*Witty Title Goes Here*

Hello, people!
As I write this, I'm sitting outside in glorious heat. It's 11am on a Sunday, and 26 degrees.
Bit of a random post today.
Firstly-a month or so ago I bought 6 swan plants, so I could have monarch butterflies. The plan was to cover 3, and when the others had been eaten, uncover those and rotate the available plants, so there would be a constant food supply. Well, I failed. I have half of one plant left. Last night I went out to discover a whole heap of caterpillars. Today I plan to buy more plants, and actually cover the others. What a dick. I got a couple caterpillar photos.

Greedy little buggers!

Yesterday, I decided to sort my nail polish. It started out like this:

Clock-wise: Swatch sticks, minis, top/base coats, randoms, and the two main boxes.



It ended up like this:

So, I haven't lessened the box amount, but it is much more organised now. Swatch sticks are in with their polishes, and the boxes have lids, so I can stack. This excites me. Possibly more than it should.

Last night I decided I wanted my nails a dark, vampy-sort of colour. Turns out, the 'vampest' I have is a dark, almost poo-brown (Revlon Dark Pleasures-Talk Dirty). It is much prettier wet. I'm going shopping today to find a dark, dark red, and possibly a purple of the same ilk. Any suggestions? I'll be at Farmers, so the options are Essie, OPI, Revlon, Australis, etc etc.

Finally-my rat babies almost have all eyes open. They are unbelievably cute right now. Incredibly mobile, and getting fast. I'll be taking some photos of them later on.

Babies babies babies! **lots of photos**

Happy Sunday morning!
As I think I have mentioned before, I am part of NZ Rat Rescue (go look, go on).
On Christmas Eve, 2 girls came in who were probably both pregnant. As an average size rat litter is around 12, with the 'normal' range being anything from 5-15+, this was concerning.
So, both girls (Possum & Bellatrix) were fed and housed as if they were up the duff. The signs were not awesome. Weight gain was steady-which, being that they had not been correctly fed before, was not a guarantee-they were eating a lot, loved nesting etc etc.
There is no real surefire way of telling if a rat is pregnant, until you get near the end, and they look like they have swallowed a lightbulb.
Possum is now off pregnancy-watch. NO BABIES!
Bellatrix surprised me last Saturday (4/1) with 12. TWELVE teeny pink squirmy things.
I have never raised a litter, and had never planned too. Being involved in a rescue shows you precisely how few new rats are needed. There are plenty of needy rodents out there.
Anyway-my nails have been a bit left out, as I have been distracted. I will have something to show later today, hopefully. For now-baby pics! They are 9 days old today, and I have a group shot from ages 1-8days for you.

They are so freaking cute. Ears are no longer stuck down, their peach-fuzzy fur is incredible. It is almost impossible to stop touching them. In a week-ish, eyes will open, and they'll start eating real food. This will also be the time I end up staring into my kitchen, wondering how I am going to feed all these mouths. I started stocking up on food that day Bellatrix popped.
It is possible to sponsor this litter; if you are interested, contact office@nzrr.org.
There are 6 boys, 6 girls. Because Mumma rat is Bellatrix, the babies will get Harry Potter names. I have the names chosen, but I haven't given them to anyone yet.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have eepers to cuddle.

Ocean creatures and gradient.

Firstly-happy new year!
I ran out of nail polish remover. I have no idea how this happened-I usually have a lot of it. I'll just blame the holiday season. I managed to remove my fireworks mani, but there was none left for clean up. Until I get to the shop, these nails are a mess. I'm forever apologising about the quality of my clean up, so I'm sharing the photos-call it a before/after type thing. Or something. Either way, you get to see how much worse it is before I tidy it up.
My niece gave me the idea for this mani. She thought my Rudolph looked like an octopus, when he was upside down,  so I promised I'd do something with an octopus soon.
I started with a base of LA Girls Holographic Blue. I love these polishes; they are great for a one-coat and go mani.
I then sponged Sinful Colors Secret Admirer on the tips. The idea was for it to look like the ocean getting darker/deeper. It doesn't really look like that. I think a lighter blue would have been better. But...glitter.

This octopus was done with LA Girl Disco Brites Psychedelic. It glows under UV lights, but I'm never near those.

And left hand:

Ignore the bungness of that starfish. It was supposed to have five arms. Not entirely sure where my brain went.Do you like the way I highlighted to make it look semi-normal?
Polishes used are: SC This Is It; SC Exotic Green, I mixed white in for the lighter seaweed; Coral Colors Rio, SC Snow Me White, Rimmel Grey Matter, Rimmel Mysterious Girl ('oh ohoh oh oh oh, mysterious girl, I wanna get close to you' and Peter Andre will be with me ALL DAY), all finished with Rimmel 60 seconds top coat.

Here are the photos after clean up.

Not perfect, but a hell of a lot better!

I'm off to the beach now. See ya!