The Blanket

The universe works in odd ways sometimes.  So the last few days I’ve been tending to the deeply unpleasant task of disposing of my recently departed kitty’s few remaining earthly possessions.  After her passing last month, we boxed up and packed away many of her things – most of her toys, which still smell like a savage combination of cat breath and nip – while tossing many others (didn’t feel the need to hold on to the litter box; wasn’t too sorry to see that one go.)  But a number of items remained, mostly “our” things that she wantonly appropriated for herself, including a plush, pale turquoise blanket that she loved to nest in and knead.

The blanket’s been not-so MIA in the second bedroom for about a month now while I work up the nerve to confront all of the things in our house that do nothing but remind me of her.  Turns out that’s a crap ton of stuff, because she ruled our home with a fuzzy paw, and we let her.  This entire grieving process has actually been made so much worse by the realization that just about every aspect of our lives revolved around her, including the actual setup of our house.

Anyhow, I haven’t thought about the pale turquoise squashy blanket in a while – or rather, I’ve been trying very hard not to think about it.  But the other day, wanting to do some simple nail art, but at a total loss for what to do, I just grabbed the first polish I saw and thought, “I’m doing a gradient with you.”  That polish turned out to be Polished For Day’s iridescent aquamarine Willow, and once I had it sponged onto my nails, well, wouldn’t you know it, but it really reminded me of that blanket.

Which was the deciding factor in biting the bullet, doing the brave, unpleasant thing and pulling the blanket out of the second bedroom.  It – and we – can’t stay in hiding from this forever.  Healing starts with washing the blanket and re-incorporating it into our lives.  Heh, that sounds like the title of a self-published self-help book on Amazon – “Healing Begins with Washing the Blanket.”  Or the mantra of the cult I plan on founding.  We’ll wear pale turquoise blankets wrapped around our shoulders and no shoes, because Weegie couldn’t wear them and she thought they sucked.  We’ll also always sport fantastic manicures.

See, sense of humour beginning to right itself; the Healing Blanket has worked its magic already. 🙂

Nail Polish For Days

If you’re standing there gobsmacked, jaw hanging open in amazement and bewildered confusion, no, wonders have not ceased and your eyes are NOT deceiving you – this is an actual nail art-related post on this nail art blog!  I’d even go a step further and say it’s A post, period – I’ve been so remiss in providing any blogging updates that don’t involve D Who Shall Not Be Named, and for that I’m deeply sorry.  I aim to do better (#bloggoals.)

And so what pretties do we have here?  Well, three polishes – Polished For Days’ purple Fireflies, turquoise Willow and pink Unicorn – that broke my no buy fast, albeit via parentally-provided birthday funds.  So from a financial perspective, we’re still ahead of the game, although can I tell you how odd it was to actually spend money on something as seemingly frivolous as nail polish?  It felt weirdly illicit!  Also totally unfamiliar, perhaps because these three polishes represent the first lacquer I’ve purchased in over a year.  But heck of a way to break the fast, because this trio of polishes is stunning.  I nabbed these lacquers at Harlow & Co., where you’ll find a number of other gorgeous Polished For Days products, including some collection mates of Fireflies, Willow and Unicorn that are just itching to join their sisters in this good and loving home. 😉

First, a quick word about my selections – they are all wildly different polishes!  And that’s what I love about them, variety being the spice of life and all that.  Typically nail polish collections feature just one or two types of polish (creme, holographic, glitter, etc.) in a range of different colours.  In this case, the three polishes I chose are all completely different types that produce completely different effects.  The end result is I feel like I’ve gotten a lot more bang for my beauty buck far beyond a trio of beautifully unique polishes.

Starting things off with my favourite of the lot, we have Fireflies, a soft, almost dusky periwinkle-to-rose-to-green multi-chrome holo laden with iridescent, colour-changing flakies.  Phew, that was a mouthful, non?  But what a wonderful polish, completely worthy of the overly long description.  I’m particularly smitten with the iridescent flakies that flash in the heathered purple depths of this lovely lacquer.

