It's My Blog's Blog-A-B-Day, Yay!

Happy Monday Loves,

It's Monday, ugh, and it's overcast and rainy here today.  I hate dreary Mondays, it just makes Mondays that much harder, LOL!   Hope everyone had a great weekend.  I did, it went too fast of course, but, it was a good weekend and next week is a short week for me since I leave for my vacation next Thursday, yay! I can't wait!

Today is my blog's one year birthday or it's one year blogiversary as they are known in the blogging world.  Last September 28, 2014 I finally started my blog about mostly nails and nail polish with a little bit more thrown in here and there about me and my life.  I was still with my husband last year at this time and he had been encouraging me to start a blog to journal my nail adventures and to give nail care tips and tricks, so, finally one day I said to myself, "I should start a blog, this could be fun and I will have a diary of all my nails in the process.", so, that day I started my blog and did my first hello post. It's been a fun year for me with this blog. I have had lots of fun doing my nails, taking pictures and posting them on my blog.  I know I will continue to have fun with my blog going forward.  I have had several people tell me how much they love my blog, how much they have learned about nails and nail care and how they've been inspired by my nails and my blog to do their own nails and nail art.  That makes me feel so warm and fuzzy and good inside to hear people say that to me.  I will continue doing this blog and have some other ideas for future posts on this blog.  I am planning more nail and cuticle care posts, some bath and body product posts, more nail art and and a few other fun posts relating to nails.  I am beginning to collect some nail polish and nail care products for a blog giveaway I want to do too later this year as a thanks to my readers and fans. I look forward to the next year going forward and can't wait to see what new ideas and fun stuff happens on this blog.

So, since this is my blog's birthday, I decided to do some cupcakes on my nails to celebrate. I used a base of China Glaze "Lotus Begin", the rest of the polishes I used I didn't write down.  This was also the first time I did cupcake nails. I like them!  Here you go.

Lotus Begin on it's own.  I love, love, love this purple, what a surprise, it's purple and I love it :)

My best friend, Valerie, had her daughter, Chloe, also my god daughter, over at my apartment this weekend too and she did a dotticure on her nails.  They looked great and I love the colors she chose.  Here Coco and I are showing off our nails in front of some of my polish :)

Chloe's nails and my nails

Here's Dino snuggling and getting love from Mommy.  I love these pics of him and me.  He's such a good cat.

Trying to pose my nails with Dino here, didn't work so well, LOL, but, look how handsome he is :)

Here's Casey and me on Saturday night before we went out to get a drink.  I heart this guy hard you guys :)  He makes me really happy and we have such a great time together and he's just a straight up good guy that treats me the way I deserve to be treated :)

That's it for today.  Talk to you all soon and Happy Blog-A-B-Day Melly's Musings!!!  :)

Polish & Purrs,

Melly

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Fall Is Here!

Happy Thursday Loves,

Hope your week is going well, mine has been okay.  It's Thursday which means tomorrow is Friday, yay.  Casey and I have a pretty busy weekend ahead of us.  We have to take his chickens to their new home on Saturday, he has to move them from where they are due to that property being sold and they are going to go live with the Sunday School teacher and his family from my Mom's church and they have 5 or 6 kids and are very excited for the chickens to come there.  It sucks we can't keep them, but, living in the city, that's not an option for us to keep them with us and Mom and Dad have too much going on to add any more animals to the mix out there, so, off to a new home they will go.  They are going to get a good home with them, we are happy about that.  Just sucks, no fresh eggs any longer for us, sniffle. Then we have more stuff to do and get ready for our Burning Man regional event in a couple of weeks, some cleaning and organizing stuff at home since Casey has moved in and then he has some stuff to do in his garden too before the cold weather hits so our weekend is going to go fast and be productive at the same time. Then of course we have Fear The Walking Dead on Sunday night, yay!

It's officially Fall here now, so, for these nails I decided to do some Fall colors.  I love Fall and Fall weather, I just hate the impending doom of Winter that comes after Fall, ugh. I love the changing colors of Fall and like that little bit of crisp cool air that calls for hoodies, hot chocolate, warm fires and cuddling with the kitties and that special cuddle buddy in your life, I am looking at you here Casey baby :)

I did a base of two coats of OPI "In The Cable Carpool Lane" on all nails, then did small dabs of polish on my accent nails using OPI "Is My Tai Crooked?", OPI "Sparrow Me The Drama" and OPI "Aloha From Hawaii" then I took a piece of a cut up plastic baggie and laid it down on top of the nail then lightly smooshed the baggie onto the polish to smear it and blend it all together.  I did this on each accent nail using a new piece of baggie for each nail.  I then put one coat of China Glaze "Fairy Dust" on my accents then one coat of Piggy Paints "Lunar Halo" on the rest and was done.  I love, love, love the way these turned out.  They look just like Fall leaves I think.  This was the first time I did the dabs of polish and the smoosh technique and love how it turned out and can't wait to do this again with other colors.  I love these and may actually keep them on for more than two days, LOL :)

In The Cable Carpool Lane on it's own.  This is such a purrfect Fall color and it's so pretty too.  As much as I love my brights and pastels these types of vampy colors will always have a special spot in my heart too.  I love vampy shades in the cooler weather. 

