Updates

Today is a big day concerning my blogs conception. I will be getting my Mediport out. For those of you who are new to my blog you can read about my Mediport in posts here and here. It was put in to help save my arms during chemo, in the operating room, but tomorrow they will remove it in the doctors office. weird right?

I will also be seeing my radio oncologist for a followup as well.

Friday night was my daughters senior prom. This is a group of she and her friends at out "town square" My daughter is the one with the white wrap. My Aunt Daisybell provided the wrap to my daughter as a present two years ago and we have kept it "for special" I was pleased she used it for this night. We will put it away with the dress after the next prom is over.

Michelle also asked me to paint her nails for prom. We did this while her date took a nap, (he lived a distance away and it was hard for him to rest here the night before) We were going to use false nails, but she decided to save them for his prom, as I will not be there to paint them for her. and even though you cannot see it, there is black light polish on them as well, I meant to get a snap of that and forgot. the line is painted as is a dot on each side of the line. i told her it looked like a %.

Monday Manicures - Dual Color Tutorial

OK I am so excited! I have been saving this mani for memorial day! I wanted to get good enough at stamping so that i could Konad this and do it well.

It is a dual color single stamp. I have never done one like this before but now i am UBER excited to do this with another plate! Hopefully soon I will have a spare $20 so I can get the monster kit...

I selected Konad plate M45

and the US Flag design
these are the paints I used

I put on the blue first then the red.
I scraped it off in the direction of the color change angle.
So the blue wouldn't get in the red
I use an old walmart gift card because,
its easier for me than the Konad scraper

Lift off the paint
Here is the design
line it up and press it on.

I Just love this system! Pretty nails in no time!

Black light

What can I say I was excited to try out my black light polish....

Word to the wise... If you buy some black light polish and you want to apply it nicely, get out the black light to put it on... without it you can t see where it is. The next one will be great!

My copy cat

Well I couldn't wait! I had to try out the mani I saw on The Daily Nail I gotta send some props out to her as well if you havent checked out her nails then you really should she make me look so lame. She keeps me on my toes and makes me THINK. Some of my favorite manis have come from her inspiration to paint what you see around you.

Truly makes me work as an artist just a diffrent medium than canvas.

ONWARD to my nails!

This is the green I just picked up at Hot topic. Revlon's "Silver Screen" for the chrome BTW LOVE that silver... it is better than using a glitter polish. For the white I used LA Colors art deco because it has AWESOME coverage,and LA Colors art deco for the shadow stripe in black.

Hard to believe I used to use Sharpie markers because i couldn't make a brush work... practice and tools....

This is a real simplistic design but yet a HUGE attention getter. I went out for a bit yesterday and I have several comments on these nails... No I couldn't leave the cavities on, they creeped me out....

Monday Manicures

After doing several Candy Posts I felt it justified to show what would happen if you had nothing but candy for a while....

A visit to the dentist and a mouth full of fillings!

The All silver "cap" is in honor of my Uncle who had a silver cap on his front tooth while I was a child. :)

Happy Anniversary

What is the best anniversary present in the world? Well I don't know about THE world, but in MY world, it is getting to go nail polish shopping!

I first went to HOT TOPIC because I was dieing to try some Black light sensitive polish. and they had a $.49 sale going on!!! WOO WHOO!!!

so I picked up the black light polish (on far right)

Along with... these other three colors. Hot topic doesn't name their colors for some reason... :( But I have been looking for this hue of green since I saw this post on The Daily Nail. She used OPI Damone Roberts 1968, but I had not ever seen a store that carried a wide selection of OPI polishes. I guess I don't get out much, because as I walked up the mall bouncing along with my hot topic bag of polishes, quite pleased with myself.

When I saw IT.

A store with an OPI display, the display was HUGE! as the OPI drew me in, I also saw an Essie display I love the Essie that I received from The daily nail So I thought to myself OK I HAVE DIED...

As I spun around like a kid in Willy Wonka's Candy garden, I spotted some Seche Vite top coat, and went to get a bottle of that knowing its the best top coat known to man... (sadly as I look a the bottle in my hand Just now, I picked up the wrong one, I have the base coat So I will have to go back) as I walk up to buy my one bottle of clear coat, the girl at the counter asks me if I saw the special baskets...

I like special baskets!


