Fun Fan Brush

Happy Sunday Loves!!!

I hope you are all doing well and having a good weekend. Mine has been okay, uneventful as we are still in the stay at home orders so it's just another day home minus working from home since it is the weekend! I've been binge watching Melrose Place, the original, from the 90's on Hulu. I have not watched this since it was first on. I loved Melrose Place and used to watch it with my mom and am loving watching it again all over. I'm on season 2 right now :)

Nothing else much really to say, life is boring being home all the time. Miss Betty is completely back to herself again after her enemas and for that I am so thankful.

Two weeks ago I decided to cheer myself up and ordered some new polishes online from the Essie Valentine, Spring and Summer collections and a couple Orly's that I had on my polish wish list.

So for today's nails I decided to use all new shades that I just got. The only one not new is a really old Misa sparkle top coat I used. I went for a fan brush mani today since I had not done one of those in forever. I think these colors look super cute together and hope you like them too :)

My base is Essie "Worth the Tassle" (just got this one from 8ty8 Beauty Supply online). It's from the Summer Essie collection that just came out and I LOVE it, always love a good purple and this is definitely a good one! I then used a fan brush with Orly "Lips Like Sugar", Essie "Bustling Bazaar" (also from the Summer Collection) and Essie "Free to Roam" to do the fan brushed nails. These polishes were all from my recent order of polish so all new and from current collections. I put one coat of Misa "Candy Girl" from a really old collection. I think it's "Candy Girl" but not 100% sure as my label fell off long a ago.

Worth the Tassle on it's own. Love it!!!!

I have some links for the online retailers I regularly use to order polish. Check them out. Never had an issue with any of these sites and been buying from all three for years now. Here they are:
8ty8 Beauty Supply: http://8ty8beauty.com/
Head 2 Toe Beauty Supply: https://www.head2toebeauty.com/
Transdesign: https://www.transdesign.com/

Here's some sites I regularly use to purchase stamping plates and nail tools:
Lantern & Wren: https://www.lanternandwren.com/
Whats Up Nails: https://store.whatsupnails.com/
Maniology: https://maniology.com/

the above sites are located in the USA.

Below are two that I use on occasion out of the USA for plates and other nails tools:
Mundo de Unas (Mexico): https://www.mundodeunas.com/
Born Pretty Store (China): https://www.bornprettystore.com/

Locally I go to Sally Beauty Supply https://www.sallybeauty.com/ to get my acetone, nail files, polish thinner, base and top coats.

That's it for today. Have a great Sunday. I'm being lazy and will be binging more Melrose Place and hanging out with the kittes since it's rainy out and won't be spending any time in our back yard :)
I leave you with Mr. Kitty looking too cute in all his Mr. Kitty cuteness! He's a good cat. Talk to you next weekend! Have a great week! Be and stay healthy and safe!

Polish & Purrs,

Melly

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Happy 50th Earth Day 2020

Happy Earth Day 2020,

Hello my friends. I hope that today finds you well and that you and your families are staying safe and healthy. It's been close to a month now that I have been working from home and I am so ready to get back to the office every day and have some normalcy again. Our state just extended our stay at home order thru May 8th so who knows when that will be, sigh. Even just going to the grocery store is so stressful and anxiety inducing. Sadly I don't think that's going to be changing anytime soon. We just have to accept that things are different now and just learn to adapt, we really have no other choice.

Last Wednesday I had to take my little dear sweet kitty, Miss Betty, to the vet due to her being constipated. She has poopy issues but had been doing good for a couple years. She had to get three enemas and it took her until Monday afternoon to start feeling herself again. She's going to be on a different food with higher fiber along with her daily laxative to help her going forward. I was one stressed kitty momma until she started to feel better. Sunday was my birthday, I spent it hanging out with Betty and snuggling her on the bed since she still was not feeling good, so it was just a day. Not like I was going to be doing anything anyways. Casey, my brother and I were going to be going to camp this past weekend for our first trip up of the year but that sadly for obvious reasons did not happen. I probably would have had to cancel anyways to stay home with Betty if it would have been normal times. We are hoping to get a trip to camp in May. We shall see. I miss camp and the bus and am so ready to get away to the mountains with the crazy that is life currently, more sighs.

