Better Late than Never, I Hope

As so often happens, I have gotten shamefully behind on acknowledging and passing along awards and tags. It's not that I don't appreciate them; it's that I'm so very easily distracted by new nail polish and posting about that instead. Then the further I get behind, the more daunting it is to try and catch up, which is why today I'm only going to do the ones I was awarded between the last time I caught up and the end of 2011.

Thanks to these bloggers who have tagged/awarded me:
Oooh, Shinies!
Une Ruxi à Paris
Bee Polished
Someone, Somewhere, Blogging
Greeneyespinknails
Glazed Talons
Fashion Footing
Polish & Pigments
Nails and Stuff
xxDeadlyLaughterxx

The badges:

As Time Passes By



Best Blog



Blogger Luxury



Inspiration Award



One Lovely Blog



Versatile Blogger



Nail Art Friendly Blog



Glitter Badge




Most of these come with instructions, but since I've already told you plenty of random things about myself and answered various sets of tag questions, I'm just going to follow the instructions that aren't like the ones I've done before.

As Time Passes By calls for posting old and new photos of one's nails. One of the earliest nail polish photos I could find on my hard drive is this from January of 2010, a month or so after I'd decided to start painting my nails again after a long break. (The polish is Milani Key Lime Shine.)



This was back before I adopted "the gap" method of applying polish (it looked weird to me, like people were intentionally making their manicures look like they had grown out—until I tried it, I didn't really understand how unnoticeable the gap is in person and how much neater it looks). I'd just paint right up to my cuticles and even right on them a lot of the time. I hadn't started cleaning up with a brush, either, so I'd just scrape off most of the excess polish with my other nails (or sometimes an orangewood stick if I was feeling fancy). I'm actually surprised my cuticles don't look worse here, what with all that scraping going on.

The first nail photo I ever posted here was this one, taken in April of 2010:



My application sure improved in those three months. I'm not sure what happened to my nail length; my guess would be a broken nail and no patience for patching it, but sometimes I just nubbinize for a change of pace.

You saw my latest mani photos in yesterday's post, but here's a recent shot I didn't share (Sephora by OPI Opening Night, before it got glittered up for the Spoiled comparison).



It's not perfection, though I am getting better at the photo taking part, learning more about the settings on my camera (and cropping the shots better after they're out of the camera).

The Glitter Badge comes with the direction to "post picture of your favorite glitter". My favorite glitter? I about had a mental breakdown getting down to only five favorites to include in my Top 20 for 2011. No way I'm going to be able to pick just one. Not gonna do it.

Since trying to pass along all of these is going to get me stuck again, I am just going to award the One Lovely Blog badge to some blogs I enjoy that perhaps you haven't seen yet. Ladies I'm linking, feel free to make up your own rules about how to proceed. Maybe you've already got the One Lovely Blog and would rather grab a different badge from above. Maybe you have seven random things about yourself you'd like to share. Maybe you want to pass the award along to only one other blog or to dozens. I obviously don't follow instructions, so I can't tell you what to do!

Sites I am awarding the One Lovely Blog badge:

Paint that Nail does a lot of fun nail art.

Obssessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite has a great sense of humor that comes through in her posts, which are full of pictures that let me see just what the polishes she's swatched look like.

Susy in Color has impeccable application and does great swatches.

Glassflecked routinely causes me to add things to my wish list based on her posts.

Drinkcitra takes beautiful photos, her Essie bottles arranged into a heart is one of my recent favorites.

Butterfly and Other Awards

Yet again, I've seriously procrastinated on awards and tags that people have thoughtfully bestowed on me, so settle in for a big catching up entry.

Opinionated Little Finger, Eat.Sleep.Polish, and Paint That Nail all gave me the Butterfly Award. Nailderella and Paint That Nail bestowed upon me the One Lovely Blog, Stylish Blogger, Versatile Blogger, and Kreativ Blogger awards. Laura's Lacquers gave me the Sunshine Award. I was tagged for the Google Game by Sara, who also awarded me the Sunshine and Best Blog badges. Red Hair and Black Lipgloss tagged me for the "where do you store your cosmetics" meme. I got the Sunshine and One Lovely Blog awards from Polish Amor.

(Whew, I told you'd I'd done a good job of procrastinating.) Thanks so much, ladies, for thinking of me!

Because I'm so far behind, in the interests of actually getting this entry done, I'm just going to pass along the Butterfly Award.




The rules:
1. Link back to the person who awarded this award to you.
2. Answer the following questions.
3. Award to other blogs and let them know.

(I admit I changed the rules a bit.)


Questions:

What's your favorite color? Purple.

What's your favorite song? It changes often, but right now it's the a cappella version of Bad Romance done by On the Rocks.

What's your favorite dessert? I have yet to meet a dessert I do not like. If I have to choose one, peach blackberry pie with a crumb topping works.