I got a bottle of OPI "Peals Night Out" for 75% off and from what she was saying the BEST base coat around (apparently she thought I had the top coat as well) She says that the nail salons in the mall all use this base coat CND "Stickey" it is an anchoring base coat. She says it's the best around. I cant wait to try it!

Since I don't have near the time to polish daily like I used to I need my manis to hold up a bit more!

So My readers, we are going to have some posts about nails for a bit! Monday Manicures are finishing out this Monday with a very special Mani about eating candy so stay tuned for that, and then watch for the black light to show up sometime as well... along with all these great new products I want to try out and review for you so you can enjoy them as much as me!

French Mani

I have never had a french manicure. I have bought several kits but never did it. I have the strips to use as a guide the colors I even now have a konad stamp to do one.

I was weeding a flower bed shortly after Mondays manicures were put on, and as i told a reader, they were plastic glue ons. Well they didn't stand up to weeding.

now my flower bed is littered here and there with nail shaped necco wafers. LOL!

So I have opted to keep my plastic nails off for who knows how long that will last! and to try looking "normal" with a french manicure.

I have worn this for a day or so and let me tell you i like it it looks natural, like my own nails only 100x better!

I had to do the flowers though, it just was a little "undone"

Color Hues

This is our color wheel from last week, and I said I was going to go into more depth about it.

A color wheel is your friend. It will show you what matches with what and what colors will look good on you.

I recently painted my sun porch... I had comment after comment on my face book about how did I get the colors right? HUES

The rings of the color wheel are HUES, you can combine any color hue with the same hue of a different color.

So I can do the greens with the plums as long as they are of the same hue.

If you cant grasp hues from a wheel, you can at Wal-Mart! if you go to the paint swatches



If you look down the strip of paint swatches, you can see how one color becomes the next. if you are painting and you want to do a dual color room as my porch is, you simply pick out a color you like then buzz along the swatches in the same location until you find the next color you like.



Color designers do this with the wheel. Its smaller and more compact and well you don't have to have a ton of swatches. That's how the rug balances so wonderfully, as you can see, the rug has yellow the lime green and a TEAL. Wait! Yellow and green sure, they are next to each other on the wheel but teal?

Here is the wheel again, find the yellow that matches my porch. Move to the left of it and you will find my lime green, then you skip over a green and there it is the TEAL. Now I chose not to use teal accents in my sun room, I wanted the look of spring. But I could have gone with teal as well.

I love this room I love the colors, but I cant wear them. But that's OK I can still enjoy the room.

The same goes for your closet, if you have a teal skit, you can wear a purple sweater with it provided they are of the same hue.


Or even nail polish for that matter, I did this konad stamp a while back the two colors are the same hue. After you start looking for hues they are easier to spot.

Now that you understand what your season is, and what colors are going to look best on you and how to match separates by hue, I think it is time for all of us to go shopping and buy a really great looking outfit!

oops!

As we talked about color analysis over dinner dishes the other night, my daughter pointed out I was not a summer, Yes I still need cool colors, But that I was a winter. Of course I argued with her about it. After all I just took that quiz and well it had to be right didn't it? It came out as a summer and that was what I was back when I learned all this stuff when I was 18....

I did not even realize it when I took my color quiz last week. Michelle made me think of the colors in my own closet and made me retake the quiz again. and she was right, I'm a winter. There were a few questions that I didn't have the answer right on, my skin is more fair than pink, my eyes are more blue-gray than green-gray, and my skin burns easily rather than burns then tans.

It just goes to show, if you have determined that you are either warm or cool but you aren't getting the results from the scheme you think you should, have someone help you take the test. What you are thinking you look like might not be reality.

It also explains why I hated the way I looked in that lilac shirt I just drug out of my closet. it made me look tired and washed out. EWW! unlike the picture i have above, see how rosy my skin looks? that is the brightness adding contrast to my skin.

I would like to add, that I am these posts are just pointers to help guide you to looking your best, if you have trouble there are professionals out there that you can HIRE to do you color analysis for you. But I personally would rather go to the store and try on lots of different colors to see what colors look great on me.

Monday Manicures -- Neccos

I was once told "everyone loves Necco wafers". Well I don't, but I do love their colors! So this weeks Monday Mani is based on the Neccos I used to get for halloween that I hated *Gack*

I can see I still need to work on learning how to clean up my cuticles better. But the more i do my nails the better i get at them... I need to not hurry, hats 1/2 the issue!


