An Update and Things to Come

Sorry for my lack of attention to the blog.  I would like to tell you all about my life away from the computer so maybe you will understand a little better.

I am a wife and mother.  I handle all finances and pay all bills.  I wash all the dishes in the house.  I wash all the clothes, too.  I am the one who vacuums and shampoos carpets.  I do all the cleaning and cooking.  Imagine living with three more of you and only one of you does anything in the house.  That is me.  However, I do sometimes get help taking out the trash. 

My husband is disabled and can not do much for himself.  Imagine your significant other being able to use his or her left hand and arm only 1% to 5% of the range s/he should be able to.  Imagine your significant other being able to use his or her right hand and arm only 5% to 10% of the range s/he should be able to.  Imagine not being able to wear pants or jeans that have buttons and/or zippers because you can't button or zip them.  Imagine one side of your body being 1/2 the size of the other side of your body.  Imagine taking thousands of milligrams of anti-seizure medications per day.  Imagine taking dozens of pills per day period.  If my husband wants or needs to wear jeans or pants, I need to fasten them for him.  If we want haircuts and face shaves to be free, I have to do them for him.  I have to portion out my husband's medications because he is on so many for so many different maladies that any average person would get confused.  When he has to take his medications with him to a doctor's office, his bottles have to go in a box with us.  He can't drive, needless to say, so I must do it all.  I fill many roles when it comes to my husband....nurse, maid, mother, wife, personal assistant, chauffeur, chef and so much more.

Our children are 16 and 14.  The 16 year old has no interest in driving yet so I am his taxi.  We have just one vehicle anyway so it's probably for the best.  We have two dogs, also.  I think they need the least amount of work and attention in this household.

I am not telling you all this so you'll feel sorry for me.  I am telling you all this so you will understand why I don't blog as much as others in the blogging world.  I do hope with all my heart and soul that I'll blog more often.  By the time I have time to paint my nails, it is late at night and I am so worn out that sleep is all I think of.  I take pictures the next day and you've already seen what my day entails.  If I am awake and in my house, I am busy doing something that is not for me, generally.

I will be posting a giveaway tomorrow so be sure to look out for that.  I am part of a multi-blogger giveaway and am excited about that.  The hostess put a lot of work into it and she surely deserves some praise.  I decided to have my prize be cosmetics.  I know we all have different tastes in nail polishes, clothes, cosmetics and more.  I decided maybe the cosmetics were the least varied and would be the safest to give away.  I hope the new followers (if there are any) will give me incentive to make more time for blogging!

Blog Lovin'

I have joined Blog Lovin. I feel Google Friend Connect will come to an end when Google Reader does, or shortly thereafter.

Please join me on Blog Lovin. You can either do it here from the link in the sidebar on the right or you can go directly to Blog Lovin for my blog at http://www.bloglovin.com/10ficklefingers

I will do more polish related posts soon! Thanks for liking and following.

Update

I have so many posts in the works.  I have some nail mail and haul photos to blog about.  I have not really done a manicure this week so I do not have a post about swatches or nails of the day, etc.  I have been recovering from the stomach flu, still!  I got better for a day or two and then it returned.  GRR!

I have posts I am working on for the Versatile Blogger Award and for the Liebster Award.  Thank you so much for the nominations ladies!  However, I need to find more blogs to nominate myself.  I can't publish those blog posts until I have all the blogs I need to nominate.  So, if you know of some that qualify, please let me know!

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day.  Do you have any special plans?

Ü My Other Passion Ü

Sorry for not posting in a week.  I have been needed elsewhere.  

I have always been an animal/dog person/lover.  When I was born, my parents had a dog and I grew up with her (Mandy).  She was always basically the same age as I.  I can't remember a time I was ever without a pet, usually a dog (or several!).  

Below are the faces of dogs I have helped save from euthanasia this week, through sharing their plight, finding donations for their rescue, finding a rescue organization to pull them from the kill shelter and many other ways.  Some dogs are strays.  Most dogs are taken to the shelters by their owners (and I use that term loosely) for any number of reasons: having a baby, moving, dog got old, "too much puppy", landlord said to, etc. etc.  

