I was tagged! Four things about Laynie...

I was TAGGED!! Anita from a Splash of Serendipity tagged me to do the Four Things meme. You might learn more about me than you really want to know, but hey, it's a risk you take, right?

4 things found in my purse
  * Pens. I usually have pens in at least 4 ink colors, because I sketch a lot. Having multiple colors lets me put more depth and detail in my sketches. It's also just plain fun. I prefer Pilot G2 pens in fine or extra fine point.
  * A notebook(s). See above. I have one or two notebooks with me at all times, for sketching, to do lists, or jotting down inspiration as it hits.
  * My medicine organizer. I have fibromyalgia and take medication four times a day. If it weren't for my medicine organizer, I'd never be able to remember what to take when! I have a pretty cool system worked out for it, though, and have helped friends start a system for their meds as well.
  * Lip balm. My lips get so dry and chapped! I love my Nivea Kiss of Moisture...

4 favorite things in my room
  * My husband!
  * My memory foam mattress topper. This thing is BLISSFUL!
  * My laptop. It stays in the bedroom most of the time.
  * My nail polish!

4 things I’ve always wanted to do
  * Go to Burning Man.
  * Graduate from college. I stopped midway in my junior year (ok, I was in college for 7 years, and was only a junior. It's a LONG story!) due to health and then we moved, and I never finished my degree.
  * Road trip across the country. I want to do all those touristy things with my husband, buy t shirts and see the Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls and ... yea. It sounds like so much fun!
  * Learn another language well enough to actually have a conversation in it. As it is? I can order beer in several languages. That might be helpful if I actually drank beer.

4 things I’m currently into
  * Nail polish! All sorts of nail art, actually. I enjoy reading about it as much as I enjoy actually making it, and I wish there were magazines about it.
  * Women's health. I'm a women's health advocate, and I moderate several women's health communities online. I believe information is crucial in this day and age, and I work hard to make information about our bodies and our birth control choices available.
  * Vanilla yogurt. I love the stuff. I could eat it three times a day without complaint. In fact, I think I need a bowl right now...
  * Research. Actually, it's not something I'm "currently" into, it's something I'm always into. I seriously enjoy taking a subject and learning everything about it that I possibly can.

4 things I bet you didn't know about me
  * At one time I was a radio DJ. I worked at a college radio station, and it was lots of fun.
  * I'm double jointed. My arms bend so far back that it looks like they're broken.
  * I'm legally blind without my contact lenses. I'm so nearsighted that everything is just blobs without them.
  * I don't like following rules. :D

4 songs I can't get out of my head
  There are entirely too many to pick at the moment. Pick a Lady Gaga song- if I know it, it's been stuck in my head before. "Just Dance" is currently there.



Rules:
-once tagged you must link the person who tagged you
-tag 4 others
-let the bloggers know they have been tagged
-give 4 answers to each question asked

I don't want to tag anyone in particular. Instead I'm tagging everyone- if you read this, and you want to play along, then do so. Link me as well, if you do. And most of all... enjoy yourself!!

I won a giveaway from DaintyDarlingDigits! Who knew?

Giveaways- we all know them, and lots of us participate in them. But does anyone really win the shiny packages of happy we see referenced on these blogs? Well, thanks to the Going Green giveaway at Dainty Darling Digits, I can honestly say that Yes!! People win!! I won!!

Opening this box was so incredibly exciting. I don't think I've been this giddy in ages! Each little bit was carefully wrapped, so it was like unwrapping Christmas presents! There was entirely too much squeeing and giggling, and my husband just shook his head and laughed at me. It was a lot of fun!

Also, if you look carefully, you'll notice there's quite a few more items in this picture than there are in the photos in the giveaway entry. That's because of all the extra goodies the blog mistress put in!

There are travel-sized bottles of Cetaphil cleanser, Avojuice lotion, and Burt's Bees shampoo and conditioner. I haven't tested those out yet, but I have used the EcoTools hand cream. This stuff smells phenomenal! It's got a very clean scent, and it absorbs into my hands like a dream. I'm really happy with it!