Anyways, on to the nails. Today is the 50th Earth Day. I think it's awesome that it's now been a day for this long. This year too the Earth is doing much better due to people being home during the pandemic. Air qualities are so much better the entire world over, wildlife is moving back into areas that humans have pushed them out of and water ways are running clear.  This kind of stuff is pretty awesome to see happening. Maybe there is some silver lining in all of this, it's giving the Earth a chance to do some healing of her own. Mankind has messed this planet up on so many levels for so long, who knows, maybe this is Mama Nature's way of saying, "hey, I need a break from you people screwing me up for a bit.".

So, of course I have some Earth Day nails to celebrate our beautiful and wonderful planet. I really like these, think they turned out cute and hope you like them too!

My base is China Glaze "DJ Blue My Mind". I sponged OPI "Green Come True". I stamped using Funky Fingers "Gesso" with Winstonia W104 and Bundle Monster BM-XL476. On my pinkies and thumbs is a coat of China Glaze "A Grouchy New Year".

DJ Blue My Mind on it's own, a pretty shade of blue and perfect base for this mani I think. 

That's it for today. Have a great day, celebrate and appreciate Planet Earth and I'll talk to you soon. I leave you with a super cute picture of Miss Betty, my poor little poopy problem girl. She's my heart and just the cutest! I love her so so much! She is my baby girl!!

Polish & Purrs

 Melly

 Have you loved your cuticles today?

Stay Home Easter Eggs and Robin's Egg Easter Candy

Happy Easter My Loves,

Hello my friends. I hope you are doing well and staying safe still in this crazy that is life right now, sigh. I am doing okay. I'm going a bit stir crazy and so ready for life to return to some semblance of normal as is everyone else in the world. Normally on Easter I would be going to church with my Mom then we'd be going to have Easter dinner with Casey's family. Obviously that is not to be this year so I am planning a pretty lazy day of TV binge watching and reading. Casey will be making us ham later on so we are still having Easter dinner with just the two of us.

For today's nails I did some decorated Easter egg nails and then added glitter to the others to give the look of Robin's Egg malted milk candy nails. Robin's Eggs are some of my favorite Easter candy and I always loved decorating eggs so it was cool to put two of my Easter favorites together for this year.

I decided to do "skittles" nails for this mani today. My bases are China Glaze "Fresh Prince-SS" (thumb), Essie "Bond With Whomever" (index), Essie "Salt Water Happy" (middle), China Glaze "Cutie Mark the Spot" (ring) and China Glaze "Casual Friday (pinky). I then used these same polishes to draw the egg designs with a nail art brush and on top of those nails I put a coat of China Glaze "Fairy Dust". Then to create my Robin's Egg candy nails I simply put a coat of Baroness X "Twinkle Lights" on my pinkies and index nails. I love the way this mani turned out, it's perfect for this year's edition of stay at home Easter nails. Pastel colors always make me so happy :)

Here are all these lovely pastel shades on their own, so pretty and so Eastery! I love them all! China Glaze "Fresh Prince-SS" (thumb), Essie "Bond With Whomever" (index), Essie "Salt Water Happy" (middle), China Glaze "Cutie Mark the Spot" (ring) and China Glaze "Casual Friday (pinky). 

That's really all I have for today. Try to have a great Easter if you do celebrate. I'll talk to you next week with some more Spring nails I have in mind to do. Since it is Easter I leave you with our sweet sweet girl bunny, The Girl (that is her name). She's the best pet. She's so sweet and completely spoiled. We love her so much! 

Polish & Purrs,

Melly

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Cherry Blossom Trees In Bloom

Happy Sunday my loves,

Hello my friends, I hope that you doing well, staying healthy, safe and able to be staying home. This pandemic we are in is so beyond anything we've ever experienced before and it's so stressful and scary. I've been home now for the last two plus weeks except to go to feed my horse and sister's cats on Thursday when she's been at work since she works till late and I feed every Thursday. It's been nice to at least have that to look forward to. I do get nervous though seeing my Mom when I go but we are keeping our distance when I am there. This past Thursday she said to me, "Well, we can't hug each other since we have to stay apart, but at least we have our animals." And, she is right about that. I hate not being able to hug my mom when I see her, sigh.

