And Then The Grumble Was Gone

I have been unable to post for a long while except intermittently as my last darling pug, Lily, has been sick with complications of liver failure associated with her cancer.

So it's been a hard few months and it's been challenging to post with any enthusiasm.

Godspeed Lily. A bright light of enthusiasm, heart, and never missed an opportunity to have fun and love the heck out of life.

 Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal.

Absent for a Reason

Hi,

Wanted to keep you all posted.

I'm still blogging (no, they aren't invisible), but I have had a family emergency with my dog Jemma who was recently diagnosed with SARDS (Sudden Acquired Retinal Degeneration Syndrome) and went very blind very fast.

She also has had some senior health issues, too, so it's been a long month of March and April.

Meanwhile, I am trying to be normal but I seem to never get around to this part, and that's not good because I love blogging and still have so many to swatch.

Here's an older photo of Jemma, she's now 12, so this is a couple years old.

It's not an easy transition for her, and so the days are long, and the nights seem longer.


I can only say, thank goodness for pet insurance and the local teaching hospital.

Thanks for your patience.
:) 

Blue Franken

So, I've blogged L.A. Girl Sheer Ecstasy in the past.

First as a sheer that is sheer and beautiful over a light shade, but not so good over dark, here.

Then I made another franken in honor of my girl, Maddie, here. (Still miss you every day, girl)

So I had a portion of a bottle left and wanted to try it out with a medium blue to make a nice pink shimmer creme.

I call it Mozu Blue, for my girl.

Three coats, no top coat.

The camera was not feeling the pink shimmer as much as I was, so I tried some lower lighting:

A bit better, but you can see that I've slacked off on diffusion of late and so I get some sharp contrasty white that makes more glare than I'd prefer. 

You can, though, see the shimmer much better.

Since I have a lot of SH Pacific Blue, I thought I'd stretch it out into some other finishes. I know, crazy, but it just ticks a lot of blue boxes for me.

Meanwhile, thanks so much for reading my little nail polish journal.

March is GREEN!

Yes, off to a slow start.

See the little pup next to my face in my profile photo? That's Maddie. She had her teeth done the 1st and had 13 out and was miserable all weekend.
I was crying because she was in so much pain that night she wouldn't even take water.
She's back on track, water, food, meds, but it was thanks to an extra shot from the vet to alleviate pain and lots of hugs and snuggles.

Poor kid.

Quick swatch of OPI Number One Nemesis:

Translucent warm green, very neutral in some light, almost silver.
Here it looks a little bit like autumn leaves frozen over with frost.

Sorry for the ad hoc post!

My mind clearly is elsewhere....

More soon, little Mozu (Maddie's nick name she mostly goes by) thanks you for your patience!!!!

Puggie Hugs!!!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!!1

(hug your pet, brush their teeth! So many issues are now linked to dental in dogs and cats! *shameface*)

Maddie "The Mozu's" Mauve, Franken Love

I love my dogs Maddie and Jemma and Lily.

In a three parter, I am dedicating frankens to them.

First: Maddie Mauve

Madeleine

More commonly known as Maddie, Maddiecakes, Mad-mad-Maddie, Mozu (though she's more of a Taoist), Mocake, MoBetterCake, well...I could go on.

Maddie's story

Maddie is a rescue pug. We had adopted Jemma through Orofino Humane Society and after a year of getting to know the lady who ran it, donating things like towels and saddle pads (perfect for cat cages after the cats have been spayed, and they launder like iron), dog food, horse blankets, you name it, we got to know the director. If you Google Earth Orofino, Idaho, you will find an isolated, rural town with an economy that relies on very little to keep it going. When rural poor think of dog breeding it's less AKC or improving the breed and more "hey pugs sell for $500 a puppy".

The director said she had a special case, a pug who needed a home.

Maddie, we think, was owned by someone who loved her, her dew claws were removed, she is not a wild thing, but very tuned into people. I think this person somehow never bothered to spay her, then passed her along to someone else. Perhaps a student moving on? An elderly person who needed to relocate? A family who ran into hard times? I try not to be judgmental, but I'd live in a tent before I'd give up my dogs, they are family. Somehow, though, Maddie went from being a pet to being a puppy mill dog. She might have been born out of one, but at one point, it wasn't her life.

Lesson here: spay or neuter, this helps prevent your dog from ever ending up like Maddie if you have to give up your pet.

The person who had her next was a rotten sort. This guy wanted a personal pug-making machine. Perhaps he would sell puppies to local pet stores, craigslist, or thrifty nickel ads. In any event, Maddie gave birth to as many litters as she could until she wouldn't "take" any more, and was left in his back yard in a crate. Oh, he didn't leave her to just starve, he left her out there in October and November where nights average in the 30's. He apparently moved to another house, but left her there in her crate, where he would come a few days a week and throw dog chow in her cage.

