*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!

December-lots of pics.

How's that for an exciting title?
I hope you all had a great Christmas. Mine was awesome, starting with a BBQ on the 22nd. Most of my favourite people were there-friends I have known for 15+yrs. The missing person was in Tasmania, for her family Christmas. It was an awesome night.
My Christmas nails were pretty boring. On Xmas Eve, I was all keyed up and restless, yet bored out of my mind. I had no patience to do anything too detailed. I went with candy canes.

Boring yes? Base of Revlon Coconut Crush, stripes are Revlon Mon Cherry and Sinful Colors San Francisco. Sidenote-Coconut Crush-that lovely, pearly WHITE polish, stained my nails a pale blue. I don't know how this happened.

My next mani was pastel. I wanted to try the matte top coat I bought in October. Colours are Sinful Colors Unicorn (yellow) and SC Cinderella.

So pretty! I really liked the matte look; it made the pink shimmer in Cinderella stand out a bit more.

I removed this yesterday, only to discover-Unicorn had stained my nails. It looked like I had painted them with nicotine. For crying out loud. I use base coat. Not so happy.

Today I decided to do my New Year mani. This despite the fact I am not going anywhere. I'm actually really looking forward to my evening. My plans involve reading (as usual), listening to MY music (currently completely obsessed with Muse/Silverchair/Biffy Clyro), and I will watch Toy Story 1 & 2. I am such a rager.
I thought I'd do fireworks. That's fairly straightforward, right?
I wanted a base colour that was dark, but sort of starry looking. I was leaning towards black, with SC Hottie on top. While I reached for those, I spotted an SC I have not tried-Secret Admirer. AWESOME. It's this almost black with a grey shimmer through it.

OOooOOOOOoo, aaAAAAaaaAAaa. Love LOVE LOVE it.

I picked my JulieG polishes to be the fireworks. They are a thick glitter that dries quickly, so you aren't waiting around before painting over it.

Fireworks are all JulieG-Sleigh Ride (blue), Silver Bells, and Gift Of Gold. On my thumb, I have LA Girls holographic pink and purple. They were a bit dark to work. I am not sure whether I actually like these. However, they will do for the next couple days.

In other news-I'm about ready to go on a homicidal spree due to the weather. I'm not someone that copes well with incessant rain. I need sun to function happily, and I have forgotten what it feels like.
In other other news-I'm not sure whether I have said anything previously about the Goodreads Reading Challenge. I set a goal in January to read 200 books this year. I am currently 2/3 through book 261. I've really loved tracking my reading, and pinpointing when it slowed down/sped up. I think this is the messiest year my house has had. Assuming I finish this book today/tomorrow, I'll finish the year with Stephen King. I love that guy.
In other, other, other news-2 female rats came into the Rescue on Christmas Eve-both possibly pregnant. At this point, it's looking like one is, the other-probably not. Yay, one litter is far more manageable...but still not ideal. There is no sure-fire way to tell if a rat is pregnant, it's mostly just a waiting game. And so I wait, and sneak into the room 4,000 times a day.

Have a fabulous NYE, and stay safe. See you next year!

Christmas Mani. Oooooh, and a GIFT!

I have the headache from hell. It pretty much sucks arse. I share this information, because I need to whinge to somebody.
Alrighty. Tonight, I painted a Christmas mani, and I am actually stoked with it. Photos are less than ideal; it's 11.30pm. If I wait to get daylight pics, I will have sheet marks.
Excuse my horrible hand-skin. Also, please excuse my very special Rudolph. Assume he has been into the eggnog.  Well, wouldn't you, if your entire family spent time hassling you for your shiny red nose (presumably from the eggnog)?

No flash, then flash.

Individual nail pics:

Base is Sinful Colors-Snow Me White. The rest are-Revlon Mon Cherry; SC Exotic Green; SC This Is It(gold); SC Nirvana(brown); LA Colors Art Deco Red; Miki Black, and the star on the Xmas tree, plus a few of the lights, is Star Kin Merry Solstice. All finished with Rimmel top coat.

