Penguin Skittles Fail

Once again, it was time to see my pain management team. For the first time in months, I felt up to doing a fun manicure for my doctor's visit! Unfortunately, this time it just wouldn't work the way I wanted it to.

I've been itching to try to do something rainbow-inspired since I got the China Glaze Electropop collection. The colors are just so vibrant and fun! I wasn't up for anything too detailed, though, so I decided to do a skittles manicure, then paint penguins on top of it.

Instead of using nail polish for the details, though, I decided I would use acrylic paints instead. I've got some ideas I want to do and I think acrylics would work much better, as well as being easier to correct if I totally make a mess of things. This would be a great way to get used to using acrylics, right?

Clearly, I need lots of practice. From what I can tell, my paint was much too thick, and I was trying to get the details opaque with one coat. Bad idea! Then, I added top coat before the acrylic paint was completely dry which made the paint do weird cracking things and make bubbles. After that, I added another coat of topcoat to try and smooth things out and added even more bubbles!

This was a total mess... but at least I've learned something. Oh, and to add insult to injury, I photographed it last night and figured there was no harm in removing it. Then, when I got the pictures in to crop for the blog post I found that only two shots were usable- the two I combined for the pic in this post.

Oh well... better luck next time!

Painting is HARD!

See my disclosure statement for more information.

OMFGPonies and Pengins, does it get any better than this?

I have to be honest here. I intended to post this earlier- maybe Saturday morning? I've lost track of time, thanks to the chest cold of doom that's descended upon our home. I've spent too much time hacking and coughing, wondering if I have the energy to cough again. And all this while, the penguin photos have been waiting for me.

It all started with me deciding I had to wear OMFGPonies and see what it looked like on my nails. It was a bit thick to start out with, so I thinned it with a few (maybe 10?) drops of polish thinner, and then it was absolutely dreamy!

Also, I apologize because I'm going to be sharing a few more photos than usual with this one. I'm sort of in love with it!! Also, I gave up on getting video of it, mainly because it would involve spending half an hour outside in weather that feels like it's 115 degrees so that my camera can adjust to the ambient temperature. Otherwise, the lens just fogs up and makes it impossible to take pictures.

One thing I didn't expect with OMFGPonies is the ending finish: it turned out to have a matte texture that really surprised me! It was easily remedied with a coat of Seche Vite, but I would have preferred a glossier finish. Ah well, not a huge deal.

One thing I didn't think about but was obvious in retrospect was the difficulty that occurred during cleanup. Big glitter = messy cleanup. Overall it wasn't too hard to clean up, but I definitely ended up with some glitter spots that made my cuticles look a bit messy.

After wearing OMFGPonies for a day, I realized I wanted some nail art. I don't know what prompted me to make red glitter penguins, but I really like them! Turns out they were simple to do, although they were a bit on the fussy side. Still, even my husband loves these!

While it never occurred to me to wear red glitter penguins, I'm glad I did because they make me giggle every time I see them! I'm also really happy with the positions of their eyes, and everyone who has seen them has commented on that as well!

So- how do you make them? I thought you'd never ask!

Items needed to make OMFGPenguins:

• White nail polish or acrylic paint
  This can be a regular nail polish, a nail art striper polish or even plain white acrylic paint.
  Use whatever you have.
• Nail art brushes
  These are optional, but a smaller brush can be easier to control when trying to make dots and shapes. Again, use what you have.
• Dotting tool, bobby pin, toothpick, etc
  I found using a dotting tool was easier for making the eye dots. It's optional. Use whatever you're comfortable with.
• Black rhinestones, black nail polishI used black rhinestones to create the pupils of the eyes, but you can use whatever you have. Are you sensing a trend here?

 and if you can't follow the how-to because it's upside down, I did a special one just for you!

Keep in mind that you can do lots of expressive things with the eyes. Keep the white parts small and the eyes will be tiny and cute, or make them HUGE and they'll still be adorable! Just look at the different expressions I've given this little guy, just by changing the position and size of the whites and blacks of his eyes!

As always, feel free to show me what you've done if I've inspired you at all. I love sharing with people, and feedback makes me smile for HOURS! :D

Til next time!

EDIT: I cannot believe I forgot to include this image. It's only the first image I edited, and the one I sent to my friends to make them giggle. Yea, I'm forgetful... it's what happens when you get old! Anyway, enjoy!

The penguins have eaten  my brain, it's true!

See my disclosure statement for more information.

What I Did On Thursday, as told in pictures.

I did a silly thing today. I've been seriously fighting with pain for the last five or six days, and it's starting to get to me. So, instead of taking photos, I realized that although I have information for a blog post, I had absolutely NO images to share with it. However, my husband came to the rescue. He suggested I draw the photos for the post, and so I will now share my day with you.

This morning started out with tears, unfortunately. I've been having a lot of problems with my fibro because of a "perfect storm" of issues: my overdoing at the animation festival that happened over the weekend, the weather's jumping back and forth between hot and cold, and the fact that I seem to be coming down with a cold. Any of those have the potential to cause my fibro pain to flare up. Combined, it's been a heck of a week.