What is pissing you off? Politics.

When you’re upset, what do you do? Depends on the type of upset. I might cry, or I might feel very, very tempted to break things.

Who's your favorite pet? My favorites ever were sister guinea pigs we named Katja and Bonnie. Their adventurous spirits meant they had to be watched closely whenever let out of the cage to play or they'd end up places one wouldn't think a guinea pig would or could go (like up an entire flight of stairs when they were just babies and the each stair was twice as tall as they were).

Black or white? Both, and the shades of grey in between.

What's your biggest fear? Running out of time to do all the things I want to accomplish in life.

What's your best feature? My nose.

What's your everyday attitude? Hope for the best.

What is perfection? Something I will never achieve, and I'm okay with that.

What's your guilty pleasure? I aim to not feel guilty about my pleasures, but that said, junk tv viewing is something I'm not especially proud to admit to.

I'm giving the Butterfly Award to these blogs that I enjoy:

Polish Pauper shares well-chosen photos of polishes that usually make me nod my head and say "yeah, I'd wear that". She also has a weekly feature where she links to entries of note on other beauty blogs (an idea I'm considering copying).

Varnish Me posts lots of photos in different lights, and now she's in Australia until November so has access to brands I can only drool over.

Painting with Polish has cute short nails, and I enjoy the bottle shots she usually puts in her entries since the backgrounds give me a peek into what else is on her table that day (okay, I admit I'm a bit nosy).

AccroPolish is a charming blog from Swiss sisters (who happily for me write in English).

Lindsey's Lacquer posts swatches and comparisons and sometimes garden photos, which lets me live vicariously since it's been ages since I planted anything in my yard.

I'd Like to Thank...

As often happens, I've fallen behind in acknowledging up awards that people have very kindly tagged me with. It's not because I don't appreciate them; I'm just very good at making myself a list of entries to do and then getting distracted. Like yesterday's entry about the Revlon minis—that was just going to be a comparison of the little blue and big blue bottles. Ah well, following tangents keeps it fun (for me, anyway).

Now I am determined to catch up, so without further blather, I'd like to thank Haute Lacquer for the Stylish Blogger Award, Laura's Lacquers for the Kreativ Blogger Award, and Sara Loves Pretty Little Things for the Top 10 Award. Since I've passed on the Stylish and Kreativ ones before, I'm just going to do the Top 10 one now.



The Top 10 award rules:
1. Thank the person who tagged you and link to their blog.
2. Put the Top 10 Award logo on your blog.
3. List your top 10 cosmetics.
4. Choose 10 bloggers to tag, link to their blogs, and let them know.

My top ten cosmetics:

1. Orly Nail Defense. I've been using this on and off for years and am finally down to my last bottle of the old formula from my stockpile. I hope the new one works as well for me.

2. Salon Sciences Instant Artificials. I haven't had any bad breaks in my nails since I started using this, and it works as a ridge filler, too, without adding the milky look my old one did.

3. Sally Hansen Insta Dri Anti Chip Top Coat. I rarely ever use any other top coat, I like this one so well.

4. Physicians Formula Concealer Twins in Yellow/Light. Very convenient to have both shades in one package.

5. Maybelline Pure Stay Powder Foundation. This is great for travel, as it doesn't have to go in the dangerous liquids bag for the TSA (my bag is always stuffed full with other things).

6. Physicians Formula Powder Palette in Green. I use this to tone down my ruddiness. I do wish the compact had a stronger hinge, as it doesn't last as long as the powder does for me (both the one I keep at home and the one in my gym bag are broken right now).

7. Coty Airspun powder. I've tried other loose powders but keep coming back to this one.

8. L'Oreal Pencil Perfect Eyeliner. I've read reviews where people say this smears on them, but I've never had that problem. I like it because it doesn't drag and doesn't require me to haul a pencil sharpener around with me in my gym and travel bags.

9. Benefit cake eyeliner. When I'm home, I use this eyeliner. I have it in three colors (black, charcoal, and brown) and am not sure what I'm going to do when I run out, as they don't make it anymore.

10. Lorac Take a Brow in Brunette. Best brow product I've ever used; it's got two shades of color plus wax, which is everything I need and nothing I don't.

I'm sad I don't have a mascara on this list but I've yet to find the perfect one for me. I want dark brown, good curl, no clumping or smudging, and a brush and wand that feel comfortable to use. Maybe that's asking too much.

To decide which blogs to tag with the Top 10 award, I looked at my list of ones I'm following and picked some I think should get more attention. (I know some of them have gotten this award before, and some already have hundreds of followers, but I can't resist tagging them because I want to do my part to make sure more people know about these blogs I enjoy.)

I hereby tag these blogs:

Cel's deconails is always showing me polishes and nail art I don't see other places on the web. One feature of hers I really enjoy is the monthly nail art calendar.