I went to the grocery store twice in the last two weeks and did stop in at work to grab paperwork I needed to work from home and drop some stuff off. That has been the extent of my being out and about. I really hope that we find ourselves back to somewhat normal sooner rather than later. This is really now starting to work on my emotions and I find myself getting more depressed as each day is passing. I know I am not the only one feeling this way obviously and I am trying to really keep it in check with keeping myself busy reading, watching TV, painting rocks, going through stuff, hanging out with the kitties and Casey and going outside to sit in the back yard when it's been nice out. Casey has taken this time and gotten his garden started in our back yard, so he at least has that. I am able to work from home still and I do have Casey and am not totally alone with just the cats in our apartment. It would be way worse for me if I didn't have Casey and for that I am thankful.

I have started a general "to do" list of stuff I want to do around home and I do think that getting stuff done on my list will hopefully help me with my sadness by feeling like I've accomplished something as I cross things off my list.

I am also making sure that I do stick to some of my normal routines during this also such as doing my nails each Sunday morning, making sure I shower regularly, brushing my teeth AND flossing each day, regularly brushing the cats, cleaning the litter boxes each morning and not later in the day, keeping up with laundry and house work and that kind of thing.

I miss hanging out with my sister two nights a week and not being able to watch The Walking Dead with her each week now either, sniffle. Tonight is the last episode of The Walking Dead until later in the year when they can post produce the season finale that was to air next week so we will at least have that to look forward to later in the year when we can hang out again.

I also miss being at work and seeing my coworkers every day, the hardest being Nancy who I work with who is not just a coworker to me but one of my very best friends. It's so hard not seeing her. We do talk on the phone though every day so we at least have that.

Here in the U.S. they are saying that the peak of our infections and deaths will be in the next week to two weeks. Our entire state is now in a stay at home order, they are encouraging us to stay home even from the grocery stores or pharmacies for the next two weeks unless absolutely necessary and to wear masks if we are going out in public anywhere. All of this is just so surreal. I keep waiting to wake up, life be normal and think I was just having a dream about zombies, sigh.

I don't really think I have any more to say about the current state we find ourselves in other than that I hope we all get through this safely.

So, on to my nails for today. I chose to do some blooming cherry blossoms since I have had these on my nail to do list for a bit too and just never did them. Now is the perfect time of year to do them especially since we are stuck at home and can't see the real thing too much now. Also, on Thursday when I drove to Mom's I noticed how so much is so pretty blooming and coming to life. I had not been out in a week so a lot of stuff is now in full bloom. The sad part is I feel like I am totally missing this year's Spring, sigh.

My base is Essie "Peak Show". I drew the cherry blossoms and branches with nail art brushes using China Glaze "Community", Essie "Pin Me Pink" and OPI "Alpine Snow". The glitter on my index nails is Broadway Nails Gel Strong "Playground" and on my pinkies and thumbs to finish is Essence Effect "Baby, You're A Firework".  I think these turned out super cute and pretty. They definitely are Springy, that is for sure. Hope you like them as much as I do :)

Peak Show on it's own, love this pale white pink, it's pretty me thinks! 

That's all for today. Have a great rest of your weekend. I'll be watching The Walking Dead marathon that's on all day through this evening here and there, reading and may paint some rocks. Stay safe and healthy my friends. I leave you with Princess Pebbles lying in one of her strange positions. She cracks me up. She's a good girl! 

Polish & Purrs,

Melly

Have you loved your cuticles today?

How I Paint My Nails

Hello my dear friends,

I truly do hope that you are staying safe, healthy and staying home if you are able to during this very scary time we are all finding ourselves in right now with this global pandemic. This past Monday I started working remotely from home. I did have to go feed my horse on Thursday like normal since my sister is still working due to her being an in home health aide. Her job is essential. In our state of PA all schools are closed, all non essential businesses have closed and quite a few counties are on "shelter in place" orders. Our county is not under that order but it does appear most people are being responsible and staying home. It was really eerie passing all these closed businesses on my drive out to Mom's Thursday. Then I did have to stop at the grocery store and all day long I was so stressed about having to do that. It was not too bad and I was able to get everything I needed except for Lysol spray.

