I'm Baaaack

Wow, that might have been the longest blogging break I've taken in the five plus years I've been posting here. I didn't intend for that to happen; I just vastly underestimated how very busy I'd be my first two full weeks of retirement.

I did have an inkling that I'd be taking a week long break, as Mr. K and I celebrated my retirement with a trip to Chicago and Milwaukee, interspersed with family visits. We saw six bands in bars, a Cubs day game, an outdoor concert, both our moms, and an old friend. We ate stadium food, Chicago style pizza, and many crepes (after we discovered a great place for them very near our Chicago hotel). My nails were adorned the whole time with Sally Hansen Salon Effects in Tattoo Much, which has birds, hearts, and flowers done in tattoo style with bright colors and black on a white background. I went back to an old favorite for a base to wear under the strips, the discontinued Sally Hansen Age Correct Growth Treatment (which I have hoarded numerous bottles of).





Silly Wrigley Field shot with the tiny plastic guinea pig that is my sometime travel companion.



My rarely seen right hand, seen as we were heading home at the end of the week. There's some wear showing but the busy pattern means it's not obvious to the naked eye.



As soon as we got home from the trip, we stepped up the family reunion preparations. Not a small part of my contribution to the effort was getting my nail polish and nail art and makeup stashes in some sort of order. (Mr. K does not consider random stacks of boxes holding the overflow from the Helmers to be some sort of order.) I thought I'd have some time in there for blogging but no, even though I didn't take breaks for swatching or posting, I didn't quite get my part of the prep for the reunion done to my satisfaction, but at least all the boxes are on shelves now, and I know what's in most of them. For the record, I have four red Helmers, seven off white ones, a two-drawer Melmer for frankening supplies (remember frankening?), and many cardboard boxes. Just the thought of figuring out what to destash to get that hoard down to something more manageable makes me tired, so I'm putting off thinking about it for right now.

I did find a bit of time during that week of cleaning and straightening to put on a new set of Sally Hansen Salon Effects. This time it was the Out of Line design, which I've worn before. This one also has a white background but a more geometric design, with pastel triangles arranged in horizontal lines. This time I used Duri Rejuvacote as a base.



Yet another set of Salon Effects strips served as my manicure for the family reunion weekend, which started on Friday when our four houseguests arrived, continued through Saturday when we had 28 people here at the peak of the festivities, and ended just a few hours ago when the last family members left. I am not sure what the correct name is for the floral design of these strips. The ones I wore are in the middle box below, which has the same name as the box on the left (Girl Flower) but whose motif more closely resembles the box on the right (Whoopsy Daisy).





Girl Flower was the first design I wore (way back in 2011), and the middle design is not a match for that despite what the box says. Yet it's also not a match, at least in color scheme, with Whoopsy Daisy. Dunno. It was pretty, and I liked the colors so I wore it. I used Orly Nail Defense underneath the strips.



Now that the reunion is over, I hope to find time to get back to swatching and blogging on a more regular schedule. I do know where my lightbox is, even though I haven't set it up in a few weeks, so I've got that going for me.