Happy Holidays, Y'all!

So I hope all of y'all had a great holiday season/are still having one (I'm counting New Years!). For the first year in a while, we had Christmas at my uncle's house instead of ours, which was kind of a relief, not going to lie.

 

 I want to name these bad boys, but I don't know if my uncle would approve. I guess I don't have to tell him, right?

 I got to see my cousin's kids, who are the little lights of my life. The three-year-old asked me for help drawing a shark (because that's what big sister was doing), so I asked her if she was scared of sharks. She said no, so I asked her what she would do if she saw one. She replied, "I would feed it. Sharks are always hungry because nobody feeds them", in that self-assured way only very small children have. Did I mention she's the cutest thing? However, I now have to make a dozen reindeer cookies for her big sister when we get back from a mini vacation to the coast. And I've been recruited to do their nails for their next dance recital, thanks to my rhinestone-bedecked Christmas mani!

That magnificent book in the back is Jenny Lawson's (The Bloggess) Let's Pretend This Never Happened and also proof that my hint/threats about seeing a dead (ethically taxidermied) mouse under the tree worked.

I used Julep Delauney and Sienna, and my rhinestones from Born Pretty. I got Sienna in my Julep New Year's Mystery Box-if you want to check that out, as well as some photo blurbs from Christmas, look after the break!

She Only Sleeps When It's Raining

So it's almost 1:45 and I have to wake up at 5 so my dad and I can have fishing adventures before the sun gets super burny and I have to put my sweatpants on over my jorts, (the horror!) but instead of sleeping I'm watching The IT Crowd and giggling and pretending I won't totally be taking a nap in the boat tomorrow. Probably in the Tahoe too, except for tomorrow is also the day I learn how to TOW THE BOAT, which is part of my Training To Be A Helpful Daughter. It doesn't help that my precious kitteh Lulu is hopping around my bed like a rabbit and taking the occasional break to chew on my hands, because she's a jerk like that and she does not value the same things I do, such as sleeping at night and not just after dinner and whenever people want me to be cute. *

This is the face of a jerk, my friends.

 I think I'm going to try to exile her to the floor because actual fishing always deserves my full attention, or my dad smacks me in the face with a catfish like he did one time when I was ten or so. It was purely on accident, but you don't just forget incidents like that. Fish are gross, yo.

*Since I went off on my fish tangent, she TUCKED HERSELF INTO BED RIGHT NEXT TO ME. It could only be cuter if she wasn't also stabbing me with one sharp little claw.

Title: 3 AM, Matchbox 20

Sunshine, Sunshine Is Fine

The lyrics in the title (Sunshine by Atmosphere) are the opposite of the weather right now, but oh so accurate on how my current mani makes me feel.  The blue-green-yellow gradient just feels like summer, you know?

Unfortunately, my camera is lost in my messy, messy room, so I ended up taking pictures with my iPhone, but they're still pretty decent.  I used a tutorial from Teen Vogue that uses a cheap brush instead of a makeup sponge, since every time I've attempted to use a sponge I've ended up with a lot of polish in the sponge and none on my nails. It's probably the sponges or polishes I've tried, but now I have a tutorial that works for me! 

Check out the polishes, etc. after the break:

Taking a Break...for Kittens

Not that anyone in particular will read this, but I haven't been posting lately due to the fact that I've been hand-raising two feral kittens so they can be adopted by friends.  The precious babies have absolutely MURDERED my hands, but they're getting big enough that I think I'll have time to try out a gradient mani today!

Happy Birthday Baby Bear!

More important than any mani: the sassy little lady pictured below just turned 17! We adopted her right before my 5th birthday, and she's been the best cat a girl could ask for. Sure, she's surly and bitey and doesn't let me cuddle her all the time, but she's a cat. That's what they do.

Pocahontas, aka Pokey, Miss Pickles, Baby Bear, Piggles, Buhbeh, etc.

(I have a nickname problem.)

Yes, I did name my cat Pocahontas. I was five! And I loved that movie! I'm actually 99.9% sure that my birthday party that year was Pocahontas themed, but this little fur baby was the best gift by far. 

The mani this time was simple:

Base Coat was Julep in Annette, with an accent topcoat of Sephora by OPI Only Gold For Me and Essie Matte About You on all the others.  This was my first time using Julep, and I was really pleased.  It dried quickly and most of my nails got great opaque coverage with one coat. It's also "3-FREE", which, frankly, doesn't really matter to me, as most of my collection is from some drugstore or another, but it's nice to pretend I'm being aware or something.