I was a bit concerned about the hand cream. I'm really sensitive to smells, and lots of lotions and hand creams get passed on to friends or just not used because of their scents. This one is really refreshing, though, so I'm a happy Laynie!

Then there are the polishes! Holy WOW, the polishes! All of the colors in this box suit my skin tone as if they'd been picked out for me! I really enjoy the selection of neutral colors. There's a nude, a beige/tan, a plummy brown that's absolutely gorgeous, and a mushroomy taupe that's got just a hint of violet to it. GORGEOUS!! Then the pinks... oh my goodness, the pinks. The two Maybelline pinks are insanely shimmery-glittery, and are sheer enough to go over deep colors as well! That's quite a show-stopper, honestly. I put a coat of Maybelline Golden Plum (the deeper pink of the two) over a coat of OPI Suzi Loves Sydney, and the result is simply stunning. Who knew?

Finally, the canes. I haven't been brave enough to slice them up, even though I was a polymer clay freak years ago. I was even tempted to make canes for sale to nail people once upon a time! Isn't it interesting how things cycle around...

Anyway, these canes are so adorable. I really like the purple hibiscus, it's so cute and graphic! The lavender flower is sweet as well. Now, if only I can use them well enough to not feel like I'm wasting them!

So that's what was in the box of goodies! Isn't it fun? So remember- keep entering the giveaways. You might be the next one with the giant box of nail mail, just waiting for you to open it and squee like a child!

Until next time, my lovelies!

Exhausted, so it's a quick one.

Patience, so they say, is a virtue. Unfortunately, I don't know who they are, or I'd tell them to kiss my heinie. I've never been terribly patient, and yesterday was no exception. My family and I were on our way out the door to go to the bookstore when I saw that I had a package.

I had nail mail!!

I couldn't wait. I grabbed the box and opened it while we were going down the road, giggling and squealing as I saw each carefully wrapped parcel. My prize from the Dainty Darling Digits Go Green giveaway has finally arrived! (Don't worry, there will be pics later, once I've had some sleep!) Once I got home, I couldn't just put the polishes away. I had to go through and play with them, test some, see if any of them work with stamping. (Lots do, btw... but that's yet another post to come!)

Unfortunately, I tend to have my own style when I swatch. I don't do a whole hand, or even a whole nail usually. I end up with bits here, bits there. I sometimes have three or four colors on a single nail. Tonight's was even odder, because I ended up stamping over most of the nails just to look at different combinations. What's the use of having all those polishes if you can't play with them?

After seeing my manicure, my husband suggested I take pictures for the blog. He said it's too interesting a look not to share. Personally, I think that means he wants everyone who reads my blog to be able to laugh at my awful swatching too. But you know?

I'm ok with that. :D

So here you go... my horrible swatchicure.

Remember, lovelies, when you do something silly like this to your nails? There's a really good chance you're going to have to go in public like this. People will stare, especially if you've got a headless purple dinosaur spewing blood on your fingernail.

Ok, I know someone's going to ask. I was testing stamps, and I had one of the Hot Topic plates out and ready to go. Well, once I saw the purple stamped so well, I *HAD* to stamp the dinosaur with it. Except that I missed, and his head didn't actually stamp so well onto my nail. So I was stuck with a mostly-headless dinosaur! Now, tell me you wouldn't have grabbed your red art striper and painted blood drops all around him! I know I certainly couldn't resist!

Ok, I need sleep. It's been a long stressful night, and I just want to lie down and go blank for a while. Much love to you all, my lovelies, and may you have a more peaceful day than I had night!

Enough! Take off that polish already! TAKE IT OFF!!

Back again? I know, you're dying to figure out just what else I could add to my manicure... It was pretty blingy and over-the-top as it was, could I actually do much more with it?

Silly lovey, of course I could!

I got an incredible package in the mail from KellieGonzo (who writes Also Known As, a rather kick-ass blog). See, we're been Twittering back and forth for a bit now, and she's as sweet as can be. Out of the blue she asks me for my email. Turns out, she says she's got a few Konad plates that she unfortunately hasn't been able to figure out how to use, and she wondered if I was interested in them. She'd noticed that I'm having a ball figuring out all the things you can use a Konad set for.

