How long is too long?

I decided to paint my nails tonight. I rarely do it because I’m a huge perfectionist and it takes forever for me because of this. The process is extensive. First I start with a base coat, I use Sally Hansen Diamond Strength. I let that fully dry, sometimes using the assistance of a hair dryer on the cool setting. Once dry, I soap my hands up and rinse off with cold water, then pat dry with a soft towel.

I apply the first coat of color and let fully dry, once again using the assistance of the hair dryer on cool. I repeat the soap step with cold water and pat dry again. I repeat this entire process for the second coat. I apply the third coat, but this time I let them fully dry on their own. I will usually go and watch something on television, giving it about an hour. I repeat the soap step again afterwards.

At this point, the color is usually perfect, so I apply a top coat. I use Sally Hansen Mega Shine. I let this dry on its own as well. Once dry, I rub in some Vaseline Intensive Care hand lotion, both into my nails and my hands.

I’m usually a tad bit messy during all of this, especially when doing my right hand. So, I usually finish off the whole process by using a Qtip dipped into nail polish remover and clean up around each nail. I’m ignoring this final step tonight to see if most of it will come off in the shower that I will be having tomorrow morning. If there are still pieces left behind after that, then I will do the Qtip process.

Is there an easier way to do all of this and still end up with the near-perfect job I get? I really hope so, but until I find that, I’m stuck with this process. Being a perfectionist has its values, but sometimes it really sucks because it can take up a lot of valuable time. And I’m not just talking about nail polish applications.

Queen’s Meme: The Green Meme

The After St. Patty’s Day Meme

1. How many green things are within your reach?
There are green leaves on the Hawaiian place-mat on the table beside me and the pillow of my E-Pad underneath my laptop is lime green. And that is it for green items within my reach. Do I require more green in my life? I’m going to go with no; only because I don’t look good in green and its not on my list of favorite colours.

2. Have you ever been green with envy?
Sure. Who hasn’t at one point or another? But I’ve never done anything hurtful or wrong because of the feeling.

3. Do you like split pea soup?
Yes I do. When I was younger, even the thought of eating it made my stomach do violent somersaults, but as I’ve grown older and my tastes have matured more, I’ve found that a lot of the food items that I found gross or ‘thought’ were gross1, are actually quite good.

4. Have you gone green?
Not really. I recycle, but I’ve always done that. I don’t really pay much attention to the cleaners I purchase and I don’t compost.

5. Do green Leprechauns scare you?
Nope2.

6. What color was the Wicked Witch of The West’s face in the Wizard of Oz?
Green!

7. Tell us about your last experience with a frog…or a toad…or a prince. You pick.
My last experience with a frog was a terrifying one that has followed me throughout life and is the reason for my very strong dislike of frogs and toads to this day. Yes, yea, yea, I may sound like a wimp but imagine finding a frog in your purse just before going to bed at 1am when you are around 14 years old. And its been in your purse all day long, waiting for the perfect moment to ambush you.3 Yea… that’s what I thought, not so wimpy now, am I? Am I?

  1. Kids tend to base their opinion on the look of food, more than on if they’ve ever actually tasted it. ↩
  2. Psst… I’m not afraid of unreal things. ↩
  3. Or trapped beneath a hoodie sweater, but that’s not the point!! ↩

BBQ!

Our back deck was finally snow-less by Saturday, so ever since then we’ve been barbequing every night. Tonight we had some chicken shish-kabobs and vegetables. So incredibly delicious and fresh. It’s also so nice to be able to open the windows and air out our house. I can’t believe these March temperatures we’ve been having. Another 26 degree day today! It was stifling in my studio though. I definitely need to learn how to use the thermostat in that place. I had a heat headache while at work, so I had to have a bit of date with an ice cream bar. Not the best cool down option1, but it was all I could think of at the moment2.

Short blog tonight, it is extremely peaceful right now and I’m enjoying it too much.

  1. Trying to cut back on sweets. ↩
  2. Heat-addled brain and all… ↩