almost 400??? How did that happen? And life's little upheavals -Picture heavy

This poor little neglected blog is still getting new followers and I'm so grateful for every single one of you!

Life has tossed a few challenges my way of late, but we're resurfacing slowly and there are some exciting changes in the works for me and my family.
On June 5th, as I was travelling home from a wonderfully relaxing visit with my son who lives in Seattle, a power line came down and fell on my little gypsy home...and blew it up. Not literally, and yet, literally.

 It actually MELTED the metal - and apparently it bounced.

 This is a huge burned out hole in the siding...water was coming in like crazy...we had huge buckets under to catch it, but still had to empty them every 2 hours or so.

 There's a small hole in the siding to the left and down a bit from that orange light...the electrical flow blew out of there too.

 Those black marks aren't dirt, they are burn marks.

 and there are MANY.

 Inside: the fuse box...the lid sits where it landed. (sorry for the hairy rug, it's where we kept the dog's water and food.)

 It caught fire, but fizzled out (thank goodness!)

The explosive force blew the fuse box out of the wall. 

So we're working on a few things (housing for one) and getting our lives back in order. It's been interesting!

I'm still in awe of the number of followers I have now...I've been away a while and had no idea people were still finding this lil' blog of mine. I've got some stash for a giveaway and when I reach 400, I will make that happen.  I'm also REALLY excited to be attending the upcoming CosmoProf show in Las Vegas with quite a few other really talented and fun bloggers! Krystal over at www.polishgalore.com has been very busy getting us all coordinated to get together and have a good time. She also published this little delight: http://www.polishgalore.com/2011/06/cosmoprof-bloggers.html  so get over there and take a look, if you aren't following ALL of these blogs, you're missing out on some GREAT stuff.

I'll end this post with my Independence day mani:

 I was going for fireworks in an evening sky...missed the mark, but it was still pretty!

Sally Hansen Crack overcoat in Distressed Denim over Nfu Oh 61.

More posts coming...soon too!

~The Lizard

My Stash, My Heart, My Passion for Polish!

I know I've told most of you, and it's no big deal (I thought it was when I first got the news but I've adjusted since) but I will be going into the hospital on Wednesday, November 10 at 6:30 am local time for a procedure in my heart at 8:30 am. It's called Cardiac Ablation. It's not a "surgery" per se but a "procedure" LOL... they'll go up thru my artery (from my groin) to the heart with three skinny wires: one to stimulate the suspect problem and cause the problem reliably...one to see what they're doing, and one to do the freeze burn of the offending cells. Takes a minimum of 1.5 hours, maximum of 2. Then I'll be in the hospital for the rest of the day under observation to make sure they didn't break anything. They say I should be able to return to work the next day and I won't have to take medication for this problem EVER AGAIN!!! I am soooo looking forward to that, the meds make me retain unhealthy amounts of water and I have fat lower legs, ankles and feet. I'll probably lose 20 lbs the first couple weeks just from water retention. :)

No more meds, no more worries about SVT, hiking and biking can resume without worry, (just attention to injury prevention) and that will be a very very good thing.

So that is what I'm focusing on, but once in a while...the scary stuff creeps in and I just remember that there are good people out there thinking happy thoughts for me and it helps calm me down. Odds are in my favor, not fantastic, but not bad. So keep a happy thought for me tomorrow, okay?

After the Nail Polish Party with my co-workers, I had to reorganize my stash. So I dumped it out, sorted it and took some photos. I have not yet taken photos of my organizational choice, I guess I need to get to that next.

I do sort by color family, I find it easiest for me in my super tiny space. I have no need to sort by brand then color, just put the color families together and I know where to go for a purple, red, pink, blue or whatever thank-you-very-much.

Here begins the spam...bail now if your computer is slow. :) Remember: all of my pictures are clickable for your viewing pleasure. :)



So here's the stash in all it's not so organized glory: I sorted them by brand first but here's the whole shebang!

 Then we have all the China Glaze

 Followed by the lovely Zoya

 The nail polish pile of a price I swore I would never pay for a bottle of polish...and a stray bottle of Poshe?

 My beloved Essie collection.

 The "not found in drugstores but maybe sometimes in other lands" pile

 The Diamond Cosmetics pile...oh so small

 The "what I can get at my local drugstores" pile (lots of Orly in there)

The pathetically small OPI collection. (Told you, I am NOT a fan.)

 My Del Sols. I love these...I live where it's more sunny than anything else...except for the odd 10th year or so. These polishes belong here. It's just too bad that so many of them just turn the same shade of purple.

 Ahhhh, Nubar, my loves

 Sweet Color Clubs, such a great formula, such great pigments, so affordable!

