, while we were walking, I saw that their Halloween goodies were now on sale for 75% off. Have I mentioned how much I like clearance items? I dig for a few minutes and come up with a gorgeous orange creme nail polish and a pair of pink false lashes with feather tips. So, so cute, and something I'd really wanted to get but not at full price, you know?

I looked at my husband who said, "Sure, happy anniversary!" He's silly as can be, but it makes me happy, you know? So I drop those into my buggy and keep walking. We wander around (on a good night we'll make 4-6 laps around the WalMart Super Center) and my husband sees a shirt that looks like it'd be my style- lime green with a pink skull on it. I tell him, "Hey, if it was like, a dollar then I'd buy it. But you know I'm cheap, baby!"

He says, "But think about it... it's halloween. I bet this is on sale too!"

I had to admit, he was probably right. So I tossed it into the cart as well and we set off in search of a price-checking machine. It was almost creepy... the shirt didn't want to scan, but when it finally did (at the second machine, of course) it turned out to be... A DOLLAR! Isn't it cute?? And it's TOTALLY me...

And so for $2.50 I got everything you've seen in the pics... how cool is that?? I love a bargain... *grin*


So, the title of the post. I know, I've been rambling, but it's 3:30am right now, cut me some slack, will ya? When I woke up, I decided to check my email and I saw where my mom had sent me an email with a title of "Platinum nail polish????" Turns out she'd read about I Do, the platinum polish Essie put out in a collaboration with Allure magazine, platinum supplier Johnson Matthey, and PGI. It's a sheer polish with platinum dust in it to make your nails shimmer like a million bucks... or $250, which is what the bottles retail for. Or you could have the elite bottle- made of pure platinum, it was valued at $55,000.

Hi mom! See, I really DO read your emails, even if I forget to reply! :D And since I've been babbling long enough to get thoroughly chilled and until it's almost time to take my morning meds, I think I'll wander off back to bed to see if I can sleep a bit before it's daylight. Remember, time "fell back" last night, so you get an extra hour of sleep!! Whee!

My First Attempt at Nail Decals, or Hi, I'm In 6th Grade!

Ok, so it's no secret that I like to experiment. Well, unfortunately I've seen all sorts of fabulous manicures that incorporate nail decals, but no real tips and tricks as to how to do them well. I think I need those tips and tricks. Let's look at the damage, shall we?

The good news is that it's not horrible, totally. It's just a bit much. I used decals from the Little Fing'rs Girlie Nails Nail Art Variety Pack, the one with cheerleading decals, various animals, and these cute punkish skulls and hearts. I absolutely love them on the sheet, but I think I went a bit overboard with them.

I was hoping to add a touch of whimsy to my Deborah Lippmann Between the Sheets manicure. What I ended up with was more like a 12 year old girl putting Lisa Frank stickers on everything she owns. It's not bad, exactly, it's just not what I was hoping for.

Now, that being said, I have to admit that I love these decals. The little skulls and crossbones are so, so cute, and I adore the bit of iridescent glitter in the white middle of the bigger hearts. So CUTE!! And even if this was a bit over the top, well sometimes you simply need to go over the top with your manicure!

I learned some important lessons while working on this manicure, as well. First off, it's very, very important to make sure the edges of the stickers are away from the edges of your nails. If you don't, then those edges just might stick WAY THE HECK UP, and refuse to stick once you get your topcoat on. Then they will catch on absolutely everything until you've lost your mind, pulled the sticker off, and totally redone that nail.

Also unfortunate- stickers don't remove with nail polish remover. Instead, the nail polish remover will remove the polish all around the edge, letting the edge of the sticker come down enough to make a seal all around it, so that you then have a small raised sticker on your nail that refuses to come off, no matter how much acetone you throw at it. Those of you with some sense might be able to figure out a way to get that sticker off your nail without causing damage.

I, however, am not that sense-bearing person. I ended up scraping the sticker and the remaining polish off in one solid chip that left very angry, flaky, awful place on my pinkie nail. I then wanted to call a do over so that I could try again without being stupid. But it's life, and it's just nails, right?

When I took the rest of this manicure off, I did it in stages. I took off the clear topcoat just until I could see the sticker raised above the surface of my nail. Then, I used my pinkie nails to scrape the stickers off, and once they were gone I removed the rest of my polish. It took me an hour and twenty minutes to do this, and I am positive there's got to be a better way. I just haven't figured it out yet.

So, those of you who use nail decals... what did I do wrong? Is removing these little bundles of adorableness really that annoying? Is there an easier way to accomplish this? Help me, because right now I'm ready to never use a decal again!!

Polish was provided by PR for evaluation.
See my disclosure statement for more information.