Materials:


Thumb ~ Sally Hanson Insta Dry "Lively Lilac"
Index ~ Sally Hanson Hard as Nails Xtreeme wear "Mellow Yellow"
Middle ~ Essie "Mint Candy Apple"
Ring ~ NYC Color 112A
Pinky ~ LA colors Art Deco "Baby Pink"

the "Necco" I used two dropps of the essie mixed with one drop of American Apparels "Peacock"

and since Neccos are powder covered with NO SHINE, I did a flip flop and used my Wet and wild matte base coat as a top coat to "tone down" my shine. I think I will be looking for a more Matte Finish than this one it did tone it down, but it didnt give me the results that I wanted.

Warm Colors

Isn't this a great picture of Drew Barrymore? This is a CLASSIC example of a warm skin tone! I have many clients that are this coloration and I think it is the most beautiful coloration!

{If you don't know what your season is, you can go HERE and get it.}

"Springs" and "Autumns" have warm coloring. Some signs of warm coloring are red or golden hair, golden brown eyes and golden undertones to the skin.

This is the warm Palette. Autumns tend to be what my daughter has gotten me calling "Gingers" red hair freckles peaches and cream completions. Springs are also warm colors. Drew above is an autumn, Lys below is a spring.

Let me give you a demo on this....

This is one of my teen friends actually they both are but lets look at the girl...

obviously shes very pretty, and ready for prom this picture was taken outside with the blue sky as a background and her sky blue dress. I will not say she doesn't look good in this dress because that just isn't the case, Lys looks great.

But lets look at a snap of her in everyday clothes with a different background.

Do you see how the rosy background makes her skin come alive? That is because shes surrounded by warm colors. It isn't that she wasn't pretty for prom, but shes stunning in rose.

That is what your own personal color scheme can do for you. you CAN look movie star gorgeous, figure out your color season and surround yourself with those colors.

Even in the photo of Drew at the top, the background is a warm color. That's a photography trick, make your subject look better by having the correct color as a backdrop.

Next we are going to go into cross over colors and the color wheel. But we will have Monday Mani's first....

Nails for a "show"

I had a big MK demo yestrday and I needed more professional looking nails for it. (hershey kisses well therye fun but not so professional)

So i used OPI "DS extravagance" this has to be my favorite nail color. it is so amazing and pictures just dont do it justice.

and Konad plate m45 for the plaid and did a double stamp of M19 as a border of the plaid. Top coat of L.A. colors top coat.

If my nails had been longer I would have been more pleased with the result, but I was pleased that i can type :)

We will be back to candy nails for Monday Manicures! That's right i still have more candy!

Cool Seasons...

We are going to talk about clothing and the colors you need to wear. If you haven't figured out what your season is, you can still go HERE and get it.

Winter and Summer... Yea I know I was confused by that as well! Summer isn't cool. But the color season is.

and here is why....

These are cool colors from icy pink to wine and plum. but they all have "blue" undertones. no real warmth. by warmth I look for colors that look like sunshine colors. yellow tones, oranges, reds. those are warm. We will talk about warms tomorrow.

These are the cool shades. the ones on the left are more "icy" ones than the ones on the right. The ones on the right are more of the use of winters. the icy ones are for Summers.

But Winters can "get away with" the icy ones, BUT they wont look as strikingly wonderful on her (or him) as the deep Burgundys, wines, plums, navy, teals, and forest green.

As I said yesterday you will normally gravitate toward your own color scheme, but as you look through your closet you may find (as i did) you have that one outfit that just doesn't fit in but you love it and for some reason you always get complements when you wear it. You love it, it must look nice on you, so by all means keep it.

There are SOME summers and winters that are on an edge of the warm and cool scale. there is a way to determine that. And I know it has to do with a color wheel


But I have yet to really understand this part, since it did not directly effect me. I will be reading up on this and may do a post on contrast later.

For now you summers and winters, go into your closet and look at the colors and the combination of colors you have! you may have a favorite patterned skirt that is on the warm side, but it has a blouse or sweater that matches well and is on the cool side of the color wheel. you want the cool colors next to your face. So that is why that works for you.

What season are you....

Seasons? no I am not talking about what season you like, I am talking about your coloration.

This was one of the things i learned about in the class I took at our community college. If you can get your season figured out, You can always look awesome!

It is known as "seasonal" color analysis, which places individual coloring into four general categories: Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn.