 My favorite treatments, base and top coats (the rest were in the drugstore pile)

Then I sorted thru some of the piles, starting with the "I will never pay that much for nail polish" pile

Here are my Lippmann's, but one of them (the one beside the box) isn't really mine. I just took it out of the box to get a bottle shot. That's "Don't Tell Mama" and it belongs to someone else..yeah, you know who you are! The rest, left to right: Hit Me With Your Best Shot (I had to, I am a HUGE Benatar Fan), Wicked Game, Across the Universe (LOVE), Bad Romance (meh)

 My Rescue Beauties. 3 I won, 1 I got in a swap. I'll have a few more soon! Not many though...just um...6 I think?

 Who doesn't love Nfu Oh?

 Models Own...purchased during the 50% off sale. So far, from the ones I've tried, I like them. I think Peacock Green is my favorite. It's the exact color of that 'eye' of the peacock feather. 

 Assorted others that I only have ONE bottle from the makers. I think it's pretty funny that the one color I did bring home from my trip to Seattle last April out of all the polish I bought up there, I brought home the SH LE dupe. I didn't even know it, just really liked it and hadn't worn it yet. :) 

After I pulled out the Models Own, Miss Marion (you've seen that entire collection already) The 3 Misa's I own, the Gosh and the Finger paints, this is what was left. (I thought I took pics of those too, but apparently not.) Many of these were attained through swaps with some really great new friends. I wish I knew where my H&M Bella's Choice went off to...I'm sure it's around here somewhere.

There you have it, my stash. So far. I don't need a Helmer...don't have the space for one. As it is, this is too much for my little home, but I love them and so I let them crowd me a little...for now. But who knows? Maybe there will be an amazing blog sale at some point. I have to say, probably 50% (or more) of these are untried!  Do you see one I should try soon? Which one?

This Just In: Fabulous Street is having a sale on Nfu Oh

My email box had this little surprise in it today:


FABULOUSTREET.COM

April, Spring Break, Easter Special

All Polishes are priced at discounted prices.

We are clearing our inventory on the Discontinued Paint Series (No. 133-282)
They are marked 30% off.

All other polishes are marked on 10-20% off.

OFFER Valid from 04/01/2010 until 04/30/2010

Please send us an inquriy for additonal question.

www.FabulouStreet.com






Prices, specifications and availability suject to change with notice. (No
raincheck on purhcases)

In the past you provided FabulouStreet.com with your email address.
Occasionally, you will receive brief advertising announcement regarding
special items.  If you no longer want to receive these advertisments, please
click unsubscribe from home page. Please DO NOT CLICK REPLY, as the email
will not be read.

To contact us, please visit www.FabulouStreet.com

FabulouStreet.com
PO Box 280832
San Francisco, CA 94128

Copyright © 2009 FabulouStreet.com.
This email address was given to us by you or by one of our customers. If you
feel that you have received this email in error, please send an email to
sales@fabuloustreet.com
This e-mail is sent in accordance with the US CAN-SPAM Law in effect
01/01/2004. Removal requests can be sent to this address and will be honored
and respected.

Emerald Sparkled Blog flat out copy mani.

Trincess over at Emerald Sparkled is having a fantastic giveaway and I've been putting off entering until I could find a mani I could replicate with the limited Konad disks that I have. That girls got them all, so it took me a while but I found this one: (her version)

and created this one using Cheeky Monkey Cosmetics Man Chaser with a coat of Nfu Oh 49 on top, then I used WnW black and SH Insta dry white for the stamping with layers of Seche Vite in between. Counting base coat and stamp layers, I have 9 coats of polish on my fingertips!!! 9, yikes Trincess! Here it is in all it's glory and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out:

and just to prove it was a full mani, here's the left hand:

This concludes today's post, now I shall head on over to Emerald Sparkled to enter the giveaway. Come on over with me!

Opal tips

Back in the early part of December 2009, I got my first Nfu Oh. I really wanted #51 but it was not available. I searched and searched on Fabulous Street for something that would hold me over. I found it in #49. I love opals, all kinds, and I'm lucky to have a friend who buys rough stone and grinds it into lovely gems for me to buy. :) I shared these pictures with him and he agreed my tips were quite opal like, but of course he wants to see this color over black. I've seen Nfu Oh's over black so many times, I wanted to try something different.

I decided to put it over Essie Waltz, a soft, creamy white. I love Essie's formula, it stays where I put it and has this wonderful flow about it. Waltz was so pretty, so squishy and marshmallow-y after it dried. I almost didn't want to put anything on top of it, but I was on a quest, so I did.

I present to you: Opals on my fingertips. This was truly like having glittering opals to look at all day long..I couldn't keep my eyes off of my fingers.

Blurry shot for flakie wonderment. :)

Has anyone else layers their Nfu Oh's over white? or maybe some other light colors? Point me to your photos!