Girl Germs keeps things to the point with a very clean-looking layout and just enough photos to illustrate her entries so I know what she's writing about.

Life and Polish recently shared some "fails", which is always a good way to draw me in, as seeing what didn't work is often more interesting and informative than hearing what went well.

loodie loodie loodie is a scientist, which comes out in her blog in very well researched and documented entries about things like nail hardeners interspersed with beautiful swatch photos. Pretty pictures and a chance to learn something? Yes, please.

Nail crazy is from Croatia (though she writes in English, too) and swatches so many great brands available there. She's having a contest right now, so be sure to check that out.

I just recently discovered Naktsmeita, and she completey won me over with a comparison post that not only had bottle pictures and side-by-side swatches but hand drawn artwork.

Opinionated Little Finger does lots of swatches, and I especially like her layering experiments. (I also adore her cute bunny, Ghitzou, who shows up every now and then.)

Squared Nails is a swatching machine—well, I'm 99.99% sure she's a person and not a robot, but she sure manages to share a lot of different polishes.

The Phalanges Files does a great job with her photos, showing detail shots and different lighting. I regularly add to my wish list after seeing her swatches.

Une Ruxi à Paris has lovely squared tip nails that I can only admire and not copy (my own tips take being squared off as an invitation to break immediately). Every now and then a cute kitty makes a guest appearance, which is a very nice bonus.

Kreativ with a K

Gotham Polish and Alaina of Perky Polish both kindly tagged me with the Kreativ Blogger award. Jule from Turtlechick's Nails 'n' Tales bestowed the Stlyish Blogger tag on me as well. I send my thanks to all three of them!

Since I was fortunate to have been able to pass along the Stylish award some time back, I'm going to just do the Kreativ one now. The rules to share 10 facts about yourself (which I have changed to 7 because I only have so long a lunch break and besides I have seen a 7 things version of this award on other blogs) and then tag 10 other bloggers to do the same.



Let's see—seven facts about myself; I hope I can do this without repeating things I've shared already...

1. I've worked my way up from 50 pounds on the leg press machine at the gym to 200 pounds over the past couple years.

2. I have collecting/hoarding genes from both parents, so I consider it a great accomplishment that there are any uncluttered spots in my house at all.

3. If it's free on iTunes, I will download it, which is why my ipod contains lots of songs in languages I don't understand and genres I don't usually listen to.

4. The top 3 things in my NetFlix DVD queue right now are
Moonlight: Season 1, Disc 1 (because I like vampire stories and Alex O'Loughlin); Black Swan (because my mom said I should see it); Glee: Season 1, Disc 4 (because I want to see the featurettes).

5. I am so low maintenance when it comes to my hair that I have my husband cut it, and he's never been anywhere near a beauty school.

6. Last Halloween, I came to work dressed as a giant bag of M&Ms:



7. I've had fewer than five cups of coffee to drink in my whole life. Diet Coke, on the other hand, I must have had thousands of those.


I'm awarding the Kreativ Blogger tag to:

Kayleigh at Box of Polish does some great nail art and swatches. I wish she'd post more often!

Day Loves Colours is mostly written in Czech (I am no language whiz, so it might be something else) but there's also an English summary at the end of each entry, which I read after I've looked at the pretty swatch and comparison pictures.

kittypolishnbags has a distinctive look, with photos large enough that I don't have to click through to see them bigger. She sometimes features polishes I've not seen anywhere else.

Konad Abuse does so many posts that make me say "wow, I wish those those were my nails" because of her miniscule gap and great stamping skills.

I love the sense of fun at comes across at Laura's Lacquers; I always seem to end up smiling whenever I read one of her posts.

Mai senza smalto! (a.k.a. Never without polish!) is a bilingual blog that showcases lots of swatches; I especially like the way she takes photos in a variety of lighting conditions and labels them all clearly.

jaybird at Polished Pirate makes super gorgeous frankens and also her swatches of commercial colors send me to my spreadsheet to make sure I have them because she makes them look good. She's having her first giveaway right now, too.

solensdanserinde is written in Danish but she takes such clear photos that I almost don't need words (and Google translate does a good enough job that I can get the gist of the entries).

Gail's blog, today's agenda, covers two of my favorite pursuits, knitting and nail polish.

Whale's Nails is a fairly new blog; Rose writes in English and Polish (I'm pretty sure it's Polish) and swatches some brands I can get here and some I can't but still enjoy seeing her pretty pictures of.

Stylish and Beautiful Awards

I'm flattered to have been tagged with the Stylish Blogger Award by several lovely ladies: Mirannie, Varnish Vixen, danussa, necessary★nails, Acetone Nail Blog, LadyLuck, and Nail Narcissism. Thanks so much!