That's it for today.  I'll talk to you all sooner rather than later :)  I leave you with Princess Pebbles and her outside adventures. She's pretty much become an outside cat.  She had been bugging and bugging to go outside all the time so I finally gave in and she is just loving it.  She hunts too which is great since Momma Kitty and Billy died and Little Shit is so not a hunter I needed another hunter outside so Pebbles it is.  It is nice seeing her do the same cat things that Momma and Billy used to outside.  I miss seeing cats out in the yard just being cats, so it's nice for me.

See how happy she is being an outside kitty, she just loves it so much. Now if her and Little Shit, my only other outside cat, would just start becoming buddies that would be truly purrfect :)  Right now she will chase him, but, hoping that changes once it gets a bit colder and they decide it's warmer to get along and cuddle together.

Talk to you soon!

Polish & Purrs,

Melly

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Glitter, Glittah Spam

Happy Tuesday,

Hope you are having a great week so far.  Mine is so-so, yesterday was typical Monday and today is was kinda being nutty too.  Oh well, just got to get thru the next two weeks then it's vacation time for me when I go to our Burning Man regional event, yay!  I can't wait, I am so ready and really need a few days away and off work and to just be with my crazy weirdo burner loves.

In other sad news, my family's Black Lab therapy dog, Harley, is in kidney failure and it's just a matter of time until it's her time to go to Rainbow Bridge.  We just found this out late last week, it sucks, she is only 6 years old and it's so unfair with everything that my Mom has on her shoulders right now with Dad's health and my sister's hurt knee, she's got so much to do and now she's got to deal with losing not only her therapy dog, but, her best friend too, it's so unfair, sigh.  I am deeply saddened by this too.  I love that dang dog, she's a really good dog and Mom and her have continued to go to visits every week even with everything else going on with my family, this sucks.  She has still been going to the barn with me and Mom did take her on a couple of visits since we found out, they will just keep her comfortable and happy and she will tell us when it's time, they always do.  We also just had to have one of my sister's cats put to sleep about a month ago so this is just really hard right now. Please keep my family in your thoughts and prayers as we say goodbye to another furry family member.  I have a picture of both Harley and Pudge, who was one of the World's coolest ginger kitties ever, at the end of this post.

Today I have some glitter nail spam for you, who doesn't love some glitter :) I am in the process of trying to use all my glitter polishes and by doing this also purge some polishes too.  I do have several that I do have dupes of or that I have not used yet that I want to use.  I have, gasp, too many polishes at the moment and am feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the glitter polishes I do have especially since I've been doing more nail art lately and will continue to do more nail art, so, this way I can get them worn then decide whether to keep, purge, gift, use for crafts, etc.  So, I will be doing more glitter nail spam posts coming up over the next few months or so.

Glitter #1

For these nails I did a base of Sally Hansen Extreme Wear "Pin-k Point" with accents of Milani "Rainbow Prisms" and a coat of a Melly Mix on all the rest.

 

 

Pin-k Point on it's own.

Glitter #2
I used a base of OPI "Miss You-Niverse" here with accents of a purple Kleancolor glitter and Sally Hansen Diamond Strength "Sparkling Jewel" on the rest.

 

 

 

Miss You-Niverse on it's own

 Glitter #3

I used a base of Color Club "Meet Me At The Rink" with accents of Finger Paints "Laugh My Art Off" (this name, I love it, it's too silly :) ) and one coat of another Melly Mix on the rest.

Meet Me At The Rink on it's own. I love, love, love pastel blues like this, they are so pretty.

Glitter #4

Used a base of OPI "You Are So Outta Lime" here and one coat of Layla Ceramic Effects "CE54" and one coat of OPI "Snowflakes In The Air" ion top of the "CE54" on my accents, then I put one coat of an unknown green sparkle top coat on the rest.

 

 

 

You Are So Outta Lime on it's own.  I love this bright green, it's the green of aliens, yay :)

There you have some glitters.  I do indeed love glitter and am really excited to wear some of my untrieds I have so many of, LOL :)

Here's a picture of Harley and me from Thanksgiving Day last year and one of Pudge from last Summer sometime.  It's so hard to say goodbye to beloved pets and it sure never does get any easier. I miss Pudge and will miss Harley so much when she goes too, sigh.  But, I also could never imagine life without animals in it even tho' it is so dang hard to say goodbye when they go to Rainbow Bridge.  They really just do do so much to brighten our lives and make us happy.

