Gelicious - Devine Vines Skittles

Of course I ordered the new Gelicious colours; Devine Vines and Surfing in Straddie.

For ages now I haven't done anything exciting with my mani, just the straight colour. My faux daughter had some nice gel nails done recently in black, silver and grey skittles and I thought I would give it a go using my Gelicious colours.  I mean I have enough of them to make it work.

I went with Devine Vines (dark green) for the main colour.  My middle fingers got Pastachio Parfait (light green). My index fingers got Sympathy Hook Up (grey) as a base colour and After Glow (silver) over that.

TUTORIAL

File edges and then clean off nails using Isocol.

Start with your worst side.  I paint my right hand first because when I first start out I am more patient, and by the time I'm onto my left hand I start to rush and and need the skill of my writing (right) hand.

Paint one coat of Gelicious Peel-off Gel Base and Top Coat.  Set for 30 seconds.  I paint my thumb seperately after I have finished with the rest.

Paint one coat of each colour on your fingers. 

My nails are now ready to go in the 'oven' to bake. These are all the 30 sec formula.

Repeat this again for each nail.  I find that two coats usually does the trick.  No one ever looks that closely to my nails to check if they are totally perfect and opaque.

I give my index finger one nice coat of After Glow.  I find that the grey underneath really helps with colour otherwise I need three or more coats.

Cook that single nail.

Taking photos of the light...

Put a top coat of the Peel-off Gel and set.

Clean off tacky residue with Isocol.  

Repeat for other hands.

Repeat for each thumb using Divine Vines.  I do them each seperately because I often find that I scrape the polish while I concentrating on my finger nails, or if I'm swapping from one thumb to the other.  It only takes about 10

Minutes more overall and you get a better stress free result.  Plus my light doesn't fit all my hand in there - flat.

I hope you like it!

Things no one tells you about being pregnant

There are a few of these kind of post about, but I thought that I would share some of my thoughts about this whole 'things no one tells you' that I haven't seen very often.

Cramps

I got them.  It was as if I had my period but at least I wasn't bleeding.  Instead you are paranoid that your having an ectopic pregnancy and then later on as you get along a few months you think that you are miscarriaging but really everything is stretching.  Then later you get these things called Boson Higgs or something... Braxton hicks.

Pelvic pain

At the 30 week mark or so I started to feel like someone punched me in my vagina - and now it feels bruised big time. Side note: For some reason men don't realise that being kicked in the genetics is painful for women too. This is what I'm going through now.  It's apparently because your ligaments are all stetchy getting ready for birth.

Dislocated jaw

As with the pelvis pain, my jaw is also looser, and so yawning in the morning has popped out my jaw twice this week alone!  This might not be an issue for you, but since I already have an issue with this... Chewing is awful, talking is mildly painful.  

Baby movement

That ninja can really kick.  Like I have jumped at sudden hard kicks, and apparently it gets worse and can be painful.  Plus if you have watched a certain Ridly Scott movie, watching it is kind of freakygh.....  The other thing is that when you actually want the movement, for example you would like your husband to feel it, the baby will not move.  Until the said husband gives up, and then it will move, but only up until husband tries again...  It's not like the movies.

Itchy boobs

Man they get itchy.  

Other things worth noting but are often talked about include pins and needles in hands, legs that seem to want to jump around, needing an endless supply of Quick Eze, crying, urine smelling weird, your glasses stop working because your eyes change shape.

This little dude has put me through a lot already, guess it's just the warm up for the rest of my life though...

Wish List?

New filofaxes!

I'm loving the new to me colours of the A5 Saffiano. Pear and Aquamarine...

Such lovely colours.

Also check out these A5 Dominos - turquoise, pine spots and aubergine spots.

Holy cow - it looks like they finally realised that A5 users deserved some more fun colours!

What else have I been eyeing off?

The Travalo Perfume Atomiser - look at all the colours!

So these are little spray bottles that you load up with your perfume so that you can travel without worrying about breaking your bottles of perfumes. The bonus is that filling them is really easy - not messy at all.

And the last two things on my list are two new colours from Gelicious.

Devine Vines looks amazing - perfect for me. I wish they would bring out a grass green and an emerald.

Surfing at Straddy looks like a great pinky neutral.

So that's it - an expensive wish list for a lady just about to go on leave at half pay though... Oh well.

Chihiro

Yesterday my beautiful big white cat, Chihiro, passed away.

