Sunday, September 15, 2013

Two weeks worth of stitching, nails, and stuff.

Labor day came and went and to celebrate my sister and I wandered off to Athleta and purchased a new pair or work out tights and a athletic top. Oh yeah, living it up.  The rest of the week was the usual round of work and gym and home.  My nails started out a bright skittle that I had intended to do some stamping on.


I never did manage to get the stamping done.  Kept running out of time here and there.  I used the following polishes: Elf Smoking Hot (on thumb), Electric Fuchsia, Flirty Fuchsia, Mango Madness, and Sunflower (on pinkie). I did learn one thing from this, I don't like wearing warm colors on my nails.  The yellow was particularly hard to wear.

Later in the week I redid my nails and went back to purple and shiny.  Two of my favorite things.


I used OPI polishes this time around: Ate Berries in the Canaries (on next to pinkie), Suzi and the 7 Dusseldorfs, and the glitter is Divine Swine.

On Saturday, we had some excitement in the form of a rain storm.  My sister and I actually missed it as we'd gone up to SLC to see a play at the Hale Centre Theatre.  The play itself was okay, but as always the execution of the material was amazing.  The lighting, staging, sets, costuming, and performances were excellent.  And part of the staging gave us an idea of something to try out for our fitness routine.

Back to the rainstorm,  a section of road near our house washed out and all the debris filled up a business that was down at the bottom of the hill.  My sister and I walked down to check it out Sunday after church.  There's a woman standing half way up the crater for a sense of scale.


I got some good stitching time in on Sunday so O Holy Night received some attention.  I'm working this over two on 28 count Blue Dwarf by Picture This Plus.  I'm enjoying this one thus far.


And so another week of work and trips to the gym started.  I started the week off wearing a lazy mani of China Glazes.  The base coat is Sweet Hook and I don't recall what the name of the crackle coat is because I loaned it to one of my friends at work.


And then in the middle of the week, I received all the bits for the new Lizzie*Kate mystery sampler.  So first minute I had free, I started in on it.  I'm using the called for flosses and fabric.


Since the nails were showing a few chips and nail wear, it was time to change out the color.  I put on a color change polish by Ruby Wing called Mystic.  Inside it's a nice mauve color.


While outside in the sunlight it goes to a deep purple. Fun! I thought about stamping on this one in a silver. Once again, I haven't had the time to do the stamping and wait for everything to dry.


Thursday arrived and it was Crafty Stitchy night.  Instead of crafting or stitching, we decided to go out to dinner to celebrate all our birthdays.  We went to Tempanyaki (like a Benihana) and ate steak and shrimp, gyoza and edemame.  The hibachi grillist must have been new as his show wasn't all the great, but the food was about as good as it gets at such a place.  We then went across the way to a shopping center and had a good time wandering around some of the shops.  To top the evening off we popped into Smart Cookie Company and bought lemon sugar cookies for dessert.

Saturday rolled around and it was time to get my hair trimmed and color freshened up.  It's nice to see the purple nice and dark again.  I worked away on the new L*K in the afternoon, but don't have another picture of it.

And last of all, it's Sunday again, so out O Holy Night has come and I've been stitching away on it, happy as a clam.  I think next week I should have the flesh tones in and then it's decision time.  Up and left, down and left, up and right, or down and right.  Decisions, decisions.


I'm really pleased with it.  On Monday my sister and I are going to an intro to Aerial Silks class.  I'm hoping it's something I like.  I really want to add something new to the fitness routine.  This will definately work on my arms and upper body strength.

Hugs and Stitches,

Kay

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Some stitching, some nails, and Toby

This week I thought I'd work a bit on Santa's Village so that's exactly what I did.  I'm working on the Post Office and if I work on it tomorrow I should finish this block off.  I think I have number 4, but I'm not too sure.  I have number 5 for sure so if there is no 4, I'll just drop back to the other side and start on that house.


I've been painting my nails all along, but not taking any pictures of what I've gotten up to.  I decided to give it another go with the photography bit with decidedly poor results.  I'll continue to try with the photos... and with getting better clean up on my nails.  Anyway, for the first half of the week I wore what can only be described as a hot mess.


I used Essie French Affaire (light pink) and Jamaica Me Crazy (shimmery fuchsia) for the base coats.  Sinful Colors Opal Glitter is used on my ring finger for an attempted gradient.  And then I went crazy with random rhinestones.  Why are they funky bumps on my pointer finger?  Well, originally it was French Affaire pink and then I decided to add some dots in Jamaica Me Crazy.  But I didn't like the dots so I painted it all over with Jamaica Me Crazy and went with the purple hearts.  Like I said, a right crazy mess.

Thursday night I decided that the hot mess had to come off and I wanted to try some galaxy nails.  I read through this tutorial and went to town.  As usual, there's more enthusiasm than accuracy.


I definitely need to find something smaller to use as a dotting tool and fight my instincts to make nice symmetrical patterns with the dots.  This one requires a lot of polishes, and I actually used less than the number listed in the tutorial.  Here's the list: OPI Russian Navy; China Glaze Spontaneous and Grape Pop; NYC French White; Sinful Colors Opal Glitter; and ELF Skinny Jeans, Lavender Mist, and Mint Cream.  Quite fun.  Next week, I'm feeling a skittle and maybe some practice on stamping since I have plenty of time to muck about with it on Monday.

Sunday has arrived and I put some more time into O Holy Night.  I'm still plugging along at Mary's shoulder, but I'm quite please with the progress so far, given how little time I do stitch on it.  I am stitching this on 28 count Dwarf Blue by Picture This Plus.  The faded grey-blue feel of the fabric is thus far working well with the muted tones of the flosses.


I had a question asked about my spring hoops and if the stitches get ruined by using them.  I'd have to say that as far as I'm concerned the stitches are fine after spending some time under the hoop.  They do get a bit squished, but they spring back to life after a pressing.  I don't like to use them when doing beading, though.  I have to be extra careful about placing the hoop around the beads because they can get caught in the hoop and that will distort the stitching.  But otherwise a bit of pressing and everything comes out just fine.

And lastly, here is Toby with his pig.  He's not actually actively chewing on pig. He was just laying on the couch, watching Top Gear with us and holding pig in his mouth.  Silly dog. He's going to have to give up his prime spot on the couch here in a month though.


That's all from me for this week.
Hugs and Stitches,
Kay