This, these, are another passion of mine.  I have plans to post a nail mail post tomorrow and hopefully that will happen.  If I am needed to assist with saving a life, or arranging transport of a rescued dog, or sharing dogs on death row, then that is where you'll find me.

Sadly, animal cruelty, neglect, abandonment, death is a part of life every single day.  If only I could win a multi-million dollar lottery........

Who am I trying to save now?  There are tons -- but Bard needs me most right now because he needs donations for his rescue.  There is a rescue group interested in him but he must have funds for his boarding, transport and other needs.  If you'd like to donate to his rescue, you can visit his Chip In.

What other passions do you have?

Little of This, Little of That

A little tidbit about me--I am a perfectionist with certain things.  You'll probably notice that during your time on 10 Fickle Fingers.

I got some goodies in the mail today and knew I couldn't take photos outside and expect them to turn out well (snow, no sun).  I knew I'd have to make a lightbox.  I started with a smaller box but opted for a larger one.  Making the lightbox was fairly easy to do using some how to's I found on the internet.  Since I had all the materials on hand that I needed, it was also free!

In the future, I may take pictures of swatches in various lighting.  I think that the shade, the sun and my lightbox would be good sources to get a nice variety of how a nail polish may look on you.  At the moment, I do not have my digital SLR camera here so I had to use what I had available for the following photos.  I think once I get my Olympus back, the pictures will improve greatly!

I will be posting a NOTD (nail of the day) with one of the polishes I won from TreasuresByTan, which I received today.  It was very difficult to choose the two polishes I wanted.  I know I will be purchasing some soon!  There are so many unique polishes in Tanya's shop.  All items are handmade and there is more than just nail polish!

Look at the way Tanya wrapped the treasures!

I won a zebra 14" x 14" pillow cover (so soft, folded in the picture), a lip gloss and lip balm (I got to pick the flavor of that), a necklace, bracelet, earrings and matching stretch ring, two nail polishes (SO tough to narrow it down to two).

I chose Dolphin's Cove and Reindeer Games.  I also added about 20 other polishes from TreasuresByTan to my wishlist!

Love the glittery goodness!

Cotton Candy Twist lip gloss and Orange Cream Vanilla lip balm .. YUM!

Handcrafted necklace and bracelet

Handcrafted stretch ring and matching earrings

TreasuresByTan also offers custom orders.  Be sure to check out Tanya's Facebook page for sneak peeks.  Do you own anything from Tanya?

Do you blog?  Do you use a lightbox or do you prefer using the good ol' sun?  What kind of camera do you use?  Let this new blogger hear from you!

Welcome!

Hello and Welcome!  I hope you enjoy your time on 10 Fickle Fingers.  I created this blog because of my addiction to interest in nail polishes.  There will be other stuff thrown in and I hope the variety will keep you coming back.

Here is my nail mail from yesterday.  A quick cell phone picture.  My husband thought I was silly taking a picture ... but look at the awesome goodness ... (and I didn't intentionally cut off the head of my nail file).  Most of these are from swaps on Facebook.  There are a couple of notables in the bunch:

• The nail file (an extra not even mentioned in the giveaway) and the Illamasqua duo are winnings from Nail FREAK
• The Models Own Boogie Nights and GOSH Gasoline (the latter of which has been on my wishlist forever and thought I'd never get it so took it off) are freebies from a swap
• The York Peppermint Patties had a casualty (I ate one as soon as I opened the package)
• The Essie Lapiz of Luxury is a RAOK (random act of kindness) from a facebook group
• There are three (yes, THREE) polishes from Nail-venturous Lacquers in there!!

I still have some things to add to the blog, like my wishlist and stash list, social networking icons (Facebook, Twitter and so on).  I do wonder, though, should I set up a Twitter and Facebook account solely for this blog or use what I already have set up?  My twitter has just 26 followers so it isn't like it would be a big inconvenience to set up a new twitter account for 10 Fickle Fingers.  I think every blog I have visited and joined has their own Facebook account.  So, needless to say, as I've been typing this, I have come to the conclusion that I need separate accounts for the blog on Twitter and Facebook.

I would love to hear from you.  Send me your tips, feedback, comments, criticisms, helpful suggestions.  Enjoy the blog.  I have lots of ideas and lots more to come!