Long time, no post

I've been super busy all week preparing for the two sets of in-laws that will be visiting us starting this afternoon - Hubby's sister and her husband are coming from Turkey, and his brother, his wife and baby  are coming from New York.  It's going to be a family-filled week!

I spent Monday through Wednesday cleaning and grocery shopping (much of Monday was spent getting my sewing stuff out of the guest room and reorganizing), and yesterday I went out to one of the west suburbs to see my aunt and uncle and one of my cousins.  They were in town doing a craft show there; they make and sell Cherry Pit Pacs - an indispensable item in our household!  And today, before heading up to the airport this afternoon, I'll be doing a bunch of cooking and laundry - whew!

But in between all the housework, I did manage to finish the front of the Wavy Line Sweater.  I'm still in love with this knit - it is so much fun to do!  Here's how the unblocked front looks next to the blocked back:

Yes, that's a ray of sunshine in the upper left corner!  Hurray!

I also did a quick stamping on my nails this morning, with the hope it will help my mani last through all my cooking today:

The base color was China Glaze Concrete Catwalk from the fall Metro collection - a deep, blue-toned grey.  I stamped it with the argyle image from Konad plate m60 using China Glaze Admire from the Romantique collection.  I'm kind of wishing I hadn't though - this is one instance where the photo looks better than real life!  Oh well, maybe I'll have time to do something new tomorrow!

And look how long my nails are getting, thanks to the Qtica Natural Nail Growth Stimulator basecoat!  I really do feel it has helped my nails become a lot stronger.  I've been using it about 90% of the time for the last two months.  My nails are actually too long for my liking now - it's very hard for me to type quickly because they're getting in the way!  I'll be cutting them down soon, but I just had to say how impressed I am with this product!

ssssssssssssssssssss

Take a look at my fabulous snakeskin nails!!

I followed this awesome tutorial to do it.  Thank you so much, Kari, for sharing it with the interwebz!

I love, love, love snakeskin, although I don't own anything made of it.  Somehow I feel sorry for the snakes and always shy away.  So this is a great compromise!  Mine don't look as fantastic as Kari's, but I'm pretty happy with it.

I followed her tutorial almost exactly.  I substituted Zoya Jana for China Glaze Below Deck, and Essie Playa del Platinum for OPI Skull and Glossbones.  I also added on one coat of China Glaze Moonlight, a very sheer off-white, over the top of my blobs of color, to smooth things out and make it look a little more translucent. Here's how it looked before stamping:

For stamping I used Zoya Pinta, a very dark purple, since I don't have China Glaze VIII.  The print showed up a little more purple than I was hoping it would, but I still like it.  The plate is Bundle Monster 215.  Here are all my materials:

one coat Qtica Natural Nail Growth Stimulator
one coat Essie Chinchilly
blobs of Zoya Jana
blobs of Essie Playa del Platinum
a few blobs of Essie Chinchilly
one coat of China Glaze Moonlight
stamping with Zoya Pinta
two coats of Essie Good to Go

the plate and the paper I scraped the extra
polish onto, with my clean-up brush

And here are my nails again, with one of my "good" balls of Eau de Nil, not the evil ball:

The evil ball has been banished to the guest room, well away from the others, and the ribbing on the front is complete.  At least I have super-cool nails to look at while I reknit the thing.

Grauple

Grey + taupe + purple = Zoya Jana

Nail polish, I missed you!

Qtica Natural Nail Growth Stimulator
Zoya Jana - two coats
Zoya Armor
Qtica Half Time drying drops

I surprised myself by choosing this one as my first mani after my nail vacation.  I really wanted to do a nude, but I also wanted to use one of my new fall colors. Jana looked like the lightest shade from the Smoke Collection, so I went with it.   But on the nail it is much darker than in the bottle.  I really like it though.  It's an unusual color, in the way that Caitlin (from the Intimate Collection) was.  Now that I think of it, it reminds me of China Glaze Below Deck; I'll have to check them out side by side.

However, application was less than stellar.  Maybe I'm out of practice.  The formula on this one was really thick, and the first coat went on very patchy.  The second coat evened things out, but it didn't self-level as much as I would have liked.  Top coat took care of that though, so it all came out alright in the end.