Fall Fun Series II: Thanksgiving

Happiest of Thanksgivings to my American friends, particularly the other participants in the Fall Fun Series.  I hope you all have the most wonderful of weekends!  Here in Ontario we’re supposedly due for a bit of very un-Fall-like wonder – a wonderland of snow, as the song goes.  Also freezing rain and probably hail.  Oh, it’s a bloody wonderland, alright!

But for those of you still enjoying autumn’s delights, here’s a delicious trio of scrumptious scents from my recent Sniff My Tarts order – I guarantee you they’ll keep everyone in the Fall spirit, long after the leftovers have been packed away.

Honey Gingerbread – Homey, sweetly spiced and bearing absolutely no trace of that unpleasant sulfuric note common to honey scents, this comforting fragrance would play equally well in the winter holiday months.

Apple Cider Latte – Holy crow, I LOVE this scent!  That fruit-and-coffee combo that I initially thought I hated strikes once again!  Coffee haters, fret not, the latte note in this blend is virtually undetectable, working its slightly astringent, slightly creamy magic behind the scenes to bolster the juicy sweetness of the tart apple cider.  Next time I place a custom order with Sniff My Tarts, I will absolutely get a decorated sheet cake in this stupendous scent (it actually smells pretty fantastic alongside Honey Gingerbread, and I think pairing it with Ice Cream Scoop Bread or Vanilla Waffle Cone would also do some pretty outstanding things for this juicy cider scent.)

Pumpkin Marshmallow Latte – A complaint that comes up over and over again regarding pumpkin (latte/pie/milkshake/muffin) scents is that they rarely smell like actual pumpkin.  Most of them invariably smell like the spices we use to dress up the humble orange gourd.  But this lovely fragrance smells just like sticking your face over a steaming Pumpkin Spice Latte – that fresh, almost vegetable-like note mingling with mounds of creamy, dreamy fluff, tied together with a ribbon of smooth-as-silk spiced coffee.  Another great latte scent; Sniff My Tarts does them very well.

Hammy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, Canadian friends!  As has become my holiday tradition, here is a festive manicure featuring my favourite – and most successful – homemade polish, Hawaiian Ham (so named after those alarming, 1950s-style ham casseroles topped with pineapple rings and maraschino cherries.)  I made up a bottle for some American friends recently, substituting the yellow, pineapple-y glitter for a red-tinged bronze, and renamed this shade Canadian Bacon. 😉

But speaking of rings on the Thanksgiving dinner table, here’s a fun, older mani of mine in which I honoured that most Canadian of festive foodstuffs, the uncut – very important, that – ringed log of cranberry sauce.  Just shoot it straight out of the can and onto a fussy little garnish dish!  The polish I used here was KB Shimmer’s Leaf of Faith; I think it looks like extra chunky cranberry jelly.  Hope you all have a delicious one!

Fall Fun Series: Thanksgiving Ham

Today’s prompt in the Fall Fun Series calls for the participants to share their Thanksgiving plans.  But I have a triple whammy going against my particular Thanksgiving plans in that 1) I’m Canadian, so my Thanksgiving is long since past, 2) I’m Canadian, so my Thanksgivings are more functional than traditional and 3) I’m Canadian, so this morning I woke up to THIS:

Which means that Fall is now naught but a memory, and we are firmly in the winter of our discontent (oh no, run!)

But to my American blogger friends, I wish you a wonderful week in the lead-up to the big day, and Thanksgivings free of family drama, travel woes and salmonella.

Which is actually NEVER an issue when you limit your Thanksgiving meats to your manicures!  And no, I’m not going the Full Gaga on you here – just making a super awkward transition to talking about this polish, Hawaiian Ham, a homemade creation I widgeted together years ago specifically with those unidentifiable Thanksgiving (or Christmas, or Easter) ham casseroles in mind.  You know the casserole I’m talking about – the one your father’s great-great aunt has been making since the late 1950s, an abomination of a Good Housekeeping throwback containing ham, pineapple, maraschino cherries and three kinds of processed cheese?  Still, it’s gotta beat Aunt Bethany’s lime-and-cat food Jello mold!

And so on this Thanksgiving, American friends, this Ham (manicure) is for you.  I hope you have wonderful holidays, all.

Hammy

There’s still a few hours left on Thanksgiving here in Canada, and my nails are looking at some second helpings with this fun, hammy design (featuring my favourite homemade polish, Hawaiian Ham, so named because it reminds me of one of those horrid 1950s ham casseroles covered in pineapple rings and maraschino cherries.)  I even added some little cloves to my lacquered hams, because they looked a little bare without.  Cute and yummy!

