OMG! I found Sally Hansen Nail Prisms for $0.50!

Do you ever have one of those days that just feels providential? This was definitely one of those days! My husband and I were going to go for a walk, and I decided to go to the Dollar Tree just to see what was there.

I went wandering through the crafty section while my husband went to toys. Then I decided to check out the cosmetics section, and I am so glad I did!! There, hanging amidst the LA Colors topcoat and the nail files were these neon orange Sally Hansen polishes packaged two for a dollar. And in these packages just happened to be three colors of the hard to find Sally Hansen Nail Prisms, including one of the prettiest purple holos I've seen!

That's right- I picked up this amazing purple holo (that absolutely REFUSED to play nicely with my camera. Stupid night shots!) for a grand total of fifty cents. Umm... really? I'm absolutely in shock.

I embarrassed myself when I found them. I was casually browsing until I read "Nail Prisms," at which point I actually squealed loud enough for my husband to hear me all the way on the other side and end of the store. He came running, worried that I'd hurt myself, only to find me giggling like a lunatic and pulling polish from the racks. I know... what can I say, I'm a freak?

Now, they weren't packaged consistently. There was one Nail Prisms polish and one Sally Hansen Salon (the old square bottles), but the colors were rather random. I dug around to make sure I didn't get any duplicates, and I'm pretty happy with what I ended up with. 

I've been plotting holiday nail art and have gotten a perfect Christmas green, but I didn't have a good Christmas red, so I'm REALLY happy with Reddy to Mingle- it's such a gorgeous red with just a tiny hint of shimmer.

You can see the color breakdown on the left here, and that photo does get bigger if you click it. Again, stupid night photos, the colors are as true as i can get them. Purple Diamond is as amazing a purple holo as I've ever seen. Golden Cinnabar is a strange color, sometimes looking rosy, sometimes golden, sometimes greenish. I'm not sure, but I think I might like it. Diamond is a straight silver holo, from what I can tell... it's absolutely gorgeous. Mist You was the big surprise out of the bunch- it's very similar to the CND special effects polishes- very sheer with a super lavender kick. Rose to the Occasion is an almost-creme pink that's fairly opaque. Reddy to Mingle is a crazy-beautiful red jelly that has a bit of almost-hidden shimmer (from what I could tell).

Clearly I need to take better photos, but you can see a hint of the shimmer in this shot. In RL it is an intense lavender, absolutely breathtaking. I think I'm in LOVE!!

So you may want to go hit up your local Dollar Trees. You never know just what goodies you'll find! There were also a lot of really pretty false nail kits, some nail gem kits, nail glue packs 2 for a dollar... so much fun stuff! I also picked up a quick dry top coat to try, simply because I need to see if I can spend less than $10 a bottle for top coat. :D

Happy Friday! ♥

YAY!!! I've replaced all the broken photos!

I know I just posted. Deal with it. I'm so giddy... I've finally replaced all the broken photos in my blog! I was so sad because every image on my blog prior to October 1 got broken, even my blog header. I've been trying to replace them since then, but it's a tedious job.

Finally, I hit post on the last entry! I didn't even realize it was the last one, so it was even more exciting to see that all the next posts had their photos! I'm telling you, if I could I'd be dancing right now!

So, here's hoping you all have as great an evening as I have!

Blah blah was provided by the manufacturer for consideration.

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.

Ready for a Spring Manicure?

Whew!! What a day! I've been off wandering with my husband and our son, enjoying the wonderful weather and trying to work out some of this fibro stiffness I've been fighting with. We've been having a lot of fun looking at various home items and dreaming about our ideal house. We do this periodically, looking at furniture or appliances. Lately, though, I've been really drooling over electronics.

I wish I knew why I was so into shiny new gadgets. HD video cameras, Nikon dSLRs, home theater systems, CD changers, flat panel TVs... I could look and look and look for hours, it seems. My husband is no better. Anytime I lose him in a shop, all I have to do is wander over to the electronics department and there he is!

It's been fun. Exhausting, but fun. Still, I think I've been overdoing. It felt good to sit down and spend an hour doing nothing but painting my nails! This time I went for something springlike because I got the most gorgeous yellow polish I think I've ever seen! I've always shied away from yellow because it's seemed to hard to wear, but Hard Candy's Splendid is actually good with my skin tone! Then, when I held it next to my Essence Lime Up! I realized they were absolutely perfect together, and I was going to need to do a fun manicure using them both.


First off, before I get to that fun green & yellow mani, let me talk about Splendid first. You know how yellow is always a pain in the butt to apply? Well, this one isn't. It's creamy and opaque and almost a one coater! I was stunned at it, seriously. What you see in the main picture to the right is two coats. Gorgeous... absolutely GORGEOUS!

I also checked to see how well it stamps over both black and white. I wasn't expecting much, because yellow is traditionally a sheer color whether it's in nail polish or artist pigments. It's just really tough to get an opaque yellow! But Hard Candy have done it, as you can see. It shows up beautifully over both black and white, and is such a cheerful color! What can I say, I'm sold!

So... back to the mani. I started with a base of Splendid, then used Essence's Lime Up! to paint 1/2 of each nail on a diagonal. My ring fingers got the base green, the rest got green tips. I was going to apply some pink flower decals over this, then realized I wanted something with a bit more punch to try and pull it all together, although this is cute enough to wear as-is.