I've been feeling pretty depressed the last several days for obvious reasons. It's been tricky to not keep the news on all day and find other normal stuff to do to keep my mind off of things. I did paint some rocks with messages on them that I did hide down by the river on Friday afternoon when Casey and I did take a brief walk (which we are allowed to do) to get some fresh air and exercise. I also painted a bunch of rocks that I am going to be gifting to our neighbor camps next time we get to go to camp, whenever that may be. We were going to go my birthday weekend in April, don't think that is going to happen now, sniffle, sniffle. Maybe by May we will be able. I miss our bus and camp.

It was very nice though being able to see my horse, the cats and dogs on Thursday when I went to feed. They were some therapy I desperately needed. I am loving being home with our cats and they are too, it's just being stuck home in this is working on my emotions in different sad ways, sigh.

I also did my nails for the first time in two weeks this morning when I decided I had to do them to try to make myself feel a bit better through my nails.

I decided to make this post one that I had been wanting to do for quite a while now, like a couple years, lol, on how to paint your nails and a few words on how I do it. Hope you enjoy this post and that it can take your mind off of this time we are in for a few minutes.

In this picture I have the items that I use when painting my nails. From left to right, the cuticle trimmer I use only for shaving off the little jagged pieces of skin around my nails to keep them smooth. If you use one of these be extremely careful as you can go too deep and cut yourself. Use a very light touch. The next is a flat edge cuticle pusher. I don't use this for pushing my cuticles though. I use the flat end to scrape any polish that I get on my cuticles or the edges of my nails as I am painting my nails. I find that if you do this as you go then any clean up at the end is way easier. Next is my clean up brush that I dip in the dappen dish (above the brush) that I put acetone in for any other clean up that needs done. I have tweezers that I do put to use quite often since no matter what I do I still get a cat hair or two that I need to pull off, ha ha. If I am doing any stamping I use the cosmetic applicator q-tips to clean up the polish that gets on my fingers.

To remove my old polish I use straight acetone with cut up pieces of felt that I get from the craft store and cut myself. I also use a felt pad with acetone to clean my stamping plates. After I remove my polish I do scrub my hands and nails with a super simple homemade hand scrub made with plain white sugar and coconut oil. I use a nail brush with some liquid soap to scrub my nails and cuticles to get the oil residue off my nails prior to painting. If you don't do this the polish will not adhere to the nail as it should due to the oil.

The base coat I use is always Orly Bonder, then I do two coats of whatever creme color I am using, then I will do my nail art if I am doing any, glitter on any nails I might be and then a shimmer/sparkle top coat on whichever nails I may be that particular mani. My top coat I use is Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat.

The process of painting my nails is simple. I use pretty much the same technique as shown in this photo that I snagged somewhere off the interwebs (sorry I can't credit since I don't know who made this). To start I brush the excess polish off the back of the brush on the inside neck of the bottle probably two times. Doing it this way usually leaves just enough polish on the front of the brush to evenly polish my nail with the three strokes. I start with the middle stroke then each side. I wait a few minutes between the first coat and then repeat this same process for the second coat, again cleaning up as I go if needed. I also do prefer to leave the bit of a gap between where I start my polish and the cuticle itself. I just prefer the gap. Some people do not and polish the whole way down to the cuticle. There is no right or wrong, it's truly just about personal preference. When my mani is completely dry I moisturize the heck out of my hands and spend extra time rubbing my lotion into my cuticles. I moisturize many many times during the day and always rub lotion into my cuticles very well. It's what keeps them looking so nice and keeps them super healthy. Remember to moisturize, moisturize, moisturize :)

There you have my basic nail painting routine. Hope you enjoyed this little bit of how I do it.

Here's my nails I did this morning. I think they are super pretty and we all need some pretty in this time we find ourselves in.

My base is China Glaze "Funky Beat". The glitter is Color Club "Get In Loser" and on the rest is China Glaze "Don't Mesh With Me". I had actually just bought both Funky Beat and Get In Loser a couple weeks before everything went crazy. I think they are both really pretty polishes and love this glitter mix.

Funky Beat, this is out now from the Trolls Spring Collection, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this purple! 

Here are the rocks I painted and then hid down by the river on our walk. I really hope that people see these and it helps at least a little bit. I'll be painting more this coming week I am sure since I have so much time to paint right now. I am not a hoarder but do hoard back up paint, acrylic spray and rocks. So happy I do hoard those now. 