I was also tagged by nailspotting with the Beautiful Blogger award.



Rules for this award:
- Copy the award image into a post
- Link to the person who gave you the award
- Give the award to 7 other bloggers and link to their blogs
- Write 7 things about yourself

Since I passed along the Stylish award when it was going around last summer, I'm just going to do just the Beautiful one today. Some versions of the rules ask for 7 "interesting" things, but that's too much pressure (and interesting, like beautiful, is in the eye of the beholder anyway).

1. I've got a food stain on my sweater that I'm trying to pretend I've rinsed out enough to wear the sweater the rest of the day (it's cold in my office), so I'm not feeling particularly stylish or beautiful at the moment.

2. I support the use of the serial comma.

3. I pierced my own ears with a sewing needle when I was about 11 years old. My mother was not pleased when she noticed, which of course she did even though I was trying to keep my hair over my ears when she was around so she wouldn't. Those holes are still in use today, decades later.

4. If I had it to do over again, I'd elope. My husband is great, and I'm glad we got married, but most of the wedding stuff was just a pain in the butt.

5. I have loved Eeyore, the glum donkey from Winnie the Pooh, since I was a little girl. I have pretty much stopped collecting Eeyore stuff since I have so much (mostly stuffed animals, watches, earrings, and clothes) but every once in a while I'll see something I just have to have.

6. I've visited 49 of the 50 states. At one point, I was planning on a 25th wedding anniversary trip to Hawaii to complete the set, but a relative decided to do that for her 25th anniversary the same year and invited family to join her (at our own expense) so now we're thinking about going to France instead because I don't find family reunions romantic in the least.

7. I played the oboe when I was younger. I was not very good at it but since so few people played the instrument I got to be first chair a lot of the time in school.

I'm tagging these sites with the Beautiful Blogger award:

Sparkle Sparkle Gemx posts a great mix of nail polihes, other beauty products, and snippets about her life as a student in the UK.

nails by bellan She shows a wide variety of polish brands, including some I can only cross my fingers and hope to swap for since she's from Sweden.

Suburban Beauty Her pictures make me think "yeah, I need that polish" so often.

Legally Polished She does wonderful nail art in a variety of styles from subtle to bold; if I ever get more time to play I'll be copying a bunch of her looks.

Frippery Digits Another one I read to drool over her nail art.

Love, Varnish, Chocolate, and more This Dutch blogger shares plenty of photos and does some great accent nail looks.

Ditch the Mittens Great photos of polish, nail art, and sometimes her handsome kitty.

Some Number of Things Tag

Rachel Marie and Cel both tagged me with a 7 Things meme. I've decided to turn it into a 3 things meme because if I waited until I was inspired to come up with 7 things for each of the questions I might never get around to it.

Things I want to do before I die:
—Visit Australia and New Zealand
—Visit Hong Kong
—Ski every named run at my "home" mountain

Things I say all the time:
—Nice signalling, idiot. (Sarcastically to myself, in the car, in response to other drivers)
—Awesome! (Not sarcastically. Mr. Karen wishes I would save it for really big stuff)
—Marklar (Inspired by the South Park episode)

Things I'm good at:
—Quilting (especially the fabric selection and arrangement part)
—Knitting
—Making people laugh

Flaws I need to work on:
—Impatient
—Impulsive
—Have difficulty letting go (of things and distressing thoughts both)

Qualities:
—Loyal
—Generous
—Creative


Bloggers I'm tagging:
Crazy for Polishes is like two nail blogs in one, as two friends write for it; both do a lot of fun nail art.

Goose's Glitter does lots of swatches and nail art and takes great photos of all of them.

Nailoholic does a lot of entries that make me think "hey, I should put that polish on my wishlist".

As always, taggees, if you don't want to do this one or have already done it, no problem; I mostly use these types of things just to link to blogs I like.

A Blog with Substance

Ages ago, Enamel Girl kindly tagged me with the Blog with Substance award. I meant to respond much sooner but am so easily distracted. Thank you, Enamel Girl, and sorry it's taken me so long to say that!



Rules for this one:

1. Thank and link back to the giver of the award.

See above.

2. Sum up your blogging philosophy, motivation, and experience using 5 words.

I'll need more words, please.

3. Pass it on to other bloggers that you feel have substance in their blogs.


Awarding to:

At My Fingertips Steffie has many talents, and I like to see the crafts and things she posts in addition to nail polish stuff. Also, her nail art entries make me want to try her designs, and since she includes so many details about how she did them, I think I might even be able to manage some of them if I can only find the time.

LaynieFingers Like Steffie above, Laynie does some great nail art posts with step by step instructions.

Let Them Have Polish! She does great swatch spam posts (and has worn every polish in her collection, which amazes me).

Polish Drop Very clear pictures of beautifully groomed nails.