"Winters" and "Summers" have cool coloring. Some clues that a person has cool coloring might include ash tones in the hair, grey-blue eyes and pinkish undertones to the skin.

"Springs" and "Autumns" have warm coloring. Some signs of warm coloring are red or golden hair, golden brown eyes and golden undertones to the skin.

Knowing what season you are will aid in many things... what colors look best on you. those would be the colors that extenuate. your natural colorings. (you probably already gravitate toward those colors) but it also aids in your makeup choices.

As an example since i already knew my season I found a simple quiz and took it... to make certain it was correct. I will darken the parts that do not apply to me personally.....

this was my result {BTW its correct}

What Seasonal Color Group Are You?

Your Result: Summer

Summer Skin Tone: Cool or blue undertone Skin color: Porcelain (very fair) Pink Rose Beige (tans easily) Ruddy with pink or red Beige with hint of sallow (yellow) Hair color: Ash or gray blonde - usually deepens with age Smokey blonde - dishwater Smokey brown - with a gray cast that looks dull and lifeless in wrong colors Dark brown and brown with auburn highlights Ash gray, silver gray Eye color: Blue, clear icy blue, gray blue, dark blue, aqua, and blue with white flecks Pale gray Gray green, clear green with yellow radiating from pupil Hazel - green/brown or blue/brown Soft brown -rose brown or gray brown Note: This person will usually burn then tan. There is a softer look compared to Winter

This is where you can find the quiz i took

Go ahead and take it and then we can go into what will look great on you!

A Kiss for Wyatt!

I knew I wanted to do Hershey kisses. Somehow coming out of the silver papers, this was the best I could do.... well I might have been able to do better, but it would have made me really stressed out and i wasnt gonna do that...LOL!

Fashion Earrings

Have you priced earrings? HOLY MOLEY.... and the worst part is they are just like what I wore in the '80's! for the $12.50 I can get a half a tank of Gas, and drive for over a week! {luckily these I found new on the card second hand for 50 cents}

Well I came up with an idea. It almost made it to the craft blog, but I think since its concerning beauty and fashion and nail polish it belongs over here...

I had two pair of old earrings from high school still kicking around in my Earring Jewel box {oh you think I have alot of nail polish? You should see my earring collection!}

But the paint was flaked on one and the other was a color I just don't wear anymore. Mostly because "royal blue" isn't in style. But I had loved both sets and could not bear to part with them.

I started wearing earrings again after I lost my hair, I got HUGE hoops and wore them with my bandanna then walked around talking like a pirate...

Me in my "Pirate Gear"

I found that my earrings made me feel prettier, thus feel better. Now I dont feel "dressed" without my earrings.

SOOO I decided to take my two favorite colors of nail polish and put them on the two pair of 80's earrings. What am I out a bit of polish and maybe I can wear these again?

Well it worked great! As you can see I used the Sally Hansen insta-dry. Has good coverage with two coats.

If you have some of yours that you want to do, a word of advice, paint the backs first, let dry completely, then hold by the post, paint the front and set down to dry. Before starting on second coat make certain it is completely dry... if its not, it will bubble.

I think I will go back to NTCH and pick up some more, after all if this is all it takes to get new earrings that match my new outfits.... Perhaps some flashy hoops?

Lastly....

OIL.... everyone has it, your skin NEEDS it, but too much of it causes pimples. not enough of it causes pimples. it needs balance. you get the balance by using Toner.

It shouldnt dry out your skin like say alcohol pads (or drying pimple pads). it just puts back any "off balance" you might get from your cleanser. soif your cleanser takes too much oil off your skin, toner helps restore the balance. Kind of like if you eat a really acidic meal how a tums will "balance" your tummy out.


but you say..."my skin is oily! I need to dry up the pimples!" i highly doubt you skin is that oily,

If you are using a cleanser that exfoliates, I highly doubt your skin is still oily. BUT, there is one more majic ingredient to this list....

Moisturizer.

WHAT?! MY SKIN IS OILY! I dont need more grease!

AH! but you do! see, (listen closely here)...

if you have oily skin, your skin is producing too much oil... (duh)

If you dry up that oil your skin says:

"HEY, we are out of oil! double the production!"

so you get more oil... then you use more drying products.. and the cycle continues....