Here is my home work set up. I don't have a desk so a camp table and kitchen chair it is. I got up the first day and came back to this, Princess Pebbles taking over for me! Isn't this set up so fancy :) :)

Coworker Miss Betty!

Coworker King Dino.

That's all for today. Please, please, please stay safe and healthy. Please take this virus seriously also. This is such a scary uncertain time but we can get through this together but only together, so please do your part and stay home if you can, together we can flatten the curve. Talk soon my love bugs.

Polish & Purrs,

Melly

Have you loved your cuticles today?

The Gold, The Gold....It's All Mine!!!!

Happy Saint Paddy's Day my friends,

It's the day of green. I hope that today finds you healthy and safe in these crazy uncertain times we find ourselves in currently. It's really scary seeing how this pandemic is playing out. Here in our state the government has asked all non-essential businesses to close for the next 14 days. My work is still open as we are considered life safety being fire and security company and our customers need us now more than ever to make sure that their fire, security and camera systems are working as they should. I've been taking the extra measures to keep myself, Casey and my Mom safe. I've been doing all her grocery shopping for her as I do not want her being possibly exposed to the virus at 77 years old or some crazy person running into her with a shopping buggy and knocking her down. I'm taking no chances with her with that so between myself and my sister she will have her groceries that she needs until things settle down and get under control with this. It's really scary and I've been trying to keep myself educated on all that I can on this. I've got the cats and bunny stocked up on food, medicine and litter. So, if we are put under a temporary stay at home quarantine we will be okay. It's just crazy how just like that our world changed so fast!

Please take the guidelines they are advising us to do seriously and please do your part to help lessen the spread of this. We all need to do this together.

Well, enough of that, onto my nails. I did some leprechauns, gold and rainbows again for this year's St. Paddy's Day edition. I love these, they are cute and happy little nails I think. I hope you like them too and that it takes your mind off of the virus for a little bit.

My base is Color Club "We Liming". I did the leprechaun,  gold and rainbows with many polishes I was too lazy to keep track of. On my pinkies and thumbs is a coat of China Glaze "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Starfish" to finish.

We Liming on it's own, love this shade of green! 

That's it for today. PLEASE be safe and stay healthy my friends. Talk to you this weekend when I post my first nails for Spring, yay! I leave you with my view on the couch from this past weekend. I love my life with my babies :)

Polish & Purrs,

Melly

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Evergreen Boughs

Happy Sunday,

Hello my friends, it's been a couple weeks since I posted. Last weekend I did do my nails but put them in my nail draft of nail spam to post at a later date. So, no post last weekend. I hope you are doing good and that life is good. It's great my way. We did have to turn the clocks ahead an hour last night for daylight savings which I absolutely hate and wish they would do away with. It takes me about a week to acclimate to the time change and the cats of course have no idea the clocks changed, lol.

Spring is almost here and I haven't done a whole lot of Winter nails this year, maybe due to the fact that we have had no snow or really any Winter like weather. We've had a bunch of rain but no snow. I don't really like snow too much but do find it pretty and so quiet and peaceful when it is snowing. It's been pretty warm here all season. Today though I did decide to do some Winter nails. I did some stamped evergreen boughs on white to look like the boughs lying on some snow. I kind of really love the way these turned out, I think they are super pretty and hope you like them too. It's not often that I do a white base and today doing one it made me remember how much I really do love white nails :)

My base is OPI "Alpine Snow". I stamped using Finger Paints "Ball Gown Glamour" with Lesly "Winter Mood 1" and Lina "4 Seasons Winter 01" plates. The green glitter is a snowman no name polish and on my pinkies and thumbs to finish is a coat of BaronessX "Esmeralda".

Alpine Snow on it's own. This one is a great basic white if you are looking for a nice white.

Have a great Sunday and an even better week. Talk to you next weekend with whatever nails I come up with doing then!

I leave you with another picture of my Mom and sister's cat, Scoot Too, in the basket I took out to the house for him. He loves his basket so much and I love that he does :) He's such an awesome kitty and so happy they adopted him late last year :) I love him!

Polish & Purrs,

Melly

Have you loved your cuticles today?