ANOTHER Bottle of Polish?! It's been eons since I've been able to keep my nails as long as hers but the great photos let me live vicariously. I admit I am a tiny bit jealous that she can pull off colors that look poopy on me, but again ... living vicariously.

Me Encanta Tu Blog Award

Katherine of necessary★nails tagged me with the Me Encanta blog award so long ago that she might have forgotten by now. Finally today I've managed to carve out the time to formally accept and pass it along. I am very much a believer in the "better late than never" approach to most things.



This award comes with questions to answer:

1. Why did you create the blog?
I was posting a lot on the MakeupAlley nail board and reading more and more nail blogs and it just seeemed like doing my own nail blog was the next logical step. I'd done a couple nail polish related entries on my online journal (Hat on Top, Coat Below) but didn't want to turn that into a nail blog, so here I am. I like say that having a nail blog gives me one more excuse to buy more polish.

2. What kind of blogs do you follow?
Mostly nail blogs, a few beauty and fashion sites, some knitting and crafting ones, and personal journals of friends of mine.

3. Do you have a favorite make-up brand?
No one favorite, though I wear mostly drugstore stuff. On my face right now, I've got products from Revlon, Maybelline, Physician's Formula, and Benefit, and Lorac.

4. And a favorite clothing brand?
I don't have one brand I favor. My taste in clothes is pretty basic.

5. What make-up products are essential for you?
Concealer, mascara, and powder. Most days, I wear more than that, but those three are the ones I give up last when I have to skip steps.

6. What's your favorite colour?
Purple.

7. What's your favorite perfume?
I only own one right now, Bvlgari Omnia Amethyste (which I admit I bought in part because of the pretty purple bottle it comes in).

8. What's the film you liked the most?
Oh so many; if I have to pick one, I'll say Nightmare Before Christmas.

9. What countries would you like to go?
Lots! Australia, New Zealand, and China are my top three at the moment.

Passing this award along to these blogs:

Makeup Merriment, who not only posts nail stuff but also makeup and glimpses into her life outside of beauty products. (Have I mentioned I'm a sucker for cute doggies?)

Nails by Alice, who writes in both Italian and English and has great application skills and an enviable nail shape.

Rachel Marie's Nails, a fairly new nail blog that's off to a great start, with a mix of swatches, nail art, haul posts, and plenty of pictures.

The Nail Experiment lives up to its name, with all sorts of fun stuff going on between the swatches, the frankens, and the nail art.

theVEROblog, who showcases nail polish along with other beauty products; I especially like her accent nail manis.

Sunshine Award

Melanie from The Color Palette tagged me with the Sunshine Award. I always smile when I visit her blog; she's got such a cheerful header image and color codes the two languages she writes her posts in to add to the fun. Thanks for your posts and the award, Melanie!



The rules for this award:
1. Post the image on your blog
2. Link the blogger who gave it to you
3. Pass it on to other bloggers and link to them
4. Let them know you've tagged them by commenting on their blog

Here are the blogs I'm tagging this time, ones that bring some sunshine into my internet time. I know some of these may have been tagged before or may not want to or have time to pass along the award; I want to link them regardless because I like them.

Beauty Verdict seems to have some serious shopping mojo, both online and off; she's shared some polishes I've not seen anywhere else. She also reviews beauty products other than nail polish, which expands my horizons a bit, which is always good.

Hermetic's polish blog does a great job showing brands that aren't necessarily well covered on other sites.

Mommy and R.E.I.T.'s Nail Blog is like getting two blogs in one, since both Mommy and R.E.I.T share their thoughts on polish and what they're wearing on their nails. It grabbed me from the first entry, in which R.E.I.T. (who is wise beyond her two years on this earth) said "I want paint". I do too, R.E.I.T.

Lois at NailYorkCity has lovely long nailbeds (that's not weird to say, is it?), and is always inspiring me to add polishes to my wish list because she picks such pretty ones.

Running with Polish combines several of my favorite things in one blog: nail polish, cute dog pictures, and running stories (I *will* get back to running regularly one of these months).

Mirannie's Nails, a blog I tagged in an earlier entry, is having her first giveaway; go here to enter before October 31st. Here's a peek at the prizes:



****

I'm in the process of verifying the entries for my 500 followers contest and hope to notify the winners via e-mail either late today or early tomorrow; I'll post the results in an entry later this week.

Sunshine Award

makeup CRAZIE!, Twisted Nails, and NailYorkCity all tagged me for the Sunshine Award. Thanks so much, ladies!



The rules for this award:
1. Post the image on your blog
2. Link the blogger who gave it to you
3. Pass it on to 12 other bloggers
4. Link those 12 bloggers
5. Let them know you've tagged them by commenting on their blog

I'm going to pass this on to 10 people rather than 12, as two of the ones I had on my original list are going on a blog break soon, so I'll link them next time when they'll be around to bask in the glow of being tagged. (What? I bask, doesn't everyone?) Here are some blogs I enjoy that I think more people should know about:

Albaster Lacquer
She does awesome frankens and takes lots of pictures in different lights so I can see how the polishes really look.

