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.

Paris Sparkles -- Celery Stalker

You know how you always have good intentions to do something specific but then life gets in the way and those specific things have to be put on the back burner?  That is what has happened with my blogging.  It has been put on the back burner.

On to the good stuff without any more ado.

I was recently playing around with the Paris Sparkles Celery Stalker indie polish.  I was trying to decide if I wanted to do undies (a polish under the Celery Stalker) or not.  I thought about doing green but ended up using Sinful Colors Candy Coated.  Candy Coated is a lavender with shimmer.  I didn't realize there was shimmer in it until I had it on my nails.  Nice surprise!  However, I do now regret using underwear that was a different color family from Celery Stalker.  Hindsight is 20/20!  Next time, I will use a green underwear or no undies at all!

All photos are after 45 hours of wear.  I had hoped the Paris Sparkles Celery Stalker would be milkier than it is.  I used one coat of Seche Base, two coats of SC Candy Coated, three coats of Celery Stalker, one coat (which was not enough) of Out the Door top coat.  I thought one coat of INM would be enough to make the manicure slick and shiny.  It did not.  I did not like how the manicure looked after one coat of Celery Stalker probably because of the lavender underwear.  I was not too fond of how it looked after two coats of CS either.  So, I opted for three coats.  The first coat was thin and each coat after that got a little bit thicker.  I see I failed to completely cover the undies.  I also see there is tip wear after 45 hours but I did hand wash dishes and do every day tasks during that time frame.  Celery Stalker also pooled in some areas around my fingernails.  I didn't clean this up during clean up just so my readers could see this.

The photos were taken in the sun and in the shade.  None were taken indoors or using artificial light.  Stacy describes Celery Stalker as "a soft green base with beautiful holographic glitter and tiny explosions of color."  Per the etsy listing, "Paris Sparkles nail polish stands alone [and has] no need for a base coat, top coat or anything in between like so many other polishes."  I will try Celery Stalker again with no underwear but not sure about the base coat or top coat.  In my opinion, a top coat is most certainly needed.  

Do you always use undies in the same color family?  If so, why?  If not, why not?  Do you have Paris Sparkles Celery Stalker and does it look like mine?  You can see Stacy's creations here.

Disclosure: Celery Stalker was sold to me by Paris Sparkles at a discounted price for review. All of the opinions in this review are completely my own.

Close up of bottle

Blurred close up

Blurred

Shade

Sun

Shade

Sun

Sun

Sun

Shade

Shade

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?