Saturday, October 19, 2013

Neon nailsies and a bit o' life!

Hello and Happy Saturday evening to you all!  Since I was off work on Friday and going out of town, I decided to do a "funky" mani with neons (love 'em but I feel weird wearing them to work) and attempt a technique I've never tried before but recently saw in a tutorial video on YouTube.  It did NOT turn out like I envisioned because I could not find a small enough brush. :(  But it was still kinda cool, and I enjoyed it for a couple days. :)


First of all, can I say that as much as I love the neon mint color of ChG's Highlight of My Summer, the formula is HORRENDOUS!  :O  It gets sooo streaky, and yet, giant ridges build up in other places and it's just a royal pain in the butt to get decent coverage.  I think this is three coats.  Dry time was decent at least.  The accent nails are a polish I've showed you before; Maybelline Pretty in Polka.  I love their jelly/black & white glitter polishes! Drops of Jade is also in my stash. ;) 
As you might have guessed, the technique is one-stroke brush flowers, but mine did not really turn out.  I stupidly got the white and the pink (NYC French White Tip & Sinful Colors 24/7) reversed for the first two.  I'm not even going to try to describe it, so if you want to see how the pros do it, watch this awesome video!


So, since I only have & only wanted  to show you one photo of that mess, on to "life!"

Last weekend my little brother and I made the long-ish (6 hr) trek to New Ulm, MN to visit our mom's sisters and their "kids."  We're actually all around the same age...my brother and I both have cousins there that are the same age as us, and one that is smack dab in between us. :)  It was a really nice weekend and it felt good to finally reconnect with them.  It'd been YEARS since my brother saw that side of the family, and about 2 years since I'd been to New Ulm for a visit.  Plus it was nice to have someone to share the boring drive with - other than when he was driving like a boy and ruining my gas mileage!

Clockwise from R:  Jane (my aunt), Hannah (her daughter), me, Morgan (my brother)

Here's us having a sushi FEAST at a pretty spectacular place in Mankato. :)  Thankfully, we all enjoy sushi and so I thought lunch in the big city was in order!  Hannah had heard of this new place from a couple friends and they happened to have a $15.99/person all you can eat sushi lunch special.  I don't know how the 4 of us managed to eat only 3 rounds of 3 rolls...plus the most amazing crab rangoons as an appetizer - they were seriously to DIE for - like Turkish delight or something! lol
Somehow the sushi was very filling and totally delicious.  Mmmm.  Darn, now I want sushi!  :P

It was Oktoberfest while we were there - New Ulm is a very  German town, complete with a Glockenspiel & it's home to Schell's Brewery, so Saturday afternoon we walked around downtown and happened to catch the petting zoo as they were packing up...


Now that's not something you see in MN every day!  He was really cool... as we walked up, he kept saying: "Hello," and "I love you."  At least I think  that's what he was saying!  There was also a kangaroo, some other kind of big bird, a llama, a dromedary camel, and a couple other things I can't recall.  Hannah's 2-yr-old daughter was there before us with her dad, and she called her mom & kept repeating: "camel!" :D  It was pretty cute.  She knows a lot of animals for being only 2!


Now, on to TODAY!

I almost wan't going to include this, but since my friend's costume & my shirt kinda go (color-wise) with the mani I showed you, I figured meh why not!  Plus, I'm pretty excited that I did my first-ever 5k run/walk today!!! :D  Let me tell you, if someone said to high-school me (who about died every time we had to do laps for gym class) that in 10 years I'd be running a 5k of my own free will, I would have literally rolled on the floor laughing.  But, wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles; here I am...


Here's me and my lovely friend, Janette, who convinced me to do this with her!  So up until 8 days ago, I'd never really run a day in my life, other than when absolutely necessary. :P hehe
I have no idea what our exact times were (the timing device they were using kept freezing because it was so cold) but I'm guesstimating it was around 45 minutes?  And we walked a lot of it.  But I'm pretty proud of us!  It was surprisingly not nearly as bad as I thought and all my mental freaking out and worrying about being the last ones to finish was for naught.  We'll probably do another one in Fargo in May. :D

Oh, this guy greeted me this morning when I was about to sit down by my mirror to get ready.  I'll spare you the big photo!  Needless to say I got ready in the bathroom instead.


ISH.  I HATE spiders!  When my roommate got home, I had her kill it. :P  I'll usually kill them, but I was already on edge with nerves about the run. 


Have you ever accomplished something you never thought you'd do?  If so, I'd love to hear about it!  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this post even though it wasn't all about polish. ;)



7 comments:

  1. First of all....that spider is freaking me out. Thanks for not making the picture any bigger! Great job on the walk/run :) Also, you were getting closer to me on your trip! Did you take 29 down? Or 94? If you took 94, I could have waved at you. Oh, your mani is so pretty. Great job. I actually think flowers and nail art is best when it's not "perfect". I like abstract.

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    1. IKR?! Aren't daddy long legs just disgusting?! I hate finding them in my room! :(
      Thank you for supporting me in my 5k from afar!! :D I'm so glad I gave it a try. Always good to be open to new life experiences, right? :) You know, I think I saw a sign for Rice. If we hadn't left like an hour and a half late, and if I'd had your #, I SO would've tried to stop by even for a minute to say "hi!" Next time I head that way, I'll plan better!! I didn't even realize we would get that close.
      Thank you sooo much for your kind appraisal of my mani. :D Did you watch that video though?! I wanna do roses like that!! :D

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    2. Ok, I had to Google "IKR"....I feel old! Yes, we find daddy long legs in lots of corners of our house. And they are too big for me to kill, I'm too scared:( Yes, if you are ever headed to Minneapolis or somewhere you have to pass by St. Cloud/Rice, let me know ahead of time. That would be crazy to meet you.

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    3. Hehe, it's ok, don't feel old! I had no idea what SMH was for a very very long time. I thought it was something dirty so I didn't even wanna know, but the ways people were using it made me figure it couldn't be so I finally did Google it. It's "shaking my head," in case you didn't know. ;) Figured I'd save you the trip over to a new tab. :P
      Oh I for SURE will!! We HAVE to meet someday!! :D

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    4. Yes, I had to Google SMH before too. Liesl always used it on FB so I had to figure out what she was saying:)

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  2. I love the CG neon color -- I hate it when awesome polishes have horrible formulas :( I think your one-stroke flowers turned out great! Maybe not exactly like you intended them to, but they still look really pretty!

    Ugh, that spider *shudder*

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    1. Yes, it certainly is a fabulous shade of mint, but the formula is really a problem. SO frustrating! -_-
      Awwww thank you so much, Lucy for your kind words! :D It's nice that even though something isn't "perfect," people can still appreciate it for what it is. :)
      Uh yeah, I was like WHAT THE?!?! Why is that on my lamp?! :P Iiiiiish!

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