I found her laying at the front door where she napped.  She looked like she was sleeping and I didn't realise she had died until my friend tapped her.

We often called her 'dead cat' because she was always partially deaf and would sleep so deeply that it sometimes would take a few goes to wake her up. When she did she would make a little chip sound.

This time though she really was.

She was such a lovely cat. She snuggled and kissed. She would climb onto our bed at night time and cuddle up. Whenever I went to the toilet she would lay at my feet and wait for pets.  When we watched TV she would jump up on my chest and rub her face over mine and tuck her head under my chin.  She would rub herself all over my husband's feet, roll on her back and let him rub her tummy.

During the night she would either sleep at the foot of our bed, but usually she slept in the bedroom doorway, so I would have to step over her during the night when I have to go to the toilet.

Last night it broke my heart to realise she wasn't there anymore.

Every morning she would wait in the bath for me to run a little water for her to drink.  If you took your time she would have a fussy fit and stamp her feet.

Sometimes Squish would join her but since the bathroom was her room he tended to stay out.

Squish is confused about what has happened.  He has been going back to where she died to try and find her.  This morning he waited in the bath for her to come, refusing to drink and looking towards the door as if she was going to run in.

During the night he jumped up in the bed for extra cuddles.

I stayed home today, and Squish has been with me for most of it.  

We got her as a kitten in May 2004. She was a rascal.  She had a stuffed snoopy toy - I always felt guilty that I threw it away went it got too dirty and bedraggled.  She used to chew on cords - especially through expensive headphone cables.  She used to wake me up during the night by squeezing inbetween the headboard and the wall, then she was swat at me through the decorative holes - smacking me in the head.

She was actually a him - the vet didn't even realise until we had her desexed - mid operation!  All her bits had been tucked up inside her.

Lately she had arthritis and struggled to jump.  We had been talking about putting in some steps so she could climb up in the bed easily.

She still liked to play, especially hide and seek.  She would come out of hiding and pat you playfully, then she would run away expecting you to chase her.  Then she would hide again. We only played it four days ago, but I accidentally stepped on her feet twice.  She was dirty with me and hid for a few hours, but then she came out and forgave me by giving me a rub and a purr.

She usually used her scratching post, she would play with the ball on a string as well.  But if she wanted my attention she would climb up on the arm of our couch and scratch.  

Two days ago she came up and bit me without any warning at all, but that was about as naughty as she got.  

I wish I had taken more photos of her over the holidays, she was so cute and loved me being home.  I had been promising that in a little while I would be home full time, with a baby as well.

She liked this pregnancy business, it meant I would take more afternoon naps so she could snuggle up to me and lay in the air conditioning.  Within minutes of me turning the air con on she would appear.  She also liked when I had all day 'morning' sickness because then it was one big all day nap for her.

I'm grateful that I had been able to spend   so much time with her in the last fortnight.  

I loved her very much and she loved me. I'll miss her.

School holidays

I've been on school holidays and I just haven't felt like I have rested at all.  

I'm either moving furniture or sorting through stuff, cleaning or doing school work.  All these things of course need to be done but...

This afternoon was a little better because I was actually sorting through my yarn!  Putting together all the same colours and rebagging lots.  I really do have a lot of yarn.

I did sort out the yarn I need for my faux daughter's blanket that I want to make for her for Christmas.  It will probably be a late present though!

It will match her room well especially once I sort out a nice zigzag or chevron pattern.

The other blanket I am working on at the moment is for my own baby.

I wanted to see how they looked this morning.  I'm not even half way there but at least with a baby's blanket it's not too big.  Even though I have soooo much yarn - I still don't have a match for the yellow from the varigated yarn :( the rest are close enough that in photos I don't think you can really tell that they don't match perfectly.

I might have a sit down and get started on the next diamond!

On holidays at last

This term has been full on. Work has really amped up this year, I've applied for a promotion, getting stuff ready for my leave, heaps of baby appointments.

Although school holidays started yesterday, I actually needed to go into work twice...

Today, I'm not doing anything.  Not even getting out of PJs.

I made some ice cream in my new ice cream maker - OMG YUM!

Squish really likes it - but he can't have a lot.

I'm hoping to get stuck in on my baby's blanket.

Here's hoping I get some more lazy days.

Amineko

I had some great things arrive in the mail recently. One of them was 'Amineko' - I had been admiring this book for a while now and finally decided to BUY!

It's so cute and I can't wait to get started on crochet in one up!