Ali's Nail News
Great photos, including extreme closeups, of polishes that aren't out of reach for most of us (at least in the U.S.).

Lemming Monster
Great photos that make me want nearly every polish she shows. Fortunately, I already have a lot of them.

Mirannies' Nails
She showcases a wide variety of polishes and does some great layering and stamping.

nailspotting
Impeccable application and super photos.

Never Ending Obsession
Love getting her southern hemisphere look at the polish world, including things like BYS colors.

PinkNailBlog
Another good one for showing polishes in different lights. Also, I just like looking at her gorgeous long nail beds. (That's not weird to say, is it?)

Posh Pigments: A Beauty & Nail Art Blog
Does lots of fun Konad designs and shows polishes I don't see a lot of places.

Tier's Thoughts
Great variety of colors and also gives nice glimpses into her life beyond nail polish.

two clumsy hearts and nails
I love seeing her try different things as she expands her nail polish collection.

As always, I will not have a problem if any recipients don't pass this along for whatever reason (already got it, don't have time, hate tags, etc.); I just wanted to recognize them because I like their blogs.

Ten Things

As I mentioned a few entries back, I've not been doing well keeping up with tags. Last week ago, necessary★nails passed along the Happy 101 award, and before I managed to stop procrastinating and respond, Ping from Another Nail Blog, Freshie from Polish Freshie, and Ali from Ali's Nail News tagged me with it as well. Thanks, ladies!



The rules for this one:
1. Post who gave you this award
2. State 10 things you like
3. Give this award to 10 other bloggers and notify them with a comment

10 things I like (trying not to repeat things I've mentioned here recently):
1. Animals (though I don't have any of my own right now), with guinea pigs, capybaras, and snow monkeys being particular favorites
2. Skiing (downhill; I've never tried cross country)
3. Cheese (especially sharp cheddar and semi-soft goat)
4. Theme parks
5. Going to the movies (though I don't manage it nearly as often as I'd like)
6. Wandering in old cemeteries
7. NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me
8. Reading paranormal romance novels
9. Sleeping in on weekends (I'd like it on weekdays, too, but having to work messes that up)
10. diet Coke (with and without lime)

I hereby tag these blogs, which are some of the ones on my blogroll that I think more people should know about:
1. (Squoval)icious! I like seeing the brands she uses that are exotic to me, like Elianto and Bichun (and I also like her cute bunny, Stompy, who shows up once in a while).
2. .little green heart. She has elegant fingernails and cute toes and adorns both with nail art that I can only hope to develop the skills to copy one day.
3. Canadian Nail Fanatic She has some great stamping ideas (and long nail beds that I wish I could magically turn mine into).
4. Chikis Nails She's such a dedicated blogger that she posted entries from her vacation in El Salvador recently (and is another person whose nailbeds I'd like to transform mine into).
5. For the Love of Lacquer A nice mix of hauls, reviews, and swatches, with pictures that are nice and clear.
6. Ivana* I appreciate all the swatches she does of European brands (Essence lines we don't get here, H&M, etc.) so I know what to put on my wish list, and I always like her Konads.
7. Matilda's Manis Another good source of swatches for me to populate my wish list with British brands like Models Own.
8. Nail Junkie Lots of great Konad ideas, and I love that her mom's nail make guest appearances from time to time.
9. Paillette: a little nail polish journal Lots of swatches and layering ideas and comparisons; I either have or want pretty much everything she shows.
10. Spooky Nails Makes the extra effort to write in two languages so English monolinguals such as me can do more than just admire her great photos of great manis.

Four Times Two is Eight

I have gotten behind in my meme-ing, so today I am mashing together Friday Four/Four Things, as tagged by Zara at Never Unpolished and Nail Junkie, and Eight Questions, as tagged by Debbie at This Week I Have Mostly Been Loving.

4 things found in my purse:
—My trusty old Canon PowerShot SD600
—Small tube of Mango Mend
—Six shades of lipstick/gloss, though I rarely remember to use any of them
—Two pair of lilac-colored foam ear plugs

4 favorite things in my room/house:
—My husband (granted, he's not a fixture, but in a fire, I'd save him first)
—Art Deco-era bedroom set I inherited from my grandmother, especially the vanity with the big round mirror
—My stashes (nail polish, fabric, yarn--I inherited collecting genes from both parents)
—Quilts I've made, like this one:



4 things I've always wanted to do:
—Visit Australia & New Zealand (I used to threaten to run away to NZ when I was little)
—Visit Hawaii
—Knit a Kaffe Fassett-style sweater
—Have a chauffeur (I don't mind driving, but I could do so many other things with that time, like read or knit; not that getting my own driver is in any way realistic, unlike the other three things on this list, which might happen one day)