Well, I get to the mailbox the other day and find her package. Turns out her idea of "a few plates" is 14 plates, a holder, and 3 special Konad polishes! I kid you not, I squeed like a mad person! My husband just laughed at me as I went over and over the various bits, because it was just like Christmas! Honestly, y'all, I wanted to hug her!

Thing is, once I had those plates in hand? I couldn't let them just SIT there... I had to USE them. So I dug through til I found something I thought would be simple enough to go over what was on my fingers, but still fun enough to do, and simple enough I would be able to do it. First time Konading on my own fingers you know? So I picked out a simple dot pattern, and sure enough, 15 minutes later I had cuteness on my nails! I photographed it without topcoat, because I was afraid the Konad would smear and be ruined.

It wasn't, though. It survived just fine under my Sally Hansen topcoat, whose name escapes me at the moment. It's in here somewhere, though...

Problem is, those patterns are awfully small, and my thumbnails are awfully large. First I tried stamping my thumb vertically, but that left 1/3 of my thumbnail blank, which just ... I'm not ready to match up a pattern yet. Getting it on straight was enough excitement for the day! I cleaned off the stamp and started again, this time putting it at the base of my thumb. That left a bit of space at the tip, which I covered with the swirly bit there. It'd be nicer if I hadn't smeared it, but... meh. Bite me. It's my first time, and that's ok!

And there you have it. How I put more layers of polish on than any one person should EVER have on their fingers at one time. And it looked CUTE, too! Of course it finally chipped, and that chip made me crazy, so I had to take it all off, and now my nails are bare as ever. Funny how that happens... but I've got a lot of birthday polish and Konad plates to play with, so I'm sure they won't be bare for long!

Gosh Rainbow over Wet n Wild Eggplant Frost

Hi again! Lots of craziness at Chez Laynie, and I'm having such fun documenting it all. Around the blog, there have been a few changes- I've added a box on the left so you can ask me questions at Formspring! I don't know how well that's going to work, or if I'm going to keep it, but hey, it's a good start, right? Also, I've incorporated Google ads to the blog. Don't worry, there are no big flying graphics or blinky things to annoy you. But if you see something interesting in the text ads, feel free to click. I've already seen a couple of things I'd like to click!

I've also added a counter for my feedburner (holy wow, I had no idea so many people had signed up!!) as well as a cute widget showing off my Etsy listings. Not sure if I'll keep the Etsy one. What do you think? Is it a keeper? Ah well... let's get to the nails, shall we?

Oh my gosh, this has been the HARDEST look to photograph!! Seriously, I have taken more photos of my nails this time than I think I ever have, and that's saying something! Of course, that means you have to look at more pictures, but hey... it could always be worse, right? I could have broken more nails, or...

...oh wait, I did. Meh, no big deal. Worst case scenario, I always have nail tips, right? :D

Ugh, I'm all over the place right now! Let's start at the beginning, shall we? As soon as I picked up Eggplant Frost, I knew it needed a coat of Gosh Rainbow over it. I wanted to see how the deep warm purple affected the Rainbow flakies. (For the record, Gosh Rainbow and Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure are dupes... one has slightly larger flakes, but there's no real reason to own both, other than the fun of it!)

So, after wearing Wet n Wild Eggplant Frost for a day, I put a single coat of Gosh Rainbow over the top, then a layer of topcoat. This stuff was so insanely pretty that I simply couldn't stop looking at my fingers, watching the colors change as the angle of the light did. My husband laughed at me on more than one occasion for being lost in thought, just looking at my nails...

I also need to apologize for these first photos. I was so excited about this combination that I decided I had to take pics for twitter, even though I hadn't even cleaned up and was still oily from my quick-dry topcoat. (Speaking of, that's a post for another day... I'd be LOST without it, and it's cheap!) So the first few pictures are sloppy and embarrassing, but they show the colors so well. Forgive me?