You may notice there are no photos of my right hand. This is because it is naked. I'll potentially do something with it tomorrow. Maybe.

I also have a wee bit of a give away. I have one person in particular that reads all my blog posts, and lets me know she enjoyed them-either by saying so, or liking etc.
This person will get a customised Peacock Pie necklace. All she needs to do is message me.
Miss Holly S. You are my best follower. Congratu-fucking-lations.

Christmassy-polishy-swatchy.

OK, I re-did my attempt at a Star Kin Christmas mani.
Before you look at the photos...I have had quite a bad week, in terms of my fingers. They are wounded, and some are sore. I also managed to slam the chest freezer lid on my hand today. It was completely and utterly not due to any stupidity on my part. That freezer is incredibly evil. You know, it stores the body parts of horses, chickens, cows, deer and pigs? Even whole pig heads. Sometimes it also has rabbit parts in it. It's a terribly malevolent appliance.
To photos!
First up-Xmas Eve. Star Kin's description-"An inky black night (or black jelly base) swimming with small silvery glitters of excitement, and the red and green glittery decorations of the festive season. This polish also has green and red holo bell shaped glitter, and red holo hearts (for love, of course!)"

My base coats, from thumb to pinky, are: none; Miki Black, Star Kin Polished, Sinful Colors Exotic Green, and Revlon Mon Cherry.

I like it best by itself (2-3 coats), or over black.

Now-Merry Solstice. Description-"This polish has mostly circles, including large, medium and tiny ones, but also some hexes and squares. The glitters are holographic, matte and metallic. There are mostly green and red, but also some gold glitters in here! The base in the bottle looks grey, because I have thrown in a festive helping of cosmetic grade holographic shimmer, which means that anything it is layered over will now have the holographic rainbow in the sunshine."

Base coats are the same. I have 2 coats on, so I could grab some of the bigger glitters.

I like Merry Solstice alone (2-3 coats), but LOVE it over Polished. Polished, another Star Kin, is gorgeous. I'll show you pics of that next time.
 Star Kin is one of my favourite brands. They go on so well, I've found minimal fishing for glitters, and are just so stunning.

Ami and Annette are a mother-daughter polish-making duo, based here in New Zealand, using ingredients that are not tested on animals, and base and dyes which are vegan friendly. They have recently been joined by Harriet, over at Nailhilism. Go check her out!
You can find the Star KinEtsy store here, and have a look at Ami's blog, and facebook page.

It's not really a review, but these opinions are my own, and I bought these polishes of my own free will...and will buy more.

Swatch plan! FAIL

I know it has been a while since I blogged. I had a really bad period of nail-ness (totally a word), so I was avoiding. Tonight, I thought "OOOOOH! I will do a Star Kin Christmas polish post!"
My plan was to have Xmas Eve on my left hand; Merry Solstice on my right. Aaannnddd herein lies the Fail Tale.
Miss Sarsh, our lovely staff/pit, 7yr old furbaby, has been peeing inside. This is highly unlike her. I called the vet tonight , have her booked in for tomorrow. Off I toddled, to paint my nails. Left hand-4 different base colours, with Xmas Eve on top. Right hand-the same 4 base colours, with a view to add Merry Solstice. Vet calls back. Asks if I can get a urine sample, if at all possible. Jeebus. So I prepared a container for...uummm...'catching', and a syringe. For over an hour-nothing. I sort of gave up on her. I told the Mr the situation, and went back to reading (1Q84, Haruki Murakami), and listening to my iPod.
A little while later, Mr scared the living shit out of me when he barreled into the garage/ManCave. "Where is it?! SHE PISSED! WHERE IS IT?!" I threw the syringe at him, he sucked it up, tossed it back to me, and I ran inside to put it in this vial thingee. After that, of course, I had to wash my hands. This was the result.

As you can see, I hadn't even gotten around to clean up. My nails are naked, again. I'll try again tomorrow night.
On the positive side...WE HAVE A SAMPLE!!!!!