For the record, this would also be a great base for a full-nail Konad stamp. Can't you see it- stamping with Lime Up! over the yellow background, so that there's a green print over the yellow? I think it'd be adorable...

Ah well... I decided to use my silver Art Deco striper to paint a line along the join (and disguise some of my wobbly edges), then to put silver pinstripes along the green sections. I added pink flower decals from Viva la Nail for a bit more punch and decided I was happy with things. All in all it was a simple manicure that ended up looking a bit more complex than it really was!

And for once, I decided to do something I rarely do... I'm showing BOTH HANDS! See, I really do paint both hands the same, even if my right hand rarely comes out quite as well as the left. This one was pretty easy to do, though.


So even though it's actually fall and cooler weather is coming in, I needed to try something a bit brighter and sunnier. I think this fit the bill! What do you think?

Items have been provided by the manufacturers for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Working Hard to Get Better With Fibromyalgia

Oh my god, y'all. I have absolutely lost my mind. I'm accomplishing things, finally, and that's good, but oh my goodness this animation festival kicked my booty! I've been spending quite a bit of time sipping chocolate milk and watching brainless stuff on YouTube, waiting for this fun to pass, and then right as I started wondering why I was having such a tough time recovering from the weekend, I realized that...

Oh, yea. I live in South Louisiana. Even though it was in the 80s over the weekend, it's now freakin' cold. At least there's a reason I'm hurting- fibromyalgia tends to go nuts when the weather changes. Knowing that is a positive thing, because it tells me hey, there's a reason you're hurting. I figured since I'd figured these things out, I might as well share a few helpful hints in case any of you have fibro (or know someone who does).

One of the main ways I manage my pain took me the longest to figure out. It makes little sense to me, but when I'm hurting, I have absolutely got to get up and exercise. Stretching is good, walking is good... but I have to get off my butt and get my body moving. If I don't, I end up hurting even more, and for even longer. Exercise helps get the natural painkillers moving, and it helps my muscles loosen up and just stop hurting so much. It's a fine line between "enough" and "too much," but not enough will hurt me every time.

Also, a hot bath can do absolute wonders for me. Massage is good too, if you have someone who'll do it. Sometimes my feet and ankles get to hurting bad enough that I really need someone to rub them and stretch them- that's when my husband is even more indispensable than usual. After just a few minutes of intense stretching, it will usually take the pain down to a tolerable level.

But most of all? I don't know that I would be alive today if I hadn't found my pain management clinic. My doctors work with me to help control my pain, and they've given me back a large portion of my life. Don't get me wrong- you don't walk into pain management and say, "Hey, I've got this pain and I need uber-big painkillers." They'll laugh at you, and send you away. But if you're willing to work with them to manage your pain (see that bit about exercising?), then pain management can be the best thing you've ever done.

 

The Viva la Nails sample pack is back!

Just a quick heads-up for those of you who may be interested. Viva la Nails has a sample pack for beauty bloggers and YouTubers, and usually it's out of stock. However, for the moment it's back and you can get yours for free! (Well, if you live in the UK. Shipping out of the country isn't free, but it is cheap!)

Now, be aware. This isn't the uber-package of the past. However, it is three sets of nail decals and three sets of water decals, and you can't beat that with a stick! It's a £12 value (that's almost $20!), so it's really not a bad deal. Plus, their decals are absolutely adorable.

If you're not a blogger, don't feel bad. They still have some really pretty things to play with, and their prices aren't too shabby. For example, look at this selection of water decals for £1.95 a pack, or their glitter and flitter (£1.45-£1.95), dazzling sticker paper (£1.95), or a huge selection of rhinestones, crystals and pearls for your nails. Honestly, there's a huge selection for a decent price.

As for the quality? I love the stuff that came in my sample pack. I've used them a couple of times, and have more looks to show you (look back through my blog, or look at the viva la nails tag). If they were local, I'd be ordering from them all the time!

So check out Viva la Nails. You might just be surprised at how cool their stuff is!

The Viva la Nails sample pack was provided by the manufacturer for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Purr by Katy Perry- how CUTE is this??

Ok, have you guys seen Katy Perry's new perfume? I have no idea what it smells like, and reading descriptions of scents doesn't really help me much. However, I am an absolute sucker for cute packaging, and this package is about as cute as it gets! I mean, come on... it has KITTY EARS! I am absolutely in LOVE with this bottle... the color, the rhinestone eyes, the ears and the little collar. It really is too adorable for words!

Then there's the actual ad for the perfume. Katy Perry is gorgeous (whether you like her music or not!), and this ad really is sexy and playful at the same time. If this smells at all good, I may have to get it, just to add it to my collection of pretty perfume bottles!

 

The press release has this to say:

Musical sensation and teen dream, Katy Perry introduces her latest endeavor, a flirty floral fragrance entitled Purr by Katy Perry, which begins with the aroma of peach nectar and forbidden apple, evolves with a distinct floral bouquet of jasmine blossom, Bulgarian rose and vanilla orchid, and slowly reveals accents of creamy sandalwood and musk.

Like the singer herself, Purr is playful yet sophisticated. Katy Perry transcends barriers with her music—so does her new fragrance.

The eau de parfum will retail for: $45 for 1.7 fl oz. and $65 for 3.4 fl oz.

Available at Nordstrom and www.Nordstrom.com.

   So what do you think... are you wanting to Purr a bit yourself?