People's reaction to my pregnancy - RANTY McRANT PANTS

So having a baby...

Suddenly everyone:

• is shocked that we ARE actually having a baby.  Sure we have been together for a long time, 19 years, since we were 15 when we first met and for most of that time (derrr) C hasn't been ready for a child and I personally have wanted to adopt for most of the time I have been ready.   BUT I am only 34 - I'm not 50 years old! And if I want a baby - adopting probably would take that long - so we got all DIY about it and made one ourselves.
  
• wants to tell you about their personal babying experiences - I'm a little over this already but I'm only halfway there.  At least the labour stories haven't started because I'm going to be shutting that shit down.
  
• thinks you want their old baby stuff. Awesome, but I'm pretty picky about my own clothes, can you imagine how I'm going to be about baby? And please don't patronise me about how I won't care after a while.
  
• asks if you are okay - but they don't really need to know that I am tired, sore and have a bladder infection. In fact most people don't even care about the answer, because if they did they would be able to tell by the expression on my face that I'm not okay and ask how they can help me.  And when I do answer that I am tired etc. this is not a competition nor do I care right now about how I will get much less sleep when he's out in the world. I'm pregnant not stupid.
  
• wants to know the sex or the name. Like it's any of their dam business or even if it was how does that change the way I or anyone else views my baby? I politely say boy, and we're not sharing the name yet.  They're probably not going to like it anyway.
  
  I think these types of questions get asked because everyone thinks that's what you should ask a pregnant woman.  I'd rather get asked about what TV shows I'm watching or book I'm reading or craft I doing.
  
• has an opinion about boys - generally negative - as in boys will be boys or a wry nod or a you're going to have a handful on your hands... As someone that teaches gender construction, I have to say are we still living in the 1950s?
  
  Or is shocked when I answer the how I will be dressing my son question - any dam way I please thank you very much, including PINK and tutus!
  
  I would also like to point out that my having a bladder infection doesn't actually have anything to do the sex of my baby. He's not a naughty boy already.
  
• is worried about my food intake.  This I totally appreciate, it's nice to know that people are making sure they include my new dietary requirements. My issue now though is - my doctor tells me today - that I have lost weight and I need to eat more. OKAY! I've been worried about the old saying 'eating for two' which I'm not, so I haven't. Guess I'll have to work on that.
  
• starts checking out your tummy, trying to tell if I'm getting bigger - yes I am - although apparently not enough.
  
• wants to know how we are arranging the house or if we have sorted out the baby's room yet. Even worse is when they refer to my belongings as 'shit' as in 'have you moved your shit yet?' No, did you not listen to me telling you that I am tired, sore and now apparantly have a bladder infection? What about the idea that I work full time, and on the weekend I usually spend one day of that working as well?  And my husband has just started at a new position so his work load is bigger than mine. How about you help me and my husband instead of sitting in judgement about how much stuff I own. Or how about you shut up.

 Stay tuned for more insights... hopefully positive one. But for now, I actually have to get back and so some work for tomorrow.

Gelicious - Dip in the Pool

Long time no manicure!  And my nails are really terrible at the moment, I got a little stressed and chewed.

With my hair all turquoise my nails have also turned a little blue too.  There isn't many blue and green colours in Gelicious's range - they need to release a jade green and a true turquoise. 

I used 3 coats of 'Dip in the Pool' and the peel-off base and top coat. It is pretty and glittery.

It doesn't quite match my hair.

it was hard to get this photo by myself.

Gran's House

Last year we bought my great grandmother's house. Since it had left the family, it had gone down hill a little, so we knew that there was going to be some work needed before we felt we could rent it. We have spent a few weeks on it - we'll not me - being pregnant put the kibosh on that.

It needed a kitchen. Just waiting to be installed.

It needed some leveling.  Our friend Jack has done a lot of work.

It needed some tough love. Uncle Doug came with his chainsaws.

It needs a few new stumps, but it's been raining so that hasn't happened yet.

We've also been sick, away in Hong Kong, mum had an operation to recover from, I've had morning (all day) sickness, appointments, my Dad needing rest days for his arm, days in the big city of Cairns, my brother's fly-in fly-out job.  All in all, despite all these things I think we've made a good start.  

We also worked on Mum's kitchen!

See that coffee machine? We went to Cairns for the day and my brother ended up buying it for over $1000 less than it was valued. It's pretty awesome - and I'm not even a coffee drinker.

How great does this look? Mum deserves it.