4 things I'm currently into (besides nail polish and blogging):
—Procrastinating on working on my quilt in progress
—Planning my upcoming vacations
—Playing with my new phone (a Droid)
—Decluttering (okay, there's a bit of wishful thinking putting this on the list)

4 things you might not know about me:
—I've studied Spanish, French, and Japanese (and never managed to learn much of any of them)
—I can drive a stick shift
—I had my first kiss at band camp
—I spent the night once on the steps of the Field Museum in Chicago

Debbie's eight questions and my answers:

1. What type of fragrance do you go for—floral, oriental, woody, etc.?
2. And what is your favourite perfume?
I just this week bought perfume for the first time in years; I got Bulgari Omnia Amethyste, which I think is a green floral, if the Ulta website and my nose are to be believed.

3. Long nails or short?
Short.

4. If you had £100 to spend on make up/nail varnish/skin care what would you buy?
Hmm, I think that's about $150 at the current exchange rate. I might use it to get one of the hard to find polishes on my wish list or maybe upgrade my skincare routine. I like a lot of Dermalogica and DDF and Peter Thomas Roth stuff but it just seems so pricey.

5. What product would get your "Top stuff for under a tenner" vote?
Sally Hansen Insta Dri top coat. I've used up bottles and bottles of this stuff.

6. Have you ever used a product that just did not deliver? If so what was it?
In a weak moment, I bought the Smooth Away Hair Removal system. What it removed was skin, leaving the hair mostly intact.

7. Go to the gym, eat healthily and look after yourself or bloody big pants?
I strive for balance between the two, but big pants seem to have the upper hand.

8. You have a voucher for a beauty treat - what treatment would you have?
This is tough, since I'm not a spa or salon type of gal. If it were a big enough voucher, I'd bring my (self professed) high maintenance friend along and just do what she was having done.

Since I already tagged some ladies earlier this week and am so behind that many of you have already been visited by these memes, I'm not going to tag anyone today, but if you're inspired to do one or both of them, please leave a link in the comments to your entry.

Sparkling Blogs

Clau from My Fashion Choices sweetly tagged me with the One Little Sparkling Blog award.



The rules for this award are:
1) Answer the question: "What do you enjoy most about your blog?"
2) Pass along the award to other bloggers (I've seen various numbers done, so I will pick my favorite number, 5).

What do I enjoy most about my blog? That people read it and take time to comment.

I pass along this award to:

Ice Queen's Nail Parlour I almost always look at her pictures and think "yeah, I'd wear that polish".

Jeweled Tips She makes an effort to show how colors look in different lights, which I appreciate.

Steelnpurple I like that she posts lots of pictures from different angles for each polish she features.

Viktorias world värld verden She does some cute manis, and I like the posts about her life outside of nail polish (plus she has a very cute dog, Charlie).

Wow Wow Nails Lots of Konad ideas here; I like that when there's a video post, there's a picture, too, since I can't always watch videos.

Sweet and Stylish

You nailed it! was kind enough to tag me with the Sweet Blog award a few days ago.



A few days before that, Amused Polish tagged me with the Stylish Blogger Award.



Thanks so much, ladies! I'm sorry about the delay in acknowledging these; it seems to take me longer to catch up from being gone on vacation than the amount of time I was gone in the first place.

Since I was fortunate to receive the Sweet Blog award once before (people who have seen my cranky side are no doubt chuckling to themselves about that), I'm not going to pass that one along this time.

The Stylish award has these guidelines: list 5 random things about yourself and pass this award onto 5 other bloggers. I'm all for talking about myself (obviously, since I have both this blog and an online journal) and sharing blogs I like, so will not resist this opportunity.

5 things about me:
—I have an accounting degree but work as a computer programmer. There's no way I'd pass the interview process for my job now, but when I started the company was very small and they took more chances. I didn't realize what a big experiment hiring me was until my first review, when my boss told me he hadn't been at all sure I would be able to turn myself into a programmer. Eleven years later, I'm still here, so looks like I did it.

—When I was a child, at various times I wanted to be a ballerina, veterinarian, or truck driver when I grew up. I got too tall and heavy to be a dancer, decided I was too emotional to be a vet, and found out that driving is not as much fun as I thought it would be before I was allowed to do it.

—I've been married longer than some of the readers of this blog have been alive; it'll be 24 years in October.

—I will not be one of those people who gets bored in retirement; I've always had many projects and hobbies outside of work. My top three right now (besides nail polish!) are: knitting, quilting, and downhill skiing.