Also – and this is a complete rarity with purple, blue and purple-blue anything – Fireflies as photographed presents exactly as it does in real life, so the colour you’re seeing right now – that lush, gorgeous grape – is exactly as it looks on your hand.  The random colour-changing flakies also lend this polish a nebula-ish, intergalactic kind of look, perfect for those days when you’d like to rock a Guardians of the Galaxy manicure without two hours of prior toil with a dinky little detail brush.

Next up we have my least favourite of the bunch – one had to be in third place, right? – Unicorn, a shimmery pink holo glitter sprinkled with iridescent, colour-changing flakies.  My issue with this polish is primarily one of consistency, in that I didn’t care for it – it applied thickly (though not unmanageably) and dried down to an almost textured-looking finish that, in combination with the not-so-flattering pink hue, reminds me of cheap polyester baby dresses, all crinkly sateen and crunchy lace trim.  On the nail, it regrettably doesn’t look as it does in the bottle – there it displays as a fuchsia-leaning pink shot through with warm, golden orange shimmer.  It was that unexpected (and unexpectedly gorgeous) colour combination that drew me to this polish in the first place, so it’s a shame that it all but disappeared once applied.

Unicorn is a nice enough polish and it will see some nail art use, but this one kind of annoys me – I’m loathe to spend money on stupid things these days, and this impulsive, not particularly inexpensive last minute choice (initially I was just going to go with Fireflies and Willow) has proven to be a poor one.  Lessons learned while I’m sitting here with nails that look like an electrified pink poodle?

Finally, we have the showiest polish of the bunch, and a serious challenger to the Fireflies throne, turquoise-to-purple holographic micro-glitter, Willow.  Wowza, this polish is absolutely gorgeous, and photos are definitely not doing it the least bit of justice.  There is so much depth to this polish – streaks of purest ultraviolet and aquamarine flash with every twist of your hand.  It’s dazzling.  Definitely one of those “Don’t stare at it too long or you’ll go blind” kind of polishes. 😉

And so there we have it, a trio of beautiful birthday treats that should keep me in well-polished spirits until next year!  Although hopefully I can manage another nail post before then, yes?  Absolutely!

Bored Now

Despite the fact that it went off the air over 12 years ago, Buffy the Vampire Slayer remains one of my all time favourite television shows. I lived and breathed for all things Buffy a decade or so ago, and I’ve tried to maintain that fangirl spark with frequent rerun and marathon trips back to the vamp-infested town of Sunnydale. Although – *voice drops to a furtive whisper* – I don’t believe it has held up particularly well to the advancement of technology (nothing highlights Buffy’s sometimes Ed Wood-esque approach to set design and fight scene editing like a 50 inch television) or, in my case at least, the slow march of time. I’m just not the same person I was when Buffy first began airing 20 years ago, and the show’s black-and-white approach to the good and evil that lurks in the heart of man (and woman, and demon) can be juvenile and simplistic (seriously, Buffy, tell me ONE MORE TIME about how there are no grey areas and it’s your job to kill evil things…except the cute ones you’re boning.)

Woah, tangent! But to bring it around to a love fest again, one thing I’ve never grown tired of with Buffy is this little cluster of episodes in the third season that centre around an alternative Buffyverse where Sunnydale is a round-the-clock vampire playground, Buffy is a dispassionate rogue warrior and her two best friends, Xander and Willow, are murderous vampires. Those episodes introduce the alt world character of Evil Willow, who makes her way to present day (and place) Sunnydale in order to cause some mayhem in one of my favourite Buffy episodes, Doppelgangland. When Evil Willow and Good Willow (?) eventually meet up, it’s pretty spectacular. It turns out they share a few similarities (“And I think I’m kind of gay!”) but even more differences (dietary preferences, I’m thinking), although none so glaring as their individual taste in clothes. Evil Willow’s a real black leather jumpsuit kind of gal, whereas Good Willow (still having trouble with that whole “good” part given what goes down later on) is all about knit beanies, overalls and fuzzy pink sweaters festooned with embroidered daisies and butterflies.

So in honour of the two sides of Willow Rosenberg (or at least the two sides of her closet), here is a manicure inspired by her sartorial choices in Doppelgangland (and for the record, I like the furry pink sweater! It looks like a chenille bedspread my grandmother used to have. I can’t say the same for anything Evil Willow wears. That button-up leather catsuit looks binding. And sweaty!)