Fall Fun Series: The Beginning

Good afternoon, friends!  Heading into this beautiful early Fall weekend with something a little different.  For the next couple of months, I’ll be participating in a bi-weekly blogger round-up with a bunch of other fun folks as we explore our various Fall favourites and traditions.  Not to fret if you’re here purely for the nail art; there will still be LOTS of that, as I’m also participating this month in the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge.  But!  Aside from a seemingly never-ending series of Stranger Things manicures, I’ll also be joining in with some other bloggers every Monday and Friday as we gab about our favourite Fall decorating tips, smelly things, yummy things, leafy things, spooky things and everything in between.  I hope you’ll swing by and join us, should the Fall spirit move you.

Amanda at Thrifty Polished
Ashley at The Bohemian Sassenach
Jessica at The Meltdown Blog
Julie at The Redolent Mermaid
Lauren at LoloLovesScents
Lindsey at Little Bit of Lindsey
Liz at Furianne
Stephanie at Imperfectly Painted
Sunnee at Our Sunny Life

Some of these bloggers have been in and out of each other’s lives for years now, while others – like me! – are brand new interlopers. 😉  As such, Julie, the planning mastermind behind this series, has designated the first day’s post as a getting to know you, getting to know all about you tag (or at least getting to know all about your Fall traditions, likes and dislikes and just what is up with football already.)  Happy reading, and I’ll see you on Monday with more leafy fun.

1. What is your favourite thing about the Fall?

That oddly melancholy sense of opposing forces hard at work – new beginnings (school, jobs, hobbies, relationships) butting heads with final farewells (changing leaves, falling temperatures, things settling down for a long winter’s rest.)

2. Do you get Fall colours where you live?

Tons!  Like these seen here in shots snapped off my balcony (you would never know it from these photos from three different days and two different years, but I don’t actually live in the midst of a tornado. Fall in Ontario tends to be quite blustery and rainy.)

3. Favourite Fall scent (wax, or anything)?

The slightly sooty, almost cooked scent of lit Jack-o-Lanterns.

4. Favourite Fall food or drink?

I used to think it was Starbucks’ ubiquitous pumpkin spice latte, but in recent years I’ve discovered that I actually don’t care for them very much.  So sweet!  Plus they make my teeth feel all furry. So I’ll say a crisp Macintosh apple, straight from the farmer’s market.

5. Football…yay or nay?

Nay.  I’m not a sports fan of any description, however.

6. Do you rake, jump in or burn piles of leaves?

I live in a condo apartment where those sorts of things are taken care of for me, but I would if I could!  And when I was a kid living in a 100-year-old farmhouse surrounded by tall maples, I did all the time!

7. Haunted house or corn maze?

Haunted house.  Specifically, THE Haunted Mansion in Disney World, Orlando.

8. Have you ever gone on a hayride?

Yes, at least every few years at Saunders Farm, a hobby farm in Munster, Ontario that goes all-in on Halloween every Fall.  The farm, a huge seasonal operation that employs tons of local kids, features two haunted houses, two or three different stage productions, a bunch of corn and hedge mazes and the haunted hayride, an occasionally quite scary and super fun ride through the supernaturally-charged Munster woods. Bumping along in the back of a wooden flatbed trailer with 20 other nervously giggling people, my mitten’d hands clamped down on an apple cider to keep it from flying out the back of the truck, while teenagers in scary masks lunge at the sides of the vehicle, setting off a flurry of shrieks, is one of my favourite Fall activities.

9. Cider or hot chocolate?

Cider.  Mulling spices are the best.

10. Carve a pumpkin or eat pumpkin pie?

Pie me.

11. Do you dress up for Halloween?

I haven’t in years.  This year I may play around with a bit of theatrical makeup, but I haven’t gone the full costume in well over a decade.

12. Candy corn…yay or nay?

Candy corn is the devil’s glucose-ridden pocket candy.  I just loathe it.

13. Favourite Halloween movie?

No word of a lie – and I can’t believe I’m admitting this to anyone other than my best friends, who are likewise incredulous – but Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows.  Judge me all you want, but it’s awesome/terrible and I love it!

14. Scariest movie?

The Descent.  If you are even marginally claustrophobic, this movie will send you into a complete panic.

15. Halloween or Thanksgiving?

Why can’t we have Halloween with Thanksgiving food?  Too much of a good thing all at once?  I will ultimately say Halloween, though, because October 31st is my wedding anniversary.

16. Do you watch the Macy’s Parade?

Despite being Canadian, I certainly could, although I never have.

