NAILS | Purple and Pink Flower Vibes #CBBxManiMonday

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The weekend is always done way too fast especially because I always work Saturdays so Sundays are truly precious. I usually sleep in on Sundays, but never really past 8am because my cat, Buster, has an internal clock of 7am on the dot for breakfast! He sleeps all the way through the night which is great though, but at 7am it's time to get up. Sometimes it's 6:57am or 7:30am, but this is the only cat I have had who has slept all through the night and wakes up at a reasonable time!  

NAILS | Essie Expressie Power Moves Swatch #MidWeekMani

 

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Ashamedly, I used to judge people who only posted nail swatches and no nail art, but now I know why. They are tired. I have not had the energy to do anything remotely creative these last few months so I have just been happy with having something on my nails. I was feeling like I needed a bit of a pick me up, so I went to my favourite colour family - the magentas!

NAILS | Just Purple #CBBxManiMonday

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My nails are still itty bitty compared to what the normally are after a 4 week nail polish hiatus, but they definitely are looking better than before! I don't know what it was, but they were SO dry that even my good photo hand was breaking and splitting. My right hand is still nubbin-like, but we will get there because I want to have long nails for Halloween nail art! 

NAILS | Cirque Colors Flower Power (Thermal) #CBBxManiMonday

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I had to work on this holiday Monday so I only just painted my nails about an hour ago, BUT I was determined to have a timely #CBBxManiMonday post for once! I had some grand plans for full on nail art, but I have been pretty upset all day because of what happened to Evelyn (my 21 year old car). We have to park on the street and when I went out this morning to go to work, I saw that someone had hit her and taken out my driver's side mirror in the process! Now, I've got to deal with getting her fixed up even though we have also been wanting to get a new car as well. I think the mirror will be cheap enough to replace as it's not like I can suddenly get a new car this week, but it's just such a bummer because of the unexpected expense AND because I feel so badly for my baby!

NAILS | Purple Polka Dots #CBBxManiMonday

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I said last week that I was running out of ideas for Peach Fuzz nails and then I was also getting really tired of seeing peach on me so here we are at PURPLE. Thank goodness for a free for all theme because I just needed to see a different colour on me! Ever since starting my #AGemADay New Year's resolution at work (I post ONE jewelry item on my work IG each day as a reminder to myself to engage with the product I am so fortunate to be around) I have been much more aware of what colour my nails are as I sometimes end up wearing or holding coloured gemstones. I want my hand and the jewels to look coordinated!

NAILS | Happy New Year! I Am "Feelin' Libra-ted"! #CBBxManiMonday

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HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! We made it! This year seemed to fly by so quickly especially in the latter portion as it felt like I was gearing up to go to Paris, then I went to Paris, recovered from Paris, then came the Christmas holiday rush at work which I have only started catching up to now. Thankfully, January tends to be a good time to do all of these things and clients are generally fairly understanding about delays and such. We have an "Anything Goes" theme for January, so my plan for the rest of the month is to focus on the new Pantone colour of the year - Peach Fuzz! It is classically a terrible colour on me ESPECIALLY on my hands, BUT we are going to find ways to make it work! Kind of like when chefs are given a weird ingredient to work with and the goal is to see how "creative" you can be!

NAILS | Stars on Purple #CBBxManiMonday

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I swear one day I will be ahead of the game and catch up! Especially with my Paris trip coming up, I will need to schedule a few things for sure! This last week was another tiring one so I was a bit lazy with my nail art for this week's #CBBxManiMonday though I will say that I DID have brand new nails on the actual Monday, but just didn't get a chance to edit the photos! I still haven't found a good way to get the lighting right for taking nail photos with my new iPhone without showing every wrinkle on my hand! 

NAILS | Purple #CBBxManiMonday

 

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You would think that with my being stuck at home with shingles for the past four days that I would have had TONS of time to blog and do my nails, but no. I keep forgetting that technically my body IS still fighting a virus so I find that I will feel fairly normal for a few hours and then all of a sudden I will crash and need to sleep for about 20 minutes. I always know when my body is sick because when I take naps when I am healthy, I wake up feeling a little bit bloated or with a slight headache, but if I am sick, I always wake up with zero symptoms. That's how my naps have been the last few days so it's evident that I just need to listen to my body and do what it says.  

NAILS | Yet Another Glitter Gradient with the Shade Cosmetic Proof (?) #CBBxManiMonday

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I am tired and it is only January 10th. I know my last post started off pretty much the same way, but I feel a constant sense of anxiety (really targeted at a specific thing) and I am acutely aware that I should not let myself feel stressed about it or dread going to work which makes me even more mad at myself for feeling this way. We also have a big corporate visit next week where I need to have my game face on which always tires me out. I think I just need a solid two week vacation doing absolutely nothing! I also had to take Huxley to the vet early this morning because he has been overgrooming his crotch to the point of creating a lesion and we wanted to rule out any urinary issues. I am on "cat crotch watch" for the next three days as we have some topical steroid ointment for him so I am hoping it starts to heal nicely.

NAILS | Purple Polka Dots #CBBxManiMonday

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This doesn't look like a Fall manicure, but both of these shades are from the OPI Fall Wonders 2022 collection! There is also a bright coral shade in the collection as well so it just goes to show that sometimes Fall collections aren't necessarily all vampy shades. With losing a week to Covid last week and playing catch up at my day job, the blog has been a hard one to maintain and now with the holiday season revving up, I doubt I am going to be able to get back into the swing of things for blogging. I have one or two holiday things to discuss, but other than that, I have left it all very open-ended as I don't like to put a ton of pressure on myself for December. Getting sick for the first time in a long time was enough of a reminder to take care of myself!

NAILS | OPI Infinite Shine Don't Wait. Create. Swatch and Catch Up

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I haven't been good about doing "Five on Friday" posts and maybe it's time to start again because I have allowed myself to let everything go since Hugo died almost 2 months ago. These last few days, things have started to feel fresh again and it has brought me back to those moments of aching sadness where I just cannot believe he is gone. Harper is lonely now, it is evident in the change in her behaviour so we have started poking around local shelters to see if there might be a suitable cat buddy for her. Preferably a younger male kitty who can keep her on her toes as she likes to play and chase. The search is something that makes me feel sad, but at the same time I feel like having a second cat in the house will help us move forward with our grief. 

NAILS | Deborah Lippmann "Do the Mermaid" Swatch and Chat

I honestly don't know how I got here to the end of this week/end of the month. It has been an odd week at work with it being both busy and not. It has all been a bit of a blur as there has been a ton of construction and visits from various people. Mentally, I have been feeling really ugly on the outside and bored with my workwear so this past week I have made an effort to dress up more and wear designer pumps and actual blazers to feel more "boss woman"! The past two years, the work dress code has relaxed a little bit and now we are allowed to wear cardigans instead of blazers (yay!) which was something I took FULL advantage of as sometimes I feel very restrained or hot in a blazer especially in the summer. The thing is, there definitely is something much more professional looking about wearing a blazer so I've been wearing all of my blazers again this past week with heels and it actually has made me feel better. I plan on going through my clothing this weekend and organizing it for Big Brother to pick up so I'm hoping I keep up the momentum!

 

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NAILS | In the Purples with OPI Muse of Milan

I was really loving my leaf-inspired taping manicure from last week and wanted to try taping again and the perfect opportunity arose when I came across two shades from the new OPI Muse of Milan collection that I wanted to feature together. I love all purples especially glittery purples and when I first started seeing swatches of the duochrome glitter "Leonardo's Model Color", I knew out of all the shades, THIS was the one I would purchase!

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