Halloween Nails!

Hello. To brief my readers from the last post. Yes, I kept the camera. Las Vegas was not too thrilling, but thoroughly exhausting. Our activities were...let's just say, not exactly my cup of tea.

Oh, and I still don't have a teaching job and am growing in my bitter disappointments each and every day. The OCCUPY movements and the I AM THE 99% movements are really speaking to me. However, this has my mind thinking about ways to earn other money. I am trying my darndest not to get a second job. I told myself I would be done with that crap after college.

But I also told myself I'd have a teaching job, so...

Onto the nails!

Mummy Nails!

For these nails I followed a tutorial by Misschievous.tv and used a base of Essie Sand Tropez, with Essie's Sew Psyched and Zoya's Dove stippled with a cosmetic sponged on top to give it a dusty and dirty appearance. Then I used my Color Club striper in black to outline the bandage wraps and made a thicker black strip towards the top. I used a larger dotting tool for the white eyes and an smaller dotting tool for the red pupils, paying attention to the direction the eyes would flash. After 30 minutes of dry time, I topped with Seche Vite (and still got freaking streaking) and voila! Mummy nails!

The plus side to this design is that people think the nails are so cute! (So cute that my boring ole' "only berry tones, please" Mom asked if I could do it on her nails for Halloween!) The downside to the design is that most people can't tell what they are supposed to be, but they do understand them to be creepy, which I guess is good.

Again, I am offering a lame apology to this blog and hope that this gets me out of my nail funk. I hope to try at least two more Halloween themed manicures before the season is over!

Guess Who Got a New Camera?

Good guess!

I got the camera I was whining about! I actually almost repurchased my lost/damaged camera because Best Buy was clearing them out (I guess they are discontinued now because they were sitting right next to the Flip cameras, also on super clearance.) The clearance price was $100 cheaper than the new camera I purchased, but due to the truly stellar salesmanship skills of the employee who helped me, I purchased the Canon PowerShot ELPH 300HS camera. I am indeed happy with this purchase. Over the duration of the past year I have learned that there is more to the the performance of a camera than the number of mega pixels. I am enjoying the wide angle lens quite a bit on this new camera, even though most of my point and shoot camera pictures are use with the macro setting. Like this picture:

China Glaze Crushed Candy (crackle) over Zoya's Kelley.

This is picture is not actually taken with the macro setting due to the heinous quality of my cuticles and manicure right now. It was late, I needed something on my nails, and this is the first paint that has been on my nails since the last time I posted a NOTD picture on this blog. Plus I wanted to prove to you that I had a new camera with this picture.

The bottle I am holding is MiO Liquid Water Enhancer in Fruit Punch. Having this stuff on hand makes water consumption a breeze! I love this stuff. I have tried all the flavors and I think Fruit Punch is my favorite flavor tasting the least artificial. These are zero calorie so they have some artificial sweeteners in the (but some natural ones too) that I usually try to stay away from. But while I am trying to lose weight, this is a little excitement in an otherwise calm diet.

Speaking of the diet, erm...I wish I hasn't mentioned it now, LOL! On Sunday morning I was ONE POUND away from a total 20 lost. However, after yesterday's birthday party (my sister is turning 21) that number is closer to 4.3 pounds away from 20. :-( I have about 4 days to reverse that number to make my goal for Las Vegas. I'm going to the gym this afternoon for a hard core workout. Today is my sister's actual birthday, so the family is going out for drinks at a local Mexican restaurant for Margarita Monday. Maybe I will limit myself to one...hopefully.

On a somewhat happier note, I did a littler retail damage at Lane Bryant. I was able to buy two pairs of jeans in a smaller size! Yay!. But I didn't buy any smaller tops yet. If I am going to go down one jean size, I need some forgiveness with the shirts. If you have ever suffered from a muffin top, you'll understand what I mean. Anyway, everything I bought was on sale or clearance, plus I have $50 to spend in free money AND $25 off a $75 purchase. I bought lots of lovely things! The best score was a pair of Seven7 Cropped Jeans originally $70, on clearance for $20! I tell you the best time to hit Lane Bryant is in the changing of the seasons collections. All the new stuff comes in and all the old (like 2-3 months old) stuff goes on super sale to clear it out of there. So the next time you get a catalog in the mail with the new collections (for any store) go shopping ASAP to swoop in on last season's collection!

Lastly, I will leave you with long overdue FO pictures of some socks I knitted.

These are Monkey by the well known sock pattern writter, Cookie A. Super easy, and very rewarding pattern for such an uncomplicated pattern. This is Cherry Tree Hill Super Sock SemiSolids in Mango. Although when I started knitting with this yarn it reminded me more of Muenster cheese rather than mangoes. The second picture is more color accurate.

And here is a picture of my newest sock:

The pattern is called Nine-to-Five (Ravelry Link) with a nifty faux cable stitch. Though the stitch isn't easy to maneuver, though the Signature Needle Arts DPNS make it infinitely easier, it is still way easier than making a traditional cable. These socks are for my Oma, the only one who wears my knitted socks. So far she's received a self-striping stockinette pair, a gansey patterned pair, and now for Christmas she will receive a cabled pair. Last on the list will be lace, but something tells me she won't go in for the lace. Too much of a chance for wearing through.

The yarn is Madeline Tosh Sock (my current FAVORITE yarn) in the colorway Calligraphy. At first look it seems like a greige (gray/beige) color, Oma's favorite, but once knitted it has subtle shadow pooling, showing tones of lavendars, washed out gunmetals, and sweet peachy pinks. That is the beauty of Madeline Tosh, the colorways are so complex, but in the most sophisticated ways. No clown barf colorways to be found. And with names like Earl Grey, Malachite, and Fjord, the company takes luxury knitting to a new level!

Ta-ta for now!