The beach nails didn't last long.

The beach nails didn't last long. They just weren't my style, so I wasn't enjoying looking at them. I did these real quick last night. I didn't have a whole lot of time, and my original idea was something entirely different, but things went in their own direction, and here we are. LOL

I put down my base color (which is one I really adore! - some off brand polish I found in Douglasville a while back) and then used Saran Wrap to put the sparkly color down. Then I stamped this festive, swirly design on top. Pretty easy. I could really see that design going great over some brighter colors.

Honestly, I feel like something is missing here. I really don't enjoy it when all of my nails look the same. I have no idea why. LOL Even though these have depth and are pretty and interesting, it's just not enough. I might have to go and paint one the base color or black or something, just so I don't take them off. 😛

This is what Shadow used to do. LOL

This is what Shadow used to do.  LOL

I've had this mild, lingering headache for days.

I've had this mild, lingering headache for days.  It's kind of starting to bum me out.  🙁

Another roach pic.

Another roach pic.  Sorry to anyone who is squeamish.  I just get so excited about them!  They seem to be doing well, and it makes me really happy.  😃

So, I fed them just the other day, and all of their food was gone when I checked on them tonight.  So I started dumping in more stuff, and they just started swarming out.  Poor starving roaches.

I read that they can eat fish food, so that's what they got tonight.  I had tons left over, and since I have no fish, and no plans to get more fish, I figured I'd make use of it.  So, those orange things are shrimp puffs, not cheese puffs.  Though I'm sure they'd eat those, too.

So you see those egg crates?  I've got about 12 glued together and stood up like that, and it's full of roaches.  They don't all come out and eat at one time.  And the babies seem to stay on the crates.  I read that they eat the frass (grown roach poop), so they probably don't have a need to venture out to scavenge until they are a little older.

I wish I knew how many I had.  I think I started with around 200.  They seem to be breeding a lot, as there are babies every time I look in there.  Woohoo!  😃

What a day!

What a day!  I feel like I've been going non-stop.

I cleaned my house, worked outside a little bit, ran to Munford, had car trouble, hitched a ride from mom back to my other car (because two crappy cars are as good as one great one!), then came home and worked outside a bit more.

Now I think it's shower time.  😃

I saw my dad today, and here's a little update on his face:  He has a cancer growing on it.  He's going in Thursday for blood work, and then I guess they'll set his appointment for him to get it removed.  Since we're all broke as shit and dad doesn't have insurance, we went through the Quality of Life clinic in Anniston.  The doctor marked it as an emergency surgery (scary, right?!) and he's got financial assistance paperwork to fill out.  I don't know how all of that is gonna pan out, but hopefully, they'll give him a way to make payments or something.  At this point, I don't think it's ok to not get this done.  The way he described it to me, they are going to need to take a good bit of skin off of his face.  There might not be a way around changing the shape of his nose.  😕  I'll keep everyone posted as I find out more.  My dad is pretty weird. He's not very forthcoming with information.  It's especially not easy because he lives 30 minutes away and his cell doesn't get great service, so texting is about as good as it gets when I can't drive out there.

Anyway, that's been my day.  Not too bad.  I'm honestly just glad dad has seen a doctor.  He's not usually the type.  ❤

I haven't managed any yard work yet, but...

I haven't managed any yard work yet, but I've been productive, nonetheless.  😃

I moved Nelly Belly into a huge dog crate instead of the big ferret cage she was in.  She never walks around much, so she's got basically the same set-up, but with fewer levels.  I know her poor bones ache and she doesn't want to exercise.  She probably should more, but I don't know of any nice way to coax an opossum who just wants to sleep to exercise instead.  I don't know how much longer she'll be with me.  They have pretty short life spans, even in captivity, so I'm just going to make her comfortable.

So, that means that Barney and Fred inherited the huge ferret cage.  They are young and walk-y and energetic, so they will really make use of all that space.  Since I've got them on the correct diet, that should prevent them from developing bone issues.  Hopefully, they will stay walk-y and energetic for a long time.  🙂

Another bonus to the current setup is that I no longer have a large dog crate to fill.  As much as I like helping animals, I really overwhelm myself sometimes, and I promised Shadow that I'd back off of the dogs.  I need to, seeing as I still have one foster that hasn't budged.  If I keep taking in animals that aren't budging, I'll have to move out and give them the house.  LOL

Please pardon my dry and crusty cuticles.

Please pardon my dry and crusty cuticles.  I did moisturize before this photo, but they are obviously still pretty sad.  Between the yard work yesterday, and the ASS TON of acetone it took to clean up after sponging that gradient, I guess that's understandable.  Poor cuticles.  🙁

So... this paint job was a lot of fun to do, actually.  I've never been into free-handing anything, but I followed the tutorial linked below, so it was pretty easy.  Time-consuming - DEFINITELY.  But that's fine.  I enjoy painting nails and learning new things, and I had some free time, so why not?

I'm actually pretty proud of these.  Maybe I'll branch out and actually gain some painting skillz.  🙂

If anyone else tries these nails, I'd love to see photos!

https://www.chalkboardnails.com/2013/07/tutorial-beauty-and-beach-summer-nail.html