No news is good news.

No knitting yesterday, because we finally had a warm, sunny day!  Hurray!  I took advantage of it and did some clean up in my garden (OK, patio) and storage shed, and then decided to take a trip out to Ikea and pick up some new chairs and a coffee table for our balcony.  I was so busy all day that I never knit even one stitch, let alone sew Jewel together.  And I was so tired at the end of the day, I stumbled into bed at 8:30!

During all my work, I was very careful not to ruin my mani or break a nail.  I was so proud of myself.  Then around 5:00 p.m.  I realized I needed to run to the store for bread and bananas.  When I got back home, I discovered I had broken a big chunk out of my right thumb nail!  Doh!!  So they all had to get taken down.  It's OK though, they were getting a little too long for me to type efficiently!  It was quick and easy to file them all down with my new leopard print nail file:

Isn't that cute?  I picked a bunch of them up at Walgreen's the other day when I was there stalking the new Essie summer collection, Braziliant.  They were on sale for 50 cents each!  I also got cheetah print, but passed on the zebra.  The reverse sides are matching faux fur!  So girly!

Then I got out one of my new Zoya polishes from the Summertime collection, Areej:

Zoya Areej, along with Adore, now 75% finished!

This is one coat!  Unbelievable!  Makes me think it might be a good candidate for stamping.  I'm loving this color.  It reminds me of an old OPI, Outback Aphrodisiac, which was one of my favorites.  I was really disappointed when I couldn't wear it any more.  This one is a little lighter and a little more pink, but close enough to make me happy.

I decided to use the Zoya Armor topcoat along with the Hurry Up drops instead of my normal fast-dry topcoat (China Glaze Fast Forward or Essie Good to Go) to avoid shrinkage.  I have to say, I'm really not in love with this system.  It doesn't give a very high-gloss finish, and even after a day, my nails still feel slightly tacky. So I think I pretty much have to stamp over this, so I can cover it with one of my fave topcoats, right?