—A hobby I haven't had time for in recent years is making elaborate Halloween costumes. Here I am in 1999 as Snow White (this was pre-digital camera days, so this is a scan):



Passing the Stylish Blogger Award on to:

Lissa's Nails
Her nails look elegant whether they're painted in RBL or Wet 'n' Wild.

Konad & Me
She is a whiz at combining multiple nail art elements.

Oooh, Shinies!
Her nails and cuticles are always gorgeous.

iPolished
She's so creative with nail art.

Fleur's nails&stuff
Her nails look great at any length.

Cherry on Top

CaramelCutie0215 of Style and Everything In-Between tagged me with the Cherry on Top Award a few days ago, and I've only just now been able to clear enough off my list to stop and acknowledge that and thank her properly. So, thank you, CaramelCutie! It's always nice to know that what I'm doing here is appreciated!



The instructions:

1.Thank the person who gave this award to you.
2.Copy the award and put it on your blog.

Done and done.

3.List 3 things which you love about your self.

This is harder than the first two steps; I had to replace "love" with "like" to get past my inner critic, but that's a discussion for another venue. Here goes:

—I'm creative.
—I'm self-reliant.
—I have cute feet. Maybe someday I'll start a pedi of the week blog.

4.Post a picture you love.



This is not the best composed or focused or lit picture, but I love looking at it; it's my first grand-niece, here just one day shy of four months old.

5.Tag 5 people you wish to pass this award on to.

I'm going to tag 6, because I realized I tagged one less than I intended when I got a previous award.

Jackie of Candy Coated Tips
She does great swatches: in different lights, from different angles, often with layering and comparisons included. She's also super nice; we did a swap a little while ago that was pleasant as could be.

Lisa aka Schmut of Rugby Beauty
She doesn't just take pictures for her blog, she creates wonderful compositions with eye catching angles and interesting props that I just love looking at.

KrisInPhilly of My Lucid Bubble
Kris features a wide variety of brands and shows them off in photos that let me really see what the polishes look like. She's my go to source for greens; if I'm curious about a particular green polish, I check her archives first. I also had the good fortune to catch her grab bag sale before all the lots were gone and got the most amazing box from her, full of brands I'd never tried and colors I didn't have.

jaljen of nailpolishuk
I love her sense of humor that comes across in her entries. She showcases a great variety of colors and often includes bonuses like dogs and birds and shoes, and I like those just as much as the polish pictures.

xtinaaj of Polishious
A new blog that's off to a great start, with clear pictures and neat manis and a variety of colors and brands.

Jen of The Polish-aholic
Pretty much every time she posts, I either have the polish already or really, really want it. I love the nail art she does, too.

Sweet Blog Award is Sweet

Steph at Imperfectly Painted surprised me yesterday by tagging me with the Sweet Blog award. Thanks, Steph!



The instructions that came with it were:

1) Make a post about the award including the picture and mention the person who gave it to you.

2) Put the award on your blog.

3) Give this award to 10 sweet bloggers.

4) Let your nominated 10 know you've awarded them by leaving a comment.


As Steph said, it's hard to pick just 10; I've found so many great nail blogs and had the pleasure to interact with so many sweet ladies as a result. After much consideration, here are the ones I chose this time:

Susie's Home and Hobbies
Susie was one of my very first followers; she is so supportive of other nail bloggers as far as leaving comments and getting the word out about new blogs (at least half of my reading list is thanks to seeing links she posted).

Amused Polish
I met this kind lady at MUA; she showed tremendous patience and understanding after the swap package I sent her in early April went missing. Perhaps it got swallowed up the volcanic ash cloud--we gave it weeks and weeks to turn up and not once did she get even the slightest bit cranky or demanding with me. (I am extremely relieved to report that the replacement package I sent last week did make it there safely!)

Pretty in Dayton
Winning Have You Seen My Limo? in a contest on her blog was part of the reason I started this blog--it seemed like a sign. She's just the friendliest person in e-mail and comments.

PhotoPaperScissors2
I first met Denise through her online journal (those came before blogs) years ago. I keep hoping I'll eventually get around to trying even a tiny, tiny fraction of the cool scrapbooking stuff she does.

A Day in the Life
This is another blogger I met at MUA when we did a swap fairly early in my swapping career there.

Theallamenta
She has been so kind as to start writing blog posts in both Italian and English so people such as me can do more than just look at the pretty pictures she posts.

Iceomatic's Nails
I am in awe of the nail art she does, like the recent mani she did based on a piece of vintage fabric--rooster, and cowboy, and flowers, oh my!

The Nailasaurus
Her blog title makes me smile, and I'm planning to copy a bunch of her nail art designs when I finally make the time to start playing in that arena.

Crystal Visions
Another person I'm planning to copy when it come to nail art.

I think a few of these ladies may have already been tagged, but I wanted to give them a shout out anyway. As with all memes I do, I will not be upset if my tagees decide not to tag in turn.