A neighbor realized that this "human" was slowly letting her die, and offered to take her in. She got Maddie to a the humane society. She was starving, had double ear infections, a UTI, and after they spayed her, learned she possibly had inguinal hernias from giving birth go big-headed pug puppies with no vet care, no cesarian (standard because humans have changed the breed into one who can't really do natural birth), and birthing a litter of puppies was probably little more than a hellish night of pain.


Maddie Comes Home

When she first arrived, she was a stick figure. Little thing who was so in shock about things she wasn't sure where to turn.
She also had, and still to a degree has, post traumatic stress over the pain she suffered: if you rub her hips or hindquarters, she will run in circles looking for puppies, crying out in anger and frustration, and a memory of pain.

Her body is a work in progress. Because of the starvation, she has some neurological damage to her hindquarters. Was it starvation? A random kick? I don't know. The GP vet, orthopedic vet and neurology vet can't say for sure.

Now the miracle of this is that she is a heart dog who is so enamored with me (why? I don't know!) that she follows me everywhere. My blog photo was shot in the car while she gazes into my face adoring me. How she has this capacity for love, after what human's did to her, amazes and astonishes me. To no ends. She is a little love junkie.

Maddie now lives a very comfortable life: hugs and kisses, many snuggles, coats for winter and plenty of food. She understands some "requests" (no one could be mean enough to "command" Maddie, she's far too sweet!). She gets massages and TTouch, too.

Here is the wonderful part: Maddie is not only a happy, loving and lovable dog, she is sweet to all people.

A lesson in forgiveness.


Here is Maddie Mauve

This is a franken from L.A. Girl Sheer Ecstasy. A closer look at the "before":

I added some black and navy and a bit of clear to make a backdrop for the pink/purple shimmer

It's a humble polish, but I knew that there was something special hidden inside of it.

A lot like Ol' Mo-cake. My Maddie.

Thanks for reading my little nail puggy journal!

Two Helmer Drawers - aka "Red Stash" (Happy 4th!)

I have finally sorted out my reds. I organize by color because it makes sense in my head.
One day, though, I might tear it all apart and organize by brand, it's hard to say, this works and until I feel the need to change, I kind of enjoy tweaking the colors into categories. This might be a little nuts, actually, when I further examine the idea of agonizing if a color should be in the oranges or the reds, etc, I realize it borders on OCD.

Here are a couple of Helmer drawers:

1) Fuschia to pink reds to burgundies. The burgundies are not the darkest of the dark, and they are in a bit of a muddle, but until I get some tried on, it's hard to weed any of these out.

Some highlights, for me:
Nars M. Butterfly
China Glaze Rodeo/Retro Diva collection hither and thither.
All Misas

Things that are feeling like a waste of Dollar Tree madness: Sally Hansen 10 Day No Chips. Every Single One has lasted about One Day. Not Ten.
I might put some aside for the next annual Zoya swap.

(You can click to enlarge this)

2) This drawer is Oranges/corals, DARK maroons/burgundies, Hot pinks, Light pinks, and Roses

Highlights for me:
BB Couture Erotic Night
Misa No Shrinking Violetta
Sally Hansen Jack-o-Lantern
Some China Glaze Kaleidoscopes
Old Sally Hansen vamps.
L'Oreal Jet Dry Future Rose (this is really a great formula!)

Not loving:
The old NYC's  - sheer!
Some of the Essies - sheer!

(You can enlarge this, too)

I've got another drawer of warm and true reds, but it's only 1/3 full. I'm going to put browns/taupes/bronzes/misc neutrals in that drawer.

Photo to come down the pike when that's all done. I have to confess to SO MANY untrieds that it's been a long haul whipping the collection into shape and peeling off those polishes that add nothing to it. I also confess that the red drawers was a bit of a wasteland to me, I am finally seeing the variations instead of an amorphous whole, and still I am seeing a lot of not-so-great polishes, and replacing them with increasingly hard to find older OPIs (they've snuffed out affordable etailers) is looking like a slim future proposition. Well, optimistically, there's always swapping, eBay and sales!



Here are some "outtakes" of me trying to take photos of the drawers on the ground, and Maddie and Jemma decided they ought to supervise the whole operation!

Hmm...what's going on here?

Further examination by Maddie, while Jemma stands buy policing the scene.

Now Jemma had to go in and do a once over.
I have to admit the pug head is about the cutest thing on the planet, and Jemma is an exponentially cute pug!
PS This pair of divas are rescues, I urge you to support rescue and adoption, not irresponsible breeders, petshops or other avenues. Kicks aside soapbox...


Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!