So, I've been running through my entire arsenal of pain management techniques: heat (warm baths, hot towels, heating pad, etc), stretching, exercise, massage, and of course my prescription medication. Even so, I've had several moments that were literally moment-by-moment, reminding myself that it will not last forever, and I am strong enough to push through this and let the pain do its thing.

I've been through this before, only I didn't have such a wonderful team for pain management, nor did I have the surety that the pain would ease eventually. Even though I get a bit wibbly now when things get bad, I still know that it's temporary and my doctors are only a phone call away. I'm lucky that way, and I cannot say enough good things about the support network I have. (That includes you guys reading this, too, for your information!)

So, as a way of trying to cope with the feeling that my body was trying to turn itself inside out, I turned to my favorite distraction- YouTube. I watched videos of Maru (the cutest cat on the internet), of SMBC theater (a crazy sketch comedy group by the guy who writes Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal), and videos of bronze and aluminum smelting.

But best of all, I watched something that made me almost cry with laughter. I watched videos of dogs wearing boots. Dogs don't like to wear boots, at least not at first. Sometimes they just stand still, sometimes they look at their owners as if questioning why they would be so cruel.

But sometimes they become acrobatic, kicking their feet up and shaking as if trying to dislodge the infernal demon latched on to their feet. They kick and jump and hop, whimper and moan, acting as if they're going to die if their feet don't get free. Then they begin to gallop, feet flailing wildly, and I consistently lose my shit every single time.

I laugh. Frankly, I'm not the only one. My friends have been sending me links to help distract me, and I think I received the link to Ally Brosh's latest Hyperbole and a Half entry at least six times. You have never seen laughing the way I laughed when I read this. I laughed until I cried, until I hurt, until nothing came out except a pathetic little wheeze as I tried futilely to refill my lungs. People, I almost passed out from reading this post. If you never click another link in my blog, please... click that link, and read about Ally moving, and her poor stupid dog who became a perpetual motion vomit machine. There are no words for how funny this is.

Thankfully, my pain broke around 3:30pm. I went from curled up and crying to smiling again, because let's be honest... things have to be pretty bad for me not to smile. Going from extreme pain to less pain is always a good thing too. So obviously, I felt a lot better once things started easing up.

At that point, my husband asked what I wanted to do: did I want to go to sleep, did I want to go walk, did I want to go with him to work and maybe work on my blog. I decided that even if the pain spiked again, I feel better when I can see/hear him, so I decided I'd ride along with him and work on my blog while he taught. It's the end of the semester, so everyone's working on their projects, so it's a quiet day.

But on the way, we stopped to walk a bit. I've been wanting to go to Family Dollar and see if they have any interesting cosmetics. No big deal, class didn't start til 6pm, so we had time to wander.

So, we get out, start to wander. We walked through the Christmas department which had some really cute stuff. I also wend through the stationery/arts and crafts section because I'm really looking for some glitter to use for various nail designs.

Have you noticed that it's getting harder and harder to find glitter these days? It used to be you could find glitter everywhere, from 7-11 to the big box stores. Now, though, all you find is glitter glue. I assume it's neater, but it doesn't do me any good! Hmmph.

Ah well, I digress. If you're a regular reader, you know I do that often. I meandered to the cosmetics department and suddenly perked up- holy mackerel, there was a lot of cute stuff here! There was a large selection of LA Colors products, including the palette to the right for a grand total of $1.50! Do you have any idea how hard it was to walk away from that??

There were also a variety of other LA Colors cosmetics, artificial nails (did you know LA Colors makes fake nails? I didn't!), and nail polishes out the wazoo. I was good, I'm still trying to mostly adhere to my no-buy (except for the Christmas/Hannukah stuff I bought the other day), but one thing caught my attention and I simply couldn't resist. I found the cutest set of decals by Fing'rs, and I'd never seen this particular sheet before.

Yes, my friends, it's another monkey & penguin set of decals!! Best part- it was $1!

I'm sure you can imagine what happened. First, I picked it up, surprised. It's actually a pretty big sheet, and it doesn't have all the other decals I didn't particularly want from the other similar set with these decals. (Can we say cheerleading, anyone? I'm almost 40, here!)

I put them back. I really did. I was trying SO HARD to be good... but no. The penguins sang their siren song to me and I was unable to fight it, unable to resist their pull...

That's right. Mama has new penguins now. Kind of amusing, since I'm still hoarding the first set. Maybe now I'll be brave enough to use them? Or maybe they'll go into my stash and only come out to be admired, like now. Who knows?

Whatever. I'm ok with it. I like just having them. Unfortunately, as we got back into the car, I realized that I had no photos of them, no camera to take a photo, no scanner to scan them with. This is when my husband suggested that I hop on the computer in his class and draw the pics to let you know about my adventures today.

I had to agree with him that it was a good idea. I like to draw, even if I'm not particularly good at it. Let's be honest... sometimes simple images illustrate a story better than complex ones!

And that brings us to where I am now- sitting in the computer lab, writing and drawing. What started as a crappy day has turned into a pretty nice one. I'm happy, I'm hurting less, and I've drawn lots of silly pictures. I can deal with that!