17. Apple pie or pumpkin pie?

Always apple pie, but only my mom’s.  I’m incredibly pie-ist that way.  Otherwise, I’m Team Pumpkin.

18. White or dark meat?

White.  And a Tofurkey for my husband.  While wearing this hat.

19. Jellied or real cranberry sauce?

I actually prefer lingonberry sauce, but jellied cranberry sauce (with the rings) is a staple of any good holiday dinner table.

20. Will you host or travel for Thanksgiving this year?

Yeah, travel about six blocks to my parents’!  My mom is a great cook and she always does Thanksgiving up right.

The Leftovers

Happy Thanksgiving, American friends!  In honour of your big day (already gave myself away as Canadian with that O-U) I have put together this gallery of nail art featuring some of my favourite feasting foods.  Foods you probably shoved into your faces some hours ago, which naturally means you are all now in the throes of your post-feast comas, which means I’m talking to myself! Again.

We’ll start at the top with the king of the Thanksgiving feast, the turkey. This manicure actually features chicken drumsticks, but semantics, yeah?

Although I would do no such thing myself (CARBS FOR LIFE!), we’ll skip over the carbohydrates for now.  I’ve yet to tackle a mashed potato mani, and I’m not about to start!

Pigs are the other animal to get the shaft at Thanksgiving, with ham featuring prominently on many a holiday table.  For this years’ old manicure, I used a favourite homemade polish, Hawaiian Ham.  In retrospect, it’s kind of sick that I have the pigs – jumping the gun a bit on the Christmas thing there, lads – overseeing the ham on my thumb. Those are some hard truths to be covering in nail art.

Don’t forget to eat these.

Somewhere, there will be a plate of Deviled Eggs.

And a dish of cranberry sauce, hopefully still in the shape of the can and bearing its rings (as a small aside, this is one of my favourite manicures ever!)

Some jerk will bring one of these.

They might even bring two.

You may have very optimistically started one of these in the afternoon. DO NOT EAT IT – you’ve had enough today!  Some things have to be off limits (gingerbread houses should always be off limits.)

If your uncle won’t shut up about Obamercare, you may need to consume one or two (or 12) of these candy apple martinis.

After which the guacamonut may start looking like a real viable option.

Or this.  Not sure which one is more frightening!

Then you’ll come home, pass out on the couch and the circle of Thanksgiving will be complete!  But whatever shape your holiday took (I certainly hope it didn’t go down the guacamonut path – no good can come of that) I hope you had a happy one, friends. 🙂

Leaf Me Be!

Because I ate far too much for Thanksgiving supper (last night’s official and this evening’s almost-better leftovers) and I might need to go and be temporarily comatose for a bit. I’m sure you understand. 😉 So no post-dinner leaf walks for me this evening, but when there’s this sort of pretty right outside your windows, you don’t need to stray from your couch (even if you could after eating all those mashed potatoes)! Bonus!

Cranberry Jelly

The canned kind, with rings! For these fun nails in honour of Canadian Thanksgiving, or more specifically, Canadian Thanksgiving dinner, I modified the mischievous piggy design I did some weeks back to create horizontal “can” ridges in my cranberry-hued jelly, KB Shimmer’s Leaf of Faith. It’s a subtle look, but one with a lot of good foodie memories for a lot of people – for some folks, it just ain’t cranberry sauce without those rings! Me, I’m all about the roast potatoes and gravy, but I can’t imagine that would make very attractive nail art, do you? Best to stick with the pretty jellies instead. 😉 Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Greetings

Why yes, that does say “Happy Thanksgiving, Americans! Eat lots of ham!” in nail art pictograms.

Like the picture says, Happy Thanksgiving, American friends! I’m Canadian, eh, so our Thanksgiving was some weeks back and now naught but a distant, gravy-covered memory. I like American Thanksgiving so much more than ours. It feels like a proper family holiday instead of the stop-gap it is in Canada where it exists just so we don’t go insane between Labour Day and Christmas. I’m not so fond of the crass glut of consumerism that goes on the day after American Thanksgiving (or today for a good number of stores) but you can’t win ’em all.

But no matter what you end up doing today – shopping, going to the movies, passed out half asleep on the sofa with your grandpa, the game and a stomach full of tryptophan – may it be fun, restful and blessedly stress-free. You know, for you. Because I’d say the turkeys and hams might have a few things to be stressed about today. 😉

Turkey Time

Happy Thanksgiving, fellow Canadian nail art lovers! May your days off be relaxing, your mashed potatoes fluffy and your gravy plentiful!