The next day I went outside and sat on my front steps with my cameras, taking photo after photo, trying to get a video to show how this stuff interacts with the light. No go, though... the videos were all blurry, and utterly useless. I haven't given up on video yet, I'm just not at a point I can do it well enough. I'll get there, though, and as soon as I do, you'll see video!

I imagine the neighbors must have thought I was insane, sitting on my steps taking photos of my hands. I often wonder what my neighbors think. Once I'd gone to visit my dad, who lives at the end of a dead end, and there was the cutest turtle just sitting there in the road. I had my husband stop the car, grabbed my camera, and soon was lying in the road, camera on the ground, taking face-to-face photos of the turtle.

Before long, one of the neighbors came out of her house, terrified. She asked if we needed her to call 911, so that an ambulance could come. She must have thought he hit me with the car! We both said no, everything's fine, there's a turtle in the road! She looked at us as if we'd lost our minds...

Maybe she's right. I have more stories like that than the average person should, I think, but it's fun. I wouldn't want to change the way I do things... it's what makes me me!

My poor camera, though... it had the worst time trying to photo this combo. You really do need to enlarge at least a couple of photos, if for no other reason than to see the amount of sheer amazingness. The purple shimmer in the Eggplant Frost seemed to really step up with the Rainbow flakes, so there was an amazing amount of just ... I don't know. Prettiness? Downright crazy understated blingy goodness? Sexiest nail treatment since holographic polishes? I have no idea, I guess... I'm totally at a loss for words, at least coherent ones!

 So yea, I consider this to have been a very successful layering experiment. But do I stop here? Heh... those of you who follow me on twitter will know the answer to that one! Tomorrow, my lovelies... tomorrow you'll get to see what else I did to this!

Giveaway Roundup

That's right, boys and girls, it's time for another giveaway roundup! This one's shorter than the last, perhaps, but it's just as sweet. You never know when you'll get the email saying, "You won!"You can't win if you don't enter, right?

Wet n Wild, Eggplant Frost

Whew! I finally get to wear some of my birthday polish! Actually, I was wearing it in yesterday's haul entry, but I hadn't talked about it yet. I'm wearing the Wet n Wild Eggplant Frost polish, and I have such mixed feelings about it.

First, there's the color. This didn't photograph anything near what it looks like in person, not that there's anything surprising about that. Interesting (to me, at least) fact- lots of digital cameras have problems capturing purples. It's something to do with the sensors inside the camera, but it's beyond me to explain. Just know that when your purples look blue, it's not your fault!

So, back to the polish... It's a deep, gorgeous blurple. You can see the blue tint in the bottle, but most of that shimmer is hidden, so that just the tinest hint comes out with your topcoat. It's a rich, warm royal purple, incredibly deep, and I just love it to bits.

I'm not sure why they named it Eggplant Frost, though, since this is about as far from a frost as you can get without being a creme. The tiny bit of shimmer it has almost disappears, which is sort of frustrating for a shimmer/glitter junkie like me. That's ok, though... it's so pretty, I could deal with it.

Except for one this. This polish was so incredibly difficult to work with. I don't know if it's just this polish, if it's all Wet n Wild Shine polishes (I have some others to test out, so we'll see, right?), but this one had me cursing. It's like after the first sweep of color onto the nail, it dried and became miserable- clumpy, draggy, uneven, and then it bubbled like mad. I didn't do anything different than I normally do, so I can't imagine what the problem is. It was frustrating enough that I'm tempted not to use it again, though.

The good news is that once I got it on, two coats was totally opaque. Adding my topcoat made the bubbles almost disappear, and within minutes I was in love again, my cursing all but forgotten. It's stayed on well (3 days so far, with extremely minimal tipwear other than 1 small chip I repaired invisibly.) It's a workhorse polish, I just wish it wasn't such a prima donna to work with!

I'm planning on picking up a bottle of thinner this afternoon, maybe that'll help it. As for this manicure, I've got a hint as to what tomorrow's post will be. ;)