Harley

Pudge, he was such a great kitty.  Be at peace at the Bridge buddy till Tina and you meet again one day.  I'll see you too one day when it's my turn to journey to the Bridge. 

That's it for today.  Have a great rest of the night and tomorrow we will have made it to Hump Day already, yay :)

Polish & Purrs,

Melly

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Mani Bombs, Moisture Goodness for Nails & Cuticles!

Happy Tuesday Love Bugs,

Hope you are good, I am good!  Today I finally have my promised mani bomb post for you.  A mani bomb is basically a bath bomb for your hands and nails.  If you don't know what a bath bomb is, it's a product that has a bunch of moisturizing oils, such as almond, jojoba and coconut oils, in them that you toss in the bath and they fizz from the citric acid in them and as they fizz, they dissolve and release all the oils so that as you soak in the tub your skin soaks up the oils and you end up with super soft, silky and moisturized skin.  Mani bombs work the same way, but, have a bit more added oils usually for extra moisture for your nails and hands.

Mani bombs also may be called mani melt, mani fizz(y), mani shot or mani soak, but, they are all the same thing.  I have mani bombs from three different places, Pretty & Polished, Forever Polished and Paw-Some Natural Bath & Body (their shop tho' is currently not up on Etsy where it always was which sucks cuz' I love their products so much, hopefully they will open shop up again soon).  I will include links to these shops and a couple other shops that have mani bombs that I do want to try out their products at the end of this post.

To use a mani bomb you fill a bowl full of hot water, drop the bomb in then soak your hands in the water for 5 to 10 minutes or so.  I usually soak for at least 10 minutes and periodically during my soaking I will take my hands out and rub the oils into my hands and nails then put them back in the bowl to soak some more.  Once you are done soaking, pat your hands dry and don't wash them for at least a half hour to give the oils plenty of time to absorb into your hands and cuticles.  They really are quite luxurious and do make your hands really soft and they do feel so nice after you do a mani bomb.  I do them about twice a week.  I will do them either with polish or without polish on.  I also will break a bomb in half to get two uses out of one bomb for the larger size bombs. I love using a mani bomb, it gives me some me time and a bit of time to just relax a bit too.

Here are all my mani bombs and how I store them.  The basket contains all mani bombs and the purple basket contains some of my mani bombs and some bath bombs too.  I LOVE my mani and bath bombs, that is for sure :)

Here are the three different brands that I have both fronts and backs of the bomb packages.

Pretty & Polished mani melts, these come in a pack of three, I use one at a time, Paw-Some Natural Bath & body, Forever Polished, both the Pawsome and Forever Polished bombs, I break in half for two uses. 

Here is the bowl I use.  I love this bowl, it's the perfect size for mani bombs and it was also my Grandma's who passed many, many years ago.  I loved my Grandma so much, she was a great lady, so this bowl means a lot to me and makes me think of her and smile when I use it :)

Here you can see how big the bowl is, you want one that will allow you to submerge both hands in it. 

The bomb broken in half in the package and the half of the bomb I used for this soak.  The other half I just keep in the package until my next mani bomb.

Here is when I first dropped the mani bomb into the water and how it looks as it fizzes and dissolves. 

Here is the water after the bomb has completely dissolved, see all that oily goodness there and the pic below this one is the residue of the oil left, you can see there how much oil they do pack in the water. 

Here is a pic after using a bomb, see how nice and moisturized my hand, nails and cuticles look. They really do a great job pampering your hands and nails.  Don't mind my horribly stained nails, I never ever remove stains from them as I don't care about them being stained since I always have polish on anyways :)

And, there you have it, mani bombs.  I love using these and I love the way they make your hands, nails and cuticles feel and look.  I definitely suggest incorporating mani bombs into your own nail care routine.  They are so worth it.

Here's links to some shops where you can buy them from:

http://www.shopprettyandpolished.com/collections/mani-melts

http://foreverpolishedbyashley.bigcartel.com/

http://charminghandmademagic.bigcartel.com/category/mani-bomb

http://www.paintboxpolish.bigcartel.com/product/mani-fizzes

https://www.kbshimmer.com/product-category/hand-care/mani-shots/

https://www.etsy.com/shop/Wimzy?section_id=10199462&ref=shopsection_leftnav_1

https://www.etsy.com/shop/LOLITALACQUER?section_id=17195309&ref=shopsection_leftnav_1

https://www.etsy.com/shop/GrimAndGlamorous?section_id=17421472&ref=shopsection_leftnav_1

That's it for today.  I leave you with more of Miss Gypsy, Casey's cat, she's settling in very nice and everyone is getting along now and it's nice to see.  The second pic is of her with some catnip, she's a cute and nice little cat.  I am happy to have her as part of the cat crew in my home and she's so pretty too!

Talk to you all soon and have a great rest of the day and tomorrow is the middle of the week already, yay :)

Polish & Purrs,

Melly

Have you loved your cuticles today?