As for my nails, I've been wearing BPAL's Madame Moriarty. I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this color... a deep bloody red that's got a touch of jelly sheerness to it. I've been getting compliments on it right and left too, and it wears like iron! Definitely one of my favorite polishes ever.

BPAL's Madame Moriarty was provided by the manufacturer for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

What Makes You Really Happy?

I saw this meme at KellieGonzo's blog, Also Known As , and realized I wanted to do it too! So, the premise is this- you list 10 things that make you happy, then tag 450 of your closest friends, blah blah... yea, you get the drift.

1. Snuggling with my family. We're big snugglers, and we can often be found watching a movie in a snugglepile. I wouldn't trade my husband and son for anything!
2. My filtered water pitcher. For years, I hated to drink water, and would drink everything else, especially milk. I also had kidney stones partly because of this. Now I drink anywhere from 1-3 liters of water a day, and I love it. When I'm really thirsty, nothing tastes better than cool water.
3. Penguins. I have no idea why, but I have loved penguins since I was little. I think it might have something to do with Mr. Popper's Penguins, but I don't know for sure. Doesn't matter- if I see a penguin unexpectedly, I squee. If I see live penguins, I go nuts. Always have, probably always will.
4. Making things. I've been creative since I was born, and I've been making things since I could hold a paintbrush. I love painting, sketching, doodling. I worked with polymer clay for years (yes, I've made canes just like the ones we use on our nails!), I've crocheted/knitted, I've sculpted (badly). I even went to art school for a couple of years. Basically, if I'm actively working on something, I get frustrated and grumpy!
5. Babies. Have you ever noticed the woman who, while out doing errands, sees a baby and goes nuts over it? She squees and coos, and makes faces at the baby hoping to make it smile. She makes an utter fool of herself just to hear a baby giggle. That's me. Say hi next time. :D
6. Nail Polish. There's something about the colors, the finishes, the versatility of nail polish that absolutely makes me giddy. I could have 1000 bottles, and I'd still find a new one that made me smile. Note- I don't even have to put the polish on to be happy with it, which leads me to...
7. Organizing things. I find organizing things to be meditative. I focus my will, and then things around me become sorted, arranged, and ordered. I don't even need a method, really. Just counting and sorting and putting things away neatly makes me feel calm and happy. So yes, rearranging my nail polishes makes me happy. :D
8. My uber-squishy hypoallergenic memory foam mattress topper. It makes my hurty parts less hurty, which makes me a happy, happy Laynie!
 9. Office Supplies. Is it Back-to-School time again?? YAY! I could spend HOURS looking at pens and pencils and paper and notebooks and notepads and highlighters and staples and... hang on, I need a second to collect myself...

.... sorry. I get a bit over-excited about office supplies. I don't KNOW why. I wish I did! But going school supply shopping every year was absolutely unbearably exciting, and my parents would inevitably end up shouting at me to just hurry up and PICK something already!! And I would try my hardest, but OMG did you see?? PUPPY NOTEBOOKS!!!
10. Writing. I know, you never would have guessed this one. I'm so terse, so succinct. Pulling words out of me is harder than pulling teeth!

Umm, yea.

Also, I'm not tagging anyone specifically. If you want to do it, consider yourself tagged. I do, however, make an open invitation to everyone to do two things: 1- list 10 things that make you happy in your blog, and 2- thank the people who make you happy for being so fun, for making you smile, or for just making the world a brighter place by being in it. The world gets a little bit nicer when we pass on some happy. :D

Sorry this one doesn't have any pretty photos of nail polish. I have lots of those coming up, I've just had a rough day. Hopefully it won't happen too often, and we can get right back into the polish talk tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, how about a sneak peek?

Little Fing'rs "Girlie Nails" Nail Art Variety Pack

I think I'm in love. For years I've had a massive obsession with penguins. Big ones, small ones, real ones, stuffed ones... I don't care, I love them all. So when I saw on Scrangie's blog that Little Fing'rs has penguin nail decals I went nuts! Every time I went to a store that might carry Fing'rs products, I'd check out their cosmetics department, digging through the decals, hoping to find the penguins.

I kept failing.

I found awesome punk rock decals, I found lots of the typical floral decals. But I had checked 5 or 6 stores and still no penguin decals. That is, until I found them. It turns out I'd actually passed them by on more than one occasion, simply because they had cheerleading decals on top. Unfortunately, I'm not sports-inclined, and the idea of doing my nails up to support some sports team just didn't interest me. I never thought to look at the stickers under the top sheet!

But I finally found them, and my husband didn't even complain when I stuck them in our shopping cart! He knows how I am with my penguins...

I love this set even more because of the monkeys. My husband loves monkeys almost as much as I love penguins, so the idea of monkeys and penguins living happily together on the sticker sheet and later on my nails feels like an omen, a sign that we truly are destined to spend our lives together blissfully happy. (Because clearly 17 years of happy marriage isn't enough to show me that!)

The surprising thing is that I really like the other sheets, even the cheer sheets! There are lots of decals I can see myself using, which makes me really happy. (Now to see if I can convince myself to actually USE the decals!) Check them out!

I can't wait to use them and see how they work on. I'm curious- what do you think of them?