NOW think with me.. you need less oil you need to make you skin realize

"Hey too much oil! Stop the production!"

suddenly (and I don't mean over night, but in a few days of steady use) your skin will start settling down.

so to recap ~ cleanse, exfoliate, toner, and moisturizer.

for the occasional pimple 5% benzoil peroxide at night in between the the toner and the moisturizer. Salicylic acid can cause dryness.

I know, i didn't go into the different cleansers, but mostly today the cleansers are combined with the exfoliate.

you can find 3 in 1 products (cleanser, exfoliate and toner)...

I know Mary Kay carry's one.
(that I love BTW)

There is another line that also carry's it as well... but I am not going to drop their names. But they are found in fine retail stores. (not walmart) at least i dont think you can find a 3-1 there.

This routine followed diligently will HELP with pimples...
Although, you may still have one crop up here or there.

what causes pimples?

I am going to talk about this, this week.... I cant fit it all into one post so I am going to break it down into several posts.


Simple enough question and there is a simple enough answer. Dirt and bacteria. But you already know that. if you don't, then you havent seen a "Strydex" commercial.

It is very simple, your face gets bacteria on it. Then dead skin cells shift on your skin, and plug up your pores, the oil combined with the bacteria, makes a teeny tiny infection, your body tries to fight off the infection and sends out the white cells. instant pimple.

Today we are going to talk about the bacteria how it gets there and how to fight it.

There are many places it comes from. Pollution from the air, bacteria on your hands, lets face it you can get germs anywhere.

That is the first thing people say "try not to touch your face" but I am trying to be "real" about this. You are studying for a term paper and you lean over an rest your forehead on your hand right? Bingo contamination.

But lets go one step further.... you actually DONT touch your face, why do you get pimples? see that guy there in the hall? he sneezed a second ago right? you said "bless you"... well that sneeze even though her tried to contain it, some of it still over spilled his cover, and now its in the AIR.

You cant get away from it, it is everywhere.

The first way to fight bacteria/germs on your face, get them off your hands. simple hand washing. that's right I am first telling you to eliminate the pimples on your face, wash your hands more.

Pimple areas naturally itch, its part of the healing process, so your hands are drawn to that ONE pimple, your hands are dirty, well germy at least. and those germs are going to get deposited on your "trouble area" and renew the cycle.

You dont have to use some super anti bacterial soap. Simple cheapo soap will do. If your hands tend to get dry, you might want to upgrade from the cheapo soap to a soap with moisturizers.

How often should I wash my hands?..... I wish there was some magical number I could give you, but there isnt.

before and after the toilet of course
hand sanitizer when leaving the grocery store,
before you eat

I guess my best guess is once an hour?

but your first line of defense against pimples... wash your hands

GONE

Update on todays post... the pet scan showed clean. no more cancer. I can get my port out and only go for check ups now. he wants to see me again in AUGUST!

ONE year

356 days ago today I found a lump at my collarbone, it was a Monday.

Within a month I was hospitalized for Hodgkin’s disease. Today I get the results of MY PET scan. I am certain it will be fine.

I have seen too many warriors fall to this killer we call cancer in the past year. My heart weeps for their families. I hope/pray that soon we fill find the recipe to each and every cancer so that those cancers are as easily fixed as mine.

My heartfelt thanks go out to each and every single person who thought to send a card, or to pick up a phone and call to check on me or helped us out financially. You are the true heroes of my story.

I cry over each friend that I lost during this time. Many people found that my cancer was simply too much for them to bear, and those have drifted away from me. I wish for them blessings and good life.

My last and largest thank you goes out to God, for allowing me to have not only a cancer that can be treated and cured, but for having the wisdom to see that I needed this test to make me a stronger person. It showed me how to focus on living not just existing. It taught me to truly enjoy every day, and to appreciate those around me. For the first time in a long time I truly LOVE living.

wont melt in your mouth or your hands!

Candy Mani #2 ... Yep gonna keep going with candy till I exhaust it.. I actually have my final mani in this group all planned out *grin*

So here are my M & M's these definitely wont melt in your hands :)




Very simple to do multi colored polishes and a 05/0 paint brush to paint on the white m's...

The polish I am holding I found at "hot topic" reasonably priced... I still want to go back and get the black light sensitive polish....

Noell... there is your second candy mani. As far as my ideas, some come from the nail blog I follow, but for #1 & #2 I simply Googled "candy" under "images" I then save what ever images I think I can do to a "try it" folder and delete them when I have. Sometimes I just search pics of nail art for ideas.